Categories
Truly Free Film

Man, That Gets My Goat!

This past Sunday, the NY Times had one of those articles on how film “all of a sudden” looks like a good investment.  I am one of those who have always thought that film was a good investment when done properly, so you might think I was happy to hear them finally beating the drums.  Now, I could take it with a grain of salt and be happy that they are promoting what seems to be a good company run by good people and leave it alone at that.  At least that’s what I wanted to do, what I suspected I’d do, until I got to the last lines:

“If you can find the right film executives, people who consider themselves fiduciaries more than producers, it’s one of the best bets you can make right now,” Mr. Crown said.

“Just remember that it’s over when you start taking yourself so seriously that the project stops becoming a commercial movie,” he continued, “and starts becoming an art project.”
This is myth making.  There is no opposite to what Mr. Crown is talking about.  What is he inferring here?  That some producers will sacrifice the money for the art?  The producer’s job is to marry those two elements and one never needs to be sacrificed for the other.  To paint a picture that producers will leave the investors hanging, is not only wrong, but dangerous to the industry, the business, and the art.  
When he speaks of people not having a fiduciary responsibility, he certainly is not talking about any real producer I know.  Anyone that makes films for a living, who plans on making films for the rest of their life, knows that their films better deliver returns or else it is over for them.  Producers — people who actually make films on a regular basis — know that it is their job to deliver a return to their investors.  Producers can’t produce otherwise.  Each film is connected to the next, and not only the ones that an individual producer makes, but all of them that everyone else makes, are part of the same continuum.  We have to produce returns.
But then again, as the NY Times told us on Monday, it’s not Hollywood/Films that are the problem, it’s New York and Big Media that’s the issue.
To draw a line and pretend that there is a breed of producer who don’t consider themselves fiduciaries first is to try to discourage investment in film.  If you survey ANY handful of producers who have been making films as of late, you not only would find people well versed on what they expect their work to return, where they expect those returns to come from, and when they expect those returns to come in, but they also would know how they can build on those returns from one film to the next.  
And most importantly, they will know how it doesn’t require artistic compromise either.  Films are made to fit a budget, and a budget should be determined by what the market is.  Certain companies and investors can choose to reach above that, and great, truly remarkable work is generated that way, but for the rest of us mere mortals, this world demands that we be responsible.  My twenty years of making films has introduced me to an incredible breed of truly responsible people — and they are called “Producers”.  If the NY Times or others has a different opinion on what a producer is, I would be more than happy to introduce them to a few of my friends.
Categories
Truly Free Film

Win A Marketing Package For Your FIlm!

CrewCreative, who did great work for us on our film TOWELHEAD, are offering one lucky filmmaker a marketing package of a trailer, poster, and website for their film — provided your film cost less than $5M to make.  So what are you waiting for?!!

Read all about it here.  You have only until April 20th to apply.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Harvey Pekar: The Jazz Opera


Wow!  Harvey live on the internet in a jazz opera!  Joyce too!  Check out the website here.  It’s going to stream live on January 31st, at 8P EST.  Don’t miss it.  And what a great title: LEAVE ME ALONE!

Harvey is one of our top national resources.  He has been an inspiration for me for over twenty five years.  If you haven’t watched American Splendor multiple times, there’s something wrong with you.  He would have a top spot if there was a These Are Those Heroes list.
Someday I will write the post that he deserves, but meanwhile just mark your calenders.
Categories
Truly Free Film

The New Crew Positions

In a post entitled “Issues Of Sustainability” on the Filmmaker Mag Blog, Lance Weiler  talks about how we as filmmakers can produce for today’s evolving audiences. In talking to filmmakers, I still find they often don’t yet fully conceive what it means to adopt a “transmedia” approach to storytelling and marketing.  On the other side of the spectrum though is what made Wired’s recent post on “Why Hollywood Needs a New Model For Storytelling” such a gas  — they’ve got it and got it good.  Check it out.  We may not need to build the ARGs and seed the story so heavily on blogs and elsewhere as Scott Brown writes about, but we do need to give serious thought about how the hell to build audiences for our stories.  

Let’s face it: it just is not enough to have a good story well told anymore.  Sure I still believe in the basics first and building out you narrative on a cross-platform basis is simply not enough to cut it. And yes, the first step towards better filmmaking is to have good material that you have given serious thought to.   
I might harp a bit on the new approaches and filmmakers’ lack of thought there, but to be frank that’s because there still is a great deal of nothing going on in the old school department.  As good as I found this year’s Sundance batch, and as hopeful as I am for SxSW’s crop, how do we drill down to the basics and make sure we have our pants riding high?  I mean: what makes a good film good?  Some folks may know how to tell their story nine ways to Sunday, but it still won’t sing, if ain’t got that swing.  
I’ve have started a new series over on Hammer To Nail on “Qualities Of Better Film” and promise to go into over twenty such qualities that at the very least makes my motor run.  It may be basic stuff, but I still find these qualities in short supply.  Check it out over the next few weeks.  Let me know what I’ve missed.  I know that if everyone adopted the approach that I outline, I’d find more films I would want to give prizes to.  On the other hand, since I find it hard even to do that even with my films, maybe we all just need to wake up to how damn hard it is to make good films (let alone better ones), and slow the heck down.
But while I am on the self-promotion tip:  make a trip over to Filmcatcher where Christine Vachon and I hosted a couple of conversations with filmmakers and actors during Sundance (okay so only the teaser’s up now, but it tells you what you can anticipate).  But that ain’t all…. there’s more to come on that front, or at least one similar to it, too.  Stay tuned.
Categories
Issues and Actions

A Great Way To Contribute To Copyright Reform

Wired reports:

Nina Paley, director of the award-wining animated feature Sita Sings the Blues, is selling a night with her to the highest bidder in an effort to get her film out of what she calls “copyright jail.”

Read all about it here.

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Design Your Own Trading Cards

In our Bowl, we are not content with just the store-bought trading cards.  Yugioh and Pokemon are alright, but imagination trumps all.

In addition to the fun of magic markers, the computer helps us too.  The H2Y found Yugioh Card Maker where you can input any photo and label them whatever you want — all on a Yugioh Card background.  Pretty swell we smell.  H2Y made this one of a Bakugan.
We find that if you print the page at 72% and print it on card stock, you have some excellent fakes!
Categories
Truly Free Film

The Sundance Panic Button Panel

Todd Sklar tipped me to the video of the panel I participated on at Sundance, and now you can decide: push or ponder?  

Part One:
IndieWire has covered it and condensed it, if you prefer your news in print and not to take an hour to digest — but me I like the whole story, warts and all.
The panel was supposed to be on the future of film, but it was a bunch of old white guys — and that’s not going to be the future.  Christine Vachon and I, with some help from IndieWire, had lunch with a much different group, that was 100% filmmakers, which IndieWire filmed and will be posted soon (so stay tuned).  
As the sole filmmaker on the Panic Button panel, I found it particularly frustrating that there was so little concern expressed about how quality film will be generated, let alone exhibited.  It is all so connected: the big films to the little films, the financing to the distribution, the exhibition to the criticism.  The dots are connected but people want only to look at their domain.  That’s not self-interest, that’s short-sightedness.  And that’s got to change, and I’m sure it will.
I get a kick out of watching/listening to these videos.  Among other things, it shows I have to work on my public speaking compared to these pros (and the control of my hair).  And it’s impressive how skilled they all are about promoting themselves and their films — and their way of doing business.  The distribs get the word out on their accomplishments, but I neglected to mention ADVENTURELAND (and did I tell you how it just killed at the festival?).  Granted, I hope to keep making films in the top indie budget range, but watching this panel, and despite some clear articulation of the contrary, it is still easy to walk away thinking there is only one way of doing business.
The important part of part one, which has gotten NO PRESS, is that Peter Broderick speaks of a number of filmmakers who have made over $1 Million on a single film on a single website.  How exciting is that?  Get your investors to talk to Peter now!  There’s hope out there for a new way.
Part Two:
It’s funny to notice as I post this that part one has about 20,000 views but Part Two is still under 1,000!  That said, I don’t think I got my points across until that second half.  I guess the next time, I have to write some notes down like Mark Gill did and deliver a whopper right out of the gate…
There are some simple things that could really change things.  Around 11:45 or so, on Part 2, I raise the possibility of the distribs giving the exhibs back Monday night for community screenings.  This simple idea would move mountains in terms of specialized production and is doable now.  Jonathon Sehring follows this by stating that IFC will provide filmmakers with the data their film generates.  If this becomes the dominant position, filmmakers can really start to be in control.
And if you are just looking for the John Sloss bashing part of the program, that begins around 15:35 in Part 2.