On Oct 21st, I had the privilege of speaking at the NYFA on…. the current state of “indie film”! If you’ve missed my soapbox tour, here’s your chance to get the latest installment. This is part 1 of 3. I will let you have the pleasure of going directly to YouTube for the next episodes.
Day: November 2, 2008
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It’s An OPEN SOURCE Culture
You may have noticed a new addition to our Truly Free Film Heroes column. You may have also noticed some guest posting as of late by filmmaker Jon Reiss. These are not unrelated. As a veteran of the DIY experience (or as Slava Rubin has dubbed it more accurately: DIWO “Do It With Others”), Jon has taken the next crucial step towards bringing forth a Truly Free Film Culture: sharing his experience and knowledge.
We need to build a new infrastructure. It will only come from all of our hard work and general openness. Please follow Jon’s example, and share.
We are all going to make some mistakes, but we will learn much faster if we don’t keep these mistakes to ourself. We will all make some great discoveries, of places and people and tools and techniques, but we all benefit much faster if we don’t keep these successes to ourselves.
Take a minute. Think about what you thinks works in DIY marketing; is it novel? Please let us know. Do you know of a theater that will book Truly Free Film? Will your college pay to bring a filmmaker to lecture and show their film? Do you know of a great TFFilm website? Any advice on how to network true film lovers together? You get the idea. Please let us know what you know. Join in.
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Can Shame End Corruption?
I was giving a read of Ray Fisman & Ed Miguel’s new book Economic Gangsters (get it, it’s a good and quick read) and was inspired by the former Mayor of Bogota’s techniques. Some of you may recall Mr. Mockus from the article that tipped of Ray & Ed from the NY Times several years ago:
Mimes were part of Mr. Mockus’s diabolical plan. He first hired 20 professionals to follow, imitate and mock citizens who committed public incivilities like jaywalking, picking pockets and driving recklessly. So successful were the first mimes that 400 more were trained as ”traffic mimes” to monitor pedestrians at street corners.
Okay, so mocking and teasing isn’t quite the same as shaming, but I am still amazed by how many people treat “everyone else is doing it” as a get-out-of-jail-free-card. The minor annoyances like the people that try to enter the subway car before the others get out may seem trivial but I do believe they pile up to create something altogether terrifying: corruption. And if it takes white face and invisible stair walking to do it, it’s a good idea.
People need to be reminded of the world they want. Sometimes you need a mime to do it.
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New TOOLS Column
Check out below on the right-hand column. We’ve added a TOOLS column. The Variety plug on Friday is something to try to live up to.
It’s a pretty good list to start off with, but we need your help to make it a great one. Additionally please let us know what tools have worked well for you and what hasn’t.
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Zoom & Royksopp
One of our favorite picture books (100% no words) is Zoom by Istavan Banyai. Or rather: one of our favorite picture book SERIES is the Zoom collection. It’s also one of our favorite devices: you look at an image and then the artist either “zooms in” closer for a more specific detail, or the artist does a “dolly back” to show you the context of what you are looking at. The books are Recommended Reading.
The Bowl recognizes though that this may be hard to see in your mind. Luckily the band Royksopp has a video that captures this technique darn well, and suitably the song has no words either.
Another post courtesy of Jon Reiss:
Besides launching your film and helping to put it on the map there are a number of other known reasons for being in film festivals: potential for reviews and awards (which are still good ways to create notice for your film – especially if you blog about them on your website!); meeting other filmmakers from around the world, boosting your confidence in your filmmaking abilities, getting to travel to fun locales (hopefully at the festivals expense).
However as there are ways to actually monetize your film festival experience. Here are a few ways that we did it for Bomb It – after we got tired of showing our film for free at festivals. (Remember servicing all those fests can take time and money)
1. Some festivals – especially foreign festivals will pay. You just need to ask. These are not the top 10 or 20 fests. It is the next level of festivals. We have been paid from $300 – $1000 to screen the film in some festivals. (Few fests will fly you and pay you though)
2. If a festival can’t pay, perhaps they can provide something else. This is particularly true of foreign festivals again. If you don’t have a PAL copy and they require it. Often times they will do the dub. You can insist on having that dub given to you (they don’t need it after the festival right!). We obtained our first PAL version of Bomb It from a documentary festival in Lisbon that then went around on the circuit.
3. Think of other things that you might need for your distribution. Again – foreign festivals need to translate your film. Although we had already created a transcription for Bomb It – you can ask a foreign fest to do it – and also provide the translation. We have received Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations of Bomb It that we will be using on our self produced multi-language, PAL, region free DVD. (more on this in another post in the future)
4. Some festivals are actually connected to theaters in their community – and sometimes the people running the festivals actually program those theaters. One of my first theatrical bookings came from Wilmington, N.C. when I told Dan Brawley of the Cucoloris that I would rather have a theatrical engagement in his theater as an alternative to being in the festival, and he wonderfully obliged.
Further – although it would have been better for me to go to the wonderfull True/False festival in Columbia, MO (I had teaching obligations), I asked Paul Sturz if he would book me into the Rag Tag as part of our theatrical run and he agreed.
For more about my self distribution experience with Bomb It – check out my article in Filmmaker Magazine this month.
Jon Reiss
www.jonreiss.com
www.bombit-themovie.com
www.bombit-themovie.com/blog
www.jonreiss.com
www.bombit-themovie.com
www.bombit-themovie.com/blog
