Category Archives: The Mediascape

Google Glass: everyone is a cinematographer now

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According to VentureBeat, the first arrest has been witnessed by Google Glass.

Documentary filmmaker Chris Barrett glassed it in Atlantic City on July 4.

“I picked up my Google Glass explorer edition last week. I wanted to test Glass out, so I filmed some fireworks, getting a very cool first-person perspective. About 10 minutes after the fireworks, we were walking back to our car, and I just decided to try it out on the boardwalk.”

Watch the footage.

My take: welcome to the voyeur world, where everyone is a cinematographer. Right now, the public is unaware and continues to “act natural”. But will behaviour change? Has it changed with CCTV and cellphone video? Very soon, documentaries will look very different when everyone has their own Glass. Editing may be replaced with web-based crowd-sourced Glass-fueled media streams, like Switchcam.

Lucas and Spielberg predict the future is on the Internet

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At a recent panel at the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media Department, George Lucas (Star Wars) and Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones) said they believe “Internet-based services may become the dominant medium when movie-going as we know it crashes and burns.”

They cite two main reasons: viewers’s lack of time and the vast number of entertainment choices they face.

Lucas sees opportunity in today’s market: “All you need is a million people, which in the aggregate of the world is not very many people. And you can actually make a living at this. Where before you couldn’t.”

Spielberg believes the multiplex will change: “There’s going to be a price variance. You’re going to have to pay $25 to see the next Iron Man. And you’re probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln.”

Lucas thinks the mediascape is changing:

“Now is the best time we can possibly have. It’s a mess. It’s total chaos. But out of that chaos will come some really amazing things. And right now there are amazing opportunities for young people coming into the industry to say, ‘Hey, I think I’m going to do this and there’s nobody to stop me.’ It’s because all the gatekeepers have been killed!”

See more coverage on The Verge.

My take: I realized awhile ago that movie theatres were destined to become the ‘Opera’ of our era. As an alternative to your devices and your home theatre, going out to the movies might even be seen as an ‘elitist’ activity one day.

Hope for a sustainable filmmaking future

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Ted Hope has 16 Recommendations For Filmmakers To Discover Best Practices For A Sustainable Creative Life.

I highly recommend a close reading. In the meantime, here are the bullets:

  1. Focus on developing Entrepreneurial Skills as well as the creative.
  2. The great challenge is no longer how to get your film made or funded, but how to get people to watch it.
  3. Aggregate audience.
  4. Start figuring out how your audience uses your work.
  5. Transition your passive audience to an active engaged participatory community.
  6. Platforms are for the many.
  7. Be more prolific and ubiquitous.
  8. You need others to be authentically incentivized to share and promote your work.
  9. Shift our focus from a single product business to one of an ongoing relationship.
  10. The film biz lacks a way for the passionate fan to demonstrate their appreciation of a work.
  11. [With] the end of feature film dominance… we can create an infinite variety of storyworld extensions, discovery nodes, and engagement forums.
  12. Learn to strategize, schedule, budget, and predict revenues for the entire life cycle of your film.
  13. Embrace rapid prototyping with multiple iterations.
  14. Fail twice as much. Experiment.
  15. Gather & share data.  Embrace transparency and an “Open Source” attitude to all you do.
  16. The work you create moves us closer to the world you aspire to.

This is deep stuff and makes the filmmaker’s job so much harder. Making a movie is hard enough with pre-production, production and post-production but now consider all the other aspects Ted mentions. Choose your projects wisely, as they now demand much more from you!

My take: I can’t help but think of Franchises and how well they do on Ted’s paradigm. See what I mean at The Numbers.

Ted Hope on Independent Film and Culture

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Ted Hope keeps the provocative ideas coming!

First he lists 17 Things About The Film Biz That Should Significantly Influence Your Behavior; his insider view of the state of show business.

Then he follows that up with 19 Things Regarding Our Current Culture That Should Completely Alter Your Creative & Entrepreneurial Practice; his insight into the zeitgeist.

Stay tuned for his conclusion next week!

My take: ever since 2004, when video first became widely available on the Internet, I’ve held that we’re witnessing the walls tumbling down, one brick at a time. The old economic model is crumbling and it remains to be seen if a new one will replace it.

How to Classify Movies

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Flavorwire has proposed new classifications for independent film.

“If ‘independent film’ is just a label to begin with, then why not expand it, and get a little more specific? Every film isn’t either indie or studio — let’s break it down, so we know exactly what we’re getting when we go to the cinema.”

Their categories are:

  • Underground
  • Indie-ground
  • Malick-wood
  • Indie
  • Indie-wood
  • Foreign-wood
  • Holly-pendent
  • Studio
  • Studio-plus
  • Explosion-ganza!

Read the full article here.

My take: I also want to know if the film is less than two hours long and if the ending is upbeat.

YouTube announces the YouTube Collection on April 1, 2013

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.