Dragonfly Love – The Film from The Dragonfly Love Project on Vimeo.
Month: October 2010
Guest post by filmmaker Jennifer Arnold.
How much do the little things count when it comes to staying visible?
My first documentary feature, A SMALL ACT (www.asmallact.com ), opens at the Quad Cinema in New York today. I started the film three and a half years ago with very few resources. DIY filmmaking is hard. We all know that. You have small budgets. You have small crews.
So how can you stand out when you have very little? The biggest lesson I learned while making this film is
Michael Tully of HammerToNail has a really great interview with Edward Burns on his path from small to medium to sorta big and then back again. It’s filled with the kind of insights that can only be offered by those that have been there — and are willing to be truly honest, with both themselves and us.
I remember when we were at Tribeca, and John Sloss, who I’m sure you know, has this new venture called FilmBuff, who is our distribution partner with this film. And he gave me an argument, but not so much for VOD. Maybe five years ago, I had this movie called Looking For Kitty. And the movie got one tiny, tiny distribution offer from THINKFilm. It was one of those no advance partnerships, and we had made the movie for a quarter of a million dollars. John said, “Look, you’re gonna sell the movie for nothing and they’re gonna own it, just so you can satisfy that part of your ego that wants the film to be released theatrically.” He goes,
Among the other questions I am frequently asked are “What are 3-4 things that would help your film break out?”
- Unique content and approach;
- High profile supporters & participants;
- Participants that are highly active and committed to social media;
- An already aggregated and identified participatory audience/community base; and
Guest post by Joao Amorim, Emmy Award nominee director of 2012: Time for Change, a feature doc offering an optimistic alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom and featuring leading experts, scientists and celebrities including: Sting, Ellen Page, David Lynch, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gilberto Gil, Dean Radin, Buckminster Fuller, Paul Stamets, Shiva Rea, Tiokasin Ghosthorse and many more. It is currently playing in NYC at Loews Village 7 through Oct. 28th.
Moving towards an Open Source culture in film distribution with 2012: Time for Change
Understanding the changing distribution landscape in 2008 while we were financing this project, Mangusta Productions and I decided to build in some P&A monies into our budget. When we completed the film in March 2010 we all agreed that
OverthinkingIt’s Female Character Flow Chart by Shana Mlawski and Carlos A. Hann Commander points out some of the real problems in how we currently tell our stories, albeit not so simply as The Bechdel Test, but in a really fun way.
This (“What are the biggest 3 problems in the indie film community today?”) is one of those questions I get asked alot. I don’’t think there is a simple answer to this. If you read this blog, you already know I can never get my list down to just three answers. But I get asked this so much, I am going to give it a shot. Ready, set, go!
I have identified 75 problems which I have posted on this site (38 Problems, & original problems). The list seems to refuse to get shorter, even as problems get solved. Nonetheless, it’s growth is not a cause for despair, but a truly energizing phenomenon, as I bear witness to our community coming together to make it better. People are taking chances, experimenting, and daring to think brave thoughts. So it is not a problem that there are so many problems. The vast number of issues facing Indie Film is really just one big opportunity.
That said, that question of what is The Big Three gets asked time and time again. My answers will always change, thankfully. The question itself is akin to a thermometer, just taking the temperature of the here now.
I think the biggest problem for indie filmmakers is
