Watch CineSpark 2021 tonight!

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Michael Korican

Since 2017, CineVic, Victoria BC’s largest artist-run media centre, has been running the CineSpark competition. Watch the Top Five pitch live on Youtube tonight at 7 p.m. PDT.

The production prize awarded to the winner is substantial:

$13,500 in-kind equipment rentals from CineVic
$2,500 in-kind equipment rentals from William F. White
$1,500 cash grant
$100 Modo driving credits toward production van rental
Production Insurance: 10 consecutive days of coverage ($195 value)
One-year complimentary CineVic Production Membership ($220 value)
Your film will premiere at the next Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival!

There are two stages to the competition.

It all starts with a script. Submissions are judged blind and the Top Five are then invited to wrangle together a production team and pitch their project live to a jury of visiting filmmakers during CineVic’s Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival. (Unfortunately, the pandemic has meant virtual pitches this year and last.)

First proposed by him as one way CineVic could step up the production value of at least one film by its members, Arnold Lim says:

“Island filmmakers may not have the same name recognition as those from service towns like Vancouver or Toronto, but I believe they are every bit as talented and deserve the opportunities that are more abundant in more established film hubs in Canada. That’s why talent-development programs like CineSpark are so critical. I am proud of CineVic and CineSpark for the opportunities they have provided to talented local Vancouver Island and Gulf Island filmmakers and their cast and crew who all deserve the chance to level up and show off their artistic vision.”

Producer member of a past winning team, Darlene Tait echoes this sentiment:

“Winning a CineSpark Pitch Competition is like a rallying cry to the local film community who love to work with or help out CineSpark winners. Having the winning pitch speaks to the possibilities that exist with the team and the script and it immediately levels up your game. It can be a serious launchpad if you do it right.”

One of tonight’s Top Five Pitchers, emerging filmmaker Suzanne Moreau comments on the experience so far:

“Thrilling. Then nerve wracking. Then encouraging. A little bit frustrating. Then confusing. Lastly inspiring. This cyclone of emotions resembles the grief cycle! But it’s actually been fun and a great way to discover and connect with many more local filmmakers than I would have otherwise. So I’m already benefitting and the win would be icing on the proverbial cake. It’s been a rush!”

Best of luck to all involved and, “Roll sound. Roll camera. Action!”

My take: even though only one team wins tonight, I can practically guarantee that more than one film will end up being created out of this year’s competition. I guess investing this much time and effort into pitching a project can’t help but solidify the desire to make the movie — and I know of at least two projects that resulted in better films than the official winner that year.

CineVic’s podcast is live!

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Michael Korican

I’m now a podcast editor!

CineVic, Victoria’s largest artist-run media centre, has just launched its podcast.

As you may know, I sit on CineVic’s board. Earlier this year Grady Lawlor suggested we have a podcast. It’s purpose is to promote upcoming CineVic events and our member filmmakers.

A volunteer committee cast our host Joyce Kline, the production designer, (after a thorough search.) Paul Ruta has been scheduling and running SquadCast in the background. Yours truly has been editing episodes down to 10 minutes.

Every episode in May 2021 will concentrate on CineVic’s Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival that I also had a hand in programming.

Joyce says:

“My personal logline is: In the midst of a deadly global pandemic, an idealistic team (Michael Korican, Grady Lawlor, Paul Ruta, Joyce Kline) armed only with podcast capabilities and insights gleaned from the filmmakers they interview, puts the spotlight on talented independent filmmakers across the globe.”

Paul says:

“Wow! What a blast this experience has been so far. From this initial thought being brought up in a discussion of the possibility of developing a podcast way back in January of 2021, all the way now to now having scheduled multiple interviews with numerous world class, award-winning filmmakers — it’s been an absolute thrill to be a part of this journey every step of the way! I personally have learned so much from our incredibly hardworking and brilliant podcast team members in Grady, Joyce and Michael — as well as having gathered so many life lessons along with inspiration for my own upcoming projects in hearing all the knowledge, experience and insight that our ultra-talented guests have and will continue to share. I’m hoping the audience will take away as much wisdom as I’ve been doing also in ultimately listening to these episodes. I’m looking forward to what’s ahead with the future guests that we’ll be interviewing for the 2021 Pacific Rim: Short Circuit film festival — and in having this podcast as an outlet at CineVic for filmmakers to speak further on their filmmaking chronicles for years to come.”

Grady says:

“While starting a podcast remotely from scratch seemed like the most challenging part to begin with, it ended up being one our greatest assets. One of our first goals is to reach filmmakers from all across the Pacific Rim and bring their stories to our members back home. Since organizing a remote recording online is more or less the same level of effort these days as lining up an interview with someone in Vic West, why not expand our reach?

Having the technology to pull this off enables our host Joyce Kline and director/producer Paul Ruta to line up a recording session with people we normally would never have access to. One recent interview found Joyce chatting with Marie Jamora, who happens to be directing an upcoming episode for Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar.

And if independent filmmakers in Victoria can learn from some of the best out there, why not go for it?

This team has been incredible to work with and the only downside is we’re going to be swamping our producer/editor, Michael Korican, with too much good tape!”

It’s been a lot of work but a ton of fun too! A great project to soak up lots of COVID-thwarted creativity.

Find “Push In, the CineVic Podcast” at https://cinevic.buzzsprout.com/

RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1760985.rss

My take: it’s interesting to ponder on the evolution of analogue radio through digital audio to podcasting. The barrier to entry is almost zero. But discoverability remains a huge issue: now that we’ve made a podcast, will anyone listen?

Indie feature tips, including how to use Legos

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Michael Korican

Brian Ulrich dishes on No Film School: How We Made Our Low-Budget Action Movie Look Like a Million-Dollar Feature.

I’ll summarize below but first there’s something I’ve never seen done before in their BTS Making Of video above.

Most directors will storyboard the shots they envision for their movie. Or hire an artist to draw them for them.

Not Brian. At 1:18 he reveals:

“A lot of people do storyboarding. I’m a terrible artist so I did what I call ‘Storybuilding.’ I have a massive Lego collection and I shot probably about 70% of the film in photographs with these Lego figures.”

The clearest frames showing this are near 1:24 and 1:30. OMG!

I mean, I’ve never heard of anyone doing something like this. Wouldn’t this just take forever? But, okay, props for using your Legos!

Some of his other tips on the making of “Last Three Days” that also apply to any no-low budget movie:

Write your script with what you can afford to shoot. “The rules for the script were: modern-day, no kids, no animals, no blowing things up.”
Move forward on all fronts and don’t worry about funding post-production up front. “I continued to churn out a new draft of the script each month and we continued to meet with investors to keep funding moving forward. But it wasn’t until a month before production that we finally raised enough money to get to the end of principal photography.”
Go for union actors under the Ultra Low Budget agreement. “That decision proved well worth the additional paperwork and money required.”
Hire crew who share your enthusiasm for the project. “For crew, the rate was minimum wage across the board, so we brought on talented individuals who believed in the script and didn’t mind making very little money.”
Keep your locations simple. “We borrowed friend’s homes and businesses, asked local businesses if we could buy out the place for a few hours, and sometimes drove around the city just looking for the perfect spot and then found out who owned it.”
Production requires superhuman efforts all round. “Every single department felt that this film was special, and what they lacked in experience, they made up for in passion and raw talent. Every individual went above and beyond, operating outside their singular position and doing whatever it took to bring this story together. Even when things went wrong, which they always did, the crew would remind themselves, we’re all on the same team.”
In post-production, this film used three editors, something only possible because it has three different sections.
(This tip really should be considered in pre-production.) When it comes to VFX, “ultimately all that matters is what ends up within the boundaries of your finished frame. You don’t need a giant set, a giant backdrop, or even a “finished” practical set. And the more carefully you plan your shots, the less time and resources you need to fill that frame, and suddenly your VFX budget is the size of a window instead of the size of a backyard.”
Take your time in post, especially if you’re working on the cheap. Note that post-production on this film took two full years.
Regarding marketing and distribution, “as a low-budget non-linear action romance thriller, with no movie star on the poster, it was initially difficult to get eyes on the film.” They skipped the festival circuit and through a strategic contact signed with a sales rep who was able to land both domestic and international distributors.

My take: my advice is to sketch your storyboard. For free and paid storyboarding software, see The 14 Best Storyboarding Programs in 2021. btw, there are a ton of stop-motion movies made with Lego.

Novel idea: turn your screenplay into a book

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Michael Korican

Typically, literary works are adapted into screenplays; witness the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, this year won by Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller for adapting Zeller’s play “Le Père” into the feature film “The Father.”

But local writer Michael Whatling has just done the reverse by adapting his screenplay “Pâtisserie” into a new novel: “The French Baker’s War.”

Set in Occupied France in 1943, one day André Albert returns home from the daily hunt for the rationed ingredients necessary to keep his family pâtisserie open, and finds his four-year-old son in the street, his wife gone, and an emaciated Jewish woman cowering behind the pastry display case.

Michael and I recently had the following email exchange:

Michael Korican: Congratulations! Is this your first novel? Because I know you foremost as a screenwriter.

Michael Whatling: “It’s my first “real” novel, I suppose. I say “real” because when I was 15 I sat in the back yard at one of those round metal tables with the umbrella in the middle and typed out a book on an old Royal typewriter I found in the basement. I called it “The Song No One Heard.” It ended up being the book no one read.”

MK: I believe you overheard the germ of the idea for this story in a Montreal bakery. How long did it take you to write the screenplay?

MW: “The screenplay didn’t take long — it was all the rewrites that were interminable. It was optioned twice: Once by two-time Academy Award nominated best actress Isabelle Adjani, and by Francis Lawrence, the director of “I Am Legend,” “The Hunger Games,” “Water for Elephants,” etc. Unfortunately, like is often the case, the options lapsed.”

MK: How did you turn the screenplay into a novel?

MW: “I wrote the novel based on my screenplay because I felt there was so much more of the story to tell that a 100 page script couldn’t. I used the screenplay as a detailed outline. As you know, in novels you have to go inside the heads of the characters. That was a very different skill from the ones needed for writing a script. That took getting used to.”

MK: But why turn a screenplay into a novel? Was it the intellectual challenge, or does it now make the screenplay more marketable? Or, did you in effect abandon the script but not the idea and use the lockdown to re-express it in another creative medium?

MW: “By bringing the novel to a different audience, I’m hoping it will also make it more visible to someone who’d want to see it as a film.”

MK: How long did it take?

MW: “Writing the novel took much longer. Writing novels is hard work. You have to consider EVERY. SINGLE. WORD.”

MK: What else have you been up to, and what’s next?

MW: “An award winning independent film I wrote, “The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova,” is currently available on Optik TV and iTunes. It’s about estranged siblings who travel to Poland to fulfill the dying wish of their grandmother. Another of my screenplays, “Cut for Stone,” has been optioned by Ezeqial Productions of Toronto. It’s about doctors who slip into Syria during the current civil war to provide medical aid to civilians.”

My take: turn your screenplay into a book; how novel! Congratulations, Michael!

Kevin Smith to sell new movie as NFT

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Michael Korican

Anthony D’Alessandro reports on Deadline that Kevin Smith To Sell Horror Movie ‘Killroy Was Here’ As NFT.

Independent filmmaker Kevin Smith‘s feature “Killroy Was Here” is a horror anthology loosely based on the Kilroy was here graffiti phenomenon, sometimes described as one of the first memes.

D’Alessandro writes:

“Kevin Smith is looking to push the boundaries on indie distribution again and this time he’s auctioning off his latest horror feature anthology Killroy Was Here as an NFT (non-fungible token). The owner of the NFT will secure the rights to exhibit, distribute and stream the work, making it a means for whoever owns the movie to earn money outside of the blockchain.”

He quotes Smith as saying:

“As an indie artist, I’m always looking for a new platform through which to tell a story. And Crypto has the potential to provide that, while also intersecting with our almost 25 years of experience selling real world collectibles online and at the brick-and-mortar Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Back in 1994, we took Clerks up to Sundance and sold it. Selling Killroy as an NFT feels very similar: whoever buys it could choose to monetize it traditionally, or simply own a film that nobody ever sees but them. We’re not trying to raise financing by selling NFT’s for a Killroy movie; the completed Killroy movie IS the NFT. And If this works, we suddenly have a new stage on which I and other, better artists than me can tell our stories.”

Check out the drop on April 21, 2021.

My take: to summarize: you write, finance and create a digital feature film, then evolve it into a unique digital item as an NFT and finally sell that for Etherium crypto-currency. Hmmm. It will be interesting to see who buys it, if they immediately resell it, if any buyer decides to hang on to it and whether they then attempt to monetize it through distribution theatrically or online through VOD or streaming or ??? Who knows? This is crazy shit!

Netflix’s global plan revealed

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Michael Korican

Jason Hirschhorn of REDEF interviewed Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos one year ago at the Upfront Summit 2020.

Even though this is from the pre-pandemic past, the insights are insightful.

Speaking to Netflix’s international reach, Ted says:

“I think people really want to see their stories; they really want to see themselves on screen.”

As to their reach, he claims:

“We can find a great story from anywhere in the world and make it play anywhere in the world.”

He says there are only two reasons people watch Netflix:

to connect, or
to escape.

The reason why Netflix does not specialize:

“Tastes are incredibly diverse; you don’t have to leave Netflix as your tastes evolve.”

My take: to connect or to escape. I interpret that as Tragedy or Comedy. It all boils down to a good story well told.

The secret to financing your second feature revealed

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Michael Korican

Margeaux Sippell reveals on MovieMaker the 17-Year Secret to Indie Success, From Coatwolf’s Evan Glodell.

Jess Jacklin, Charles Beale and Jake Bowen of the excellent vlog/podcast Demystified recently interviewed Evan Glodell whose first feature Bellflower debuted at Sundance in 2011 and went on to earn two Indie Sprit Award nominations.

He relayed his seven-year story chasing funding for his second film:

“I’m having meetings with literally A-list actors who were like, ‘I want to work with you’ and every big studio in town, and I was like, ‘We’ve made it.’ Nothing had ever worked in my life until one day I said, I’m gonna do this thing and take what was available to me, like in my real-world resources I actually had, which is what we used to make Bellflower. And instead of being like, ‘Hey, that was a big life lesson, that worked!’ we were like, okay, now let’s go back to holding our hands out… What the hell was I doing?”

And he revealed his epithany:

“If I care at all about telling stories in these movies that I say I care so much about that I’m willing to endlessly work and go to meetings for seven years with no outcome, I should just go back in with the resources I have now. The second that I made that decision, all of a sudden everything turned around, and it was like the stars aligned.“

His micro-budget mantra: Just start with what you have.

“You literally have like zero in your way. It’s only you. You can tell your story, but you’re scared of having your story be there bare naked on the screen without the polish of millions of Hollywood dollars and skill, you know? Like 99% of people who reach out to me to say the same thing. I’m like, dude, you just need to get over your fear and just go. Do you have a rich family? Do you have rich friends? No? Okay, you’re in with most of the rest of us. Just go. Nothing’s gonna happen if you don’t go.”

Here’s the trailer for the $17,000 Bellflower:

And here’s how they made it.

My take: I love this sentiment! Nike said it best, “Just Do It!” Need instructions? What you need to know, in 10 minutes.

Pushing drone footage to the next level

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Michael Korican

Drone footage. You’ve seen lots of dreamy sequences from high in the sky. But on March 8, 2021, a small Minneapolis company released a 90-second video with footage the likes of which you’ve never seen before. Here’s the local KARE-TV coverage:

Trevor Mogg of Digital Trends adds:

“Captured by filmmaker and expert drone pilot Jay Christensen of Minnesota-based Rally Studios, the astonishing 90-second sequence, called Right Up Our Alley, comprises a single shot that glides through Bryant Lake Bowl and Theater in Minneapolis. The film, which has so far been viewed more than five million times on Twitter alone, was shot using a first-person-view (FPV) Cinewhoop quadcopter, a small, zippy drone that’s used, as the name suggests, to capture cinematic footage.”

Here’s their corporate website and the original tweet.

Oscar Liang has a great tutorial on Cinewhoops.

Johnny FPV has a great first person view overview.

My take: ever had dreams of flying? This might be even better.

How NFTs will unleash the power of the Blockchain

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Michael Korican

NFT. WTF?

Let’s break this down to the individual letters.

F = Fungible. “Fungible” assets are exchangeable for similar items. We can swap the dollars in each other’s pockets or change a $10 bill into two $5 bills without breaking a sweat.

T = Token. Specifically, a cryptographic token validated by the blockchain decentralized database.

N = Non. Duh.

So NFT is a Non-Fungible Token, or in other words, a unique asset that is validated by the blockchain. This solves the real-world problem of vouching for the provenance of that Van Gogh in your attic; in the digital world, the blockchain records changes in the price and ownership, etc. of an asset in a distributed ledger that can’t be hacked. (Just don’t lose your crypto-wallet.)

Early 2021 has seen an explosion in marketplaces for the creation and trading of NFTs. Like most asset bubbles, it’s all tulips until you need to sell and buyers are suddenly scarce.

But I believe NFTs hold the key to unleashing the power of the blockchain for film distribution.

Cathy Hackl of Forbes writes about the future of NFTs:

“Non-fungible tokens are blockchain assets that are designed to not be equal. A movie ticket is an example of a non-fungible token. A movie ticket isn’t a ticket to any movie, anytime. It is for a very specific movie and a very specific time. Ownership NFTs provide blockchain security and convenience, but for a specific asset with a specific value.”

What if there was an NFT marketplace dedicated to streaming films? Filmmakers would mint a series of NFTs and each viewer would redeem one NFT to stream the movie. This would allow for frictionless media dissemination and direct economic compensation to filmmakers.

Here’s a tutorial on turning art in NFTs.

My take: while I think NFTs hold promise in film distribution, the key will be to lower the gas price; the fee paid when creating NFTs in the first place.

Michael Korican Thinks

Thoughts on Independent Filmmaking and the Emerging Economic System

Category Archives: The Mediascape