Where Internet and Film Collide - "Learn" - June 8, 2008

IndieGoGo along with IFP co-presented Where Internet and Film Collide, a program held in conjunction with Internet Week NY. The first part of the presentation, “watch,” was held last Thursday at IFC Center with a screening of short films made for the Internet and mobile devices. Part deux, “learn,” came in the form of a panel discussion that identified online media's future trends and actions to take now at Apple Store Soho on Sunday. All of the panelists were open to the opportunities the Internet has in store for the film world, though some were mostly positive and one had a bleaker outlook.

Where Internet and Film Collide
Internet Week NY
June 8, 2008

Panelists:
(AJ) Alex Johnson – Freelance Digital Strategist (formerly of Deep Focus)
(SWB) Saskia Wilson Brown – Current TV
(BC) Brendan Choisnet – Director, Cult of Sincerity (first film to have its world premiere on YouTube)
(TH) Ted Hope – Producer, This Is That Productions

Moderator:
(JB) Janet Brown – Cinetic Media

JB: How does the Internet affect the process and stages of filmmaking and the final product?

SWB: The Internet is changing the format because films are more accessible. A lot of content is adjusting to be quicker and faster paced.

JB: What are you seeing with the collaboration of advertisers and producers?

AJ: Product placement in the movies is matching a film personality with a brand. My interest is in the webisode world. There’s a lot of talk of people only watching short content online, but that’s not always the case. There’s been crossover from Myspace to television. For example, the series Quarterlife, which didn’t work well on TV. The filmmakers were quite frank about it. The models are changing. At Blip TV, they have an advertising model where you can opt into a 50/50 revenue share.

JB: What was the process of getting Cult of Sincerity onto YouTube?

BC: It was a little bit of luck. We entered a contest for the movie Juno. We had to follow certain criteria and had only six weeks to make a movie. Our film placed in the top 20. YouTube expanded their short format to allow the entire feature to be played. The prize was to meet with Fox Searchlight executives. YouTube was very frank that they couldn’t pay us, but they were open to allowing us to explore alternative distribution opportunities.

JB: How do you view the ability of the Internet to reach audiences?

TH: I am astounded by how slow change has come. The promise has been there for a long time. I had a conversation with our marketing staff about how we could use the Internet to build audiences. For Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we put up some hoax sites to expand the universe of what the film is offering unique, exclusive content. My son says a movie is just a DVD, but what about all this other stuff? We don’t even know how to describe all that yet. To me, that’s what a movie should be. It’s so slow. That’s why independent film is going through changes and an incredible paradigm mind shift.

AJ: Building an expanded universe around a film is incredibly important, and we’re not doing nearly enough. It’s about people spending time with a brand. Television is doing a good job with that. FOX did a promotion on Myspace where they updated character blogs every few days. DIY filmmaker Lance Weiler worked with Hammer Films on Beyond the Rave to create subliminal messages for an alternate reality game creating a social experience.

JB: How can you make money on the Web?

SWB: Current acquires content. It’s rare in the online filmmaker landscape, though YouTube is on our heels. We work mostly with documentary filmmakers. We tend to find them easily, but to keep them, we have to provide them with some asset like money. There are other new models coming forward, like sponsorships.

BC: We’re working with a partner site called AmieStreet.com, an online community for people who like music. You can sign up on their site and get $2 of free music and for $3, you get a download of our movie. They pay us for every person who engages with what they ask them to do.

JB: You have experience dealing with traditional film distribution models. The Internet is disrupting this flow. Is there an opportunity for filmmakers to take greater control of their work now?

TH: It’s evident that this business has been in complete chaos for a couple of years now. The whole model of investing in films seems to be over. Some of this parallels how the Internet has been slow to deliver. The promise to get niche films on computers or TVs has been slow. Traditional ways have completely withered. The problem with films on the Internet is people have short attention spans. As a producer now, you not only have to find a good cast, crew, and money, but you also have to build an audience.

SWB: We have total control of our audience, but it relies on doing a lot of work. We can go online and aggregate our audience.

BC: We emailed all our friends and made a list of bloggers to promote our films. It’s difficult. FOX Business was the one place we got any major media recognition.

AJ: We’re in this in between stage. In the music industry, there’s always been trusted word of mouth that’s not happening inside the film world. From Here to Awesome is an online film festival where filmmakers are a part of the distribution process.

SWB: The problem with film festival is there is a huge amount of content. From Here to Awesome creates a new model of distribution. At Current, the big thing is the concept of curration. That’s what From Here to Awesome is also doing.

AJ: We’ve got to the stage where filmmakers just have to be good marketers. There are so many tools out there for them to use such as TubeMogul.

TH: I was inspired by Four Eyed Monsters. They were able to organize screenings based on people who requested them on their website.

BC: The Internet has also made the filmmakers themselves more accessible.

JB: What are some of the changes on the Internet in the future that you look forward to happening?

SWB: Current is excited that television and the Internet are merging. We’re doing live judging of pods (short-format). I don’t know how this will work for long formats.

AJ: Ad sharing revenue models will be interesting.

TH: There’s going to be a complete and total revolution. Big media corporations will win and put an end to net neutrality. People will get pissed. I don’t think anyone is doing enough to stop this from happening.

BC: At the end of the day, there’s still story. I’m excited to continue to have new opportunities to tell stories.

Deal or No Deal: The Road to Self-Distribution, SXSW, 3/10/08

Moderator:

Karina Longworth, Spout.com

Featuring:
Stacy Schoolfield, Producer, Jumping Off Bridges
Kelly Sanders, Truly Indie
Sara Pollack, Film Manager, YouTube
Mark Halperin, President, Magic Lamp Releasing (absent?)

At the very beginning, moderator Karina Longworth laid out the premise of the panel: looking at self-distribution as the first resort, as opposed to the last resort.

Stacy Schoolfield was the first panelist to speak. After producing the movie Jumping Off Bridges, Schoolfield took the film to SXSW, expecting it to get a distribution deal. There was no initial distribution deal. Instead, what happened was that a mental health field professional saw the film and thought it would be appropriate to screen for her colleagues. Later, she called theaters in 26 cities and combed Lost fansites (Michael Emerson from that show appears in the film) to promote the film. She got the ultimate flattery when fans began to incorporate clips from Bridges into video tributes to Emerson. Eventually, Jumping Off Bridges got picked up by New Day Films, a distribution company specializing in educational films.

Sara Pollack, prior to her hiring at YouTube worked on a film titled Duane Hopwood, which only received a minuscule release despite debuting at the Sundance Film Festival, and having notable names like David Schwimmer and Janeane Garofalo star in it. Pollack believes that filmmakers are becoming wise to bad deals given by major distributors, and to the virtues of self-distribution. "You know your audience best," Pollack said.

Kelly Sanders works for Truly Indie, an offshoot of Magnolia Pictures. Truly Indie, like IFC First Take, is an outlet for brokered self-distribution. Whereas Magnolia would approach the filmmaker, it is the other way around with Truly Indie. Truly Indie only accepts 8-10 pictures a year, and if the filmmaker has a promotion idea, Truly Indie will work with the filmmaker. The filmmaker must pay Truly Indie a flat fee based on the cost of the opening.

Sanders believes that theatrical releases are still important, as they bring credibility to the film. Documentaries are usually the most successful in self-distribution, as people tend to read documentary reviews.

Overall, the panel was very encouraging. I got to introduce myself to Karina afterwards, explaining that I was the girl from "HOWL (For Lindsay Lohan)". Yippee!

Quit Your Day Job and Vlog: SXSW, 3/8/08 @ 10am.

Moderated By: Tim Shey, Next New Networks
Featuring:
Lisa Donovan, aka "Lisa Nova", Zappin Productions
Zadi Diaz, Host and Creator of Epic Fu, Smashface Productions
Bre Pettis, Room 132, Etsy.com
Lindsay Campbell, Host/Producer, Wallstrip.com, MobLogic.tv

Everyone and their brother can shoot and upload a bunch of videos onto YouTube, but few have managed to pull off the feat of being able to irk a living from it. Where did they start, and did they start making money?

Each panelist introduced themselves, and as each panelist got their chance to speak, we were shown a video from their vlog.

Lisa Donovan had just started a production company, Zappin productions, with a partner, and were making corporate videos and presentations to pay off bills. Itching to do something more creative, they started creating videos and uploading them to YouTube in June of 2006. Within six months, she had been recruited to make an appearance on MadTV, and her vlogging career took off.

One of the first members accepted into YouTube's Partners Program, Donovan would not recommend starting a vlog on YouTube today. "It's too saturated," she advised the audience.

Zadi Diaz had a successful career in publishing and had done some theater when she broke into vlogging shooting the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, posting her videos to indymedia.org. Soon after, she moved to Los Angeles, and as a means of keeping in touch with family and friends back east, she launched JetSet, which eventually evolved into Epic-Fu.

Once they realized they were getting attention, Diaz and her partner decided to go for broke, and Diaz quit her well-established publishing job. It was a scary decision to make. "This is the future of media. It's now or never," they believed at the time. Recently, they found themselves in Berlin on behalf of the British Council.

Bre Pettis was an art teacher who made a video of people saying "I Love You", with the intention of selling the video to art collectors at a premium price. When that didn't pan out, he posted it on the internet, and along with a video of him touring his apartment, elicited a major internet response. Pettis' "I Love You" video recieved 40,000 hits when it was first posted in 2004.

Make Magazine eventually recruited Pettis to make some vlogs at their convention. "If you want me to come down, you gotta pay me!", he told them. They did. Initially doing most of the work himself, Pettis now has an editor, and does videos for Etsy.com.

Finally, Lindsay Campbell was a struggling actress in New York, temping at a Hedge Fund. When she finished her stint there, she decided to spend an entire month doing auditions with money she had saved, answering cattle call ads on Craigslist, among places. One of these ads was for Wallstrip.com, a financial news show. She was called back, was asked to do a "Man On The Street" interview, and was subsequently hired. Not too long ago, Wallstrip was picked up by CBS Interactive, and Campbell added a new hosting job to her resume, Moblogic.tv, which had literally launched the day before the panel.

All the panelists discussed the stigma that still surrounds entertainment made for the internet. One person told Lisa Donovan, "It's so sad you're going to stay on the web." Lindsay Campbell spoke about how many of her actor peers who want to do TV Work shun the internet, countering, "The internet is TV."

The vloggers offered practical advice for the would-be career vloggers in the audience: "If you want a video job, make a video people will want to see.", "Get a sense of good moments", own your IP, e-mail your videos to your heroes, and get critical feedback. Finally, and most importantly, Diaz said: "Start where you are." Most of the vloggers found their funding through corporate sponsors.

It was the first time all the panelists had met each other. Personally, I found the panel to be very informative, and it gave me ideas, as I am ready to take my own vlogging to the next level.