Tag: Hammer To Nail

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Truly Free Film

What’s Needed Now? Chesanek contemplates

Brent had some thoughts to the question of what’s needed now:


I completely agree about what’s needed. If you notice, Pitchfork is a conglomeration of so many sections, from lists to music videos to interviews, etc., that it becomes a one-stop shop for visitors, or at least a magnificent starting point to news, reviews, features, interviews, videos, etc.

This could be done for our community, but adding a local basis with subdomains. So NYC film events and reviews of films playing here is one subdomain, LA, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Orlando, Austin are others. They could all share content but arrange it based on the local scene and screenings and then could add local content.

Getting audiences to a specific time and place to see a film is just as crucial as getting them a review of that film. Imagine a public iCal or Google Calendar with film schedules, not showtimes necessarily, but dates and schedules, so we can see, for example, The GoodTimesKid is playing only FOUR DAYS this week at Anthology while Pleasure of Being Robbed is playing for the next 10 days at IFC. One calendar with all the theaters’ schedules. Is there anything like this?

Right now in Google Reader I have all these feeds in a folder. But the problem is that things disappear as I read them, and then articles and features don’t get the face time that they do on Pfork or in a more traditional magazine format. So I read a Hammer to Nail review and then the next day I don’t have that review or that screenshot from the film there to remind me that the film is playing, nor do I have a schedule of how long I have to see that film. RSS readers and scroll-down blogs are magnificent, but again, they don’t lend repeated viewing–they’re designed to do the opposite.

Pitchfork is setup so well I prefer going to it rather than subscribing to its feed. It encourages browsing and promotes repeated viewing of its features. I think for our purposes, Pfork is arranged better than content in an RSS reader or scroll-down blog. If I go to Pfork, I get new content as well as another reminder of that record they loved and reviewed 3 days ago–while I didn’t have time to seek it out and listen then, I do today. The more we see something, the more inclined we are to look into it or at least remember it.

Building something like this for my own use is possible if I scour the web daily and go crazy coding something myself or figure out how to customize iGoogle or My.Yahoo, but maybe it could be stronger if there was one central build of it, at least for each metropolitan area. I know the web is very much about letting users decide on their content, but I think it’d be more effective in promoting the lesser-talked about films if it was moderated by a party with that goal. Pfork is still not user-generated in the least, but it’s absolutely a community and beyond, because record stores notice their sales heavily correlate with Pitchfork’s content and because there is such a large anti-Pitchfork crowd.

I ask again, is there anything like this?
–Brent Chesanek

Categories
Truly Free Film

Hope For The Future pt. 2: Building The List

We started the list here (click to link).  Now we continue onwards.  We will only get to 52 with your help.  What else gives you reasons to be hopeful for film culture?

5. Giving it away for free is good business.  Anderson’s essay is required reading.  Look at Google who gives away 90% (est.) of what they create (the search engine) and drives a good advertising business in the process.  For years The Greatful Dead were one of the top grossing concert acts, driven in a good part by their willingness to allow their fans to “bootleg” their concerts and “distribute” them themselves.  The question is what do you give away and what do you use to produce revenue.

6. Film Festivals are evolving.  Local film fests have already identified the core film lovers in every region.  For decades these festivals have been content to live in a single period each year, overloading their audiences with too many choices come festival time.  Now festivals are giving theatrical bookings as awards (help us build a list of these).  Some are moving to a seasonal subscription model.  Some are even paying significant screening fees.  And then there are the cash awards (those are still around somewhere, aren’t they?).

7. Internet Streaming is being used by filmmakers to build A WORLD of Word Of Mouth.  Slamdance has announced that they will stream films right after the festival.  For years we have know that word of mouth is the primary way that a specialized film succeeds.  But it is costly, but now that has changed.

8. 2008 is the strongest year for under $1M EVER.  I have seen almost 20 films this year by filmmakers who clearly will develop a great body of work.  Only a few were at Sundance. They keep on coming.  They may still be hard to find, but the films are out there and at a quality and quantity  as never before.  Check out Hammer To Nail’s list of top 13 films of the year and get watching.

Categories
Truly Free Film

The Effect Of The Vanishing Film Critics

This is an earlier post from Let’s Make Better Films.  I started that blog to discuss the films and filmmaking process.  Sometimes we all just feel like we want to bury our head and avoid the biz altogether.  I started TFF to help build and rebuild the infrastructure to support those better films.

We started Hammer To Nail because we found it hard to get go analysis of what Truly Free films that were out there were truly worth watching. The mainstream critics had stopped covering the smaller films.

Ad Age is now running an article on the effect of all the firings of the established critics on the specialized film business. The loss of established voices has brought a serious drop at the box office.

“It’s the consistent relationship [with a critic] that gets people to go to these movies,” said Mr. Bernard. “[Editors] felt they should get critics that connect to that younger audience that’s getting its news online, but they’re not looking at how the box office is affected when the critic changes.”

Of course, the loss of these critics had no effect on the revenues of all the interesting and great films that weren’t getting the theaters or coverage in the first place. For those films, just go to Hammer To Nail.

For a discussion on the state of film criticism, check out Greencine’s podcast here. 
And to keep a vast and diversified culture alive, vote with your dollars, and go out to see a movie today. Seriously. We will lose it otherwise.

There’s a great new program in NYC that bumps the film experience up a notch with direct contact with the filmmakers and a post screening celebration. It also confronts head-on the over emphasis the exhibition biz puts on the first weekend revenues.

Credit the IFP and Michelle Byrd with putting their money where their mouth is an truly supporting both Independent and Truly Free films with their new First Weekend series (all done without corporate backing — c’mon you sponsors, follow suit!). Read about it here.

And guess what their inaugural film is? BALLAST! Did I tell you how much I admire this film? How great it is? How much I like it? I think I have. Go see it.

Categories
Let's Make Better Films

The Effect Of The Vanishing Film Critics

We interrupt our discussion on the films themselves, for a brief journey into the business of it all.  Here at LMBFilms I (and I want that to be a “we”) want to focus on the movies and not the industry, but until I (hopefully “we”) launch the better business site, please pardon the interruption…

We started Hammer To Nail because we found it hard to get go analysis of what Truly Free films that were out there were truly worth watching.  The mainstream critics had stopped covering the smaller films.

Ad Age is now running an article on the effect of all the firings of the established critics on the specialized film business.  The loss of established voices has brought a serious drop at the box office.

“It’s the consistent relationship [with a critic] that gets people to go to these movies,” said Mr. Bernard. “[Editors] felt they should get critics that connect to that younger audience that’s getting its news online, but they’re not looking at how the box office is affected when the critic changes.” 

Of course, the loss of these critics had no effect on the revenues of all the interesting and great films that weren’t getting the theaters or coverage in the first place.  For those films, just go to Hammer To Nail.
And to keep a vast and diversified culture alive, vote with your dollars, and go out to see a movie today.  Seriously.  We will lose it otherwise.
There’s a great new program in NYC that bumps the film experience up a notch with direct contact with the filmmakers and a post screening celebration.  It also confronts head-on the over emphasis the exhibition biz puts on the first weekend revenues.  
Credit the IFP and Michelle Byrd with putting their money where their mouth is an truly supporting both Independent and Truly Free films with their new First Weekend series (all done without corporate backing — c’mon you sponsors, follow suit!).  Read about here.
And guess what their inaugural film is?  BALLAST!  Did I tell you how much I admire this film?  How great it is?  How much I like it?  I think I have.  Go see it.