Dive into the archives.
- SXSW Panels for your consideration
As filmmakers face all kinds of challenges, I have two very different panels in the SXSW Panel Picker hoping for your vote.
Broadband Issues for Content Makers helps film and video makers understand some of the issues around Broadband and ‘Net Neutrality’ and how they specifically impact independent producers.
Live! Nude! Audience! takes YOUR submission to be instantly reviewed by our crack team of experts and evaluated for marketing and outreach opportunities. You’ll get to see the process in action for your own film or discover the best ideas to use for future projects. And of… [more]
- Digital Doc Distribution- San Francisco Ed.
I’ll be presenting a workshop on Digital Doc Distribution at SFFS on June 7- discussing how doc filmmakers can reach their audiences in the current environment. There are great new opportunities as well as some challenges but overall, the changes can be a little confusing and it’s good to know about tools and resources to make it easier to manage.
Filmmaker Jen Gilomen will be on hand to talk about her film DEEP DOWN and we will talk specifically about projects in the room as well as about digital marketing and distribution tools doc filmmakers can use today… [more]
- Privacy I(ndependent)s
Ted Hope proposes we need a film fest panel on privacy. This dovetails with a discussion currently going on among some Free Culture people about the distinctions between sharing, stealing and the public vs. the private. As a libertarianish geek, I’m interested in privacy as it relates to my personal space and information in an age of unprecedented surveillance and public communication. On the other hand, as a marketer and adviser of others’ marketing, certain grey areas of internet privacy make it easier to reach an audience.
As filmmakers, we face specific privacy issues. For… [more]
- The Conversation is ongoing
Had fun moderating and ‘advising’ at The Conversation on Saturday. Lots of thoughts always arise when you get many interesting and innovative thinkers together, but I think one thing has been on my mind and only became more intensely so after a day of discussing various kinds of viability for media creation.
There are some basic realities in an economic context that are altering the fundamental possibilities for filmmakers now. When I was focused on the distribution end, I saw this as largely troubling. I do think there will be things I currently love that may not… [more]
- 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]
- 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]
