StoryPeer.com is a new platform developed by Gabriel Dimilo to help writers get free feedback on their work by giving feedback on other writers’ works anonymously.
The platform uses tokens to facilitate reviews: offer them to other writers to give notes and hence earn them by reviewing work.
Everyone starts off with seven tokens.
Readers will pick your project based on its title, logline, genre, and length. And how many tokens you offer. A rule of thumb I suggest is to offer one token for every 30 pages.
My take: beware, this can become addictive! I’ve already reviewed two features and received notes on one of my shorts.
Lean into the holiday/give leads a POV about the holiday (this is especially the case for Christmas. We like a lot of holiday traditional elements and, more importantly, to give our leads a strong point of view of the holiday).
Script should be 105-110 pages typically.
9 Act Structure.
Act 1 is 23-25 pages.
The other acts are shorter but should be generally consistent — 8-12 pages usually.
Midpoint is at the middle of Act 4.
Acts 7/8 needs to be the low point/breaking point before things get better.
Act 9 is often 7-10 pages.
Total runtime we aim for is 86:30 and then after we screen the producer’s cut internally, we will typically take it down to 84:00 (with credits).
We’re generally not fans of montages or slow motion.
We don’t do cursing, dirty jokes, innuendos, etc.
Our content is not sexual in nature at all (a kiss is enough to show the romance in our movies), and we usually save this moment for the end when our lead gets her fairytale ending.
We don’t like karaoke or singing scenes in our movies and no bowling.
The Intro! Someone (usually a woman) is leading a happy life.
The Complication! requiring the lead character to travel somewhere (home, small town, the big city).
The Chance Encounter! with the soon-to-be romantic interest, usually with negative or neutral/ambivalent, at best, feelings. This is often an ex/long-lost first love. Sometimes, it’s a family friend, sister’s groom’s best man, etc.
The Challenge! The situation gets more challenging and, somehow, the romantic interest is always just there, resulting in many more encounters where the interest makes himself helpful, at the initial chagrin of the lead character who begrudgingly accepts the situation.
The Warm-up! Additional encounters between lead character and romantic interest result in a warming up of the relationship and they begin to enjoy spending time together. This is also where they gaze into each others’ eyes (because they dropped something and both bent down to pick it up) before one of them says awkwardly, “I should go…” or something to that effect.
The Near Kiss! They finally get over that hump, find themselves outside, and get interrupted just at the last moment before their lips meet.
The Misunderstanding! Lead or romantic interest overhears part of a conversation or observes some romantic-looking situation and thinks, “Oh, this was never going to work out anyway, I should just go back home and give up on my newly-realized dream of love and happiness.” Often, this happens because the one or both are afraid to or unsure of how to express themselves.
The Reconciliation! Someone musters up the courage to tell the other how they feel or to say sorry or to say they understand if they want to be with the other person — thanks to a parent, friend, mentor, confidant who puts them on the right track and helps them see things for what they really are. Forgiveness happens and the feelings are requited!
The Happy Ending! They agree to spend their days and years together with the farm or inn or shop or restaurant or lodge, kiss, maybe a closing scene surrounded by friends/family, and le fin.
My take: is it sacrilege to admit that I’ve never seen one? Well, maybe only one — that my friend acted in. Happy Holidays everyone!
This new digital marketplace is vital for the expanding ecosystem of independent Canadian film exhibition, providing access to more topical content to the film-going community.
My take: finally a way for all those movies made in Canada to appeal directly to Canadian cinemas and hence to Canadian viewers. You’ve made a feature, did the festival circuit and came this close to a distribution deal. Now you can post your film on this database and reach out to appropriate screens directly. Of course, your chances of getting a booking increase if you give the theatre a great reason to book: the theme of your film is suddenly topical, one of your actors breaks big, your genre film matches the calendar (think Valentines, Halloween, Christmas, etc.) Or you band together with other local filmmakers and offer “The Victoria New Wave” package of movies, for instance. The Canadian Movie Database is a great way to get Canadian films in front of Canadian audiences.
She writes, “The Austin-based creator collective distribution arm, Camp Studios, signed a three-picture theatrical deal with Attend Theatrical Marketplace, the Fithian Group company that connects filmmakers directly with movie theaters, streamlining the process of booking and releasing films.”
“The real bet is if creators already know their audience, why can’t that audience show up to a cinema?”
My take: I’ve been waiting for this moment for twenty years, ever since video first started appearing on the Internet.
This is much more than a story about a distributor picking up a movie for distribution; it’s tentative proof of a new and emerging theatrical distribution model that will replace the crumbling one.
The big difference to me is the importance of Audience. In the Legacy Model, it was simply assumed that the audience would show up if enough money was spent on marketing. In the New Model, online creators have ongoing relationships with their audiences before making their movies and then rely on them to manifest local screenings on demand through critical mass.
In simple terms:
OLD = Legacy Creator -> Movie -> Distributor -> Cinemas -> Audience.
NEW = Online Creator -> Audience -> Movie -> Distributor -> Audience -> Cinemas.
His analysis reveals that audiences tend to call all films movies, with Action, Adventure and Sci-Fi genres the most likely to be “movies.”
Whereas, audiences only tend to call War, History and Biography genres “films,” with all others more likely to be “movies.”
His conclusion:
“We could say that the more fun a genre appears to be, the greater chance it has to be a movie.”
My take: no real surprise here; audiences want to be entertained. A good story, well told. Another consideration is that almost no-one actually films on film anymore.
“The Rio Theatre is very excited by the opportunity to revive Vancouver’s historic, art-deco Park Theatre in the beloved Cambie Village neighbourhood. We are grateful for the support of this impressive group of film industry professionals, and could not do this without them! After almost two decades of rocking the Rio, we look forward to this expansion, and bringing the same fun, energy and passion to a new location.”
Among the investors are:
Chris Ferguson
Osgood Perkins
Mike Flanagan
Sean Baker
Samantha Quan
Zach Lipovsky
Finn Wolfhard
Graham Fortin
Eugenio Battaglia
Andy Levine
Jill Orsten
Christina Bulbrook
My take: I applaud this effort because local control of movie screens is critical for a truly independent national cinema.
Uses a system that awards points for key creative roles filled by Canadians, and requires production and post-production spending in Canada.
Recognizes a broader range of creative roles that contribute to Canadian productions, including positions such as showrunners, heads of departments responsible for costume design, make-up artists and hair artists, and visual effects directors and special effects directors, alongside existing roles like directors, scriptwriters and lead voice performers.
Introduces bonus points for specific types of content, such as programs based on Canadian books.
Clarifies that key creative positions used to qualify as Canadian content (such as the director and screenwriter) should be held by humans, not artificial intelligence.
Streamlines reporting requirements for certified productions, as part of the CRTC’s ongoing efforts to reduce regulatory burden on the industry.
Requires collaboration between foreign streaming services and Canadian companies, ensuring that at least 20 percent of ownership rests with a Canadian partner and that a higher proportion of key creative positions are held by Canadians.
My take: my guess is it won’t be long before CAVCO follows suit and updates their point system. One interesting note is that bonus points will be granted for Canadian characters, locations, pre-recorded music and prior written works.
Text to Video (Google Veo 3.1 can even voice dialogue.)
Image to Video (Probably the best way to ensure consistent characters.)
Video to Video (More work, but worth it!)
Lip Sync (The weakest link IMHO.)
Ingredients to Video (This hints at the future.)
Chat Edit (Sort of combines Video to Video and Text Prompting.)
Tao’s insights are very educational!
My take: really nice to have this summary of the various approaches. Note that you most definitely will use some combination of each; don’t just fixate on one tool.
It’s quite revealing to look at the numbers in detail.
Let’s start with Type.
Narrative
9
Documentary
8
The Narrative features break down thusly:
Drama
6
Romantic Comedy
1
Sci-fi, Fantasy and Fairytale
1
Suspense
1
Province?
Quebec
7
Ontario
6
British Columbia
2
Saskatchewan
1
Yukon
1
Let’s look at Language next.
English
6
French and English
2
English and Cree
1
English and Filipino
1
English and Irish
1
English and Kannada
1
English, French and Korean
1
French
1
French and Spanish
1
French, English and Spanish
1
Japanese
1
And let’s finish up with Stream.
Filmmaker Apply-Direct
11
Industry Partner
4
Festival
1
Indigenous
1
In addition, if Gender is assumed from names:
Female
approx. 20
Male
approx. 18
Some observations:
The number of submissions is about the same as last year.
Non-fiction continues to be almost as successful as Fiction.
Drama is the most popular narrative genre.
Almost all of the successful projects are from Quebec and Ontario.
Almost half of the successful projects include other languages in addition to English and/or French — and one is in Japanese exclusively.
The vast majority of successful projects continue to be Filmmaker Apply-Direct.
Less than a quarter of the successful projects are from Industry Partners.
For the first time, two projects are helmed by one individual filling the director, screenwriter and producer roles, rather than a team of two or more.
For the second year in a row, no projects are selected from Atlantic Canada.
Hey, Atlantic Canada, what gives?
My take: this is the fourth year that filmmakers could apply directly and Telefilm has rewarded them well! Therefore, if you can apply direct, bypass your local industry partner, for odds of approximately one in nine.
“Format: 9:16 screen (like TikTok or Instagram Reels). Episodes: 2–3 minutes each, built on intrigue and cliffhangers. Season: Anywhere from 20 to 100+ episodes, depending on length. Style: Hook-driven, character-focused, and designed to keep you watching one bite-size piece after another.”
He then goes into why producers want verticals, how to write a vertical and the genres producers want right now.
He concludes with this checklist:
“Is your total story length 30, 45, 60, or 90 minutes broken into 2–3 minute episodes?
Does each episode end on a cliffhanger or emotional punch?
Can each mini-arc satisfy the viewer while feeding the bigger story?
Are you keeping it tight (faces, hands, one or two characters at a time)?
Is your premise simple enough to repeat across 20+ short episodes?”
My take: I believe that movies and TV should be horizontal, not vertical.
