Day: October 25, 2008

Categories
Truly Free Film

Precisely: The Conversation

Scott Kirsner has blogged about the the highlights of The Conversation last weekend, which I had the pleasure of participating in.  

film is just one component of a story that you start telling before your first festival showing… and continue to build on and embroider even after you’ve released the DVD and digital download. The “movie release date” becomes just one milestone in this conversation between you and your audience. Some people who participate in the conversation may never actually buy a ticket or a download… while others may become so engaged that they buy everything you offer, and help market your movie to everyone they know.

Bill Cunningham riffs on that further at Pulp 2.0:

This is two things:

1) utilizing the power of the internet to be different media all at once.

2) This is branding. Intellectual property building.

Filmmakers and novelists and other creatives need to figure this out now. Their book, comic, movie, animation, music, radio drama, is only the beginning. A book isn’t just between the covers. A movie isn’t just onscreen.

Don’t think small. Think about how you can add to your creation. How you can translate it. How it can have further value – both to you and your audience

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Categories
Let's Make Better Films

Places To Film #2: Glaciers


We have an obligation to film what is vanishing.  And by that logic all filmmakers should begin packing their snow gear.  

Forbes Traveler has nice slide show of ten glaciers.  And they will soon be gone…
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

A Brood of Rube Goldberg’s Spawns!

Okay, okay.  So what if we like following how balls knock things down? We like other things too.  Like how dominoes knock things down.  And we really like how dominoes knock each other over and make all the pool balls go in the pockets (please pardon the intro…)

But for a particularly glorious contraption, please check out this site here.  I hope one day to walk into someone’s apartment and to see such a labor of love in action.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Film Festival Plan A:Postcards

(Today’s post courtesy of director Jon Reiss)

Create a piece of striking key art. 

Easier said than done. This can be expensive (starting at $5,000 – $10,000 and up) – but it does not have to be. Chances are you have a few friends that are good at graphic design – ask them. If not – try a post on Craig’s List and/or Mandy.com. Since you are in a festival – you have the ability to say that their work will get a lot of exposure. Also you might consider outsourcing your graphic design. For Bomb It we had a Uruguayan group do some of our key art for Tribeca. Try to get the designer to give you a variety of comps to choose from.

Get the key art sized for a 4×6 postcard as well as at full film poster. Its way too expensive to offset your film poster now. But you can get single printouts from most digital printers for about $50-$60 each and you only need one or two.

For the postcard, have your key art on the front and have film, contact and screening information on the back. Printing postcards are very inexpensive now. You can get 4000 for $100 at NextDayFlyers.com (and 1000 postcards for $39.95). For super low budget create one postcard with your general contact and film information on the back and leave room for putting stickers for your show times. BUT since postcards are so cheap now – I really recommend printing your screening time on the back of the postcard. It can take a bit of time to print and stick the stickers on the back of the postcards and you are very busy. A compromise is to print your first festival screenings on the back (esp since this is often your most important screening) and to use the rest for other fests putting the label over your first set of screenings.

Don’t forget business cards – I recommend putting your film title treatment on the front with your films website so that people remember why they have your card. Again these can be printed very inexpensively – 1000 for around $10-$20.

In a couple of weeks I will start putting downloadable PDF samples of Key Art on my website www.jonreiss.com

Categories
The Next Good Idea

So Many Good Ideas (and some not so good ones too!)

Half Bakery is full of them.  You should definitely get a smile out of many.  You could also lose an hour at work surfing through them.  Some would definitely make this world a better place.

The Halfbakery is a communal database of original, fictitious inventions, edited by its users. It was created by people who like to speculate, both as a form of satire and as a form of creative expression.

Categories
These Are Those Things

But What IS Mingering?

If I had to pick one thing and one thing  only that truly moved, inspired me, expanded my mind, and moved my feet,  I would hand that golden stature to the greatest soul superstar you never heard of: Mingering Mike.

How all this incredible work found its way back to this world is pretty great too.  A record collector, Dori Hadar, bought some crates of records sight unseen.  Although Dori knew pretty much all there was to know about soul music, he encountered records he had never seen before.  Upon closer inspection, these sealed and stickered discs were clearly hand-painted.  A full examination revealed a complex world of musicians, producers, and session players, their rise and fall, complete with side explorations into movie soundtracks and benefit albums.  A complete mythology and rockin’ universe.
Although the actual discs in the jackets were often cardboard facsimiles, Mike and his cousin recorded several tracks over the years, singing all the instruments themselves.  “Coffee Cake” is my number one single of the last three seasons.  Mike’s music is now available for download on eMusic.  The book is must-buy for anyone who has ever danced or sang in their dreams (and Amazon has it bargain priced now).  The Ted Museum would certainly give Mike’s entire collection front hall prominence.  And the movie, well the movie, will change your life and blow your mind (but we have to make it first!).
There is also a great story on Mike in The Washington City Paper this week.