Month: March 2013

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Truly Free Film

Forward! 4 Must-See Speakers at SXSW

By Rob Millis

Of more than 300,000 people going to SXSW this week, there are four whom every filmmaker should pay especially close attention to. They are easy to find if you’re going to be in Austin this week, because they will all be part of the Meet the Insiders sessions. For those of you staying at home, bookmark this list and do a little googling to keep tabs on what these four gurus are up to.

Ingrid Kopp, Tribeca Film Institute
Ingrid Kopp has been deeply involved in breaking new ground for independent filmmakers for over a decade. From her time at Channel 4 in the UK to running the US arm of Shooting People to her work with Tribeca Film Institute, she has a uniquely valuable understanding of where film has been and where it is going.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post # 22: Outlet Soup

By Roger Jackson

Previously: Delivery Begins

Outlet Soup

It seems like every few days there’s an announcement of another video-on-demand platform. We’ve been tracking them since we started 6 months ago. I have a spreadsheet listing them all — where they are, what type of films they want, deal terms, ownership, traffic ranking, etc. As of today there are 163 on my list, and I’m sure I’m missing a few. What does this mean? How is it possible for even a fraction of these platforms to thrive and prosper in a VoD ecosystem dominated by large incumbents with established brands, pre-existing audiences and deep pockets? Netflix has 27m subscribers in the USA and is rapidly expanding in Europe and Latin America, with 6m+ non-US subscribers already. Amazon has a multi-billion dollar VoD war-chest and has gobbled up LOVEFiLM in the UK and Germany.

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Truly Free Film

What Happens After Sundance?

Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s film American Promise screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Below is part 3 of 3 of an interview with them discussing what it was like to attend Sundance.  Prior sections included what it was like to get the confirmation call and  preparing the film for Sundance.

Joe: This has certainly been a roller-coaster ride for us.  We were accepted into our dream festival and left Park CIty, Utah with an amazing outcome.  We were honored with a special Jury Prize for achievement in documentary filmmaking and we received amazing reviews from the critics.  Yet, there is a cloud of worry looming over my head and I cannot pinpoint why.  It is not the 12 inches of snow outside my Brooklyn doorstep nor the cough I acquired from our nightly Sundance celebrating.  My concern is that our Sundance storybook beginning was just that – a beginning.  What happens next?

 

Michèle: I guess the concern (or fear) is that this

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