Calling All Bay Area DIY Filmmakers...

What are you doing next Sunday?

Lance Weiler, Arin Crumley, M dot Strange, Caveh Zahedi, and a bevy of other crazy DIY filmmakers are getting together at the 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco next Sunday (August 17th). This is the second in the "DIY Days" series, which aims to share experience and case studies among avidly independent filmmakers. (The speaker list is here.)

It's free... just sign up here.

And you can see lots of video from the late July DIY Days event in LA here.

A Multimedia Buffet for You

Just finished having a late lunch in San Jose with bicycle-riding auteur/sage/animator M dot Strange.

One of the topics we touched on was artists (whether they're musicians, filmmakers, writers, photographers, whatever) who've been pioneers, in terms of cultivating an audience online. (If you have thoughts, post them in the comments here -- this is for my current writing project.)

He pointed me to the video of this talk he gave in Berlin recently, "Adventures in Self-Distribution." (In his usual humble way, of course.)

Then Jarod Neece of SXSW e-mailed to let me know they've just posted a mess of podcasts from this year's panels, including "Video Production for the Web and Mobile Devices," "Quit Your Day Job and Vlog," and two I moderated, "Digital Cinema for Indies" and "Animation and Digital Effects on a Budget."

That's a lot to watch and listen to...

Launch time for 'From Here to Awesome,' a New Twist on the Film Festival

Three of the most thoughtful and high-energy DIY filmmakers around -- Lance Weiler, M dot Strange, and Arin Crumley -- have launched a new kind of online festival.

Called 'From Here to Awesome,' they're accepting submissions of full-length features and shorts right now. As with all festivals, the goal is to bring more attention to deserving work -- and the FHTA crew plan to use the Internet to achieve that, rather than, say, inviting a couple thousand friends to a snowy ski town in Utah.

There are no submission fees, and the festival will connect the "top ten" filmmakers with scads of distribution opportunities. (Most of these are distribution opps that any filmmaker can take advantage of without being part of FHTA, but the festival has prizes -- like free DVD replication of your movie, or free E&O insurance.) There will also be a "virtual conference" later this spring.... which seems like something to stay tuned for...

IndieGoGo: A Social Network for Filmmakers Raising Money (and Their Backers)

Almost a year ago, I wrote about IndieGoGo in Variety, as part of a new wave of efforts to use the Internet for film financing. (Back then, the site was still mostly a concept, and it was called Project Keiyaku.)

Now, the site has officially launched.

I do want to see someone succeed, and create a networking hub where filmmakers can raise money. But I think filmmakers and financiers are right to be skeptical... you can see some of the debate about the model on this earlier post about IndieMaverick, a UK-based financing site. (One thing that would make me more comfortable with IndieGoGo would be an actual address, and names listed on the site of who is behind it. I know the principals, and that they're based in Berkeley, Calif., but I'm not a filmmaker or financier coming to the site for the first time...) What will it take for someone to succeed? A well-known filmmaker successfully using one of the sites to raise money for a project.

From IndieGoGo's official press release:

“DIY has been long the mantra of independent filmmaking and financing. At IndieGoGo, we push that to the next level with DIWO, “Do It With Others” which more accurately reflects the active communal process required to launch film projects”, said Slava Rubin, IndieGoGo Founder and Chief of Strategy and Marketing. “Using the tools IndieGoGo offers, we aim to empower artists to realize their goals and bring more relevant films to the people. Online fundraising is accelerating, the cost of production is falling, social networking is approaching mainstream, and user-controlled media is the future. As these trends accelerate, IndieGoGo offers a new marketplace to turn ideas into film, and fans into insiders.”

...In its pre-launch phase, IndieGoGo sought developmental feedback from a wide range of filmmakers and industry leaders. FLOW: FOR LOVE OF WATER, directed by Irena Salina and produced by Steven Starr, was selected by IndieGoGo to be its first Showcase project and was subsequently selected to World Premiere in competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Other noted filmmakers planning to include projects on the site include Christopher Roberts (THE BELIEVER), Lance Weiler (THE LAST BROADCAST, HEAD TRAUMA), Michael Roiff (WAITRESS, AMERICAN SON), M dot Strange (WE ARE THE STRANGE), Michealene Cristini Risley (TAPESTRIES OF HOPE), Brett Gaylor (BASEMENT TAPES), Beth Murphy (BEYOND BELIEF), and Yung Chang (UP THE YANGTZE) which is also featured in the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

...Slava Rubin will represent IndieGoGo on the GOING IT ALONE: DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION FOR INDIE FILMMAKERS panel at the Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday, January 23, 12:30 pm at the New Frontier on Main Microcinema.

The Reinvention of the Drive-In?

I have a piece in Variety on MobMov, a new organization I've been hearing a lot about. Here's the opening:

The inventor of the drive-in, Richard Hollingshead Jr., has been dead for three decades and is mostly forgotten. Bryan Kennedy, a 27-year-old Web designer, has never been to a drive-in. But with an online initiative called MobMov, the San Franciscan is reinventing the ozoner for the YouTube generation.

MobMov.com -- MobMov is short for "mobile movie" -- serves as a kind of digital clubhouse for about 160 "chapters" around the world, from L.A. to Hyderabad, India, that organize impromptu outdoor screenings. Projection booths usually consists of an LCD projector perched atop a car, a DVD player and an FM radio transmitter for the soundtrack.

But in a fresh twist on this old-fashioned exhibition form, two independent filmmakers have given MobMov chapters the right to screen their latest movies for free, in hopes of building buzz and spurring DVD sales.

(One fix to the story: Lance Weiler's "Head Trauma" is actually screening next Saturday, October 20th.)

Animator M dot Strange Discusses His Digital Vision

I shot some video last week with M dot Strange, the director of 'We Are the Strange,' which showed at Sundance this year. He's based in San Jose -- and he is what you'd call a dyed-in-the-wool indie. Very sharp guy.

We talked about his work...how he has used YouTube to cultivate a community...the origins of his name...the importance of collecting e-mail addresses online from people interested in your work (or enabling them to pre-order a DVD)...a new kind of digital multiplex that M dot envisions...the iTunes Store...drive-ins...digital cinema...and film festivals that continue to demand 35-millimeter prints from entrants.

My favorite quote from the conversation (which lasts about 20 minutes): "No one knows the value of my media, because no one has ever done it before."



(If you'd prefer to download the video and watch it later, you can do that here.)

BAVC Innovation Salon: Podcast and Video Clip

Didn't get a chance to go to 'Strange Collision' last month, a conversation about the intersection of creativity and technology here in the Bay Area. It included panelists like Stu Maschwitz from The Orphanage, Tim Partridge from Dolby Labs, Kevin Arnold from IODA, Lincoln Dean Hershberger from Electronic Arts, and animator M dot Strange. It was organized by the Bay Area Video Coaltion.

But the podcast is here (mp3 format), and M dot Strange was kind enough to point me to the very entertaining video intro he made for his part of the panel discussion.