Category Archives: The Mediascape

Top VOD Platforms for 2014

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Short films have always been a tough sell.

In the past, specialized distributors might take them on for institutional or foreign markets. Perhaps they might get bundled into feature-length anthologies. But the money never seemed to flow back to the filmmakers.

In short, short films were destined to remain in the art realm. Starving artists practiced their craft, never expecting to be compensated for creating their art.

Now, however, we are witnessing the emergence of a new model. iTunes has paved the way, proving that the public will pay for music, track by track. Video On Demand may be the equivalent mechanism for the independent filmmaker.

VOD lets filmmakers exhibit their films directly to their audience, at a price they choose. It promises to be the means of monetization for indie films of all lengths and genres.

Douglas Horn has researched the top five VOD platforms. He scopes out the problem, charts the top five and reviews their services.

My take: well worth the read! I’ll be following his real-world tests. Good luck, Douglas!

Infographic: You in Filmmaking

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From Filmsourcing, comes this hilarious flowchart: What’s Your Place in the Film Industry?

The colourful infographic illustrates pathways to 30 different occupations such as Head of Film Commission and Acting Teacher. Two examples:

“Start here -> Do you appreciate money above all else? -> No -> Can you get excited about someone else’s idea? -> Sure but I’ll make it mine -> Do you have exceptional talent? -> Yes -> Are you unknown and/or female? -> No -> Director”

“Start here -> Do you appreciate money above all else? -> No -> Can you get excited about someone else’s idea? -> I can fake it -> Are you visually oriented? -> No -> Are you skilled at cleaning up other people’s mess? -> No -> Are you musical? -> No -> What CAN you do? -> Sit -> Audience”

See the full infographic.

My take: too funny! Spot your role and work forward to it. You will laugh, and maybe learn something about yourself.

Choicebook wants your opinion

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Is a survey still a survey if you call it something else?

The CRTC wants your opinion about TV in Canada. Will you pay more? Do you want the Internet regulated?

Visit Choicebook to have your say.

“Canadians like to watch television and for many of them, the way they do so is changing. More and more people are watching their favourite shows on their cable or satellite company’s on-demand service, over the Internet and on tablets and smartphones. The way Canadians think about—and even interact with—television is clearly not the same today as it was just a few years ago. At the CRTC, we want to make sure that the television system meets the needs of Canadians – as citizens, creators and consumers. We understand that the system has to adapt to remain healthy, continue to offer different kinds of programming and be responsive to Canadians’ expectations over the coming years.”

But do it soon. Choicebook closes on March 14, 2014.

My take: it’s in your best interest to invest the time to let the CRTC know what you’re thinking.

Your web presence is waiting

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A website is not enough. Not anymore.

Today, independent filmmakers need to be everywhere and do everything: Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, Youtube, blog, maintain a mailing list, upload a gallery, operate a shop, display a trailer, Kickstarter, Tugg, etc. Etc.

In two words, you need a web presence.

Oh, and by the way, write and produce a killer film in your spare time.

What if you could concentrate on your craft and hand over the heavy-lifting of your web presence to someone else? Enter assemble.me

This New Zealand outfit has it figured out. Their offerings expand as your project travels from development, to funding and production, to festivals and exploitation. See all the features.

Says James Franklin,

“My take is that people are getting there and we’re seeing projects succeed. But I think the issues are not around the economic model but rather if filmmakers have the ability or the appetite to do this themselves — that’s the elephant in the room!”

Their pricing is a mix of set up and monthly fees, ranging from $500 to $3000 and $19 to $99 monthly. Pay nothing until your site is ready to go live.

My take: worth checking out. Sure, you’ve got to pay but, as they say, you’ve got to spend money to make money. You’ve got the dollars for marketing in your budget, right? It’s Show Business, baby!

Yet another reason to choose Indiegogo

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Crowd-funding is a lot of work.

First of all, it’s a full-time job creating and maintaining your campaign. (Forget for a moment the all the work of putting your project together and then actually making it.) Now you’ve got to fulfill all those perks you promised your backers.

Indiegogo wants to help you.

“Today we’re launching our Film Fulfillment Program, which will provide Indiegogo campaigners streamlined access to free or discounted rates on film distribution and fulfillment services with our program partners, VHX and Yekra.”

Check out VHX and Yekra to learn more.

Then see the special deals Indiegogo has brokered for you. Sign up through the links at the bottom of the page.

My take: kudos to Indiegogo for smoothing things out for indie filmmakers!

Indie Koala shows the way

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From Canada’s capital comes a bold adventure in indie self-distribution.

It’s called Indie Koala.

“We are three Ottawa independent filmmakers who are passionate about making, watching and promoting indie films and indie filmmaking and we started this service in April 2013 because we couldn’t find a site that was artist-run and was a one-stop-shop for local independent content.”

Taking their cue from the belief ‘Think Global, Act Local,’ three Ottawa filmmakers have created an online exhibition space for independent films, boot-strapping VimeoPro‘s pay-to-rent capability.

Nevertheless, the majority of their shorts are free to watch.

My take: kudos for b(r)anding together!

The new 10 commandments of low budget filmmaking

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Elliot Grove and the Raindance Film Festival have issued ten new commandments of low (no) budget filmmaking.

They are:

  1. Thou shalt have a fantastic screenplay.
  2. Thou shalt understand keywords and SEO tools.
  3. Thou shalt secure some development finance.
  4. Thou shalt spend proper time in pre-production.
  5. Thou shalt understand the shoot and exploit it to maximum advantage.
  6. Thou shalt not fix it in Post-Production.
  7. Thou shalt clear all music in your film.
  8. Thou shalt prepare professional publicity and marketing materials.
  9. Thou shalt use film festivals to launch your film.
  10. Thou shalt create a distribution strategy.

See the annotated version.

My take: I can get behind all of these except number nine. Seems to me that’s really part of number 10. Not having much, if any success, at film festivals, I’m not convinced. I guess what I really need is a paid-for-performance film festival agent. Any suggestions?

Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios orders first unscripted series

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Microsoft is getting into Reality TV. Sort of.

The huge computer company has greenlit its first unscripted series for its Xbox platform, called Every Street Reunited, from Mandalay Sports Media, the US indie set up by Rain Man producer and La Dodgers owner Peter Guber, Smallville co-creator Mike Tollin and talent agency CAA.

“The show will focus on street soccer, with each half-hour episode shot in a different country — the U.S., Spain, Holland, France, Argentina, Brazil, Ghana, South Korea — featuring local, undiscovered soccer players across the globe.”

It is expected that the series will feature some type of global interactive component.

My take: the line between the TV and the console continues to blur as the boundary between passive content and live experience continues to shift.

Swedish cinemas to rate films on Bechdel Test

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Cinemas in Sweden have begun rating films on the Bechdel Test.

Those that pass get the ‘A rate’ stamp of approval.

The Bechdel Test was created in 1985 by Alison Bechdel. There are three, simple, rules:

  1. To pass, a film must contain two named female characters
  2. who talk to each other
  3. about something other than a man.

Not surprisingly, given the action-figure-orientation of Hollywood today, the majority of films fail.

My take: Thank you, Sweden, for, once again, leading the way and shining a light on the underrepresentation of women in film.

Maureen Bradley blogs about micro-budget feature production

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CineVic recently invited Maureen Bradley to speak about her micro-budget feature project, Two 4 One.

She’s cobbling the $250,000 budget together from a number of sources: the Telefilm Micro-Budget Program, the BC Arts Council, the Jim Murphy Filmmkakers Bursary, an IndieGoGo campaign and private sources, for a February 2014 shoot.

She’s blogging about the experience at microbudget.org where she gives a more detailed answer to one of my questions on Saturday.

Regarding this year’s Telefilm Micro-Budget Feature competiton, Maureen’s advice was: have a great story and really think through an innovative digital platform strategy.

My take: Thank you, Maureen, for sharing your knowledge and experience and — your insights! It occurs to me that Telefilm is in the business of making million-dollar movies, so they’re really taking a flyer with eight to ten projects for one million, and hoping that one breaks out. In the old model, a film’s profile was amassed through festival exposure, critical reviews and box office, to be augmented by media coverage as it worked its way through the standard windows. Today, a project’s profile starts with the first online exposure, carries on through the pre-production, crowd-funding, production and post-production stages and hopefully snowballs when more people can actually pay for it. The old model was mediated by distributors, whereas with the new model, the producer does it all. I foresee more creative cooperatives coming together: teams of producers, each specialized in different parts of the new paradigm — concept, marketing, social media, production, exploitation.