Shooting People are blogging from Sundance and Slamdance this year. Follow all our adventures on the Festival Focus blog - and leave comments if there is specific information you would like us to cover.
Making Your Media Matter is a conference taking place in Washington, DC February 7-8, 2008 for established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders and students looking to learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters.
Join filmmakers, distributors, outreach specialists and an impressive cast of media pioneers for a rich day of panels, discussions, networking and keynote speakers on the latest tools and trends in creating and distributing social issue media.
And check out podcasts and Power Point take away points from last year’s Making Your Documentary Matter conference.
Watch Steal This Film Part 2, for everything you ever wanted to learn about copyright. . . but were afraid to ask! It was downloaded 35,000 times on the first day it was available online which is pretty damn good. As an added joy you can watch it on the Shooting People website which you should definitely visit if you haven’t already.
We will be posting more on this soon but in the meantime check out the film itself.
It is often good to raise our heads and look beyond the film world for inspiration and fresh thinking. TED is a really good place to start. TED started out in 1984 as an invite-only annual conference bringing together movers and shakers from the worlds of technology, entertainment, and design and has evolved into a global community of ideas. You can watch many of the talks online - from people as diverse as Al Gore, JJ Abrams, and Isabel Allende. And you can of course subscribe to their blog for a daily dose of new ideas.
We posted a while back about this great new discovery and distribution festival from DIY filmmaking pioneers Lance Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma), Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are The Strange).
Submissions are now open so this is your chance to be part of the new (film)world order. The fest will use sites like YouTube and MySpace to allow the audience to interact and share in the process of discovery. Here’s what it says on the website:
All filmmakers are welcome to be a part of the festival. There are NO submission fees, and filmmakers retain their rights while receiving revenue directly from the distribution outlets. A wide range of major promotional partners and distribution platforms are on board. All we need now is your film. Please submit ASAP to give the festival’s audience time to vote your film into the April Showcase.
Read Peter Broderick’s latest bulletin post on what filmmakers can learn from the Radiohead In Rainbows distribution experiment. His key points are:
• Retain overall control of your distribution.
• Design a hybrid strategy combining traditional and self-distribution.
• Focus initially on your core audience.
• Sell exclusively from your website first.
• Then expand into traditional retail to supplement direct sales.
Check back issues for more Broderick info on creative distribution and building a personal audience. You can also subscribe to receive future bulletins by email.
The Documentary Filmmakers Group in the UK have a new website called DFGdocs which includes lots of information about training they offer; a directory of British documentaries, directors and production companies; and a resources section containing articles, downloadable contracts and a list of other documentary/film organizations.
Call me paranoid but I am a furious backer upper - from CDs to external hardrives. As one of those Apple Genius people once said to me as I showed up lugging my poor, very dead G4, hard drives die 100% of the time, some just last longer than others. A Shooting People member recommended this online service - MediaMax.com - which provides 25GBs of storage free. Haven’t tried it yet but might add it to my super-backup plan.
Morrie Warshawski is in NYC this week doing some workshops. If you want to get some great tips on how to raise money for your film then Warshawski is a great place to start. You can also purchase his books: Shaking the Money Tree and The Fundraising Houseparty.
Scott Kirsner has a report in Variety about the Consumer Electronics Show happening at the moment in Las Vegas, focusing on how we may be entering a new age of open architecture.
If you wish you were at CES to gawk at all the new tech goodies you can watch some live footage on Mogulus and you can ask questions and comment via live chat.
