Hope for Film

SXSW Film 2016 Honors the Past While Facing an Exciting, Gaudy and Uncertain Future

Anne Thompson — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 18:23:29 GMT

The night before the SXSW Film Festival got under way, Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, defended his communal love of film in theaters. "In pursuing the new future, we cannot decimate the past," he said in his acceptance speech as one of the honorees at the Texas Film Awards, the annual benefit for Richard Linklater's now 30-year-old Austin Film Society.

Watching the Sony Classics reel, the crucial art films I grew up on over the decades sped past. From Truffaut's "The Last Metro" and Merchant/Ivory's "Howards End" to more recent Oscar-winners "Blue Jasmine," "Alice" and "Son of Saul," I felt a twinge of loss. SXSW is all about change, and forward motion. But in our rush toward digital immediacy, we lose something too.

While Barker and partner Tom Bernard's Sony Classics remains the very model of a theatrically driven and adaptive studio specialty subsidiary, the world is changing around them. 35 mm is no longer a viable exhibition format, directors have to fight to shoot with celluloid, and distributors are increasingly challenged to lure consumers away from mobile and home-viewing options in favor of a theater.

Also fighting the good fight is Linklater. He announced construction on the Austin Film Society's new two-screen theatre, "showing repertory, international and arthouse films every day of the week," which will boast a 35 mm projector. Meanwhile, more local exhibitors are turning to alternative content like TCM Classic Movies to grab their customers—most of whom are well over 30, if not 60.

Linklater has enjoyed an enviably idiosyncratic career since his pre-SXSW 1991 Sundance breakout "Slacker" (picked up by Barker and Bernard). He's moved through a wide range of budgets and subjects, from animated "Waking Life" and the walking and talking "Before Sunrise" series to "Dazed and Confused," which Alphaville's Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks made with Universal chairman Tom Pollock. Universal couldn't figure out how to sell a Texas coming of age film with a young indie filmmaker and no-name cast (including Ben Affleck and Matthew "all right, all right" McConaughey) at the box office; "Dazed and Confused" eventually emerged as a cult homevideo classic.

After Linklater made commercial hit "School of Rock" in 2003 at Paramount, the studio developed the 1980 Austin film that became "Everybody Wants Some!!" And, as he said at his New York pre-SXSW party, it was still tough to get it made. The film took a decade to go into production, just as "Boyhood" hit big and headed for awards contention. However, it may be deja vu all over again: Cast with unknowns, the movie is hugely entertaining, shot with the same "Dazed and Confused" aesthetic (and many of the same crew, including long-time Linklater editor Sandra Adair), and Paramount is hedging its bets: "Everybody Wants Some!!" will go out via platform release April 1.

It's a struggle that speaks to why, these days, emerging film directors tend to find more work in television, from SXSW stars the Duplass brothers, who keep their film budgets low, to director-actress Amy Seimetz ("The Killing," "The Girlfriend Experience") and Lena Dunham, whose HBO series "Girls" launched SXSW Film's move into television premieres. These are now major draws, from "Broad City" panels to the outdoor preview exhibit “Welcome to Annville," which ties to AMC’s supernatural comic-book drama, "Preacher" (November) starring Dominic Cooper (from executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg); that will premiere at SXSW March 14.

As for the movies at SXSW, buzz has started as film buffs spread the word on opening-night titles like Joey Klein's bleak romance "The Other Half," starring real-life couple Tatiana Maslany and Tom Cullen. But it can be tough for the film side of SXSW to grab attention from the rest of the festival — even after President Obama had left town.

At SXSW 2016, everyone hovers on street corners searching for their Uber or Lyft drivers. Downtown Austin resembles San Diego's Comic-Con with its countless showrooms, meet-up tables, and brand marketing opportunities like the "Mr. Robot" ferris wheel, Capital One House, and pedicabs bedecked with HBO's "Game of Thrones.

As at Comic-Con and Sundance, the noise of the corporate world trying to nab a piece of the smart digital-driven demo at SXSW has gotten a lot louder. Interactive was SXSW's growth engine for four years, but attendance stabilized in 2015 and 2016 (2015 attendance included 30,000 music, 33,000 interactive and 20,000 film participants). "'Twas the night before SXSW and all through this hotel lobby bar there are Interactive nerds drinking wine talking about Macs and Minecraft," tweeted The Daily Beast's @jenyamato.

SXSW attendees lined up around the block to get into fashion and lifestyle site Refinery29's opening night high-school-themed "The School of Self Expression" party, serving miniaturized high school snacks on molded cafeteria trays to guests including Kate Bosworth.

"SXSW is about youth and the future," eight-year SXSW veteran and Refinery29 cofounder Philippe von Borries told me. "It's forward looking, but it's a dude-centric world. SXSW events used to attract diehard geeks who love technology. It then became about big marketing events, as brands started coming in. That's blown up in the last few years. Now there’s a much larger female presence, more style, more creativity in the air."

Targeted to millennial women, Refinery29 lures 150 million visitors a month with content ranging from horoscopes to in-depth interviews with Hillary Clinton, pushed out via social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. "It's about self-expression and empowering women, bringing content from incredible female voices from around the world: style, fashion, beauty, global issues, health, wellness," said Von Borries.

And it may be companies like Refinery29 that will shape the future of SXSW. Video is driving Refinery29's next evolution; at Sundance, it announced the "Shatterbox Anthology," a 12-part series of shorts directed by women. Produced by Killer Films' Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler, it will debut this spring with "Kitty," the directing debut of actress Chloe Sevigne. And Von Borries is proud of Jill Soloway's darkly irreverent six-part comedy series "The Skinny," about a young woman with an eating disorder, which "goes to places other media companies are not going."

April 2015 Film Preview

Tory Kamen and Becca Rose — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:00:00 GMT

Summer blockbuster season is just around the corner, but there's no need to wait until then to see a great movie. April brings us a wide variety of women-centric projects, as well as quite a few films helmed and/or written by women.

The month starts off with "Woman in Gold," starring Helen Mirren as a Jewish woman on a journey to recover her family's heirlooms, which was stolen by the Nazis. It's based on a true story, and Mirren roots the film with her powerful presence. "Closer to the Moon" is another WWII-era drama set for an April release, this one based on the crime capers of a group of Jewish resistance fighters a few years after the end of the war. "Marie's Story" is another period piece, centering around the efforts of a 19th-century nun to help a girl born blind and deaf.

There are a few more women-focused dramas being released in April, including the much-buzzed "Clouds of Sils Maria," which garnered Kristen Stewart the prestigious Cesar Award for supporting actress. Stewart has made waves for being the first American actress to win the French award, and the film looks to capitalize on that with its American release. “Félix & Meira" is another award-winner coming out this month. The Best Canadian Feature from the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival aims to make its mark with the story of an unconventional and radical love affair, one that reaches across racial and religious lines. "About Elly" also confronts cultural biases with its depiction of Iran's upper middle class.

"Effie Gray" tackles the sexual politics of the Victorian era, and with a screenplay from Emma Thompson, it's sure to be intriguing as well as quick-witted. Speaking of intriguing, "The Age of Adaline" follows a woman who mysteriously stopped aging eight decades ago. Blake Lively centers the film as Adaline, struggling with love and trust and all the other things that might follow when one lives seemingly forever.

Courteney Cox makes her big-screen directorial debut (the actress has previously directed episodes of "Cougar Town," which she stars in) with "Just Before I Go," and screenwiter Gren Wells makes hers as well with "The Road Within." Director Mia Hansen-Løve ("Goodbye First Love") directs Greta Gerwig in "Eden," a look at the rise of French electronic music in the 90s.

The month will also see the release of a few very different documentaries. "The Hand That Feeds" focuses on undocumented immigrants struggling to form an independent union, while "Iris" follows 93-year-old Iris Apfel, a flamboyant New York City fashion icon. "Antarctic Edge: 70° South" is focused on the changing climate of the Antarctic's Peninsula and was made with the collaboration of Rutgers University students and scientists.

We'll also see comedic projects featuring Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("Alex of Venice") and Rose Byrne ("Adult Beginners"). Nia Vardalos returns to the screen with a role in "Helicopter Mom," which promises an outrageous performance from the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star. "Sweet Lorraine" and "Farah Goes Bang" round out the women-centric comedy offerings of the month.

Here are all the women-centric films opening in the month of April. All descriptions are from press materials unless otherwise noted.

April 1

Woman in Gold

"Woman in Gold" is the remarkable true story of one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna during World War II, an elderly Jewish woman, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Klimt’s famous painting "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." Together with her inexperienced but plucky young lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), she embarks upon a major battle, which takes them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the U.S. Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the past along the way.

April 3

The Hand That Feeds (doc) - Co-Written and Co-Directed by Rachel Lears

At a popular bakery café, residents of New York’s Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. But behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma López has never been interested in politics, but in January 2012 he convinces a small group of his co-workers to fight back.

Risking deportation and the loss of their livelihood, the workers team up with a diverse crew of innovative young organizers and take the unusual step of forming their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers will battle in back rooms, Occupy Wall Street protesters will take over the restaurant, and a picket line will divide the neighborhood. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent for low-wage workers across the country. But whatever happens, Mahoma and his coworkers will never be exploited again.

Effie Gray - Written by Emma Thompson

In her original screenplay “Effie Gray,” Emma Thompson takes a bold look at the real-life story of the Effie Gray-John Ruskin marriage, while courageously exposing what was truly hiding behind the veil of their public life. Set in a time when neither divorce nor gay marriage were an option, “Effie Gray” is the story of a young woman (Dakota Fanning) coming of age and finding her own voice in a world where women were expected to be seen but not heard. “Effie Gray” explores the roots of sexual intolerance, which continue to have a stronghold today, while shedding light on the marital politics of the Victorian era.

April 8

About Elly

As with director Asghar Farhadi's better-known films, “About Elly” concerns the affluent, well-educated, cultured, and only marginally religious members of Iran's upper-middle class. Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), a pretty young woman invited as a possible romantic interest for one of the newly single men among this group, disappears suddenly without a trace. The festive atmosphere quickly turns frantic as friends accuse one another of responsibility. Plot-wise, Farhadi's drama has been compared to “L’Avventura”; but the film is less concerned with Elly's disappearance per se than with exploring the intricate mechanisms of deceit, brutality, and betrayal which come into play when ordinary circumstances take a tragic turn.

April 10

Clouds of Sils Maria

At the peak of her international career, Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then, she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant (Kristen Stewart) to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal (Chloë Grace Moretz) is to take on the role of Sigrid, and Maria finds herself on the other side of the mirror, face to face with an ambiguously charming woman who is, in essence, an unsettling reflection of herself.

The Sisterhood of Night - Directed by Caryn Waechter and Written by Marilyn Fu

Based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Millhauser, "The Sisterhood of Night" is a story of friendship and loyalty set against the backdrop of a modern-day Salem witch trial. Shot on location in Kingston, NY, the film chronicles a group of girls who have slipped out of the world of social media into a mysterious world deep in the woods. The tale begins when Emily Parris (Kara Hayward) exposes a secret society of teenage girls. Accusing them of committing sexually deviant acts, Emily’s allegations throw their small American town into the national media spotlight. The mystery deepens when each of the accused takes a vow of silence. What follows is a chronicle of three girls’ unique and provocative alternative to the loneliness of adolescence, revealing the tragedy and humor of teenage years changed forever by the Internet age.

Farah Goes Bang - Directed by Meera Menon, Written by Laura Goode and Meera Menon

A road-trip comedy that centers on Farah (Nikohl Boosheri), a twenty-something woman who tries to lose her virginity while campaigning for John Kerry in 2004. Farah and her friends K.J. and Roopa follow the campaign trail to Ohio, seizing this charged moment in their lives and the life of their country.

April 17

Closer to the Moon

Set in 1959 Bucharest, “Closer to the Moon” opens as the crime is hatched and executed by old friends from the WWII Jewish Resistance, who seek to recapture the excitement of their glory days. Led by a chief police inspector (Mark Strong) and a political academic (Vera Farmiga), the quintet also includes a respected history professor (Christian McKay), a hotshot reporter (Joe Armstrong), and a space scientist (Tim Plester). Their postwar influence fading amid an ongoing Stalinist purge of Jews and intellectuals, the disillusioned gang retaliates by hijacking a van delivering cash to the Romanian National Bank, staging the robbery to make it look like a movie shoot. Caught and convicted in a kangaroo court, the culprits, with help from an eyewitness (Harry Lloyd) to the robbery, are forced to reenact their crime in a devious anti-Semitic propaganda film.

Felix & Meira

Winner of Best Canadian Feature at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, “Félix & Meira” is the story of an unconventional romance between two people living vastly different realities mere blocks away from one another. Each lost in their everyday lives, Meira (Hadas Yaron), a Hasidic Jewish wife and mother, and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a Secular loner mourning the recent death of his estranged father, unexpectedly meet in a local bakery in Montreal's Mile End district. What starts as an innocent friendship becomes more serious as the two wayward strangers find comfort in one another. As Felix opens Meira's eyes to the world outside of her tight-knit Orthodox community, her desire for change becomes harder for her to ignore, ultimately forcing her to choose: remain in the life that she knows or give it all up to be with Félix.

Alex of Venice - Co-Written by Jessica Goldberg and Katie Nehra

In “Alex of Venice,” workaholic environmental attorney Alex Vedder (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is forced to reinvent herself after her husband (Chris Messina) suddenly leaves the family. Dealing with an aging father (Don Johnson) who still aspires to succeed as an actor, an eccentric sister (Katie Nehra), and an extremely shy son (Skylar Gaertner), Alex is bombarded with everything from the mundane to hilariously catastrophic events without a shoulder to lean on. Realizing she will thrive with or without her husband, Alex discovers her hidden vulnerability as well as her inner strength as she fights to keep her family intact in the midst of the most demanding and important case of her career.

Cas & Dylan - Written by Jessie Gabe

When 61-year-old self-proclaimed loner and terminally ill Dr. Cas Pepper (Richard Dreyfuss) reluctantly agrees to give 22-year-old social misfit Dyland Morgan (Tatiana Maslany) a very short lift home, the last thing he anticipates is that he will strike her angry boyfriend with his car, find himself on the lam, and ultimately drive across the country with an aspiring young writer determined to help him overcome his own bizarre case of suicide-note writer's block. But as fate would have it, that is exactly what happens. Suddenly Cas's solo one-way trip out West isn't so solo. With Dylan at his side, the two take off on an adventure that will open their eyes to some of life's lessons -- both big and small.

Antarctic Edge: 70° South (doc) - Directed by Dena Seidel

Dena Seidel’s documentary not only offers rare, beautifully shot footage of West Antarctic Pennisula's rapidly changing environment, studying the connections that reveal the concrete impact of climate change; it is also a one-of-a-kind collaboration between the Rutgers University Film Bureau and the Rutgers Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences and contains interviews and insights from some of the world’s leading ocean researchers. It is a fascinating look at their life’s work trying to understand how to maintain our planet.

The Road Within - Written and Directed by Gren Wells

Vincent (Robert Sheehan), a young man with Tourette's syndrome, faces drastic changes after his mother dies. Because his politician father is too ashamed of the disorder to have Vincent accompany him on the campaign, Vincent is shuttled off to an unconventional clinic. There he finds unexpected community with an obsessive-compulsive roommate and an anorexic young woman, and romance eventually -- and uneasily -- follows.

One of Variety's "10 Directors to Watch," screenwriter Gren Wells makes her directorial debut with this ambitious yet light-hearted coming-of-age tale about the potent medicine we all carry within ourselves. The film is packed with a talented ensemble, from emerging talents Zoë Kravitz, Dev Patel, and Sheehan to beloved veterans Kyra Sedgwick and Robert Patrick.

April 23

Sweet Lorraine

The double life of a Methodist minister's wife (played by Tatum O'Neal) catches up to her, as her husband campaigns for mayor in a small New Jersey town.

April 24

Just Before I Go - Directed by Courtney Cox

Ted Morgan (Seann William Scott) has been treading water for most of his life. After his wife leaves him, Ted realizes he has nothing left to live for. Summoning the courage for one last act, Ted decides to go home and face the people he feels are responsible for creating the shell of a person he has become. But life is tricky. The more determined Ted is to confront his demons, to get closure, and to withdraw from his family, the more Ted is yanked into the chaos of their lives. So, when Ted Morgan decides to kill himself, he finds a reason to live.

The Age of Adaline

After miraculously remaining 29-years-old for almost eight decades, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) has lived a solitary existence, never allowing herself to get close to anyone who might reveal her secret. But a chance encounter with charismatic philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) reignites her passion for life and romance. When a weekend with his parents (Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker) threatens to uncover the truth, Adaline makes a decision that will change her life forever.

Adult Beginners - Co-Written by Liz Flahive (Simultaneously releasing to VOD)

A young, hipster entrepreneur (Nick Kroll) crashes and burns on the eve of his company’s big launch. With his entire life in disarray, he leaves Manhattan to move in with his estranged pregnant sister (Rose Byrne), brother-in-law (Bobby Cannavale), and three-year-old nephew in the suburbs – only to become their manny. Faced with real responsibility, he may finally have to grow up – but not without some bad behavior first.

Eden - Directed and Co-Written by Mia Hansen-Løve

The film follows the life of a French DJ who's credited with inventing "French house" or the "French touch," a type of French electronic music that became popular in the 1990s. Greta Gerwig costars. (IMDB)

24 Days - Co-Written by Emilie Frèche

January 20, 2006: After dinner with his family, Ilan Halimi (Syrus Shahidi) gets a call from a beautiful girl who had approached him at work and makes plans to meet her for coffee. Ilan didn't suspect a thing. He was 23 and had his whole life ahead of him. The next time Ilan's family heard from him was through a cryptic online message from kidnappers demanding a ransom in exchange for their son's life. (IMDB)

Helicopter Mom - Directed by Salomé Breziner

An overbearing mom (Nia Vardalos) decides that college would be more affordable if her son were to win an LGBT scholarship, so she outs him to his entire high school. However, he might not be gay. (Rotten Tomatoes)

April 29

Iris (doc) (Opening in New York City)

"Iris" pairs legendary 87-year-old documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even in Iris' dotage, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. "Iris" portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art, and people are life's sustenance and reminds us that dressing, and indeed life, is nothing but an experiment. Despite the abundance of glamour in her current life, she continues to embrace the values and work ethic established during a middle-class Queens upbringing during the Great Depression.

April 30

Marie’s Story

At the turn of the 19th century, a humble artisan and his wife have a daughter, Marie (Ariana Rivoire), who is born deaf and blind and unable to communicate with the world around her. Desperate to find a connection to their daughter and avoid sending her to an asylum, the Heurtins send fourteen-year-old Marie to the Larnay Institute in central France, where an order of Catholic nuns manage a school for deaf girls. There, the idealistic Sister Marguerite (Isabelle Carré) sees in Marie a unique potential, and despite her Mother Superior's (Brigitte Catillon) skepticism, vows to bring the wild young thing out of the darkness into which she was born. Based on true events, “Marie's Story” recounts the courageous journey of a young nun and the lives she would change forever, confronting failures and discouragement with joyous faith and love. (Film Movement)

COLLABORATOR NY Screenings

Ted Hope — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:30:00 GMT

This June COLLABORATOR will have two special screenings here in New York City before its July theatrical release.

The first is June 18th at the IFC center, and the second is on June 19th at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. Hal Hartley will be there to present on the 18th, and Martin Donovan, David Morse, and Ted Hope will be there to answer your questions on both nights.

June 18th:

IFC Center

7pm

Buy tickets online.

June 19th:

Museum of the Moving Image

Buy tickets online.

Find out more about Collaborator on Prescreen.

Collaborator premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, winning several awards including best actor for David Morse.

Read director, writer, and star, Martin Donovan's thoughts on creating Collaborator.

Check out Collaborator's Facebook page, and find more information about the film and its upcoming release from Tribeca Film on VOD, iTunes, Amazon, VUDU on June 19th here.

And read about previous coverage of Collaborator on Hopeforfilm here, here, and here

2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards Announces Tickets, Judges & Schedule

Ted Hope — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:30:02 GMT

2012 VIMEO FESTIVAL + AWARDS PROGRAM GATHERS THE GREATS TO EXPLORE WHAT'S NEXT FOR CREATIVE VIDEO
Tickets Now Available; Awards Voting Open To The Public;

Complete List of Judges Released, Including Peter Greenaway, Mike Figgis, Casey Neistat And Alana Blanchard

Vimeo®, an operating business of IAC [NASDAQ: IACI], today announced its program for the 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards, featuring conversations with industry leaders; educational workshops for beginners, enthusiasts, and professionals; and a wide range of video screenings. Vimeo also released the complete list of Awards judges and opened up shortlist voting to the public.

“There has never been a better time to be creator,” said Jeremy Boxer, Director of the Vimeo Festival + Awards. “The Internet has created a leveled playing field, so that now everyone can fundraise, shoot, edit, and distribute their projects. What's next for online video? Well, that's what we will be exploring at this year's festival with the help of our awesome speakers. We have designed the festival to have something for everyone from any level of experience. Now that the barrier to entry has come crashing down perhaps we can find new creators with ideas yet to be seen and encourage so many others to start using their imagination so they too can start to create."

The Vimeo Festival + Awards will take place on June 7-9, 2012, in New York City at the Vimeo HQ and surrounding area. Film and video luminaries such as Mike Figgis, Ted Hope, Kyle Cooper, and Lucy Walker, will gather to address critical themes such as storytelling, creativity, building an audience and fundraising. Vimeo will host screenings of the winning videos and premiere work including Limbo, a new film by 2010 Grand Prize Winner Eliot Rausch, made using grant money from his award.

Festival highlights include:

Keynote Address: The End of the Beginning with Dr. Reginald Watts

Failure FTW (For The Win)

The Story Is Everything

Director Profiles

Building Your Audience

The Art of Getting Paid

The Future of Creative Careers; and many more.

Attendees can participate in a variety of workshops that cater to all ability levels — including:

·         Animation Creation Station, Audience Participation with Andy Bruntel, Sean Pecknold and Kirsten Lepore;

·         Beginning for Beginners with Vimeo’s Dan Hayek;

·         Digi Bootcamp – Featuring The Sloth Invasion! with Lucy Cooke and Shooting People's Ingrid Kopp;

·         Impossible Things On A Shoestring with Josh Ruben and Vincent Peone;

·         Proactive Storytelling Instead Of Reactive Coverage with Stillmotion;

·         The Right Camera for the Right Job with Philip Bloom;

·         Sound: The Other Half Of Your Video with Michael Coleman;

·         The Self-Expression Tsunami with Casey Neistat;

·         Vimeo Tips & Tricks;

·         Vimeo Developer Workshops; and many more.

The event will kick off with the Vimeo Awards show, held on June 7 at NYU Skirball Center, where Vimeo will recognize the best videos online by revealing the 2012 winners. The show will combine innovative projection, staging, sound, and sensory-reactive technologies with live performances and special surprises.

Attendees of the Vimeo Festival can choose from a two-day ticket package (including access to Closing Night Party) for $60, a one-day package for $40, or a screening pass for $20. A limited number of tickets to the Awards show are available for $25 each atvimeo.com/awards/tickets.

Newly announced judges for the 2012 Vimeo Awards include professional surfer Alana Blanchard in the Action Sports category, acclaimed directors/producers Mike Figgis, Peter Greenaway in Experimental, and Casey Neistat in Narrative. See the complete list of judges atvimeo.com/awards/judges.

In addition, the public-voting phase for the Vimeo Awards begins today. Video enthusiasts throughout the world are encouraged to vote online at www.vimeoawards.com. Each category will be evaluated by a mix of industry experts in that category and the category winner from the 2010 Awards, taking into account the community vote. Voting closes on April 30, 2012.

For additional information, visit the Vimeo Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Vimeo) or follow Vimeo on Twitter (@Vimeo and @VimeoFestAwards). The official hashtag for the 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards is #VimeoFest.

Film Society at Lincoln Center and Double Hope Films Present: Indie Night Screening Series -- CARRÉ BLANC -- Wednesday May 2nd

Ted Hope — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:30:00 GMT

This will be our 3rd Indie Night at Film Society Of Lincoln Center, and although I have been programming movies for you for close to three years now, I have not yet been able to bring you any sci-fi films. That changes with this offering, and, man, it's been worth the wait.

When first features work, as this one does, they can be remarkable displays, often representing what the director has long dreamed of expressing, free of the general self-censorship that market considerations bring. On their first feature, creators often feel a far greater pressure to demonstrate what their authorial voice represents; perhaps it is because of this pressure that it is hard to find true confidence and discipline on display in many early works. But, holy cow, that is that not the case with Jean-Baptiste Leonetti's CARRÉ BLANC (White Square) -- yet a further proof of the colossal wave of international greatness that is defining cinema today.

Whereas America's corporately engineered cinema implicitly lusts for a dystopian future while it delivers pat excuses of psychological backstory (instead of character complexity), empty images full of flash (but devoid of real-world emotion, politics, ethics, or meaning), surface level editing (that removes any understanding of place), a willingness to introduce new narrative elements solely to advance the plot, & shock (for sensation not understanding), cinema worthy of the term art -- like CARRÉ BLANC -- does quite the opposite. If you are looking for an antidote to THE HUNGER GAMES or even want to see a true alternative, join us. Some people may call CARRÉ BLANC too tense or brooding, dark or bleak -- but for me it is nothing short of exhilarating, heartfelt, electrifying. thoughtful, and fully capable of maintaining a sense of humor and fun in these dark times.

Leonetti's nameless and brutal totalitarian regime is far more scary than what we've been delivered as of late precisely because it seems like a future we not only could have had, but still might. CARRÉ BLANC is delivered in haunting precise images, sounds, and actions. Full of legitimate suspense, references and riffs, from Stanley Milgram's social science experiments to classic sic-fi cinema like SOYLENT GREEN & SILENT RUNNING, we are given a world that extends far beyond the narrative's confines, where constant threat of violence indicates the begging need for revolution -- be it of the society and it's practices or that of the individual's heart and mind. At the heart of CARRÉ BLANC remains a love story, capturing both the trauma and shared mission that modern society needs to breed honest love and it does this with us, not in spite of us.

This is a world of cinema that I want more of: sci-fi for adults, expressing ideas while maintaining a discipline, love, and even sense of humor for composition, and an appreciative commitment to both restraint and excess -- the ying/yang that makes each element truly sing. CARRÉ BLANC is a film that benefits from its financial limitations, enhancing its art with imagination, while remaining committed to cinema's core attributes of image, sound, & time (composition, juxtaposition, pace). It raises the bar for what we should demand from all cinema.

CARRÉ BLANC is the type of film that summons your memories of great works by the great directors, and it doesn't suffer for it. BRAZIL, 2001, SOLARIS, THX 1138. It made me giddy in the same way that Aronofsky's PI & Jone's MOON did, in that I knew a major new director arrived, and one that would take me to places I myself would never imagine, yet once arrived, would forever dream (not always pleasantly!) about.

Order tickets: www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/carre-blanc

If the following review doesn't make you order a ticket right now then you clearly are not the audience for the film: www.dailyfilmdose.com/2011/09/tiff-2011-carre-blabc.html

"George Orwell as filtered through Andrei Tarkovsky" -- Todd Brown / Twitch.com

And more: smellslikescreenspirit.com/2011/09/carre-blanc-review/

Watch the trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3X4YW50Ptk

And please come see the film Wednesday May 2nd at 8:00 PM at the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Wed, May 2

8:00 PM

Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center

144 W. 65TH St

New York, NY 10023

Take a break and come join me, director Jean-Baptiste Leonetti, and some of his team at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Indie Night”.

Most sincerely, and forever hopeful about film,

Ted

Film Society at Lincoln Center and Double Hope Films Present: Indie Night Screening Series -- A LITTLE CLOSER -- Thursday April 5th

Ted Hope — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:30:00 GMT

Hey Film Friends,

Our debut screening at Lincoln Center last month was a great success and completely sold out. Everyone had a great time. I encourage you to order tickets to our next show right now, and use the "affiliate" code to save money when you order. The café in the theater has terrific food and drink so you can make a night of it as we did last month. And of course we have another great, truly indie, film for you this coming Thursday night.

What with the bombast of Hollywood's regular fare, I find sanctuary in the true indie work that is committed to unlocking our present day reality. My next screening at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's INDIE NIGHT delivers all of this to you:

emotional truth and honesty,

clarity and discipline,

simplicity yet reach and ambition --

and most perhaps,

enjoyment and pleasure in the odd, little moments that can define a life.

Director Matthew Petock's A LITTLE CLOSER, won best feature at the Lone Star Film Festival. A remarkably assured first feature for a director barely out of film school, Petock's debut rips a page out of Raymond Carver's stories. Far more seasoned artists have struggled to capture emotional truth while not falling into the trap of sentimentality. Petock manages to walk that line.

Martin Scorcese had this to say about A LITTLE CLOSER:

"Matthew Petock's first feature shows him to be a director of depth sensitivity and assurance. He captures the quiet emotions and heartbreak of his characters with profound respect for the dignity of the everyday struggles in life and what it means to be a family. A LITTLE CLOSER is a hauntingly beautiful film and a remarkable debut."

As with last month's WITHOUT and its director Mark Jackson, Petock’s A LITTLE CLOSER is part of a trend (dare I say: a movement) of naturalist micro-budget filmmaking emerging from Brooklyn, but blossoming in far off locales. They share a gaze towards the class divide that defines our time, a respect for working people and the challenges we all now face.

Matthew Petock does not wallow in the filmmaking constraints financial hardship imposes, but instead delivers a full vision, never wanting, with all the creative aspects in full service to his vision. A LITTLE CLOSER introduces us to a working mother who may be a single parent with two young sons who try her patience and test their boundaries, but we also get to share in her joy when she too gets the brief respite she's been yearning for.

Great movies! Great discussion! Discount tix! Discount food & booze! Pretty awesome if you ask me.

Check out the trailer: http://alittlecloserfilm.com/trailer

Check out A Little Closer's website: http://alittlecloserfilm.com/

Order tickets now at: http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/a-little-closer

And please come see the film Thursday April 5th at 8:00 PM at the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

"A LITTLE CLOSER"
Thursday, April 5th
8:00 PM
ELINOR BUNIN MUNROE FILM CENTER
144 W. 65TH St
New York, NY 10023

Take a break and come join me, director Matthew Petock, and some of his team at Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Indie Night”.

Most sincerely, and forever hopeful about film,

Ted

Trumping The Industry with Kickstarter: Women Support Women To Get Movies Made And Seen

Lydia Dean Pilcher — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:30:00 GMT

We’re nearing the end of an ambitious Kickstarter campaign for an independent film, “The Sisterhood of Night.” Adapted from a short story by Pulitzer prize-winning author Steven Millhauser, our movie is a modern twist on the Salem witch trials. It deals with teen girls and the wild west of the Internet, its potential for casual, breathtaking cruelty, and its capacity to connect and share - all slippery new challenges to this transitional generation. "The Sisterhood of Night" is about holding close what makes you different, through diversity of thought and culture. It shines a light on the dangers of cyberbullying, but it also suggests that there are ways of using the Internet to find your inner creative spirit and tap into positivity.

But this journey began a few years ago. When my producing partner, Elizabeth Cuthrell, and I first met director Caryn Waechter and screenwriter Marilyn Fu, we fell in love with their irrepressible energy and their quest to find beauty, fun, and meaning in the dark edges of life. We worked for a couple of years with Caryn and Marilyn, further adapting the original material from an 80's setting to our contemporary digital world.

Despite our passion--having a first time feature director and deeply female material, and a teen cast with no vampires--we found it hard to gain traction with the conventional ways of financing. It’s no surprise that women are more likely to green light women's pictures, have more confidence in women directors, and be more interested in stories about female characters. The scarcity of women at the top of the business-end of the film industry could have a lot to do with the fact that women made up only 5 percent of directors in Hollywood in 2011.

In addition, the issue of entry and retention in our industry for independent filmmakers, women filmmakers, and diverse filmmakers is a very serious matter. It takes someone with real vision in the studio executive's chair, and strong-minded passionate producers, to push back against the mediocre middle ground which studios tend to feed.

With crowd funding, audiences now have a vehicle to push back as well. Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites provide an opportunity for individuals to influence the development of independent film projects at the ground level, and give these films the momentum they need to go into or finish production, with or without Hollywood’s consent. Audiences can vote with their dollars and contribute to the development of projects, rather than just be mere consumers at the end of the line.

Last year saw Dee Rees’ Pariah break out of the pack at Sundance to be picked up by Focus Features, making it the first film in Kickstarter’s two year history to do so. The 2012 Sundance festival unveiled a total of seven out of fourteen Kickstarter narrative and documentary film projects by women directors and co-directors, including Aurora Guerrero’s Mosquita y Mari, Alison Kayman’s Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry; Lisanne Pajot’s Indie Game: The Movie; Erin Greenwell’s My Best Day; Katie Aselton’s Black Rock and Valerie Veatch’s Me.

And for The Sisterhood of Night, beyond getting financial momentum for the project itself, the biggest reward of our campaign has been the community we are building around our movie.

We’ve been impressed by the number of women directors backing us in order to help another woman director. Katherine Dieckmann, director of “Motherhood,” emailed to say, “I absolutely want to back this, so count me in, and I’ll pledge right now... I teach so many amazing young female filmmakers at Columbia (and they are super-diverse, often coming to me from everywhere from Russia to Laos) & it breaks my heart when they can’t get their projects made.” Other women directors who are backing Sisterhood include Mary Harron, Mehreen Jabbar, Katja von Garnier, Maggie Greenwald, Gina Prince Bythewood, Mira Nair, Tina Mabry, Pamela Yates, Sara Terry, Lilly Scourtis Ayers, Angela Tucker, Stephanie Wang-Breal, Ursula Liang, Suzi Yoonessi, Joyce Dragonsky and we’re still counting!

While our director, Caryn has been tirelessly shooting and editing videos for our campaign updates (you can see them all on our Kickstarter page), our screenwriter Marilyn Fu tapped into her Taiwanese-American community, and they in turn showed huge support for Marilyn’s unique voice as well as for positive cultural images in the media. One of the Sisterhood characters is Taiwanese American, loosely based on Marilyn’s teen years growing up in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

Through this Kickstarter campaign and a teen art contest we’ve created called Wanna Know A Secret?, we’re using social media in a way that wouldn’t have been imagineable a few years ago. And because of this, we have no doubt, our movie will be deeper and evermore far reaching.

Kickstarter has filled a real need in bringing people together to fund the projects they want to create, and the results have been -- and continue to be -- amazing. Kickstarter is expecting to bring in a total of $150 million in funding this year – more than the $146 million provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Last weekend we surpassed our goal of $100,000 and we will continue to receive pledges thru March 10th, the last date of the campaign. Now we want to keep building our Sisterhood community, reaching out to our audience, and discovering new supporters. We plan to start shooting this summer, and the funds that continue to come in during this final week will get us that much closer to the final film. By pledging as little as a dollar you can become a member of the Sisterhood, privy to all of our progress updates as we bring this movie to your screen -whatever size that may be! Every pledge at every reward level proves that we are a fan-funded film that has found an audience before the director has even called "Action!"

Feel free to share wildly. Who knows what other discoveries we will continue to make together?

Lydia Dean Pilcher is founder of Cine Mosaic, a production company making independent feature films with an energetic focus on provocative and entertaining stories that promote social, cultural and political diversity. Pilcher has produced over 30 feature films and is currently in post production with The Reluctant Fundamentalist, directed by Mira Nair, based on the highly acclaimed novel by Mohsin Hamid. Also upcoming for production is Fela: Music is the Weapon, which she developed at Focus Features with Steve McQueen set to direct.

Film Society at Lincoln Center and Double Hope Films Present: Indie Night Screening Series -- WITHOUT -- Tuesday March 6th

Ted Hope — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:30:00 GMT

Hi Film Friends,

I know, it's been awhile since I invited you to a screening. My apologies.

In my efforts to make the world safe for Indie Film, I am pleased to invite you to a new venue: no less than the Film Society at Lincoln Center's re-born Indie Night series, now at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. We've got more seats, and more comfortable ones too! We will be taping & streaming the Q&A with the director!! And now we are also going to be able to pay the filmmakers a small fee (yay!)!!!

I want you to come see Mark Jackson's WITHOUT. It truly is one of my favorite films of the past year and I am thrilled I can show it to you. WITHOUT has won numerous awards, including most recently, the Indie Spirit Someone To Watch Award. It is a remarkable film, made even more remarkable by the fact that it is a first feature, and one made for a micro, micro budget. Not only is Mark a directing talent to watch, so is the star Joslyn Jensen, and the DP & Producer Jessica Dimmock.

Like all good movies, it's complicated to describe. At its heart, is a one-sided love story about one of the most powerful emotions in both life & cinema: longing -- a desire capable of altering both the perception & interpretation of our experiences. Few films, of any scale, have captured the essence of longing as well as Jackson’s debut feature, WITHOUT, does in both its form and content. The film’s economy of means helps to deliver a rare truth throughout its beautiful images, precise framing, quiet tone, & the mesmerizing introduction to star Josyln Jensen. Long after it has ended, even long after having watched it, WITHOUT still resonates: did we just live a love song, a ghost story, or a quiet thriller? Jackson delivers with his first outing what filmmakers strive for decades to obtain: the realest of real, the beauty of beauty, & the sweet pain of a never-ending early love. What more could one want?

There are few times when you can recount "I was there when", but I do think you will want to say it about this trio of talents, collaborating so well, and presenting it at this citadel of cinema, Lincoln Center. The fact that they will inaugurate this new series, which will bring you the faithful, the latest of the greatest of true indie work, is just more icing on the cake. When the lights come on, we will discuss the work with them, and then celebrate with drink and more discussion. Seriously, vote with your dollars for the culture you want. This is it. Trust me. Occupy the seats. Don't settle for pale corporate approximation. This is where cinema lives, survives and thrives. For real cinema, truly free film, is a dialogue with the audience, a pledge by the community, and a reminder that we won't settle for culture that doesn't reach higher, speak truth, innovate form and process, and deliver us honest and original beauty. WITHOUT honors us with all of this and more.

Check out all the great reviews and awards at: www.rightonredfilms.com

Order tickets now at: www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/without

And please come see the film Tuesday March 6th at 8P at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and then stay as I moderate a discussion with the filmmakers.

Follow the film on Twitter @withoutmovie.

And follow DP/Producer @jessicadimmock and star @joslynjensen on Twitter.

Thanks for coming. Vote with your dollars for the culture you want. We can build it better together. We have to support the things we love. The future is up to us.

Ted

Official Press Release: Ted Hope To Curate Lincoln Center's "Indie Night" Series

Ted Hope — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER KICKS OFF TWO NEW MONTHLY FILM SERIES DEVOTED TO DOCUMENTARIES, ART OF THE REAL AND THE BEST INDEPENDENT FILMS OF TODAY, INDIE NIGHT

AWARD-WINNING PRODUCER TED HOPE WILL GUEST CO-PROGRAM INDIE NIGHT FOR 2012.

FUTURE CO-CURATOR'S INCLUDE NOTABLE PRODUCERS CHRISTINE VACHON, JAY VAN HOY AND LARS KNUDSEN

New York, NY – (February 22, 2012) The Film Society of Lincoln Center is proud to announce two new monthly series spotlighting up and coming directors. Art of the Real, is a new monthly documentary showcase that will take audiences on a tour of the most innovative and consciousness-raising, non-fiction filmmaking being made in the world today. The series kicks off with March and April documentary selections, SHAKESPEARE HIGH and THEY CALL IT MYANMAR: LIFTING THE CURTAIN.

“Documentary filmmakers are the investigative journalists of cinema - showing us extraordinary feats, taking us places we’ve never been and introducing us to characters that could change our world. We’re proud to bring their untold stories to our screens and introduce them to audiences each month,” says Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Associate Director of Programming Marian Masone, who is programming Art of the Real with Programming Associate Isa Cucinotta.

Indie Night will spotlight the best and boldest new wave of independent cinema. In keeping with the tradition of supporting and showcasing emerging filmmakers, this new series will also be shaped by notable guest curators who hail from the American indie vanguard.

“The American indie film scene is going through a major renaissance right now, thanks to the low costs of digital filmmaking and the emergence of new distribution platforms,” says Film Society Associate Program Director Scott Foundas. “At the same time, this series can be seen as the latest permutation of the Film Society’s longstanding commitment to emerging artists, which dates back to the creation of the New Directors/New Films festival more than 40 years ago.”

Award-wining producer Ted Hope (MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, ADVENTURELAND) has been announced as co-curator’s of the series for the next year, alongside FSLC Associate Program Director Scott Foundas. Hope will curate the upcoming 2012 series. Additional co-curators confirmed for the future include producers Christine Vachon (FAR FROM HEAVEN, BOYS DON’T CRY), Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen (BEGINNERS, THE LONELIEST PLANET, OLD JOY).

"It's just not true that all great movies get seen. Filmmakers have never been more generative, ambitious, and skilled than they are today, but for all their talent, good work still slips by. We are in the midst of a film revolution & we all must occupy the seats if we want the culture we love to not only survive, but also to thrive. The Film Society of Lincoln Center is one of the most prestigious and best programmed screens, and it is an honor for me to be part of it,” says Hope. “Now with a re-born Indie Night, we have the potential to bring artists and fans together to create an engaged community that will work together to make sure all of this unique, thrilling, and exciting work will not be overlooked. The directors will be in the house, the films will shine, igniting our passions and mind, afterwards we will talk and debate, rant and rave, and the drinks will flow. The Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center will be an indie film salon once a month -- and if people are fed up with film as usual, this is where the next fires will all get started."

Both series will include additional in-person filmmaker appearances, panel discussions and more to engage audiences in discussion. Look out for additional announcements and updates on guest programmers and films for the year ahead.

ART OF THE REAL

Films, Descriptions & Schedule

Shakespeare High. Alex Rotaru, USA, 2011, Digital; 80m
Every year a wide cross-section of high school students prepare for the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California Shakespeare Competition. The unwieldy name of this contest belies the energy and excitement of the event, as well as the enthusiasm of the students who take part. Director Alex Rotaru’s lively documentary follows the ups and downs of many of the participants of this annual tournament, which claims such luminaries as Kevin Spacey, Sally Field and Richard Dreyfus as alumni (Spacey and actress Mare Winningham appear in the film giving some teens a pep talk). The tournament is team building at its finest, and the groups Rotaru follows are an appealing multicultural mix from former gangbangers to girls from a Catholic high school, who perform scenes from Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, and other masterworks with gusto. While the tension of who will win is compelling, there is a larger story of how theater can save kids living on the edge. As arts education is being assailed as a luxury in schools, Shakespeare High proves that it is a necessity, and the students who perform--win or lose--are proof positive of that. A Cinema Guild release.
*March 7 at 6:30pm at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
**Q&A to follow with director Alex Rotaru and subjects from the film

They Call it Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain. Robert H. Lieberman, 2011, USA, Digital; 90m
A rare glimpse behind the scenes of one of the most isolated countries in the world, Burma (or Myanmar, as the ruling military junta renamed it in 1989). Writer and filmmaker Robert H. Lieberman secretly filmed the everyday lives of ordinary citizens over a period of two years - lives defined by food shortages, power cuts, and a lack of health care and education. This land of countless golden pagodas that not so long ago was renowned as the "rice bowl of Asia" is now a place of terrible poverty, which has led to widespread child labor and trafficking. In a remarkable interview, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks about the recent history of Burma and her many years under house arrest for her political activities. Anonymous commentators talk about the character of this regime, which has absolutely no communication with its population, but uses physical repression to hold the country in its iron grip. The film explores how Buddhism has influenced the way in which the Burmese deal with difficult living conditions. This film is a portrait of a land where beauty and decay, and fear and courage, closely coexist.
*April 3 at 6:30pm at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
**Q&A to follow with director Robert H. Leiberman

INDIE NIGHT

Film, Description & Schedule

Without. Mark Jackson, 2011, USA; 88m
Longing is one of the most powerful emotions in both life and cinema, altering the perception and interpretation of our experiences. Few films of any scale have captured the essence of longing as well as Mark Jackson’s debut feature, Without, does in both its form and content. The film’s economy of means helps to deliver a rare truth throughout its beautiful images, quiet tone and the mesmerizing introduction to star Josyln Jensen. Long after it has ended, this multiple prize-winning film still resonates: did we just live a love song, a ghost story, or a quiet thriller? Jackson delivers with his first outing what filmmakers strive for decades to achieve: the realest of real, the beauty of beauty and the sweet pain of a never-ending early love.
* March 6 at 8:00pm at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
**Q&A to follow with director Mark Jackson

Film Society of Lincoln Center

Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, 42BELOW, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com

Tribeca Films Acquires Martin Donovan's COLLABORATOR

Ted Hope — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:30:00 GMT

TRIBECA FILM ACQUIRES U.S. RIGHTS TO COLLABORATOR

***

Summer Release Planned for Comedic Drama Starring Martin Donovan and David Morse

***

Donovan’s Directorial Debut to Reach Nationwide Audiences After Well-Received Festival Run

New York, NY – February 27, 2012 – Tribeca Film announced today that it has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Martin Donovan's directorial debut Collaborator, a comedic drama starring Donovan, David Morse, and Olivia Williams. Tribeca Film plans a summer release across multiple platforms for the film, which had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where the film received the FIPRESCI International Critics' Prize and Morse was awarded the Best Actor prize. The film also has screened to acclaim on the festival circuit at the Hamptons, Philadelphia, Flyway and Mill Valley film festivals. Entertainment One will handle select US home video distribution rights for the film.

Robert Longfellow (Martin Donovan, Insomnia, “Boss”, “Weeds”) is a famous playwright who has seen better days. His recent Broadway play landed with a thud and his marriage is being tested by the reemergence of an old flame (Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer, Rushmore). But all of that pales in comparison to what happens when he crosses paths with a childhood neighbor, Gus (David Morse, The Green Mile, Dancer in the Dark, “Treme”). A right-wing, ex-con who still lives with his mother, Gus is Robert’s polar opposite in every way. The unlikely reunion quickly spirals out of control as Robert finds himself held hostage at gunpoint in his childhood home. The drama unfolds as social status, celebrity and the imminent threat of violence converge, building to a climax that will leave both men forever changed.

With an acclaimed acting career spanning over 20 years, including starring roles in a number of iconic Hal Hartley films beginning with Trust in 1990, Collaborator marks Martin Donovan’s first time behind the camera as a writer and director, and he makes the most of it in this riveting and insightful debut.

The film is produced by Julien Favre, Ted Hope, Luca Matrundola and Pascal Vaguelsy. Donovan wrote the screenplay.

“There is an undeniable intensity and intelligence propelling Collaborator, which is a trademark of Martin Donovan’s work,” said Geoff Gilmore, Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises. “The energy builds scene by scene on the strength of terrific acting by the great ensemble cast led by Martin and David Morse. We are delighted to be introducing this accomplished work to wider audiences through Tribeca Film.”

“The film is a tragi-comedy about America’s obsession with celebrity, violence and the class/cultural divide tossed into the pressure cooker of a hostage drama. David Morse and Olivia Williams embraced the humor and intensity of the piece and filled out the roles of Gus and Emma better than I could have ever dreamed,” said Donovan. “I’m thrilled to have Tribeca Film bringing Collaborator to American audiences. They’re on the cutting edge of 21st century film distribution and have both the resources and sensibility to make sure it is seen by as wide an audience as possible.”

The deal was negotiated for Tribeca Film by Nick Savva, Director of Acquisitions, with producer Ted Hope and Charlotte Mickie, Entertainment One’s EVP Films International.

My Latest Movie Collaboration

Ted Hope — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:30:01 GMT

Screening at SXSW:

Sunday, March 11th, 7pm: Stateside Theatre

Monday, March 12th, 11:30am: Alamo Lamar C

Thursday, March 15th, 6:30pm: Alamo Lamar C

Bingham Ray On "How I Broke Into The Film Industry"

Ted Hope — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:30:04 GMT

“A Tree Falls In The Forest” and Other Ruminations on Social/Community-based Marketing…

Jeffrey Winter, Sheri Candler, and Orly Ravid — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:30:03 GMT

by Jeffrey Winter, Sheri Candler, and Orly Ravid.

The old philosophical thought experiment "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" has never been truer for film distribution. With the incredible number of films available for consumption on innumerable platforms, getting some form of distribution for your film is no longer the core problem. The central issue now is: how will anyone know about it? How will you find your audience? And how will you communicate enough to them to drive them to the point of actually seeing it?

Before we plunge into that question, let’s take one step back and discuss the term “distribution.” In today’s convergence universe, where anyone with technical savvy can be surfing the Internet and watching it on their television, every single person with a high speed internet connection is in some way a “distributor.” Anyone can put content onto their website and their Facebook and de facto make it available to anyone else in the world. Anyone can use DIY distribution services to distribute off their site(s), and get onto larger and / or smaller platforms.

Even getting your film onto some combination of the biggest digital platforms – i.e. iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and Cable VOD – is not insurmountable for most films. We’re not saying it is easy…there are a myriad of steps to go through and rigorous specs at times and varying degree of gatekeepers you’ll have to interface with and get approval from. But with some good guidance (for example, we at the Film Collaborative can help you with that), some cash, and a little persistence…these distribution goals can usually be achieved.

But in a certain way, none of that matters. If you have your film available, say, on iTunes…. how is anyone going to know that? Chances are you aren’t going to get front- page promo placement, so people will have to know how and why to search for it. This is why the flat fee services to get onto iTunes (which we now offer too) do not necessarily mean you will net a profit. Films rarely sell themselves. You are going to have to find the ways to connect to an audience who will actively engage with your film, and create awareness around it, or you will certainly fall into the paradox of the “tree falls in the forest” phenomenon… which many independent filmmakers can relate to.

So we arrive at the current conundrum, how do we drive awareness of our films? The following are the basic “points of light” everyone seems to agree with.

• Use the film festival circuit to create initial buzz.
• If you can, get the film into a break-even theatrical, hybrid theatrical, non-theatrical window that spreads word of mouth on the film.
• Engage the press, both traditional press and blogosphere, to write about the film.
• Build a robust social media campaign, starting as early as possible (ideally during production and post), creating a “community” around your film.
• Build grassroots outreach campaign around any and all like-minded organizations and web-communities (i.e. fan bases, niche audiences, social issue constituencies, lifestyle communities, etc.)
• Launch your film into ancillaries, like DVD and digital distro, and make sure everyone who has heard of the film through the previous five bullet points now knows that they can see the film via ancillary distribution, and feels like a “friend” of the effort to get the word out to the public-at-large. • Be very creative and specific in your outreaches to all these potential partners, engaging them in very targeted marketing messages and media to cut through the glut of information that the average consumer is already barraged with in everyday life. This, above all, means being diligent in finding your true “fans,” i.e. the core audience who will be passionate about your subject matter and help you spread the word.

Our book SELLING YOUR FILM WITHOUT SELLING YOUR SOUL and its companion blog on www.SellingYourFilm.com already highlights a good number of filmmakers who have used some combination of the above tactics to successful effect in finding a “fanbase” of audiences most likely to consume the film. Here, in this posting, we illustrate some additional recent films and tactics useful to filmmakers moving forward with these techniques.

WE WERE HERE, by David Weissman

Selected for the U.S. Documentary Competition by the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, WE WERE HERE tells the emotionally gripping story of the onset of AIDS in San Francisco in the early 1980s. The Film Collaborative handled festival release for this film, as well as international sales and grassroots marketing support on behalf of the theatrical and VOD (and US sales in conjunction with Jonathan Dana). Theatrical distribution, press, and awards campaigning is being handled by Red Flag Releasing.

On the face of it, WE WERE HERE is a documentary about a depressing topic like AIDS, and therefore doesn’t seem like the easiest sell in the world. However, it also happens to be an excellent film that was selected for Sundance and Berlin, as well as a film that has fairly obvious niche audiences that can be identified and targeted. As soon as The Film Collaborative came onboard, about a month prior to the Sundance 2011 premiere, we set about creating a list of more than 300 AIDS organizations in the United States, and reached out to each of them to ask them to get to know us on Facebook and our website, and also offered to send them screeners, in case they wanted to host a special screening down the road etc. Needless to say, we got an enthusiastic response from these groups (since we were doing work they would obviously believe in), but the goal here was not to make any kind of immediate money…we simply wanted them onboard as a community to tap into down the line.

Simultaneously, we created a targeted list of 160 film festivals we thought were best for the film -- mixing major international fests, doc fests, and LGBT fests – and sent each of them a personalized email telling them about the film and asking them if they would like to preview it. The film (to date, is still booking internationally) was ultimately selected by over 100 film festivals (many not on our original target list of course).

As the screenings began, we reminded the filmmaker over and over to follow every introduction and every Q&A with a reminder about “liking” the Facebook page, and completely to his credit, filmmaker Weissman was always active in all aspects of Facebook marketing…always posting relevant information about the film and replying to many “fan” posts personally. Not surprisingly, a film this powerful and personal generated many deeply affecting fan posts from people who had survived the epidemic etc..., or were just deeply moved by the film. As a result, the Facebook page became a powerful hub for the film, which we strongly recommend you check out for a taste of what real fan interaction can look like ( http://www.facebook.com/wewerehere). Warning….a lot of the postings are extremely emotional! One quick note – some of the most active subject members of the doc were made administrators as well, and also respond to the posts…a clever idea as it surely makes the FB fans feel even closer to the film, since they can talk with the cast as well. This would be an interesting thing to try with a narrative film as well…having the cast reply on Facebook (FB)… which is something we haven’t seen much of yet.

With the basics of community built – between the AIDS organizations, the Festivals, and the FB fans, we now had a pool to go back to…. both on theatrical release as well as upon VOD release (which just recently happened on December 9, 2011). For each major theatrical market, and for the VOD release, we went back to these people, and asked them to spread the word. We asked for email blasts, FB posts, tweets…whatever they could do to help spread the word. And without a doubt the film has gotten out there beyond anyone’s wildest initial dreams…although with VOD release only last month and DVD release still to come, final release numbers won’t be known to us for some time now…

But you can be assured we’ll be hitting up our community when the DVD comes out as well! Also please note that these techniques and efforts apply to any niche. For example, on a panel at Idyllwild Film Festival a filmmaker talked about his documentary about his father playing for the Chicago Cubs and how he sold 90,000 DVDs himself (and he also did event theatrical screenings via Emerging Pictures). He simply went after the niche, hard.

HENRY’S CRIME directed by Malcolm Veneville

Starring Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, and James Cannes, world premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. Released in limited theatrical run in April 2011, and available on DVD and digital platforms as of August 2011. Although a film with “A-level” cast, the film was produced independently and distributed independently by Moving Pictures Film and Television. The film tells the story of a wrongly accused man (Reeves) who winds up behind bars for a bank robbery he didn’t commit. After befriending a charismatic lifer (Caan) in prison, Henry finds his purpose — having done the time, he decides he may as well do the crime. Ancillaries for the film are handled by Fox Studios. The Film Collaborative’s sister for-profit company, New American Vision, was brought aboard to handle special word-of-mouth screenings for the film, as well as social media marketing, working in conjunction with several top publicists and social marketing campaign companies in the business.

On the face of it, this film couldn’t possibly be any more different than WE WERE HERE. A narrative, heist/rom-com with major names sounds a lot easier to sell than an AIDS doc with no names. And yet, the process of reaching out to the public was surprisingly similar….both in terms of what we did and what other professional consultants on the project did as well.

First, we targeted major film festivals and major film society organizations around the country for special “word-of-mouth” (WOM) screenings of the film – seeking to create a buzz amongst likely audiences. Since the film was to be theatrically released in major markets, we targeted the festivals/film societies in these markets. This result was successful, and we got major WOM screenings in NY, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, as well as Buffalo…which was important only because the film was shot and set in Buffalo and used significant Buffalo-based crew and resources, making it a perfect market for the film.

Next, we broke the film down into logical first constituencies for the film, which we identified as follows: 1) fans of Keanu Reeves and fans of his prior movies, 2) fans of Vera Farmiga and fans of her prior movies, 3) fans of James Caan and fans of his prior movies, 4) twitter accounts that mentioned any of the cast as well as those dedicated to independent film etc., 5) web communities dedicated to anything related to the playwright Anton Checkov (because the film features significant and lengthy scenes dedicated to Reeves and Farmiga performing Checkov’s Cherry Orchard), 6) key websites dedicated to romantic comedies, 7) key recommenders of independent film, etc. Over the course of approximately six weeks prior to release, we reached out to these sites regularly, in an effort to build excitement for the film.

While this grassroots work was taking place, our colleagues in publicity organized press junkets around the film, and of course solicited reviews. In addition, marketing professionals from both Ginsberg Libby and Moving Pictures were constantly feeding marketing assets for the film as well as exclusive clips both to the major press, key film sites, as well as to the official Facebook and twitter for the movie….all with the same goal in mind…i.e. to create awareness for a film that, although it had the feeling of a traditional Hollywood film in many ways, was actually thoroughly independent and lacking the resources for major TV buys, billboards, print ads, and other traditional marketing techniques.

Unfortunately, in the end, HENRY’S CRIME did not truly take hold, and the theatrical release was far less than stellar. The reviews for the film were not complimentary (it is a good film, but not a great film), and the word-of-mouth was also not sufficient to drive the performance of the film.

This of course often happens with independent film releases, and in this case the lessons learned were particularly instructive. It was apparent while working on the film that the community-building aspects of the marketing campaign started far too late to truly engage an audience large enough to support the release (it only began in earnest about six weeks before the film’s release…even though the film had had its festival world premiere nearly SIX MONTHS before). In addition, HENRY’S CRIME proves the old adage that, sometimes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink…meaning that the word of mouth audiences and press reviews didn’t particularly spark interest in the film in the wider community because they weren’t particularly excited by the film.

This is a lesson sometimes we all need to learn the hard way…that in today’s glutted market, it isn’t always enough to put out a decent movie….in fact in today’s competition, you really need to put out a independent movie that is actually great…or at least connects so deeply with your audience that they are compelled to see it.

Of course, one endless question rages on here. What are the long-tail effects of the outreach? Just because people didn’t turn out in droves to see a film in the theater, does that mean they won’t tune in on a later date in the digital platform of their choice. Certainly many people who have HEARD of Henry’s Crime who didn’t see it in the theater may one day rent it on an available digital platform, and that is why the grassroots work is so critical. We are setting up today what we can’t possibly know until tomorrow….or maybe several years from now.

TAKE-AWAY LESSONS from this post

By comparing these experiences, there are several take-aways that filmmakers should be encouraged to keep in mind when thinking about marketing their independent film. Here are some of them….

1) Build a list, both in the real world and online, of every organization and cross-promotional partner you can think of (or google), that might be interested in your film. Reach out to them about your film, and ask for their support. This is arduous work, but it has to be done. From Sheri Candler: “Initially you will take part in the community before you tell them why you are there. For example, I started researching where online the ballet community hangs out and who they listen to. I also endeavored to meet these people offline when I could. If I was going to be in their city, I asked to meet for coffee. Real life interface when you can. I then started following those online communities and influencers quietly to start with and interjecting comments and posts only when appropriate. They were then curious about me and wanted to hear about the film. If I had gone on to the platforms or contacted the influencers immediately telling them I was working on a film, chances are they would shun me and ruin my chances to form relationships. This is why you have to start so early. When you’re in a hurry, you can’t spend the necessary time to develop relationships that will last, you can’t build the trust you need. It helps to deeply care about the film. I think the biggest takeaway I have learned when it comes to outreach is the very personal nature of it. If you don’t personally care, they can tell. They can tell you are there to use them and people are on their guard not to be used. The ideal situation is they WANT to help, they ASK to help, you don’t have to cajole them into it.”

2) Offer your potential partners something back in return. With a film like WE WERE HERE, this wasn’t difficult…because the film naturally supported their work. But, for most films, you’ll need to offer them something back… like ticket-giveways, promotional emails, branding, opportunities for fundraising around the cause, merchandising give-aways, groups discounts, etc. Be creative in your thinking as to why YOU should get their attention amongst the many other films out there.

3) Community-building is an organic, long-term process… Just like making friends in the real world, the process of making “friends” in community marketing and online takes time and real connection. With WE WERE HERE, we had a year to build connections amongst AIDS orgs, film festivals, and attendees at numerous screenings. The opposite was true with HENRY’S CRIME….six weeks just doesn’t work. Ask yourself…how many “friends” could you make in six weeks?

4) Community-building only really works with films that truly “touch” their audience. In today’s glutted marketplace, you need to make a film that really speaks profoundly to your audience and excites them ….unless of course you have a huge enough marketing budget to simply bludgeon them with numerous impressions (this, of course, is usually reserved to the studios, who can obviously launch mediocre films with great success through brute force). You, probably, cannot do this.

5) You need to be very specific and targeted in your outreach to likeminded organizations etc. Don’t rely on organizations to give you “generalized support.” Provide them with very specific instructions on how and when they should outreach about your film. For example….make sample tweets, sample FB posts, and draft their email blasts for them. Give them as close to a ready-to-go marketing outreach tool as possible…with a specific “call to action” clearly identified.

6) You’ll need warm bodies and some technical know-how on you side to accomplish this. There’s absolutely NOTHING mentioned in this post that an individual filmmaker with a talented team of helpers cannot accomplish. But whether its using HootSuite or Tweetdeck or Facebook analytics, or a compelling set of marketing assets and the time and energy to get them out there….you’ll need a team to help you. Remember, all DIY (do it yourself) marketing is really DIWO (do it with others), and you’ll need to build your team accordingly. If you are short on cash…you’ll likely need to be long on interns and other converts to the cause. But if you are seeking a professional team that’s long on experience and expertise, you can find many of them on The Film Collaborative’s new Resource Place page. There are many services out there to help you who have done this before….you are not alone! Sheri wonders: “how many people are reasonable”? Of course it varies, but I think 4 is safe. A traditional publicist with a big contact list for your target publications who handles press inquiries and placements; an outreach/social media person who is a great fit for your audience to regularly post and answer questions/comments from the audience not the journalists; a distribution/booker who figures out how the film will be distributed and all of the tech specs, shopping carts, contracts, festivals, community screenings that are appropriate; and the graphic designer/web designer who figures out the technical and aesthetic elements needed to make the online impact you will need. It is still a big job for only 4 people but it would be completely overwhelming for just one person to do or a person who doesn’t know what they are doing and a bunch of interns to handle.

7) A final take home: You may not see immediate results of each outreach and we know how dispiriting that can be. A lot of times early in the process, you will fail to connect, fail to get a response, but keep plugging away and you will very often come to enjoy the fruits of your distribution / marketing labor whether by emboldening a cause, generating more revenue, or enhancing your career, or all of the above.

Happy Distributing!!!!

Orly Ravid has worked in film acquisitions / sales / direct distribution and festival programming for the last twelve years since moving to Los Angeles from home town Manhattan. In January 2010, Orly founded The Film Collaborative (TFC), the first non-profit devoted to film distribution of independent cinema. Orly runs TFC w/ her business partner, co-exec director Jeffrey Winter.

"Like Crazy" Co-writing On A Project Without A Script

Ben York Jones — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:30:00 GMT

It’s hard to describe to someone what your role was as co-writer, on a movie they read in the New York Times, “Was Filmed Without a Script.” There’s no succinct answer. I couldn’t Tweet a properly inclusive explanation. Well, I tried. This was after I received a Tweet that seemed to accuse me and by association, my co-writer (the film’s very talented director, Drake Doremus) of self-aggrandizing – for awarding ourselves writing credit on a reportedly script-less film. I remember feeling dismissed. Frustrated. Worse yet, I began seriously doubting my abilities when I read the offending Tweet:

“Is it true the dialogue was all improvised on Like Crazy? That's the word on the street...”

Alright, so it wasn’t as bad as I remember. Actually, they’d heard correct. But when it’s late, and you just lost that one seminal gig, and the Times chose the sub-heading, “What Writer?” to describe a film you poured so much into… you start to question your value. I had to publish my own headline. I had to describe to this stranger, in 140 characters or less, exactly what it meant to write an improvised film. And I would make those 140 characters (or less) shine! If it took all night! I replied 5 minutes later:

“The actors worked from a very detailed "scriptment" written in prose. On set, they were asked to put things in their own words.”

Well… Not exactly dazzling as far as headlines go, and no points for a lack of alliteration, but at least it was a little more accurate.

I vividly remember seeing Christopher Guest’s film Waiting For Guffman for the first time in junior high. Noted for being improvised, there was something so organic and honest about that film. It was unlike any comedy I had seen. The characters were so complete, and at the same time completely unaware of themselves, as was the camera. Intimate, but objective – Guest trusted an expression, an inflection, or silence to do the talking. Around this time, because the guys on the VHS jacket looked so weird, I rented and watched American Movie. To this day, it is my favorite film. I didn’t think I was interested in documentaries at that time, but what struck me like no narrative film had before, was the pencil-line it danced between it’s highs and lows. It was at once the funniest film I’d ever seen, and one of the more tragic. This is real, I thought. This is visceral. This is the human condition. I knew then, documentary or not, this was the affect a film should have. Finding a parallel in Guffman was kind of a personal mini-revelation. Things clicked. This is how it translates to a narrative.

After establishing the specifics were going to be improvised, writing Like Crazy was like giving driving directions to someone by landmark (it’s by this one tree… you’ll know it when you see it) rather than street names. As it was to be a movie largely built on moments between moments, we decided what would be important to communicate was not what the characters should say, but what they should withhold. This lead to the good stuff – back-story and inner monologue found it’s way onto the page to accompany the action. We also included music cues; most didn’t end up in the film, but I think helped set the tone. And every once in a while we suggested some dialogue, but it was only ever suggested. It was always Drake’s intention to provide the cast with plenty of space to discover on set. To capture them truly listening and responding. It was for this reason he wisely made certain they fell just short of finding the scenes in rehearsal. At a very dense 50-pages, the script read more like a short story with scene headings. And like any screenplay it had required many drafts and jam sessions with our producers, right up to production in order to get it there. Actually the revisions never stop. They just sort of peter-out for one person, then change hands – now it’s up to the cast… now it’s up to the editor. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the film’s editor, Jonathan Alberts.

As it turns out, when you ask your cast to improvise, you’re also asking the crew to adjust accordingly. A focus-puller’s task, for example, becomes a lot more demanding when the actors have no marks to hit. Several of us in key roles had had some experience with this improvised process on our previous film, a lo-fi comedy called Douchebag. But it’s fair to say we approached that far more casually. Almost as an experiment, the result of which was a great deal of trial and error, and re-shoots, and pick-ups that included adding scenes to fill gaps. The stakes were higher on Like Crazy. It had to pack some serious punch and deliver across the boards, first time out. Fortunately, the synergy was right, the phenomenal cast was brave and trusting of their director, and it came together.

It’s widely acknowledged, a film is written three times: On the page, on set, and in the cutting room. This adage is never more appropriate than in reference to an improvised film. And as I’ve branched out to develop more traditional screenplays with new collaborators, I find them pleasantly surprised by my eagerness to work with fitting ideas thrown my way. Provided everyone’s going the same direction, the improvisers mantra: “Yes, and…” applies here too.

Ultimately, writing film’s that are to be improvised has taught me to see the pages of a screenplay for what they are: a work-in-progress. I don’t aim to negate the artistry and impact of well-written dialogue. I just mean to say, embracing this idea reminds me that as a screenwriter, my method of delivery is not a bound tome, but a living, breathing cast and crew.

An improvised film has many writers. And if there is trust, it’s amazing to see how they may bring your concepts to life – often in surprising and wonderful ways.

Ben York Jones was born in Englewood, New Jersey, but grew up primarily in Southern California. Both of his parents were New York stage actors, exposing him to a variety of art forms from an early age. After studying screenwriting and directing at Chapman University, Jones worked as a video artist, notably directing music videos and creating branded content. Having maintaining a passion for performance based arts, Jones has appeared in a numerous theatrical productions and is an avid fan of improvisation and sketch comedy. Douchebag marked his first leading role in a feature film, and reunited Jones with childhood friend and collaborator, Drake Doremus. In January 2010, Douchebag premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the US Dramatic Competition. The Hollywood Reporter and New York Magazine praised Jones’ performance, and the film was released theatrically in October 2010. Having shifted his primary focus to writing, Jones has recently co-written the 2011 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Like Crazy. The film hits theaters in the fall of 2011. Jones is currently underway on several projects including the screen adaptation of a soon to be released novel, and his third collaboration with Doremus and producer Jonathan Schwartz in as many years.

A Future Of Film (And My Fave Film Of 2010)

Ted Hope — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:30:04 GMT

What can we do together? How can we collaborate better? What sort of value can we add to a film? STAR WARS UNCUT: The Director's Cut answers these questions. It is an entirely crowdsourced film and a total revelation. Watch it with the entire family and try to get through it without wanting to create something yourself. Watch it and create.

A Case for Truly Free Short Films

Matt Morris — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:30:04 GMT

We all love a success story. We'd hear more of them if we realigned our definition of success. For most emerging filmmakers, success will come from discovery. Movies need to be seen and certain practices limit that.

I don't recall how I met Matt Morris. I believe it was through social media online. He thought I would like his short film, and he was right. He had a good sense on how to engage me without wasting my time or taking advantage of my availability. I have really enjoyed seeing how he has gotten his work done and seen. Today he shares some of what he's learned with everyone; sharing seems to be in his DNA. If only that happened more...

In April 2008, my short documentary Pickin' & Trimmin' premiered at Aspen Shortsfest. It was my first festival. Before my first screening, I was lucky enough to meet someone representing a short film distribution company who expressed interest in my film. Over the next few years, I had multiple offers from various new distribution companies, but I opted instead to put my film online for free.

Many of the short filmmakers I met over the festival run of the film thought of a contract with a short film distributor as the end game. If you've made a film that will, most likely, never make its money back, the idea of making some money and the "cool factor" of being on iTunes was really appealing. But who was going to be doing the marketing for my film? Did I really have to sign away the rights to my film for years?

I kept waiting for a perfect offer that never came. Not only that, but after talking to dozens of filmmakers, I realized that no one was happy with their short film distributor. One friend of mine took this as a positive (if they're all bad, then it doesn't matter which one I pick!). At the end of the day, I just wanted my work to be seen by as many people as possible.

I met Casimir Nowzkowski when Pickin' & Trimmin' screened at the Woodstock Film Festival. His film Bodega was the only film in the doc shorts screening that was available to view online. I think we all thought that he was crazy for limiting his festival potential (the vast majority of film festivals won't screen a film that is available online), and he thought we were crazy for limiting our audience to the festival circuit. Casimir viewed his strategy in simple terms- when he finished a film, he wanted it seen by as many people as possible as soon as possible. This has worked out very well for him, given his films have been watched millions of times on You-Tube. (Note: I've since caught up with Casimir and it appears we've both adjusted our strategies- he held off putting his new short doc "Andrew Sarris - Critic in Focus" online and as a result it premiered at the 2011 Telluride Film Festival. He still plans on making it available for free online viewing in a few months.)

Years had passed since I made Pickin' & Trimmin'. It screened at dozens of festivals, aired on PBS affiliates around the country, OutsideTV, and earned a Midsouth Emmy nomination. The film achieved more success than I ever hoped it would, but at the end of the day it was just sitting there on my shelf. Maybe there was a bigger audience for the film. What about the bluegrass fans who might not attend a film festival? Not only that, but the subject of my film, The Barbershop in Drexel, NC, was in disrepair and I was trying to help raise money to fix it up. I needed to raise more awareness of The Barbershop for people to want to help save it. So, a few months ago, I decided to put the film online.

For me, Vimeo was the easy choice. Everything about it is filmmaker friendly. You have so much control over how your film is seen, and the community on the site is made up of other creative people who are more likely to have an interest in and share your film. I uploaded the film and blasted it out to all of my Facebook friends, as well shared the link with all the festivals I'd screened at, encouraging them to share on their Facebook pages. I'd made my big push.

In the first month, the film had 722 views.

Obviously, I was doing something wrong. At first, I tried to justify the underperformance- at 20 minutes, it's the anti-viral video. But it kept nagging at me- I can do better. It was around then that I read this infinitely helpful blog post.

It reinforced what I'd read on Hope for Film before but not truly taken to heart- you have to treat the marketing and release of your film like it's a full time job. In early December, I set aside a week to promote the film online. I sent out more than 150 emails. I embraced the Vimeo community, sought out Bluegrass blogs, video blogs, and anyone else who might enjoy the film.

So how is it working out?

As of this writing, the film has over 100,000 views. It was chosen as a Vimeo Staff Pick, featured on Boing Boing, Esquire.com, Devour, The Art of Manliness, various Bluegrass blogs, and dozens of personal blogs. To put those numbers into perspective, more than ten times the amount of people watched the film online in a month than watched it over 3 years on the festival circuit. Considering I didn't have to pay any submission fees and it's revitalized DVD sales (where the profits are much higher than an iTunes sale) instead of cannibalized them, I'd say there's a strong argument for all short filmmakers to put their film online for free and easy viewing and sharing.

If you've made a good film, the audience is there, but it's your job to lead them to it. It's important to have a plan. If you don't have the time to implement it, find a friend who does. The only thing I'd add to the Short of The Week article on how to launch your film is to be willing to adapt your strategy based on who is embracing the film. At first I was focusing most of my energy on Bluegrass blogs. When looking at embeds, I noticed a handful of smaller men's style blogs had featured the film. I adjusted my strategy, researching men's style blogs with larger audiences and contacting them about the film. As a result, many of them featured Pickin' & Trimmin' and thousands of people saw the film who wouldn't have otherwise.

Once your festival circuit is over, make your films available online. There are lots of people out there, like me, who love short films and want to watch and share your work.

The Vimeo Awards are currently accepting submissions and will be held in New York City in June.

Matt Morris is an award-winning director living in Winter Park, FL. His documentary short films Pickin' & Trimmin', Watermelon Man, and Mr. Happy Man have been staples of the film festival circuit over the last three years. He is currently filming Mark & Lorna, a documentary short film about a lounge singing couple, as well as planning a leap into narrative filmmaking.

www.MattMorrisFilms.com

Twitter: @MattMorrisFilms

Two Great Films Need You

Ted Hope — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:30:04 GMT

There are two great films in need of completion funds screening as abbreviated Works-In-Progress. Come with your checkbooks out and know that you can save the world.

Why Filmmakers Must Stop SOPA

Rob Millis — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:30:01 GMT

Update: For more about SOPA please visit these links:

Uk Guardian: Sopa and Pipa would create a consumption-only internet

William Gibson Calls SOPA 'Draconian'

Techdirt: Why All Filmmakers Should Speak Out Against SOPA

Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea

For the past three months a couple of dangerous bills have been making their way through meetings on Capital Hill. The Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) have become famous for their dangerously reckless approach to combating online piracy. Worse yet, this legislation will do almost nothing to actually stop piracy but could cripple or crush online distribution.

According to the MPAA and other supporters of this legislation, SOPA and PIPA target “rogue” web sites and foreign entities, but the liability created in these bills is huge for U.S. companies. YouTube, Dynamo, MUBI — almost any online film distributor could be strangled by this legislation. If SOPA/PIPA were to pass, any online service even suspected of hosting any amount of copyrighted content can be effectively shut down within a week.

Make no mistake. I hate piracy. I hate that deserving artists don’t get paid for their work. I hate that studios and distributors are forced to hopelessly accept and account for theft. I hate that sales of pirated goods — from DVDs to handbags — fund some of the largest criminal networks in the world, and support cottage industries of money laundering and human exploitation.

But the proposed SOPA legislation does far more than attempt to curtail piracy. SOPA and PIPA are completely reckless, sponsored by people with no clear understanding of online commerce, online media or the current generation of media businesses. As a result, these bills are like shotgun blasts aimed at a distant fly. While the scattershot hits everything around the target, that fly will continue to be a nuisance.

Worse yet, the most dangerous impact of this legislation is the ability for major studios to crush competitors. Rather than just creating a mechanism to control copyrighted content or penalize the hosts of illegal content, SOPA gives studios the ability to shut down entire sites and systems hosting any amount of copyrighted content on suspicion alone.

Ironically, for all of the big business and quasi-conservative support behind this legislation, it is a prime example of over-regulation aimed at limiting the free market. Executives at the major studios understand that SOPA/PIPA stifles their competition in the name of defending copyright.

As usual, studio support for legislation like this is largely a consequence of corporate fear and laziness. The television and film studios have spent much of the last decade cautiously sitting on the sidelines while the investors and innovators behind YouTube, Blip, MUBI, Livestream, Dynamo and hundreds of others took on disproportionate risk to build a sustainable online media market. Now that the markets are proven and the risk is manageable, the studios are backing legislation that would change the rules of commerce and cripple their competition.

An open, competitive market has always been the lifeblood of independent film and has always been terrifying to the studios. For 100 years studio executives have consistently been too scared about losing some of their dominance to explore new markets in innovative ways. With every new distribution option that independent filmmakers have launched, studio heads have pushed for legislation to either strangle or control it. And as much as I hate piracy, I also hate to see studio executives consistently hiring lobbyists to try and fix their problems after failing to innovate.

To support these efforts the MPAA, RIAA and major studios have all behaved like scared children for so many decades that it is no longer possible to take their Chicken Little cries seriously. We were told that the VHS was going to destroy the industry, but after they were forced by the market to embrace private rentals that market grew to become the largest and most reliable source of revenue. We heard the same story about audio tapes, DVDs, radio, cable television, pay-per-view — every technology that created a new way to reach the audience.

Piracy is a serious problem that requires serious solutions, but combatting technical innovation with aggressive legal attacks has never done anything but cripple the market. The best way to combat piracy is to make it easy and safe for people to pay for what they want. Piracy will always be a risk, but studies consistently show that a majority of people who pirate film and TV programs illegally will happily pay for them when those titles are available online and easy to pay for.

Independent filmmakers understand better than anyone that successful distribution means giving the audience what they want, whenever, wherever and however they want it. As an example of the real value of online distribution, at Dynamo we see video rentals succeed at price points 2-5x higher than Redbox DVD rentals. Yet this legislation could kill the online market before the studios even begin to take advantage of it.

Perhaps the worst of all this is that many supporters of this legislation likely have no idea just how dangerous this attack on online distribution is to their own future. Fearful studio executives are holding onto SOPA/PIPA like a hand grenade glued to their own fingers, but it’s the independent filmmakers who will suffer most when it blows up.

Find out more and contact your representatives here: www.tumblr.com/protect-the-net

Office Hours: Hope & Vachon's Killer/Hope Twitter Q&A

Ted Hope — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:30:02 GMT

This past Tuesday Christine Vachon and I did a Twitter Q&A. For one hour we answered whatever questions the community put forth. We tracked them under the unifying hastag: #KHQA (which also happened to be a radio station's call letters, but...). These sort of Twitter meet ups are not only a lot of fun but a great way to connect and share info. I think it should become standard operating procedure for any filmmaker who premieres a film or is about to. They can also then be repurposed into a blog post so it keeps generating new content!

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- TONIGHT-- Ted Hope and I answering your questions from 8pm to 9pm EST here on twitter!
-- Tonight's hashtag for Ted Hope and me is : #KHQA

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- Tonight's Twitter Q&A w me & Christine Vachon @kvpi will be using #KHQA Tweet in at 8P Eastern.
-- 30 min countdown to the 1st ever Killer / Hope Twitter Q&A. Join me and Christine Vachon on #KVQA
-- Oops. Typo on my hashtag. THe Killer Hope Q&A is actually #KHQA and not what I just typed on the last tweet...

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @TedHope are you tweeting under the influence???? you mean #KHQA!!!

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @kvpi Right you are. Not about the TWI but about the mashed hash tag. It is #KHQA. 17 minutes and counting...

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- ted is using 2 screens (I only have one computer) so I will be slower-- sorry in advance--#KHQA

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- What if you threw a twitter Q&A and no one asked a question? 6 min until @kvpi find out! #KHQA

@Swishpan (varda the message) -- @kvpi Can we submit questions now?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Swishpan starting...now!

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi Too early to post a Q? Is there still a market for an indie film that is not integrated into a transmedia platform?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 A market yes? In fact, #Sundance is that this month. But w so many films I wonder a just-a-movie gets discovered unless they've got $
-- Okay the Q&A has started

@Armakk (Randy Mack) -- @TedHope SUPER made me think "Yup, this is definitely how a real Batman would play out. And hence nobody trying to film this before."

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- Yes, SUPER had some of the greatest cinema moments of 2012.

@kingisafink (King and Keck) -- Who's in for the @TedHope / @kvpi Q&A?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @kingisafink @kvpi We are!

@JJoshua_Johnson (Jonathan J. Johnson) -- Is it at all possible to see more $500k indie films, well developed, with both seasoned and new producers, and new talent, per year?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @JJoshua_Johnson absolutely-- we're making several right now--

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JJoshua_Johnson see? as in screen or have more made? The trick for most is how to earn a living at that budget

@JJoshua_Johnson (Jonathan J. Johnson) -- @TedHope @kvpi See them made. Making a living is always the trick. Somehow it seems there is a sweet spot in there somewhere. Thanks!

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @JJoshua_Johnson @TedHope agreed

@brianjude (Brian Jude) -- @TedHope @kvpi Where else can one go for development funds when personal connections/crowdfunding seem to have been exhausted?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @brianjude I spend years developing financing contacts. The trick is how to supply deal flow so you educate them

@passerbyco (Passerby.Co) -- @TedHope @kvpi Better indie film scene: NY or LA?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @passerbyco What's "better"? just different. LA has to be in Hollywood's shadow whereas NY is the unwanted orphan

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @passerbyco @TedHope I think both are good but LA getting more interesting--

@Swishpan (vardathemessage) -- Varda the Message asks @kvpi who/where was your 1st rock concert in nyc? best concert? Thanks for fab music films! Keep making them!

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Swishpan best concert-- clash at BOND'S (6 times!)
-- @Swishpan first concert: AMERICA in central park!

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi So, is a project with a sort of "transmedia development plan" more likely to get a prod co interested?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 @kvpi for a budget below $5M & w/o financing, I ONLY want to consider one with a transmedia plan

@FalseCheese (False Cheese) -- @TedHope What would be an artist's best bet in getting work in a film's art dept? Is sending a portfolio to a prod co advisable?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @FalseCheese Yeah I think having a great portfolio AND great connections is best to get on art dept. It's what I wanted 2do but had neither!

@averagejenn (Jennifer Liao) -- Paying personnel fairly & not breaking budget: Can it actually be better to budget more days rather than know there will be crazy OT?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @averagejenn but the problem often is the financier won't approve a budget that way. People blv you'll hit OT no matter what

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @averagejenn yes-- if you have the choice-- problem is the bond co often holds you to the fewer days scenario)

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi How do you structure a team to dev a project that is anchored in film and "grows" in diff directions in multiple media ?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 It's a lifelong process: surround yrself w good ppl talentd in many varied fields & sharing ideas & being willing to brainstorm

@tanktv (tank.tv) -- @TedHope @jcle1 @kvpi might sourd stupid here but what is a transledia dvpt plan

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @tanktv Transmedia development plan= how to extend story world to different platforms & forms of engagement byd core

@averagejenn (Jennifer Liao) -- @kvpi @TedHope Thank you both! Follow up: Is there anything novices overlook in what crew most appreciate when working low budget?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @averagejenn Respect, preperation, organztn, good food, good examples & leadership, personal sacrifice, sense of humor, quality

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi What role does potential global mkt/media exploitation play in your decisions to dev/prod a project? What are key terr for u?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 I do my own P&L and foreign estimates; compare vs. "experts" -- US & the six major territories are key always

@AquariusFilmsOz (AquariusFilms) -- @TedHope @tanktv What are some good examples of excellent transmedia models for film Ted and Christine? To use as case studies

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @AquariusFilmsOz @tanktv True, we need good transmedia models and beyond TV they are few& far betwn

@cinemamusings (Cinema Musings) -- Your best advice for a producer bringing their first film to a festival.

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @cinemamusings which festival? important to set your goals, know who your audience will be there--

@myjumpsuit (Cort Johns) -- Have you looked at the reworked 2012 Michigan film incentives?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @myjumpsuit Briefly. Shame that minimum was raised but glad they brought back. Tax incentives are job stimuli

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @myjumpsuit no-- can you give us all an outline?

@WZRichard (Zack Richard) -- @TedHope Any advice for a DP looking to shoot bigger budget indie features? Just bought an EPIC.

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @WZRichard Buying an EPIC is a great start. Where are you located? I am sure there are filmmkrs who need a DP!

@WZRichard (Zack Richard) -- @TedHope I'm in NY.

@reelclever (reelclever.com) -- What are 3 main questions a filmmaker should ask when looking to attach a producer to their film project? How to choose right one?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @reelclever 1) Do they want to make the same movie as me; 2) Can we eat dinner together & grow; 3) Can they make it happen

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @reelclever make sure you both want to make the same film first and foremost--

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi Can you envision a time when you'd anchor a project on the INternet (webisode/stream) and use other media as ancillary?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 @kvpi Absolutely. Both @kvpi & I are platform, budget, genre agnostic

@Armakk (Randy Mack) -- @TedHope @kvpi My concern: directors will "cut the corner" to marketing, create films around hype/controversy/etc & those'll dominate

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Armakk @TedHope the real filmmakers won't-- and audiences really want authenticity

@JJoshua_Johnson (Jonathan J. Johnson) -- @kvpi @TedHope Audiences, esp online, seem to be increasingly content hungry. Can't get enough. Could reward prolific indie producers.

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JJoshua_Johnson @kvpi But are audiences willing to pay for great content or even good content? I think so if they respect creator

@myjumpsuit (Cort Johns) -- What's the best no-name approach to fundraising?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @myjumpsuit I think crime & bribery are great fundraising approaches as long as no one gets hurt or finds out

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @myjumpsuit be more specific

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @kvpi what was the most difficult decision you had to make on a film?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @TedHope always when to walk away
-- @TedHope what's yours?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @kvpi My most difficults were firing actors, putting an actor in rehab, calling Health Dept about hepatitis outbreak

@Christina8ryant (Christina L Bryant) -- @TedHope @kvpi Emerging writer w/ list of SW labs/contests to enter, but looking at past winners, all loglines sound same. Thoughts?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @Christina8ryant Orgs generally support artists like the others that succeeded. Best to always differentiate yourself. but may not win

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi What's the most amount of time you put into a project before you abandoned it

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @JCle1 @TedHope Boys Don't Cry had 7 years, Savage Grace almost 15-- we don't abandon, we just pull back!

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 I like to see ppl stick it to the pricks & never give up

@AquariusFilmsOz (AquariusFilms) -- @TedHope @JCle1 @kvpi But aren't revenues generally higher from other platforms for indie films?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @AquariusFilmsOz @JCle1 @kvpi Yes theatrical is generally a loss leader and ego builder

@averagejenn (Jennifer Liao) -- @kvpi @TedHope Really enjoying this Q&A! How do you gauge the readiness of the script? External reads, mutual agreement among team?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @averagejenn @TedHope unless its very high concept I say script necc

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @averagejenn To get financing, you MUST make it "feel" inevitable. Script goes a long way + image book + attachments + projections

@kingisafink (King and Keck) -- QUESTION: What's more valuable for screenwriters: getting agent/manager OR getting screenplay produced on an indie level?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @kingisafink obviously getting a (good) screenplay produced!

@Rebeckakaka (Rebecka Pitman) -- For an aspiring producer about to graduate. What is the best way to learn the film industry? internship or make independent films?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @Rebeckakaka Jump in and do it. Don't ask permission. Always b student learning. B prolific. Ask how 2 stay motivated despite haters

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Rebeckakaka ha-- both! you can't REALLY learn the biz till you are in it, film school is a fake place for a producer-

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi Do you think there are themes/ideas you care about personally that come through ea of your projects? If so, what?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 Mostly I like stories that have emotional truth and take me somewhere I cant get on my own
-- @JCle1 I love stories that make me care about someone I don't think I hv much in common w

@kingisafink (King and Keck) -- @kvpi Thanks so much for answering my question! Do producers watch other ppl's work, approach writers based on produced work?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @kingisafink absolutely-- all the time!

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi Is it easier to pick projects since you've gained some success (and $$) or more difficult?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 "easier?" I have made so many commitments I rejoice when I have the space to take on something new

@passerbyco (Passerby.Co) -- @TedHope @kvpi Biggest risk you've taken in your career (and outcome)?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @passerbyco @TedHope I have taken so so many-- taking some as we speak! 1st time directors, unknown actors- DPs/PDs on their first gigs..

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @passerbyco Biggest risks? Each movie is a testament of faith in artist & humankind in general
-- @kvpi @passerbyco Even taking on rent and employees is a risk in this time of economic collapse!
-- @passerbyco Each film is a five year minimum commitment (often MUCH longer) & world could end b4
-- @passerbyco But I have claimed several times I could do things I did not know how to do in order to get the opportunity

@ Swishpan (vardathemessage) -- @kvpi I still regret missing Clash at BONDS!

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Swishpan yeah, it was pretty awesome...

@AquariusFilmsOz (AquariusFilms) -- @TedHope @kvpi @passerbyco How do you keep the costs down but still keep up with the workload?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @AquariusFilmsOz @kvpi @passerbyco Yeah, that's the challenge: job description increase tenfold. Billfold reduces 10x further!

@Armakk (Randy Mack) -- @TedHope @kvpi What're the most common mistakes in thinking you've seen in young/new producers lately?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Armakk @TedHope that theatrical is the holy grail and only thing worth making

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @Armakk Common new producer mistake? Not collaborating w many, not staying prolific, not increasing skill set, not audience bldg

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi What would you say are the key successes of your particular business model? Creatively, financially, operationally?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 I try to make sure that I love what I do, whom I am doing it with, how I am doing it, & the terms I am doing it under

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @JCle1 @TedHope I don't HAVE a particular biz model-- different one for every movie!

@myjumpsuit (Cort Johns) -- @kvpi What did you learn producing Hedwig and Velvet Goldmine?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @myjumpsuit how FUN it is to make music driven movies-- still love doing them, LCD Soundsystem movie at sundance this year

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi Better ... what do you find are the key challenges to raising financing NOW and how are you addressing those

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 Financiers & collaborators are risk adverse. What gets funded easiest is not what I want to invest my time in

@Groovyfokker (David Hughes) -- @tedhope @kvla If you had a Martha Marcy May Marlene-style script (The Bends) but no ambition to direct, who should you point it at?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @Groovyfokker I would definitely give it to Sean Durkin, Antonio Campos, & Josh Mond. Or Michael Heneke

@Groovyfokker (David Hughes) -- I've optioned an unproduced Peckinpah script, 40 years old but with many modern themes, and low budget. How do I go about casting it?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @Groovyfokker Even great projects need 2hv a coalition behind em. Get ppl to recognize it's greatness first. You can only reveal once

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Groovyfokker if its a great script it won't be hard

@passerbyco (Passerby.Co) -- @TedHope @kvpi Who helped you launch your careers? Key early mentor or moment?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @passerbyco closest to a mentor was Jill Godmilow. Lindsay Law was great help. But the directors are who launched my career

@kingisafink (King and Keck) -- @TedHope: enjoyed yr talk at @FlywayFilmFest, yr mention of The Bible as greatest #transmedia idea ever. Question...

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- Thanks @kingisafink @FlywayFilmFest Thanks 4 reminding me that The Bible as greatest #transmedia idea ever

@myjumpsuit (Cort Johns) -- @TedHope @kvpi what are your feelings about seasoned producers lending their name to up&coming producers?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @myjumpsuit we do it a lot IF we like the movie. I think its a great way to help each other--

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @myjumpsuit "lending" name diminishes everyone. Either be in or not at all I feel

@kingisafink (King and Keck) -- @TedHope QUESTION: How involved are u w/ transmedia for yr projcts? Do u bring in experts / ppl w/ good transmedia track record?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @kingisafink I am working with @LanceWeiler on one. Is he an expert?

@grking (Gary King) -- @kvpi @TedHope what are some of your favorite film fests that you like to attend?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @grking sundance of course--- love venice and sarajevo--

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @grking I like film festivals best when they have cultivated a real community w artists & audiences

@ Swishpan (vardathemessage) -- @kvpi @myjumpsuit And to have made a must-see rite of passage for teens! If it's ok, can you tell us if G has seen Hedwig and/or VG?

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- @Swishpan she's seen hedwig-- not VG yet--

@averagejenn (Jennifer Liao) -- @kvpi @TedHope Really enjoying this Q&A! How do you gauge the readiness of the script? External reads, mutual agreement among team?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @averagejenn script is ready when the director can answer all of my questions. when it is true.

@JCle1 (Just J) -- @TedHope @kvpi Just curious ... Why did you each want to do this Q&A?

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- @JCle1 @kvpi did this Q&A for those that could not attend our masterclass & because ppl give us so much. People need answers

@TedHope (Ted Hope) -- Thanks to all for joining the Q&A with @kvpi and me. It was fun and hopefully helpful. Let's do it again sometime! Gotta go

@KVPI (Christine Vachon) -- thank you for participating!

Martha Marcy May Marlene hits DVD and VOD Feb 21 With New Art Work

Ted Hope — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:30:01 GMT

All Your Distribution Options In One Image

James Franklin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:18:51 GMT

A picture's worth a thousand words, right? I mean that is why movies have so much impact, right? 2011 did seem like the year that data visualization went mainstream. I know I understand and I remember things much better when an imagistic way of expressing things is found. I was very excited to receive this chart from James Franklin. It's pretty complete. Click through to download the chart, and let us know if you have ways to improve it though.

James Franklin is the creator of Moviesparx, the founder of Pixeco and Creative Director at the Channel 4 Britdoc Foundation. Over the last 7 years he's worked on the marketing for over 100 high profile films and has created a web based tool to make the whole process easier, it's called Moviesparx.
Twitter: @jamesfranklin

The Really Good Things In Indie Film Biz 2011

Ted Hope — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:30:04 GMT

2011 was a bit of a year of experimentation for me -- and I imagine it was for all others who state they are in the Film Business. How could it not be? Evolve or die it seems, doesn't it?

I didn't produce a movie this past year, but I did premiere three. I managed to blog on a regular basis, and offer up my "column" as a soapbox for many others, hoping it would inspire more action and change from the community at large (the results still remain to be seen). I also did a lot of public speaking and consulting all over the world in 2011, telling myself that all of this was part of my personal attempt to move things forward towards a vibrant, diverse, and ambitious culture open to all who are willing to take responsibility for it. I taught at NYU for the same reasons, but remain unclear as to the results of any of these endeavors. Maybe it was more of a survival tactic or some sort of self-justification. After all, what I really want to do is... make films. It's what I think I am particularly good at, particularly when the broadest definition of both "making" and "films" is applied (i.e. the discovery, contextualizing, and deployment) -- yet as much as I try to keep a broad perspective, I am still a bit confounded as to why it is so damn hard to get good work made or even appreciated.

People still seem to love movies, even those folks who have not committed their labor and life to the manufacture and appreciation of them. Yet they really aren't going to them any more. And the people who earn their livelihood from the industry that facilitates flicks don't profess the concern that permeates my being. Oh well. Maybe it's just their ability to see the bright side. I see it too. And I know there's a great deal to be thankful for. I have a lot of resolutions for the new year and one of them is to focus less on what is wrong and more on what makes life worth living.

Today, being the day that the film business returns to work, it seems fitting to focus on the positive. If I had more time to give, I'd rough out more of each of these ideas, but alas, this ain't that world. So perhaps you could fill in these paragraphs below and we can write the final version together. 2012 will be the year of collaboration (won't it?).

1. 2011 Was The Year That Crowdfunding Took Off
   1. Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act (H.R.2930) was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this November.
   2. Films readily surpassed their goals.
   3. Many exceeded $100K
2. The Rise Of The Artist Entrepreneur
   1. And media starts to notice
3. Festivals Recognize That Serving The Filmmaker Means More Than Showing Their Film
   1. Sundance's Artist Services
   2. Tribeca Is A Distributor (Profit motive aside)
4. Micro Went Macro
   1. MMMM, Another Earth, Like Crazy, Take Shelter, Weekend, Bill Cunningham
   1. Films made for pennies reach significant audiences in US & get real attention
5. The Community Theaters Triumph & The Art House Convergence Is An Institution
   1. Theaters are more than just a movie house, but a community center
   2. Value of movie attendance is beyond entertainment
   3. Art House Convergence will have over 250 bookers of indie theaters
6. The Conversation Of The Future Of Film Takes Hold
   1. Tribeca, NYU, Columbia w Lance Weiler
7. VOD Starts To Deliver Real Numbers
   1. Margin Call makes $4M VOD while Day & Date
   1. With simultaneous web streaming in addition to cable
8. Direct Distribution Is A Viable Alternative
   1. Kevin Smith, Eddie Burns, Louis CK, Producers Distro Agency
9. Filmmakers don't rely on Theatrical
   1. Ed Burns skips theatrical on both Nice Guy Johnny & Newlyweds
   1. AND: makes a real profit
   2. Kevin Smith's road show
10. Art Film Sensibilities Embrace Horror Genre
   1. Martha Marcy May Marlene, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Skin I Live In, The Innkeepers, and others I have not yet seen.
11. Plethora of Platforms
   1. 34 and counting
   2. Personalized VOD Players: Distrify, DIY, Dynamo
12. Cord Cutting becomes common place
   1. Levels the playing field for indies as Cable providers rarely acquired truly indie content
13. Tax Credits & Film Incentives are not going away (as we recognize they are job/revenue stimulus)
   1. http://www.michigan.gov/snyder/0,4668,7-277-57577_57657-267901--,00.html
   2. New York State's production at high levels
14. Tons of new films stars with tremendous talent have not only arrived on the scene, but have been noticed.
15. The Dominance of the feature film form is starting to end...

My Best Cinema Experiences of 2011

Ted Hope — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:30:02 GMT

The end of the year has become a bit overwhelming in terms of "Best Of" lists. We evaluate things so much in terms of quality (or at least attempt to), but I hear very few people speak of true pleasure. Quality and pleasure often are not the same, but these end of the year list camouflage that a bit. We don't go to or watch movies just because they are good. We love films because they are fun -- and it's never just the content that makes the experience so great. It's the company and the context.

What was the most joyous experience of the year for you, for me? Since this blog is really only about film, I am going to have to leave out most of what's on my more expansive list (and after all that stuff is still a private matter, isn't it?), and instead focus only most on my most joyous cinema experiences of 2011 -- and for that matter experiences that didn't involve my own movies (as the festival premieres of MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, COLLABORATOR, and DARK HORSE were all pretty damn wonderful). It's a pleasure to do so in that remembering, recognizing, bring it all back and more so.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN: My wife and I saw SKIN in Karlovy Vary, which has to be one of the loveliest places to screen a film. If you have a chance to go, don't delay. It's a spa town, nestled in a valley, with a wonderful hotel, and an extremely well-curated selection. The main theater there is huge -- I think 4000 seats but I am not sure. The screen is colossal none the less. Gigantic. And the people love movies; students camp out in the hills to attend screenings all week. SKIN was a hard ticket to get, even with a festival pass. I begged for days, succeeded, but then got confused on the time and we almost missed it. It was hot that day, very. We ran along the river through crowds of tourists and the only seats were on the floor up front. The kinkiest film that Hitchcock never made loomed above us as we caught our breath and tried to cool down. Each twist and turn above us was a total surprise. I was appalled in the best way on a regular basis. And when the leopard scene occurred, well, very few films ever blow my mind but Pedro does constantly. I can think of no other filmmaker who has been such a pleasure to watch him become a true master. When Vanessa and I left the theater we couldn't stop talking about it., As much as I loved the movie, I loved far more that I had someone to share it with who felt so much like I did, and that we had experienced it together in such an over the top way.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: My son and I saw APES opening weekend. We've seen all the Planet of The Apes films -- except the Tim Burton one because I thought it sucked. But we've only seen them on video. When I was a boy I collected the Planet Of The Apes cards with my dad, in anticipation of seeing it together, but due to complications, that never happened. My expectations for this one were pretty low, due to Burton's debacle. Low expectations helps everything always and the movie soared well beyond my measly expectations. Andy Serkis' turn is one of my fave of the year, and drew me into that movie like few this year. The bridge sequence captures what I imagine the exhilaration of revolution to be (along with the humor of the stupidity of mankind that is always fun to be reminded of). But the real pleasure of movies is always social, and just hearing my son say how much he enjoyed it, helped me recognize how much I have enjoyed sharing so much with him. In many ways, the movie completed a circle for me that I had not yet recognized wasn't closed.

WITHOUT: There are a few people who did an awesome job tipping me to under-appreciated films this year, but primarily Kim Voynar (who sent five or so great works to me) and Michael Tully, who via Hammer To Nail does so regularly. I think it was Kim who recommended Mark Jackson's WITHOUT to me though. I watched it alone, in my apartment, with no real context of what was to come. I have a HD projector that fills one wall in our apartment so the image towers over me when I watch. It was summer and the city was quieter than usual. Left alone, like the character, to figure out what was going on or not. As much as I love work from emerging directors and noble failures that reach high (not always to succeed), I confess I am jaded enough to not anticipate controlled, disciplined, ambitious, original work from a filmmaker or film that I have no clue about. At that time, Kim (or was it Tully?) had been the only one to recommend it. WITHOUT is some of the strongest work this year. Afterwards, I sat there still on the couch wondering what is wrong with our indie film infrastructure that this film isn't being celebrated as it should be, and how I am going to have to work so much harder to do so.

THE DISPOSABLE FILM FESTIVAL: I got to be a judge for this San Francisco festival this past year and it was another great marriage of subject and setting. All the films in the selection were hand-crafted gems made on a shoe-string budget. They represented the diversity and quality of individual artist today. If they were not inspiring enough, the festival is held at The Castro Theater, one of the greatest houses to worship cinema ever built. I had never been there and it is so gorgeous. When I travel, despite not being at all religious, I can not help but visit churches and be amazed with what worship, devotion, and conviction can achieve. Sitting in The Castro seeing such handmade work, I wanted to go on a global pilgrimage to all the great movie palaces, before it's too late. Sign me up for that tour if you hear of it, okay?

MARGARET: Hands down, Kenneth Lonergan's film is the best American film of the year. Great work not only does not get seen, but often not even released. Even when it was first released, I had my doubts. I couldn't believe that a film by this writer/director, with that cast, could be any good and not have been screened for so long. Shame on me. The movie was a wake up call. I saw when it came along a second time. I had just gotten MoviePass and was delighted to see the theater where it was playing on their list of cinemas; it meant I had no risk. The great thing about a subscription theater service is I can try out movies like never before -- the only thing I am sacrificing is time. But I digress. Or maybe not. Maybe it was because I accepted the movie with no preconceptions, but I was so thrilled at the quality of the writing & performance. Naturalism is currently my fave cinematic aesthetic and Lonergan used it to make the micro epic, and he did it so bravely, warts and all, I felt I knew each of his characters or at least passed them on the street. I saw it with my wife, and as we left the theater, fully engaged, I thought of all the great films we experienced together and felt that despite how close this excellent film came to never being screened, that life was actually good and everything will be okay and I must never forget how fortunate I am.

GENRE VIDEOS AT HOME ON THE COUCH WITH MY FAMILY: I hate to admit it but I think this may trump my cinema going highlights. I am one of the lucky few who has a great video store less than a block away (Allen's Alley). Be it DOCTOR WHO, AIRPLANE!, V FOR VENDETTA, A.I. or ATTACK THE BLOCK some of my most fun came courtesy of DVDs, good company, comfortable environments and the pause button. We are going to have to work harder to make theatrical exhibition the must-see entertainment I'd like it to be. And I suspect that this is the year that I cancel my Netflix subscription too.

So, tell me, what were your most enjoyable cinema experiences of 2011?

The Letter 'D': Distribution, DIY, Dynamo Player

Orly Ravid — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:30:03 GMT

Dynamo Player is one of the many DIY options we've looked at with close interest over the past year, (See Felicia Ptolemy's Review HERE and Rob Millis' Introduction to the Dynamo Player HERE. Is 2012 the year that it takes off for the indie and artist direct communities? It may very well be, and if so, we can have Orly Ravid of the Film Collaborative to thank once again. Today, she sits down with Dynamo's founder and discusses further evidence of it's success and some of the do's and don'ts of the platform.

The Letter “D”

D: Distribution, DIY, Dynamo Player.

I got educated more all about how it works, with owner Rob Millis who I finally met in person at IDFA in Amsterdam. A fine gentleman indeed.

I usually recommend a filmmaker work with at least two DIY options to give customers a choice and just to not have all one’s eggs in one proverb.

Rob explained why Dynamo serves its filmmakers well. He noted its “designed with presentation and high quality” and that the “filmmaker's brand is in front.” It’s not just about the Dynamo brand.

Dynamo can handle any of the popular video standards and offers viewers up to 1080HD quality, a clean crisp presentation and as many extras as one can pack in. Hence it’s a good alternative to DVD, but with the instant gratification of an online rental.

A filmmaker once remarked that the issue with DIY is the “TRUST FACTOR”:

People don’t trust too many places with their credit cards and feel safer with big companies that have built a solid reputation. Well at Dynamo, and some other DIY services, the payment method is secure. Rob Millis explains:

“The key is payment process and protecting information”. Dynamo does not handle any payment information directly. They rely only on PAYPAL and AMAZON. Dynamo does not receive any of that confidential information so as not to risk anything going wrong. They just confirm that one is approved rather than handling payment info.

What about GENRE?

What kind does Dynamo work with and which ones do well with the service:

Most of their success is with DOCUMENTARIES.

“They have the highest value and there are a lot of reasons for that,” noted Millis.

“Entertainment for its own sake is competitive and as soon as it’s online one is competing with mainstream studio product. DOCS have a hook for those interested in the subject matter and hence people are willing to pay for it”.

“Dramas are harder to sell. The marketing for them needs to be more powerful than that for docs. Docs are also EVERGREEN. Dramas die off as soon as the marketing stops and are very competitive. There are hundreds of love stories but only one or a couple docs or at most a few about any given specific topic”. Millis concluded “One can sustain sales for a doc”. However Dynamo still accepts all kinds of films.

In fact the first-ever film rented on Facebook was a Zombie film (“Stag Night of the Dead”) hosted by Dynamo that played on the page for $1.99 and then dropped to $0.99 as a special sale.

DYNAMO DIY RULES | DO’s & DON'TS:

“The most obvious rule is to be in touch with your audience, especially on Twitter & Facebook”. Millis elaborated that in a more vague sense it’s best to put oneself in a viewer's shoes. “Think of them as consumers… Recognize that people have a million options. Film needs to be well-presented and easy to consume, make it easy and possible for them to choose your film instead of all their other options”. I also note this to filmmakers about theatrical releases and suggest they remember how many choices people have for how to spend their time and money.

Millis exclaimed the “BIGGEST MISTAKE FILMMAKERS make is believing that their film is beautiful enough to compel people to watch it just because the trailer reflects that to some extent.” A poorly designed website will not do! "Think about it as a product that is being sold and that you are competing for really valuable time when your audience has a million other really good options available".

$$$ TALK:

Right now iTunes current releases are $6.99 RENTAL for 2 days New Releases for OLDER TITLES it goes down as low to $1.99 or $2.99. Millis thinks iTunes is pricing things correctly. The Dynamo mean average sale price for all sales is approximately $4.00, including shorts and music videos, that amount to approximately 1% of all sales are below $1.99.

Millis told an anecdote that taught the moral of not making content seem too cheap. There’s so much for free online and people judge what is priced like a discount bin, hence the $0.99 rule, which is, most of the time, $0.99 makes your film look cheap!

PRICE RANGES:

$9.99 seems at the top of what works and sells well. Dramas do well $1.99 - $4.99 (“they see a strong drop off on either side of that,” Millis noted). Documentaries can be priced higher – he sees solid sales all the way up to $9.99The best range is $2.99 - $6.99 for most films, except for big films or those with a serious marketing team behind them.

Of course it’s always hard to predict what will work or not. For long tail, mid tail, smaller filmmakers the difference between sales of $5.00 and sales of $10,000 in a month is based on the work done with the audience and a good looking player.

Great films with A-list talent sit idle all over the internet because nobody knows they exist, while independent titles that strike a chord with the audience can catch on fire overnight with just a little bit of communication and an appealing web page.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

The timing varies, as one would expect because strategies and distribution needs vary. People sometimes do a first release with Dynamo and then stop to do theatrical and DVD and then start again, or others do it later on in the process and get on Dynamo only at the tail end of the sales.

A film that has been heavily pirated can still do good business because the film looks good this way and one can add compelling extra features. One can read about an example of this: UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US (see her Guest Post on Ted Hope's blog.

What’s the MOST $$$ made for any one DIY film on Dynamo Player?

This information is regarding Independents, DIY only:

$20,000 per film MAX if it’s an independent and with small marketing team. It won’t be bigger unless you have serious marketing experience. But Rob Millis encourages: “don't give up even if you have no traction in beginning, you just may have not hit critical mass yet”.

“I can tell you that sales typically taper off slowly for documentaries, continuing at a rate of perhaps 10-20% of the original month. If a doc did $10,000 in online rentals its first month, with some dedicated online promotion, then you might expect sales of $1,000-$2,000 per month several months later.

Dramatic features are a different animal, and you can expect major sales drops after promotion stops. A lot of residual interest depends on star power and search results, but dramas get stale faster.

Regarding dollar values, I can’t really give a solid estimate in any way that wouldn’t be misleading. No matter what number I give, every filmmaker then expects to reach that number. My biggest hesitation is attributing an estimate to Dynamo specifically, which always makes people really excited or really disappointed about Dynamo. In reality, it’s about the marketplace, and the online rental market can certainly support revenues of 7-figures for independent films. There really is no limit, practically speaking.

For instance, Louis C.K. just produced his own comedy special and did over a $1mm in sales using PayPal and direct downloads in about a week. He’s a well-known comedian, but this was a mid-budget shoot completely financed and marketed by Louis, totally independent. I certainly think his sales numbers would be at least as good if he had used Dynamo, but the success or failure would still lie mostly with his ability to convert the audience.

Beyond that we’re talking about differences of probably 10-50% between different platforms, depending on the customer experience.”

Dynamo is proud to note that its sales are growing overall, significantly. To find out more about Dynamo email info@dynamoplayer.com or visit DynamoPlayer.com to see an introductory video and sign up.

Orly Ravid has worked in film acquisitions / sales / direct distribution and festival programming for the last twelve years since moving to Los Angeles from home town Manhattan. In January 2010, Orly founded The Film Collaborative (TFC), the first non-profit devoted to film distribution of independent cinema. Orly runs TFC w/ her business partner, co-exec director Jeffrey Winter.

Crowdfunding a Collaborative Film

Audrey Ewell — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:30:03 GMT

2012 is going to be the year of truly free filmmaker experimentation. 2012 is going to be the year of cross-platform collaboration. And 2012 is going to be the year of filmmaker to filmmaker collaboration. I don't know how much of this will be true, but I know I wish all of it will be, and so far, there is no clearer indicator that all will be true than The 99% Film. We've heard from Audrey Ewell, one of the film's collaborators, and we know she always has progressive and provocative ideas, so why should this time be any different. Today Audrey shares with other some of the new ways she and her team are making use of some of the plethora of options that are out there to enable us to truly build it better together.

Crowdfunding a Collaborative Film: Repurposing a Distribution Platform into A New Fundraising Tool.

99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film began as a spontaneous project, and thus it began with no funding at all. While it might seem like a poster-child for crowdfunding opportunity, this film actually has some unique obstacles: for starters, many people who support us also support the Occupy Movement, and their spare dollars go straight to them. Our film is not part of OWS; although some of our 75+ filmmakers identify as part of it, we are a separate, independent project, and we receive no Occupy funding.

Additionally, donations to OWS itself dropped off markedly after the first heady days (when it seemed as though time had stopped at the moment in Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film Network when Peter Finch’s Howard Beale led the city in a chorus of “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” only to resume in reality 35 years later at Zuccotti Park). Plus, with the otherwise lovely Christmas season turning potential funding into slippers and iPads, crowdfunding has been no picnic. We now emerge from the holidays with about two weeks left to hit our goal of $17,500. Two critical weeks, because make no mistake: we need those funds to keep going.

Before I get to the new tool we’re test-driving, let me back up for a second to talk about our overall strategy. First, we put together an outreach team: Stephen Dotson and Kari Collins on Twitter, Laura Alexander on Facebook, Annie Riordan doing direct outreach to influencers and organizations who might help spread the word, Ginger Liu on newswires, blog and social (non fb & twitter) outreach, and me on press releases, blog outreach, and traditional press.

But really, nobody wants to write about your damn Kickstarter campaign, so you have to find ways to make it newsworthy. I set this up as a five-week campaign (with the expected week of Christmas drop-off in the middle). Week one outreach was about the film itself; the collaborative nature and the way our process mirrors OWS got us some press that might be difficult for a more standard doc to achieve.

For week two, Billy Miller (one of our filmmakers, also a curator) gathered our first round of rewards: artworks by 12 contemporary artists. We contacted and posted to hundreds of art blogs. Then we added a fresh round of artists/works (a lot had already been nabbed) and let that slide over Christmas into week 3: when Aaron Aites, my film partner and also the main man behind the band Iran, worked with Kyp Malone (of Iran, TV on the Radio, and Rain Machine) to put together a slew of music rewards. Signed records and artworks from Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) and many more fueled a new round of targeted outreach, but still, so much ground to cover by Jan 13th!

So when Darcy at Constellation got in touch to propose a new venture, combining their social screening platform with our Kickstarter campaign, I had to wonder if this might be a peanut butter and chocolate crowdfunding moment. I’d checked out Constellation when they launched; they mix classics (Grey Gardens, Rashomon) with newer and noteworthy indie films (Food Fight, Trouble The Water, Marwencol) and there’s a social element to the screenings: pre-set times to make it a group experience, Q & A’s with filmmakers, and chats with the audience. In their words:

“Constellation is your online movie theater. Just like a traditional theater, users purchase tickets to attend scheduled showtimes of films, or create their own showtimes. However unlike other online platforms, watching movies on Constellation is a social experience. Users can invite friends to showtimes they’re attending and watch together. Many movies are presented by VIP hosts, such as the films’ directors, actors, or other notables, who appear live in the online theater to answer questions from the audience during and after the film. “

So Constellation’s interested in working with Kickstarter (and presumably other crowdfunding sites) projects, and we’re interested in reaching our goal; we agreed to be the first to try it out. Although reluctant to divert our attention while in the thick of making the film, we think there’s a place for this in our fundraising strategy.

So this January 7th at 7:30 pm EST we’re holding a screening of 45 minutes of footage that’s been shot for our film, on Constellation.TV. It’s not a work-in-progress, and Constellation have been respectful of our need to not use that language, but it is a chance for our backers and others to see some of the material we’re working with, and to talk to us as we’re shaping the film. (They also let us lower the ticket price, and gave us half-off codes for our Kickstarter backers, plus free codes so all 75 of our filmmakers can be present – woo-hoo!) It’s a chance for us to get some feedback, build our audience, and possibly even meet new backers.

I don’t know how well this platform is working for finished films, but that also depends on each filmmaker’s goal with it (as with any distribution outlet). But it’s good to know that Constellation is open to this sort of fundraising event. I learned, while theatrically distributing my last film, Until The Light Takes Us, that event-izing really helps. So if you’re interested, this is the direct link to the screening: www.constellation.tv/99percent. Or if you need a reminder like I do, here is the Facebook invite. (Oh! And proceeds go toward our Kickstarter campaign!)

If this is successful, it could be a new tool in the indie filmmaker’s funding kit. So wish us luck; better yet, check out the screening, ask questions, and by all means, please invite a friend.

Audrey Ewell is a filmmaker living in Brooklyn, NY with her film partner Aaron Aites. They recently made the award-winning film Until The Light Takes Us, and they’re now working on a thriller called Dark Places. The 99% Kickstarter page is here.