Dive into the archives.
- Play/Pause Ted Hope
Ted Hope interviewed for the new documentary Press/Pause/Play. Hope may be the most important voice right now in the emerging film–>next world, not only because he has had success with the old model but because he has an intuitive understanding of how technology, creativity and communication with the audience intersect. And he is still making movies… [more]
- Festivals! Conferences!
Just flagging some upcoming events I’ll be attending at which I hope to see you and give you one of my new cards.
Making Your Media Matter- DC, February 11-12 “Cutting-edge practices for making your media matter”
Free Culture X- DC, February 13-14 “Free software and open standards, open access scholarship, open educational resources, network neutrality, and university patent policy”
South By Southwest- Austin, March 12-18 (Presenting a panel about event screenings and attracting audiences)
The Conversation NY- March 27 “New business and creative opportunities” in film and media… [more]
- Copyright, docs, Lessig, licenses
Recently in The National Republic, Lawrence Lessig addressed the issue of copyright in documentaries and how it is keeping classic films like Eyes on the Prize out of commercial circulation. The problem is that filmmakers must clear copyright for archival elements in their work such as television clips and music, and generally the licenses for these clips is for a limited time period like 10 or 20 years. After that time, the filmmaker would need to clear (i.e. re-license) all of the archivals again in order to sell the work.
For most docs, this can be extremely onerous… [more]
- 2010: Odyssey Two (Or, it’s my year)
The year is starting out with big news for me- I’m leaving my job as Director of Home Media Sales & Marketing at Zeitgeist Films, where I’ve been in charge of selling DVDs and the move to internet and VOD licensing.
I’ve decided to return to the equally if even less logical pursuit of making docs, consulting, and looking for a sustainable day job. I’m very excited and I hope I’ll be able to give readers of this blog an even more first-hand take on the challenges and opportunities for filmmakers today.
Stay tuned!… [more]
- The Free North- Fun stuff from TIFF
Some cool stuff from the Toronto International Film Festival last week:
Liesl Copland, formerly of Netflix and now with William Morris Endeavor’s Global Finance & Distribution Group, gave a keynote at the Doc Conference about the state of digital and what it means for the industry. The takewaway: theatrical still has life; filmmakers need to learn about metrics; crowdsourcing is the new focus group.
Ted Hope, as captured by indieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez, about Hope’s Doing It With Others (DIWO) philosophy. The takeaway: Blog, tweet, Facebook your whole life- or at least your projects and… [more]
- Toronto bound? New distribution at TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival is more about watching movie (and schmoozing at parties) than attending panels but there are a couple of things geared towards documentary filmmakers that would be worth checking out during all the glam.
The Doc Conference
Sunday, September 13, 2009
University of Toronto’s Victoria College (93 Charles Street West, behind the Isabel Bader Theatre), Room 323
An all-day meeting, with this panel a highlight for filmmakers interested in new directions in funding/sales:
1:30pm – Financing in Tough Times
Franny Armstrong, Director, The Age of Stupid
Dan Cogan, Impact Partners
Lois Vossen, ITVS*Doc Conference is open to all Guest Relations, Sales & Industry… [more]
- RiP: A Remix Manifesto in the tradition of mainfestos past
I recently got a chance to check out RiP: A REMIX MANIFESTO, the Canadian documentary that takes a look at copyright (and the mashup artist Girl Talk) in a kind of method way- the producers, EYESTEELFILM, and director, Brett Gaylor decided that since the costs of licensing all the expensive music in the film would be prohibitive, and since the film was about these costs, it would essentially be fair use to go ahead and use whatever they wanted (including network footage, usually very expensive) and just see what happens.
It’s a pretty interesting concept, and though the film… [more]
- ITVS Digital Initiative- New Tech for Reaching Audiences
I’m a little slow on the uptake here, but man-on-the-beat Scott Kirsner of Cinematech has a great resource on the ITVS site where he interviewed a number of documentary filmmakers about their experiences using new technology to reach an audience. Scott told me:
Among the folks I spoke to were Tiffany Shlain (”The Tribe”), Katy Chevigny (”Election Day”), Hunter Weeks (”10 MPH” and “10 Yards”), Byron Hurt (”Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes”), and Curt Ellis (”King Corn”). Not everyone is a filmmaker who is funded or supported by ITVS… our sole criterion was to find folks who were… [more]
- INTERVIEW- D-Word Founder and Doc Director Doug Block
The D-Word is an essential resource for documentary film folks- an online community of filmmakers, writers, and broadcast/distribution types. Doug Block, the founder and co-host of the site, is an experienced filmmaker whose breakout film 51 BIRCH STREET, a personal documentary about family relationships, benefited from a grassroots marketing campaign that included utilizing the internet. Infinicine asked him about the transitioning state of distribution for documentarians.
[I]nfinicine: In your experience, are independent filmmakers making a transition to online forms of distribution? Are streaming and/or downloading viable revenue sources for a filmmaker who has essentially self-financed… [more]
- INTERVIEW- Educational Market- Rachel Gordon, Energized Films
The educational market is an often overlooked source of revenue for independent filmmakers, and has a lot of models that may be used by more “commercial” vendors in the future. Rachel Gordon has a background as a director, producer, ad writer. Her consulting business, Energized Films, helps filmmakers access the educational market.
[I]nfinicine: How are streaming/digital downloads changing educational distribution?
[R]achel Gordon: The process of change in education is pretty slow, but what is happening is that some colleges and universities have been able to experiment. They’ve
started licenses to stream on servers they’ve created and maintained… [more]
