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Uncategorized

The Battle Is On: AppleTV vs. GoogleTV

Apple is going to go head to head with Google over control over web content on people’s television.  A major revamp of AppleTV is headed our way to compete with Google’s new set top box & interface.  Either way, indies will soon have  new worlds available to conquer.  It’s going to be a whole lot easier to get your work positioned to be seen in the comfort of someone’s home.

Fast Company reports on many of Apple’s revamps benefits, from a low $99 price to cloud computing storage (so you can watch anything instantly without having to prerecord).

Categories
The Next Good Idea

The Worst Inventions?

Time Magazine has given us their list of the Top 50 “bright ideas that just didn’t work out”.  Check it out here.

But for those quick scanners out there, the list is:

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Uncategorized

YouTube Removing The Tyranny Of Choice

I’ve always pictured utopia as the time when choice, not impulse or passivity, drives our participation and consumption.  But as the NY Times reports, that does not fit with YouTube’s business mandate to keep viewers on their site.

YouTube LeanBack will debut this fall: “There’s no browsing, no searching, no clicking. It behaves like you would expect television to.”

Thanks to Phillip Lefesi for bringing this to my attention!


Categories
Bowl Of Noses

It’s A Fact

The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.

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These Are Those Things

A Communal Work: The Johnny Cash Project

Director Chris Milk has found a perfect way to memorialize one of Johnny Cash’s last songs “Ain’t No  Grave”.  Through this interactive website, participants may drawn their own portrait of Johnny Cash to be integrated to a collective whole.  As people all over the world contribute, the project will continue to evolve and grow, one frame at a time

Check out the website.  It’s a beautiful idea, a beautiful video, and a beautiful song.  Thank you Chris.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Mindmap For The 38 Failings

Mike Ambs (aka @Pedal) built this pretty picture of the 38 Problems. Sometimes a picture is worth it’s weight in words. And hey, You can add on to it too. Thanks Mike!

Categories
Truly Free Film

Jon Reiss on Proper Prior Planning Prevent Perplexing Problems

Today’s guest post is from filmmaker / hybrid DIY distro guru, Jon Reiss.

Over the last several months an argument has arisen within the independent film community as to how much (and whether) filmmakers should focus on the distribution and marketing of their films.

I am rather surprised that there is an argument.  I am very surprised that lines have been drawn in the sand, armies joined and deployed.  I feel that the discussion to date misses two very important points.  First – there is no one kind of independent filmmaker.  There is no one kind of filmmaker.  Never has, never will be.  Thank god.  Each person who is involved in independent film has his or her own desires, interests, passions, loves, hates.  Each filmmaker has different motivations for making a film.  Some want to make a statement, change the world – whether it is social or artistic.  Some want to make money.   Some want to express an idea or emotion to as many people as possible.  Most filmmakers want it all.   However if push comes to shove, filmmakers will prioritize what they want from their films.  And these desires are different for different filmmakers.

Similarly not everyone in independent film wants to be a director, or a writer-director, or a writer-producer-director.   Some filmmakers just want to direct and prefer to collaborate with scriptwriters and producers.  Some filmmakers don’t want to direct, but want to be producers, DPs, editors etc.

Second, the debate implies that directors or multi hyphenate writer-director-producers should be primarily responsible for these new tasks.   I will always be among those that directors should not be solely charged with the distribution and marketing of their films.  As a filmmaker, I know how incredibly difficult this is (especially while making a film) – Frankly one of the reasons this blog post is perhaps a bit late to the debate is that I have been involved with shooting Bomb It 2.

However, I do believe that distribution and marketing should be woven into the filmmaking process just as preproduction planning, casting, scriptwriting, editing, sound mixing are all a part of the filmmaking process.