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.

OTT revenue to surpass Theatrical this year

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A new report from Strategy Analytics claims OTT (over-the-top) revenue will double to over $18 billion by 2019.

“North American OTT video spending continues to grow as we go through an era where individuals address their viewing needs through on-demand services across multiple connected devices. Overall, the OTT video market was up 47 per cent totaling $8.9 billion in 2013.”

Fierce Online Video provides more detail:

“Consumer use of subscription video-on-demand services, such as Netflix and Hulu, will be the biggest driver in ‘over-the-top’ video revenues growing 21% this year in North America reaching $10.7 billion.”

Elsewhere, they display nice charts illustrating the dominance of Netflix and Youtube in the SVOD (subscription video) and ad-supported streaming segments.

IMDB quotes Screen Daily to give this some perspective.

“North America revenue from OTT (over the top) content is catching up with theatrical grosses as a study said projected numbers for 2014 will reach $10.7bn – a little under the record $10.9bn set by theatrical distributors in 2013.”

My take: I’m not sure this is evidence that people are turning away from the collective experience and embracing private viewing. Perhaps there’s more interesting stuff on Netflix. Perhaps a night out at the movies is too expensive. Or, is it both?

Hyperlapse solves shaky time-lapse footage

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Fascinating news from Microsoft Research: we can fix your shaky GoPro time-lapse footage.

The technique is called Hyperlapse and they say an application is coming soon, perhaps in a few months.

Better yet, they show you how it’s done.

My take: thanks for sharing, Microsoft. I love that you’ve released the technical know-how as well. I predict a Google Street View-style multiple camera rig capturing overlapping footage to generate a rich ‘picture-scape’ combined with this software to create immersive, real-time, viewer-defined camera movement. Movies, meet video games.

Super 8 is about to make a comeback

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The consumer film format called Super 8 was dominant in the sixties, seventies and eighties until the upstart technology called ‘video’ challenged it in the nineties and vanquished it from the marketplace in the new millenium. HD video now rules. With the right lens use and lighting, we can shoot economical, cinematic images.

Nevertheless, are you nostalgic for the real film look? It’s too expensive to actually shoot on film, right? 35mm, even 16mm, is out of reach. But what about Super 8? Is it possible to shoot on Super 8 and transfer to video for post?

My memory of the look of Super 8 is slightly soft, jittery Kodak Kodachrome, with it’s very warm tone and super-saturated reds. I shot my first films on Super 8, physically splicing the shots together and projecting the original reversal stock which would jump slightly as the cuts chattered through the projector gate.

One of Super 8’s strengths was also one of its weaknesses. The cartridges were extremely user-friendly but their design meant that the film was held steady during exposure by a simple pressure plate. Jitter, therefore, was built into all Super 8 cameras.

Now, a Danish company called Logmar plans to re-engineer the Super 8 camera. Their idea is to pull the film out of the cartridge and pin register it during exposure. The footage is rock-steady.

What about Super 8 film and developing? North American rights, film and processing will be handled by Pro8mm of Burbank, California.

My take: at 5 grand, this will be an expensive camera. I love the modern technology Logmar is brining to a mid-century medium, like the digital monitor and SD sound recording. Neat that they can scale this up to 16mm and 35mm as well. And I love the discipline of film versus video. But film! I thought it was dead! That sample footage does look more like 16mm than the Super 8 I remember. Perhaps if they address the dust on the negative and the dirt in the gate by the frame lines….

‘Sharknado 2’ can control your lights

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Whether or not you appreciated the concept behind last year’s ‘Sharknado’ — sharks falling out of the sky — you should appreciate a cool technological tie-in tonight’s outing brings. (Syfy, Space 9 e, 6 p)

According to Mashable, ‘Sharknado 2: The Second One’ — now set in New York instead of LA — will be able to control your lights. Think flashing during lightning and drenching your room in red during the shark attacks.

That is, if you have Philips hue lights. Combining LED lights, the Internet and smart phone control gives you ‘personal wireless lighting.’

Plus, you need the Syfy Sync app on your smart device.

“The secret sauce of the whole experience is the Syfy Sync app, which typically brings the viewer second-screen information, such as actor profiles and trivia. Similar to Shazam, the app uses audio tagging to identify what the viewer is watching, delivering the right content at the right moment. But the Philips integration takes it to another level.”

My take: kinda cool. With 5.1 sound and responsive lighting, in the proper hands, this could make for very immersive experiences.

Don’t get lost on the Internet

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I love maps.

I love how they abstract the big picture into something tangible and packed with information.

Did you know there are maps of the Internet?

The internet is not a ‘cloud’ — it’s simply a series of networks that are interconnected. And one of the way internet traffic moves around are by cables under the oceans.

TeleGeography publishes an Interactive Submarine Cable Map and an Interactive Internet Exchange Map. Both are fascinating. So is their Global Internet Map.

What’s the connection with the new mediascape? If your project is digital and relies on the Internet for downloading or streaming, you might want to know where your server is located. If you know where your customers are, you might want to locate it closer to them. You want to be on the bigger pipes, if possible, to minimize the hops required to move your bits around.

My take: these maps help you understand traceroute, the somewhat geeky tool that lists the hops between your location and servers around the world.

Web-based Transmedia

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I came across ‘Loves of a Cyclops’ recently through No Film School.

The film is a quirky 25-minute narrative about vision by Nathan Punwar.

Just as interesting are the transmedia components Nathan and his collaborators have brought together at lovesofacyclops.com . United by subject, tone and execution the extra material can both tease or round out the main film, depending on whether you’ve seen it yet. There are photos, audio profiles, ‘science’ backgrounders, early movies, props, the soundtrack, a shop on VHX and outreach. There’s also a link to tumblr where you’re invited to contribute more material.

About transmedia, Nathan says at No Film School:

“It probably wouldn’t work to do this for every film, but for the right story it can draw strangers in, especially when your audience is online and not in a theater. It also gave us an opportunity to play with these odd characters in a first-­person way that the film doesn’t allow because it keeps pushing the story into new territory. That said, I think it’s most interesting when the extra content raises more questions than it provides answers. It only provokes more curiosity about the film. Because of the nature of making this film the way we did, it took nearly a year, so we had a lot of in­between time to kick these fun ideas around. The site isn’t just an expansion of the story. It’s a document of our lives for that year. Not everything contributes directly to the story, but it does come from our time spent telling it.”

My take: definitely worth exploring — a singular vision.

Rooster Teeth sets new high on Indiegogo

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Rooster Teeth just concluded the campaign for their first feature-length live action movie, Lazer Team, on Indiegogo, raising almost four times their initial goal.

At less than $20K short of $2,500,000, they’ve set a new record for crowd-funding on Indiegogo.

Over 37,000 contributors pledged an average of $66.15. The most popular perk was the $35 Blu Ray/DVD, claimed by 8,115 contributors. Twenty-seven funders earned various producer credits, donating $172,000.

Ever confident, Rooster Teeth is estimating delivery in March 2015.

Of note, only two film projects on Kickstarter have crowd-funded more: the Veronica Mars Movie Project and Zach Braff’s ‘Wish I Was Here.’

My take: way to go, Rooster Teeth! I remember the first episode of Red vs Blue as very engaging machinima.

UPDATE: Lazer Team still breaking records!

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With less than a week to go, Rooster Teeth’s Lazer Team Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign continues to smash records.

They are closing in on $2,000,000 and 300% of their original goal.

This represents over 28,000 backers and an average contribution of approximately $68.

Of note, RT has raised over $142K from 23 people who have earned various producer credits in return.

My take: Rooster Teeth initially decided to make this a Flexible Funding campaign (9% fees,) rather than the riskier Fixed Funding gamble (0%.) No matter, now that they’ve surpassed their goal, the fee for both models is 4%, and Indiegogo stands to make $80K!

Rooster Teeth breaks crowd-funding records!

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Rooster Teeth, the creative team behind Red vs Blue, has just set crowd-funding history.

Here’s the scenario:

“In the late 1970’s, the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence project received a one time signal from outer space. It looked exactly as theorists thought a communication from an alien civilization would — unfortunately it has never been decoded. Or so we were told. Unbeknownst to the general public the signal was translated and told us two things: 1. We are not alone. 2. The galaxy is a dangerous place. Our story is live action sci-fi comedy that takes place decades later in the aftermath of this event.”

Not bowled over? Well, these numbers certainly are impressive:

The ask: $650K. The project: a theatrical feature production.

The results:

  • $1,000,000 in two days.
  • Over 25,000 contributors.
  • $123,000 from 20 backers, rewarded with producer credits.
  • To date, over $1.7 million with more than 10 days to go!

See their campaign on Indiegogo.

My take: a popular franchise appeals to their fans to finance a very different product, with wildly successful results. Of course, it helps to have over 7.5 million subscribers on your Youtube channel.

Your film has many price tags

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Marc Schiller of Bond/360 thinks you should price your independent film differently depending on the platform and the time since release.

He lays out his strategy in ‘How Much Should I Sell My Film For?’ on  Medium.

Keeping your conversion rate between two and three per cent is key, he says.

“Conversion rates are never static. And because of this the price of a film should also never be static.”

Sell on your website to your core audience. But don’t overlook the iTunes and Netflixes out there:

“The benefit of having your film in the marketplace and supported with promotion is that your film can now be discovered by those who may not have known about it. A significant amount of sales of independent films happen specifically because they are found and discovered in New Releases, Top 25, etc. In addition, many of your core want to purchase on iTunes, not your website. The biggest mistake a filmmaker who is selling direct can do is to try to divert sales from iTunes so that the film is purchased on the website. Rather, they should be doing everything in their power to get their film into the Top 20 of its category so it can be discovered by others. This increase in sales is worth every penny of the commission the retailer takes.”

My take: excellent advice, backed up with concrete figures. Thanks for sharing!