Category Archives: Coming Soon

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!

Telefilm Micro-Budget Feature Winners Announced

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Telefilm Canada has revealed the 2015 finalists of its wonderful Micro-Budget Feature Production Program.

In addition, Telefilm announced that the Talent Fund will subsidize the program. This is great news as it assures stable funding for the near future:

“The Fund has raised over $15 million to date from companies, foundations and individuals. The money will be invested over a period of seven years. Sixty percent of the Micro-Budget Production Program will be financed by the Talent Fund.”

Fifteen teams now negotiate with Telefilm for $100K+ in financing for their projects.

“This is the third annual round of projects in the Micro-Budget Production Program, which supports emerging filmmakers seeking to produce their first feature-length films, with emphasis on the use of digital platforms and developing their potential for distribution and audience engagement.”

I notice that this year most of the projects came through film schools rather than film co-ops as in the past.

Future applicants should note an innovative promotion and digital distribution plan is critical:

identify the target audience;
identify the goals for audience reach and engagement;
describe the release strategy;
identify the digital platform(s) on which the main distribution of the project will be made;
describe how the project will be promoted on the chosen platforms;
enumerate the distribution and/or promotion partners that will be pursued;
provide the budget for the promotion and distribution plan;
add any other information deemed important regarding the promotion and distribution plan

My take: this remains the best way to fund your first feature in Canada. Telefilm is rightly proud to have brought 37 features into being in the last three years.

One of the best reasons to make a short film

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Nathalie Sejean just posted a fascinating post on her excellent site, Mentorless.com titled To Short or Not to Short? 20 Filmmakers Who Successfully Transitioned from Short to Feature.

In it she lists twenty filmmakers from George Lucas (THX-1138) to Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) who graduated from shorts to features.

See the wonderful infographic.

Canadian filmmakers interested in this path should apply to Bell Media‘s Shorts-to-Features Program right away — the deadline is in two days!

My take: I think this is a good strategy. Particularly because we live in such a visually-dominant age, the more you can show of your storyverse to your potential fans and backers, the better. I lean towards reworking one or two scenes from your feature as a stand-alone short — now you’ve got a film and footage to cut into your crowd-finding pitch video.

U2 shows us the way with live mobile streaming

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First Youtube enabled anyone to post moving images to the Internet, democratizing the movies.

Now mobile streaming apps are revolutionizing live broadcasting, once the domain of television.

Having just launched within the last three months, both Meerkat and Periscope enable anyone with a smartphone to stream live video broadcasts in realtime to the world.

Meerkat (IOS and Android) wants you to first log in to Twitter. The left column lists upcoming streams, comments are on the right and the stream is featured vertically in the middle. Meerkat loves the colour yellow.

Periscope (IOS and Adroid) was purchased by Twitter shortly after Meerkat debuted. Comments are superimposed in the bottom left-hand corner, and you can show some ‘love’ with hearts that float up the right side of the vertical screen.

You can search Twitter to find live Meerkat streams or live Periscope streams.

Or, New York digital & social agency, GLOW, offers two ways to sample multiple streams:

Rock band U2 have embraced Meerkat. During the current i+e Tour, according to The Hollywood Reporter,

“The band invites an audience member onto the B stage to shoot a stripped-down number — on this night, ‘Angel of Harlem’ — to be broadcast live via the fledgling Meerkat platform. ‘This goes out across the globe — to about 150 people, until it catches on,’ Bono quipped.”

My take: I think this is truly revolutionary. The ‘airwaves’ for traditional TV broadcasters are strictly controlled by the FCC in America and the CRTC in Canada. Now, everyone with a smartphone has a ‘TV’ camera in their pocket and can begin broadcasting to the world at any time, for free! Journalism and entertainment may never be the same again. Interestingly, both apps use a mobile-friendly vertical orientation, which is decidedly uncinematic.

Deadlines for writers and filmmakers at a glance

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Time is linear, right?

Or is it more cyclical?

Taking a page from the Mayans, Jonathan Krimer of writersandfilmmakers.com has compiled three very interesting calendars.

One each for filmmakers, writers and documentary and television markets.

What sets these calendars apart from all others is that they are round. Think discs spinning, not stacks of paper blowing in the wind.

I asked Jonathan what software he uses, what conclusions we can draw, where he got his data and how often he updates:

“It’s Excel! I’m an MS Excel expert and use pretty complex charts in my day job (HR Analyst). So I just thought there might be some information gained from mapping it out visually. I did a basic Google search and found some existing templates that I then had to tweak. They were a bit of a hassle to do actually.

If you look at the writing competition chart, there is definitely a visual message there. There are definite slow months when you should be writing and writing! There are other times when everything must be submitted, so if you space out your writing year accordingly, you won’t miss the bulk of the deadlines.

To make the Film Festival Chart, I used some information from Sydney Levine whom I’ve met twice at TIFF. She also writes and does interviews for Indiewire @sydneysbuzz. She has festival circuit recommendations that I used as a guide.

I have not updated the calendars recently. I think I will update them later in the year.”

See his blog for more details. Scroll down to December 2014.

My take: I love the circular design. It makes it very easy to get the big picture and see events in relation to others. If you miss a deadline, chill, it’ll probably come around again.

Netflix at Cannes

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As reported in Variety, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos recently outlined their strategy to break into the film business at the Cannes Film Festival, again.

Recall that Netflix upended the TV industry when it began producing its own series like “Lilyhammer,” “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black.”

“Sarnados said that when Netflix launched in 1997, 90% of the content viewed on the service was movies. Now it’s only 33%, with TV series making up two-thirds of what people watch on Netflix.”

Sarandos mentioned Netflix has five or six feature projects in the works, some picked up at film festivals, some produced in-house.

Budgets range from $10 to $50 million.

Some will go straight to Neflix (like Adam Sandler’s “Ridiculous 8”) and some will be released theatrically first. He would like to see more day and date releases.

Not everyone will recall that Netflix previously operated a film acquisition and production company called Red Envelope Entertainment which it closed in 2008, in part to avoid competition with its studio partners.

My take: Netflix has the market leader’s competitive advantage. What other subscription video on demand (SVOD) platforms do people like, and actually use? Anyone got Shomi or Crave?

The Netflix Quantum Theory explained

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If you subscribe to Netflix, you’ve likely seen some strange categories suggested for your entertainment:

  • Cult Mockumentaries With a Strong Female Lead
  • Chilling Workplace Mysteries From the 1980s
  • Cerebral Mind-Bending Courtroom Fantasy Movies

While those might not be real categories, Alexis Madrigal and Ian Bogost looked into Netflix’s taxonomy and concluded they have over 75,000 different ones.

They’ve even posted a spreadsheet listing 10 sub-genre columns. The longest one, Adjectives, has almost 150 rows, everything from Absurd to Zombie.

The fascinating tale of their data hunt is detailed in The Atlantic’s How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood.

‘Todd Yellin is Netflix’s VP of Product and the man responsible for the creation of Netflix’s system. Tagging all the movies was his idea…. A fascinating thing I learned from Yellin is that the underlying tagging data isn’t just used to create genres, but also to increase the level of personalization in all the movies a user is shown. So, if Netflix knows you love Action Adventure movies with high romantic ratings (on their 1-5 scale), it might show you that kind of movie, without ever saying, “Romantic Action Adventure Movies.” “We’re gonna tag how much romance is in a movie. We’re not gonna tell you how much romance is in it, but we’re gonna recommend it,” Yellin said. “You’re gonna get an action row and it may have more or less romance in it based on what we know about you.”‘

My take: I love The Atlantic’s Netflix-Genre Generator. There are three flavours: Netflix, Hollywood and Gonzo. Good for lots of chuckles — and maybe some bright ideas too!

New Crowd-Funding Records in the Works!

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Not one, but two film/video/web projects on Indie Go Go are breaking crowd-funding records.

Con Man, by Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion, closes this week and has raised over $2.8 Million from over 41,000 supporters.

“Wray Nerely (Alan Tudyk) was a co-star on Spectrum, a sci-fi series which was canceled yet became a cult classic. Wray’s good friend, Jack Moore (Nathan Fillion) starred in the series and has gone on to become a major movie star. While Jack enjoys the life of an A-lister, Wray tours the sci-fi circuit as a guest of conventions, comic book stores, and lots of pop culture events. The show will feature all the weird and crazy things that happen to Wray along the way to these events.”

For $25 funders get to watch the 12 episodes on Vimeo On Demand.

Super Troopers 2, by Broken Lizard, closes in a couple of weeks and so far has raised over $3.4 Million from over 36,000 supporters.

“Howdy. We’re Broken Lizard. Several moons ago, we made a little indie movie called Super Troopers, which we debuted at Sundance in 2001. We’re proud of how it turned out and apparently it struck a chord with many of you out there because almost daily we get asked “Who wants a mustache ride?” (“Who doesn’t?”) or “Did you chug real maple syrup?” (“Yes, and we will never, ever, ever do it again.”) or “How is the view from sugar heaven?” (“Sweet.”) But more than anything else, we get asked:When are you gonna get off your assess and make Super Trooper 2?”

For $30, funders get a digital download of the feature. For $35, funders get a Fandango movie ticket to the (as yet unmade) film plus other perks.

Both projects have surpassed the current record of $2.48 Million set only last July by Lazer Team.

Kickstarter still has a bigger record: $5.7 Million for the Veronica Mars Movie Project.

My take: I think it’s interesting that both of these projects are based on earlier enterprises, if not outright sequels. That’s one way to bring a lot of fans to the bazaar.

Tips for your Indie Film Release

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The recent SXSW panel Hacking Technology For Your Indie Film Release asked the question:

“As new technologies and distribution approaches continue to disrupt conventional release windows, funding cycles, and acquisition deals, how do indie filmmakers navigate this shifting landscape while balancing audience engagement and revenue?”

The Sundance Institute‘s #ArtistServices presented and has since released 23 Hacks for your Indie Film Release — “what it takes to get your film seen in an overcrowded marketplace by using technology as your secret weapon.”

Here they are:

  1. Schedule pre-order windows
  2. Avoid December and February releases
  3. Purchase a specific E&O policy that fits your film release plans
  4. Don’t limit your theatrical screenings to only Art House Theatres
  5. Upload final DCP-formatted trailers on Dropbox or G Drive
  6. Do NOT purchase KDMs
  7. $250 vs 35% — what you charge exhibitors
  8. Beware the “Virtual Print Fee”
  9. All screenings are “theatrical”
  10. Be frugal when printing one-sheets
  11. Small Size Matters Too: consider the thumbnail
  12. Don’t worry about print ads
  13. Harness internet trends
  14. Email subject lines matter
  15. Tweet at people who just tweeted
  16. Email lists are still the gold
  17. Upload content natively to each social platform
  18. Better Bundle for Bigger Bucks
  19. Private Vimeo Screeners
  20. Growth hack your backer rewards
  21. Carve out rights to do traditional digital and direct-to-fan deals on your own
  22. Ask distributors about their digital economics
  23. Pay for a quality closed caption file

Read the article for full details.

My take: as you fashion your digital distribution strategy, keep these ideas in mind.

Avoid these six indie film mistakes

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Filmmaker Dianne ‘shit has got to change’ Bell recently posted her thoughts on why some indie films ‘aren’t very good at all’ in ‘Six Mistakes that Will Sink Your Film’.

The six mistakes are:

  1. The script isn’t very good
  2. The budget/schedule are over-ambitious
  3. The director decides to take on every job
  4. The casting is cynical
  5. You don’t tech scout
  6. Great camera package, but no budget for production design

Here’s what she says about production design:

“It doesn’t matter what fancy camera you use, if what you put in front the camera is ugly, it will look ugly. Get a cheaper camera and spend money on the interiors that you are going to shoot in, and I swear your film will benefit from it. Take time to really think about the color palette of your film. Too often low budget indies are shot in friends’ homes with little thought or care about the palettes of the interiors and they suffer for it.”

Talking about colour palettes, see the excellent Movies in Color and Roxy Radulescu‘s thoughts on the power of colour.

My take: I agree with Dianne. Personally, I like films with a point (otherwise they’re pointless) and upbeat endings (don’t waste my time with a depressing ending.) And anything that highlights film’s plasticity — temporally or spatially, etc.