Filmmaking

THE OWNERSHIP SOCIETY

Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow reports on the Mission:Impossible-like self-destruction of videos legally purchased from the Google Video Store. He quotes this letter from Google sent to the purchaser of a Star Trek episode: As a valued Google user, we’re contacting you with some important information about the videos you’ve purchased or rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007. To fully account for the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 13, 2007 Filmmaking
IFP’S FILMMAKER CONFERENCE SHAPING UP

The IFP’s Filmmaker Conference has announced the names of some of the panelists who will be taking the stage at the Puck Building in New York City next month from Sept. 16 – 21. Filmmaker Magazine’s Managing Editor Jason Guerrasio and I will be moderating a number of conversations, including those with producer Jon Kilik (Julian Schnabel’s upcoming The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Babel), former Artisan co-founder Bill Block of QED Intl., an LA-based financing, sales and production company, and former tech investor and entrepreneur Tony Liano of Cracker Content, a streaming entertainment network. Over the course of the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 9, 2007 Filmmaking
DELIRIOUS MARKETING MADNESS

Over at the website for his film, Tom DeCillo is posting a very funny series of video podcasts in which he parodies the insanity involved in promoting an independent film — in his case, Delirious, which opens August 15th. Here DiCillo is at an early marketing meeting… and what’s scary is that I’ve been at marketing meetings only slightly less crazy than this one. And here’s the latest, in which DiCillo tries to get star Gina Gershon to do some viral marketing in a clip with the Google-friendly name of “Gina Gershon Sex Tape.”

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 8, 2007 Filmmaking
A FAN’S NOTES

Over at his Indiewire blog, Matt Dentler posts about the planning for next year’s panels at SXSW and includes this link to a stream of the 2007 panel, “Building an Online Fan Base.” I attended this panel, which featured Lance Weiler (Head Trauma), moderator Scott Kirsner (CinemaTech), David Straus (Without A Box), Ian Schafer (Deep Focus), Scilla Andreen (IndieFlix), and thought it was a great and stimulating discussion on challenges and solutions for indies in the internet marketing space.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 8, 2007 Filmmaking
STILL TRYING TO GET TO TORONTO?

There are 30 days left before the start of the Toronto International Film Festival. If you want to attend, online distribution/online community Jaman may be your last hope. It’s currently holding a “Win A Trip For Two” contest to TIFF. If you register to Jaman by August 17 you’ll be in the running. Grand prize winner receives: round-trip coach airfare for two, 3 nights stay at the Sutton Hotel, 2 tickets to the Closing Night Gala, 6 tickets to be redeemed for your choice of films, 1 programme book and film schedule, and 2 festival t-shirts. Click here to register.

By Jason Guerrasio on Aug 7, 2007 Filmmaking
2007 Fast Track

Currently in its fifth year, Fast Track, a joint program of the Los Angeles Film Festival and Filmmaker magazine, was created to promote the careers of talented filmmakers over the course of a year, while spreading the word about their newest projects. The filmmakers chosen are alumni of the LAFF as well as alumni of Film Independent’s Talent Development Programs: the Filmmaker Labs, Project: Involve, and the grants awarded at the Spirit Awards. Here are the Fast Track filmmakers of 2007 and their upcoming projects. Robbie Pickering You know you’re in for some trouble when your dutiful Christian wife discovers […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Aug 6, 2007 Filmmaking
WE HAVE ARMAGEDDON

Boing Boing points to this hilarious, jauntily scored piece of media analysis in which the folks at iTulip annotate Jim Cramer’s CNBC meltdown yesterday in which he begged Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to cut the discount rate tomorrow. “We have Armageddon!” he shouted, fearful that the current credit squeeze will decimate the financial industry. The iTulip people (who I know little about) provide a populist critique, wondering if free market free falls are only allowed to happen to aging industrial companies and not financial services.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 6, 2007 Filmmaking
THE BLEAK BEAUTY…

In Variety Todd McCarthy has penned a personal take on the death of Bergman and Antonioni that begins by rightly recognizing the privileged place they held in 20th century cinema: Are there any directors today made of such stern stuff as were Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni?As a matter of fact, there are — the likes of Hou Hsiao Hsien, Abbas Kiarostami and Bela Tarr come to mind. But the miracle of Bergman and Antonioni, who died on the same day, July 30, at the ages of 89 and 94, respectively, is that, while making films expressive of bleak, even […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 4, 2007 Filmmaking
HOW TO PRODUCE A ONE-WEEK LONG FEATURE FILM RUN

Over at his blog, Sujewa Ekanayake takes his experience self-producing a one-week run of his feature Date Number One in an alternative venue and breaks it down into the hard numbers. He talks about staffing, projector rentals, sound and the advantages of setting up a projection space in a non-traditional venue rather than renting a theater.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 4, 2007 Filmmaking
THE EYE OF THE BEAR

At it’s heart, the independent film movement is driven by private equity — both the expansiveness of your college buddies or parents’ (or proverbial dentist’s) portfolio, or the adventureousness of private hedge funds looking for new investment opportunities. But the distance between macro economic goings on and the money hitting an indie filmmaker’s LLC is so vast that we often don’t consider how the broader economy is affecting our own. Here, then, is a clear and sobering article from Agonist that explains the current sub-prime mortgage mess, the possible contagion resulting from it, and both its best and or worst […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 4, 2007 Filmmaking

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