Archive for February, 2009
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Because its settled in the heart of Silicon Valley, a big draw for filmmakers to attend Cinequest is that major technology players (I can see the Adobe building outside my hotel window, for example) are easily accessible and hold the answers to how films will be showcased in the future, and most importantly, how filmmakers can make money off it.
Today’s panel titled “The Marriage of Television & The Internet” brought to the surface some of those answers.
Moderated by Cinequest president Kathleen J. Powell with panelists Thomas Morgan (chief strategy officer, Move Networks) and Lance Koenders (TA to SVP, Digital Home Group at Intel), the main subject was how Internet television is the next step in helping filmmakers build an audience.
One example is Widget Channel, a venture Intel and Yahoo! have teamed up to develop. Koenders showcased the widget (pictured above) to the audience, highlighting how the popular functions of the Internet can now be attached on your TV. MySpace, Facebook, or any site you visit often will be lined up at the bottom of the screen, available at any time while watching TV. You can also interact with others to discuss what you’re watching.
Morgan then highlighted Move Networks, which provides the video streaming software behind the players for ABC, The CW, and FOX‘s TV shows online in HD quality. “Buffering is a thing of the past,” said Morgan during the panel, as shows in high quality are now instantly available to users.
So what does this all mean for independent filmmakers?
Well, for one, with the current economy the Internet is one of the very few mediums that is finding growth. With most people staying home, or “cocooned” as Koenders put it, the notion of putting your work online is a smart one. But like most things on the Internet, how you can make a profit from doing this is still the $100 million question.
Morgan and Koenders admit that the most realistic platforms on the Web are still iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, and the like, … Read the rest
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, the winner of the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” Gotham award, screens on WNET’s Reel 13 series on March 7, but the complete feature is now available online at the Channel 13 site. If you aren’t going to be home on the 7th, don’t have TiVo, or just want to sample some of the movie and find out what all the fuss is about, click here.… Read the rest
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
In perhaps the most curious use of a Billy Wilder reference in film festival journalism, Tribeca Film Festival director Peter Scarlet has resigned from his position just two months before this year’s festival and less than two weeks after Tribeca hired former Sundance director Geoff Gilmore to a postion as chief creative officer at Tribeca Enterprises.
From Peter Knegt’s story in Indiewire:
“The term ‘The Seven-Year Itch’ always evokes that famous still of Marilyn Monroe standing on a NY subway grating with her skirt blowing up around her thighs,” Scarlet said in a statement today. “But as my 7th Tribeca Film Festival loomed, I realized simply that it’s time for me to seek new challenges. I’m enormously grateful for the terrific experiences I’ve been able to share with colleagues and viewers here, and I’ll never stop being grateful to Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal for having invited me along for such a glorious ride. I wish them and the Festival all success.”
… Read the rest
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
Over at Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke publishes an email that is circulating among IATSE members that is a satirical attack on IA leadership for not aggressively expanding jurisdiction into New Media productions. And while I sympathize with union members who are watching the entertainment conglomerates move into web production, I have to wonder whether the below really helps their cause:
FILM CREW WANTED:
“New Media” production company seeks crew for experimental project. Applicants must be able to create, research, write, coordinate, production design, art direct, construct, paint, dress & decorate sets, location manage, assist direct, design/tailor/supply costumes, do hair & make-up, shoot, operate, focus, slate, set marks, load, take still photographs, record sound, boom, cable, light, dimmer board operate, dolly, grip, rig, build, buy, create & supply props, prop master, on-set dress, on-set prop, script, video assist & playback, stand-in, stunt coordinate, do stunt work, special effects, cast, act, telecine, edit, sound-edit, supervise music, post-production supervise, stage manage, cater & craft service, medic, animal wrangle, supply & drive production vehicles, transport equipment and any personnel. Must own your own equipment. 2 positions available. Rates, terms and conditions of employment negotiable. IATSE members only please.
The first sentence here is obviously a facetious one. That said, there are new media production companies making genuinely experimental pieces with no clear revenue stream on the web… and, as the email implies, they should hire separate people for all these positions?… Read the rest
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
News this week about the New York State Film and Television Tax Credit program, which is currently in a kind of limbo now that the funding allocated for it by the State has unexpectedly run out just ten months in a multi-year program. First, there was an article in the New York Post by Tom Topousis that reported that Governor Patterson’s office has indicated that it will seek additional funding for the program. The article included these two intriguing paragraphs:
Marissa Lago, president of the Empire State Development Corp., told a breakfast meeting of the Association for a Better New York that she’s been meeting with industry leaders to help figure out a new way to structure the incentives.
But Lago would not be specific about the amount of funding, or what types of film and TV production it might cover.
This is the first news reporting I’ve read that the terms of the tax credit may be revised as part of any additional funding.
Then, late last night an article by Sam Thielman appeared in Variety that offered more details. From the piece:
Empire State Development execs are hoping to salvage New York’s depleted Empire State Film Production Tax Credit program by floating a number of options, including scaling back dollar value of the incentives offered to bring film and TV productions to the state.
Empire State Development prexy Marisa Lago pitched a stripped-down version of New York’s depleted Empire State Film Production Tax Credit program to the business org Assn. for a Better New York at a breakfast meeting on Thursday at the New York Hilton.
The program, which is said to be “suffering from its own success,” would be reduced from a 30% below-the-line tax break to a 20% break, and it would cap refunds at $100 million a year, Lago suggested. The revised version would also be evenly distributed between TV, feature, and indie film productions.
The article goes on to note that N.Y. State AFL-CIO president will be heading a press conference at Kaufman/Astoria studios on the set of Life on Mars urging the Governor … Read the rest
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
It was one of the largest crowds the festival has ever seen for its opening film, Wake, which is World Premiering at Cinequest.
Directed by Ellie Kanner, the film is a romantic dramedy starring Bijou Phillips as, Carys, a grief stricken twentysomething who spends most of her time at a funeral home with best friend, undertaker Shane (Danny Masterson), and attending funerals of strangers. She connects with a grieving fiance (Ian Somerhalder) at one funeral, but there seems to be more behind this guy than meets the eye.
Known for taking extremely dark and risque roles, Phillips shows she has comedic chops and does well in her first meaty lead.
Shown at the beautiful California Theatre in downtown San Jose, the line to get in stretched down half a block when I showed up about ten minutes before the film began, filling to capacity the 1,119-seat movie palace and turning away many. (Egyptian Theatre this is not.)
CALIFORNIA THEATRE LOBBY. The evening ended with drinks and hors d’oeuvres at Billy Berk’s and Mezcal down the street. And with the price to see the film and go to the after party only $40(!), a lot of people decided to stay out late on a Wednesday night and enjoy what the festival is touting as its “Transform” year.
THE TURNOUT AT MEZCAL. If you’re in the area, come by and check out the Audience & Art panel I’ll be on this Friday.
Cinequest ends March 8th. Learn more at cinequest.org… Read the rest
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Here is an unexpected pairing: Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku and her Boston Diva Productions will team with doc director Ondi Timoner, who won the Sundance Doc Grand Jury Prize this year with We Live in Public, to make a biopic about the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
From Tatiana Siegel’s Variety piece:
Dushku has secured the exclusive rights and the full cooperation from Mapplethorpe’s estate and has enlisted two-time Sundance grand jury prize winner and indie darling Ondi Timoner (“DIG!”) to helm the film, which is titled “The Perfect Moment.”
Timoner’s Interloper Films and Dushku’s Boston Diva Prods. are producing the pic, which will chronicle Mapplethorpe’s career from his rise to fame in the 1970s for his portraits of socialites and rock stars until his death in 1989 at age 42 from complications arising from AIDS.
Documentarian Timoner, who will make her feature directorial debut on the project, called “The Perfect Moment” a dream film to make.
“He is an artist who could not help but express his vision of the world, despite the tempest it spawned,” Timoner said. “A pariah to some, a hero to others, Mapplethorpe’s talent combined with his irreverence toward social norms made him a cultural lightning rod.”
The Boston Herald has more about Boston-native Dushku’s role:
In addition to headlining and producing the Fox series, Dushku has formed Boston Diva Productions and is currently working on a movie based on the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe that will star her brother, actor Nate Dushku.
“I’ve been in this business for 15 years. I know how the machine operates,” she said about forming her production company. “Truly, at this point in my life, I’ve been working harder and I’ve been doing better work than I ever had in my life, and for a multitude of reasons, I’m good right now. I’m really good and I’m grateful.”… Read the rest
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
From the law firm Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein and Selz comes a press release announcing the New York State Court dismissal of case brought against doc filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love. It’s great to see a filmmaker challenging such a seemingly frivolous lawsuit and winning.
Excerpted from the press release:
The film centers on the controversy surrounding Grammy-award winning musician Youssou Ndour’s release of his acclaimed album “Egypt.” Plaintiff, a former attorney for Mr. Ndour, appears briefly in archival footage taken at a press conference.
“Vexatious right of publicity claims often hamstring documentary filmmakers,” said Jessie Beeber of Frankfurt Kurnit, the law firm that represented Ms. Vasarhelyi. “This decision should empower documentary filmmakers everywhere.”
“It’s a First Amendment ruling that documentary filmmakers and other artists can be proud of,” said Ms. Vasarhelyi.
Plaintiff had asked the court for a preliminary injunction against the film, and sued for damages, including punitive damages. Ms. Vasarhelyi opposed the injunction and moved to dismiss the complaint. Through her lawyers, she argued that the documentary was protected by the First Amendment — that is, covered by the “newsworthiness” exception to the New York right of publicity statute (NY Civ. Rts. Law Secs. 50, 51) and made only “incidental” use of Plaintiff’s image.
The Supreme Court of New York, County of New York, agreed. It found the documentary film to be “a matter of public interest” and held that “the existence of a profit motive “’does not convert a newsworthy article or television show into a trade purpose, since it is the content of the material which determines whether it is newsworthy’” (citing cases). In addition, the court found that the press conference (for the artist’s first platinum album) was “relevant to the musician’s story” and deemed plaintiff’s nine-second appearance (in a 102 minute film) to be an “incidental use” of plaintiff’s image.
“I am very pleased that Mr. Diokhane’s baseless suit against an important film has been dismissed,” said Mr. Ndour.
… Read the rest
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Check out Francis Ford Coppola’s new site for his forthcoming movie Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo. He’s got a video blog going with an accompanying flash gallery of images. The first vlog, just posted today (and shot by the director with the camera in his outstretched hand), is a brief intro to the film (and his Napa Valley workspace), and Coppola discusses why it’s his first original screenplay since The Conversation.
From the site:
It is his most personal film yet, arising from memories and emotions from his early life, though totally fictional. It is the bittersweet story of two brothers, of family lost and found and the conflicts and secrets within a highly creative Argentine-Italian family.
The site also contains a bio for Gallo that says that new feature he has directed, Promises Written in Water, is due in 2010.… Read the rest
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
The Hamptons International Film Festival announced this week that the 2009 edition, the 17th annual, will be held one week earlier than in recent years, with the event moving to the Columbus Day Weekend slot – Thursday, October 8, thru Monday, October 12, 2009.
From the release:
“The shift in dates was made in consultation with many of the festival’s sponsors, underwriters and guests, and is expected to maximize attendance and benefit not only the Festival, but also the local shops, restaurants and hotels.”
… Read the rest
