I think this calls for one of those clip reels that we get at award shows.

Filmmakers need to be cognizant of the fact that anything they prepare in the very long lead-up to their productions is a potential piece of content that can be leveraged in the overall mission of engaging their target audiences.

I remember attending a discussion in Montreal by Six Pixels of Separation author Mitch Joel about how he may very well have been the very last journalist to have interviewed Nirvana headman Kurt Cobain, and how – in those days, with the help of desktop public and Word files – newspapers were assembled manually. He remarked how if he’d just kept his interview and liner notes from the interview from back in the day they’d be worth well over a tidy sum today which he could have flogged on eBay.

Humorous? Maybe not. There was a lesson in what Joel was saying: don’t throw anything out or underestimate the power of the work you’re doing in the leadup to your ultimate end point. Because you never know what has the power to engage and electrify an audience. You also can’t accurately predict what bonus materials audiences will ultimately pay for, oftentimes more than the picture you’re attempting to market itself.

So what are some of the contents you might think about pressing into service – extra-diagetic contents, stuff “outside of the main picture” – as part of your overall marketing thrust?

PMD For Hire | Read the Full Article

Vampire Mob is audience-funded. There is no network, no production company and no web site paying for us to make this story, we make it for our audience, “The VMob.”

Via FilmCourage

DIY Indy Film Distribution Part 1 from B&H Photo Video on Vimeo.

DIY Indy Film Distribution Part 2 from B&H Photo Video on Vimeo.

Reid’s goal was to capture and represent some of the rhetoric from that past decade and a half in a way that would fill the hall with laughter, even if some of it came at the expense of some clearly ridiculous industry arguments. “Everyone can laugh at silly infographics,” Reid opined while silently crushing the serious journalism dreams of hacks everywhere. “And who doesn’t want to deface a Leave-it-to-Beaver-like Christmas scene with pirate-and-Santa graffiti?”

The brilliance of Reid’s talk is that he thoroughly skewers the content industry’s dubious appeal to quantitative reasoning. We’ve all see the headlines proclaiming huge numbers of dollars, jobs, and patents lost to piracy. The appeal to quantitative measures is supposed to undermine counterarguments by doing two things: slyly stepping into a (pretend) world of objectivity, and raising the alarm with big, scary numbers. It’s hard to look at those kinds of headlines in the same way after Reid’s elegantly hilarious skewering.

Reid’s examination of Copyright Math began when he started working on his soon-to-be published debut science fiction novel, Year Zero, which Random House is publishing in early July (we’ll be reviewing it). Year Zero tells the story of how the toxic legal byproducts of some overly litigious lawyers cause problems that make global warming seem downright cozy. Not to give it away, but could you imagine how pissed off an alien music lover might get if he was sued into bankruptcy for pirating a few lousy Rick Astley songs?

Traditionally, there were three main types of distribution for the work of independent filmmakers: theatrical, broadcast and straight to DVD. Most filmmakers hoped for a combination of all three.

But everything has changed. The digital online world has opened up new avenues of distribution including video on demand, live streaming, and mobile and tablet applications.

Indie filmmakers are harnessing these digital forms of distribution to increase their audience and maintain control of their film, but the “how and where” their film is viewed, the financial recovery of production costs, and their eligibility for awards all factor into their choices.

“Every film has its own path,” said director Tiffany Shlain, remembering something she once heard that stuck.

Today, choosing that path is more complicated then ever.

PBS.org | Read the Full Article

]]> http://filmmakeriq.com/2012/02/how-new-platforms-streaming-media-change-the-equation-for-indie-filmmakers/feed/ 0 http://filmmakeriq.com/2012/02/editing-scarface-for-tv/ http://filmmakeriq.com/2012/02/editing-scarface-for-tv/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:10:37 +0000 Dennis http://filmmakeriq.com/?p=10975 It was Harry Tatelman’s job to convert Universal’s films into television fare by taking out the foul language, and some of the violence and nudity. When he was given the task of editing Scarface’s 160 ‘F’ words along with its other blue content few thought it could be done. But in the end it may be the most creative censorship ever to hit the TV airwaves.

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