CRTC rewrites the rules for indie funds!

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In a surprise move that comes into effect this Thursday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is rewriting the rules when it comes to indie producers accessing Certified Independent Production Funds.

Among the changes, the CRTC is:

  • Eliminating the requirement that producers obtain a broadcast licence or development agreement to receive CIPF funding.
  • Allowing and encouraging CIPFs to allocate funding for script and concept development.
  • Allowing and encouraging CIPFs to allocate funding for promotion and discoverability.
  • Allowing CIPFs to fund productions achieving at least six Canadian certification points (down from eight), and include the pilot projects recognized by the Commission.
  • Including co-ventures in productions eligible to receive CIPF funding.

Responding to the new policy framework, Andra Sheffer, CEO of the Independent Production Fund, states:

“The Independent Production Fund has long been an advocate for the support of Canadian content for platforms other than television and because of its endowment, has been able to fund scripted series designed for the web. Therefore, the IPF is encouraged by the CRTC decision to allow other certified Funds which receive their funding from BDUs, to potentially finance projects with no broadcast licence. This will provide the flexibility that our system needs to keep up with evolving production and business opportunities and the demands of modern audiences. Web content allows for innovation and experimentation in story-telling – we have seen it in the web series we have funded over the past 6 years. With few gatekeepers and risk-adverse broadcasters, it encourages new talents to explore and create new forms of story-telling and content that do not typically work on the traditional television platform.”

There are over a dozen Certified Independent Production Funds in Canada.

My take: I think this is a clear signal that the CRTC and Heritage Canada (see ‘by ministerial portfolio’) want to diversify media production and divorce it from television. We shall have to wait and see how the CIPFs respond and how they change their programs.

 

Locarno Film Festival finds future in small and local

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Variety reports on two interesting independent film developments: community and content from Step-In at the Locarno Film Festival.

While lamenting the state of indie film today on one hand, some art houses claim to be  doing great business on the other.

“‘We’re making a profit,’ said Jon Barrenechea, at the U.K.’s Picturehouse Cinemas, which aim to become hubs of community activity all day long and run their own cafes and bars. ‘One thing programmers don’t like to hear is that it isn’t about films but venues,’ he insisted. Last year at Step-In, Barrenechea cited the case of a 243-seat three-screen in Dulwich, a more affluent part of south London, which was doing ‘incredible business,’ with 90% of audiences living within 10 minutes’ walk of the cinema.”

On the content side, Telefilm Canada crowed about its Micro-Budget Production Program.

“Targeting first-time directors, its Talent Fund – a private donation fund whose partners include Bell Media, Corus Ent and Technicolor – finances movies or TV/web narrative content capped at $250,000 per budget and specifically created for digital distribution. 15% or more of Telefilm financing contribution must be dedicated to promotion and distribution. A pioneering experiment, money is raised not by Telefilm but influential local equity investors backing the Fund, and decision-making on projects is left with film schools or fund partners.”

Eurimages’ Roberto Olla posits that the creative freedom this affords allows filmmakers to try new things and expand the definition of cinema.

My take: Interesting to me that we’re back at the local cinema watching engaging small-scale movies.

BitTorrent launches the Discovery Fund

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BitTorrent Inc. wants to promote emerging content producers on the net this year — to the tune of $2,500 to $100K per project.

The Discovery Fund aims to “incubate the world’s next wave of awesome, straight-up brave storytellers and outside voices.”

“Over the next year, BitTorrent aims to partner with 25 creators by providing cash grants and promotional support to build impactful releases and discover new fans. We are looking for artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers and other creators working on uncompromised projects representing a diverse, original perspective seeking global distribution.”

There is no deadline or application fee.

My take: Kudos to BitTorrent for launching this initiative. To their credit, they surveyed artists and learned that “getting their work discovered is the biggest challenge they face.” Amen!

VR stats from England

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Charlotte Rogers of Marketing Week in the UK has reported a raft of VR statistics that are very interesting.

Very nice graphs show:

  • Consumer Sentiments on Virtual Reality
  • What Experiences Would You Like to Have When Using Virtual Reality?
  • What Sorts of Places Would You Like to Get Virtuality Reality Content Related to Your Interests From?

In terms of winning content, the survey points to new, unique experiences as being the most diserable:

“The ability to travel to different cities proves the most popular VR application at 56%, followed by being in the crowd at a concert (52%) and fantasy scenarios, such as flying or walking on water (45%).”

See the original Ipsos MORI media release and raw data.

My take: I just don’t know. Is VR/360 a technology in search of it’s killer app? Or — ? I can’t help but remember the trailer for The Matrix — I think we’ve seen this movie before.

The state of VR to date, in one page

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Janessa Nichole White of VR Dribble offers the best summary of Virtual Reality to date.

She summarizes:

  • VR revenue projections
  • VR market demographics
  • VR hardware sales
  • Content that doesn’t work in VR
  • Content that works in VR
  • VR gadgets
  • Privacy and data tracking in VR

Regarding content that works in VR, she lists:

  • Stationary and interactive puzzle games
  • Horror
  • On-rails vehicle
  • Using 1-to-1 motion controls
  • Using head as a cursor
  • Teleporting from place-to-place
  • Travel and music experiences
  • Social engagement
  • 1st person story segments

She closes with:

“The vernacular hasn’t been created. There are many obstacles in building a VR game or story. The hardware still has room to improve. Despite all of the above, it sure is an exciting time to be alive.”

My take: if you think 360 is just a fad, check out Say Lou Lou‘s Blue on Blue music video for a perfect example of the plasticity of cinema — in four dimensions. It will blow your mind.

 

Flowchart: What to do after film school

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MovieMaker has put together a funny flowchart for film school grads.

It asks a series of questions and depending on your answers, steers you to one of nine occupations.

For instance:

“I went to film school so that I could one day…

Express my original vision

How original?

Well, sort of original

I survived film school…

By stealing ideas from classical films

I want to live:

In Austen —

Indie Auteur!“

My take: I think this is hilarious, particularly as we get ready to relaunch the Short Circuit Film Festival. The convo goes something like this:

“I went to film school so that I could one day…

Work with my cinematic heroes.

I survived film school…

By buttering up my profs

I like to work:

Irregularly —

Festival Director!“

360 is not VR, but still cool

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VR. 360. The next big thing? The same thing?

No, they’re quite different. Blame Apple’s Quicktime VR for mixing up the two. (Released in 1994, QTVR was essentially a single frame from any of today’s 360 videos, not truly a virtual reality environment.)

Raindance‘s Baptiste Charles-Aubert makes a pointed distinction: ‘360 is immersive as opposed to VR which is interactive‘:

“In a Virtual Reality setting, the viewer/player leads. With 360, as filmmakers, we need to keep control over the narrative and push it forward. That’s what happens with 360. The viewer is experiencing a story happening around him and not to him. The physical location then matters even more in 360.”

One neat example of 360 documentary filmmaking is a series of Paul McCartney ‘interviews’ by Jaunt.

Their 360 technology is impressive, with no discernible ‘stitching‘.

My take: If the selfie is the painted self-portrait digitized, what is the equivalent documentary or narrative film? Will it utilize VR or 360? Or are those technologies reserved for something else? The modern, introspective equivalent of album liner notes, perhaps?

Wattpad is the Youtube for writing

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Nicole LaPorte writes in Fast Company about ‘How A Toronto-Based Storytelling App Is Becoming A Hollywood Idea Factory‘.

That app is Wattpad, a creative writing social media space.

With 45 million monthly users, Hollywood has marketed numerous films and television shows on the platform.

“But now Wattpad wants to more than just help Hollywood market its wares, it wants to help create those wares. Emboldened by the success of Wattpad author Anna Todd, whose serialized story After (over 1.3 billion reads and more than 6 million comments) was optioned in 2014 by Paramount and is being developed into a feature film (it has also been published as a book by Simon & Schuster), Wattpad has created Wattpad Studios, an in-house production company of sorts that will help identify the next Todd’s and partner them with movie studios and TV and digital networks. The hope is to churn out Wattpad-inspired entertainment.”

Wattpad can do that because they have their finger on the pulse of the community.

“Wattpad’s 2 million writers are different from print authors for a variety of reasons. They publish their stories on the fly, posting chapters as soon as they finish them, rather than going through an editing and publishing process that can take months, even years. They also have a very active relationship with their fans which gives them a unique power that studios and networks can use for their own benefit as they’re developing a Wattpad project.”

Moreover, they’ve already succeeded in doing this in the Philippines with a TV series called Wattpad Presents.

As quoted on Mashable, Aron Levitz, head of Wattpad Studios, points out:

“We have a distinct advantage over other social networks who trade in images or talent. We trade in the atomic unit of the entertainment and publishing industry: Stories.”

My take: I find it interesting that a social media platform seeks to intermediate between a creator and an industry, presumably for a cut of the deal. True, they created the platform allowing writers to create for and communicate directly with their audiences. Is this just another way of saying talent is always rewarded? Is this truly a new economic model, or is it just using the crowd to read the slush pile? I want it to be the former but until the money starts flowing in a new way, I think it’s the latter.

A new role for film critics

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Richard Brody writes in the New York TImes that ‘Our Dated Model of Theatrical Release Is Hurting Independent Cinema‘.

His thesis is that ‘part of the blame lies with a system of tacit complicity between critics and the industry that poses obstacles to the recognition of independent films’ because any film that has not played for a week in a cinema is considered not to have been released.

Therefore those films remain ‘unreleased’ and not worthy of reviews. Recognition, distribution and monetization then is harder to come by.

Meanwhile, say hello to the Internet. VOD and sVOD platforms effectively sidestep ‘real life’ exhibition.

Brody feels critics are ignoring independent film and asks them to change:

“It’s up to critics and editors to acknowledge what was already clear in 1969 — the realm of movies, their substance and their distribution, has changed drastically, and the practice of criticism needs to catch up with it. What’s both stressful and great about this prospect is that it vastly expands the pool of movies at hand. Critics can no longer keep their heads down and look at a fixed and stable list of releases; they have to do some research and some extra viewing to determine what constitutes, in their eyes, the day’s notable releases. This practice would shift power away from industry executives in determining what’s reviewed. Critics themselves would gain both the power and the responsibility; rather than responding to a pre-existing cultural agenda, critics would be setting it. Rather than interpreting the cinema, they’d be changing it — and that’s precisely the point.”

My take: I agree with Brody wholeheartedly. He’s describing the difference between a movie reviewer and a film critic. As people lose interest in Hollywood, they need guides to help them find their way in the mediascape to great indie films.

How to finance your independent movie

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Ben Yennie‘s post on Medium, The 9 Ways to Finance an Independent Film, is one of the clearest summaries of film funding I’ve seen.

He breaks your funding sources into nine categories:

  1. Skin in the Game
  2. Soft Money/Deferments
  3. Crowdfunding
  4. Tax Incentives
  5. Private Equity
  6. Gap Debt
  7. Product Placement/Sponsorship
  8. Pre-Sales
  9. Grants

“A lot of Filmmakers are only concerned with finding investors for their projects. While films require money to be made well, there are better ways to find that money than convincing a rich person to part with a few hundred thousand dollars. Even if you are able to get an angel investor (or a few) on board, it’s often not in your best interest to raise your budget solely from private equity, as the more you raise the less likely it is you’ll ever see money from the back end of your project.”

Ben also provides a graphic in which he displays a typical breakdown for three projects: first narrative feature, documentary feature, and second or third narrative feature.

It’s somewhat difficult to read, but here’s my best guess:

A. Narrative Feature

  • 1 – 10%
  • 2 – 10%
  • 3 – 20%
  • 4 – 20%
  • 5 – 20%
  • 6 – 20%

B. Documentary Feature

  • 1 – 10%
  • 3 – 20%
  • 4 – 20%
  • 7 – 10%
  • 8 – 20%
  • 9 – 20%

C. Second or Third Narrative Feature

  • 3 – 10%
  • 4 – 20%
  • 5 – 20%
  • 6 – 20%
  • 7 – 10%
  • 8 – 20%

Ben also has an excellent post called The 12 Slides you Need in your IndieFilm Investment Deck which you can use as an outline for your next pitch video.

My take: I love the visual which I think of as depicting your full budget as a pie of six flavours! Some are tastier than others and some come with strings attached. But the unsaid truth is that it’s difficult to bake this pie in only one flavour.