My Freedom Or Death – Condition ONE Beta from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

Excuse the cross-posting with the Festivals blog, but we didn’t wany any of you to miss out on this -

Mullighan recently presented a panel at the London Short Film Festival, entitled ‘Luck = Preparedness + Opportunity’. With him were the delightful filmmakers (and Shooters), Ben Slotover and Eva Weber.

If you weren’t lucky enough to make it down to the Curzon for the event, no fear! Ben has kindly made his notes from the panel available to you all here.

Ben, as it turns out, has actually made short instructional videos, very good tools for the newer indie filmmaker. You can watch his Zero Budget Filmmaking Compilation below, but he has uploaded more videos to his profile on Shooters which I thoroughly recommend you watch.

With the dawn of 2009 comes some new additions to the site. NEW BREED: CRITICAL FOCUS will introduce a new series of interviews, special topics addressed by site regulars and more articles from guest contributers. Look for upcoming conversations with filmmakers Hunter Weeks, Ondi Timoner, Barry Jenkins, Lynn Shelton and Joe Swanberg, as well as a new series of articles by site regulars sharing insight into lessons learned… the hard way. And in a few days we will introduce a prolific filmmaker of short films, Jack Daniel Stanley, who takes his southern gothic horror film, A Little Mouth To Feed, to Slamdance 09 and offers insight into his preparations, planning and experience at the festival.

If you’d prefer not to learn ALL your lessons the hard way, read NEW BREED and hear from filmmakers who learned them for you!

The Global Mobile Festival follows the success of the GSMA’s previous collaborations with the Sundance Film Festival to create the Global Short Film Project.

The GSMA and Mofilm are seeking films up to five minutes in length, made both using traditional filmmaking techniques by established and upcoming film directors, as well as films made using mobile devices themselves.

Submission forms and films can be uploaded on-line at the Mofilm website.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 28 November.

Films will be judged by an international jury of film, festival and mobile content experts, with the best films showcased at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest communications industry event that attracts more than 55,000 visitors from the mobile, entertainment and many other industry sectors to Barcelona each February.

Find out more here.

A THOUSAND PHOENIX RISING
How The New Truly Free Filmmaking Community Will Rise From Indie’s Ashes

I can’t talk about the “crisis” of the indie film industry. There is no crisis. The country is in crisis. The economy is in crisis. We, the filmmakers, aren’t in crisis.

The business is changing, but for us –us who are called Indie Filmmakers — that’s good that the business is changing. Filmmaking is an incredible privilidge and we need to accept it as such – and accept the full responsibility that comes with that priviledge.

The proclamations of Indie Film’s demise are grossly exaggerated. How can there be a “Death Of Indie” when Indie — real Indie, True Indie — has yet to even live?
Yes, there’s a profound paradigm shift, and that shift is the coming of true independence. The hope of this new independence is being threatened even before it has arrived. Are we going to fight for our independence and can we even shoulder the responsibility that independence requires? That is: will we ban together and work for our communal needs? Are we ready to leave dreams of stardom and wealth behind us?

When someone says “Indie is dead”, they are talking about the state of the Indie Film Business, as opposed to what are actually the films themselves. They can say “The sky is falling” because for the last fifteen years, the existing power base in the film industry has focused on films fit for the existing business model, as opposed to ever truly concentrating on creating a business model for the films that filmmakers want to make.

This is where we are right now: on the verge of a TRULY FREE FILM CULTURE, one that is driven by both the creators and the audiences, pulled down by the audience and not pushed onto them by those that control the apparatus and the supply. We now have the power and the tool for something different, but will we fight to preserve the internet, the tool that offers us our new freedom? Can we banish the the dream of golden distribution deals, and move away from asking others to distribute and market it for us? Can we accept that being a filmmaker means taking responsibility for your films, the primary responsibility, all the way through the process? That is independence and that is freedom…

Read the full transcript on Filmmaker Magazine’s website.

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT ENDS THIS FRIDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER!
Register now to save 25% off the full ticket price.We’re bringing together pioneering visionaries, filmmakers and entrepreneurs who are changing the way that independent films are financed, created and reach audiences. This year’s speakers who will be participating at both the Conference and the Workshop Sessions include:

YOMI AYENI, Creative Director, Expanding Universe
ARIN CRUMLEY, Award-winning Filmmaker
ADAM ERLEBACHER, Co-Founder, PlaceVine
JAMIE KING, Filmmaker and Digital Rights Activist
BRIAN NEWMAN, President, Tribeca Film Institute
SARA POLLACK, Manager Film & Animation, YouTube
SLAVA RUBIN, Co-Founder, IndieGoGo
M DOT STRANGE, Award-winning Filmmaker
LANCE WEILER, Award-winning Filmmaker and Digital Innovator

For details about the programme and updates on speakers please visit:

www.powertothepixel.com/category/london-forum-2008

You can also hear conversations with Kevin Smith, Robert Greenwald (Brave New Films) and Rick Allen (SnagFilms).

You can stream panels and workshops from past expos on their website too.