Filmmaking

GONDRY AND FORD ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF FIRST BABELGUM MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS

Director Michel Gondry and singer-songrwiter David Ford have announced the winners of of the first ever Babelgum Music Video Awards. Babelgum viewers from over 100 countries participated, for the first time simultaneously from the Web and from Mobile phones. The 10 finalists rated highest by the public online were then viewed by Gondry and Ford, for their final selection of the overall winner. From the release: The Babelgum Music Video “Grand Prize” (a record development deal with Universal Music UK) went to Quio (Germany) for her “So Dazed”, produced by Christine Lang (Director) and Maria Schöpe (Production design). “I liked […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 18, 2009 Filmmaking
A NEW MEDIA ATTORNEY DISCUSSES FACEBOOK’S TOS

I posted below about the change in Facebook’s Terms of Service and the uproar it has caused online. From reading the various articles and postings, it seems like there are two groups of people discussing this. First, there are the regular Facebook users who employ the service to keep up with the friends, swap links, and occasionally post personal photos that are never intended to have a commercial use. Some of these people are disturbed by Facebook’s policies because they don’t want their daughter to grow up and become the next Angelina Jolie and then find all of her high-school […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2009 Filmmaking
EKANAYAKE PREMIERES INDIE FILM BLOGGER ROAD TRIP

If you are in New York tonight and are interested in the independent film blogosphere, you might want to attend the world premiere of Sujewa Ekanayake’s Indie Film Blogger Road Trip. It screens at the Anthology at 8:00pm, and it features interviews with a whole host of online film journalists, including Filmmaker contributors Anthony Kaufman and Brandon Harris. Ekanayake and several of the bloggers from the film will be present for a Q&A after the screening.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2009 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE’S GEOFF GILMORE HEADS TO TRIBECA

Via Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks at Indiewire and Dade Hayes at Variety comes the huge news that Geoff Gilmore is leaving Sundance to join Tribeca Enterprises as its Chief Creative Officer. From Indiewire: According to today’s press release, Gilmore will be responsible for “Tribeca’s global content strategy and lead creative development initiatives and expansion of the brand.” He will also join the board of directors of Tribeca Enterprises. “I believe that Tribeca Enterprises is well positioned to develop a film organization that can create a new paradigm for the future,” Gilmore said, in a statement today. “The vision of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2009 Filmmaking
IFP RELAUNCHES "SCRIPT TO SCREEN"

IFP announced today that after a five year sabbatical they are bringing back their spring conference, “Script to Screen.” Taking place March 7 & 8 at the New York Film Academy, the conference returns to address the new landscape and opportunities facing content creators working across platforms in film, television and new technologies. The conference opens with a conversation between James Schamus, Focus Features CEO, and Scott Macaulay, Editor of Filmmaker Magazine. The conference closes with a conversation with filmmaker Lee Daniels, director of the recent Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire. Other featured […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 17, 2009 Filmmaking
DIRECTOR TOMMY PALLOTTA ON THE PLEASURES OF LEAVING FACEBOOK

While in Rotterdam for the festival I caught up with director and producer Tommy Pallotta, who recently a) finished a new doc, American Prince, that will premiere at SXSW next month; b) moved to Amsterdam where he is engaged to Femke Wolting of the cross-media production studio Submarine; and c) left Facebook. The first two life events, of course, are far more interesting than the third, but Pallotta’s departure from the world of social networking is what we decided to talk about for the purposes of this short interview for the blog. As a director/producer, Pallotta has always explored the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2009 Filmmaking
REDFORD, PELOSI AND THE STIMULUS BILL

A few posts back I wrote about the Senate’s stripping of $50 million in additional National Endowment for the Arts funding from House-approved stimulus bill. Now, in the House-Senate compromise, that funding has been restored, due in part to a last-minute lobbying push by arts advocates and arts groups nationwide. The New York Times gives detailed info, including word of Robert Redford’s efforts on behalf of the funding. From the piece by Robin Pogrebin: One would be hard pressed to argue that a call from Robert Redford to the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, helped salvage money for the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2009 Filmmaking
YOUTUBE TRYING OUT PAID DOWNLOADS

Via Scott Kirsner’s CinemaTech blog comes potentially important news for film and video makers interested in distributing their work online: YouTube is enabling paid downloads. From Kirsner: If you want to pull down a high-res, MP4 copy of a video from the site (which will play on an iPod), you can pay to do so. No word on what percentage of the revenue goes to the creator. But the one way to pay for videos is Google Checkout, Google’s own PayPal-like payment system. YouTube is currently only testing this with select partners. Wired News notes that the files aren’t DRM […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2009 Filmmaking
FACEBOOK TERMS OF SERVICE CHANGE CAUSES UPROAR

Just after I posted a link to Lance Weiler’s article in the current issue in which he discusses data portability and how filmmakers should not aggregate all their social networking content on third-party networks like Facebook, and a day or two before I post my interview with Tommy Pallotta on why he left the popular site comes a series of of postings online about Facebook’s new Terms of Service policy. In a post titled “I’m Done with Facebook,” Edward Champion writes, “I would advise any writers, artists, and photographers to remove their content posthaste, and not give Facebook the right […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2009 Filmmaking
A MILLION HITS FOR AN ONLINE HALF LIFE SERIES

The Purchase Brothers are a pair of independent filmmakers and commercial directors whose online short, Escape from City 17, premiered this weekend and is the first in a series based on the Half Life computer game. On YouTube the short has already reached almost one million views, and the film’s production values on what they say is a $500 budget are quite impressive. From their website: The Escape From City 17 short film series is an adaptation based on the Half Life computer game saga by Valve Corporation. Originally envisioned as a project to test out numerous post production techniques, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 15, 2009 Filmmaking

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