http://sundance.org/artistservices en Copyright 2013 2013-11-12T22:58:03+00:00 It was a dream to have the world premiere of my first feature documentary at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film was Connected, and one of the ideas I explored at the climax of the story was what I called “The Participatory Revolution,” the potential of so many people around the world having cameras in their hands at all times, connected to the Internet. So after the premiere, my team and I had an idea that we call “Cloud Filmmaking," where we’d make a film together with all those people around the world. Over the last three years, we’ve released four of these “Cloud Films,” all putting the idea of the Participatory Revolution into action.In the beginning of this year, AOL approached me to make an original film series for them where we’d explore some of the new ways we are creating films. In our eight-episode (three to six minutes each) series “The Future Starts Here,” we explore everything from the creative process to the history and future of robots to this Participatory Revolution and cloud filmmaking, delving into the question, what will the world look like when everyone is able to contribute, participate, collaborate, and create? It used to be that our history books told the story of a few people, but when we look back at today, the story will finally be about all of us. Check out our 3 min episode, “The Participatory Revolution.” You can watch the whole series here.]]> Marketing Tiffany Shlain, Sundance Institute Artist 2013-11-12T22:58:03+00:00 In the making of When I Walk, I knew that I was charting new territory for myself as a filmmaker, moving into the autobiographical documentary space. Flipping the camera on myself created a whole new set of variables and challenges. If you are so brave and inclined to do something within the participatory filmmaker genre, following the traditions of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, I wish you luck. Outlined below are some of my lessons learned while doing this production. 1) Lose Your Ego I was doing something beyond my physical capabilities because I was tracking the physical changes I was undergoing due to Multiple sclerosis. I found myself vulnerable to the gaze of the camera. This is not something that a twenty-five year old, slightly cocky and control hungry documentary filmmaker takes well to. Grin and bear it- hopefully you get out on the other side somewhat unscathed.  2) Keep Creative Control As much as possible, it is important to be involved in the process - even if you're not behind the camera. It is important to be that annoying director who asserts him or herself in every creative aspect of the shoot. The footage will speak wonders because of your effort.  3) Respect Your Mother She is just trying to be helpful, I guess. (You'll know what I mean if you watch my film.) 4) Keep The Camera Rolling In this day and age, there is no reason not to have a shooting ratio of 200:1 to 400:. Today, with the amount of hard drive storage space, there is no reason to have the cameras off. You'll be surprised what ends up becoming cinematic gems and on the flip side, what ends up on the cutting room floor. The best advice that I have for this type of filmmaking is to be militant and, at all costs, keep those cameras rolling. An example of this is: some of the best footage I got was when I was flat on my face, unable to get up again- it spoke wonders to the trials of multiple sclerosis, but I had to go through this just to catch it on film for the rest of the world to see. 5) Believe In Your Creative Self For my film, When I Walk, I wanted to try to do something that has rarley been done before: to show the scientific and medical model of disability alongside the social and personal model of disability. This really meant thinking outside of the box, and I found refuge and inspiration from viewing my creative self before I got multiple sclerosis. I would suggest having a good, strong, creative base that supports you throughout your filmmaking efforts, which could go on for longer than expected. Mine was a seven year production.]]> Theatrical Jason DaSilva 2013-10-23T18:30:47+00:00 When Graef Allen, manager of content services at Dolby Laboratories in Burbank California, took the floor at the first-ever #ArtistServices San Francisco Workshop last month she addressed the room of attendees with a raw disclaimer. Allen conceded that her presentation was not for the faint of heart, despite its euphemistical title, “Digital Cinema Mastering 101 For Indies.” Rather, this would be an arduous crash course in the teachings of digital cinema mastering and distribution, navigating the shallow ends of the technical terrain inherent in post-production. But, Allen noted, before she descended into her svelte introduction of the day’s most foreign material, there would be significant financial incentives for filmmakers with the gusto to do their research about mastering and distribution options. (And the quickest way to an indie filmmakers heart is by speaking directly to their wallet.) And so off we were, co-hosted by Ted Hope and the San Francisco Film Society, amidst a cloudy but beautiful day at The Presidio. Digital Cinema Mastering 101 from sundanceinstitute The buzzword of “Digital Cinema Mastering 101” is DCP, or Digital Cinema Package. A DCP is a collection of digital files used as a standardized delivery method for a film and is intended to match, if not surpass, the quality of 35mm prints. In more tangible terms, think of a DCP as a very powerful USB drive. As Allen ran down the advantages of using a DCP to deliver one’s film, the obscurity with which the workshop attendees had perceived that acronym only moments before all but vanished. Among those advantages, and most notably for indie filmmakers, were the cost benefits. While the cost of a feature film print is somewhere in the range of $1,500-2,500 per print, a feature-length DCP is estimated around $150-650 per unit for unlocked versions. Additionally, the “media integrity,” or physical vulnerability of a DCP is nowhere near as fragile as a 35mm film print or even a Blu-Ray, as it is less susceptible to heat and light damage (at least for now). And finally, but certainly most relevant, is the prevalence of digital cinemas around the world that are capable of playing a DCP and giving presentation standards parity. The format is well on its way to broader acceptance and is already accepted at most major film festivals (Sundance, Toronto, Berlin among others) globally as well as at both mainstream and art house theatres around the world. After completing the mastering process and obtaining a hash checked DCP, there are several options for duplication of the package, as identical copies can be created individually or in batches. As Graef Allen wrapped up her presentation, a room saturated with self-sufficient artists and creative DIY filmmakers appeared rapt by the notion of seeing a film’s evolution through to the final stages of mastering. During a day dedicated to achieving ultimate artistic autonomy, Allen had expanded on the boundaries of creative independence.]]> Theatrical Nate VonZumwalt, Sundance Institute 2013-05-07T21:17:49+00:00 Three weeks ago independent producer Braxton Pope (Shrink, The Take) took one small step for film and one giant leap for independent filmmaking when he launched a Kickstarter campaign for The Canyons, a new narrative feature written by Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero, ...you definitely know who this person is) and directed by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, ...again, really, c’mon now.)     With over two weeks left, The Canyons has already surpassed its funding goal of $100,000, with $128,000 from over 750 backers, more than half of whom pledged $25 for a DVD and poster or $50 for a Blu-Ray and posters signed by Ellis and Schrader. The project video features Pope, Ellis, and Shrader speaking candidly about the film and why they’re on Kickstarter. For upper-level rewards they offer creative experiences like Ellis reviewing your novel, and special collectors’ items like a De Niro-signed money clip gifted to Shrader after wrappingTaxi Driver. They explain the funds go to things like more shoot days, higher quality gear, and to “maybe have two makeup people instead of one or zero.” The Canyons quite easily answers the question of “why would veterans like these guys use Kickstarter?” with the better question — “Why wouldn’t they?”   While the most-funded Kickstarter film of all-time is currently Steve Taylor’s Blue Like Jazz  (now in theaters nationwide!), The Canyons is a kind of watershed moment for film on Kickstarter regardless of the final total raised. After years of working within the confines of the studio system, these — and I mean this with the utmost respect —old school Hollywood luminaries are thoughtfully and authentically embracing a critical asset in a way that no studio can manufacture or guarantee: their audience. You know “audience,” that golden goose that rolls right off the tongues of literally every industry person you’ve ever heard speak on a panel / read on a blog / had casual-but-secretly-also-potential-investor coffee with / happened to sit next to on a flight to a festival you hoped to god sold out your screening? Waking up in a 3 a.m. cold sweat haunted by the truths of Ted Hope’s tweets, filmmakers of all kinds are turning to Kickstarter as not merely a platform for funding, but — all the more critical — a space for engagement. And whether you’re finishing your thesis or gunning for an Oscar, Kickstarter is a place to connect and conspire. Every so often I’ll be chatting with a filmmaker about Kickstarter (weird, right?), and they’ll say something to the effect of “Oh yeah, I’ve been thinking about that, but I’m just not into begging for money.” That’s cool, dude; pretty sure no one is. Good thing Kickstarter is not a place for that, or I would definitely work elsewhere! The truth is Kickstarter is about much more than money — it’s a place to create lasting and meaningful relationships, to invite people to participate in your process, test ideas, showcase progress, generate excitement, cultivate a community who’ll actually see your film, and retain creative control throughout. A successful campaign can be an opportunity to attract a variety of in-kind support, assure grant-givers, declare yourself an artist with a unique vision, and validate that vision with public support. Strategic filmmakers walk away from Kickstarter campaigns with previously unknown Executive Producers, a mailing list, slew of press, stack of DVD orders, and most of all, a community that’s proud to be a part of it. Whether your funding goal is seven or 75 percent of your total budget, running a Kickstarter project has become an essential component of any independent filmmaker’s outreach, which is an essential component of making a film that people see, which one would hope is at the very least a goal of your being in this business in the first place! I recently checked in with Pope to see how he was feeling about the giant leap. He replied in email: "You guys are really a terrific force for creativity. I have been doing a lot of interviews that investigate the crowdfunding angle, and some people don’t get it of course (“why don’t they borrow money from Scorsese?”) because it’s a relatively new way of doing things, but I think the financial resources it generates and the equally important community building and engagement aspects make the platform very powerful. I will be sweating a little bit until (if?) we make our goal, but I have really enjoyed the experience thus far, not to mention people coming out of the woodwork to offer assistance.An indie films takes a village. Especially when you don’t want to be beholden to those forces, e.g. studios, whose agenda may not be in the best interests of the film’s vision." Art takes a village that we build ourselves, and we build it to communicate, connect, and inspire. It’s encouraging to see the veteran visionaries behind The Canyons embrace this. Maybe it’s not such a giant leap after all.]]> Creative Funding, Partners, Kickstarter Elisabeth Holm, Kickstarter.com 2012-05-23T18:54:34+00:00 Film festivals are an amazing launch pad for your film.  Hopefully your film will premier at the festival, be anointed by the critics as the new coming of “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” you’ll sign a major distribution deal for big bucks, and then your profit will really kick in as the film platforms from a limited release to a wider release and the theatres are packed.  You get a first look deal from a major studio and option Michael Lewis’s next book and do it all over again on a bigger scale where your artistic vision can be fully realized without the constraint of a small budget. Take a moment to consider if that does not happen. It may be that your film comes out of the festival with some buzz and you get a distribution deal relatively quickly.  Or maybe you even win a major festival but it takes you almost a year for your film to be released on Cable on Demand (it happened to us) and you spend the next few months going to smaller festivals and promoting your film any way you can. In those cases, you need to find a way to take advantage of the buzz you will generate when your film is fresh and new, and try to aggregate an audience that you can notify when your film is finally possible for them to see, whether in theaters, on demand or on line, or if your grandmother is burning DVDs and mailing them out. We have recently launched Watch It. Watch It is a universal movie search and movie queue, that lets our users see all the ways that the movies they are interested in are available.   Watch It also lets them add movies they are interested in to a queue, and get alerts for any new availability for a film.  It's basically a way to connect movies and audiences that lets users focus on what they want to watch while we take care of the where.   Energetic and innovative use of Facebook and Twitter is like blocking and tackling these days.  Of course you need to do that, but since everyone else is doing it, you also need to come up with new strategies to try to break out. We think Watch It can help.  When your film first premiers, and the early reviews and blog posts come out, it’s super important to do all you can to capitalize on that and capture your future audiences attention and interest, even before they can see your film.  We suggest e-mailing, posting and tweeting about your films Watch It Page to your friends, fans and followers.  If your feature film is not in our database, contact us and we will get it in.  The more film fans that queue your film, the more momentum you generate, the more ammunition you have to convince a distributor to take you on as early as possible.  When your film is finally available, you’ll be able to push out reminders to an audience that has already expressed interest and Watch It will automatically keep them updated with new availabilities.  Facebook and Twitter are integrated in the platform, so all of the great tools that are already available will help reinforce each other. Whatever you do, it’s important to come out of your film festival with the most momentum possible, and have a plan to amplify everything you do using the power of the Internet and other alternative media.  You’re going to spend a lot of nights in hotels showing your film to folks in lots of venues; film festivals, colleges, film societies.  Make sure you have a plan to get the most out of all your hard work.  It all starts with your passion but make sure your left-brain is fully engaged as well.]]> Distribution David Larkin, Founder of GoWatchIt.com 2012-01-20T08:08:45+00:00 Last year, I took an in-depth look at how Sundance feature films used social media during the Festival, and if social media was a good predictor of a film's critical or financial success. With 9 days and counting until the 2012 Festival kicks off, I thought I'd take a look to see how films might be using social media differently this year. After all, since last year's Festival, Facebook gained 200 million new users, Twitter toppled a few dictators, folks are uploading a third more video content to YouTube every minute, and Kickstarter quadrupled the number of dollars pledged to new projects. Last year's data was compiled about a month after the Festival concluded (and both graphs group YouTube & Vimeo into Video, and Kickstarter & Indigogo into Funding). Hopefully this graph suggests that there are still a large number of films that are scrambling to create, maintain, and master their own social media accounts, not that fewer films are using social media in 2012. In light of that, a few friendly tips about how independent films should think about using social media. Last year I highlighted a few reasons why you might care about using social media to promote a film: In the absence of a (time consuming to create) website, a Facebook page can be a great place to drive audiences during the festival circuit for more info about the film An audience plugged into (real time) social media probably increases awareness about a film during Festival screenings, possibly increasing attendance at those screenings A large & passionately engaged social media fanbase might be the kind of social proof that tips the scale for a distributor to buy the film The Music Never Stopped has [used to have] a "request this film in my city" section of their Facebook page. Even pages without this function at least know the geographic distribution of their fans based on Facebook Insights, and could use this data to plan screenings. The role of filmmakers and actors on social media to promote films is significant. Though I92m interested in (for example) the relationship between Carol King's personal Facebook page and the Troubadors Facebook page—there's a wide disparity in the number of Likes between the two. [This trend for artists or related media that have their own substantial social media presences appears to be increasing in 2012--see the companies of Bones Brigade and Hit Record, the artists of Ice-T and Ai Weiwei, or the off-Broadway turned Sundance film Sleepwalk With Me and the book turned Sundance film Slavery by Another Name.] YouTube/Vimeo are being best utilized by critics & fans to promote/curate lists of films they love/hate, and need access to embeddable video content from the films. Distributors with a strong social presence have the benefit of time to build a captive audience, but it's unclear to me how well audiences travel between films (for example I'd be fascinated to see on the Fox Searchlight Facebook page if the folks who interacted with Black Swam content also interacted with Cedar Rapids content). I've also personally noticed the value in using these social media fans to promote the films once they gain wider release (see, Pariah), and clearly quite a few films are realizing the funding value of networks like Kickstarter and Indigogo (more on that below). But if I had just 9 days and a bazillion other things to finish before opening night, here's what I'd focus on:]]> Marketing, Partners, Facebook, Kickstarter, YouTube Devon Smith, Director of Social Media, Threespot Dot Com 2012-01-12T18:15:43+00:00 The problem with film marketing – and I do believe it is a problem -- is that it has become so important, so vital to the business of film distribution, key in fact to gaining any return on investment in the film business, that filmmaking trails behind film marketing in importance.  I say this without sarcasm or glibness, and also, with a deep feeling of sadness. I got into movie marketing because I needed a job and a family friend introduced me to a man who had a boutique agency that designed posters for movies.  I was 20 years old and got hired because I didn’t blink during the interview.  The movie poster business at that time was a relatively new creative business – it was the 70s – and the work seemed to always be in service to the movie itself.  Or so it seemed to my starry-eyed idealistic self. In recent years I had the privilege to work for an successful movie company releasing movies that were simultaneously award winners, critical darlings and audience favorites – a filmmaking trifecta.  But as social media and online media and tighter budgets and changing habits and less and less newspapers and too many emails have taken over the business of releasing movies, movie marketing has become the king of the hill of the business.]]> Marketing Stephanie Allen 2011-08-26T16:54:57+00:00 Hello. My name is Bob. I’m here to talk about Direct-to-Fan Marketing (D2F) and Distribution. I work at a software company called Topspin. Topspin makes software used by Kevin Smith, David Lynch, Lady Gaga, Ed Burns, Kanye West, Trent Reznor, Arcade Fire and thousands of other artists to sell downloads, merchandise, tickets and memberships directly to fans. Our mission as a company is to create an artistic middle class, and we’re doing it by building a self-serve application you can use to market and distribute your work yourself. You may think I mean self-release. Or DIY Distro. Or “creative” distribution. But those are not the same as Direct-to-Fan. What I’m talking about is a distribution and marketing strategy that should be a part of every filmmaker’s career. I’m talking about making sure you are directly connected to your core audience. I’m talking about selling premium products to super fans. And I’m hoping to persuade you to treat your audience like your most important asset. It is time to invest in your fans. Here’s the problem I see: Filmmakers have been taught to be wholesalers, not retailers. Filmmakers make films — so the teaching goes — and then it is the job of distributors to market and distribute films. There is actually a stigma attached to doing it oneself, as if every direct release was a sign not of true independence and autonomy but instead an indicator of the film’s quality or filmmaker’s professionalism. “Did you hear about XX film? They couldn’t get distribution. They have to self-release.” Sounds familiar, right? The goal is to make films and sell them to distributors. That’s the model. Well, that shit is broken. Permanently. I mean it. Yes, the “traditional model” still exists as a best-case outcome for a few films. But most likely not for your film. Sorry. Just being honest. It’s time to stop calling the best-case, long-shot, home- run option “the model”. Let’s get realistic about what’s happening: Everyday, the odds of the traditional indie model working for your film get longer and longer. Even at Sundance, upwards of 80 percent of the films fail to find traditional distribution deals. A ton of interesting and excellent films don’t reach audiences and fail to grow the careers of the artists who made them. That’s sad. And yet, more and more excellent films get made everyday. Because technology makes production easy. And the Web makes distribution easy, too. My phone will shoot video and upload to YouTube. Production and distribution is in your pocket! But here’s where the trouble starts: Free content, empowered fans and unlimited choice make marketing very, very hard. Fans can watch and share all day, effortlessly. But competing for their attention is really tough. Fans who want to watch a movie used to choose from the 10 films at the theatre on Friday night. Now they choose from the entire historical catalog of filmmaking on their laptops, phones, set-top boxes or VOD services. Or they skip the film altogether and play Words With Friends online. Think about your own habits. Getting fans to pay attention is harder than it has ever been. “So, how will anyone see my work?” you ask. It’s simple, actually. You need to grow a database of fans, and market to them. Here’s how you do it: First, make amazing films. I don’t mean pretty-good films, or better-than-average films... I mean INCREDIBLE films. Invest in quality, and invest in new. New sells. But also please make sure to budget appropriately, based on the size of your audience. Don’t have an audience? Then keep the budget LOW. Second, give away free downloads in exchange for connection via email, Facebook and Twitter. This might mean a soundtrack, or the opening scene of the film, or some killer making-of footage. The point is to get fans excited, connected and sharing. You can’t make dollars until you have fans, and giving away incredible content is the best way to attract new fans. Third, offer premium products fans actually want to buy, and sell these premium products at a mix of price points FIRST. Many of the folks who will end up with the $2.99 rental on iTunes would be even happier with a great-looking shirt, HD download, photo book and a Skype-call-with-the-lead-actress for $75. Don't miss the opportunity to convert your core demand into a high-revenue product. Get creative with your products and your prices. You’ll earn more money and create happy fans who spread the word online. Now, once you’ve grown your database and you can monetize your core fans, it’s time to look around for distribution partners. If you can prove there is demand for your art, you will have traditional distribution opportunities. But long-term success requires reversing the common logic: Direct-to-Fan is NOT the last resort.]]> Marketing, Partners, Topspin Media Bob Moczydlowsky, VP Product and Marketing at Topspin Media 2011-07-29T23:06:45+00:00 Several years ago my father took a writing class with the aim to become a fiction author. As I've always known dad to be the creative type with a penchant to swap hobbies on a whim, this new interest didn't catch me entirely off guard. Soon our phonecalls were filled with updates from his class and debates on what his pen name should be. Mark Williams isn't exactly the most unique name in the world, and he was already imagining his fictitious name gracing the cover of the next New York Times Bestseller.Like many of dad's hobbies, the novel never fully materialized, but for about a year we enjoyed our semi-weekly discussions about character development, storytelling and The Hero's Journey - a concept I was familiar with but never fully understood.Today's social web is filled with similar patterns, though they're often far less fulfilling. Increasingly, we're trading the rich narratives of our lives for the cheap thrills of buzzword-laden social media saccharine.The social validation I experience when someone comments on my latest photo album or retweets a random rambling fulfills a certain need for affirmation in this world. We've all experienced it. The social web is engineered to exploit this. Every brand on the web scrambling to find an angle that allows them to rinse and repeat their messaging, woven through the patterns of these stories as they're shared in real time.I'm not anti-marketing. But the growing industry aiming to monetize our lives by tightening the story patterns of our lives makes my skin crall just a bit. There is a fine line between social media loyalty programs and game mechanics manufactured to make us slaves to marketing.The Hero's Journey calls this place The Known World.It's the brands you follow on Twitter, the coffeeshop you check into daily, and the daily deal emails that clog your inbox every morning.I believe there is a different path. A path to The Unknown World of the social web. This is a place where we venture off in unexpected directions. It's risky and unpredictable. The rewards are often hidden and difficult to find. There is not a Groupon for it.As storytellers on the web, in film or through music, we have an amazing opportunity to take the world on a creative journey that embraces the complex narratives of our lives. Let us rise to that challenge.]]> Marketing Josh Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of Gowalla 2011-07-26T23:32:44+00:00 Foreign Films and Marketing, how do you approach it? Marketing a foreign film has always been a challenge in the US. Oftentimes, distributors hide the foreign aspect of the film, by creating campaigns that appeal to more mainstream tastes, in order to capture audiences that might fear subtitles. When you have a contemporary auteur such as Francois Ozon, Ang Lee, Claire Denis, or Fatih Akin, you're banking on the cinephiles to come. But when you don't have that luxury, you really have to bank on selling the content of your film. Just recently, we worked on the last two films of Catherine Breillat. She was thrilled with our work and loved our campaigns, which are so different from how they were handled in France. Ms. Breillat's sensibilities seemed to match ours, so we both came away happy.  How crucial are posters in marketing? Since the campaign is the first connection a prospective viewer sees, it’s important that it sells the film and is as dynamic as possible. That campaign then gets repurposed into ads, thumbnails, web banners, and other digital media. In a very crowded marketplace it really has to have that "hook." We really like to engage the filmmakers into the process of designing the campaign whenever possible. Often a filmmaker has really great ideas. Whenever we work with director Gregg Araki, we know his design ideas for a campaign will generally trump the ideas you would hire an agency for. Araki's early campaigns for his films The Living End, Doom Generation, and Totally F***ed Up have that great sense of urgency and Ray-Gun inspired design, which I adore. But there are other times when a filmmaker really should defer to the distributor to help devise the campaign. What made you reach out to artist Chris Ware? Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is such a visual film, one that gives such a unique experience for viewers that we wanted to choose a similar artistic vision to match the film's themes. Chris Ware's art has that detailed visual flair that we thought would capture the sensibility of Apichatpong's work.  When I chatted with Chris; it all made sense. He really had a grasp for the work and understood the film. Describe the nuts and bolts of the process for hiring Chris (and revealing financials if possible)? I contacted my friend, producer Ted Hope, who had worked with Chris Ware on the campaign for Tamara Jenkin's The Savages (Ted previously had Daniel Clowes do the amazing poster for Happiness, which we ended up handling the non-theatrical for years ago). Ted connected Chris and I. I explained what we wanted a really unique poster that really captured the spirit of the film. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the director/writer of Uncle Boonmee had also gone to school in Chicago, where Chris resides, and was receptive to the idea. After two weeks, Chris came up with the campaign that we then showed to Apichatpong, who loved it. We had a couple of fine tunings to make it easy for the eye to read as a film poster. In the end, the poster has some really fine details that can only be seen upon staring a few inches away from the printed piece, but still as a film poster viewed from a distance, it works terrifically. In terms of a business venture for Chris, let's say, he did it for his admiration of a fellow artist! The artwork has been featured on numerous websites and has had a really amazing response in terms of another tool for grass roots marketing. The artwork has appealed to Chris Ware fans, Apichatpong fans and cinephiles. I think the poster's artwork has generated as many fans as there are for the film.  There's a movement of cinephile artists out there who do amazing interpretations of film campaigns (from the past) and having been gaining fans across the globe. We're hoping to work with other graphic and visual artists to create unique designs for posters. We are just beginning to work on filmmaker/artist Braden King's film, Here, which had its premiere at Sundance this year and will hopefully have as unique and a striking campaign as Uncle Boonmee.]]> Marketing, Theatrical Marcus Hu, Co-President of Strand Releasing 2011-07-26T07:05:01+00:00 Kickstarter launched just over two years ago, and during that time film has been the dominant category on the site, accounting for more than $25 million of the $75 million that has moved through our system to date. Film projects have been supported by more than 250,000 people, and there have been more than 3,000 successfully funded film projects so far. At heart, each Kickstarter project is a story. It's a real person trying to achieve something important or meaningful, and opening up that process for audiences to follow along and become a part of it in a real way. It’s an exchange, and both the creator and the audience benefit as a result. In early 2011, Kickstarter began working with the Sundance Institute to bring some of the many extraordinary films and stories that Sundance is renowned for to Kickstarter. As of July 2011, dozens of projects from Sundance filmmakers have raised more than $650,000 to fund in whole or in part everything from development to production to post-production to P&A – literally every step of the filmmaking process. These projects have included films from both Duplass brothers, Mark (Black Rock) and Jay (Kevin), a hand-drawn animated feature from novelist Dash Shaw and producer John Cameron Mitchell (The Ruined Cast), and a project to make the documentary Granito Oscar-eligible, among others. One feature, Mosquita y Mari, made Kickstarter history by raising more than $40,000 in its final 72 hours to make its $80,000 goal. Make no mistake: running a successful Kickstarter project takes a lot of work and a deep commitment. But the rewards can be immense: an audience that’s engaged from the beginning; a transparent funding process; and a whole new medium to tell your story. Even campaigns that don’t meet their goal are rich with lessons, and they can always come back wiser and try again. To help along the way we have a number of resources available to Sundance filmmakers, including our community team, which is dedicated to helping artists conceptualize their projects; the periodic events that Sundance and Kickstarter will continue to collaborate on; and on-site features like Kickstarter School, a simple tutorial filled with tips and best practices. We’re grateful to Sundance for their opportunity, and we’re excited to work with you in the future. Through the labs, the festival, and its programming, Sundance demonstrates a real understanding of the creative process, and how best to assist it. We’re honored to be a part of that process.]]> Creative Funding, Partners, Kickstarter Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder of Kickstarter 2011-07-26T06:26:35+00:00 There is no denying that the Indie Film World has changed. In many ways, “independence” is a true option now – in every step of the process. Yet, we certainly have a long way to go in achieving that dream. We all strive for quality, funding, access, distribution, marketing in creating our films and reaching audiences with them. These aspects all keep getting better. We have been finding answers – incredibly great solutions – regularly as of late. But let’s be honest here: we want more and we need it fast. Despite the improvements, the increase in participants and the fracturing of the marketplace (two great occurrences, in my opinion) unfortunately also make it harder to earn a living or sustain a community than ever before. We have to do something about it. I have tremendous faith that both our indie film culture and community will continue to get better – but that faith is conditional. My faith is in people, and by that, my faith in is in the extension from the individual to the general: community. My delight and frustration come from the same source, these people, for it is inherent for such a great and diverse group to have disagreements: We don’t all want and need the same thing (thankfully, again). What I want – and what we need – from everyone is both action and a change in behavior. I love to do things, to get things done, to generate even more – we can make this world a better place. We can improve our films. We can build our audiences and strengthen our community. The challenge is whether it matters enough to us, that we can invest the time to create something truly free – beyond which we call "independent." Sometimes I fear it doesn't matter enough to us because we have not yet embraced the simple concepts that can get us there. Maybe we don't want the responsibility that is required to truly own our work (figuratively and literally). Maybe it feels better to blame others (aka The System) for our inability to do better and really reach people with our work. But if it does matter and we accept the responsibility, we must embrace transparency.  Transparency does not end with data. It doesn’t even start there. Transparency begins with us. Transparency is a process, a behavior. By definition, it is an openness to share – share not only our successes, but also our process and all it entails. It seems we have had a lot of trouble committing to this openness. Sharing our failures is perhaps both the greatest need and greatest challenge. We learn more from our mistakes than anything else. Yet throughout the two decades of this rise of indie film that we have all enjoyed, we have allowed our failures to vanish uncharted and unanalyzed. We have the tools to record our failures, to share them, and to learn from them. We cannot continue to allow this opportunity to grow to escape us. The sustainability of our community and careers depends on it. Transparency also requires us to share both our process and our feelings about that process. We are not alone. As much as creativity is often a solitary process – at least in the early stages – the ability to get it done, discovered, appreciated and presented is anything but. As we have not yet mastered the art (and never will, thankfully) of the form that represents all the Pillars Of Cinema, we will always be frustrated – but that frustration need not stall us. If we can learn to share that frustration, to utilize that to build hope that these challenges can be met, we will not be demoralized. We will not feel alienated. We will recognize and learn how to depend on our community. We have to do it. A Truly Free Film Movement requires “direct to fan” and “direct to artist” engagement. Communication is not a one-way flow. Nor is communication a flow brought about via a tube from artist to fan or vice versa. It is a flow that loops in the community, embraces it for all it is, warts and all. It cannot, nor should it be, an echo chamber of agreement. It is a river made up of many individuals and many communities, full of disagreements and opposing needs. Most of all, though, it must be characterized by this willingness to share. Think about the world you want. Think about how you can now actually earn a living doing what you love. Think about how you get there and how you can sustain it. It is all more possible than ever before. I cannot imagine that such thoughts could lead you to any other process than one of sharing. Sharing leads to engagement – which then prompts action. Wonder why you aren’t getting more done? Perhaps because you aren’t sharing. Let’s make this blog benefit us all. Let’s allow it to truly build something. It all begins with your sharing: Contribute. Comment. Spread. Be part of something great. I keep To Do Lists. Many of them. I will never complete them all. I try to develop good habits that become something close to rituals. I try to introduce the people I know to each other. I try to give new voices the platform to inform others, and join with them in community endeavors. I try to take the conversation further. I don’t think my way is the only way or even the best way for others. I make it a point to read what others write, and try to join the conversation. I make it a point to watch new work, and have a screening series toshare it with others. To me, each of these activities is part of what it means to be an independent filmmaker vested in his community. Until this week, none of the independent support organizations functioned as a true community – with a flow of communication between all participants. These organizations, as helpful as they are, function mostly as service and access providers, without doing all that is necessary to foster communication. With the launch of the Sundance Community blog we have the opportunity to truly share. We NOW have a community hub, but the question is what are we going to do with it? Hopefully we will have leaders, voices of authority, who can help launch and direct conversations. Hopefully, we will have participants who make it part of their practice to join conversations and take them further. Someone always needs to step forward. And someone else needs to suggest a new path. The Sundance Community Blog is a closed community – and thus by its very nature is not one that will lend itself to promotion. We are speaking amongst ourselves only – although we can certainly migrate discussions into broader spheres, too. Hopefully, this enclosure of Sundance artists to artists will give everyone the courage to shoulder the responsibility that is community building, for it is from that vantage point that we can see the mountaintop that is sustainability. I WILL MAKE THE COMMITMENT TO BE A REGULAR PARTICPANT IN THE COMMUNITY, BUT I NEED YOU TO DO THE SAME. WILL YOU PLEASE JOIN ME?]]> Distribution, Theatrical Ted Hope, Producer and Founder of Double Hope Films 2011-07-26T05:25:28+00:00 I took the documentary I produced, Earth Made of Glass, to Tribeca last year. It was the first time I’d ever been involved with selling a film at a festival, so like any newbie, I listened to all the pros that I could. I received a lot of opinions about what I needed in order to land a distributor (sales agents, publicists, buzz, etc.) and what we could expect in terms of offers. The opinions offered disparate pieces of advice, but one thing I noticed to be consistent through them was that when I expressed high ambitions for the film (‘Hey, maybe we could get HBO to buy it!’), I was quickly encouraged to graze in more realistic pastures. Indeed, the documentary business is a tough one, and for a film about Rwanda premiering at Tribeca, we just didn’t have the muscle to crack into that upper echelon of the market. Sure enough, by the end of the festival, that sentiment proved correct. We had great press, solid buzz, and an incredible movie on our hands, but we were we left with no significant offers for the film. Despite our efforts to lure our desired mate, HBO didn’t even show up to our premiere. We’d invested two years of our lives putting the film together and loved it beyond belief, not to mention the considerable amount of capital we’d spent to do it. Weeks after the festival, a good friend passed some kind words about our film to HBO for us. We cold-called them ourselves, wrote impassioned e-mails, and urged them to watch it. They said they might. A few days went by, and then we got a call. HBO loved the film and wanted to buy it – even better; they wanted to pay us for it in a significant way. Contractually, I can’t define ‘significant,’ but what I mean is that they paid for it with a value that no other distributor even came close to offering. They valued the film internally, based on what made sense for them, and not on what many would call ‘the market.’ As the rights-holder of the film I felt the content was still undervalued – to me the movie was so good it was worth a fortune that no distributor could possibly pay. But if I were a value investor, a shareholder of TimeWarner, or any rational businessman, I would have looked at HBO’s offer and deemed that they paid a premium when they could have extracted more value out of their acquisition by paying competitively with the ‘market’ (or lack thereof). This raises the age-old question: How does one define the value of a film? And it sets the table for the bittersweet meal that is the rest of this post. Obviously, products are defined by a market (i.e. what someone’s willing to pay for something). In order to exist within a market, most products have fairly standard costs associated with creating them that fit within their acceptable consumer values and are built to yield relatively predictable returns. Independent movies, however, cost many different values to create, contain many different intangibles that wildly affect their potential consumer bases, and yet are distributed to consumers through generally similar mediums. So while we content creators are making products that span a gigantic scale of value, the folks who distribute our products are doing their jobs in pretty repetitive ways, hoping to extract consistent returns. If you consider another consumer product, like a toothbrush, it’s obviously a different story. There are many brands of toothbrushes, but the costs associated with making them, the consumers who want them, and the ways in which they are distributed to those consumers are very similar. So the makers of toothbrushes value them the same way that the market does, in turn creating stability. The issue with us independent content creators is that we generally value our products differently than distributors know how to value them through the markets. And since there’s no way to really know how any particular movie will perform, a distributor effectively gambles on every acquisition, creating an environment where risk must always be minimized. In the case of my documentary, HBO paid a price that didn’t make them feel at risk, so it was worth it to them. But for many other distributors nowadays, any cash advance at all is a risk. So when content creators go into festivals with a sense of the equation: ‘what we spent + the intangibles we bring to the table = the value of our film,’ they’re walking in with a potentially volatile mindset, because the current landscape says that the value of a film is only equal to what distributors are willing to gamble on it based on how they currently can monetize content in general. This naturally creates an environment of Us Vs. Them: The content creators who know how good their products are; and the necessary evil of the distributors who usually undervalue them.]]> Distribution, Theatrical Reid Carolin 2011-07-26T00:47:34+00:00 Films used to put years in the titles to sound futuristic: 1984, Death Race 2000, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now that we are a decade into the future, the logistics of a theatrical release of a film has changed quite a bit. But not its philosophy. A theatrical release then: it used to mean the only way to see a movie. (Yes, I know there were home versions on 16mm, but c’mon.) Now a theatrical release does not mean the only way to see a film, but it still stands for the “right” way to see a film. With an image bigger than you, with sound surrounding you. It used to be difficult to have your movie play in a theater simply due to the technical costs. You had to make a 35mm print (and a 35mm trailer). The cost and logistics of a theatrical release made a film mainstream or independent. Thus the wild world of “underground” films in non-chain movie theaters, film societies and film festivals. Chances were, if you had an edgy film with a difficult or controversial style or content, you wouldn’t be connected with a major company and were therefore indie or underground. Sometimes true indies got out to theaters, through smaller companies or motivated individuals with some resources. But for the most part, if you didn’t get a distributor you were doomed. Chapter-skip to 2011: you can have your movie get to an audience in a multitude of ways with DVD and the internet. And with cheaper logistical costs and more independent theaters, microcinemas and film festivals, you can also show your film in a theater without a distributor. A side-note: its not an “us vs them” situation with distributors. They can handle costs of marketing much easier and do know what they are doing. Sometimes a different process is necessary with a different type of film.]]> Columns, Staff, Theatrical Mike Plante 2011-07-25T23:40:52+00:00 When my partner Laura Kim and I started our distribution company, Red Flag Releasing, we did so with our eyes open. We both came from the now-defunct Warner Independent Pictures and knew that we would not have the same kind of support and resources that we had at Warner Bros. We were lucky to have that experience together. We felt our collective know-how would give us some advantages in starting our little venture, but we knew we would no longer have the financial resources to acquire films with significant minimum guarantees and our P&A budgets would be limited, and that meant that we would not be able to compete with companies like Fox Searchlight, Focus, Sony Pictures Classics, etc. And we knew we would not be considered for some films we fell in love with, but we both felt that the independent film business was evolving and we wanted to part of that evolution. While we were lucky enough to acquire and work on some challenging films that we loved at Warner Independent, there is a cost to putting that kind of mini-major machinery to work. As a result, there were many other films we fell in love with and were unable to acquire simply because they were not "big" enough. Occasionally, the perceived commerciality of a film would motivate the acquisition of that film rather than our unbridled and unanimous enthusiasm for the film itself. Perhaps gone for us are the wild breakout successes of March of the Penguins or Slumdog Millionaire, but that's ok, because gone too are the days that perceived commercial potential trumps our unanimous passion for a film. We also remind ourselves that there was relatively no competition for those two films when we acquired them at Warner Independent. We obviously want the films we distribute to do well and exceed expectations, but as a tiny distribution company we can not only redefine what those expectations are but also create interesting ways to get there. We know from our experience that there will be extremely well-made, beautiful films that we love and have access to simply because they are too small/difficult for the others. Our first release, which we bought after it screened at Sundance 2010, was 8: The Mormon Proposition, an investigative documentary about the Mormon Church's involvement in passing California's Proposition 8. At the time, the constitutionality of Prop 8 was being argued in a US District Court in California, and the US Supreme Court had just delivered an outrageous and alarming ruling in the Citizens United case. We believed there was an urgency in getting people to see this film so it could not only be part of the current Prop 8 discourse, but also make people aware how a church was conducting itself like a PAC. True to our mission - to create a plan for the film that was organic to the film - we released the film as "wide" as we could with the modest P&A resources we had. We released the film in 12 cities and simultaneously on cable/satellite VoD through our deal at Warner Bros Digital Distribution. We like to think that the film created some momentum into the investigation into the Mormon Church's tax filings related to their Prop 8 campaign expenditures and the subsequent citations and fines, but also influenced the LDS' apparent change in policy towards ceasing door-to-door canvassing for political causes. We also like to think that the film played a small part in swaying public opinion on Marriage Equality. We acquired David Weissman's documentary We Were Here out of this year's Sundance Film Festival. The film is about how the gay community in San Francisco, both collectively and as individuals, responded to the AIDS epidemic when it hit 30 years ago. We both fell in love with the movie after we screened it. This is the kind of film that reminds us why we do what we do. In this case, not only for the art of it, but also in remembrance of too many young, creative people that died too soon. It is exactly what we want to do. We Were Here is a beautiful film. The film is extremely well-made, and stirs powerful emotions. If the film is so good, how come there wasn't more competition for the film? It is difficult to believe that the quality of the film had anything to do with lack of interest from bigger companies. My guess would be that they all asked the same question that we asked, and are now asking ourselves every day since we decided to distribute this film:  "How do you get anybody to go see a documentary about the AIDS epidemic?" The short answer to this question, based on conventional wisdom and historical evidence, is "You can't." So, to be honest, there isn't a good business reason for us to be doing this. However, hope springs eternal, and we are hoping that the sheer quality of the film, with a little help positioning the film in the marketplace, we can find an audience that is big enough to make it a worthwhile commercial venture for our little company. In the blog posts that follow, we will tell you about our ongoing efforts to position We Were Here (release date September 9) in the marketplace, and share our marketing and distribution decisions based on the options that are available to us and/or imposed on us by the marketplace. Artist Services Editorial Advisor Sharon Swart contributed to this piece.]]> Marketing, Distribution, Theatrical Paul Federbush & Laura Kim 2011-07-25T21:19:24+00:00 Filmmakers, we love you!  We want you to join us in a dialogue about getting your films exhibited. I express this love and make this invitation on behalf of my independent cinema exhibition colleagues everywhere.  Neither filmmakers nor exhibitors get much love or understanding from fickle audiences and the corporatized movie industry. So, if nothing else, always know that your neighborhood community-based, mission-driven Art House loves you and we want to work with you to build a new model for theatrical exhibition. A model based on the long established and market tested example of the music industry. Art House operators are generally passionate about all aspects of film (digital cinema too). Every day we celebrate cinema – in elegantly restored movie palaces; in state-of-the-art cinemas built a part of a cultural center; in hole-in-the-wall spaces on college campuses; in abandoned theaters revived by passionate film lovers in towns and cities in every part of North America. We ain’t the multiplex, we ain’t really interested in being part of mega movie monolith thinking; in fact many of us are non-profit businesses that rely on community philanthropy. However, for some reason entertainment journalists, even industry leaders and pundits, portray the movie marketplace as essentially a blockbuster singularity – a movie market monolith. Music audiences and the music media understand the differences between music market segments. No one expects a new music release from the jazz trio The Bad Plus to sell as aggressively as a new release from Lady Gaga. We know that the audiences for jazz trios and folk duos are relatively small, but they are distinct and sustainable market segments of the music business. A logical direction for the cinema, I think, is creating multiple layers of sustainable cinema markets – similar to the many, long established sustainable markets for music. The fragmentation of the film market has already occurred. However, our distribution and exhibition models have not embraced the benefits of this fragmentation. We need multiplexes and major commercial distributors, but their business practices impede the growth of multiple, sustainable cinema segments. Major distributors and exhibitors continue to embrace rather monopolistic practices. The Internet, video-on-demand, Netflix AND community-based, mission-driven Art Houses are antidotes to monopolistic behavior.  The Art House is a dynamic, sustainable civic center in cities large and small. The key word is sustainable and let’s face it having your film shown at a theater filled with cinephiles, presented spectacularly on a big screen, is probably the best artistic format in which to experience your film. The digital age created tools that allow filmmakers to capture, edit and promote films very affordably.  This has caused and will continue to create an explosion of films that need viable outlets. Digital distribution can play a role, but as was highlighted in a recent IndieWire article, “Ironically, a vast, intangible digital landscape of endless innovation provides the ideal setting for [essentially only] the smallest stories. …it reinforces the idea of digital distribution as a no-man’s-land for anything but the most obscure and usually disposable works. However, that’s hardly a put-down; “disposable” cinema in this context actually has aesthetic criteria of its own. ...[online technologies] may sustain the illusion of instant change [in the movie marketplace], but cinema at large continues to trickle along, one movie at a time.” Filmmakers, we love you. We want you to know that running an Art House, like making a film is hard work with little financial reward. Art Houses and filmmakers must work together to get our arts based industry to stop thinking in monolithic terms and get the industry and the public to start thinking in terms of multiple, sustainable markets for diverse films. I invite you to come to the Art House Convergence this coming January, just before the Sundance Film Festival, to participate in a dialogue with independent Art House operators that we think you will find most beneficial. Thanks for being motion picture artist! And thanks, in advance, for the love.]]> Marketing, Distribution, Theatrical Russ B. Collins 2011-07-25T19:13:09+00:00 The Sundance Institute, for me, has been the richest source of creative inspiration for as long as I can remember.  Not only have I participated in many workshop and festival events throughout the years, Sundance New Frontier served as the launchpad for my open-collaborative production company, hitRECord, in 2010.  Last year, I fulfilled a dream I didn’t even know I had by joining the Sundance Institute Board of Trustees.  At the time, I honestly didn't know what that meant, but basically I get to advise and collaborate with my other Board members and help shape and support the work of Sundance.In October of 2010, while meeting at the Sundance Resort in Utah, my fellow Board Members and I sat with Mr. Redford and discussed new plans for how the Institute could create something we didn’t even have a name for yet.As an artist who loves being engaged in an open community of other artists, and exploring how we can become more empowered to share our stories directly with audiences, I am very excited to have been part of building Sundance Institute’s new “Artist Services” program.   Sundance selects some of the most exciting storytellers from around the world for its Festival, Labs and other programs — and this new program makes sure audiences will have a chance to see their work.   “Artist Services” is about every Sundance project getting new opportunities to distribute their films on places like Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, SundanceNow and other networks.  It’s a perfect complement to the mission of the organization and we all felt now was the time to seriously leverage our resources.It answers some of the challenges the independent community faces most, it endures to provide great content and education around these issues, and it’s also a work in progress.  So it can continue to grow and evolve.I’m writing you from London to say simply, engage.  Engage with these new ideas we’re offering, engage with the new opportunities, engage with this website … it’s all been designed for you, the Artist.  I’m excited to see what we all come up with!]]> Columns, Creative Funding, Marketing, Distribution Joseph Gordon-Levitt 2011-07-25T18:13:13+00:00 Greetings Sundance Alumni!  I’m thrilled to be a contributor to this exciting new Artist Services site and help share some insights into the wild world of Twitter. In just 5 short years Twitter has grown from a little side project into a global phenomenon that is changing how the world communicates and consumes information. Twitter is everywhere – Larry, our little blue bird, has quickly become one of the most recognized brand icons, and our user growth is staggering. However, there is still a lot of head scratching when it comes to understanding the utility of Twitter. The great thing about Twitter is that it doesn’t discriminate – it’s for anyone who simply wants to connect with the people and organizations they are most interested in and share and consume information. That said, I’m excited to be an on-going contributor in what I’m calling “Twitter for Filmmakers,” or TfF. The goal is to help share best practices in a variety of areas, including how to effectively use Twitter day-to-day, examples of how studios are using the platform to market their films, and providing real-time updates on new features and functionality as the site continues to evolve. So, to kick things off I’m going to provide a quick 101. Whether you’re a Twitter addict or have never visited Twitter.com, these reference points are a good resource no matter your level of Twittertelligence. Here we go: Person@lity Twitter is fast becoming the ultimate online identity for a lot of users. Your profile page can be a great branding tool, and there are some easy things that can be done to customize your profile to make yourself easy to find and recognize: Upload a background image and profile picture, and fill out a creative-but-informative bio. To make sure people can find you, use your first and last name and include a link to your personal or professional website. Put your @handle on everything – your email signature, your business card, your website, even in the credits of your films (I’m not kidding!). To Follow or Not to Follow… With 200 million registered users, choosing what accounts you want to follow can be overwhelming. However, when it comes to selecting who to follow be sure to tap into both your personal and professional interests. Following other directors, writers, producers and actors – as well as financiers – lets you stay connected and engage in conversations and exchanges that could open doors, spark new ideas, or simply keep you informed. I follow a good majority of my colleagues at Twitter, in part because they keep me wildly entertained but also because they Tweet out a lot of useful information. Additionally, follow the industry publications that are most valuable to you. There’s nothing better than getting a quick glance at the day’s headlines on the fly (subtext: download the Twitter mobile app!) versus sorting through a stack of newspapers, magazines and trades (sorry, print world). Tweet and the World Tweets with You After a more than a year of working here, I am still trying to get my family to be more active on Twitter. The response I hear over and over is: “Why Tweet when no one follows me?” A valid argument, but just like with dating, sometimes you have to make the first move. Even if you don’t have a lot of followers you can still dive into conversations and send your 140 character nuggets of wisdom into the Twitter ethers. It really boils down to these two symbols: @ and #. Be @ggressive: When you “@ mention” another user – either by replying to their tweet or placing their handle within the Tweet copy – you are engaging with that user. No matter if I follow you or not, if you mention @grauface I’ll be able to see your Tweet and can start a conversation with you if I choose (and I will!). And content is @king. Twitter users are much more likely to engage with a Tweet that has a link; so share interesting content often. Have a trailer for a new film? Tweet it out! Hashtag Fever: In Twitter speak, the “#” is not called the pound sign or number symbol, but rather the hashtag. Created organically by users to categorize conversations, hashtags are part of Twitter’s DNA. When you Tweet with a hashtag you are putting a creative identifier on your message. Hashtags are both searchable and hyperlinked, so queries and clicks take users to a results page that displays all Tweets using that hashtag. One of my all-time favorite hashtags was #lessambitiousmovies, a creative meme that was created by one user and spread like wildfire for a few days. I’ll tell that story in another post. #Staytuned… So those are some basic tips to ensure you’re setting yourself up for Twitter success. I look forward to contributing more posts, but feel free to send me a Tweet (@grauface) if there are any topics you’d like me to cover. I can’t promise trade secrets or shares of stock, but I’ll do my best to provide the most useful tools to help Twitter become a key member of your film crew.]]> Marketing Josh Grau, Brand Solutions at Twitter 2011-07-24T18:37:27+00:00 “What we’ve got here is (a) failure to communicate…,” the warden said to the prisoner 45 years ago. Hasn’t this always been the problem? Now, the role of the warden is mutating in the filmmaking world. In the past, the warden was the studio, which would express its confidence (or lack thereof) through marketing dollars. Today, however, independent film distribution has become increasingly entrepreneurial. The warden, in some respects, is now the filmmaker who reports directly to the consumer. Back to “Cool Hand Luke”: had that film been produced today, it’s highly likely that the 50 eggs bit and the famous quote would have almost instantly made its way from the big screen to a PC, tablet or smartphone -- a trip accelerated by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in a matter of seconds. Assume for a moment that the era of the hitmaker-producer/studio in the arts is over. Long gone are the powers of a Louis B. Mayer or a Robert Evans, and for the most part much of the sway of a Harvey Weinstein. This is not unique to film; in music, long gone are the John Peels and Ahmet Erteguns. But Warhol’s fifteen minutes seems increasingly relevant. Why, really, did this happen? Usually, when real art suffers, it is blamed on profit-driven corporate "tastelessness" or indifference to quality. But this time around much of the blame rests on the shoulders of the consumer. Audience attention now extends infinitely and across multiple devices in real time. And the definition of content has been wildly expanded in new directions. Movie theaters and television now compete fiercely with news feeds, texting, Zynga, Pandora, Groupon and LivingSocial, Instagram and other photo sharing apps, Hulu, Netflix and HBOGO on phones, pads and PCs. What you as filmmakers are now witnessing is a quiet war for consumer attention. Proof: 200 million tweets a day, 32 minutes per visit and 750 billion minutes a month on Facebook, 40 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, 300 million global players of Zynga games, 200 million Daily Deal subscribers and XBOX Live and Netflix have as many subscribers as Comcast. Great cinema is no less important today than it was in the past, but the time commitment necessary for actually going to the movies or even merely watching movies at home now faces massive competition. But this cloud does contain its own silver lining. Good art can still find an audience. Marketing can be free. Global distribution is both possible … and free.]]> Marketing Marc Ruxin, Chief Innovation Officer of UM 2011-07-20T08:22:01+00:00