Has a peculiar notice popped up on either your TV set or computer reading: “Copyright Alert! #1”? This notice is the first of six that digital communications users will receive as part of the Copyright Alert System (CAS). Having failed to get Congress to adopt the SOPA/PIPA legislation last year, the movie and record industry trade associations, the MPAA and RIAA, respectively, have taken a second bite at the apple in their effort to address the problem of illegal downloading of copyrighted entertainment content. CAS, which went into effect on February 25, ties the major content trade associations to the […]
Today the Tribeca Film Festival announced the second half of its feature slate for 2013, and it’s shaping up to be the most robust and exciting lineup the festival has had in recent years. In the Spotlight section, there are a fair number of titles notable for their marquee names, some recent festival favorites but also a number of intriguing world premieres, such as the addiction drama Bottled Up, starring Melissa Leo and Marin Ireland; Christina Voros’ Gucci doc The Director; Josh Fox’s Gasland Part II, the sequel to his Oscar-nominated fracking doc; Adam Bhala Lough’s skateboarding doc The Motivation; Marina Zenovich’s latest biographical […]
SXSW is a festival of contradictions. (Or, “Spring Break for filmmakers,” as Ti West posted on his Twitter stream last night.) Its film program feels homey, intimate, with Janet Pierson and her team evincing a real sense of enthusiasm as well as curatorial play. There are, of course, types of films that are expected and do well at SXSW: cutting-edge genre titles, hip mainstream features, music- and technology-themed documentaries, and low-budget, youth-oriented relationship tales. But within and even outside of those categories, SXSW always turns up some real discoveries. (Last year there were several — Sean Baker’s Starlet, Andrew Neel’s […]
IFP Lab film Blue Caprice, a chilling drama about the Beltway sniper starring Isaiah Washington, was today acquired by IFC’s Sundance Selects imprint. The movie is the debut feature by NYC-based French director Alexandre Moors — one of Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” of 2012 — and had its world premiere in the NEXT section at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Later this month, it is the opening night selection at New Directors/New Films. Commenting on the pickup, Sundance Selects/IFC Films president Jonathan Sehring said, “Alexandre Moors has made one of the most distinct and haunting American independent films of the year […]
The Tribeca Film Festival announced over half of its 2013 edition today, including its World Narrative Feature and Documentary Competitions as well as its Viewpoints section. The festival’s 89 features were selected from a record 6,005 submissions, and titles include a number of eagerly awaited films from American independent filmmakers. Lance Edmands’ Bluebird will open the Narrative Competition while Rachel Boynton’s Big Men opens the Documentary Competition. Previously announced, Tom Berninger’s doc on the band The National, Mistaken for Strangers, will open the overall festival. Playing throughout New York April 17 – 28, the Tribeca Film Festival is programmed by […]
Transmedia by definition requires producers to work in more than one medium; the fun, most of the time, is in devising ways to carry a narrative (or narrative world) across different platforms, making them engage with each other while best utilizing each platform’s unique capabilities. Sometimes, however, it’s sufficient to work exclusively in a single non-film medium — and it can get the creative juices flowing if you’re stuck in a rut. After all, Bergman had his fiction (besides his theater work), Woody Allen has his clarinet, and Pasolini had pretty much everything. I’ve recently been working more on my […]
Banner news first: two days into the 10th annual True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri’s immensely likable documentary/hybrid-friendly showcase, the marquee title of the six films I’ve seen so far from the slate (three of which I saw before arriving) is Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s These Birds Walk. The starting point is Abdul Sattar Edhi, a Pakistani humanitarian and founder of a number of shelters, rehab centers and other faculties for the dispossessed. As he washes naked runaway children, some pitifully scrawny, he says his philanthropic reputation and prominence mean nothing; to understand his work you have to understand common […]
Hacks, four-hour workweek condensations, and digital outsourcing — I’m often dubious about the efficacy of many strategies promising “the answer” when it comes to both creative and business endeavors. That said, “Hacking Kickstarter: How to Raise $100,000 in 10 Days (Includes Successful Templates, E-mails, etc.),” found on the blog of Four-Hour Work Week guru Tim Ferris, is an excellent walk-through of one very successful Kickstarter campaign, and it’s full of practical advice. The Kickstarter was for Soma, a designer water filter, but much of author Mike Del Ponte’s advice can be applied to filmmakers too. I don’t agree with 100% […]
When it comes to The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek, everything is in the title: a heady brew of history, sexuality and satire; it’s tongue-in-cheek to the extreme. The fake documentary relates the histori-fictional “tale” of four misfit Civil War heroes: a one-armed prostitute, an engineering prodigy slave, a wizened Chinese general, and a gay opium fiend colonel, who manage to save the Union from a foreign horde intent on conquering Washington. Their contribution to history sadly goes unnoticed, precisely because of the group’s oddball features that prove unacceptable to the powers that be. Fake archival footage, war audio effects […]
As transmedia has moved past its buzzword beginnings, resources and organizations have sprung up to support the creative community involved in multiplatform narratives. The latest of these comes from the Tribeca Film Institute, which last week launched an online hub for all things transmedia — particularly nonfiction — called TFI Sandbox. The name, of course, indicates a place where producers can come to play and develop techniques, strategies, and specific projects, and thus the website offers a plethora of training material as well as links, resources, and, perhaps most importantly, an open door for producers to get familiar with TFI […]