Category Archives: Coming Soon

Scoping out a transmedia campaign

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“How Gaming Director Keith Arem Developed His First ‘Transmedia’ Film” reveals all the elements in a well-rounded transmedia project.

These include:

  • an April 8 debut for the UFO conspiracy docudrama film, Phoenix Incident
  • festival screenings in February and March
  • viral marketing that began four years ago
  • an interactive app version of the film for Apple TV
  • gamification elements in the app that reward more active users
  • corporate partnerships

Arem, a video game industry veteran, says:

“With companies like Steam and Apple, the idea is to move away from traditional distribution, and turn the model around to get creators involved in changing the way people experience entertainment.”

The article concludes:

“Arem is planning Phoenix Incident spin-offs, including a virtual reality experience, a television series, and prequel films inspired by other unexplained incidents.”

My take: I think the smartest move here is the choice of subject and genre: UFO sci-fi/cover-up conspiracy/documentary. This guarantees a dedicated niche audience. One thing that surprises me is how long the viral campaign has been active. For the transmedia bible, see Gary Hayes’ “How to Write a Transmedia Production Bible”.

News from the Blockchain

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You’ve probably heard of BitCoin. But have you heard of the Blockchain, the system that makes it, and potentially many more things, possible?

At its simplest, the Blockchain is a frictionless, global, secure online ledger. It promises to radically overhaul banking in general and payment systems in particular.

Earlier this month the British music industry heard from PledgeMusic founder Benji Rogers and musician Imogen Heap about “an all-new, uber-transparent system of tracking music rights and paying for usage” based on the Blockchain.

Rogers believes that “the music industry could make use of the blockchain for its own new music format: something he’s dubbed .bc, or ‘dot Blockchain’.”

“Such a format would start with the ‘minimum viable data’ (MVD for short): details of the recording ownership, an ISRC/ISWC/ISNI code; publishing information; mechanical rights information, performer data; global licensing rules; usage rights; lyrics and images; payment details; and contact information.”

According to Heap:

“It’s a way of enabling those services to use the music under the terms of the artists, the rights-owners. We need to set the ethical, technological and commercial standards around how our music is used… At the moment, artists, we’re first in and last out: first in with our work, and right at the end, if we’re lucky, we get some cash back.”

Rogers concluded with an aggressive timeline for the new format:

“My goal is to have it by the end of the first quarter of this year. It’s gonna be name of song, name of artist, ISRC… I’m optimistic that we can come up with a suggested minimum viable dataset relatively quickly. I think it needs someone to really take this by the scruff of the neck in terms of doing it… If we can’t agree what five or six pieces of information constitute fair trade, we should all quit, because it shouldn’t be that hard.”

Wait, there’s more! CB Insights claims twelve industries will be remade by the Blockchain:

  1. Banking
  2. Payments and money transfers
  3. Cybersecurity
  4. Academic records and academia
  5. Voting
  6. Car leasing and sales
  7. Networking and IoT
  8. Smart contracts
  9. Forecasting
  10. Online music
  11. Ride sharing
  12. Stock trading

My take: if this can work for music, it can work for visual media too. Imagine releasing your work into the wild and compensation following back from viewers directly to you. When this comes to pass, whole industries of intermediators will disappear and artists will speak directly with their audiences.

Kodak announces a new Super 8 camera

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At CES 2016 in Las Vegas last week, Kodak stunned the world by announcing it is making a new Super 8 camera for release this fall.

After emerging from bankruptcy two years ago, Kodak decided to go all in on film, even though film represents only 10% of its business.

Hollywood filmmakers, many who grew up shooting Super 8, convinced Kodak to bring back the narrow-gauge format.

Kodak believes Super 8 can join the Maker Movement and ride the analogue trend.

Check out the camera specs.

My take: I’m also one of the filmmakers who got their start shooting Super 8. I have two concerns with Kodak’s new camera. While the viewfinder and SD card are appreciated, what were they thinking with the microphone? Super 8 cameras are typically noisy! My other concern is with the jitter inherent in Super 8. Logmar of Denmark has solved this — but their camera costs ten times as much. What I do think is brilliant is Kodak getting back into the film processing business and combining it with film scanning. That combination is the real news here and could make more people consider shooting on Super 8. But only if your pockets are very deep or your shot list is (super) short.

Short film is dead. Long live web series!

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I have made over 40 short films.

Today, to me, making a short is like painting a picture in the park on a Sunday afternoon. Pleasant, but unchallenging.

With this in mind, I recently read an old posting by Mike Jones at No Film School.

In it he argues that the short film is dead.

“There are two ways of looking at how a Short Film serves the emerging and aspiring filmmaker. The first is as a Learning Exercise, the second is as a Calling Card.”

He then proceeds to debunk both beliefs and concludes:

“As with many long-entrenched elements of filmmaking, the tradition of the short film needs to be let go of and seen as the antiquated anomaly it is; a tool of a bygone era. A good short film can be great work of art but emerging and aspiring filmmakers need much more than a short work of art to build a career. The short-format, online, episodic webseries is the most dynamic, audience-driven, self-publicising, learning vehicle indie filmmakers (in film school or not) have ever had access to.“

My take: I’m warming up to this idea. I’ve been toying with a concept that could be realized as a dozen episodes. 2016 will be a great year for me to launch it! Stay tuned!

The improv branch of the new media tree

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Nick Fortugno, CCO & Co-Founder at Playmatics, and Lance Weiler, Director at Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab, recently presented at Power to the Pixel, in London, England.

Nick began by reading a manifesto of sorts that concluded with:

“I stand here with the resolve that this is an amazing time to be a storyteller and we collectively hold a unique opportunity to innovate the industry we would like to see.”

They reiterated the necessity of story at the heart of innovation and then led the audience/collaborators in a story/creation of Sherlock Holmes & the Internet of Things.

The session was recorded: the pair present for the first half of the video and then launch into the simulation/group activity at 16:30.

Read about it on Hackpad.

My take: this seems to me to be an elaborate improv game. More of a parlour entertainment than a sit-back experience. I think that’s their point — the definition of media and audience is expanding.

Rooster Teeth set to deliver Lazer Team

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Rooster Teeth has announced that the world premiere for Lazer Team will be on September 24, 2015, at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

From the Fantastic Fest media release:

“Fantastic Fest will host the World Premiere of LAZER TEAM, the first feature film from web series gods Rooster Teeth. LAZER TEAM director Matt Hullum and cast members Burnie Burns, Alan Ritchson, Colton Dunn, Michael Jones, and Gavin Free will be in attendance to celebrate the highly anticipated sci-fi comedy and join Fantastic Fest’s official opening night party, presented by Rooster Teeth.”

Recall that in July 2014 this project became the third most crowd-funded film and video project on Indiegogo.com.

My take: kudos to Rooster Teeth for pulling this off. Their 37,000+ fan-funders must be giddy!

Telefilm Micro-Budget Feature Winners Announced

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Telefilm Canada has revealed the 2015 finalists of its wonderful Micro-Budget Feature Production Program.

In addition, Telefilm announced that the Talent Fund will subsidize the program. This is great news as it assures stable funding for the near future:

“The Fund has raised over $15 million to date from companies, foundations and individuals. The money will be invested over a period of seven years. Sixty percent of the Micro-Budget Production Program will be financed by the Talent Fund.”

Fifteen teams now negotiate with Telefilm for $100K+ in financing for their projects.

“This is the third annual round of projects in the Micro-Budget Production Program, which supports emerging filmmakers seeking to produce their first feature-length films, with emphasis on the use of digital platforms and developing their potential for distribution and audience engagement.”

I notice that this year most of the projects came through film schools rather than film co-ops as in the past.

Future applicants should note an innovative promotion and digital distribution plan is critical:

identify the target audience;
identify the goals for audience reach and engagement;
describe the release strategy;
identify the digital platform(s) on which the main distribution of the project will be made;
describe how the project will be promoted on the chosen platforms;
enumerate the distribution and/or promotion partners that will be pursued;
provide the budget for the promotion and distribution plan;
add any other information deemed important regarding the promotion and distribution plan

My take: this remains the best way to fund your first feature in Canada. Telefilm is rightly proud to have brought 37 features into being in the last three years.

One of the best reasons to make a short film

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Nathalie Sejean just posted a fascinating post on her excellent site, Mentorless.com titled To Short or Not to Short? 20 Filmmakers Who Successfully Transitioned from Short to Feature.

In it she lists twenty filmmakers from George Lucas (THX-1138) to Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) who graduated from shorts to features.

See the wonderful infographic.

Canadian filmmakers interested in this path should apply to Bell Media‘s Shorts-to-Features Program right away — the deadline is in two days!

My take: I think this is a good strategy. Particularly because we live in such a visually-dominant age, the more you can show of your storyverse to your potential fans and backers, the better. I lean towards reworking one or two scenes from your feature as a stand-alone short — now you’ve got a film and footage to cut into your crowd-finding pitch video.

U2 shows us the way with live mobile streaming

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First Youtube enabled anyone to post moving images to the Internet, democratizing the movies.

Now mobile streaming apps are revolutionizing live broadcasting, once the domain of television.

Having just launched within the last three months, both Meerkat and Periscope enable anyone with a smartphone to stream live video broadcasts in realtime to the world.

Meerkat (IOS and Android) wants you to first log in to Twitter. The left column lists upcoming streams, comments are on the right and the stream is featured vertically in the middle. Meerkat loves the colour yellow.

Periscope (IOS and Adroid) was purchased by Twitter shortly after Meerkat debuted. Comments are superimposed in the bottom left-hand corner, and you can show some ‘love’ with hearts that float up the right side of the vertical screen.

You can search Twitter to find live Meerkat streams or live Periscope streams.

Or, New York digital & social agency, GLOW, offers two ways to sample multiple streams:

Rock band U2 have embraced Meerkat. During the current i+e Tour, according to The Hollywood Reporter,

“The band invites an audience member onto the B stage to shoot a stripped-down number — on this night, ‘Angel of Harlem’ — to be broadcast live via the fledgling Meerkat platform. ‘This goes out across the globe — to about 150 people, until it catches on,’ Bono quipped.”

My take: I think this is truly revolutionary. The ‘airwaves’ for traditional TV broadcasters are strictly controlled by the FCC in America and the CRTC in Canada. Now, everyone with a smartphone has a ‘TV’ camera in their pocket and can begin broadcasting to the world at any time, for free! Journalism and entertainment may never be the same again. Interestingly, both apps use a mobile-friendly vertical orientation, which is decidedly uncinematic.

Deadlines for writers and filmmakers at a glance

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Time is linear, right?

Or is it more cyclical?

Taking a page from the Mayans, Jonathan Krimer of writersandfilmmakers.com has compiled three very interesting calendars.

One each for filmmakers, writers and documentary and television markets.

What sets these calendars apart from all others is that they are round. Think discs spinning, not stacks of paper blowing in the wind.

I asked Jonathan what software he uses, what conclusions we can draw, where he got his data and how often he updates:

“It’s Excel! I’m an MS Excel expert and use pretty complex charts in my day job (HR Analyst). So I just thought there might be some information gained from mapping it out visually. I did a basic Google search and found some existing templates that I then had to tweak. They were a bit of a hassle to do actually.

If you look at the writing competition chart, there is definitely a visual message there. There are definite slow months when you should be writing and writing! There are other times when everything must be submitted, so if you space out your writing year accordingly, you won’t miss the bulk of the deadlines.

To make the Film Festival Chart, I used some information from Sydney Levine whom I’ve met twice at TIFF. She also writes and does interviews for Indiewire @sydneysbuzz. She has festival circuit recommendations that I used as a guide.

I have not updated the calendars recently. I think I will update them later in the year.”

See his blog for more details. Scroll down to December 2014.

My take: I love the circular design. It makes it very easy to get the big picture and see events in relation to others. If you miss a deadline, chill, it’ll probably come around again.