Author: Ted Hope

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Truly Free Film

In Support Of Controversial Titles: THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!

Guest post by writer/director Zeina Durra of “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and has it’s East Coast Festival premiere today at the Woodstock Film Festival.  (Ted’s Disclaimer: My wife Vanessa produced The Imperialists Are Still Alive! and all personal bias aside, it is a film I very much both enjoy and admire.)

My experience in Salt Lake City airport pretty much sums it all up. The Homeland Security Immigration Officer asked me why I was coming to Utah. I told him I had a film at Sundance. He then asked me what it was called, I paused for a moment thinking that if I told him the title of my film he might not let me in — but then my mind fast forwarded to an interrogation room scenario where they looked up the Sundance website and would see my name attached to a project called The Imperialists are Still Alive! So, I just said it, “The Imperialists Are Still Alive!” and he said, “Sounds great, I’d love to see it”. Did I detect a secret amused smile or was he just generally a happy guy? we’ll never know and I walked off into the minus 20 landscape.

Even a Tagline ( a tagline is something that I have a disproportionate dislike for) would come in handy at US immigration. It’s sole purpose would be to answer the question, “What’s your film about?” with pure ease and perhaps if there was a hook one would sell a few future tickets to the Homeland Security team. This is also a tough question to ask just before one is obliged to put one’s hand on a filthy screen that takes your fingerprints. This is partly because it’s stressful to have to recount your film in a border situation and because if I don’t give them an answer or they don’t like my answer there’s always the chance that I may be shipped back to a country which I didn’t come from in the first place.

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Uncategorized

HopeForFilm Facebook Page!

Yes, it’s true: we have one now.  Just for added convenience.  What more do you want?

Me, I will tell you what I want: to make the world safe for ambitious film once again.

But you know what? Today, I will settle for you to just add this page to your favorites:

http://www.facebook.com/hopeforfilm

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Let's Make Better Films

The Douchebag Process: A Look Inside

Guest post by “Douchebag” writer/director Drake Doremus.

We actually shot “Douchebag” in two separate sessions over the course of a year and a half. The first time we went out we had a very specific outline from which the actors improvised from and the second time we had a loose script with lines actually written.

The first scene in the film for instance where Sam is laying in bed with Steph was mostly written and shot during the second session when we knew exactly how to set up the film. A lot of the rambling lecture scenes — like the scene on the beach about kites, the credit card fiscal responsibility scene, and the scene about our hands not being designed to tear flesh — were all shot the first time out when we had more character than story.

It wasn’t until after editing the first session’s material that I knew the exact pieces we needed to finish the story. The filmmaking process was very exciting and challenging for me but also very creatively freeing because I could keep writing and coming up with ideas after I’d shot, the film kept evolving that way and there was always a way to make things better. It’s really the only way I would work now I think. I learned so much.

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Truly Free Film

How To Make Money With The New Independent Film Distributors’ Business Model

Guest post by Sheri Candler.

Yesterday we ran part one highlighting the problem.  Today, Sheri points to how distributors will benefit financially from the new model.

It may be that while you are in audience building mode, you will be spending more than making to develop a truly exceptional experience for your community. If you start this now before your entire business collapses, you will fare better.

-Create an online experience that makes the lives of your community better, easier, richer and be the number 1 site they visit for news, information, resources and community tailored to what interests them.

-Fill the vacuum of the lack of curation. People are confused by where to find things they like and overwhelmed by the choice. In a sea of content, be their favored destination. In this way, you can take on the likes of Netflix, a company that offers a huge range that makes finding content specific to personal interests nearly impossible because they don’t intimately know who their customers are. You will know this.

-Lock in the community by maintaining a dialog that will turn their initial attention into a revenue stream for your brand. A subscription model is what you should aspire to, but you cannot rush to that without first showing what you have to offer and reeling them in. First offer the ability to sample, share and then buy.

-Innovate in the online experiences you build to keep the community engaged and interested in making the circle bigger for you and for them. Incentivize those who are the most active at enlarging the community. Take the money you would have spent on outside marketers and use it to think of interesting incentives for your tribe.

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Truly Free Film

The New Independent Film Distributors’ Business Model (Pt. 1 of 2)

Guest post by Sheri Candler.

In this second post, I want to focus on how to rehabilitate the film distribution entities so that they may continue to exist. I know what you are thinking “What’s she on about? We’re fine. We survived the latest shake out and are all the stronger for having less competition.” I am here to tell you that is fallacy. The old ways of bringing films to market are fading fast and it is time to reinvent your business. I want to acknowledge my gurus Gerd Leonhard, Seth Godin and Clay Shirky (though he is more my go to guy on all things having to do with immersive storytelling and audience collaboration) for being a constant source of inspiration for me in looking toward the future of media.

When Ted announced on his Facebook page that he would take part in a panel discussion at the upcoming Woodstock Film Festival concerning the new distribution paradigms, I had to look at who would be involved in this discussion. What people and companies would be taking part who are practicing radically changed business models for film distribution? It was as I thought; none. I posted a link on his page (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100326/1452138737.shtml) asking all involved in the discussion to read it and then talk about how they see the new paradigms. I don’t know if anyone did, but I did get a response from Dylan Marchetti from Variance Films explaining to me how his company functions to actively engage audiences for films they’ve booked in the theater. It was a lengthy exchange that resulted in my writing this post. I don’t think he read the article before he spoke because the point of that piece was to inform on how businesses need to form ecosystems around their companies, not continue only to sell copies of the content they distribute. Distribution companies should not be focused on selling copies, either for viewing or for owning. They should be selling access, creating networks of devoted fans around their brand and developing customized experiences instead. In other words, selling things that cannot be copied. This means they must first gather and cultivate a community of engaged followers and then develop, acquire, produce, and source material with only these people in mind.

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Truly Free Film

Independent Film’s Path To A Viable New Business Model

Guest post by Jeffrey Ballagh, lead strategist for Novacut (Note from Ted: I have not used Novacut, but heard what they were aiming for and asked Jeffrey to explain it to all of you.)

The future of distribution and funding for independent film relies on the Internet. The technology to forge a new business model for independent film success is out there, but it needs nerd champions to build a venue where artist-to-audience commerce can thrive. To thrive, that venue must be the condensation point for the independent filmmaking community. For that to be possible, that venue needs a strategy for reaching critical mass and a damn good draw for filmmakers’ attention. This is what we know, and this is Novacut.

The spark? A pro-grade video editor that’s free and designed from the ground up to exploit recent advances in technology and community – to name a few: digital production, HDSLR cameras, online collaboration, and cloud computing.

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Bowl Of Noses

Styles Of Animation #14: Stop Motion PONG

Video games began with Pong. They’ve come pretty far, but there will always be something incredibly pleasing about the game. Come play with us — and check out the earlier posts we did on Guillaume Reymond’s GAME OVER project where he recreates classic video games, replacing pixels with actual human beings.