Category: Truly Free Film

We are on the verge of a new film culture and infrastructure.

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Truly Free Film

Guest Post: Ari Gold: Power The Power: “Adventures of Power” finds 100,000 fans without a traditional release

I’ve written a lot about the increasing responsibilities of filmmakers and the absolute need to focus on audience/community building. How to we get our work seen in an entertainment economy that has shifted from being based on scarcity and control, to one of super-abundance and ever-increasing access? The tools get better daily, and slowly we start to map out a series of best practices.

In today’s guest post, filmmaker Ari Gold writes precisely of that challenge and how he’s managed to find some success without following the standard release plans. Ari directed one of my favorite all-time shorts (Helicopter), so I am excited to see his feature debut ADVENTURES OF POWER.

In a case of life imitating art imitating life, my air-drum comedy “Adventures of Power” is now launching a real air-drum competition [http://AirDrumBattle.com]. Rock-star drummers are lining up to participate. How in hell did I become an event planner? I used to think you just made a movie, and watch it go to theaters. But that’s not how it works these days, not for most of us. Independent filmmakers who can’t afford advertising have to find a way to get the word out about their movies – I’ve decided to become an event planner in order to do it. “Power’s Air Drum Battle” is the second initiative that I’ve done during the slow-burn release of the movie: we’ve already saved a music school with our charity auction, and so now we’re just going to have some fun. Anyone want to become a star by air-drumming?

They used to say you write a film 3 times: when you write it down, when you film it, and when you edit it. Making my movie, I learned that the first and third “writes”, you can be a perfectionist. But the second time (the shoot) you have to be a philosopher, because you’re not the one doing the writing. The shoot takes on a life of its own – often like a minor apocalypse. I would now add a fourth time you “write” a film – and that’s when you bring it to the world. That’s another one that’s hard to write yourself, even when you’re doing it yourself. Getting people’s attention without having the traditional press in your pocket is not easy to do.

I first conceived of “Adventures of Power,” a spiritual/political/absurdist fable about air-drumming and the American Dream, while living in a copper-mining town in New Mexico. The miners were going on strike; there were fights in the street. The story about a copper-mining dreamer making something out of nothing seemed to me to be a perfect combination of the ridiculous and the sublime. I don’t think I could have predicted the wild journey of bringing the “little epic” to the masses, and how much I’d feel like that miner. Broken bones, lightning strikes against the crew, death threats from copper-factory bosses (and eventually, on the plus side, invitations to countries from Finland to Thailand) were not what I expected. I wasn’t expecting my rough-cut to be reviewed (mostly badly) and the final film which I love to get no press whatsoever. But suddenly I have 100,000 fans on Facebook. How’s that work?

The sleepless, terrifying night before my shoot started, I received the following email advice from my brother: “Have fun, have fun, have fun.” And my friend from Germany wrote that before he shot his last film, he told himself “things will go wrong. not work out. i will be disappointed, frustrated and lost at times. but thats not bad. or wrong. as long as i can lay in bed at nite and honestly tell myself: i gave it all i got.’ this is not about winning. this is about doin´ it. with all your might and love. than the gods will look after you.”

Both of these emails were incredibly helpful. The winds of fate, weather, casting, financing, and distribution are often out of our control. I’ve had fans begging to buy my movie for many moons, while it navigated the perils of a distribution business in transition. I realized I couldn’t just walk away from the movie when I finished it. It played Sundance, won a bunch of prizes, and then I still had to put it out on my own. I have no idea if 100,000 new fans will ever pay the bills, but it’s great to know that all the hard work is finally bringing the fable to the masses. Every once in a while, people take power into their own hands. Power to the people!

— Ari Gold

Ari Gold’s first feature film “Adventures of Power”, an epic comedy about air-drumming and the American dream, won best-of-festival prizes at film festivals around the world, and was called “One of the funniest films in recent years” by New York Magazine. His short films “Helicopter” and “Culture” won prizes around the world, and he is currently at work on a new feature. AriGoldFilms.com

http://AdventuresOfPower.com
Now on DVD
DVD includes 2 full hours of bonus materials, making-of, Ari’s student Oscar-winning short film “Helicopter”, interview with Neil Peart, bonus scenes with Jane Lynch, Adrian Grenier, Tim & Eric, and more.

Follow Ari Gold on Twitter at @AriGold
Ari’s site: http://AriGoldFilms.com

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Truly Free Film

Brooklyn’s Answer To SXSW? Complete With A DIY Film Festival!!

The democratization of culture and the tools to create and share it is definitely been one of the more exciting trends of the recent past. We see it in all spheres and aspects of our daily life, but what symbolizes it best? Many friends and pundits characterize it as a dumbing down, but I truly perceive it as quite the opposite. People everywhere are asking all of us to look and reach up, to aspire to more, to inspire each of us to cross into new realms.

Maybe this is most felt on the streets of Austin during SXSW (although the committed might nominate Burning Man), but it is refreshing to know that NYC is not going to abandon the terrain of the wild, weird, honest, and true to that Texas town. We’ve got on own thing going down in Brooklyn.

rooklyn has emerged as a new creative epicenter of culture, and Northside is the festival that curates this talent into a 4-day experience of Music, Art, Film, and Ideas, showcasing the best regional and national talent all within the walkable radius encompassed by Williamsburg and Greenpoint. It’s June 16 -19th and I plan to be there. In fact, I will be one of the judges of the film component. But it is not just film, per se. It is lo-fi, hi-ambition, DIY variety.

DIY filmmaking is very much a part of this mission. It’s now a given that many of the most exciting films at major American festivals are the product of a handful of friends working on a shoestring (some of them right here in Brooklyn), and it’s time festivals gave these films the dedicated platform they deserve.

Last year, with the first-ever Northside Film Festival, copresenters like Rooftop Films, IFC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Film Comment screened exciting local and upcoming films; this year, alongside these special feature presentations, Northside’s new DIY Film Competition will shine a spotlight on the exciting new voices working with the materials at hand.

The submissions guidelines:

The L Magazine presents: The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Film Competition, Northside Festival’s first juried screening series. Open to all filmmakers with ingenuity and a hands-on approach, the winners will receive an exclusive screening with Rooftop Films plus cash and equipment rentals! For more information on how to submit your own dynamic short or brilliant feature before the May 1 deadline hits, please visit northsidefestival.com and click “Submit Your Film.” The films must have been made after January 1, 2008.

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Truly Free Film

Good Seminars For NY Filmmakers

While I am enjoying my morning coffee, sifting through the 250 emails I did not get to yesterday, I stumbled across New York Women In Film & Televisionhttp://www.nywift.org/‘s seminars for the month, and I have to tell you I was impressed. What a great resource for all filmmakers! Check it out…

NYWIFT‘s April 2011 programs

Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Creative Business of Screenwriting

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Career Focus: The Actors Fund Work Program (AWP)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The It Factor: A Branding and Image Workshop

Thursday, April 14, 2011
Unions, Guilds and Locals—Oh My!: An Evening with Costume, Makeup and Hair Designers

Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Ultimate Confidence Building Workshop: Communicate With Conviction

Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Next Generation Docs: Social Media and Cross-Platform Storytelling

Friday, April 29, 2011
Women Documenting Life: A Celebration of Women Filmmakers to Mark the 40th Anniversary of New Day Films

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Truly Free Film

Guest Post: Ray Privett: Past, Present, and Future Meet in ZENITH’s Multi-Platform Release

Independent filmmakers are always on a search for new ways to get their films seen. Audience building is part of any practical artist’s plan. The tools we have available for this improve consistently. Regular readers of this blog probably share my fascination for innovative approaches to distribution, particularly with efforts that put audience first. It’s refreshing to see discussions that once were limited to the marriage of form and content to now embrace a three way coupling and add presentation (aka platform) to the mix. Do certain subjects or story-telling methods require unique forms of presentation?

Ray Privett considers this in today’s guest post.

“I know words no one else knows anymore.”
– dumb jack in Zenith

Readers of HopeForFilm.com are familiar with VODO and Bittorrent (both the protocol and the company). Gregory Bayne mentioned them in a HopeForFilm post about his release of Person of Interest, and VODO shows up in occasional lists here of filmmaker tools. That said, readers might be curious how bittorrent tools have been useful as part, rather than the entirety, of a release. One such release is Zenith, from my company Cinema Purgatorio.

Zenith is a film by Anonymous – no, not that Anonymous – which we’ve been releasing in extremely conventional as well as unconventional ways. Since long before the release began, Zenith has had an extensive online transmedia campaign. Then we played twenty-some traditional movie theaters as well as temporary venues, and did a fairly conventional cable VOD and DVD release. iTunes is coming soon. Meanwhile we have released the first chunk online under a creative-commons license, free to download with VODO and Bittorrent. After downloading, supporters help bring forth further chunks of the film, new materials, and limited edition Blu-Rays and masks. For $1000, you can even can meet a character from the film in person.

The VODO release, and the release in general, have been big successes so far. In the first ten days, more than 500,000 free-to-share downloads of Zenith’s first 30 minutes led to more than $5000 in audience sponsorship, and notable increases in film-related website pageviews and mailing lists.

Would we like more? Well, of course. However, we’ve thought of this also as a way to celebrate and share the meta world of the film, increase the general viewer base, and develop ongoing relationships with fans. Hopefully our successes are only just beginning.

Not all projects would benefit from a promoted VODO / Bittorrent release as much as Zenith. Zenith’s cyberpunk atmosphere, surplus of internet paraphernalia, and – most importantly – achievement as filmmaking qua filmmaking likely resonate with the bittorrent userbase. Also, Zenith’s time-jumping, cliffhanging, idea-heavy substance – think The Da Vinci Code / Blade Runner / The Big Sleep – works well with the serialized, participatory release method that bittorrent and VODO can provide. Contemplative documentaries and slow burn chamber dramas might not function well in this forum; however, disruptive, episodic cliffhangers can. Or, in a different direction, harrowing, up to the minute, war-zone reportage that needs exposure to and funding from strangers might benefit from a modified approach, if they can take the time to develop the infrastructure (which is a big if).

Offline, and in private, some of our esteemed colleagues have criticized Cinema Purgatorio for pursuing a relatively traditional release on such a forward thinking film. I understand their perspective; Vladan Nikolic – who may or may not be “Anonymous” – even was cautious about the “theatrical” and DVD release. However, without those traditional elements, we wouldn’t have achieved the same level of press coverage and relatively secure income from traditional sources as we have. We would have depended too much on the technology of the future to achieve a release in the present. That’s fine for people who have infinite venture capital behind them, and who are more interested in proof of futuristic concept than in contemporary result. But for a release with more modest resources, and which actually must stand up and run on its own feet, I think this has been the right way to go. Zenith’s release has looked both forward and backward, using methods of the past and the future to achieve a unique and successful release in the present.

For me the question is this: As Zenith is a film set in both the present and the future, which is deeply enriched by past science fiction filmmaking and literature, does our multi-platform release resonate with the substance of the film proper better than a purely digital release would have? Vladan Nikolic and the other filmmakers, and everyone in the viewing community, are the most important ones to answer that question. I look forward to ongoing discussion with them as the release continues forward, and I look forward to seeing how other filmmakers – hopefully many of them real independents, other true “Anonymouses” with no connections to big powerful players – use bittorrent-related methods into the future.

— Ray Privett

Ray Privett is founder of Cinema Purgatorio. He ran New York City’s Pioneer Theater and managed Facets Video’s Exclusive DVD line when each was at its most successful.

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Truly Free Film

Don’t Wait: Get The SUPER App(s) Now

Why wait until you see my latest film? You can get the iPhone app now for free. Our official one, produced by PUNY (the geniuses behind our great title sequence) is available for iPhone, Android, and Facebook. Get it here. If you have the gene where you need to be totally complete, there’s even more you can get right here.

Don’t you love this modern life? You aren’t a movie unless you have an app, and the really cool films have two!

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Truly Free Film

The 1 Movie You Must Make Sure You See This April. Or I Won’t Talk To YOU Ever Again.

I have a lot of films that I want to check out this month, but I have already seen the one film that really matters. Without a doubt, I can tell you that it is the way to spend your money. The rest of the films might as well give up now. You know I have some complaints of films as of late, but I like to take my remedy straight, no rocks or filters. Cinema, pure and unbridled. You know what I am talking about?

You know when you go to the movies and that jerkhead cuts in line? Don’t you sometimes wish you could smash his friggin’ face in? With a ten pound wrench? Don’t do it. Don’t sell drugs either. Or molest children. Or even put on a costume and attack those that do such vile acts.

You know when you go to the movies and everything seems incredibly programmed and test-marketed? You know how you are starting to really hate that? You know how sometimes you watch a film and wish you were living back in the days when occasionally you could see something that felt like it burst from an unbridled mind that didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought and it was just going to go there no matter what? Wouldn’t you just love to have that type of movie back?

SUPER is a blood-splattered comedy that will make you cry real tears. SUPER is a film that will have you saying WTF! more than once. SUPER is filled with the sort of go for broke committed performances that will have you worshiping the ground that these thespians grace. SUPER is the shrieking plea in your ears all these years to finally let the lunatics run the asylum. Go ahead, drink the kool-aid. All it takes to be a superhero is to say you’ve had enough. Shut up, crime.

I am not going to lie. I produced this film. But what I produced (with MIranda Bailey) is 100% James Gunn, our writer, our director, our resident mad man. We have had incredible screenings of SUPER everywhere. No one can be lukewarm about this film. It opens on Friday April 1st (no fooling) and you want to make sure you are there.
It is not for the faint of heart or those who don’t like to have a bit of blood with their humor. Or want their entertainment sanitized of non-PC content. This ain’t that, but it is a blast. I promise you that. Several blasts as a matter of fact.

Just about this time two years ago, I was frustrated by how engineered all films felt to me. Even the indie work I was seeing felt devoid of the sort of unbridled craziness that initially lead me to fall in love with cinema. I wanted a return to jaw dropping moments and moments of questionable intent. Where had all the WhatTheFuck gone in film? Could film still be made from what appeared to be a wonderfully warped mind? Haven’t we had enough of the beautiful minds by now?

Simultaneously I was pondering what the psychological effects on society our national obsession with super heroes was having. If the high esteem we deem upon supermodels was undermining some women’s self-worth, what did the pinnacle we placed costumed crime fighters on do to a man’s perception of masculinity. Let’s be real, superheroes and war are our two top exports — there’s gotta be a connection, right?

I started scouring the development pipelines for a project that might do justice to both. I was coming up empty-handed, but had heard tales of just such a morsel by a filmmaker whom I admired that had almost gone into production years earlier for a whopping cost of $25M. Then I saw Rainn Wilson tweet that he “and james_gunn were going out with a low-rent f’d up Watchmen” — and I pounced. One year after we went out for financing, we premiered it at Toronto, where it was the first film sold in what later proved to be the tipping point out of a three year down market downturn.

This is one time where I have distributors who, despite some extreme stuff, have no fear of what this film is. Our poster and trailer truly represent the work as we intended. It’s been an amazing experience, and I am thrilled to bring to you, my film friends. It opens on Friday, April Fools Day, and I would love your dollars and support.

Watch the SUPER trailer.
Check SUPER out on facebook
Follow @SUPERthemovie on twitter.
Watch the Crimson Bolt patrol the streets of Austin.
Read one of the many good reviews for SUPER!
Rock your block out to the SUPER soundtrack at http://bit.ly/Superitunes
You can’t be a movie without an app. Check out the app for SUPER.

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Truly Free Film

I Have A Few More Things To Say About SUPER

Yesterday around this time I participated in a podcast with Rex Sikes. It’s about a one hour interview almost entirely about SUPER. You can hear all the secret details about every and any aspect? How did it we put it together? How did we keep it together? How did it fit together? It was a fun talk. And it available for free right here: http://bit.ly/dybBsU.