Filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah of Sabi Pictures arrive at Park City with an intent to define the questions most relevant to independent distribution options. Insights from Brian Newman, Dan Mirvish, Jon Reiss and Ira Deutchman open a path toward discovering some real solutions.
SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah move away from identifying the questions toward some possible answers that may, in fact, lead to the solutions we seek. Insights from Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards), Habib Azar (Armless), Dan Mirvish, and Brian Newman are fleshed out with more thoughts from the pre-Filmmaker Summit roundtable.
SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah move away from identifying the questions toward some possible answers that may, in fact, lead to the solutions we seek. Insights from Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards), Jon Reiss and Brian Newman are fleshed out with more thoughts from the pre-Filmmaker Summit roundtable.
Ok we know film competitions are a dime a dozen but we’ve gotten behind this one from Mofilm because the prizes are awesome (and there are lots of them) and if you enter through Shooting People you also stand the chance of winning a bonus prize: the Canon 5D. Plus you’ll get flown to Barcelona which ain’t half bad.
Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to make an ad of less than 90 seconds for any one of five brands.
Any of y’all going to Park City are spoiled for choice for cool workshops to attend this year! The Filmmaker Summit is brought to you by the very wonderful people at Slamdance, Workbook Project and Open Video Alliance. We’re fans of all three so if you can’t make it to the Summit be sure to participate online and remember that it will be streaming live on Jan 23rd too.
Here’s a statement from the producers of the event:
The mission of the Slamdance, WorkBook Project and Open Video Alliance Filmmaker Summit is to jointly craft a new charter for filmmaking, storytelling and content distribution, with and by the global filmmaking community.Our collaboration is born out of reaction to an independent film industry currently in a state of change and how, as a global filmmaking community, we can better understand and find greater success afforded by new technology and the democratization of new tools and processes.
We believe sustainable independent filmmaking is no longer about the production itself. Instead, it’s about how filmmakers must now expand their role and take charge of reaching and engaging worldwide audiences across all viewing platforms. In this direct approach, the viewer is now collaborative, less passive and more connected then every before. New business models will emerge as a direct result of experimentation and transparency around process, the Filmmaker Summit is an attempt to chart a course towards sustainability one that is by filmmakers for filmmakers while at the same time being inclusive of the audiences that support them.
Digital Dive is a free, one-day immersion program to help you improve your digital media literacy. Experts will present case studies, product demos, and practical information about how to get your feet wet with website, mobile phone, social media, and cross-platform production. A collaboration between Sundance Film Festival and Jigsaw Global, the workshop will be held at New Frontier on Main, and it is perfect for filmmakers and film industry professionals with minimal, hands-on digital media production experience.
OPEN CALL FOR ALL FILM INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS. APPLY FOR A FREE RESERVED SEAT, OR JUST SHOW UP ON JAN 22ND AND 23RD AND GRAB A GENERAL ADMISSION SEAT.
We’re big fans of Jon Reiss’ book, Think Outside the Box Office. Jon is offering filmmakers a really great consultation opportunity so if you’re headed to Park City you’ll want to read this:
As some of you might know, one of the reasons that I wrote Think Outside the Box Office was after those first Filmmaker articles I wrote in Fall ‘08 about my experiences distributing my graffiti doc Bomb It, many filmmakers contacted me to help them with their films. However they were all broke, as most filmmakers are. The book started as a brain dump so that I could share my experiences with others. I figured people could at least afford $20-$25. (After many requests the book is now available as a PDF from my site for $14.95)
But filmmakers still need individual advice; how to apply the new distribution and marketing models and landscape to their specific films. And unfortunately since filmmakers in general are not saving money for distribution and marketing, they are still broke.
So I wanted to do some kind of community consulting “event” at Park City this year. I thought about sitting in a coffee shop for 2 hours a day and having online sign ups for 20 minute sessions (I still might do this if enough people request it).
However, Lance Weiler asked me to do a live consulting session at the Slamdance Filmmaker Summit (Saturday January 23rd) with two filmmaking teams one narrative/one doc. Anyone in Park City can attend and it can also be live streamed (along with the rest of the Summit that I recommend you all check out).
I’ve decided to expand this to 10 more feature filmmakers from either Sundance or Slamdance. I will provide 45 minutes of consultation by phone or Skype before the festival begins and 45 minutes during the festival. This can be used in any way the filmmakers want, from helping to devise a complete DIY scenario, to getting my opinion on any deals being offered.
For selection any interested film should email me by Thursday January 14th by noon at reiss.jon@gmail.com. Send me what you have eg synopsis, trailer, website, plans you have in mind etc.
I will pick the films and announce them by Friday January 15th.
For any other Sundance/Slamdance filmmaker not chosen I will be reducing my consulting rate before and during the festival from $75 an hour to $50 an hour. This rate will apply even for the chosen films if they want to go beyond the first hour and a half.
Shooting People and DCTV bring you a great new event to kick off 2010. You don’t want to miss this!
Are you confused about all the different digital options when it comes to distribution for your film? You are not alone! The web has given us many more opportunities for getting our films in front of audiences but it can be a minefield for filmmakers trying to navigate the new terrain.
Join us for a masterclass with Matt Dentler, head of programming and marketing for Cinetic Rights Management (CRM). Dentler will explain the latest in digital distribution and what he looks for when seeking films to distribute. He’ll also gaze into his crystal ball and tell us what to expect in the future. If you are currently making or distributing a film you can’t afford to miss this. It’s the perfect start to a new year of savvy filmmaking!
About Matt Dentler & Cinetic Rights Management:
Matt Dentler is the head of programming and marketing for Cinetic Rights Management, a New York-based company that releases independent films into the digital marketplace on broadband and cable VOD worldwide. Prior to that, he spent five years producing the SXSW Film Conference & Festival in Austin.
Through its label “FilmBuff,” CRM brings audiences the latest, greatest and classic festival favorites from around the globe. FilmBuff delivers the festival and arthouse experience to audiences via portals such as iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, SnagFilms, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and more.
Monday, January 11th, 7:30pm
DCTV, 87 Lafayette Street, NYC
Tickets available via Brown Paper Tickets – just $8 for Shooting People members!
If you haven’t picked up a copy of Jon Reiss’ Think Outside the Box Office do yourself a favor and grab one now. Whatever kind of distribution and marketing strategy you are pursuing for your film (and if you haven’t got a strategy yet this book will help you develop one!), there are loads of good tips and ideas in here for you. This is a time when we all need to be sharing as many resources as possible to make the long, hard road of getting a film made and seen feel just a little bit less like venturing forth into complete Terra Incognita. There are lots of great folk out there helping to clear a path through the wilderness, like Ted Hope with Truly Free Film for example, but we all need to share what we are learning as we re-invent the future. So read this book and pass it on!
The Think Tank was the culmination of 2009’s Cross-Media Film Forum, “bringing together Power to the Pixel’s participating experts for a day of discussion and debate with a view to defining practical steps in developing cross-media film practices in the film industry.”
We’re really proud of the growing Digital Bootcamp Wiki. It started off as a companion to the workshops we have been conducting but it has now become a standalone resource on funding, distribution, marketing and so much more in the digital age. Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for “fast” – and if you all collaborate to this wiki by adding to it we can help it grow even faster!
We’re pretty excited to let you know that we’ve up to a strategic partnership with VODO (short for voluntary donations), an experiment in new distribution from Shooter Jamie King. What’s the idea? Well, Jamie is also one of the directors of Steal This Film, a film that he achieved over 5 million downloads for by working with Pirate Bay to promote and distribute the film for him. He also received more voluntary donations for the film than he would have earned from sharing advertising revenue on those views with Youtube or any of the other revenue sharing online distributors.
Since then he has created a distribution union of many leading p2p sites ( The Pirate Bay, Mininova, Miro, TorrentFreak, Isohunt, Plube, OneDDL, Vuze, Frostwire and others) whose accumulative daily users top 40 million. They have agreed to promote one VODO film a month on their front pages. This means that free complete copies of the films will be released to all these site and VODO, which is short for voluntary donation, will collect all and any donations which are given as a result.
The project went live with Ivo Gormley’s documentary “Us Now” as the first test. The film achieved 100,000 downloads in the first four days and a bunch of attention, which ain’t bad at all. VODO is backed by the Arts Council, The Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, Emerald Fund and Goldsmith’s College. Shooting People is coming on board as a strategic partner, offering engagement and support for a number of reasons:
We applaud these kinds of distribution experiments which are driven by a love of independent content and a desire to make the work of independent filmmakers (rather than mega bucks for corporate entertainment conglomerates) sustainable in the digital era. We wanted to give Jamie our public support.
VODO needs quirky, smart and adventurous filmmakers to consider using this approach. Shooting People has loads of those.
We wanted to stay close to the results, lessons and new ideas that will come out of this experiment and be able to share that with the community. Can P2P sites drive large audiences to new work, not just famous titles? Can a donation culture be developed amongst those who are no longer paying for content up front? How many downloads are needed to trigger one donation? Is it possible to build a fan base for filmmakers this way? Can you sell content to TV stations after they have been a pirate hit? There are many important questions here that can only be answered by sucking and seeing.
So please go to VODO.net to find out more: www.vodo.net
TOOLS is a blog from Shooting People focusing on all the tips, tricks and resources available on the web and beyond for independent film production and distribution. This means we look at everything from:
*new strategy for filmmakers in a world where more and more people are making films, producing content and competing for audience
*using the web to promote yourself and your films
*great blogs, websites, social media tools and applications
*new equipment and other interesting gadgets filmmakers might find useful.
Please get in touch to let us know about resources that you have found useful. It's time to share our toys and make stuff happen!
