Dive into the archives.
- Brian Newman builds your audience
The fabulous Brian Newman will be presenting a panel on audience building at DCTV on Monday, February 22 at 7:30PM. As this falls just a couple weeks before my own audience engagement panel at SXSW, I will totally be mining Brian’s mind for great ideas- and it’s sure to be a fun event… [more]
- Free Culture, Free
You can watch the Free Culture X conference here live. The Twitter tag for the event is #fcx… [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]
- Disadvantaged? Or alternatively abled? Panel to decide.
On Tuesday (January 19), I’ll be joining a panel for New York Women in Film and Television to talk about gender, race and disability issues in the film industry. In particular, I’m tasked with commenting on women’s roles in distribution. Most people are familiar with the rather brutal situation for female directors in Hollywood as reported recently in the New York Times- last year just 3% of studio films were helmed by women. Cinematography is similarly imbalanced. In independent film the opportunities increase if not exactly balance. There are positions like editing and producing where… [more]
- Independent Film Week starts tomorrow- network!
IFP’s Independent Film Week starts tomorrow and there are reams of panels, albeit many with the same basic topics and even the same panelists. I moderated a panel there last year and it was quite fun. If you purchase your pass/tickets Saturday 9/19, you will still get the early bird rate:
- Full Week $220 30 Panels
- Narrative Panels Only $200 24 Panels
- Doc Panels Only $60 6 Panels
- Day Pass (any Day) $60 6 panels
- Single Panel $20 (any panel)… [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]
- 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]
- DIY, all Y
At DIY Days in Philadelphia, Lance Weiler’s traveling post-distribution networking conference, I may be drinking too much of the haterade*, but what seems to be emerging is kind of three-path future for film.
Path one is gigantic studio films that cost a lot and still rely on a certain level of lockdown on copyright and general control of dissemination.
Path two is the small filmmaker with an emerging set of tools to reach an audience, whose work must be made cheaply and flexibly, and who must include an element of interactivity and audience participation.
Path three responds to an… [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]
