A few weeks ago I attended the third Sundance ShortsLab, a day-long event about short filmmaking organized and conducted by the folks from Sundance (primarily, from what I could see, from the festival side of the house.) Sundance has previously put on two other Shortslabs, one in LA and one in Chicago. This was their first event in New York, and those of us in attendance spent the day in an auditorium at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as a variety of speakers and panels unfolded, and several short films were shown. The day started with Trevor Groth, Sundance’s director […]
by Marc Maurino on Aug 4, 2011I have been thinking about Kevin Smith quite a bit lately. Beyond the obvious happenings with his film Red State and his decision to follow in my footsteps (wink) by embracing the Topspin platform to go about his business of building a media empire, I’ve been a bit in awe of how this guy from New Jersey, who began his journey with a $27,000 ’90s Sundance hit that many in the artistic film world passed off as garbage, has weathered many a storm, some arguably manufactured, to be quite possibly the last man standing and perhaps most forward thinking in […]
by Gregorybayne on Aug 2, 2011At the Los Angeles New Music Seminar yesterday Ian Rogers from the fulfillment service Topspin gave a talk titled “Getting Practical: a Step-by-Step Sales Plan to Building an Online Sales Plan That Works.” Topspin has posted the PowerPoint slides on its website. The specific plan is oriented towards musicians, but Topspin services filmmakers too, and there’s relevant info here for those looking to build an online business. It’s all about converting casual listeners to fans and followers, getting them to throw down for the swanky merch and not just the buck downloads, and there are recommendations here for maintaining a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 18, 2011