Month: January 2009

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Flea Circuses

Back before computers, before DVDs, even before television and the movies, when people wanted to kick back and be entertained they went places and saw things.  Sometimes they were shows, sometimes clowns, and sometimes they were trained insects.  

Flea circuses were small scale shows where actual fleas were fastened to tiny vehicles and forced to race.  And other stuff like that.  They date back to 1833 and were still operating in places as late as 1970.
If you care to look, check out this website.  Or just watch here:

If your hunger for fleas is still running wild, oobject has ten flea circus contraptions for your review.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Make The Physical More Beautiful

I just got married.  I am thrilled.  We even got some gifts out of it.  We now have the Bergman Archives next to our Kubrick ones.  These are beautiful books reinforcing my love for great movies.  They make me want to see more great movies.  How can this phenomenon be carried over to other aspects of film culture.

Why does only Criterion make fetish objects out of their video releases?  It seems that this should be a real area of focus for Truly Free Filmmakers.  When I really connect with a film, I want something special that enhances my appreciation for it.  I would love to find some good examples of what filmmakers have done to make the packaging of their video something truly special.
This was also recently focused a bit on in Roger Tinch’s 2009 Trend Prediction for the CineVegas blog.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Spreading The Word

How do you get people to know about your film?  To want to see your film?  For a film to work we have to get the word out well beyond the film community.  Whatever the content of your film there is a community who has a direct relationship to it.  Where do they live?  What else are they talking about?

Movie Marketing Madness and ReadWriteWeb each have had good posts on how to find the top blogs regardless of the topic.  So now you can go out and find those folks and start talking.  Get them talking about your movie.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Why Filmmakers Need Twitter

Okay, I haven’t written that article yet.  Maybe someone else has and I just haven’t looked for it.  If you find it let me know, but I did find Why Studios Need Twitter (via Movie Marketing Madness) and Guidelines For Brands Using Twitter.  Mash them up and filter it through your cinema-obsessed mind and see if it has a beat you can dance to.

Categories
Truly Free Film

They Want To Give You Money

Netflix and Film Independent have teamed to offer a first time feature filmmaker a production grant worth $350,000.  And you will get it distributed on Netflix too.  The application is here.  The deadline is February 9th.  Get to it.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Promotion Partners: Spout & MeDeploy

MeDeploy is an online distributor.  Join the Spout community and you get your MeDeploy setup fees waived.  You also get a Macrovision identification number assigned — something that helps your film get listed in all databases.  

Read all about it on Spout here.
Categories
Truly Free Film

How About Some Bad News For A Change?

Where does the money come from that funds all those indie films applying to all those festivals?  I am imagine 80% of it is somehow related to the directors of the work, but I have never been so lucky to have that situation. 

Most of the movies we make over at This is that are funded at least 50% by private equity.  We haven’t gotten money from hedge funds or venture capital groups, but still these stories/figures below gave me some cause to pause.  And not that it was anything that everyone didn’t already suspect, but still unsettling none the less.  Here’s hoping that there are still high net worth individuals who believe in the power of art and the future of entertainment.  Feel free to give them my number when you meet them.
From your friends at Dow Jones:
Private equity firms raise 18% less in 4Q 08
US Venture-backed liquidity down 58%
We have a lot of great projects to make this year.  It’s going to stay interesting that’s for sure.
But then again this kind of news is pretty crushing:
Unemployment Hits 16 Year High