Month: June 2010

Categories
These Are Those Things

All The Great Old Cinemas In America (and more)

What a great resource  Cinema Treasures is!  It’s got a listing of 1000s of cinemas.

And if you want Art Houses, PBS’ Independent Lens made this nifty map. Now you can find out where you want your film to play anywhere in the ‘ol USA. Hat tip again to MovieCityNews for leading the way with these pieces.

Finding the right place to play your film has never been very easy. That sort of specified knowledge has been one of the many reasons traditional distributors have hung around as long as they have. That’s all starting to change though. The Workbook Project has been doing a theater mapping project for years now. You’ve gotta love their map.

Of course if you want to start booking your own theaters, it’s not so easy.  There are some nice new developments out there though.

Check out Good Screenings in the UK, and Open Indie here.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Your Great Movie May Never Get Seen

If you think it is as simple as make a great film and it will get seen, you are not truly recognizing the world we live in. Great films get ignored all the time. Great films don’t get distributed, and when they do, often they are not distributed in a significant way. Filmmakers and their collaborators have to move beyond the dream that if you build it they will come as it allows both them, their work, and their supporters to be exploited.

You are reading this presumably because you either love watching great movies or because you aspire to making great movies.  I write here because I want to do both of those things and I have the confidence that if we change our behavior, both are possible.  I write here because I want to do both of those things and I have the concern that if we don’t change our behavior, we will lose the opportunity to do either for ever.

Change begins with a step, usually the easiest one for the most people to do.  What would be that change that encourages either, and ideally both, for better movies to be seen more widely, and for more of the movies to actually be better?  On all fronts, I think the answer comes down to collaboration.  If the quality of culture and the access to quality culture is of a concern to you, you have to enter the equation.

Speak up and join in.  Curate.  Filter.  Focus.

Categories
Let's Make Better Films

Let’s Make Films That Support The World We Live In

Vanessa just pointed me to The Bechdel Test:

  1. Does the film have two women with names in it?
  2. Do these two women talk to each other?
  3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?

What is particularly surprising is how few movies can pass this test.  Every screenwriter should give this thought before hitting the keyboards.  

Continue reading “Let’s Make Films That Support The World We Live In”
Categories
Truly Free Film

The Future Is Ours If We Seize Today

Today’s guest post is from filmmaker Amos Poe.

“If you’re an American filmmaker, you’re a Hollywood filmmaker.” – Martin Scorsese

There’s been much talk lately about the current state of “independent” filmmaking which includes all aspects of fundraising, production, post-production and distribution. This is my perspective based on 40 years of experience and a modicum of hope.

In 1969 when I got my first Super 8 camera and started making films – needless to say, I had no idea there was such a thing as a “film school” –  I picked up a book called “The Moguls”. As I recall (I’ve long since misplaced the book) it had a number of chapters, each dealing with a different man responsible for inventing and building Hollywood. All were immigrants – Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Adolph Zukor, Schenck etc. One chapter, I think it was Adolph Zukor, a German immigrant, went something like this.

Zukor was in the haberdashery business on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. He sold shirts, ties, suits… to men. One day a guy walks in and looks around, sees that there’s empty space in the entryway. Zukor walks up to him, “Good morgen. Can I help you?” The guy says, “I wanna help you. Since this space is empty, how would you like to make some money from it?” “What do you have in mind?”, Zukor asks. “How would you like to put a few Nickelodeon machines here?’ “Vat’s that?” Zukor had no idea what these machines were, he’d never seen a nickelodeon machine, or a film for that matter.

Continue reading “The Future Is Ours If We Seize Today”

Categories
Truly Free Film

A Nice Example of Well Planned KickStarter “Rewards”

Check out Amos “the avatar of no-wave cinema” Poe’s KickStarter page‘s pledge incentives for his new translation of Dante’s “La Commedia” for an example of well thought out rewards.  There are low ones that most will skip over so that they don’t think themselves cheap.  There are high ones that feel out of reach but encourage you to also reach higher.  They give a DVD (which frankly could have been a digital download) at the the second lowest level.  Even if I didn’t know, like, and respect Amos and his work, I might be inspired to give (I did).

Update 6/9: It has been pointed out that offering profits via KickStarter may not be legal, so get your lawyer to weigh in on that before trying it at home. When Amos & Co. they took the share of profits off the “offering” (ain’t it great how easy it is to change things in this digital age?).

And check back here tomorrow for some thoughts from Amos on the current creative environment.

Categories
These Are Those Things

Just Like PB&J, It’s Rock&Roll & Film

Founded by filmmaker Allison Anders and musician/daughter Tiffany Anders, Don’t Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival, Los Angeles has been bringing amazing off the radar films and live performances to the sophisticated music nerd and diehard music fan for the past 6 years.

For those of you who don’t know the fest, and don’t want to take my word for it, Variety just gave them a nice shout out.

Now the festival needs your help and has started a KickStarter campaign to show you how.  If you are in Los Angeles, you particularly don’t want to miss this, as the awards are, not surprisingly, a bit festival-centric.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Thoughts On Audience Building

Today’s guest post is from filmmaker (and mind map builder!) Mike Ambs.

In a recent post here, Ted Hope listed “38 More Ways The Film Industry is Failing Today“; many of the questions and points made among the 38 stood out to me, and I’ve spent the last several days trying to openly brainstorm steps that could lead towards change. But today, I wanted to write about one in particular: Ted asked why we don’t encourage, or even demand, that a film build it’s audience (say, 5,000 fans) prior to production and greenlight.

For starters, I love the idea of audience builds. I think the practice of audience builds before a film gets too far off the ground would be a great shift in how we think of films, how we approach them, how to involve the audience long before they ever sit down in a theater – but it raises a few key issues:

Filmmaking is storytelling, and stories are told many different ways and take very different paths. Because of this, it might not be the best idea to mandate audience builds. One reason for this is it could, if taken advantage of, create yet another “door” that is opened easier only for some.

So the real question is, “why” take this route?

Continue reading “Thoughts On Audience Building”