I love these posters from Anterepo Design Industry. They tell it like it is. Brand integration? Delivery system? One Big Sell All The F’n Time?
Hat tip: Transbuddha
Author: Ted Hope
30. Some of the major specialized distributors recognize the need to build film education and appreciation into their job description. Focus Features “Film In Focus” website, in partnership with Faber & Faber, demonstrates this impulse beautifully. Independent, Specialized, Art, Foreign, and Truly Free Film all need an audience who acts out of choice not impulse. They need to remain review driven despite the loss of so many critics nationwide. They need to be able to recognize what qualities make a film better or unique. They need to recognize what makes a film art. They need reading that helps their love of cinema grow.
31. The need for digital preservation of indie films and their history is slowly being recognized. Granted this is a little hard to document, but I have had a handful of conversations this year with organizations contemplating both the preservation of specific films and of filmmakers’ archives. In this digital age, preservation is all the more difficult due to the lack of physical copies. Additionally the technology changes, and what was stored on form of drive is not compatible with another. Blogs are born daily and evolve so quickly, we are left wondering how to chart their progress.
32. Communities are renovating their historic town center theaters and turning them into community centers, with capabilities of film and/or digital projection. The great old movie theaters are the shrines to the first century of cinema, and a truly wonderful way to see a film.. Organizations like the League Of Historic American Theaters and the Theatre Historical Society Of America which are dedicated to the restoration and operation of these palaces. Often situated on the old main streets of many American cities, the restoration can often be the cornerstone for the revitalization of the old downtowns. But apart from being great for the local municipalities, for filmmakers these palaces are the antithesis of small screen viewing experience that most seem to think has become the defining indie experience – they are places of worship.
33. Theater owners and managers recognize the need to make the community vested in their success. I have heard of theaters giving back Monday nights to different community groups to program and in doing so building loyal audiences. Michael Moore’s Traverse City theater has 25 cent admissions for childrens’ matinees and Wednesday classics – investing in the youth and education of their community. New and best practices are developing and the theater community is sharing it’s knowledge.
Categories
Why I Love John Waters
I am working on my list of heroes, and John Waters is on it. I read his book Shock Value before I actually saw any of his films. It opened up my mind as to what I might be able to do in film. When I moved to New York, I pursued a job at New Line Cinema. This was before Nightmare On Elm Street; I knew them as the home of Pink Flamingos. I got a gig inspecting their 16mm. prints and just getting to share an elevator with John and witness that mustache live gave me enough hope to get through the next year.
I have now got to produce for him and he’s only grown in stature for me. Here is a guy who thought he’d end up in jail and instead has a life most can only dream of. He’s got seven great careers: filmmaker; artist; broadway show creator; actor; comedian/lecturer; music compiler; and author. The guy is a cultural authority. And okay, so filmmaker is not such a great career, but it’s an excellent hobby!
I hope John keeps making movies for years to come. Until we get the next one financed though, lucky for all of us, he keeps feeding us choice bits.
Here he is on why John loves Christmas.
And here is John’s advice for Obama.
Joanne Feinberg of the Ashland Independent Film Festival writes in…
Referring back to your post “Who Do you Really Need to Meet at Film Festivals?” I wanted to talk about how we (film festivals) can be helpful to filmmakers beyond the hope of a big distribution deal… I think I can speak for most of us when I say that festival programmers are in this because we are truly passionate about film, and really want to help films find their audience. I think there are many ways that festivals can help independent filmmakers reach out into our communities and build their audience. Our audience here in Ashland is hungry for truly independent film (and for the interaction with filmmakers that is such an essential part of the festival experience). I hope that we can continue to work with filmmakers to develop new business models that will benefit both their distribution efforts, and a healthy future for film festivals and independent theaters, as well.
You asked for some suggestions… I mentioned recently in a response to your blog (http://www.ashlandfilm.org/News.asp?NewsID=30), that our festival helps to bring back festival films for theatrical runs at our home base, the Varsity Theater (part of the Coming Attractions theater chain). We work with their Programmer by giving suggestions of films we think are appropriate, and then we help them by publicizing the films to our mailing list (building on the word-of-mouth that was created during the Festival), and by use of in-kind advertising that we have with local media.
I’ve heard many positive stories from our filmmakers about meeting up with other programmers and exhibitors during the festival who have then gone on to book their films at their festivals and theaters. These are people who are often on our juries (another benefit to having your film at a festival – a great way to build relationships and get exposure to people in the industry). For example, Richard Beer, the Artistic Director of Film Action Oregon/The Hollywood Theatre Project in Portland (and part of The Art House Convergence
happening at Sundance this month) is on our Advisory Board, has been a juror at our festival, and he and I often share ideas about films we are excited about. This has been mutually beneficial for our programming here at the festival and at the Hollywood Theater, and especially for the filmmakers whose films we both screen. Recently Richard told me that after meeting director Todd Darling at our ’08 festival, he programmed SNOWMOBILE FOR GEORGE as part of his weekend documentary series, and after seeing THE CAKER EATERS here, he invited it to POW Fest (where it won Best Feature) and will be giving it a theatrical run this spring.
Filmmakers have told me about selling large numbers of dvds after screenings (in our lobby), collecting emails from the audience to continue their outreach, and of making contacts with attending press (also often on our jury). I think the Art House Convergence at Sundance is a very exciting opportunity for programmers of festivals to network with exhibitors, and for filmmakers to meet us all.
Personally, I’d love to hear more from filmmakers about their successes and especially about what festivals can do to help self-driven distribution efforts, so we can offer more than the hope that “your film [will] be discovered and you [will] be given a pot of gold and the keys to Hollywood.” 🙂
…………………………………
Joanne Feinberg
Director of Programming
ashland independent film festival
8th Annual, April 2-6, 2009
joanne@ashlandfilm.org
www.ashlandfilm.org
P.O. Box 218
Ashland OR 97520
non-profit (501) ( c ) (3)
Ted adds: Joanne’s wish to hear more from filmmakers about how the festivals can help is ours too hear at TFF. What ideas do you have?
Categories
Woody Is Mershed
We always hesitate when we want to put a “mersh” in The Bowl, but it is always a good place to source some animation. Here we get three great loves: Mr. Guthrie, 2D animation, and papercraft, so who are we to be purists?
