Dive into the archives.
- Thom Powers on the success of Stranger Than Fiction
A video made for THE MAIN EVENT: Finding YOUR Audience, a panel I moderated at SXSW. Thom Powers, founder of the fantastic NYC doc series Stranger Than Fiction and doc programmer for TIFF, shares a few tips with filmmakers hoping to capture some of STF’s success for their own releases.
Thom Powers on making a doc screening a success from Laure X on Vimeo.… [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]
- Sundance New Frontier’s Ian Calderon on Indie Digital
Interviewed by CinemaTech‘s Scott Kirsner:
New Directions for Independent Cinema: Ian Calderon from Scott Kirsner on Vimeo.… [more]
- < = > Sundance gets symbolic with low-budget movies
Missed this in time for the submission deadline, but interesting to note that Sundance has added a new section for no-lo budget films it’s calling NEXT (represented by the symbol < = >). How these play at the festival will be a great experiment- will they be assessed on the same merits as other films or given a handicap? Given that the ultra-low budget level seems likely to emerge as viable (or even dominant?) in a troubled time for the industry, and given that these films don’t need distribution of the traditional sense to break even, there… [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]
- Why are the big three fests so important?
Speaking with my distribution hat on, we often receive calls from filmmakers who express bitterness that we tend to look primarily at films that come out of major festivals, the big three being Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto, and for us, also Berlin, Venice, and Rotterdam.
They usually act as though it was an affront that we were trying to be ‘exclusive’ and keep their populist movie out of the distribution game. Then there are industry analysts who suggest that these festivals are essential because the programmers weed out the dross and show us “an initial signal of a film’s
- Tease and Screen is a new funding idea
Today, IndieGoGo and Sausalito Film Festival will launch a new event called the Tease and Screen. The idea is to give filmmakers an opportunity to show clips from works-in-progress and invite audience members to participate as funders, crew, or publicity-generators. The work is featured at the Festival and on IndieGoGo.com.
The inaugural Tease and Screen showcases a number of projects:
o The Harvest – by Robin Romano (produced by Eva Longoria and the producers of War Dance) – A documentary about the children who work to feed America.o Time to… [more]
- Pick a Panel for SXSW
The SXSW Panel Picker went live today and there are many intriguing options. One I hope you’ll give the thumbs up to is mine, “The Main Event: Finding an Audience for Your Film.” The idea of the panel is to learn from awesome experts how to create event screenings, i.e. screenings with more excitement, interactivity and singularity than just your typical 7PM showing. Just as rock bands have used live shows to pick up the slack financially now that CD sales are slumping, independent filmmakers can create event screenings to bring more people in to see… [more]
- Distribution for a New Era: Hot Docs panel action
If you’re at Hot Docs next month, you’re welcome to check out this panel on ‘The New Distribution’ I’ll be on. It’s Tuesday, May 5th at the Rogers Industry Centre and will concern:
As commissioning budgets shrink, distribution bucks the trend with acquisition and sales windfalls. Is it a sign of the times, or the ebb and flow of the market? Join our international sales and distribution powerbrokers’ status report on their theatrical, broadcast, DVD and online media ventures. Find out how they are working for filmmakers and adapting sales techniques to the new economy.
Not sure if there’s… [more]
