Recommended: Hugh MacLeod's book 'Ignore Everybody'

One of the great gifts I received this week is Hugh MacLeod's book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity. That's one of MacLeod's cartoons at right (one of my faves).

The book is very much in line with the thinking here at CinemaTech about how creative work will be made in the 21st century, how audiences will be successfully built, and how you can tap into your true vision to create remarkable stuff. A short passage:

Thanks to the Internet, you can now build your own thing without having somebody else 'discovering' you first. Which means when the big boys come along offering you deals, you'll be in a much better position to get exactly what you want from the equation. Big offers are a good thing, but personal sovereignty matters a whole lot more over the long run.

I had a chance to meet MacLeod earlier this month is San Francisco, where he was at a tech conference selling some signed limited edition prints of his cartoons. His blog, Gapingvoid, is here.

"Fish Where the Fish Are" (Video w/ Tim Kring & Reif Larsen)

Last month, I had the chance to host a session with "Heroes" creator Tim Kring and author/artist Reif Larsen at the first annual Boston Book Festival.

Larsen's talk was hilarious; Kring spoke about the origins and essence of transmedia storytelling (although he also spent a bit too much time for my taste screening "Heroes" promos).

The message that stuck with me from this session was that if you want to be a storyteller, rather than struggling to get people to come to you (on whatever medium/distribution platform you've chosen to use), why not take your story to where the audience is? "Fish where the fish are," Kring says. That may mean bringing your message to cell phones, video games, embedded Web videos, whatever. You may be surprised at the artistic and economic sparks that fly in those different media.

The video is now up.



At the 45-minute mark, we talk about attention. I suggest the game that all storytellers are playing is about winning peoples' attention.

"Our greatest asset is our sustained attention," Larsen said, quoting Ken Burns (who had done a session earlier in the day that I missed.) "That's the asset that is quickly disappearing."

Talking with Jon Reiss, Author of 'Think Outside the Box Office'

Back in September, I sat down with filmmaker Jon Reiss to talk about his forthcoming book, Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era.' Jon takes a very nuts-and-bolts approach to creating a distribution strategy that combines the best of the old world and the new world. The book just went on sale this week, and if you're in New York, Jon is giving a presentation tonight at the IFC Center. (Jon was a discussion leader at Distribution U. earlier this month in L.A., and the photo above is of him signing a few advance copies of Think Outside the Box Office at that event.)

In our conversation, we talked about:

- Why filmmakers still feel compelled to make feature-length films, when everyone is watching short videos on the Internet
- Developing a marketing and distribution strategy before you hit the festival circuit
- Thinking about your core audience, especially if you're making a narrative feature or a doc on a broad societal issue
- Services Jon recommends for selling DVDs and digital downloads.

You can download the MP3 (it runs about 14 minutes) here, or just click "play" below.



Your comments welcome...

Audio: Dan Bricklin on Piracy, Monetizing Content, and More

Dan Bricklin is a technology pioneer who has a new book out called "Bricklin on Technology."

We talked last week about a few of the topics he addresses in the book, including how content will be monetized in the future, how creators (whether musicians, filmmakers, or software developers) ought to deal with piracy, and how Dan is promoting and selling his new book (including Twitter and YouTube). The MP3 is here, or you can just click 'Play' below. (It runs about 25 minutes.)

Just Published: 'Fans, Friends & Followers'

I'm really happy to report that my new book, Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age, is now available in paperback and e-book form (both PDF and Kindle).

Here's how I encapsulate the book's focus:

The tools to produce films, music, books, and art have been democratized: they’re accessible and inexpensive.

And the channels to distribute all sorts of creative products have also been blown wide open: today, anyone can distribute a video or a song or an image to a global audience, for free.

The result is the noisiest, most chaotic marketplace that creative artists have ever known.

That noise and chaos creates the two biggest challenges facing artists today: how do you cultivate a big audience for your work, and how do you leverage that audience to support your career financially?

I wrote Fans, Friends & Followers to address those challenges with useful strategies, examples, explanations, and first-person success stories.

Here's an earlier CinemaTech post listing the 30 artists I feature in the book.

On the book's site, there's a free 35-page PDF preview that you can download to get a taste of the book.

There has been some very kind coverage of the book online:

- The Chutry Experiment
- Matt Dentler's blog
- The Workbook Project (podcast)
- CineVegas blog
- ITVS blog
- Scratches on Marketing
- Steve Garfield's Off on a Tangent
- SXSW 'Reel Talks'
- Center for Social Media
- TheWrap.com
- Spout.com
- Filmmaker blog
- Brave New Films
- IndieFlix blog
- OurStage blog
- Breakfast @ Tiffany's Spring Newsletter
- Movie Marketing Madness
- We Are Listening, a music industry blog
- NewTeeVee
- JibJab blog
- Dan & Dave - Magic News
- Matt W. Moore News Blog
- Kino-Eye review
- BAVC blog
- Kendall Whitehouse: On Technology and Media
- Ben Rosenfeld, Comedian
- Dan Carew's Indie 2.0
- Center for Social Media
- PBS' POV Blog
- Harvard Business Review
- George Snell's HighTalk
- Cartoon Brew

I'm *extremely* grateful to the readers of CinemaTech for all your ideas, feedback and guidance over the years... which have been really helpful in keeping me on the right track. And I thank you on the book's "Acknowledgments" page, too -- so it's official!

'Inventing the Movies": A Technological History of Hollywood

I've been doing a bit of early promotion for my next book, "Inventing the Movies," which aims to be both a technological history of Hollywood and a parable for innovators of any stripe about the challenges of introducing new ideas to an established industry.

(Update: It's now available on Amazon, and the book's Web site is live.) It's technically not out until September (and not yet available on Amazon), but A few traces of it are starting to show up on the Interweb :

- A nice long podcast on The Workbook Project
- A quick take on the book from David Tamés, one of the experts I asked to review the manuscript
- A guest blog post for Harvard Business Online
- A write-up of a presentation I gave earlier this year in Providence, RI about the book, along with a podcast of that talk. This talk was also the keynote at the Making Media Now conference in May.

There are two sneaky places where you can purchase an early copy of the book now... the paperback version is here, and the digital/PDF version is here. (Update: And now the Amazon version is here.)

Finally, here are some nice blurbs from people who've read the galleys:

"For anyone interested in a well-paced, accurate, and eminently readable chronicle of the fits, starts, foibles, and triumphs in the digitization of an entire industry, don't wait for the movie… read this book!"

Bob Lambert
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Technology Strategy
The Walt Disney Company

"Hollywood loves a good story, particularly one where the ending remains to be told. 'Inventing The Movies' is a dual-track story about how technology enabled the movie industry we know today, and how technology will either enable, or disintermediate, the movie industry of the future."

Gary Beach
Publisher Emeritus
CIO Magazine

"In his new book, 'Inventing the Movies,' Scott Kirsner takes you on fascinating romp through the movie industry's hundred-year love/hate relationship with technology and innovators. The book is an entertaining read with fascinating historical research and fresh insights from interviews with a long list of contemporary luminaries including director Peter Jackson, computer graphics pioneer Ed Catmull, and entrepreneur Mark Cuban. With a keen attention to multiple perspectives, Kirsner presents the view of industry executives who are reluctant to innovate, and contrasts their views with the innovators who have advanced the many technologies like projection, color, sound, non-linear editing, digital projection, internet distribution, etc. that have transformed the industry over a century of change and revived it over and over again for many generations of audience. 'Inventing the Movies' is a lively book of interest to innovators in any field."

David Tamés
Videographer/producer/editor
Kino-Eye.com

"'Inventing The Movies' crystallized my own experience of trying to sell technological innovation into this more-than-resistant industry. Through Scott’s insights and the retelling of a history I only partially knew, I better understand my own rollercoaster ride that took over a decade before digital cinema was embraced by the entire industry. I thoroughly enjoyed the concise and poignant stories of how such things as sound and color almost never made it to the big screen despite the obvious benefits."

Russell Wintner
President, Wintertek, Inc.
Former executive with Technicolor, CineComm, and AccessIT

"'Inventing the Movies' is a comprehensive look at the changing landscape of cinema, a detailed history of determination, innovation and risk. This work is perfect for anyone wanting to have an understanding of the past, present and future of the medium. An excellent read for those interested in cinema and a must-read for anyone looking to enter the tech or film industry."

Lance Weiler
Director/producer
'Head Trauma' and 'The Last Broadcast'

OK, now I'm blushing.