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Month: December 2008
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Lets All Watch Together
Part of the problem of the moment is that as we all retreat to our private screens and sound systems, we lose the glue that conversation brings, that thing that creates community. Remember movie theaters? Remember how you went out for a drink with your friends afterwards and spoke about what you last saw. How great was that! How are we going to do that when are watching on our computer screens and HD monitors?
As much as I will always love going to the cinema and talking about films afterwards, we all have to recognize that most media will not be consumed that way. Without that, how are we going to facilitate conversation and appreciation about cinema? It can’t all be after the fact blogging. We need real time discussions.
I recently got to see a new technology that addressed this, that allowed multiple viewers to watch simultaneously the same thing, see their friends who were doing the same thing, and communicate in real time while they continued watching. Okay, so its a little different than sitting in a big dark theater with beautiful projection and downing some coffee afterwards.
Facebook’s Connect site browser is a step though in this direction. BBC news ran an article on it and its got me thinking…
The built-in socialising tools on sites such as MySpace and Facebook will mean that friends can virtually gather, for instance, to watch a video via Hulu and chat about it all in the same place.
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Twitter Review (sort of)
I confess: I am truly new to all of this social networking stuff. This blog is about two and a half months old. I think I have only been on Facebook for 5 weeks. Our film production company has a MySpace page but I am not a MySpace member. I know I blog about some stuff here that the digi-elite embraced eons ago. Let’s just say although I am a newbie, I am passionate advocate — and a textbook example of how you can teach an old dog some new tricks. And I recognize how much my community has to learn. Admit it: the film biz is filled with Luddites.
I was a very slow at making a commitment to the social network world. I pondered FB membership for months. And I mocked the young ‘uns in our office who sang its praises. I am a convert now, but I am still only using it to maintain a dialogue about the emerging new paradigm for non-Hollywood cinema (I hate describing things in contrast to, but …). To that end, I am have the same issues Pericles commented on the other day: I am confused whether I should just “confirm” everyone that friends me in an effort to expand the circle, or should I limit my connections to the people I actually know or do, or could do, business with, or at least those that have the courtesy to write and explain why we should be “friends”. I lean to the former but haven’t jumped in yet. Some of my hesitancy comes from my expectant embrace of the more social aspects of the technology — and frankly I don’t want to be more social. I have been trying to figure out how to have more time to myself and my family for a long time.
Which brings me to my fears of using Twitter. When I was looking for an article on how Twitter might be best applied to the film world, Beth’s Blog led me to the OReillyRadar posting of some of their report “Twitter And The Micro-Messaging Revolution” . I’d love to see the whole report; if you want to buy it for me for the holidays, you can do so here. Reilly’s preface documenting his adaptation to the technology echoed what I had suspected — he joined for business reasons and soon found himself using it for social updates too. It was inspiring though.
I would like to hear further how filmmakers have effectively used Twitter to communicate with their audience, but this piece alone, got me a lot closer to embrace the present a bit more. Any filmmakers out there with Twitter experiences to share?
Film Festivals are a bit like conventions or auto shows. The bigger ones get the entire industry and they transform from a cultural celebration to one big networking showdown. The energy is driven by the potential more than the reality: will your film be discovered and you be given a pot of gold and the keys to Hollywood? Many try to adjust to reality and just hope to meet some agents and distributors that they can follow up with later? The ambitious dream of meeting financiers or movie stars.
For years, I have recommended that filmmakers concentrate on just meeting other filmmakers that feel simpatico with, folks that they can share information with, that can become their de facto support group. Forget about the distributors. Forget about the agents. I mean they each can be very helpful — but mostly for a select few filmmakers. And I still think that’s good advice, but now there is another class of individual to add to the list of whom you should really want to meet.
Sundance 2009 will be remembered (among other things) for the year that the programmer and booker became rock stars. Now more than ever, we need curators. We need people who can filter the stream of films that come begging for our attention. With more and more filmmakers not just recognizing the need for, but embracing, filmmaker-driven distribution, filmmakers need direct interaction with these bookers and programmers.
How great would it be to have a party or something at Sundance where filmmakers and curators could actually get to meet each other face to face? Great for the curators. Great for the creators.
Now’s the time for filmmakers to build their checklist and try to meet the bookers who truly love art film, indie film, truly free film. Seventy independent theaters are getting together in Salt Lake in the days prior to the Sundance festival to figure out how to make all this work better. The Art House Convergence is a promising program; you can’t tell the players without a program. Imagine if your sales agent and rep could introduce you to these bookers, instead of just buyers who might offer you tens of thousands for a twenty year license. Then they’d really be working for their percentage.
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Other ways to tell stories
A couple months back, I read about a novel from the ’60’s that wasn’t bound as a book but as individual chapters that could be read in any order. The novel was about memory and as such the form mirrored the content’s non-linear nature. The playfulness of form has stayed in my mind (and on my agenda).
Part of technology’s promise is that we will find new ways to express ourselves. I definitely like some of what Jonathan Harris is doing, which is quite a bit.
Thanks Geralyn!
Here’s another experiment in telling stories, but now in One Sentence. It’s a good way to practice your pitches, you screenwriters you.
9. Plenty of DVD manufacture & Fullfillment places (see sidebar).
10. Plenty of places to place your content online for eyeballs to find (anyone want to generate a comprehensive list to share?).
11. Things like Netflix and Blockbuster.com make it possible for anyone with a mailing address to see any movie he or she wants. A lot of viewers who haven’t had access to theaters or even video stores that stock smaller films can now get them if they know about them. (thanks Semi!)
12. The Major Media Corporations retreat from the “Indie” film business. This will open up distribution possibilities for entities not required to produce high profit margins or only handle films that have huge “crossover” potential and necessitate large marketing budgets.
13. A new turn-key apparatus is evolving for filmmakers who want to “Do it with others” in that they can hire bookers, publicists, marketers – all schooled in the DIY manner of working. Instead of hoping for a Prince Charming to arrive and distribute their film, TFFilmakers are seeking out the best and the brightest collaborators to bring their film to the audiences.
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Hard Times: The Refrain Continues
Why do you need to plan to distribute your film yourself?
Answer number 29:
Because there won’t be anyone left to do it for you!
One of the downsides of all of us being so well connected and tuned in, is the bad news gets to us all much faster. Hopefully, the upside is we can react positively much quicker too. Time will tell.
If you didn’t notice, media in all forms is in a tailspin: Layoffs at Universal and Paramount; NBC contemplating reducing nightly programming; the NY Times mortgaging their building; The Tribune declaring bankruptcy; publishers slashing employees and limiting releases. I do hear that Jack Daniels posted high profits this quarter though. My business partner’s exit strategy of a liquor store in a fishing town is looking mighty wise… When Barry Diller is the loudest voice calling out corporations on the greed inherent in firing 500 more people to save a few million dollars, we know the world is changing.
David Carr’s “Stoking Fear Everywhere You Look” captures these times quite well.
