Still in Motion

Re:Frame Launches

The Tribeca Film Institute has been working on the launch of a major project with Amazon.com to create a new digital marketplace for precious film and video works that have languished in archives, have extremely limited distribution, or have just been plain hard to find.  At last, Re:Frame is here.

As of yesterday, the service is now active through Reframecollection.org and I am happy to say that I will soon be one of the film curator/bloggers contributing regularly on the new site, specializing in hybrid nonfiction works and contributing a series of interviews with this year's TFI Fellows.  The core audiences are the educational and institutional markets, but I know there are many film fans out there whose taste goes beyond what even Netflix can provide.  Right now, about 500 works live on the site, from some of Sally Potter's works, to hard-to-find documentaries and experimental fare.

The service will be a nonprofit storefront for both short- and long-form film works, as well as providing rights holders a way to sell or rent downloads or DVDs through Amazon.  What really distinguishes the Re:Frame model is that it offers services to convert all works to a digital format from video free of charge, and will also offer conversion services from film formats to digital at a cost well below what most standard conversions run.  The digital copy is then returned to the rights holder while the work is retained in Amazon's archive.  The rights holder determines what to charge and will receive royalty payments amounting to 50% of any download or online rental, or a share of DVD sales.

Over the last two years, the Re:Frame Collection project, under the auspices of the Tribeca Film Institute run by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, has had financial support through grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.  The initiative was established to preserve film history and to make classic and rare works available to a larger community of students, artists, educators and film fans.  The hope is that close to 10,000 titles will be available in the next twelve months.

To learn more about the various deal structures for filmmakers and rights holders, and other information about the collection, visit the web site.

Babelgum Online Film Fest Competition

Babelgum, the online global broadcast network, is having a competition where viewers get to review a group of shortlisted films in their Online Film Festival, taking place during the Festival de Cannes next week.  The "critic" with the best review will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Cannes.  A not-too-shabby prize, non?  Oui!  Click here for more info.

The Other NPR

Monday night, I attended a talk at Union Docs in Williamsburg under the auspices of their Documentary Bodega Series.  Neighborhood Public Radio founders, Lee Montergomery and Jon Brumit were there to discuss their project, one of the many curated art installations that are part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial of American Art currently happening in New York City through May 31.

This NPR is an artist-run radio project broadcasting live from a former shoe store in Manhattan.  They're broadcasting from the Whitney on 91.9 FM  and streaming on their website Wednesdays through Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Fridays from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.  The shows are 30 minutes to an hour and they're produced by local artists, activists, musicians, commentators--anyone, really--focusing on under-represented voices.  They are encouraging people to come by the storefront studio located at 941 Madison Avenue at 74th Street.  You can also contact them at npr@neighborhoodpublicradio.org to be added to the broadcast schedule.

What's so exciting about this is that NPR provides an alternative media platform for just about anyone with something to say.  By opening up channels of communication through internet streams and micro-powered signals, NPR creates an open space, free of FCC rules and regs, corporate underwriters or any body that can regulate/censor information.  Their motto is, "If it's in the neighborhood and it makes noise, we hope to put it on the air."

Montgomery (pictured in the studio above) and Brumit also offer boxed broadcasting kits that they are distributing to cities and neighborhoods across the US.  During their talk at Union Docs, they discussed the genesis and philosophy of their project, talked about some memorable locally-produced radio moments and their reactions to a piece about them that recently aired on "the other" NPR network.  They also played some audio from their other community-based transmission arts projects, State of Mind Stations and Talking Homes, also found on the main website--take a listen.  Also, if you live in the city, you should stop by the station and speak out.  It's an amazing opportunity to be a part of a living, breathing art installation.

Also coming up at Union Docs: a Spring Symposium Fever on April 27th at 7:00 p.m.  You can submit your work or presentation proposal.  It can be any genre, but should be able to be presented in a medium-sized room and run ten minutes or less. They have a projector, mixer and sound system on hand.  Click here for more info.

Cinema Eye Honors on the D-Word This Week

Check in here all this week to read more on the upcoming 1st Annual Cinema Eye Honors at the IFC Center next Tuesday, March 18.  Read the latest updates on presenters and nominees, and be sure to chime in on the conversation.  We'd love to dialogue with you and hear what you think.

The D-Word is an international online community of documentary professionals.  Thanks to Doug Block, Ben Kempas and John Burgan for hosting us!

Yo Ho Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me

Steal This Film II--watch it here.

Better Version of Me

As well as being a doc geek, I am also an art hound.  And for this reason (among others), NYC is a great place to be.  This item was just jettisoned into my email inbox:

"Humor shedding light into darkness and the fragmented isolation within claustrophobic chaos to render us overwhelmed and incomplete, are just some of the paradoxical themes Ron Beach Jr. and Adam Krueger set out to explore in their art."  This kind of stuff gets my attention.

Beach and Krueger have shared a studio space in Tribeca for a year, and in their exhibit entitled Better version of me, curated by Jenn Wirtz, they take the dynamism that exists in their studio and fix it into their first physical collaboration, a two-man show held at The Canal Chapter December 10 through January 12, 2008.  ("Better Version Of Me" is also the title of a fab song by the beautiful Fiona Apple.)

The process of the show is accessible to the public in two ways:  First the gallery will be open to the public as the artists develop and install their pieces into the space every day from noon to 6:00 p.m. (see above dates).   Then, with further collaboration from director Xander Strohm and alternative media production company, East Pleasant Pictures, bi-weekly webisode clips of Beach and Krueger working on the exhibit will be available for the duration of the project on YouTube.  YouTube searches under "The Canal Chapter" or "adamandron" provide short clips of the Better version of me exhibition documentary--it always comes back to the doc, see.

A reception will follow the completion of the project on Saturday, January 5.  Coolio.

Pre-Christmas Convo on the D-Word

Happening on the D-Word this week:

Doug Block, Ben Kempas and John Burgan moderate a web discussion on applying for ITVS money.  Starting today through Friday (12/17 - 22), ITVS execs Joy-Marie Scott, Cynthia Kane, Karim Ahmad and Kathryn Washington are online to talk about the ins and outs of their funding process.  Block, Kempas and Burgan (residing in New York, Munich and Denmark, respectively) have been hosting discussion forums online since '99.  The D-Word is a fantastic resource with a membership of some 2,000 doc filmmakers from about 80 countries.  Join in; the discussions are always illuminating, informative and intelligent.

http://www.d-word.com/

AFI DigiFest, November 8 - 9, Hollywood, CA

As a featured component of Los Angeles’ International AFI Film Festival, AFI DigiFest is presenting two interactive media showcases highlighting the latest innovations in digital media and their real-world applications. Presented at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ beautiful Linwood-Dunn Theater, the two days of presentations and seminars will be filled with some pretty dazzling stuff.  Here’s the program:

Day One (November 8): AFI hosts a series of curated presentations that highlight noteworthy digital productions from around the world. Among the presentations, Marshall Herskovitz, creator of “Thirty Something,” “My So-Called Life,” and Blood Diamond, will preview “Quarterlife,” a new dramatic broadband series that premieres on myspace on November 11. Presentations rounding out the day feature the best in new digital thinking from the worlds of film, television, games and mobile.

Day Two (November 9):  AFI presents five new prototypes incubated in the AFI Digital Content Lab: an online video platform and citizen journalist toolkit for NOW, PBS’ weekly investigative news program; a strategy for retaining viewer interest during ads in a DVR environment for Bravo; a social network tailored for Players, a documentary about video game fans being produced by MTV, EA, and Mekanism; a pilot for an original dramatic machinima series created within a 3D game engine; and, finally, a unique user-generated film contest, Filmocracy, for ITVS.

All five prototypes were conceived and produced by the Lab in collaboration with mentors drawn from top-tier interactive design and production companies.

You can contact marketing and events manager, Chris Denson, at cdenson@afi.com or 323.856.7825, to find out more and to get on the list to receive an official invitation.

What Do You Get When You Cross a Filmbrain with a Cinephiliac?

Read my interview with Benten Films' Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis here.

Yes, But Is Anyone Really Watching?

In today's indieWIRE "On the Web" section, where various bloggers weigh in on what's on their radar at the moment, SpringBoardMedia spouts off on "potential" versus "real" numbers of viewers who will purchase, download or watch a film.  I recently wrote a couple of in-depth posts on Re:Sources regarding what was talked about at Sundance about online distribution and how it's all supposed to create decent revenue for filmmakers and allow audiences hungry for specific content to have easier access to those films through various sites and retailers.

The tracking of real-time statistical data of where a film sells and how many times it's downloaded, who's watching and for how long, etc., is not accurately reported right now in any comprehensive way.  Companies like Mediastile are working on ways to reflect these metrics in a useful way, but it's not quite there yet.  So what we have right now is potential.  Which is great.  But I think online distributors need to adjust the language in their claims about audience--who's subscribed to the service and who's actually purchasing/watching the product.

I subscribe to lots of services and listservs and other online groups, however, I don't really use all those services the way they're meant to be used.  Like most people, I just like to see what's out there.  Unless I'm specifically looking for something or doing research, the chances of me buying or renting something online, at this point, are rare, although I have been renting DVDs from Netflix ever since the service began.

Here's Access to 40 Million--Is it an audience?

Online Shootout, Part Deux, Digital Rights Management

For more discussion and information on selling your film and music content online from the companies spearheading the business models that are working on methods to make marketing and distribution on the web feasible and potentially profitable, click here. 

Online Shootout at Sundance

What I learned at camp this summer:

http://resources.renewmedia.org/2007/08/14/online-shootout-at-sundance/

Cute Name, Nice Site

Still reeling (har, har) from my long weekend at Sundance (even though it's Tuesday already) and am taking my time to digest, for a change, before I post something about that--in fact, other things by me about the Conference will be published sooner on other sites, probably, than on here.  Too many new things have been whizzing past me, I'm a bit on overload these days.

So instead of writing and finishing various articles, writing assignments and postmortems, follow-ups, etc., etc., etc., I was just aimlessly site surfing and came upon Gimundo (I think it's supposed to be said like the Australians say "gidday," meaning Good World.)  Like in Patti Smith's song, "Cartwheels."  Anyway, saw it advertised on The Daily Reel site.  (And that's awesome that Patti Smith has a myspace page.)

So wanted to share--go there, read, contribute, spread it around.

Or maybe just the California sunshine's got me loopy.  I could use some loopy.  Like someone said shortly before the Conference this past weekend was over:  "I could use some Dumb and Dumber."  No aspersions cast, I assure you.

D-Word Forum This Week on Online Distribution

Ben Kempas, co-host of The D-Word, sent a notice this week that they are continuing their series of online conferences around new approaches to promoting and selling documentaries online.  All concepts and ideas can certainly be applied to narratives and other multi-media creations, as well.  This is Part 4, entitled "Broadcasters Go Broadband."  The series has included discussions on self-distribution, the use of social networks and other alternative distribution platforms.  There will be discussions with traditional broadcasters from around the world on how they're reacting to these new paradigms and models.  Subjects will cover new ways of storytelling, the economics or profit structures of these scenarios for the filmmaker, and the ever-sticky issue of rights management.  Charlie Phillips, of FourDocs, is the co-developer of this forum.  Over the course of this week, broadcasters from the U.K., Australia and the U.S. will join in.

You must be a member of the D-Word (it's free) to join the discussion.  Here's the link.

There are also links to the previous forums once you click on the site--a wealth of information from programmers and distributors and, most importantly, the filmmakers, on the forefront of what's happening out there with online distribution.  The forums are participatory, so go ahead and add your voice to the mix.

Streaming Meemies: Online Distribution Dreams

http://resources.renewmedia.org/2007/07/26/streaming-meemies-distribution-dreams-and-nightmares/