YouTube announces the YouTube Collection on April 1, 2013

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Michael Korican

Bucking the online trend, YouTube has announced The YouTube Collection.

Watch their short video explaining the concept.

Then order online. Choose a category, shipping options, gift options, and alternate formats, including videocassette, laser disc and betamax tape.

My take: This may officially mark the demise of the DVD. We can now hold that connectivity is a necessity, as much as water service, sewer connections and electricity. (The jury is still out on whether the telephone is still on that list.)

Bite TV comedy web series deadline: April 15, 2013

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Michael Korican

Toronto’s Bite TV is looking for the next hit web series and has launched the Bite TV Comedy Web Series Competition.

“If you are a comedy creator, digital content developer, producer or just someone with a great idea we want to hear from you! This is your chance to get a development deal to produce a comedy web series pilot for Bite.ca.”

Up to 100 lucky people can upload a 5-minute video pitch for their comedy web series idea. Three finalists will be invited to pitch in person in May.

Your pitch should answer these questions:

Who are you?
Who is your audience?
Have you already established an audience/fan base?
Where did the idea come from?
Why should Bite pick you?

The deadline is Monday, April 15, 2013. See Bite.ca for the application form.

My take: Here’s another example of the expanding mediascape. No longer are development deals only for movies and TV. If you’ve got a comedy thing happening, read the legal details and consider this.

CBC’s Short Film Face Off Deadline: March 27, 2013

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Michael Korican

The CBC is returning with the third instalment of its short film reality TV competition: the Short Film Face Off.

“To be eligible for consideration, films must be under 12 minutes in length, must have been completed in the past two years, and must not have been broadcast previously on network television. We are looking for comedies and dramas. Music videos and documentaries are not eligible.”

Selected filmmakers will be invited to Halifax for tapings in mid-May in front of a live studio audience.

The Grand Prize is $30,000 from Telefilm and $10,000 in equipment rentals from PS Production Services.

See all the details here.

My take: If you like reality TV, you make short films, you’re personable and you have a thick skin, why not submit one of your masterpieces? Besides the national exposure, the prize is not too shabby.

CineCoup goes public and why you should care

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Michael Korican

CineCoup just went live and you should care.

I blogged about CineCoup.com last November and last week it opened to the public with 90 projects, each vying for $1,000,000 and guaranteed screenings at Cineplex.

CineCoup is applying the tech accelerator model to film-making in Canada. Over the next three months, they’ll be challenging the teams to complete a number of ‘missions’ which the public will then rate.

That’s right — you’ll decide the fate of the filmmakers.

This is a fresh model for film financing in Canada. Other than direct crowd-funding, I don’t know of anything else here that shifts the power from industry insiders to the general public. After all, why not ask the audience directly what it wants to see, rather than leaving that decision to committee after committee?

My take: Sign up! Visit CineCoup often. Watch and rate the trailers. Add projects to your watch lists. Follow along for the next few months. Get involved.

Disclosure: I’m providing some production management services to Transmission by Tyler Moore and Clay Bartel.

A shining example of collaborative filmmaking

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Michael Korican

Today is Pink Shirt Day. We wear pink to show we stand up to bullying.

“…on February 27, 2013 we encourage all of you to wear something pink to symbolize that we as a society will not tolerate bullying anywhere.”

Giant Ant Studios of Vancouver teamed up with spoken word poet Shane Koyczan and almost 90 animators to create something special.

“86 animators and motion artists donated their time and brought their unique styles to 20 second segments that we threaded into one fluid voice. This collaborative volunteer effort demonstrates what a community of caring individuals are capable of when they come together.”

Please watch on Vimeo or Youtube and share.

My take: This is a shining example of collaborative filmmaking.

Interactive media as ‘sidebars’ to linear stories

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Michael Korican

I came across an interesting post today by Andrew DeVigal, who works at the New York Times, among other places.

He quotes an Indian saying about education:

“Tell me, and I will forget.
Show me, and I may remember.
Involve me, and I will understand.”

He goes on to illustrate how the Times uses photos, graphics, videos and other media to augment their linear stories.

I particularly liked the conclusion of his piece. He envisions engagement and social media, mobile, physical spaces and games augmenting narratives:

“These sidebars are less about the story form and presentation/design and more about the experience and narrative flow. Imagine a written story or a video script written specifically to engage the reader/viewer in an interactive sidebar, or a sidebar that encourages a user to take a quiz, engage with an interactive graphic or offer their thoughts on Twitter or Facebook… or giving a reader/viewer a chance to go to a physical space and experience the story through an augmented reality presentation.”

The picture tells the story.

4K consumer TVs are here; bring cash

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Michael Korican

Well, when I say ‘consumer’ I mean your very, very rich uncle. And you might need a wheelbarrow for all that cash.

Sony has unveiled a $25K television that has four times the resolution of your measly Full HD 1080 flat-screen TV.

The XBR-84X900 4K Ultra HD TV has a native resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels packed into an 84 inch screen. There is virtually no dot crawl! Sony says:

“Sony is a leader in 4K digital cinematography and projection. As of June 2012, there were over 13,000 Sony 4K digital cinema theaters — nearly 75% of all 4K theaters worldwide use Sony 4K digital cinema projectors. And now Sony brings the full 4K digital experience into the home with stunning picture quality, whether you’re watching native 4K video or low-resolution smartphone clips. The newly-developed XCA8-4K chip upscales HD (or lower resolution) images by analyzing and refining images from all sources. Everything you see is restored with beautiful, natural detail, richer color and stunning contrast. The latest Reality Creation database and Super Resolution processing breathes new life into everything you see with phenomenal 4K (3,840 x 2,160) resolution.”

See Sony’s information or visit Atlas Audio Visual in Victoria to see the only model on display in Canada.

Even film festivals need to re-invent themselves

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Michael Korican

Recently at the International Film Festival Summit in Austin, San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope questioned the legitimacy of film festivals in a world saturated with film.

We live in the time of grand abundance of content, total access to content and rampant distraction from content. Fifty thousand feature films are generated worldwide on an annual basis. America will remain the top consumption market in the world for at least another year, and it’s thought we, at best, consume between 500-600 titles a year – basically, only 1% of the world’s supply. It will take us an entire century to look at this year’s supply of film. And next year we will still have the other 49,500 we didn’t get to this year. And yet good movies don’t get widely seen. Do we really need any new movies?

Of course, we need new movies! You might as well say we don’t need any more songs or poems or dreams.

Fifty-six years ago the San Francisco International FIlm Festival launched, the first in America. Today there are thousands. Hope continues:

Seven years ago, the biggest film festival in the world launched, offering the greatest degree of community participation and media democracy yet implemented:YouTube. Four billion videos per day are streamed. Quality may be an issue, but they filled a need we seemingly missed. Five years ago, cable VOD platforms offered 50 or so new films a month; today we get thousands. And still 27 films a week still open in NYC. San Francisco and the Bay Area now host over 80 film festivals throughout the year. How do we ensure that film festivals truly matter in this over-saturated environment of infinite options?

A very good question.

It seems film festivals are facing the same issues that plague filmmakers: how to remain relevant in a world where paradoxically standards are rising and falling at the same time and where competition is fierce and fewer and fewer make it to the top.

My take is that change is inevitable.

Old methods will hang on (with a few winners getting larger and larger). In the meantime, the vanguard of filmmakers will explore new methods of funding and distributing their work. (This might be crowd funding and theatre screenings on demand — ToD.)

And one day the remnants of the industry will catch up and formalize a new economic model.

Read Hope’s full speech.

Telefilm’s policies under fire

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Michael Korican

Telefilm Canada’s Success Index (60% box office, 30% cultural significance and 10% private investment) may be reducing the number of production companies able to secure development funding for new projects.

Groups of filmmakers are now complaining that only senior producers can qualify.

See the National Post article.

My take: Stop chasing elusive government funding and come up with new ways to finance your (albeit cheaper) films. It won’t be long before the whole regime is toppled as catering to special interests and all of Telefilm’s money goes to the CMF for televison.

Michael Korican Thinks

Thoughts on Independent Filmmaking and the Emerging Economic System

Category Archives: The Mediascape