To me, the filmmaking community (the artists, the business folk, the curators & promoters, the appreciators & fans) have to embrace that we are in a seismic shift to an artist-centric collaboration with the audience and away from the corporate controlled supply & attention. This requires a redefinition of cinema by its creators to embrace the discovery, engagement, presentation, promotion, & appreciation processes as much as we do development & production. We have to erase the lines between between art & commerce and content & marketing. We have to stop thinking of films as singular objects and refocus on how they are bridges for the ongoing conversation we have with audiences. Specifics like VOD numbers are important, but we miss the point if we don't look first at the big picture. - Ted Hope
Showing posts with label sundance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sundance. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Analyst calls Sundance's YouTube streaming inititative a FLOP
Of course, getting a YouTube stream to play on your TV is pretty hard, even impossible for many consumers, so it would be foolish to expect similar rental numbers to those generated by iTunes or X-Box
Some hard (and I mean hard) numbers and the despairing words of one analyst coming up after the break. Here’s the damage. The best performing film was The Cove with a shocking count of just 303 rentals. Check out the full chart for a catalogue of hurt:
- The Cove - 303 rentals
- Children of Invention - 301 rentals
- Bass Ackwards - 299 rentals
- Homewrecker - 279 rentals
- One Too Many Mornings - 241 rentals
Here is The Motley Fool’s Rick Munarriz:
Ouch! We’re talking about 1,422 total views, or $5,673.78 for all of the rentals at $3.99 apiece. If Google is giving the filmmakers roughly two-thirds of the take - and I’m going by other digital-media standards, since the site isn’t publicly spelling out the royalty payouts - each of the five productions will walk away with just hundreds of dollars for their role as video-sharing pioneers over the weekend.Part of the problem may have been how difficult it was to carry out the purchase, which was, to be honest, not too difficult at all; or more likely it was down to incredibly bad promotion of the scheme.
I’m confident that had these films been made available via iTunes the figures would have been unrecognizably different.
Perhaps Google will see the lesson in this and address their YouTube rental system to make it more streamlined, not to mention more well publicised and easy to find and navigate. They’ll need to try something fairly drastic to even stay on the chart of legal movie streaming options, I think, because tomorrow, Apple will unveil their “latest creation” and, I expect, give the iTunes movie rental store yet another nitro boost.
I hope that the Sundance folk aren’t put off by these stats and continue helping to facilitate easier access or smaller, more alternative or less accessible films by the countless viewers worldwide who would enjoy them. - Brendon Connelly
Friday, January 22, 2010
Sydney brings us news of Sundance Acquisitions
The Match Factory picked up worldwide rights to Howl Sundance's opning film in the narrative section.
Shoreline acquired worldwide rights to its second Latino film Contracorriente (Undertow). It had acquired Zona Sur (Southern District) which is also showing in Sundance at Ventana Sur in November and last year acquired La Nana (The Maid) at Sundance.
Paramount Vantage acquired Davis Guggenheim's new documentary about the crisis in public education in the U.S. Waiting for Superman which was developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media who backed Guggenheim's previous doc An Inconvenient Truth.
Visit acquired worlwide rights to The Taqwarcores before its Sundance premiere.
Wild Bunch licensed U.S. rights to Gaspar Noe’s Sundance 2010 feature Enter the Void to IFC in the firs pre-Sundance deal.
Shoreline acquired worldwide rights to its second Latino film Contracorriente (Undertow). It had acquired Zona Sur (Southern District) which is also showing in Sundance at Ventana Sur in November and last year acquired La Nana (The Maid) at Sundance.
Paramount Vantage acquired Davis Guggenheim's new documentary about the crisis in public education in the U.S. Waiting for Superman which was developed, financed and executive produced by Participant Media who backed Guggenheim's previous doc An Inconvenient Truth.
Visit acquired worlwide rights to The Taqwarcores before its Sundance premiere.
Wild Bunch licensed U.S. rights to Gaspar Noe’s Sundance 2010 feature Enter the Void to IFC in the firs pre-Sundance deal.
from: http://sydneysbuzz.blogspot.com/
Monday, January 19, 2009
Shorts for iTunes
I have to hand it to iTunes, they've finally done something wonderful and given short films the mainstream treatment by showcasing some of the short films at Sundance this year. These shorts are available for free. As we know, short films have a great market everyone else but the US, but by a mainstream outlet taking the initiative and putting them out there, free or not, there's a far far greater chance for more people to start taking note of them.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Not Picked Up in Park City? Filmmakers Look Forward to DIY Release
Anthony Kaufman over at Indiewire has a great speculative article about the potential future of Indie Distribution and some of the larger festivals. Pasted below.
Not Picked Up in Park City? Filmmakers Look Forward to DIY Release Options
The scene at the Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Peter Knegt.
The year is 2014. Joe the Filmmaker just found out he’s going to Sundance with his debut film. His trailer is online the next day. He’s got posters at the printer, and a marketing consultant on the phone. In the days leading up to the festival, he hits up bloggers for press, notifies all his Facebook friends and buys ads both online and in print. After winning a special jury prize for innovation during the final day of the festival, he plugs his movie into the IDN (Indie Distribution Network), selling it directly to indie-minded audiences around the country for viewing on their Internet TVs and iPhones, while a percentage of the proceeds feed directly into his bank account. Done.
While we haven’t exactly arrived at the above sci-fi scenario, there are established filmmakers who are already planning to bypass conventional distribution. Both Lance Hammer (“Ballast”) and Randall Miller (“Bottle Rocket”) say if they were to go to Sundance again, they wouldn’t wait for a company to acquire their film, but use the festival as a launchpad for a do-it-yourself release.
Most filmmakers, however, still say they’re going to Sundance with the hopes of a distribution deal. But now more than ever, they also have a backup plan if the acquisition dream doesn’t become a reality.
“The bottom line is that the old model—let’s go to Sundance and cross our fingers that someone is going to buy it—is ridiculous,” says veteran publicist Cynthia Schwartz, whose firm 42West is repping 15 films at this year’s festival and also consults on several DIY releases during the year. “Filmmakers have to take control. If they get a distributor, terrific. But if they don’t, they have to have a Plan B. And for the first time at Sundance, I feel like people are getting that.”
“Make your own plan. Create your own destiny,” continues Schwartz. “That’s really how things are going. Use the Sundance prestige to get your opening, not necessarily in February,” she adds, “but maybe in April.”
But distribution consultant Steven Raphael, who worked closely on Lance Hammer’s release of “Ballast,” says using Sundance as a platform is a good idea, in theory, but practically, it’s far more challenging.
“Some people want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we haven’t completely transitioned yet,” he says. “You still have to use the old-school methods.” If Joe found out about his Sundance acceptance in November, he’d have just a month to get everything in order, says Raphael. “Are your theaters booked? Are your posters ready? Is your media set? Consultants don’t work on projects for four months just to get paid,” he adds. “You need four months.”
Veteran director Joe Berlinger, who famously self-distributed both his 1992 Sundance Audience Award winner “Brother’s Keeper” and his 1996 Emmy-winner “Paradise Lost,” says he’s prepared to launch a DIY release of his latest Sundance entry, “Crude,” a verite look at the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” environmental lawsuit in Ecuador. “A film like this requires tender loving care and a specialty plan, but if a distributor doesn’t think they can do that,” says Berlinger, “I’d feel comfortable doing that myself.”
Berlinger, who is repping the film himself, says that if he isn’t close to a deal by the end of March, he’ll start making plans for a summer or fall release. While he acknowledges the difficulties of the theatrical market for “a tough film,” he says he has modest financial goals. “I’d be very satisfied to get in 10 to 15 cities, and we have some core constituencies that we can appeal to: There is a greatly underserved Spanish-speaking audience; there is a big and growing environmental audience.”
Berlinger also wants to appeal directly to the college market. “A distributor may consider that an educational and not a legitimate theatrical market, but if I self-distribute, I’m going to put myself on a college circuit, where this film gets widely seen,” he says. “And if that’s the communal viewing experience that most people have seeing this movie, I’ll be very satisfied.”
Similarly, Kansas-based filmmaker Kevin Willmott, who directed 2004’s “C.S.A: The Confederate States of America,” which was a surprise hit for IFC Films, sees value in the college market in respect to his new Sundance entry “The Only Good Indian,” a revisionist Western starring veteran Native actor Wes Studi. As a college professor at the University of Kansas, Willmott travels with his movies to colleges around the country. “All of that can be nurtured and developed and it can generate revenue,” he says.
While Willmott is confident that “The Only Good Indian” will sell to a distributor, he also acknowledges the reality: “If you can’t sell your film, you have to distribute yourself.” To that end, Willmott says they’ve already started targeting those communities that would gravitate to the film’s provocative subject matter, through radio and online interviews.
“If you run into difficulties selling your film or not, you have to connect with those people who will be interested in the film,” he says. “Then it’s just a matter of getting it to them.”
Visit Films’ Ryan Kampe, who is repping Ry Russo-Young’s gritty NYC-set character portrait “You Won’t Miss Me,” says he’s in no hurry for the film to reach its core U.S. ticket-buyers post-Sundance, instead planning to build word-of-mouth on the regional festival circuit. “This film has some legs,” he says. “It’s not just relevant at Sundance, but relevant for the entire year following Sundance.”
Kampe admits that there may be a point when they discuss alternative options for releasing the film in U.S. art-houses. However, he adds, “I can’t tell you whether it’s three weeks after Sundance or six months after.”
C Plus Pictures’ Mike Landry and Carlos Velazquez will have waited more than a year to launch a DIY theatrical release of their Slamdance 2008 entry, “Frost,” which they plan to 4-wall at Landmark’s Sunshine Theatre in New York this spring. By then, they’re hoping to apply what they learn from the experience to their latest Slamdance 2009 effort, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead” if it also goes unsold.
With sales agency Traction Media on board, the filmmakers say they’ll consider partnering with the company on a limited theatrical release if they don’t have a significant deal six months after their Park City premiere. “With digital rights becoming such a hot commodity and you don’t know what’s going to be next,” says Velazquez, “you want to have as much control as possible. There’s something empowering about that model.”
And it doesn’t work, adds Landry, “The only way we can learn is through trial and error.”
Not Picked Up in Park City? Filmmakers Look Forward to DIY Release Options
The scene at the Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Peter Knegt.
The year is 2014. Joe the Filmmaker just found out he’s going to Sundance with his debut film. His trailer is online the next day. He’s got posters at the printer, and a marketing consultant on the phone. In the days leading up to the festival, he hits up bloggers for press, notifies all his Facebook friends and buys ads both online and in print. After winning a special jury prize for innovation during the final day of the festival, he plugs his movie into the IDN (Indie Distribution Network), selling it directly to indie-minded audiences around the country for viewing on their Internet TVs and iPhones, while a percentage of the proceeds feed directly into his bank account. Done.
While we haven’t exactly arrived at the above sci-fi scenario, there are established filmmakers who are already planning to bypass conventional distribution. Both Lance Hammer (“Ballast”) and Randall Miller (“Bottle Rocket”) say if they were to go to Sundance again, they wouldn’t wait for a company to acquire their film, but use the festival as a launchpad for a do-it-yourself release.
Most filmmakers, however, still say they’re going to Sundance with the hopes of a distribution deal. But now more than ever, they also have a backup plan if the acquisition dream doesn’t become a reality.
“The bottom line is that the old model—let’s go to Sundance and cross our fingers that someone is going to buy it—is ridiculous,” says veteran publicist Cynthia Schwartz, whose firm 42West is repping 15 films at this year’s festival and also consults on several DIY releases during the year. “Filmmakers have to take control. If they get a distributor, terrific. But if they don’t, they have to have a Plan B. And for the first time at Sundance, I feel like people are getting that.”
“Make your own plan. Create your own destiny,” continues Schwartz. “That’s really how things are going. Use the Sundance prestige to get your opening, not necessarily in February,” she adds, “but maybe in April.”
But distribution consultant Steven Raphael, who worked closely on Lance Hammer’s release of “Ballast,” says using Sundance as a platform is a good idea, in theory, but practically, it’s far more challenging.
“Some people want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we haven’t completely transitioned yet,” he says. “You still have to use the old-school methods.” If Joe found out about his Sundance acceptance in November, he’d have just a month to get everything in order, says Raphael. “Are your theaters booked? Are your posters ready? Is your media set? Consultants don’t work on projects for four months just to get paid,” he adds. “You need four months.”
Veteran director Joe Berlinger, who famously self-distributed both his 1992 Sundance Audience Award winner “Brother’s Keeper” and his 1996 Emmy-winner “Paradise Lost,” says he’s prepared to launch a DIY release of his latest Sundance entry, “Crude,” a verite look at the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” environmental lawsuit in Ecuador. “A film like this requires tender loving care and a specialty plan, but if a distributor doesn’t think they can do that,” says Berlinger, “I’d feel comfortable doing that myself.”
Berlinger, who is repping the film himself, says that if he isn’t close to a deal by the end of March, he’ll start making plans for a summer or fall release. While he acknowledges the difficulties of the theatrical market for “a tough film,” he says he has modest financial goals. “I’d be very satisfied to get in 10 to 15 cities, and we have some core constituencies that we can appeal to: There is a greatly underserved Spanish-speaking audience; there is a big and growing environmental audience.”
Berlinger also wants to appeal directly to the college market. “A distributor may consider that an educational and not a legitimate theatrical market, but if I self-distribute, I’m going to put myself on a college circuit, where this film gets widely seen,” he says. “And if that’s the communal viewing experience that most people have seeing this movie, I’ll be very satisfied.”
Similarly, Kansas-based filmmaker Kevin Willmott, who directed 2004’s “C.S.A: The Confederate States of America,” which was a surprise hit for IFC Films, sees value in the college market in respect to his new Sundance entry “The Only Good Indian,” a revisionist Western starring veteran Native actor Wes Studi. As a college professor at the University of Kansas, Willmott travels with his movies to colleges around the country. “All of that can be nurtured and developed and it can generate revenue,” he says.
While Willmott is confident that “The Only Good Indian” will sell to a distributor, he also acknowledges the reality: “If you can’t sell your film, you have to distribute yourself.” To that end, Willmott says they’ve already started targeting those communities that would gravitate to the film’s provocative subject matter, through radio and online interviews.
“If you run into difficulties selling your film or not, you have to connect with those people who will be interested in the film,” he says. “Then it’s just a matter of getting it to them.”
Visit Films’ Ryan Kampe, who is repping Ry Russo-Young’s gritty NYC-set character portrait “You Won’t Miss Me,” says he’s in no hurry for the film to reach its core U.S. ticket-buyers post-Sundance, instead planning to build word-of-mouth on the regional festival circuit. “This film has some legs,” he says. “It’s not just relevant at Sundance, but relevant for the entire year following Sundance.”
Kampe admits that there may be a point when they discuss alternative options for releasing the film in U.S. art-houses. However, he adds, “I can’t tell you whether it’s three weeks after Sundance or six months after.”
C Plus Pictures’ Mike Landry and Carlos Velazquez will have waited more than a year to launch a DIY theatrical release of their Slamdance 2008 entry, “Frost,” which they plan to 4-wall at Landmark’s Sunshine Theatre in New York this spring. By then, they’re hoping to apply what they learn from the experience to their latest Slamdance 2009 effort, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead” if it also goes unsold.
With sales agency Traction Media on board, the filmmakers say they’ll consider partnering with the company on a limited theatrical release if they don’t have a significant deal six months after their Park City premiere. “With digital rights becoming such a hot commodity and you don’t know what’s going to be next,” says Velazquez, “you want to have as much control as possible. There’s something empowering about that model.”
And it doesn’t work, adds Landry, “The only way we can learn is through trial and error.”
Friday, January 9, 2009
Sundance Jury Announced
Dramatic Jury
Virginia Madsen – (Actress: Sideway, Number 23, The Rainmaker, David Lynch's Dune)
Scott McGehee – (Producer/Director/Writer: Uncertainty, The Deep End, Suture)
Maud Nadler – (Producer/HBO Films: Relative Values)
Mike White – (Writer/Director/Producer: Year of the Dog)
Boaz Yakin – (Director/Writer/Producer: Fresh, Remember the Titans, Hostel)
Documentary Jury
Patrick Creadon – (Cinematographer/Director/Writer: Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A., Flow: For the Love of Water)
Carl Deal – (Director/Producer: Trouble the Water)
Andrea Meditch – (Executive Producer/Producer: Man on Wire, In the Shadow of the Moon)
Sam Pollard – (Editor: When the Levees Broke, Jungle Fever, Mo' Better Blues)
Marina Zenovich – (Director/Producer/Writer: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired)
World Dramatic Jury
Colin Brown (New York) – (Editor: Screen International)
Christine Jeffs (New Zealand) – (Director/Writer: Rain, Stroke; Director: Sunshine Cleaning)
Vibeke Windelov (Denmark) – (Producer: Dogville, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark)
World Documentary Jury
Gillian Armstrong (Australia) – (Director: Death Defying Acts, Oscar & Lucinda, Little Women)
Thom Powers (New York) – (Documentary Programmer, Toronto International Film Festival)
Hubert Sauper (France) – (Director/Producer: Darwin's Nightmare)
Shorts Jury
Gerardo Naranjo – (Director/Writer/Producer: Voy a explotar, Malachance, Perro Negro)
Lou Taylor Pucci – (Actor: Thumbsucker)
Sharon Swart – (Reporter: Variety)
Alfred P. Sloan Jury
Fran Bagenal – (Professor of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado)
Rodney Brooks – (Panasonic Professor of Robotics, MIT Computer Science & AI Lab)
Ray Gesteland – (Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah)
Jeffrey Nachmanoff – (Writer: The Day After Tomorrow; Writer/Director: Traitor)
Alex Rivera – (Director/Writer/Editor: Sleep Dealer)
Virginia Madsen – (Actress: Sideway, Number 23, The Rainmaker, David Lynch's Dune)
Scott McGehee – (Producer/Director/Writer: Uncertainty, The Deep End, Suture)
Maud Nadler – (Producer/HBO Films: Relative Values)
Mike White – (Writer/Director/Producer: Year of the Dog)
Boaz Yakin – (Director/Writer/Producer: Fresh, Remember the Titans, Hostel)
Documentary Jury
Patrick Creadon – (Cinematographer/Director/Writer: Wordplay, I.O.U.S.A., Flow: For the Love of Water)
Carl Deal – (Director/Producer: Trouble the Water)
Andrea Meditch – (Executive Producer/Producer: Man on Wire, In the Shadow of the Moon)
Sam Pollard – (Editor: When the Levees Broke, Jungle Fever, Mo' Better Blues)
Marina Zenovich – (Director/Producer/Writer: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired)
World Dramatic Jury
Colin Brown (New York) – (Editor: Screen International)
Christine Jeffs (New Zealand) – (Director/Writer: Rain, Stroke; Director: Sunshine Cleaning)
Vibeke Windelov (Denmark) – (Producer: Dogville, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark)
World Documentary Jury
Gillian Armstrong (Australia) – (Director: Death Defying Acts, Oscar & Lucinda, Little Women)
Thom Powers (New York) – (Documentary Programmer, Toronto International Film Festival)
Hubert Sauper (France) – (Director/Producer: Darwin's Nightmare)
Shorts Jury
Gerardo Naranjo – (Director/Writer/Producer: Voy a explotar, Malachance, Perro Negro)
Lou Taylor Pucci – (Actor: Thumbsucker)
Sharon Swart – (Reporter: Variety)
Alfred P. Sloan Jury
Fran Bagenal – (Professor of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado)
Rodney Brooks – (Panasonic Professor of Robotics, MIT Computer Science & AI Lab)
Ray Gesteland – (Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah)
Jeffrey Nachmanoff – (Writer: The Day After Tomorrow; Writer/Director: Traitor)
Alex Rivera – (Director/Writer/Editor: Sleep Dealer)
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