Category: Truly Free Film

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

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Truly Free Film

Lipsky’s Indiewire List on Why He Loves Theatrical Distro

Cassavettes’ former distributor announced last week that he was going back to his old ways and taking other people’s films to the people. This week he (Jeff Lipsky) did a must read article to try to explain why. It’s in the pop form of a list and after each bullet point he goes into some detail to back up his assertion. Check it out. I post the list (w/o the explanation) below.

There is some food for thought in Jeff’s positions and I look forward to discussing it further. I have always believed in a collective sub-conscious; is there really a new? In reading, Jeff’s list it reminded me of several points from filmmaker Michael Barnard, who’s thoughts on the current state I am posting today and tomorrow. Stay tuned…

The whole article is on IndieWire and you should read it. Jeff’s bulletpoints are:

1) My number one job as a distributor-for-hire is to run a collection agency.

Continue reading “Lipsky’s Indiewire List on Why He Loves Theatrical Distro”
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Truly Free Film

Film Sprout: Grassroots & Community Distribution For Indies

Film Sprout is offering a great series of workshops in April.  I had the opportunity last year to sit with Caitlin Bryce  and was deeply impressed.  There are only 15 spots and it only costs $150 so sign up fast.

The first workshop in the series, From the Ground Up: Building Grassroots Distribution for your Independent Film, is a crash course in the strategic and practical steps necessary for rallying a motivated audience around a successful community screening campaign for your film.

In four intensive hours, we’ll discuss a broad range of case studies, identify helpful tricks-of-the-trade, and walk through the nuts-and-bolts tools you’ll need–from contracts to contacts–to launch a rewarding community screenings effort.

At the end of the workshop, you’ll receive a chance to pitch your own grassroots outreach and screening plan to an intimate panel of seasoned filmmakers, outreach coordinators, and programmers–and to get valuable guidance in return.

It’s Sunday April 11th 2-6P in Brooklyn, so act now.  And let me know what you think of it.

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Truly Free Film

The Exhibitor Audience Collaboration

I ran into Chris Dorr last week and had a good conversation with him about the many different ways the film world needs to engage with social media. One of the ideas here offered was exhibitors and festivals utilizing FourSquare. I tweeted the genius idea and sure enough soon learned that at least one film festival was ahead of the curve. AMERICAN SPLENDOR created a soft spot in my heart for Cleveland and now learning what the Cleveland International Film Festival was up to brought a sweet pang of joy.

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Truly Free Film

Financing in a Post-Capital Plane: Reflections on Putty Hill’s Kickstarter Campaign

Today’s guest post is from Stephen Holmgren, Putty Hill’s producer.

Last winter, Putty Hill director Matt Porterfield and I met with a small group of friends at Matt’s house for a home-cooked Baltimore dinner. We were there to discuss fundraising ideas for Matt’s pending feature, Metal Gods, which we were determined to shoot over the summer. Matt had been polishing the script for years, and we were having success meeting great teen actors from local auditions. All we needed was some money to shoot and edit the movie.

We were open to working with production companies and investors on a variety of levels– wanting more than anything just to have something completed by our self-imposed September deadline. We had various budget levels, including a best case, worst case, and disaster scenario. We knew that, despite positive industry responses, the reality was that if this movie was going to happen it would most likely have to come from local financial support. We brainstormed a long list of ideas, knowing we needed to reach outside of friends and family, to people who supported the arts. At this point, Kickstarter was in its infancy and
not on our radar.

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Truly Free Film

IndieGoGo Acquires Distribber: Filmmakers Win!

We just got this press release from IndieGoGo and it sounds like a great thing.  Users will now have access to the iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix distribution platform.  Exciting development indeed.

The acquisition enables a full range of project execution tools for IndieGoGo members.

Berkeley, California, March 15, 2009 – IndieGoGo (www.indiegogo.com), a fundraising platform, announced its acquisition of Distribber (www.distribber.com), a digital distribution service. This acquisition enables IndieGoGo to offer clients a full range of tools for project execution – from funding to distribution.

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Truly Free Film

You Too Can Have Cassavettes’ Distrib Work For You

It was a busy week. Jeff Lipsky, distributor turned filmmaker, has returned to his distro roots and wants to work with you! I got an email from him and have been meaning to post but my To Do List is a bit unruly. I need an extra hand. Now I was beaten to the punch, but better late than never.
Jeff’s email states:

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Issues and Actions Truly Free Film

Battelle On iPad as Metaphor For All That’s Wrong With Media Distribution

I got hipped to this by MovieCityNews.  I had not read John Battelle before, but in his broadside he sums up what he doesn’t like about the iPad and he sums up our current situation pretty damn well:

Media traditionally has gained its profits by owning distribution. Cable carriage, network airwaves, newsstand distribution and printing presses: all very expensive, so once you employ enough capital to gain them, it’s damn hard to get knocked out.

The web changed all that and promised that economics in the media business would be driven by content and intent: the best content will win, driven by the declared intent of consumers who find it and share it. Search+Social was the biggest wave to hit media since the printing press. And the open technology to make better and better experiences has been on a ten year tear: blogging software, Flash, Ajax, HTML 5, Android, and more and more coming.

Read the rest of the article here.  I look forward to reading more of him in the days ahead.

We are in a battle where the hope and promise offered by a free and open internet is challenged by the traditional drive for total control by excessive capital.