Seed&Spark
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The Making is the Dream: A Filmmaker Figures Out What It’s All About
Filmmaker and occasional Filmmaker contributor Eli Daughfrill is raising money for his first feature on Seed & Spark. With four days left he’s a few thousand dollars short of his goal, so please consider donating. Author’s note: There is a sense of privilege that undergirds this whole post. There are a rash of these “just make it” posts and speeches nowadays and they do sometimes feel like classic American bootstrapism. “Pull yourself, up!” etc. Much of what makes my filmmaking possible is middle-class stability. I’m a tenured professor. I have good credit. I have a sabbatical coming up that allows […]
by Eli Daughdrill on Jul 14, 2017 -
“What I Once Felt Guilty About Doing… Is Now My Job”: Amanda Trokan on Film Programming
I’m having dinner upstate with my grandparents indulging the Labor Day weekend – food, books, sleep, repeat. Embracing their rigid routines and schedule is a fascinating escape, one that is also mildly horrifying. “Growing old is not for the faint hearted,” my grandfather tells me, and while I can only theoretically understand the sentiment, this sort of elder wisdom is his bread and butter. “Always have fun and fill your life with experiences and adventure, but also remember to plan for the future,” he says. I’m conscious of this temporal pressure even while feeling comparatively young in my grandparents’ house, […]
by Taylor Hess on Nov 11, 2014 -
Seed&Spark Partners with American Express’ Digital Distribution Service
On Monday, it was announced that the crowdfunding and streaming platform Seed&Spark would partner with American Express’ AmEx NOW distribution service in an effort to bring their titles to an audience of 67 million households. AmEx will select five films a month (both shorts and features) from Seed&Spark’s library to screen on their interactive TV channel, AmEx NOW. The first crop of films includes features Like The Water, The Man Who Ate New Orleans, Mana’olana: Paddle for Hope, and shorts Tick Tock Time Emporium and Lex. Filmmaker spoke to Seed&Spark’s Director of Content, Amanda Trokan, about the details of the new initiative and the open submissions process. Filmmaker: In collaborating […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jun 11, 2014 -
The Paragon of Audience Outreach? Robbie Bryan Talks Black Hat
Any panel, roundtable or seminar that concerns technological advancements in film is bound to hit upon the issue of audience engagement. How we can best make use of the embarrassment of riches the internet affords us in finding the right people to watch our film. Filmmaker Robbie Bryan has managed to collect (at the time of this writing) 235,427 Facebook likes for his upcoming film Black Hat, that’s still only in the development stage. He’s leveraged his fan base into an ambitious Seed & Spark campaign, interacting with them along the way and soliciting their input in the shaping of his […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 4, 2014 -
Infographic of Sundance Sales from 2011 to 2013
The Sundance sale. The turning point of the festival for more than just the expected filmmakers and distributors can, at times, be an inscrutable transaction. Is X the best fit for Y? Is X really worth Z amount? Does X’s release in W mean Y’s jockeying for awards season? And so on and so forth. In honor of the inaugural issue of their magazine, Bright Ideas, Seed&Spark teamed with Accurat to present a data visualization of Sundance sales from 2011 to 2013. The exhaustive infographic demonstrates, above all, that there are no guarantees in translating Sundance buzz to the box […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 20, 2014 -
Downstream Color
Calling video on demand the emerging wave of film distribution no longer seems accurate: with YouTube, iTunes and Netflix all into or fast approaching their second decade, digital streaming and downloads are arguably already the primary means of independent film distribution. But what is still emerging is the vast array of VOD and download services available to independent filmmakers seeking to reach audiences of paying, online movie viewers. The companies composing today’s field, discussed here, roughly fall into three permeable categories: the established players; the large cadre of new start-ups, many of which offer tools for filmmakers beyond simply hosting […]
by Randy Astle on Jan 17, 2014 -
ScreenCraft’s Digital Discourse: Build Your Audience Now
“Distributing is easy, marketing is hard.” With that statement, moderator Ryan Koo kicked off the discussion at ScreenCraft’s recent Digital Discourse panel on the future of content creation and releasing. Nestled in the WGAE suite of a Tribeca high rise, the participating panelists included YouTube’s Amy Singer; Erica Anderson, Chief Marketing Director at Seed&Spark; Erick Opeka, SVP of Digital Distribution at Cinedigm; @radical.media’s Adam Neuhaus; and BOND 360 Founder and CEO, Marc Schiller. Chances are, you’ve heard it before: with so much of the independent film world unspooling in a viral sphere at a hair-raising pace, filmmakers must be prepared […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Nov 8, 2013 -
Click Here Lifts the Curtain on the Development Process
Any filmmaker knows that the script is but the first brick in a winding pathway to production. The feature documentary Click Here: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Making Movies takes this fact to heart, training the lens on the action that transpires before the camera even rolls. For Pete Chatmon and Candice Sanchez McFarlane, the development process effectively began at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where their screenplay $FREE.99 debuted in competition, netting Chatmon TFI’s Creative Promise Narrative Award. While they found their fair share of industry champions, raising production funds proved to be another story altogether. Five years […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 28, 2013 -
Seed&Spark’s WestFest: Streaming to Theaters
Both a selective crowdfunding site and curated streaming platform, Seed&Spark has proven itself a unique enclave for filmmakers and viewers since its inception in 2012. From October 1-3, the hybrid will fully realize its “Cinema” component with a three-part film program at The HUB LA. Screening a total of six films from the recently launched Conversation series, the festival calls upon S&S founder Emily Best, Sundance programmer Christine Davila, and Twitch Film editor Ben Umstead to bring their selections to a live format. Filmmaker spoke with Seed&Spark’s director of content, Amanda Trokan, about the unprecedented event, and bridging the gap between online and […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Sep 25, 2013
