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Month: September 2011
This past Wednesday I screened Andrew Haigh’s WEEKEND for my HopeForFilm/Goldcrest Screening Series. It is a truly romantic film. It may be a gay love story, but in it’s tale of a one night stand that could become something more, Haigh’s has tapped into a longing and hope that I never feel in any corporate filmmaking and is entirely universal. It makes me wonder if when creators are forced to think first about the market, if their work will be deprived of love and romance.
When I select films for my screening series, I write a letter to everyone on my invite list trying to explain why I selected the film. This is that letter and why I think you should go see WEEKEND this very weekend.
Dear film fans,
What is romance really? Where does life differ from what the movies offer us? Can romance ever be depicted honestly on screen? If the screenwriter or director’s hand is too obvious we see the mechanics of the film and it can’t be trusted. Hollywood has relied for a century on the beauty and notoriety of its stars for audiences to make the leap. In the indie world, we rely often on the dialogue, the ideas, the wit to seduce us along with the characters. Sometimes I think it never is honest, but then sometimes a movie comes along and convinces me otherwise.
And what about sex? You can’t really have honest romance in a contemporary film without also having sex portrayed on screen; it is part of the equation after all. How can sex be positioned in an honest way so that we don’t feel taken out of the fiction we are following, and then start wondering what the filmmakers are really trying to say with the way they are portraying it. Representation and signification take away much of the immediacy, and thus the pleasure. I have given up hope that sex and cinema can truthfully collaborate more than once, but fortunately a film occasionally graces us and that proves it can be done.
At the end of the day, what I am talking about is the challenge of portraying emotional truth through physical action and the challenges of story construction on screen. And let me tell you, I know firsthand: it ain’t easy.
It is so refreshing when a filmmaker seems to come out of nowhere, deprived of funding, working truly out of the system and off the grid, challenging themselves, the audience, even the entire system as it is currently structured and delivers something, that despite all the limits and challenges they faced, soars beyond what the corporate or government-supported industry is able to produce. Andrew Haigh has done that with his film WEEKEND. Don’t be fooled, he may make it look easy, he may make it look simple, but this is not that at all. It is a work where everyone is working at their peak, sharing the vision, reaching and striving — and hitting the mark.
Folks often say that a great deal of directing is casting (I don’t fully agree with that) but clearly Andrew has benefited by his choices. The two leads are as natural in their roles as Haigh is in how he uses the camera. All throughout the movie,I forever believed I was watching life as it is led . I don’t think this phenomenon is due just to the high level of acting or the precise casting. It comes from trust, and a three way trust at that: the director with his actors, the actors with their director, and the actors with each other. Whether it is a lack of judgement, or a clear-hearted love, an openness or an understanding, there is an incredible honesty happening between all up on the screen. When one recognizes it, one also recognizes how incredibly rare it is.
WEEKEND is the story of a one night stand that might grow into something more. It happens to also be a gay story, and one that doesn’t shy away or try to play it straight. In doing so, not being shy about the people, the world, and what they do, Haigh aslo captures the depth of its story in a way everyone should be able to relate to. If life is often the challenge of reducing the space between who you want to be and who you are right now — the gulf often between thought and expression — then in choosing to have one character still not fully accepting who he really is, Haigh has tapped into the universality of the specific world he has chosen.
WEEKEND is nothing less than both challenging and refreshing cinema, and it is also a whole lot more.
I’ve long felt that one of the most important bridges the Indie Film Community needed to build, was the one into the tech community. I’ve felt the ideas & know how of the tech sector held the solution to our neglected pillars of cinema: discovery, participation, appreciation, & presentation. I still do, but I realize now that I was narrowcasting my reasons.
Truly Free Film and Film Cutlure in general got a great boost last week when Prescreen launched. Audiences and filmmakers both found new ways to connect with great films. What I hadn’t anticipated though, was how the process of this new venture’s launch offered additional insight for filmmakers. Prescreen’s CEO, Shawn Bercuson, offers up his lessons.
Until recently, my knowledge of the movie industry was limited. I come from a tech background and I’m completely addicted to using technology to find better ways to solve everyday problems. Prescreen is the 3rd business venture I’ve been associated with since the inception of the idea through the product launch – with the most notable one being Groupon. We built Prescreen to help movies find an audience they may not otherwise have the ability to reach. Like any movie, starting a business takes imagination, creativity, the ability to raise money, a terrific supporting cast, a deep understanding of your audience and, most importantly, thick skin. (Filmmakers – sound familiar?)
I officially entered the movie business this past February. I’m not going to lie, I quickly became overwhelmed by the information overload and the treacherous landscape that needed to be navigated in order to get Prescreen off the ground. To my surprise, I was delighted to discover the similarities between what we were doing at Prescreen and what the content owners to whom I was speaking with were doing with their movies. I quickly realized that launching a technology startup is eerily similar to producing, directing, and distributing a movie. That said, I also uncovered a few key differences. I’ll do my best to describe two things that I think are worth noting. Also note, these findings are not all encompassing. Many movie industry folks share my views and some techies do not.
Hustle. Here in San Francisco, there is a saying that “The currency in New York is cash. The currency in Los Angeles is celebrity. And the currency in San Francisco is ideas.” Perhaps it’s because it is hard to put a dollar value on an idea or perhaps it is the just the vast number of ideas that exist, but people in the technology business tend to move a few steps faster and work a few more hours than the people in the movie business. There are a lot of tech companies out there and probably a lot more movies. In order for people to discover your business or movie, you must out work your competition and leverage all the tools at your disposal. Keep in mind, people can only consume so much content in a day, month, or year. What are you doing to make sure that your content is the content that people are consuming? Kevin Smith is a terrific example of someone who hustles and uses all the tools at his disposal in order to create signal out of the noise for his movie.
For us at Prescreen, we’re confident in the product that we’re building but we know we still need to leverage our entire arsenal of tools in order to get people to know who we are and use our service. Everyday, we use all the tools at our disposal including, but not limited to, Twitter, Facebook, and email to reach an audience that may otherwise not know about us. We just launched last Wednesday, but soon you will start to see us using or creating tools that help build our audience. Have you heard of the Prescreen TrendSpot feature? Check it out (Click here. To bypass the signup process, click the Prescreen logo. The TrendSpot is the phrase that says “Earn Free Movies” on the left side of our homepage once you get beyond the signup page. Click on it to expand it).
Ecosystem. Don’t get me wrong, people in the movie industry often collaborate and find tons of success, but I’ve heard too many stories about nightmarish relationships that only breed animosity and resentment. What goes around comes around and in a world with this much transparency and access, those relationships are just not sustainable. The technology space, however, is often referred to as an “ecosystem.” We view our industry as more of a living thing with mutually symbiotic relationships than just transactional business relationships. We know that the more people who use each other’s tools, the more chance we have for success.
Unfortunately, to the general public, the term “independent film” often carries a negative connotation. As we all know, this is a travesty. There are too many entertaining, educational, or enlightening stories that never find a home. We need to work together to change the public perception so that we can all benefit. Yes, people can only consume so much content, but there are a lot of people out there and every movie has an audience (some just harder to find than others). 1st time filmmaker, Kenton Bartlett does a terrific job with this YouTube video trying to mobilize his audience to work for him by giving access to a special behind-the-scenes video about his film, “Missing Pieces.”
We started Prescreen to help build the ecosystem within the movie community. Movies are inherently social, but there was no tool that existed that brought real-life conversations about movies between friends to the digital world where we can connect to millions of people around the world who share our interests. Our goal is to help movies find a home leveraging this ecosystem and provide the tools necessary for moviegoers to share them with their friends, coworkers, and relatives.
I’m more excited then ever to be a part of the rapidly changing landscape of the movie industry and help cultivate an ecosystem that will benefit all of us. There are now more tools than ever before to successfully market a movie and put the right content in front of the right people at the right time. Remember, you don’t need to use all of them, just the ones that work for you.
— Shawn Bercuson
Today, Prescreen featured it’s first world premiere with “Missing Pieces“. Prescreen launched nine days ago, and will offer a new film every day going forward.
Check out the trailer for Missing Pieces:
I believe that one of the most important things a filmmaker can do to elevate their career and increase their chances of survival is to be prolific. Work begets more work. It once was that the economics of filmmaking required someone to hire you to do this, but that no longer is the case. The price point of creation is at an all time floor. So what is standing in your way? Good ideas? Please! There is a wealth of material that needs you today.
I was very inspired to learn of Christopher “I Am A Nobody Filmmaker” J. Boghosian’s mission to make seven films in seven weeks. Christopher is clearly a brave, open, and generous filmmaker, but this was a challenge I suspect few are willing to undertake. I am hoping that Christopher’s efforts will hope change that.
Why I Made 7 Films in 7 Weeks
The most frustrating aspect of narrative filmmaking is the infrequency in which one actually makes films. The conventional approach is complex and expensive, resulting in inactivity and atrophy. As a result, filmmakers often find themselves developing a film rather than making a film. So how does a filmmaker improve her craft? How does she refine her voice and style? More importantly, how does she experience the mere joy of making films more frequently?
I have always envied the feasibility with which a painter can pick up a brush and paint; thus, I wondered, can a filmmaker similarly pick up his “brush” and paint? The answer is yes and the key lies in embracing limitation. By creating within one’s limited resources, a filmmaker eliminates nearly all production logistics that can snag even the most industrious types; I call it thinking outside the box, inside the box, which is exactly what I did this summer with 7 Films, 7 Weeks.
While my first feature film was in post-production, I was eager to cultivate my craft and voice as a filmmaker. Sitting around and waiting on others was not making me a better director, nor was it fun, so I set out to make one film per week for seven consecutive weeks. And to protect myself from production logistics, I limited myself to actors I had previously worked with and locations I had solid connections to. The result was a logistically stress free seven weeks, leading to the successful completion of all seven films.
As you can imagine, I am now a much more skilled and confident filmmaker. I worked with professional actors, conceptualized and wrote diverse scripts, and edited numerous scenes. By the third week, I stopped doubting myself and trusted more and more in my abilities and talent while having fun making films.
On the flip side, “cultivating my voice” as a filmmaker was much more difficult than I imagined. Though I made an earnest effort to create authentically, from a personal point-of-view, I struggled immensely and experienced much anxiety. Even now, after seven films, I remain unclear regarding my personal relationship with film, i.e., the way in which I am to uniquely engage in the art. Simply put: I want to discover what “a film by Christopher J. Boghosian” really is.
Rather than discourage me, this hard lesson has given me a greater respect for the art of making films and a deeper appreciation for the patience needed to do so. Because of my 7 Film project, I now realize that one’s voice is not quickly contrived, rather, it is an ongoing conversation steeped in sincerity and exploration.
I encourage all creative types to undertake such a project. Maybe 7 films in 7 weeks is impractical for you, so how about 7 films in 7 months or 4 films in 4 weekends? The key is to embrace limitation and stick to it – think outside the box, inside the box. And, of course, it helps to announce the project to the world, as I did, because a little bit of accountability can go a long way!
You can watch all 7 films on FollowMyFilm.com…
Accruing way too much debt as a law student, Christopher realized it was now or never, so he packed his bags and returned to his hometown, Los Angeles, to make movies. Since then, he has fathered multiple short films, a feature and a super-cute baby boy! You can see what else he’s up to at FollowMyFilm.com
The world keeps getting better and better — at least in terms how we can create better work and get it seen. Today, has brought some more good news.
Blake Whitman, Vimeo’s VP of Creative Development, announces Vimeo’s New Music Store:
In addition to being Vimeo’s VP of Creative Development, I also make videos. Something that I’ve been struggling with for a while now, is how to find music that I can legally use in my videos. I search and search and search every music related site on the net and it ends up taking WAY too much of my time. And even when I find that needle in the haystack, figuring out how to actually use the song (legally that is) is a whole other story. Do I contact the musician? The label? Do I need an attorney and who’s going to pay for that?!
So we had an idea. Wouldn’t it be great to create a place on Vimeo to easily discover, license and download music? Well, the obvious answer is OF COURSE, but we wanted to make sure it would be easy and intuitive to use. So we decided to create Music Store, a music library powered by two great curated music providers, Audiosocket and the Free Music Archive. The library allows anyone to search tracks by lots of different criteria and provides license agreements right there on the site. You can purchase and/or download music easily and then throw it in an editor and start editing!
Check the key features:
• Over 45,000 songs
•Three types of licenses: 1) Creative Commons licenses which are free (yes free), 2) Personal use, Non-commercial, web-use licenses for the casual user which are $1.99 per track; and 3) Commercial, web-use licenses for professional users which are $98 per track.
•Searchable by over 100 features like tempo, mood, theme, genre and instrumentation
Vimeo’s mission is to inspire and empower video creators. Vimeo Music Store is just another step in our effort to help people make better videos! Check it out here:
Music is a big deal for every filmmaker. But every Producer also knows that come music clearance time, money is running out, nerves have been scraped raw, and it is a hell of a lot of work and time to get the clearances in place. And usually you can not get paid until you complete delivery, and that includes delivery of the music licenses.
Those dedicated, music-loving souls whom do the clearances are one of the many unsung heroes of the film biz. I have had the pleasure of working with Brian Godshall on several of my films, and he is one of the really great ones. Today, he extends his generosity to share some of the latest developments of where the film and music world meet.
You know how important music can be to your projects. So we know you want to know all the new developments in the music business that may prove advantageous for an upcoming media you are producing. You may already be aware of some of these and some may be new to you. After you’ve taken a look at this list, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
1. As of 6/10 Rumblefish makes available some music of theirs for free/cheap to video makers for you tube productions; www.friendlymusic.com; You can pick from 400,000 songs for $1.99 per video – they developed an app to make it easy and cheap to use music on websites, etc. rumblefish.com;
2. Per music blog/website Digital Music News— 4/29/11 — music focused Facebook deal – businesses can now reward visiting customers with free Mp3s – thanks to Facebook check-in incentive system created by Neurotic Media; neuroticmedia.com;
3. Mix Match Music allows music fans to make their own mixes of master recordings that are available through this site. Perhaps this may be a valuable tool to promote the music in your next project. mixmatchmusic.com;
4. Branding – some of the major record labels are joining up with an entity which has something to promote, such as a film, and a “sponsor” through a branding effort. The sponsor will then pay for the music download when a fan of the project goes onto the site and wants to download new music. target=”_blank”>hipdigitalmedia.com;
5. Per Digital Music News 8/25/11 – ReverbNation – has just launched “promote it” a Facebook-based ad platform that offer customized targeting, landing pages, and far deeper interactivity reports. ReverbNation is one of several companies to use the updated Facebook ad platform. Perhaps this can be used in your next music based project. reverbnation.com;
6. Shazam – It all started in 2002 – even before the advent of smartphones – Shazam launched a simple service designed to connect people in the UK with music they heard but didn’t know. Since then, Shazam has come of age and moved beyond music discovery and has now evolved into one of the world’s most recognized mobile consumer brands. The launch pad to our success has been our core music recognition technology that enables anyone with a mobile phone to identify music that is playing – even under noisy conditions – wherever they are, simply by Shazaming it. The clip is run through our database of more than 10 million tracks (extending back to the ’50s) to find an exact fingerprint match. shazam.com;
7. Just for fun you may want to check out THE BEATLES who granted use of their music to the site whymusicmatters.com; Their 2 minute video promotes the legal use of music. There are also short films with music from, among others, Louis Armstrong, The Jam, Kate Bush and Sigur Ros.
8. The President of NMPA Calls for Blanket Licensing of Mechanical and Sync Rights – The article below basically talks about how the Harry Fox Agency/NMPA are in discussions with the record labels and digital companies to revise legislation pertaining to some of the synch (film, TV and other visual media) uses of music. It may result in faster and more economical fees being charged to the producers of such audio-visual media. This was reported on various websites such as Billboard and indie-music.com.
June 16, 2011 By Ed Christman (@edchristman), New York
At the National Music Publishers Association’s annual meeting yesterday (June 15), president and CEO David Israelite urged members that now is the time to create U.S. blanket-licensing solutions for digital music service providers seeking mechanical and synchronization rights.
He said that music publishers are facing “three big challenges:” they have to continue to fight copyright theft and infringement; they have to help legal digital sites to prosper; and they have to make sure that publishers get their fair share of that prosperity.
But he said that prosperity could remain elusive if the industry continues to license the way it has been. “If you look at the challenges of the industry,” the way we license doesn’t work: it is broken.”
As a solution, Israelite said that now is the time to revisit the SIRA Act (Section 115 Reform Act) of 2006, which never made its way successfully through Congress to become the law of the land.
He urged that legislation be crafted that would create designated agents to act on behalf of all music publishers for synch and mechanical rights. He said that it didn’t have to be one agent, it could be a small number similar to the set-up of ASCAP, SESAC and BMI. As long as they agents were competitive and publishers had the right to align with any one of the appointed agents they so chose, and could switch if they wanted to, that would fill the void.
Otherwise, he warned, the music industry would lose out on creative business models, which might never launch because of the complicated licensing situation. Moreover, Israelite noted that the reform would only be in circumstances where the user requires blanket licenses. Publishers could still cut individual deals in situations that make sense.
He cited the Youtube litigation as a situation warranting some kind of mass synchronization vehicle. In that litigation, music publishers and other entertainment rights holders including Viacom are seeking to overturn a court decision in favor of the website. That decision said that when user-generated video’s containing copyrighted materials are uploaded to Youtube by users other than the rights owners, the site is protected by the fair-use provision provided by the safe harbor element of the Digital Millennium’s Copyright Act.
But what if Youtube conceded and wanted to be properly licensed? “We wouldn’t be able” to provide them with an easy solution for mass synchronization licensing, he said. That’s why its time to revisit the SIRA Act.
He made the point that in revisiting the SIRA Act, other music publishing issues might also be resolved. For example, music publishers don’t think it is fair that they get only 9 cents from a $1.29 list-priced downloaded song while the master rights owners get 81 cents.
Later, Israelite told Billboard that the NMPA was working with record labels and digital companies on how to draft such legislation. “We are far along in concept, but there is nothing on paper yet,” he said. The industry won’t even reach out to Congress until everything is negotiated and ready to go. “This shouldn’t be controversial [legislation],” he said. “We will all come together to support it.”
Earlier, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton opened the meeting with a keynote address that began with the admission: “I am here because I feel your industry is under assault from IP thieves and counterfeiters,'” Morton said. “We haven’t done enough about it.” But that has changed with the current Obama administration he said.
Among the steps the administration has taken is the creation of an IP Center in Arlington Va., which includes not only ICE staffers but personnel from Interpol and other agencies from countries like Canada and Mexico.
In one of its more controversial actions, ICE has been targeting infringing websites and seizing the assets.
As a result he said a lot of other sites came down just because they thought we were going to go after them. When ICE started putting seizure banners on sites, it had an unanticipated reaction. Even more people went to visit the sites to see the seizure banners. What ICE started doing was putting up educational messages about copyright infringement.
Ken Feinberg, the managing partner of Feinberg Rozen lawfirm, gave the other keynote address. He was appointed the special master of the administration of payout from the pending-and-unmatched funds. So far, $161 million has been paid out, to over 1,200 music publishers, he reported to NMPA members.
He called the pending-and unmatched settlement that he administered unusual because very rarely is he presented with a negotiated solution on the front-end.
There was one big problem, he conceded. That occurred when he realized there were over 2,350 songs with “conflicts”, where ownership claims in each of those songs added up to more than 100% ownership. But today, through privately held negotiations, that has been reduced to 52 conflicts, which he labeled a tremendous achievement.
Finally, beyond the settlement, Feinberg noted that while there are thousands of trade associations in Washington very few have more input than the NMPA.
Brian Godshall has handled music clearances and/or licensing for over 15 years for many dozens of independent films including the more recent movies PLEASE GIVE and JACK GOES BOATING as well as past films such as TOWELHEAD, BORN INTO BROTHELS, GARDEN STATE, GUNNIN’ FOR THAT #1 SPOT, KINSEY, THE NAMESAKE, SONGCATCHER and many others. He looks forward to new ideas and changes in the independent film industry. Email: info@bgoodshallclearmusic.com Web: bgodshallcleamusic.com;
Ted adds: “By the way, I don’t usually give out this sort of blanket endorsements, but: HIRE THIS GUY. You won’t be sorry. He’s worth his weight (and rate) in gold.
Easy peazy. Simple doing. Just make a short film, submit, win. What could be better?
I heard about this contest where Talenthouse is working with Bombay Sapphire and Playboy, long a patron of film, to bring aspiring filmmakers an opportunity not to be missed.
One winner will travel to Sundance Film Festival to watch the premiere of their short film at a Playboy/Bombay Sapphire event. Travel and three nights’ accommodation and $500 for expenses will be provided. The winner will also receive a 30-60 minute mentoring session with key industry insiders in person or via Skype (timing based on each mentor’s production schedule and availability).
The selected short film will also be featured on Playboy.com and BombaySapphire.com and the winner will receive $3,500.
http://www.talenthouse.com/playboy-bombay-sapphire-your-short-film-featured-at-sundance
This competition is only for US residence and 21 + participants. Please take the time to read over the rules and if you have any other questions do not hesitate to email them.
Here are all the dates:
Submission Deadline: October 24, 2011
Voting Starts: November 1, 2011
Voting Ends: November 7, 2011
Semi-Finalists Announcement: November 15, 2011
Final round of voting dates
Voting Starts: November 16, 2011
Voting Ends: November 30, 2011
Winner Announcement: December 7, 2011
All the submissions remain property of the filmmakers. All T&C’s are found on
http://pages.talenthouse.com/xdl_files/ifs-official-rules.pdf
At the moment, I only know that one winner’s film will be screened.
The Talenthouse technology engine allows for voting to take place to boil it down to a set number of finalists, then here is the info
Playboy and Bombay Sapphire together with a panel of industry insider judges will choose 5 submissions, which together with the 5 highest voted submissions will be named semi-finalists. All 10 semi-finalists will be automatically submitted for the final round of voting where Playboy and Bombay Sapphire together with the panel of judges will select the ultimate winner, with special consideration for the top voted entries.
