Author Archives: Michael Korican

About Michael Korican

A long-time media artist, Michael’s filmmaking stretches back to 1978. Michael graduated from York University film school with Special Honours, winning the Famous Players Scholarship in his final year. The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video called Michael's first feature 'Recorded: Live!' "the first film about rock video". Michael served on the board of L.I.F.T. when he lived in Toronto during the eighties and managed the Bloor Cinema for Tom and Jerry. He has been prolific over his past eight years in Victoria, having made over thirty-five shorts, won numerous awards, produced two works for BravoFACT! and received development funding for 'Begbie’s Ghost' through the CIFVF and BC Film.

To 4K or not to 4K

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Near the beginning of your indie film project, you need to determine the video format you will be shooting.

Will it be 4K, or 2K, or — gasp — even 1080p?

This chart shows those display resolutions and many more.

More and more cameras shoot 4K so why even debate it?

There are some very good reasons not to shoot in 4K. Mentorless has three:

“#1 – Nobody Can Tell the Difference
#2 – It Will Stretch Your Budget And Take More Time
#3 – The Delivery Side Can’t Hold Its Part of the Contract (Yet)”

On the other hand, the main reasons touted to shoot in 4K are to allow for digital cropping, stabilization and zooming in post-production and to ‘future-proof’ your production, in anticipation of the day when everyone has 4K TVs and no caps on their Internet data.

My take: I like to shoot fast, so I’m partial to smaller form factors; 1080p is fine for me, for now. But the new DJI Osmo really caught my eye. The 4K footage is amazing and incredibly smooth for such a small camera.

Content creators use apps to build super fans

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Tony Zameczkowski, Victorious International‘s MD & VP, describes todaly’s mediascape as a constant feedback loop between creators and their audiences on mipblog.

He starts with a bit of history:

“In the B.D. (before digital) era, the focal point of content consumption was the physical water cooler. With limited media options, must-see TV such as Friends and Seinfeld connected colleagues in break-rooms and families around dinner tables with a commonality of content. The series finales of both sitcoms were cultural cornerstones for audiences worldwide.”

Enter the smartphone, or mobile for you Europeans:

“That commonality of content no longer exists for millennials. Netflix, YouTube, and a multitude of online platforms compete for their attention. Instead of the TV, millennials are increasingly glued to their mobile devices — more than 1/4 of millennials use mobile as their primary device for viewing content. Google recently announced that users are spending an average of 40+ minutes per session on YouTube Mobile and that more than half of the views on YouTube are coming from mobile devices. Many of our creator-partners are seeing that the majority of their viewership comes from mobile as well.”

What should content creators do?

“Creators need to focus on what we like to call, ‘symbiotic content’. In essence, it transcends single formats (videos, images etc.) and platforms (YouTube, Vine etc.) and bridges them together. Symbiotic content is founded on a three step cycle. First, our community app crowd-sources content and inspiration from a creator’s community. The distribution platform (e.g., YouTube) then repackages that content for distribution. Third, our community app enables follow-on conversation and content back in the creator’s community. This facilitates a virtuous cycle of engagement and re-engagement among our creators’ fanbase.”

In essence, they are creating a virtual water cooler, one that is decentralized and mobile. It unites fans across the world with the content creators who have expanded beyond the concept of 20th century media to the new reality.

My take: this is the best summary of the future of the mediascape to date. Dismiss at your peril!

Cable Access extends its reach to the Web

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Who knew that a local cable access channel in Hamilton, Ontario, would be on the cutting edge of multi-platform media in Canada?

Cable 14 is streaming live on the Internet, in addition to cablecasting to the local population.

“CABLE 14 NOW is an online service that lets Hamiltonians watch live and onDemand video content, all curated by people who love Hamilton. It combines the passion and expertise of our Staff, Community Producers and Production Volunteers with the latest technology to deliver compelling local programming wherever and whenever our viewers demand it.”

The lineup includes Hamilton Life, Vital Signs, The Opinionators and The O Show.

My take: I love this! It immediately made me think of Mike Myers and Wayne’s World, his community access cable TV show broadcast from his basement in Aurora, Illinois. (Hamilton is 500 miles directly east.) Joking aside, the reason this is newsworthy is that cable access just shed its local constraints and potentially expanded its audience worldwide.

The mediascape begins tipping as internet subscribers outnumber cable TV subscribers

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Digiday reports that Network TV is now appealing to potential viewers on Facebook:

“‘Right now, the world of video content distribution is right on the edge of total chaos,’ said James Nail, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Previously, if a network had a new show to promote, it would use a couple minutes of commercial time during the nightly broadcast. That’s not enough anymore.”

No wonder: video on Facebook has exploded.

Couple that with the fact that online viewing now surpasses cable TV watching.

According to Bloomberg Business:

“Concerns about the growing number of consumers who drop TV packages and watch programs on services offered by Netflix or Amazon.com Inc. led to a sell-off in media stocks in August, with entertainment companies losing more than $60 billion in value over two days.”

My take: it’s all about building an audience. Go to where the eyeballs are. For more and more folks, that’s their smart phones, not their TVs.

Strides in VR filmmaking

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Discovery has launched a new project: Discovery VR.

Although there are only 10 VR videos on the site right now, you can control each of them for a full 360 degrees with your mouse.

There’s diving with sharks, skateboarding in San Francisco and a surfing lesson.

I found that changing the control setting to Mouse Grab from the default Mouse Movement gave me more natural movement.

In addition to the website, there’s an app for iPhones and Android devices. Create a VR headset with Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR.

The company behind the magic is Littlstar.

My take: I remember the initial release of QuickTime VR in 1994 which gave me my first glimpses of ‘virtual reality’. GameSpot has an interesting history of VR. I think the application to narrative film will be fascinating. For instance, see Intimate Strangers : Chapter 1 — camera placement and mise en scene become very important. I like the way the ‘dream’ is projected onto the ceiling above the woman. A tip for VR directors, place the camera just to one side of the ‘line’ and let the viewer pan from one actor to the other and back.

Can Web Series catch on?

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Canada is betting web series will catch on.

On Screen Manitoba reports on a new web series development opportunity and lists web series festivals in Canada and abroad.

Cogeco is piloting a new development program for “Digital Drama Series.” Apply for $10,000 with your mentor to become pitch-ready. They are betting big:

“The Development and Packaging Mentorship Program is designed to fill the funding gap in the digital production industry in Canada by encouraging producers of web drama series to be “pitch ready” in order to attract distribution, platforms, talent and production financing. This pilot project will replace the Cogeco Fund’s existing television Development, Pre-development and Corporate Feature Film Development funding programs in 2015/16.”

The Independent Production Fund also lists the best of Canadian web series.

Netflix’s House of Cards and Orange is the New Black appear on Wikipedia’s list of web series, however, I think this is inaccurate due to their length and similarity to premium cable TV fare.

Got a web series or other web content? Buffer has a guide to promotion/distribution you might find helpful.

My take: my favourite web series is Jerry Seinfeld‘s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Sony’s Crackle app, which I Chromecast to my TV. Currently, I don’t watch anything on mobile or the web. I did like The Guild which I had heard about but didn’t watch until showing up on Netflix. I do remember the first episode of Red vs. Blue, but not as a web series — rather as one of the first examples of machinima.

Rooster Teeth set to deliver Lazer Team

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Rooster Teeth has announced that the world premiere for Lazer Team will be on September 24, 2015, at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

From the Fantastic Fest media release:

“Fantastic Fest will host the World Premiere of LAZER TEAM, the first feature film from web series gods Rooster Teeth. LAZER TEAM director Matt Hullum and cast members Burnie Burns, Alan Ritchson, Colton Dunn, Michael Jones, and Gavin Free will be in attendance to celebrate the highly anticipated sci-fi comedy and join Fantastic Fest’s official opening night party, presented by Rooster Teeth.”

Recall that in July 2014 this project became the third most crowd-funded film and video project on Indiegogo.com.

My take: kudos to Rooster Teeth for pulling this off. Their 37,000+ fan-funders must be giddy!

Filmmakers are dead. Long live filmmaking.

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Brandon Harris of The New Inquiry posted “There’s No Money in Movies” recently.

In it he discusses Abel Ferrara‘s unsuccessful attempt to crowd fund his latest film. Ferrara is a “notorious New York independent filmmaker” who wanted to raise half a million dollars on Kickstarter. And managed $20K. Harris writes:

“As traditional sources of specialty film financing have become harder and harder to come by connecting with audiences and donors through crowdfunding has become a burden many filmmakers of Ferrara’s generation have had to take on to continue working. The results for many of the elder statesmen in this new media landscape have been mixed.”

He then moves on to discuss Independent Filmmaker Project‘s Amy Dotson keynote speech at the Seattle International Film Festival.

It’s a fascinating speech. One favourite bit:

“We have to try to stop adjusting our realities to hold onto the ways we consume stories before rather than allow new forms and ideas to take hold.”

Harris takes umbrage and concludes by lamenting:

“Is this what every independent filmmaker should want? To be embraced by corporations and the entertainment mainstream? To have to be good at three or five different disciplines instead of just one? In Dotson’s telling, it’s unavoidable. These well-meaning artists will have to adopt another stance, as filmmakers are analog, too serious, and not platform-agnostic enough to allure corporate suits.”

My take: surely the new economics of film is not news and only further proves that the Long Tail now rules the mediascape. A handful of media companies/franchises/directors get the majority of the money/tickets/attention. The bad new is that there is less room in the middle for small, esoteric ventures to make an economic go of it. The good news is that the rest of us at the shallow end can now play digitally and globally — and just stop dreaming of dollars.

The Creative Class

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Mike Bielenberg of MusicRevolution has posted twice this year on The Creative Class.

In April, he introduced ‘my group of people’ — ‘people from whom original thought constantly emanates‘ — whose job is to be creative and innovative or use information to solve problems.

From Wikipedia:

“The Creative Class is a posited socioeconomic class identified by American economist and social scientist Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.”

In his July post, Mike reports on the job growth of the creative class in the United Kingdom between 2011 and 2013.

Analyzing data from the Office for National Statistics, he concludes:

“Information technology outpaced every category in terms of volume…. With concert ticket prices at an all time high, live music must be the primary economic driver behind the growth in music…. Nobody reads books or goes to museums anymore; because that would require the slow, meaningful absorption of text that isn’t floating on a screen with music blaring underneath. Who’s got time?”

Ultimately he’s encouraged because the ‘creative thought pie’ is not finite and will never stop growing.

My take: I think the denizens of today’s creative class are the modern equivalent of the artisans of the analogue age. In the past, you had a patron, a shop or gallery representation. Now, geography is less restrictive and digital production potentially allows for unlimited duplication. Your reach is global, but so is your competition. Looking forward to Mike’s next post on the creative class.

The Disapproval Matrix

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Natalie Sejean of Mentorless.com recently pointed me to Ann Friedman‘s Disapproval Matrix.

There are four quadrants: Critics, Lovers, Frenemies and Haters.

And two axes: Rational/Irrational and Know You/Don’t Know You.

“The general rule of thumb? When you receive negative feedback that falls into one of the top two quadrants—from experts or people who care about you who are engaging with and rationally critiquing your work—you should probably take their comments to heart. When you receive negative feedback that falls into the bottom two quadrants, you should just let it roll off your back and just keep doin’ what you’re doin’.”

My take: I love 2×2 matrices! As a visual learner, I love how a simple diagram can bring clarity to a complex concept.