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Truly Free Film

Hope For Film Speaking Tour

There is a lot to say
There is a lot to say

I have a lot to share with you.  I also have a lot of hope for film — and I am not just talking about copies of my book for you to pick up.  Anyway, you can hear it all directly from me as I will be on the road a lot over these next few months. Hopefully I will be coming to your town. If you happen to teach at a college, and I am coming through already, let me know, and maybe I can make an additional stop. If I am not passing through, and you’d like me to, let me know. Here’s a sampling of where I will be headed as well as the dates:

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Truly Free Film

ALL Entertainment Should Increase The Current Value Proposition

Chris Dorr’s recent post on MoviePass helped me recognize the world as it truly is today.  It wasn’t MoviePass that I needed to recognize.  It was that the same thing that allowed Independent Film to flourish is the same thing that is now spurring on innovation everywhere.  Once filmmakers stopped asking for permission to tell their stories, the floodgates opened to a far more diverse approach to culture generation.  To the powers that be the end of permission looks like anarchy, but to the leaders to come, this is the stepping stone to necessary change.  And we are seeing that now.

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Truly Free Film

Twenty Tips For Packaging Your Project Successfully

 

Wondering what’s needed for packaging?

Producing requires that you look beyond your own projects and looks at how you build it better for everybody. I frankly don’t have respect for producers who only work on their projects. I want to know they give back to the community in general.  That does not have much to do with packaging frankly, but it is why I write this blog.

To that end, I want to share with you my thoughts on how to package your film in such a way that your film will gather momentum, get made, and succeed in the marketplace.  I have come up with twenty  points.  I wanted to know what I forgot, so I hope you add to the list.

  1. Recognize what you are doing when you package a project.  You package a project because you want to finance or sell your film.  You put actors in it not just for the creative enhancement, but also for the financial benefit.  If you fail to make the movie or to use the actors well, you devalue them in the market place.  That’s a HUGE risk for them.  It’s not true that if an actor attaches herself to the project and it doesn’t get made, no harm is done.  Attaching an actor exposes them to the marketplace — and kind of checks their value.  If a project an actor attaches himself to does not get made, it appears that buyers are not interested in them (because they presume that audiences does not value them).  By attaching actors to your project, you are risking their career.  Do not even approach them, until you are can demonstrate to everyone around them that is not the case.
  2. Develop a positive reputation for consistently delivering films of quality and acclaim.  It may sound like a Catch 22, but
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Truly Free Film

James Schamus & Christine Vachon Live On YouTube!

My former business partner and a regular collaborator of mine — both good friends — will be speaking live at Independent Film Week in 30 minutes at 4P EST. They know as much as anyone on the past & present of indie film;  maybe they can see the future too.  You can watch it live for free on

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Truly Free Film

A SMALL ACT – The Little Things Count

Guest post by filmmaker Jennifer Arnold.

How much do the little things count when it comes to staying visible?

My first documentary feature, A SMALL ACT (www.asmallact.com ), opens at the Quad Cinema in New York today. I started the film three and a half years ago with very few resources. DIY filmmaking is hard. We all know that. You have small budgets. You have small crews.

So how can you stand out when you have very little? The biggest lesson I learned while making this film is

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Truly Free Film

Cage Match: Are the Kids Alright? Youth Audiences in the Art House – Independent Film Conference 2010

Are independent and art-house film doing enough to draw young audiences away from the multiplex and the computer screen, or is the theatrical experience for a older demographic? On September 19th I was invited to participate in a “cage match” with Jeff Lipsky as part of Independent Filmmaker Conference’s panelist speaker event last month. We were able to agree on one thing: independent filmmakers need to draw a younger audience.

Moderator:
Liz Ogilvie, Crowdstarter

Panelists:
Ted Hope, This is that
Jeff Lipsky, Filmmaker, TWELVE THIRTY

Watch it here:

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IndieWire also covered the debate in an article here.

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Truly Free Film

How Can Indie Film Appeal To Alternative Youth Culture?

Sunday September 19th, as part of Independent Film Week, the IFP invited me to a “Cage Match” with Jeff Lipsky on Indie Film’s relationship with youth culture.  The discussion was spurred on by a post of mine “Can Truly Free Film Appeal To Youth Culture “, and the robust discussion everyone had in our comments section to that post, and then still further by discussions on Filmmaker Mag Blog and Anthony Kaufman’s column.  It was a good discussion before IFP even proposed the CageMatch, but I appreciated the opportunity to give it more thought.

You might have missed it but it’s been summed up pretty well by Robert McLellan on GlobalShift.org (thanks to Shari Candler for tipping me to that), Ingrid Koop on the FilmmakerMag Blog, and Eugene Hernandez at Indiewire (although I don’t agree, or believe I said, that Indie Film is aimed at white women over the age of 45 — although they are the dominant audience — but that we have to prevent Indie Film from being the province of the privileged, old, and white (i.e. me!)). Jeff and I could have blabbed for hours. I have plenty more to say on the issue.

As both a community and an industry, it is critical we look at both the creative, infrastructure, and societal factors for answers of why we have so failed to develop the alternative and youth sectors.  Every other cultural form has a robust young adult sector that is defined both by it’s innovation and opposition — yet in film that is the exception and not the rule.

To me the issue comes down to the fact that unless Indie Film appeals to the under 30’s, Indie Film will continue to marginalize itself into the realm of elitist culture like Chamber Orchestras and Ballet.