Author: Ted Hope

Categories
Truly Free Film

Who Do You Wish Tweeted?

On Demand Weekly just published a Twitter Top 100 for the VOD space.   Guess who made it? 🙂  Yup.

It’s a good list and even someone (like me) who follows a lot of folks is sure to find some more folks to follow.

I must confess though my fav part was “People We Wish Tweeted”.  On Demand Weekly had listed:
Eamonn Bowles
Bob & Harvey Weinstein
Tom Bernard, Michael Barker and Marcie Bloom
Melanie Miller
Ted Sarandos
Jeff Bezos

Definitely, on all fronts.  I’d add:

James Schamus

I have more but not in the same category.

Categories
These Are Those Things

First The Feature (Script), Then The Short

We hosted Anna Boden as an Artist In Residence at The San Francisco Film Society recently.  I found it interesting to hear her say she and Ryan Fleck had been inspired by Peter Sollet’s RAISING VICTOR VARGAS and the prize-winning short that preceded it 5 FEET HIGH & RISING.  They had written the HALF NELSON script and in trying to figure out how to do a short that could help get the feature made they decided to shift the focus away from the focus on the teacher (later played by Ryan Gosling in the feature) and put in on Shareeka Epps the student (and who stars in each the short and feature).  This is the short  GOWANUS BROOKLYN that helped get the feature HALF NELSON shot.

Categories
The Next Good Idea

Let’s Convert All Rooftop Parking Garages Into Drive-In Movie Theaters

The La Times reported:
A new drive-in movie theater is opening atop downtown Los Angeles.

On Oct. 28, Electric Dusk Drive-In will debut on the rooftop of a parking garage at the corner of 4th Street and Broadway.

The drive-in will project a wide selection of classic films, cult favorites and contemporary blockbusters on a 24 foot by 18 foot screen, complete with carhops taking orders from a snack bar.

Ah, imagine a world where each city had more than one such drive-in. Now I have never been a

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Categories
These Are Those Things

True Facts About Hedgehogs

Via Metafilter

Categories
Truly Free Film

Fifteen Big Lessons I’ve Learned (I Hope)

I recently did some lectures in Australia & New Zealand.  Being asked to speak, gives me a chance to reflect.  One or two days of 6-7 hr marathon lectures leads me to want to be able to sum it all up.  This exercise in summation is one of futility, but that does not stop me from trying.

What have I learned over the years? What can be done to make better films? What can be done to make a better film industry and culture that actually supports & benefits the creators and appreciators of ambitious and diverse film? How can our culture actually lift up our world?  I don’t pretend to know the answers, but I have fortunately learned some things (and I believe in sharing, declaring, and collaborating).

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Categories
Truly Free Film

How Many Ways Can We Collaborate Around A Single Film?

We will work together to build it better.  We will use the tools we have, but not let them restrain us. Let’s turn our limitations — financial & otherwise — into assets (may our chains set us free).  We will not let ego drive us away from an ambitious and interesting cinema.  Let’s acknowledge that defining a true author in cinema is hard, and the act of creation is rarely original. Everything is a remix.In an era of Grand Abundance, it is best practice to be even more generative, but less authorial.  And if all that is where we are, where does it leave us?

I am always looking for new methods of collaboration and new ideas of how someone else might riff off of one artist’s work.  Multiple authors have multiple arms and louder voices; their success is everyone’s & their failure no one’s.  If we

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Categories
Truly Free Film

Why I Felt I Must Not Focus On Project-Specific Producing At This Time

AKA ” Why I Want To Be Part Of The San Francisco Film Society”.

Last Wednesday, Oct 3rd, I gave my first address to the membership of The San Francisco Film Society as part of our Annual Funding Campaign Drive.  We had a good turn out; I like to think it was for me and the organization, but the food and wine were both enticing too.  I did my best to explain why I left NYC and headed to San Francisco.  It required that I explain why I love cinema and what it means to me, as well as some of the issues facing filmmakers today and why we need the support of organizations like SFFS.

San Francisco Film Society E.D. Ted Hope from k9sound on Vimeo.

Thanks to Raqcoon Hayop who was there to shoot it and post it for prosperity’s sake.