Month: January 2009

Categories
The Next Good Idea

Endangered Species Ringtones

I got this email from my sister Abbey:

I just downloaded the authentic sound of an orca as my new ringtone on my mobile phone! It was free and serves as a reminder to listeners about our endangered species of animals. There are loads of choices, from grey wolf to elk, to rare frogs. Check it out at this user-friendly website:
http://www.rareearthtones.org/ringtones/send.html. 

Even if you don’t want to download this to your phone it’s fun to just listen to the calls (and you can tease your puppy or kitty with it.)
I personally chose the Houston Toad.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Oragami Paper Spaceship


How to Fold an Origami Paper Spaceship
Categories
Truly Free Film

Who Really Gives Back?

I can’t help but walk away from the Sundance Film Festival amazed each year at what an incredible and wonderful thing it is.  And not just the festival but the entire Sundance organization.  This year it even expanded to go beyond the movies and the labs, to include the exhibitors too (I have written enough about the Art House Convergence for you to already know what I am talking about).  

Although the infinite web of Sundance wouldn’t exist without many many people, I just can’t help but get all impressed by what Robert Redford has done.  Although the media seems to still love to debate about what the festival is or isn’t, the simple fact that Sundance is the greatest cultural institution for Indie Film (and maybe it doesn’t need that qualifier) that there is in this country (and probably the world) can not be expressed enough.  It truly is mind-boggling in the best way what Redford has given us.

I started making films just as Sundance was revving up.  I probably would have gone into one of my alternative career paths (armed revolutionary, bank robber, toy inventor, or community organizer) if they, American Playhouse, and the IFP weren’t around to rescue me and give me a glimmer of hope that truly free filmmaking was possible.  As much as I have benefited from a whole industry and community of support, it is Sundance that holds it all up and continually expands it, demanding us to reach higher.  Wow.  Thank you, Mr. Redford.
Yet each year I  wonder the same thing: why is Robert Redford such a singular example?  Why is everything else in this business driven solely by short term self interest?  I was invited on to the Sundance Panel “The Panic Button: Push or Ponder?” and after participating, I am more ready than ever to push that button.  Unless others follow Redford’s example and start giving back, we are sure to have a film culture of extremes: the super low-budget self-financed personal expressions and farm-league calling cards and other industry-backed economically-safe re-imaginings of yesterday’s hits.  
And it has to start with those with the most power.  We all need to ask and then act on what we can do to build this culture, allow it to become sustainable, and make it obtainable for all who are willing to work.  We have a long way to go.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Models & Experiments In Indie Distribution

I was bummed that I missed the Sundance panel on the New World of Indie Distribution.

Luckily, Scott Kirsner has the audio for download on his CinemaTech site.  If you see me walking to work, crossing on the orange hand, headphones burrowed into my ears, you know they are speaking well of the future.  Check it out (and I guess I should take a cue from Scott and start to record the panels I partake on…).
The Film Panel Notetaker has a few posts up too on some of the other panels.  There is enough going on in the panels to fill a full year of film school curriculium.  Still, I was hoping to find some more sparks.  
I participated in “The Panic Button” and for all the heavyweights participating, I would’ve thought they’d be more coverage; I guess The Inauguration pulled the press away.  Go figure. Maybe the biz is getting tired of hearing the old white guys speak.  Reuters was there though.  IndieFlix too. I did my best to get the business side (I was the only filmmaker) to recognize that they have to start giving back to the community a bit more if they don’t want to see what’s vibrant vanish, but Reuters only got the start of that argument.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Arin Crumley Responds To Art House Convergence Keynote

Four-Eyed Monsters’ Arin Crumley commented on my recent speech over at IndieWire.  I reprint it here for your reading pleasure:

Great Talk Ted!

So here are the big picture to-do items from this talk:

• We need a third party entity to handle payments between exhibitors and filmmakers. (Note this is a very delicate thing as it has the potential to be totally corrupt if it’s not a non-profit organization or some how decentralized.)

• We need a repository of information that filmmakers share with each other. (workbookproject.com is the start of this.)

• Exhibitors need to get digital projection and digital delivery systems installed. There are some missing standards still since DCI seems like overkill. But it is possible to have dual systems, DCI for big films and plug another cable in to bypass that system to play back WEB delivered HD content.

• We need to protect the open freedom we currently have on the internet so that it can be used build social connections around film and so it can be used to get HD files to the theaters. We made a video about this you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP_3WnJ42kw

• We need the mechanism in which exhibitors and filmmakers can mine audiences and know who sees your film or comes to your movie theater.
In my mind this is simple, we just allow people to bookmark films they want to see and review films they’ve seen and have all that data be structured along with geo stamps. That way anyone online knows the films in each city people want to see. Then those people could ask to be notified based on variables they define. So they could set a service up that looks at the films they want to see and the local calendars and they could set an alarm that goes off when the two synchronize.

All of these ideas have been part of the think tanks we’ve been doing with From Here to Awesome and DIY DAYS and are simply awaiting sponsorship or funding to actually build the above missing components. Anyone who wants to jump on board with this effort should email fromheretoawesome (at) gmail (dot) com with your thoughts and what you can contribute and lets make this happen.

Ted can give us hope, but only if we all work together can we make these ideas a reality.

Arin Crumley
co-founder
From Here to Awesome
co-director
Four Eyed MOnsters
Director
As THe Dust Settles

Categories
Let's Make Better Films

Movin’ On Over

We have had a nice brief stay over here in Blogger town, but Let’sMakeBetterFilms is going to join on comrades at Hammer To Nail.  We will be posting more regularly over there.  For the next few weeks we will be listing and describing the qualities that in my humble opinion “make better film”.  Please give  us a visit as we build our new home.

And if you haven’t been to Hammer To Nail this week, you definitely need to come on over.  It’s new!  It’s improved!  It’s a home for ambitious film!
Categories
Issues and Actions

Copyright Law Needs A Makeover

Miller -McCune sums it all up with a little help from DJ Spooky.