True tale: Vanessa & I are driving up Thusday from NYC to Massachusetts to take our son Mike to see my 80 year old mum. We stop in CT for lunch at a place we let him pick in order to celebrate him ace-ing an admissions interview for school. He picks a sushi place. We sit down and the guy at the table next to us soon is critiquing THE ICE STORM for utilizing a deus ex machina ending device; I keep my mouth shut.
But when
By Roger Jackson
Previously: Outlet Soup
Countdown to Launch
We’re getting close to the launch of KinoNation, when we’ll remove the beta login requirement, open the service to all filmmakers, announce to the press, etc. Probably early April. Yesterday we released to our 100+ beta testers the latest version of the film uploader and metadata capture. It’s now much slicker and easier to upload, and we can capture a huge amount of essential metadata that’s required by the video-on-demand outlets. For example, we need four hi-resolution poster images in various sizes and aspect ratios, in order to meet the different delivery specs of iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, et al. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record: if you want people to discover and watch your film, you should be prepared to invest time (and maybe cash) on really great poster art. And it must be highly readable. That’s easy when it’s a full size poster on the side of a bus shelter. More difficult when it’s this size. Even tougher when it’s this size. Think big title, bold & arresting art — an image and title so compelling that consumers just HAVE to click.
Whether it is the need to have a sustainable and ambitious and diverse film culture or solving breast cancer, the solution is the same. The way we think about charity is dead wrong.
This video is a much watch for any one who believes not for profits can make the world a better place, and yet has always wondered why we can’t move further forward faster.
Did you notice what happened yet again last week? The appreciation for diversity in our culture was demonstrated. Or was it another vote against pure market forces as the driver of culture? Depending on how you squint, you might have recognized it as either the proof of principle that a change is going to come, or a battle cry that is starting to build towards a universal “I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore”. A downpour of bricks thrown with love towards a beast that maybe just won’t ever get it? Hope or fear? I think what I heard is that hope is here.
This is my Facebook “Fanpage” makeup/breakdown (i.e the demographics) of my “likes”:
Let’s try this experiment:
By Rob Millis
Good news for filmmakers: there has never been a better time for independent distribution.
When we unveiled the Dynamo Player at SXSW in 2010, Will Coghlan and I gave an overview of every similar online rental system available to independents. At the time this included Amazon’s Instant Video, YouTube’s brand new Rentals program and — nothing else.
We always thought our greatest competition would come from companies like Amazon and YouTube, but while many startups have entered the market, these two goliaths have been painfully slow to introduce new features and improve their terms for filmmakers (Amazon still asks you to mail in a DVD!). Meanwhile, a flurry of transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) services like Distrify and Chill since launched, and even Vimeo is cautiously getting into the game this year.
