It seems that once again our film “Hallo Panda” has been disturbing insomniacs watching channel four late into the night… bless ‘em, they never tell us when they’re going to show it but it’s nice to know that, never the less, we do manage to reach some sort of audience… gradually our scenes of ludicrous panda porn are dripping into the jungian superconsciousness of the nation…

The other day I went to see two films (both of which I paid for) and both of which I found massively enjoyable. There are more than enough websites that offer reviews of main stream theatrical releases and I don’t have anything that insightful to say about either film in particular. What most delighted me was that both films were British. Now I’m not some white-eyed patriot, even though I did accidentally manage to see both films on St.George’s Day.…

Wow the finger really is on the pulse of the youth culture here isn’t it? Having spent all week arguing the moral toss about that most modern of ethical dilemmas, I then spent most of yesterday kicking ideas about for a bit of paid work Chris and I have which is also aimed at angst ridden teenagers. The project involves working with teenagers and getting a lot of feedback and ideas from them. It’s interesting to see how angry they…

Ok so I’m still thinking about piracy – though I still think we need to phrase the whole debate better. After all, Pirates are cool. This, I presume, is why the Industry (or The Man, an even cooler name if you ask me) is desperate to rebrand internet Pirates as Thieves. However like so much else in the virtual world this is still giving far too much kudos to the activity. “Surfing for pirate p2p networks” is a very glamourous…

Brian Newman (CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute) gave this talk to the Tribeca All Access filmmakers yesterday. It’s a little odd looking at slide shows without being guided through them but this gives a good survey of the current online options available to you as filmmakers. Tribeca All Access – Online Tools, making money and building audiences for film View more presentations from Brian Newman.

Workbook Project’s New Breed brings you this piece by Zak Forsman on how to make the festival circuit work for you EVEN if you don’t have a film screening. The key advice is: manage your expectations and make connections because these connections will help you in the long haul and festivals are probably the best place to meet all the key players in one place. Here is Zak’s video from SXSW:

Select stories from the Spring issue of Filmmaker Magazine are now online and there are a couple of articles I particularly recommend as far as tools you can use goes: Esther Robinson tells you how to keep your credit sweet. And Jon Reiss gives some great pointers on marketing DVDs on the web. Filmmakers talk about shooting films with still camera. And Lance Weiler talks about building community on torrent sites.

So piracy is wrong but it isn’t stealing (see below for details). In film making there is, however, another confusion and our own beloved Shooting People website is a very good example of it. Filmmakers, especially those who make short films, are constantly encouraged to give their work away for free. So much so that it can often be seen as quite an affront if you refuse to do so. Shooting People offers a superb online streaming service where members…

Ok so I still don’t know what I think about piracy. One thing that does annoy me is the “you wouldn’t steal a handbag” line of reasoning that hopes to make people question the morality of creative piracy. At first glance this is a compelling point. I certainly wouldn’t dream of stealing someone’s handbag, I wouldn’t smash a car window and take a stereo and when a man hit me in the face and ran off with my laptop I…

OK so this is me working out my thoughts on piracy as I go. The previous post, (VIKING ATTACKS) which is well worth reading, talks about music and the way that pirate recordings on the internet can encourage you to seek out and buy new things that you would not have otherwise fallen in love with. It also talks about how Spotify (who aren’t sponsoring me but should be) can act as a brilliant replacement to a radio industry which…