Categories
Truly Free Film

Sklar & Workbook: Moving To Best Practices

Todd Sklar has finished has Range Life tour has a lot to tell you about what he’s learned. He’s posted it up at the indispensable Workbook Project: Part One, Part Two

Part One counsels filmmakers to build up their promo content and hold until the key release time.  He identifies two main tendencies to the contrary (and explains why you need to avoid them):
  1. You jump the gun on building buzz and then lose momentum and interest before it’s time to utilize that buzz.
  2. You jump the gun on your release and can’t support it with the necessary content or resources & planning b/c it’s a full time job just maintaining whatever momentum and interest your gaining from the film’s release.

In part two, Todd expands upon new rules:

  1. You need to have a solid website 5 minutes after you’ve written the script.
  2. You need to have a solid trailer 5 days after you’ve wrapped shooting.
  3. You need to release your DVD within 6 weeks of your premiere.
  4. You need to start making your DVD 6 hours after you’ve made your final cut.
  5. You need to do your theatrical release within 2-4 weeks of your festival premiere You need to implement a festival premiere into your release platform, and there’s no better/other way to do it than utilizing it as the springboard for your theatrical release.
  6. You need to look at the theatrical release as a brand building and audience building campaign and focus on exposure and press secondly.
  7. You need to be ready to make your next one before your release this one.
  8. You need to roll with the punches and remember to focus on your planning your work and working your plan.
  9. you need sell DVD’s during your theatrical release.
Read the posts.  We all need to.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Four In One: The History Of The Internet

These are some of my favorite things:

  1. Essay films
  2. Simple Graphics, animated
  3. Better Communication
  4. The Internet
And this has them all.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Old School Cartoons


Early on in his days H2Y asked “Why is old school so much cooler than new school?”  Volumes could be written on that, but here in The Bowl we just prefer to serve up another helping and hope that the sweet flavor of the old points the way.

Toon Tracker is an excellent website that has a horde of forgotten cartoon relics to amuse and delight: Hot Wheels, Abbott & Costello, Mighty Mouse.  Now all you need is a rainy day and screen time limit release and the surfing will be swell!

Categories
Truly Free Film

It Could Be Getting So Much Better All The Time #1: Google For Film

Oh, if only we in the States had government funding for the arts!  I would settle for government funding for the infrastructure for the arts.  The UK has it and here’s a good idea that they funded that we could use here:

 A Google-esque application for film.  Check it out.

UK film buffs will be able to access a bespoke online search tool from today that will give cinema and TV listings, DVD, Blu-ray and download options for 34,000 films.

The £1m FindAnyFilm project has been developed by the UK Film Council over the past seven months and claims to be the first service of its kind to combine listings for multiple formats and links to retails sites and legal download services. It also includes more than 5,000 film trailers and an alerts service to notify users when titles are released in new formats.
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

So Much To Play With (including time itself!)

I have to admit, sometimes it feels like this here too…

Categories
Truly Free Film

It Could Be Getting So Much Better All The Time

What would you do to improve “indie” film?  Both the business and the films themselves?  This is not a rhetorical question; I would like to know, and I am sure you would too.

I am going to start a regular feature here on TFF on what can be done to improve things for everyone in the indie film space (perhaps starting by banishing that VC vernacular “space”).  I thought everyone would have a distinct opinion.  It may surprise you, but I certainly have a few.  I sent out an email blast to fifty opinionated and passionate filmmakers and got next to nothing back.  Maybe everyone thinks things are just dandy.  Or maybe people think they need to hang on to their ideas in hopes of making a buck.  Or maybe everyone just wants to play the fiddle as we burn down down down.

I honestly believe that it could be getting so much better all the time if we all just shared our ideas and energy a little bit more.  So here’s to hope for the future and to finding a few new ideas that could gain a foothold into the new year.  Be warned: I will begin posting shortly.
Categories
Truly Free Film

New Grants For San Fran Filmmakers

Nice time to be living by the Golden Gate bridge.  The San Francisco Film Society announced a new series of grants covering all phases of development and production.  

The SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants support films that through plot, character, theme or setting significantly explore human and civil rights, antidiscrimination, gender and sexual identity and other urgent social justice issues of our time.

Read all about them here.  What are you doing reading this? Go and start filling out the application!  The first application process opened yesterday!