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.

4K consumer TVs are here; bring cash

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Well, when I say ‘consumer’ I mean your very, very rich uncle. And you might need a wheelbarrow for all that cash.

Sony has unveiled a $25K television that has four times the resolution of your measly Full HD 1080 flat-screen TV.

The XBR-84X900 4K Ultra HD TV has a native resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels packed into an 84 inch screen. There is virtually no dot crawl! Sony says:

“Sony is a leader in 4K digital cinematography and projection. As of June 2012, there were over 13,000 Sony 4K digital cinema theaters — nearly 75% of all 4K theaters worldwide use Sony 4K digital cinema projectors. And now Sony brings the full 4K digital experience into the home with stunning picture quality, whether you’re watching native 4K video or low-resolution smartphone clips. The newly-developed XCA8-4K chip upscales HD (or lower resolution) images by analyzing and refining images from all sources. Everything you see is restored with beautiful, natural detail, richer color and stunning contrast. The latest Reality Creation database and Super Resolution processing breathes new life into everything you see with phenomenal 4K (3,840 x 2,160) resolution.”

See Sony’s information or visit Atlas Audio Visual in Victoria to see the only model on display in Canada.

CMF to fund Pre-Development

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The Canada Media Fund has earmarked $1 million for the new English Regional Pre-Development Fund.

“The English Regional Pre-Development Program, designed in consultation industry stakeholders, is intended to support producers in their preparation of documents to present to broadcasters at the early stages of development.  In addition to this new program, the CMF has also changed its regional definition in development to include Vancouver as a region.”

This first-come, first-served fund opens on Thursday, December 13.

The details are buried in the Development Program Guidelines 2012-2013.

Even film festivals need to re-invent themselves

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Recently at the International Film Festival Summit in Austin, San Francisco Film Society Executive Director Ted Hope questioned the legitimacy of film festivals in a world saturated with film.

We live in the time of grand abundance of content, total access to content and rampant distraction from content. Fifty thousand feature films are generated worldwide on an annual basis. America will remain the top consumption market in the world for at least another year, and it’s thought we, at best, consume between 500-600 titles a year – basically, only 1% of the world’s supply. It will take us an entire century to look at this year’s supply of film. And next year we will still have the other 49,500 we didn’t get to this year. And yet good movies don’t get widely seen. Do we really need any new movies?

Of course, we need new movies! You might as well say we don’t need any more songs or poems or dreams.

Fifty-six years ago the San Francisco International FIlm Festival launched, the first in America. Today there are thousands. Hope continues:

Seven years ago, the biggest film festival in the world launched, offering the greatest degree of community participation and media democracy yet implemented:YouTube. Four billion videos per day are streamed. Quality may be an issue, but they filled a need we seemingly missed. Five years ago, cable VOD platforms offered 50 or so new films a month; today we get thousands. And still 27 films a week still open in NYC. San Francisco and the Bay Area now host over 80 film festivals throughout the year. How do we ensure that film festivals truly matter in this over-saturated environment of infinite options?

A very good question.

It seems film festivals are facing the same issues that plague filmmakers: how to remain relevant in a world where paradoxically standards are rising and falling at the same time and where competition is fierce and fewer and fewer make it to the top.

My take is that change is inevitable.

Old methods will hang on (with a few winners getting larger and larger). In the meantime, the vanguard of filmmakers will explore new methods of funding and distributing their work. (This might be crowd funding and theatre screenings on demand — ToD.)

And one day the remnants of the industry will catch up and formalize a new economic model.

Read Hope’s full speech.

Arts Innovation Deadline: November 30, 2012

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Got an idea about engaging audiences in new and innovative ways?

The submission deadline for the Arts Innovation Fund, a partnership between BC Film + Media and the BC Arts Council, is November 30, 2012. The goal is to encourage arts and culture organizations to collaborate with digital media creators to better engage audiences.

“The funding is a non-recoupable advance of up to $25,000 and does not require matching funding or market support to trigger eligibility.”

BC Film + Media is administering the program. See the details.

Telefilm’s policies under fire

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Telefilm Canada’s Success Index (60% box office, 30% cultural significance and 10% private investment) may be reducing the number of production companies able to secure development funding for new projects.

Groups of filmmakers are now complaining that only senior producers can qualify.

See the National Post article.

My take: Stop chasing elusive government funding and come up with new ways to finance your (albeit cheaper) films. It won’t be long before the whole regime is toppled as catering to special interests and all of Telefilm’s money goes to the CMF for televison.

Winnipeg Film Group relaxes Telefilm Microbudget membership requirement

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The Winnipeg Film Group has extended its deadline for its upcoming Telefilm Microbudget Recommendation Submission to November 28, 2012.

More importantly, it has relaxed the co-op membership requirement so that members who joined more than three years ago can now apply:

“Telefilm has the following criteria for eligible applicants:
Be a recent member of the WFG’s production centre (max 3 years)
* there is now flexibility in this requirement, so long as the other eligibility requirements are met….”

No word as to whether other Telefilm partners are relaxing this requirement as well.

See all the WFG details here.

IMAA and Canada Council Call for Filmmakers Deadline: November 23, 2012

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The Independent Media Arts Alliance and the Canada Council are looking for filmmakers to produce seven two minute films.

The films will honour the 2013 recipients of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

“All information regarding this project is confidential, including the names and residences of the GGAVMA recipients until the announcement date of March 12. Successful commissioned artists will be told the name of the recipient he or she will be working with to produce the video. This year’s recipients are located in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Halifax (area), Toronto (area), Ottawa (area) and Georgian Bay (area).”

Your reward? $5,000.00, plus unlimited warm and fuzzies.

For full deets, see On Screen Manitoba.

CFC Features Deadline: November 23, 2012

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The fall deadline for the Canadian Film Centre’s CFC Features program is fast approaching.

Up to $600,000.00 is up for grabs.

The tiers are the Development & Packaging Lab, the Production Lab (The Movie Network and Movie Central) and the Distribution Lab (eOne).

Courtesy of the CFC:

CFC Features is looking to invest in filmmakers from across Canada with engaging stories for the big screen.

Some new program highlights include:

  • A partnership with Entertainment One, who will now be the  domestic and international distributor
  • Production entities retain copyright of their films
  • Production entities can shoot anywhere in Canada
  • Production budget levels have increased
  • Filmmakers at various levels of their careers are encouraged to apply
  • Writer/director/producer fees have increased
  • Production entities can bring additional financing to the table
  • Mentorship will be tailored to the sensibilities and individual needs of the participants

My take: if you’ve got a second draft script and a solid production team ready, go for it.

The entry fee is $100.

CineCoup coming to a city near you!

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Could you use $1,000,000.00 to make a feature — in six months?

Will your marketing package rise to the top of the social media heap?

After stealth-launching at the VIFF Forum, CineCoup is about to visit cities across Canada to pitch its innovative film financing and distribution model. As they put it:

“Launching December 1, 2012, CineCoup is a disruptive film accelerator that will ultimately option 10 Canadian projects [f]or development and select one for up to $1 million in financing and GUARANTEED release in Cineplex theatres.”

For dates and more, see CineCoup.