Many of you are already familiar with using Youtube to release trailers and clips for your film, but in the last few months Youtube relaunched their site and they made some adjustments to their analytics functionality. If you haven’t been back in a while to check your data, you should because you’ll find some really interesting tools to help in your efforts at reaching an audience.

As I said in a past post, I have started using a tool called Tube Toolbox to find ballet fans on Youtube for the Joffrey Ballet documentary I am working on. We now have over 300 subscribers on the channel in about 3 months of use. It isn’t earth shaking numbers, but remember these are all people interested specifically in the topic of the film who have chosen to subscribe to the channel. Some of them also have their own followings in the dance world so the ripple effect worldwide is greater, more sticky and far cheaper than if I had used advertising to reach thousands of mostly uninterested people.  And it continues to grow every day. But what do I know about these people?

I know the top 5 countries they come from, I know the gender and age range they fall into and how they came to the page. I know what videos they are watching AND for how long AND where in each video viewing I lose them. Wow! If you have ever wondered why a video isn’t working, you can now access the tab called Audience Retention.

You can choose which of your uploaded videos to analyze and then shows you a graph like this

It  is very useful to know how long the average viewer stays with your video. Do they cut out after 5 seconds? Does it start strong and then decline by the middle? At what point do you lose them? Maybe the video is too long or doesn’t stay compelling. You can use these stats to test how your edit performs and make changes. As you can see, there are 2 parts to this. Absolute audience retention shows the views of every moment of the video as a percentage of the number of views of the beginning of the video. Relative audience retention shows your video’s ability to retain viewers relative to all YouTube videos of similar length. Relative is less important to me than absolute.

Other interesting data can be found in the Playback and Traffic Sources tabs. Playback tells you where people are watching your videos. On the Youtube page, the channel page, through an embedded video player on another site? If it is on another site, you can click that link and it will tell you which ones. Also, it will tell you how many views are from a mobile device. Traffic sources tell you how they found your video, through a search engine, direct links such as Facebook or Twitter, or through suggested videos that line Youtube’s right hand sidebar on videos similar to yours. When you seed your video on other sites (or when others do it for you), it is important to know what works and what doesn’t so you can make adjustments.

Youtube has also put all of this information together in a handy download called The Creator Playbook that you can download for free HERE which was updated in November when they implemented these changes. I hope this information helps when you are thinking about your strategy for using Youtube.

 

• “The Artist”
•  Thomas Langmann, Producer
• “The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
• “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
• “The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
• “Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
• “Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
• “Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
• “The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
• “War Horse“ Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

When I sat down to cover this event of events I suddenly found myself transported back in time to 1970.  I am me as I am now, today, not the me I was then because I wasn’t born until March 9^th and since the awards took place on February 27^th, well you get the picture.  Frank Sinatra is on stage being Frank, old Blue Eyes as he is known, and he’s just announced Carry Grant.  The audience has been waiting in that anticipatory low tone humming a bunch of strangers make sitting elbow to elbow in the dark, and they immediately come to life in unanimous applause as Carry appears stage right (house left from our vantage point).  The camera cuts back to the theater as one by one people pop to their feet, the collective sound so much like the ocean or maybe a thousand thousand shards of confetti raining down on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.  Then I’m here, now, but it’s the future, February 26^th, at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Ryan Gosling is where Carry had been only a moment ago, crossing the stage in a smart tuxedo; traditional cut, bow tie, impeccable.  He stops with that boyish grin, charmer, then composure where you stand at these shows, and serious now, eyes tracking to the teleprompter for the speech I have written.

I observe.

The Help

Some films are required viewing for their technical brilliance and cinematic accomplishments, others capture the light just right and the beautiful imagery creates a world for our imagination where captivating characters embark on journeys of adventure, love, and triumph.  Some films take us to far away places; serve primary and secondary escape shuttles coming away from the failing mother ships of our lives.  Every now and again films give us pause, reward our daring, and enliven otherwise ordinary to bolster the human spirit against shared tragedy and personal understanding.  Sometimes those films are the same thing, or in place of grand landscapes they turn inward where they speak to the heart and all films truly live.  The Help is a challenging film that relies on the strength of commanding performances to elevate dramatic explorations of our dark, not-to-distant past.  Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard and Octavia Spencer are magnetic and clearly show great fortitude and poise.  Director Tate Taylor knows some of the cast from his earlier film (Pretty Ugly People) and was wise to enlist their talents here.  This is a return to fundamental filmmaking, to the power and grandeur of true character work that can be traced to the best films of any era, and with such striking honesty and heroic portrayals of everyday people we can’t help but embrace them, grow a little in our hearts and minds when the fine line between art and life is blurred for a little while.  You might not escape the troubles of your here and now in this film, your everyday, but through this film you have an opportunity for inward journeys where greater things happen all the time and we hope one day to have taken similar steps on our own.

War Horse

An incredible accomplishment that is everything it appears to be and quite honestly has as much to do with what we see on the screen as it does with what made it all possible.  The advertising campaign for War Horse was staggering and for all intent and purposes dwarfed the entire production budget for other films that were nominated.  But after all the commercials and ads have faded from view, all the critics have been silenced and you sit down where ever that might be to experience this film, you feel as though you’re invited into a world where all things are possible and a film about the life a horse named Joey is not only possible but necessary.  Once you embrace the fact that the protagonist is a four-legged war-horse the adventure of a lifetime ensues and before long you can’t help but root for him to make it home again.  The fact that Spielberg is able to accomplish so much through a myriad of technical, computer, puppetry and live action scene work with horses, people and more horses is reason enough to praise this movie even against your concerns it might not work.  Some have pointed out familiar problems found in the grand sense of the Spielberg universe – the heavy melodrama even though melodrama is not the heinous thing many critics slap it about with, the grand OK’ness that Spielberg requires perhaps to offset the abject atrocity he is so versed and well commands – yet all in all War Horse is the perfect metaphor of where we are in the world today.  A collective pessimism weighs heavy on films that set out to lift our spirits and we are so ready to resist the very idea of triumph that we get in the way of our own happiness of it.  War Horse is every bit the Spielberg film you would expect and perhaps much much more – the sort of big screen larger than life experience you’ve grown up with and truly need more than you know.  Read my full review of War Horse here.

The Descendants

There is little doubt this film will resonant with a broad spectrum of movie goers – from star George Clooney to the lush and fertile landscape beauty of Hawaii.  Filmmaker du jour Alexander Payne hopes to capitalize on his universally appealing brand of verisimilitude as much as Judd Apatow sells toilet bowl humor or Adam Sandler gives falling down stupid a sort of brand name marketability.  Payne is already a master storyteller with bankable Americana contributions and a sort of name-clout-recognition that has taken his peers much longer to achieve.  Payne returns to the family centered plot as in his Oscar-winning film Sideways, with the machinations of the dysfunctional ensemble and their struggles to, but never quite achieving, normal.  The Descendants contains the same dark undercurrent here, a husband facing his crumbling family after his wife suffers an accident.  We all want Clooney in this role as much as he makes the broken father endearing, attractive in that flawed boy-man personae he has built a Hollywood career on.  Sometimes we feel compelled to dislike films like this for their honesty, the mirror held too long so that we’ve seen too much of ourselves and our problems.  In this case Clooney invites us beyond what repels us and this gives his bumbling father figure Ralph more depth and complexity, more genuineness than Jack the spy (my review of The American  2010) or Ryan Bingham the perpetual traveler (my review of Up In The Air 2009) – here it feels as though Clooney and Payne had a conversation beforehand to talk about all the things he’s done before this, the successes and the failures, and they agreed to leave all that out.

The Artist  

It takes moments to understand why this film was chosen and perhaps less to appreciate it from the outset.  Though we think we have this one figured out, director Michel Hazanavicius embarks on a challenging undertaking in capturing the simple beauty of an era in transition – that is the chasm that threatened an entire industry when silent pictures gave way to what came to be known as “the talkies”.  The Artist is a striking portrait lovingly photographed and well constructed with such austere beauty and conviction that it is impossible to know whether you will enjoy it without screening it.  Some will discount the film as obvious “Oscar Bait” though to be honest, who doesn’t want the film they’ve nurtured for years to win, to make it the best it can be with the hope it will reach us so very far removed from the golden dreams and platinum halos of Hollywood?  Anyone who has ever held a camera or hit their mark, waited for the light to fall just right to capture a moment in all the moments of a movie – we can tell you that even as we dream of success we’re still fighting for every frame that it happens, that tiny spark, the magic that happens along the way.  If only people knew how hard a thing it is to reach this stage – even the hint of glory seems impossible.  The Artist will not be a film everyone will like but it will nevertheless be a film everyone should see.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

They tell you in film school to keep it simple and make it make sense – and at no better place is that rule most important than in the title.  If you think you know what this film is about you’re probably wrong, just like if you think you haven’t got a clue you might surprise yourself.  We will most likely return to the events of 9/11 much the way we do our wars, every so many years after the wounds have scabbed over, after our anger allows us to explore the hurtful things of our collective experiences through the cinema where all things can be made to bear some semblance of ourselves.  Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock are the stars fueling this tale of modern loss and the existential quandary of personal hurt contrasting our collective sorrows and how we get from the beginning and end of our lives.  Like The Help this too is a challenging film that touches a very open wound known around the world, a place that might not ever heal as we search for who we are and where we are like the answers found in movies.  This is a powerful story and one that feels awfully convenient come awards time but nonetheless a film that demands our attention even if for only two hours.

Hugo  

Scorsese and 3D.  It was inevitable, destined, and perhaps this film is not about an aging filmmaker desperately searching for relevancy in a medium that’s speeding a thousand miles faster than when he started.  Hugo has all the ingredients for blockbuster accomplishments, the story of children who take action because adults have lost their way, a magical place where our youth steal away to save their world and ours because they can’t wait any longer for us to do it.  It is difficult for a filmmaker like Scorsese to depart from the darker recesses of broken characters and damaged worlds, to put edges he’s honed for decades on children’s stories from the man who carved an imperfect De Niro from granite rock into a Raging Bull, made Harvey Keitel once and proud friend who would betray the King of the Jews for Last Temptation of Christ, then dug down deep in the mire of human obsession for Bickel the Taxi Driver, Goodfellas the princes of cool and calculated murders.  In an era of the half-blood prince, the lion, the witch and wardrobe, in grand the spectacle of children embarking on no children’s journey you or I have ever known, Scorsese knows that in order to raise the bar back to the place where he set it for all the right moves in character studies and story driven adventures, he’d have to bring technology front and center.  Grand for the sake of grand and now for the test of time.

Midnight in Paris  

A film that thinks too much to be entirely forthright, makes clever for the sake of gimmickry then talks too much to have something to say.  By the time you’ve committed yourself you realize you’ve gone beyond the point of no return – the point in a journey where it is further to turn around then continue on – and in the end you realize you’ve been told how to feel about most Woody Allen movies until now when you have every reason to disbelieve.  I still believe Allen’s best films are those he is not in – there, I said it – oh the cad!  As far as romantic comedies are concerned, the stuffy aristocrats of pompous wind and heady opinions, you’ll find plenty.  As far as humorous situational absurdity coupled with the improbable, there is all that.  I suppose the best advice is to dig right in but then again, you have to pay for what you eat and by the time you realize you don’t have enough money to pay for what’s missing, you begin manufacturing all sorts of things to cover it up so you might at least have a fond memory later.

Moneyball

If you live in the Bay Area it is like having the kid from down the street playing in the Super Bowl or driving the #1 car at the Indianapolis Speedway.  If you live anywhere else it might feel like a hometown movie or just another baseball movie, but Brad Pitt delivers a distinctly other performance here that will resonant for some and seem dialed well below necessary.  Jonah Hill was singled out for his performance in this film and it will really be up to you if it’s deserving.  Personally a film about baseball has only two possible outcomes – the team wins or the team loses.  In this case it’s obvious going in for anyone who watches the sport, being this is a historical snapshot of a moment in time, and for those who can read sports movies from the cheap seats.  The performances are effective, compelling at times, but selecting this film against all the other films that should have been picked is mostly just showing us the power and the effect of big names to make little movies matter.

Tree of Life

Terrence Malick is an enigma and much like the man his films rely entirely on the beauty of the universe and the sanguine moviegoer who wishes for more but is settled by less.  To suggest it would make sense to analyze a film that purports to defy structure, to scratch the screen for meaning in the meaningless would offer than the sum of the results.  If you like Malick or want to like him you’ll find enough in this film to carry you a decade until he makes another.  If you’re looking for a reason to like him or his films or want to like him, this film might not have the desired effect.  Maybe Sean Penn was right.

By the end of all the speechifying I realize I’m at the end of a very long Word document.  The cursor is popping on off and it dawns on me that I don’t ever really think about it blinking.  On|off, on|off.

Go ahead I think between blinks.  You have all the other nominations to write a speech for.  Who did you have in mind to deliver?

To be continued.

 

 

 

Sources:

http://oscar.go.com/

Check out Rodney’s coverage over at Fernby Films: http://www.fernbyfilms.com/2012/01/25/the-84th-academy-awards-nominations/

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/01/oscar-nominations-2012-hugo-artist-lead-oscars-list

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/01/25/oscars-2012-factoids/

http://mubi.com/oscars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Zijgn-c9w

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American, Latin American and Eastern European rights to Jacques Audiard’s (A PROPHET) RUST & BONE from Hengameh Panahi of Celluloid Dreams.  The film recently wrapped production.

The film was co-written by Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain and adapted from the acclaimed book of short stories by Craig Davidson.  Just as he did with the prison genre in A PROPHET, Jacques Audiard will renew the love story with RUST AND BONE, his stirring new film filled with romance and suspense.

RUST & BONE stars Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (LA VIE EN ROSE, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS) and Matthias Schoenarts (BULLHEAD), and is produced by Pascal Caucheteux, who SPC had previously worked with on the features, OF GODS & MEN and  A PROPHET.

“Jacques Audiard is one of Europe’s finest directors, and the same goes for producer Pascal Caucheteux.  We are thrilled to be working with them, and Hengameh Panahi of Celluloid Dreams, once again,” said Sony Pictures Classics.

Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 27 Academy Awards (23 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 124 Oscar nominations (101 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

 

 

Paladin announced today that it will release OTTER 501, a new film that chronicles the true story of an orphaned baby otter who is rescued on the Northern California coast, per company president Mark Urman. The latest project from the award-winning and acclaimed filmmaking team at Sea Studios Foundation, OTTER 501 will have its world premiere at this week’s Santa Barbara Film Festival (http://sbiff.festivalgenius.com/2012/films/otter501_bobtalbot_sbiff2012).

Paladin plans a spring release for the film.

A unique hybrid of fact and fiction that takes the traditional wildlife documentary into new and exciting storytelling realms, OTTER 501 is about an otter pup who was separated from her mother when she was just a week old and found washed ashore in June, 2010 on a beach on the Big Sur coast.  Quickly rescued by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Sea Otter Research and Conservation Program, “501,” as she was called, became part of a groundbreaking surrogate program where she was cared for by humans, and then introduced to an adoptive sea otter mother who, in turn, raised her for months so she could develop the necessary skills to survive back in the wild.

Parallel to this remarkable tale of how 501 got a second chance at life is the story of young Katie, an aspiring biologist who volunteers at the aquarium and who participates in 501’s rescue and support.  Structured as a series of Facebook video posts by Katie, 501’s amazing – and true –story is told from Katie’s point of view, as she herself comes of age emotionally, intellectually, and professionally, courtesy of this baby otter.

Blending documentary and dramatic narrative techniques, OTTER 501 combines stunning original natural history footage with extensive authentic material of 501 (who was filmed over months by the Sea Studios team from the moment she was rescued), and the most modern forms of social media. Both inspiring and illuminating, the film sheds light on important issues facing us all about our ever-changing environment and the ways in which we affect – and are affected by – other species.

About the film Urman says, “501 is one of the more adorable creatures we will see on screen this year.   We are thrilled to be working with Sea Studios Foundation on this wonderful project, and their extensive relationships within the marine wildlife, conservation, and aquarium communities will allow us to build upon many of the innovative grass-roots marketing techniques we employed so successfully last year with Tom Shadyac’s ‘I Am,’ and the highly acclaimed – and similarly themed – documentary, ‘The Whale.’”

Mark Shelley, Executive Director of the Foundation, who conceived the story for OTTER 501, and served as Executive Producer and Director of Photography on the film says, “OTTER 501 is our first foray into the world of theatrical film, and I could not be more pleased than to be in the able hands of Mark Urman and Paladin.  Mark has been a leader in bringing high-quality films to theaters for a long time, and I look forward to working closely with him and his team.”

With Shelley at the helm, Sea Studios Foundation has produced a number of compelling visual narratives about pressing issues, including the award-winning National Geographic prime-time series, “Shape Of Life,” and “Strange Days on Planet Earth,” hosted by Edward Norton and recipient of fourteen international awards.  Joining Shelley behind the camera is director Bob Talbot, a world renowned marine photographer and long-standing Cousteau Society associate, who numbers among his credits The Academy Award-nominated IMAX film, “Dolphins-The Ride,” which he directed and photographed, “Oceanmen—Extreme Dive,” as well as the wildlife sequences for Universal’s “Flipper,” and the Warner Brothers’ “Free Willy” features.  Producer/Writer Josh Rosen, a specialist in long-form non-fiction science and nature programming, has created a number of hour-long documentaries for The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel, The Science Channel, and The History Channel, and most recently worked on the PBS series, “Fabric of the Cosmos.”  He also collaborated with legendary director Werner Herzog on “Little Dieter Learns to Fly” and “My Best Fiend.”

OTTER 501 will premiere on the west coast, with its initial engagements taking place in areas where sea otters reside, including the Bay Area, (where it was filmed, and where Sea Studios makes it headquarters), Seattle, Portland, and Santa Barbara.  National expansion will take place in June and will extend throughout the summer. For more information about the film, please visit http://www.Otter501.com or http://www.seastudios.org.

 

 

Price Waterhouse Coopers celebrates its 78thyear leading the Oscars® balloting process on behalf of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Academy).  PwC balloting leaders Brad Oltmanns and Rick Rosas will again oversee the tabulation and will be the only two people in the world who will know the identity of the Oscar® winners before the 84th Academy Awards live telecast on ABC at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET) on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

In the 78 years that PwC has managed the balloting process, there has never been a single security breach.  Oltmanns and Rosas lead a tight-lipped team to conduct the same ‘tried and true’ method that they have used for decades. PwC’s long-established balloting system involves the precise tallying of every single ballot at a concealed location to maintain the utmost level of accuracy, objectivity and confidentiality.

“Our long-standing, 78-year relationship with PwC is built on the utmost trust and integrity,” said Tom Sherak, Academy president. “We look forward to continuing the tradition with PwC as our balloting partner for many years to come.”

Once the votes have been submitted and tabulated, PwC prepares two briefcases with a complete set of envelopes bearing the Oscar winners’ names. As a precautionary measure, both briefcases are then transported to the ceremony via separate, secret routes with each of the PwC balloting leaders. As a second preventive measure, the PwC balloting leaders also memorize every winner. During the live telecast, Oltmanns and Rosas remain backstage and hand each envelope to award presenters before they walk onstage.

“PwC’s ongoing relationship with the Academy exemplifies the highest level of precision and trust,” said Brad Oltmanns, a PwC partner and Oscars balloting leader since 2004. “This is an event we look forward to every year and our precise work with the Academy through the years is a tribute to PwC’s renowned heritage and reputation.”

“Being involved each year in maintaining the highest level of secrecy is one of the most rewarding assignments of my career” said Rick Rosas, a PwC partner and Oscars balloting leader since 2001. “Our work with the Academy not only highlights our long-term and trusted relationship with Hollywood and the entertainment industry, but also serves as an incredible source of honor and pride for PwC.”

Oscars nomination ballots were mailed to 5,783 voting members of the Academy on Tuesday, December 27, 2011, and nominees were announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.  Final ballots will be mailed today (February 1, 2012), and completed ballots are due back to PwC on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 (by 5 p.m.).

PwC Fun Facts from 78 Years of Oscars Balloting

As Hollywood prepares for the 84th Academy Awards,  PwC has tallied some other numbers to illustrate what has gone into keeping Hollywood’s biggest secret under wraps and getting the world’s most famous statuettes into the hands of the winners:

• 450,000+: The approximate number of ballots counted by PwC in 78 years on the job.

• 2,600+:  The number of winners’ envelopes stuffed since the envelope system was introduced in 1941.

• 1,700: The approximate number of “person-hours” it takes the PwC team every year to count and verify the ballots.

• 78:  The number of years PwC has conducted the Oscar® balloting.

• 24: The number of awards categories to be tabulated for the 84th Academy Awards at a secret location known only to the members of the small PwC ballot team.

• 7: The number of days it takes to count the ballots for nominations.

• 3: The number of days it takes to count the final ballots.

 

Beverly Hills, CA – Final ballots for the 84th Academy Awards® were mailed today (February 1) to the 5,783 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) by 5 p.m. Tuesday, February 21.  Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted.

Listed on the ballots are nominees in 19 Awards categories.  Separate ballots for five categories (Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film) will be distributed after verification of mandatory member attendance at screenings.

Following the tabulation of the votes, the winners’ names will be placed in sealed envelopes to be opened on Oscar Sunday, February 26.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET.  The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

 

Sundance Institute announced thirteen films supported by the Institute that are for the first time available to rent, download and stream. Look for the films on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, SundanceNOW and YouTube. Films will be available on Netflix on March 1.

Films available today include Semper Fi: Always Faithful (currently on the Academy Award shortlist for Best Documentary), Obselidia (Independent Spirit Award Winner), Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007 Sundance Film Festival documentary on the arcade gamer competitions in the ‘80s), New York Times Critic’s Pick Lord Byron and 1994 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award Winner What Happened Was … by Tom Noonan – making its digital premiere 18 years after first screening in Park City, Utah. Special bonus video content from Sundance Institute’s archives will be available for select titles.

These projects are the first to take advantage of the Institute’s Artist Services access to distribution program, announced this summer. Artist Services provides Institute artists with exclusive opportunities for creative self-distribution, marketing and financing solutions for their work.

“We are truly excited for these films to reach the leading digital platforms and storefronts for movies. We created Artist Services so films that have shown at the Sundance Film Festival or been part of our Sundance Institute Labs will have a chance to find their audiences and fan bases. Audiences now have a chance to connect with exciting independent work using the devices and services they already love,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute.

New Video® is the exclusive aggregation partner for distribution across all portals participating in the Artist Services program. The Artist Services initiative is made possible by The Bertha Foundation. O’Melveny & Myers generously provided pro bono legal services for the program.

The films and their availability are:

Advise & Dissent (Director: David Van Taylor) — A riveting, in the trenches look into the politicized Supreme Court confirmation battles. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2003 Sundance Documentary Film Grant)

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (Director: Lincoln Ruchti) — In 1982, Ottumwa, Iowa’s Twin Galaxies arcade served as the shining beacon of pixilated pop culture, attracting the best of the best in the highly competitive world of arcade video gaming. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2007 Sundance Film Festival)

Clear Cut: the Story of Philomath, Oregon (Director: Peter Richardson) —Conservative logging barons and liberal urban immigrants collide over how college scholarships are distributed in this skillful documentary. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2006 Sundance Film Festival)

Jess + Moss (Director: Clay Jeter) — Sarah Hagan (”Freaks and Geeks”) stars in this lush, playful, award-winning coming of age story. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2011 Sundance Film Festival, Best Feature 2011 Prague Fresh Film Festival)

Lord Byron (Director: Zack Godshall) — This New York Times Critics Pick about a Don Juan from the Bayou charmed audiences and critics at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2011 Sundance Film Festival, 2011 New York Times Critics Pick)

New Low (Director: Adam Bowers) — Adam Bowers wrote, directed and stars in this winning comedy about a neurotic twenty-something choosing love between the best and worst girls he’s ever known.. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2010 Sundance Film Festival, Winner 2011 Amsterdam Film Festival)

Obselidia (Director: Diane Bell) — Winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Alfred P. Sloan Prize and Excellence in Cinematography Award, “Obselidia” is part road movie, part love story, and endlessly fascinating. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2010 Sundance Film Festival, 2011 Independent Spirit Award Nominee)

The Oregonian (Director: Calvin Lee Reeder) — Lindsay Pulsipher (“True Blood”) stars as a girl on the run in this creepy selection from the Midnight section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2011 Sundance Film Festival)

The Redemption of General Butt Naked (Directors: Eric Strauss and Daniele Anastasio) — A brutal warlord who murdered thousands during Liberia’s horrific 14-year civil war renounces his violent past and reinvents himself as an Evangelist, facing those he once terrorized. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video. (2011 Sundance Film Festival Winner, Excellence in Cinematography Award)

Semper Fi: Always Faithful (Director: Rachel Libert) — A retired Marine fights for justice on behalf of U.S. soldiers and their families exposed to toxic drinking water while stationed at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2010 Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund Grantee)

Space Tourists (Director: Christian Frei) — Through the story the world’s first female space tourist, this documentary shows us the intersection of human enterprise and commerce in the final frontier. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (2010 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Directing Award Winner)

What Happened Was… (Director: Tom Noonan) — Tom Noonan’s directorial debut about a skewed vision of a first date. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (1994 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Winner)

The Wife (Director: Tom Noonan) — Therapists and patients confront each other in this delirious, realistic relationship drama. iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, SundanceNOW, YouTube. (1995 Sundance Film Festival)

The Adventures of Tintin
Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures Production (Paramount)
Original Score

Albert Nobbs
Trillium Productions, Mockingbird Pictures and Parallel Films Production (Roadside Attractions)
Glenn Close – Actress in a Leading Role
Janet McTeer – Actress in a Supporting Role
Makeup

Anonymous
Columbia Pictures Production (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Costume Design

The Artist
La Petite Reine/Studio 37/La Classe Américaine/JD Prod/France3 Cinéma/Jouror Productions/uFilm Production (The Weinstein Company)
Jean Dujardin – Actor in a Leading Role
Bérénice Bejo – Actress in a Supporting Role
Art Direction
Cinematography
Costume Design
Directing
Film Editing
Original Score
Best Picture
Original Screenplay

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
Purposeful Production
Documentary Short Subject

Beginners
Olympus Pictures in association with Parts & Labor Production (Focus Features)
Christopher Plummer – Actor in a Supporting Role

A Better Life
Summit Entertainment Production (Summit Entertainment)
Demián Bichir – Actor in a Leading Role

Bridesmaids
Universal Pictures Production (Universal)
Melissa McCarthy – Actress in a Supporting Role
Original Screenplay

Bullhead
Savage Film Production
Foreign Language Film (Belgium)

A Cat in Paris
Folimage Production (GKIDS)
Animated Feature Film

Chico & Rita
Chico & Rita Distribution Limited Production (GKIDS)
Animated Feature Film

The Descendants
Ad Hominem Enterprises Production (Fox Searchlight)
George Clooney – Actor in a Leading Role
Directing
Film Editing
Best Picture
Adapted Screenplay

Dimanche/Sunday
National Film Board of Canada Production (National Film Board of Canada)
Animated Short Film

Drive
Bold Films, OddLot Entertainment and Marc Platt Production (FilmDistrict)
Sound Editing

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Warner Bros. Pictures Production (Warner Bros.)
Max von Sydow – Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Picture

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Moonbot Studios LA Production
Animated Short Film

Footnote
Footnote Limited Partnership Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Foreign Language Film (Israel)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Production (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Rooney Mara – Actress in a Leading Role
Cinematography
Film Editing
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing

God Is the Bigger Elvis
Documentress Films Production
Documentary Short Subject

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Warner Bros. Services UK Ltd. Production (Warner Bros.)
Art Direction
Makeup
Visual Effects

Hell and Back Again
Roast Beef Limited Production (Docurama Films)
Documentary Feature

The Help
DreamWorks Pictures Production (Touchstone)
Viola Davis – Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain – Actress in a Supporting Role
Octavia Specter – Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Picture

Hugo
Paramount Pictures and GK Films Production (Paramount)
Art Direction
Cinematography
Costume Design
Directing
Film Editing
Original Score
Best Picture
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing
Visual Effects
Adapted Screenplay

The Ides of March
Columbia Pictures and Cross Creek Pictures in association with Exclusive Media Group and Crystal City Entertainment Production (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Adapted Screenplay

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Marshall Curry Production (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Documentary Feature

In Darkness
Studio Filmowe Zebra Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Foreign Language Film (Poland)

Incident in New Baghdad
Morninglight Films Production
Documentary Short Subject

The Iron Lady
Weinstein Company/Yuk Films/Pathé/UK Film Council/Canal+/Cine+/ Goldcrest Production (The Weinstein Company)
Meryl Streep – Actress in a Leading Role
Makeup

Jane Eyre
Ruby Films Production (Focus Features)
Costume Design

Kung Fu Panda 2
DreamWorks Animation LLC Production (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount)
Animated Feature Film

La Luna
Pixar Animation Studios Production (Walt Disney)
Animated Short Film

Margin Call
Benaroya Pictures and Before The Door Pictures Production (Roadside Attractions)
Original Screenplay

Midnight in Paris
Pontchartrain Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Art Direction
Directing
Best Picture
Original Screenplay

Moneyball
Columbia Pictures Production (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Brad Pitt – Actor in a Leading Role
Jonah Hill – Actor in a Supporting Role
Film Editing
Best Picture
Sound Mixing
Adapted Screenplay

Monsieur Lazhar
micro_scope Production (Music Box Films)
Foreign Language Film (Canada)

A Morning Stroll
Studio AKA Production
Animated Short Film

The Muppets
Walt Disney Pictures Production (Walt Disney)
Original Song – “Man or Muppet”

My Week with Marilyn
Weinstein Company Production (The Weinstein Company)
Kenneth Branagh – Actor in a Supporting Role
Michelle Williams – Actress in a Leading Role

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
@radical.media Production
Documentary Feature

Pentecost
EMU Production (Network Ireland Television)
Live Action Short Film

Pina
Neue Road Movies Production (Sundance Selects)
Documentary Feature

Puss in Boots
DreamWorks Animation LLC Production (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount)
Animated Feature Film

Raju
Hamburg Media School/Filmwerkstatt Production
Live Action Short Film

Rango
Paramount Pictures Production (Paramount)
Animated Feature Film

Real Steel
DreamWorks Pictures Production (Touchstone)
Visual Effects

Rio
Blue Sky Studios Production (20th Century Fox)
Original Song – “Real in Rio”

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
20th Century Fox Production (20th Century Fox)
Visual Effects

Saving Face
Milkhaus/Jungefilm Production
Documentary Short Subject

A Separation
Dreamlab Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Foreign Language Film (Iran)
Original Screenplay

The Shore
All Ashore Production
Live Action Short Film

Time Freak
Team Road Production
Live Action Short Film

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Thin Man Films Production (Sony Pictures Classics)
Gary Oldman – Actor in a Leading Role
Original Score
Adapted Screenplay

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Paramount Pictures Production (Paramount)
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing
Visual Effects

The Tree of Life
River Road Entertainment Production (Fox Searchlight)
Cinematography
Directing
Best Picture

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Supply & Demand Integrated Production
Documentary Short Subject

Tuba Atlantic
Norwegian Film School/Den Norske Filmskolen Production (Norsk Filminstitutt)
Live Action Short Film

Undefeated
Spitfire Pictures Production (The Weinstein Company)
Documentary Feature

W.E.
Semtex Films/The Weinstein Company/IM Global Production (The Weinstein Company)
Costume Design

War Horse
DreamWorks Pictures Production (Touchstone)
Art Direction
Cinematography
Original Score
Best Picture
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing

Warrior
Solaris Entertainment and Filmtribe/Lionsgate/Mimran Schur Pictures Production (Lionsgate)
Nick Nolte – Actor in a Supporting Role

Wild Life
National Film Board of Canada Production
Animated Short Film

Best Picture

“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer
“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Directing

“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
“The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Documentary (Feature)

“Hell and Back Again”
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Pina”
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
“Undefeated”
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Foreign Language Film

“Bullhead” Belgium
“Footnote” Israel
“In Darkness” Poland
“Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
“A Separation” Iran

Animated Feature Film

“A Cat in Paris” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
“Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
“Kung Fu Panda 2″ Jennifer Yuh Nelson
“Puss in Boots” Chris Miller
“Rango” Gore Verbinski

Art Direction

“The Artist”
Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Hugo”
Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“Midnight in Paris”
Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
“War Horse”
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Cinematography

“The Artist” Guillaume Schiffman
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Jeff Cronenweth
“Hugo” Robert Richardson
“The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki
“War Horse” Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design

“Anonymous” Lisy Christl
“The Artist” Mark Bridges
“Hugo” Sandy Powell
“Jane Eyre” Michael O’Connor
“W.E.” Arianne Phillips

Documentary (Short Subject)

“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement”
Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
“God Is the Bigger Elvis”
Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
“Incident in New Baghdad”
James Spione
“Saving Face”
Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”
Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing

“The Artist” Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
“The Descendants” Kevin Tent
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
“Hugo” Thelma Schoonmaker
“Moneyball” Christopher Tellefsen

Makeup

“Albert Nobbs”
Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Iron Lady”
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)

“The Adventures of Tintin” John Williams
“The Artist” Ludovic Bource
“Hugo” Howard Shore
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Alberto Iglesias
“War Horse” John Williams

Music (Original Song)

“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
“Real in Rio” from “Rio” Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Short Film (Animated)

“Dimanche/Sunday” Patrick Doyon
“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
“La Luna” Enrico Casarosa
“A Morning Stroll” Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
“Wild Life” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

“Pentecost” Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
“Raju” Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
“The Shore” Terry George and Oorlagh George
“Time Freak” Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
“Tuba Atlantic” Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

“Drive” Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Ren Klyce
“Hugo” Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
“War Horse” Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
“Hugo”
Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
“Moneyball”
Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
“War Horse”
Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
“Hugo”
Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
“Real Steel”
Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

“The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
“Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan
“The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
“Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin Story by Stan Chervin
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

“The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius
“Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
“Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor
“Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen
“A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi

 The Sundance Institute Issues the following statement:

Sundance Institute has learned that Bingham Ray, beloved friend of independent film, and Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, has been hospitalized while in Utah for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. We have reached out to Bingham and his family and San Francisco Film Society to offer our support and are pleased to hear that he is being well cared for. On behalf of the community of independent film fans in Park City and elsewhere, we send Bingham our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I think those 2 words are starting to lose their meaning when talking about using social media to reach audiences. I am not offering another word because at the end of the day a word should only describe an idea of what you are truly doing and maybe THAT is the thing that is becoming lost in all of this talk. What are we truly saying when we use those words?

Engagement isn’t a measurement from your Facebook or Youtube Insights, it isn’t how many retweets you receive on Twitter. Connections aren’t simply a number of followers and likes. In thinking about the traditional use of this word, your “connection” was someone who was willing to help you, someone who knew you, trusted you and vice versa.

Audiences are now delighted by communicating not with a “brand,” but with a “face” or a person. This mindset shift in corporate America is very hard to make when they really never thought about the audiences actually being people…with faces beyond eyeballs. If they did think this way, would they really keep hitting that face with ads over and over again? Would the conversation be constantly one sided, “buy my stuff” ” buy my stuff” “click here, and buy my stuff.” That is the extent of the brand relationship with customers that the typical movie studio or distributor has now.

When I talk to you about creating a relationship with your audience that is long term, not just for one project, I really want you to think about what this means. The investment of time and creativity and energy this is going to take, not to boost “likes” on Facebook and follower numbers on Twitter, but to really draw people to what you are doing and hold them there willingly. Using these great new tools is just a newer way of communicating, but the communication itself isn’t new. We as humans have always communicated with each other and naturally gravitated to those with similar interests and it is the same now.

That is also an important distinction. Audiences may not only want to communicate with you, but also with like minded people AROUND you and your work. In this way, brands can benefit from heavily using social tools. They don’t have to be the sole source of communication, they can provide a place and content that enables “fans” to speak to each other about the brand. Be careful when you are using these tools only to speak about yourself, but also don’t  become so enamored of people “buzzing” about you and your work that you never step into the conversation. I see this a lot with brands that happily RT positive tweets but almost never get into conversations.

Main thing to takeaway here is not the fact that you are trying to pump up “scores” or numbers on your channels. You are trying to touch people using electronic means and this will take time, effort, energy and a lot of patience. There’s no quick fix, no magic solutions, no one  ”engagement tool” that is going to make these relationships last. For those who don’t have these attributes (time, energy etc), this isn’t going to work and you will have an increasingly difficult time gaining an audience in the future.

LD Entertainment dropped come coin on a female chiller.  Wowza.  More news of awards-set macrame excellence set to come from Park Slope.

WASHINGTON —The following is a statement by Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) on the so-called “Blackout Day” protesting anti-piracy legislation:

“Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging.

It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.

A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this “blackout” to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.”

Shari Berman, Scott Burns, Charles Ferguson, Nick Fraser, Mike Judge, Justin Lin, Anthony Mackie, Cliff Martinez, Julia Ormond, Dee Rees and Lynn Shelton Among Jurors

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the 22 members of the six juries awarding prizes at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the host of the Awards Ceremony on January 28. The Festival takes place January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

Actress and writer Parker Posey will serve as the host of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony, set to take place January 28 at 7:00 p.m. MT at the Basin Recreation Field House in Park City, Utah and live-streamed at www.sundance.org/festival. Named “Queen of the Indies” by TIME Magazine, Posey has appeared in more than a dozen films at the Sundance Film Festival, including Party Girl (1995), House of Yes (1997) and Broken English (2007). Posey also appears in Price Check in the out-of-competition Premieres section at this year’s Festival.

Awards for short films will also be announced at a separate ceremony on January 24 at Park City’s Jupiter Bowl.

Photos and extended biographies of the jurors and Awards Ceremony host, in addition to the complete Festival lineup and schedule, are available at www.sundance.org/festival.

 

U.S. DOCUMENTARY JURY

Fenton Bailey

Fenton Bailey made his Sundance Film Festival debut in 1998 with the documentary Party Monster. He later co-wrote and co-directed a narrative version of Party Monster, which debuted at Sundance in 2003. Fenton has gone on to produce and/or direct seven films launched at the festival, including Inside Deep Throat and, most recently, the Emmy-nominated documentary Becoming Chaz. In 2010 he produced the Emmy-winning documentary The Last Beekeeper, and in 2011 he produced and directed the Emmy-nominated Wishful Drinking.

Shari Berman

Shari Springer Berman is an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. With partner Robert Pulcini, she wrote and directed American Splendor (Grand Jury Prize, 2003 Sundance Film Festival; FIPRESCI Award, Cannes Film Festival; Best Adapted Screenplay, Writers Guild Awards and Best Adapted Screenplay Nomination, Academy Awards). Cinema Verite, Berman and Pulcini’s most recent film, received nine Emmy nominations including Best Movie, Outstanding Directing and a win for Best Editing. Their first film, Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s, won Best Documentary Feature at the 1997 Hamptons International Film Festival.

Heather Croall

Heather Croall is the Director for Sheffield Doc/Fest, the premiere documentary event in the UK and regarded as one of the best documentary events in the world. Heather was previously the director of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), where she developed the innovative matchmaking pitching initiative MeetMarket.

Charles Ferguson

Charles Ferguson directed and produced Inside Job, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011. His first documentary, No End In Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize. The film went on to be nominated for the Oscar in 2008. Charles is the author of four books, including High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars and Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World (co-authored with Charles Morris). He is currently working on a book about the global financial crisis, to be released by Random House in Spring 2012. Charles is the founder and president of Representational Pictures, Inc.

Kim Roberts

Kim Roberts is an editor of feature documentaries. Her recent work includes Waiting for Superman, Food, Inc., Autism the Musical, and the upcoming Last Call at the Oasis. Kim won an Emmy for Autism the Musical, her third nomination. She has received two Eddie Award nominations from the American Cinema Editors, and a WGA nomination. Her other films include: Oscar Nominees and Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winners Daughter from Danang and Long Night’s Journey into Day, Two Days in October, The Fall of Fujimori, Lost Boys of Sudan, Daddy & Papa, A Hard Straight and Splinters.

U.S. DRAMATIC JURY

Justin Lin

Justin Lin’s solo directorial debut, the critically acclaimed Better Luck Tomorrow, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. In April 2003, the film went on to make box office history as the highest-grossing (per-screen average) opening weekend film for MTV Films/Paramount Pictures. In 2009, he directed Universal’s Fast & Furious, which reunited the original cast of the franchise and sparked new life for series. Justin then directed the critically-acclaimed fifth installment of the franchise, Fast Five, which has become one of Universal’s most financially successful movies of all time.

Anthony Mackie

Anthony Mackie is a classically trained actor who studied at the Julliard School of Drama. His work spans the stage and screen. He was discovered after receiving rave reviews while playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway Up Against the Wind. He earned IFP Spirit and Gotham Award nominations for his performance in Rodney Evan’s Brother to Brother, which won the Special Dramatic Jury Price at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, as well as best feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. He also played Sgt. JT Sanborn in Kathryn’s Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, a film that not only earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, but also earned Academy Awards for the Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing and Best Writing.

Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez began as a drummer for several bands during the punk era including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Dickies. He later scored Steven Soderbergh’s first theatrical release, 1989’s sex, lies, and videotape, leading to a longstanding relationship which includes Kafka, The Limey, Traffic, Solaris and Contagion. His credits also include Narc, The Lincoln Lawyer and Nicolas Refn’s Drive.

Lynn Shelton

Lynn Shelton was a stage actor until attending graduate school in photography at the School of Visual Arts, at which point she became an editor and experimental filmmaker. Her first narrative feature as a writer/director, We Go Way Back, won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2006. Her second, My Effortless Beauty, premiered at SXSW and earned her the Acura Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Humpday, her third feature, was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as well as the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Your Sister’s Sister premiered at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival and is playing in the out-of-competition Spotlight section at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Amy Vincent

Amy Vincent is an award-winning cinematographer. She has worked with Kasi Lemmons on Eve’s Bayou, Dr. Hugo, Caveman’s Valentine and with Craig Brewer on Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, and the recently released Footloose. In addition, Amy’s work has garnered prestigious awards, including the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Cinematography Award for Hustle & Flow and the 2001 Women in Film Kodak Vision Award.

WORLD DOCUMENTARY JURY

Nick Fraser

Nick Fraser has served as the Editor of Storyville since it started in 1997. After graduating from Oxford he worked as a reporter, television producer and editor. His publications include a biography of Eva Peron, The Voice of Modern Hatred, and The Importance of Being Eton. Storyville films have won more than 200 awards, including four Oscars, a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and several Griersons, Emmys and Peabodys.

Clara Kim

Clara Kim is Senior Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center. She was formerly Gallery Director & Curator at REDCAT in Los Angeles where she organized residencies, commissions, exhibitions and publications with international contemporary artists. She was co-curator of the international biennial Media City Seoul 2010 and organized a global forum on independent spaces called State of Independence in 2011. She has sat on juries for Creative Capital Foundation, Artadia Artist Fellowship, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Louis Comfort Tiffany Award; is on the advisory board of East of Borneo; and is the recipient of fellowships from the Warhol Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council.

Jean-Marie Teno

Jean-Marie Teno has been producing and directing films on the colonial and post-colonial history of Africa for over 25 years. His films are noted for their personal and original approach to issues of race, cultural identity, African history and contemporary politics. Teno’s films have been honored at festivals worldwide: Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Yamagata, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Liepzig, San Francisco, and London. Teno has been a guest of the Flaherty Seminar, an artist in residence at the Pacific Film Archive of the University of California, Berkeley, a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College, and has lectured at numerous universities. He was a Visiting professor at Hampshire College in 2009.

WORLD DRAMATIC JURY

Julia Ormond

British actress Julia Ormond received the London Drama Critics’ Award for Best Newcomer in Christopher Hampton’s Faith, Hope and Charity. She starred in the epic Legends of the Fall, played the lead role with Harrison Ford in the film Sabrina, and starred in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In 2010 she won a supporting actress Emmy Award for her role in the HBO Movie Temple Grandin. She is the Founder and President of the Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (ASSET), which works with corporations, NGOs, government officials, and individuals to create the systemic change needed to eradicate slavery at source. Julia is a former United Nations Goodwill Ambassador against Trafficking and Slavery, and the founding co-chair of Film Aid International. She can currently be seen in the Weinstein Company’s My Week with Marilyn in which she plays actress Vivien Leigh.

Richard Pena

Richard Peña has been the Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Director of the New York Film Festival since 1988. At the Film Society, Peña has organized retrospectives of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sacha Guitry, Abbas Kiarostami, Robert Aldrich, Roberto Gavaldon, Ritwik Ghatak, Kira Muratova, Youssef Chahine, Yasujiro Ozu, Carlos Saura and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as major film series devoted to African, Swedish, Israeli, Cuban, Polish, Hungarian, Arab, Korean, Taiwanese and Argentine cinema. He is a Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University, where he specializes in film theory and international cinema, and from 2006-2009 was a Visiting Professor in Spanish at Princeton University. He is also currently the co-host of WNET/Channel 13’s weekly Reel 13.

Alexei Popogrebsky

Alexei Popogrebsky was born in 1972 in Moscow into a family of a screenwriter. He wrote and directed the award-winning films Roads to Koktebel (2003) (with Boris Khlebnikov), Simple Things (2007), and How I Ended This Summer (2010), set and shot on a polar station in the Russian Arctic and based entirely around two characters. The film won two Silver Bears in Berlin, Gold Hugo in Chicago and Best Film at BFI London Film Festival. Alexei is currently developing his first English-language project, a 3D fantasy drama.

ALFRED P. SLOAN JURY

Scott Burns

Scott Burns recently wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros. film, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The film, starring Bradley Cooper and currently in development, is set to begin production in early 2012. He also wrote Contagion and co-wrote the Academy Award-winning Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. As a producer, he received the Humanitas Prize and the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America for his Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He wrote and directed HBO Films’ critically acclaimed PU-239, which was produced by Soderbergh and George Clooney. Scott also wrote The Library, a stage play based on the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School with Kennedy/Marshall producing. He began his career in advertising and was part of the creative team responsible for the original “Got Milk?” campaign.

Tracy Day

Tracy Day co-founded the World Science Festival in 2008 with world-renowned physicist and best-selling author Brian Greene. She serves as CEO and oversees the creative and programmatic offerings of the World Science Festival. She is a four-time National News Emmy award-winning journalist and has produced live and documentary programming for the nation’s preeminent television news divisions for over two decades. At ABC News she was producer for This Week with David Brinkley, editorial and field producer for Nightline and story editor for the news magazine, Day One. Tracy has produced documentaries, specials and live town meeting broadcasts for PBS, The Discovery Channel, CNN, Lifetime and CNBC. In addition to Emmy Awards, she won a Hugo Award, a 2004 Clarion Award and the CINE Golden Eagle for investigative journalism. She has been an adjunct professor in the Leadership and the Arts program at the Sanford Institute for Public Policy.

Helen Fisher

Helen Fisher, PhD, is a biological Anthropologist at Rutgers University. She studies the evolution, brain systems (fMRI) and cross-cultural patterns of romantic love, mate choice, marriage, adultery, divorce, gender differences in the brain, personality, temperament, and business personalities. She has written five internationally best selling books, including WHY HIM? WHY HER?; WHY WE LOVE; and ANATOMY OF LOVE. She lectures worldwide. Among her speeches are those at the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED, United Nations, Smithsonian, Salk Institute, Harvard Medical School and Aspen Institute. She publishes widely in academic and lay journals. For her work in the media, Helen received the American Anthropological Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

SHORT FILM JURY

Mike Judge

Mike Judge is the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head for MTV and King of the Hill for FOX TV. He expanded into writing and directing his own live-action films, Office Space, Idiocracy and Extract. He’s done voices for South Park and acted in Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids movies. Mike recently resurrected Beavis and Butt-Head with 12 new shows for MTV.

Dee Rees

Dee Rees is an alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a Sundance Institute Directing Lab Fellow. She’s written and directed several short films including the award-winning Pariah, which screened at over 40 festivals worldwide. Her feature documentary, Eventual Salvation, premiered on the Sundance Channel in 2009, and her debut narrative feature, Pariah, opened the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Dee received a Renew Media Arts Fellowship for her work, and recently completed an endowed residency at Yaddo. Currently, Dee is writing an original screenplay for Focus Features and is also in development on a new television series with HBO. Dee interned on Spike Lee’s films When The Levees Broke and Inside Man.

Shane Smith

Shane Smith has been a programmer, jury member and speaker at film festivals all over the world. He is currently the Director of Public Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox. He previously served as the Executive Producer, In-flight Entertainment at Spafax Canada Inc., where he oversaw all in-flight programming for Air Canada. He also was the Director of Programming for the digital TV channels Movieola: The Short Film Channel and Silver Screen Classics. He was a Short Film Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival from 2006-2010 and for six years was the Director of the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. He is a former Programmer for the Inside Out Festival, a member of the Organizing Committee of the International Short Film Conference and was formerly on the Board of Directors of the Centre for Aboriginal Media, presenters of the imagineNATIVE Film Festival.

The Sundance Film Festival

A program of the non-profit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water, and Napoleon Dynamite, and through its New Frontier initiative, has showcased the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julien, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp, and Matthew Barney. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Entertainment Weekly, HP, Acura, Sundance Channel and Chase Sapphire; Leadership Sponsors – Adobe Systems Incorporated, Bing, Canon, DIRECTV, Focus Forward, a partnership between GE and CINELAN, Southwest Airlines, Sprint and Yahoo!; Sustaining Sponsors – Bertolli Frozen Meal Soups, FilterForGood, a partnership between Brita and Nalgene, Grey Goose Vodka, Hilton HHonors and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, L’Oréal Paris, Stella Artois, Timberland, Time Warner Inc. and YouTube. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations will defray costs associated with the 10-day Festival and the nonprofit Sundance Institute’s year-round programs for independent film and theatre artists.

www.sundance.org/festival

I recently answered a few questions for the kind folks over at Fanbridge for their blog. Below is an excerpt from that post…more to come.

First, filmmakers should start by knowing for whom their story is. NO, it isn’t for everyone. You can’t reach “everyone” so really narrow it down, even beyond demographic characteristics, to interest levels. What would this person wear to your screening? Really get down into that kind of detail. Start with yourself: why do you like this story, what draws you to tell it? From there you will know where to find people similar to yourself and how to speak to them.

Social media is about authentic voice and speaking to real people, not faceless masses. If you only have a vague idea of who your audience is at the beginning, it will stay vague and you won’t effectively be able to reach them or anyone. This work cannot be done from the outside; you can’t just hire a marketing company to tweet for your film. They have no idea what to say to someone who actually starts a dialog. This work needs to be done by someone embedded both within the production and within the audience community of your film. This doesn’t mean you as a director or producer are totally off the hook to connect with people, and you shouldn’t want that anyway, but having what Jon Reiss would call a PMD (Producer of Marketing and Distribution) to help alleviate the total burden of connecting with an audience [burden in the context of generating content that keeps them engaged] and determining the most lucrative and efficient method to release the film is a smart idea.

This work cannot wait until the film is in post because social relationships take time to build and only giving it a month or two of attention isn’t going to result in much awareness. It also takes time to prepare for distribution outlets whether you are going to use the festival circuit as your theatrical or book community screenings, or book traditional theaters. Whether you will release online at the same time, or soon after and which outlets will you use? How much will you charge? What publications do you need to develop relationships with to get great coverage, what is the website going to look like and how will it change during the production process (yes, it will change)? There will be a need for extra content, more than one trailer or a series of clips, sourcing other content or creating it. These are all jobs that cannot be done in a hurry and someone needs to be on it. What about sponsorship? Who will handle the sponsorship proposals and logistics?

These are not the skills of typical film producers but someone now needs to be overseeing it and not involved with the filmmaking process. It isn’t work that falls within the realm of traditional publicist, unit publicist or the average distribution company, so someone needs to be handling this from very early on and that someone is a member of the film team. Also, taking on the responsibility gives you more leverage. You know who your audience is, how they will consume what you make, you are in contact with them every day and you don’t need to give up rights or revenue in order to sell to them, so why would you sign away your rights to do this? It doesn’t make sense.

To read the entire piece, click here.

All this week, Jon Reiss and I have been participating in a virtual Q&A panel on the D Word site for documentary filmmakers.  I have to say, I like this virtual panel a ton better than the usual live panels at film events. You can ask very specific questions of the panelists without the need for a moderator controlling the questions and having a bunch of panelists sit up there and basically tout the services of their company or give coy answers. It would be kind of awkward to give short and meaningless answers in this kind of forum. I hope everyone else is enjoying it too. Anyway…one of the questions that came up to day from Richard Phinney of Ontario, Canada asks “there is much talk about getting email addresses from audiences at preview screenings … how exactly do you go about doing that?”

In our book, filmmaker Ari Gold describes how he was able to collect over 12,000 email addresses from the audience of his semi theatrical and theatrical screenings.  Here’s the excerpt:

“Ari attached a short video to the front of the feature at the semi-theatrical and theatrical screenings that included the text-to-join number, whereby one texts their email address to a Google Voice number that he set up…it was (213) 290-DRUM [213.290.3786]…and, at the time of this book’s publication, it still works, even though he has to manually copy and paste the emails into his master list. The video alone was extremely effective, but when Ari was also present at the screenings, or when he did a live Skype Q&A, he was able to get almost all in the audience to sign up. Truly unique and impressive.”

The old fashioned way of doing this is passing out a clipboard and I still think that is fine if the screening is small and controlled by you, but it doesn’t work so well at festival screenings. You aren’t given much time to pass it around the audience before the screening and people leave as the credits roll after, plus you are too busy heading up to do Q&A so even if you started passing it, the clipboard is likely to get mislaid while you are tied up and then you have to keep track of the papers and remember to enter in the email addresses by hand.

Another solution I have seen is using QR codes which can be read with any mobile smartphone that takes the web brower to a special landing page where an email address can be entered. The email address is then sent straight into your email provider’s database. Here is an explanation of how it works with Constant Contact.

Providing incentive to give an email address should yield better results than simply putting a sign up box on your website. Giving away a piece of content like a song, ebook, rare photos or a piece of video not found anywhere else are all incentives to give an email address as “payment” to access this content. Topspin Media calls this E4M (email for media) and it powers their embeddable widgets for websites. There are many more features on Topspin as well so check them out (full disclosure: Topspin is one of the sponsors of Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul and we are using them to power our store shopping cart).

Another company I have been speaking with recently is Fanbridge who has a similar feature for Facebook pages as well as any website. They have a free basic edition for you to try out and a more feature rich edition that costs $30 a month. They advocate offering content only your fans can see so it entices those to become fans and rewards those who already are. I will be putting their system to work on 3 pages I help manage on Facebook and I’ll let you know how I get on. Also, it seems kinda cool in that it captures the comments people leave on your wall and you can export the positive quotes for use in other places. You can find out more about how it works on this site which was just acquired by the company and will soon be rebranded.

Hopefully these tips give you some ideas on how to boost your email list. Remember, direct connections to an audience are the lifeblood of monetizing your work in the most profitable way. When someone has given you permission to contact them, they want to hear from you and they are way more likely to support you which is more cost effective than chasing complete strangers.

99 Percent: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film is a documentary film project founded by independent filmmakers working in conjunction across the country.  Award-winning directors, producers, editors and cinematographers have come together and pledged their time, skills and gear to document the events taking place in NYC and across America.  And they’re inviting you to do it with them.

As protests have spread across the country, many have complained that the media is failing in their coverage.  Audrey Ewell, a New York filmmaker and one of the founders of the project, says: “It felt like a media blackout.  I was glued to the Globalrevolution Livestream on the day the NYC police arrested hundreds of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, as others yelled ‘We’re not the criminals.’  And then the feed went out because whoever was filming ran out of batteries. And it wasn’t being shown on the news. We felt a need to gather footage like this from all over the country and craft a document of the big picture.”

Brooklyn-based filmmaker Michael Galinsky says:  “As a filmmaker and photographer I understand both the power of media and documentation.  I knew right away that something significant was taking place and I wanted to be a part of it.  I wanted to use the power of documentary to give the voiceless a voice.”

The filmmakers are calling for others to join them in this project, and say that anyone with footage, a camera or even just a desire to help should get in touch.  Anyone who contributes footage will be paid a set fee based on the amount of time used in the documentary. The fee will be based on the budget they’re able to raise to fund the project. Organizers stress that it will not be a lot of money, but they hope that won’t prevent people from joining in.  All footage will also go up on a community youtube page.

Ewell continues: “That footage we’re getting is real, and it’s powerful.  It feels like history in the making.  When that guy on the bridge ran out of batteries I grabbed my camera, and my partner Aaron Aites and I headed over to Zuccotti Park to film, almost as if we were part of a relay.  And I had the thought that while I’m busy working on other films, what if a bunch of us got together and filmed one hour a day, or whatever we could do, and made a collaborative film?  And then I realized that it should be open to anyone with a desire to be involved.  So that’s what it is.  We want people all over the country to contribute.” All formats will be accepted. All points of view are welcome. All filmmakers and contributors will be credited.

The filmmakers have just started a Kickstarter page, which in its first day has almost reached its $1000 goal (which will only cover the most basic set-up costs), but they say that the real goal is closer to $30,000.

Contributors thus far include Ava Duvernay, Michael Galinsky, Audrey Ewell, Aaron Aites, Tyler Brodie, Maria Breaux, and many more.  The website is at http://www.99percentfilm.com but right now most of the info, a list of what is needed, and the constantly growing list of participants (with bios) is available at the Kickstarter page.

Press requests, prospective participants and naysayers can write to:

99percentfilm@gmail.com.

——————

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/egg/99-the-occupy-wall-street-collaborative-film

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/99percentfilm

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/99_film

Website: http://www.99percentfilm.com

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/99percentfilm

#  # #

“It is appropriate and long overdue for the city that is home to the motion picture industry to recognize this art form with a museum of its own. The LACMA Board is delighted to be facilitating this important cultural event, which has special resonance for me, having spent most of my life dedicated to the great art of movies,” said co-chair of the LACMA Board of Trustees Terry Semel. “The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will provide a much needed destination for cultural tourists and Los Angelenos to learn more about cinema, and the setting could not be more ideal, nestled next to the largest encyclopedic art museum in the Western United States.”

According to Academy President Tom Sherak, “The new museum will be a world-class destination that is a tangible representation of the Academy’s mission. And the idea of our museum being part of a larger cultural center for the arts, in this city that we love, was incredibly compelling to the Academy Board.”

Plans by various groups to create a movie museum date back to the mid-1960s, but Tuesday night’s vote represents the most significant step yet taken in bringing these hopes to fruition. The Academy hopes to sign a long-term lease for the facility, and will retain autonomy over all aspects of its museum while benefiting from LACMA’s experience in managing a premier arts institution.

The Academy will mount a new fundraising campaign for the museum, which will give visitors an entertaining and interactive experience illuminating the way movies reflect culture and the impact they have upon it. The museum is expected to feature both permanent and rotating exhibitions inside the facility’s 300,000 gross square feet.

LACMA West, which formerly housed the May Company department store, was built in 1939, one of the greatest years in film history with such releases as “Gone with the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz.” “Finally, our industry will have a dedicated space where we can inform and excite people about the endless range and possibilities of motion pictures,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson. “This new facility will make our resources and activities – our programming, our archives, and our library – even more visible and accessible all year round.” According to LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan, “This represents a seismic shift in the cultural landscape of Los Angeles, and an extraordinary new resource for residents proud of their local history, and for fans of cinema worldwide.”

Many times when independent filmmakers send a request for help to me, they attach a link to their film trailer. This is the video they have on Youtube and on their website as a representation of their film, a reason to see it or buy it. Often, they are terrible. They are too long, they are too slow, there is no sense of what the film is about or why I would want to see it. A trailer should not be a 3 minute cut down version of your film. It is an advertisement meant to pique the interest of prospective viewers and there is a talent to making them work. This isn’t a job for your intern.

I asked professional trailer editor Bill Woolery if he would share his knowledge about what makes a good trailer, what are common mistakes he sees so many filmmakers (and distributors and studios) making, how to use trailers if you are trying to fundraise and what techniques are commonly used to ensure action is taken. Your trailer should make people say “I’ve got to see this film!” or “I want to donate money to help it reach its goal.”

For over 2 decades, Bill worked as a trailer editor for major studios and production companies on their theatrical and TV campaigns. He has since moved into editing trailers for documentaries and non profit humanitarian projects  for use in fund raising.  He has established himself as the go-to trailer expert for documentary and independent film producers and is often asked to speak and critique trailers in seminars hosted by Carole Dean and other high-profile members in the documentary community. His regularly scheduled “Trailer Clinics” help give filmmakers the tips and tools to improve their fundraising trailers.

An example of Bill’s past work is the trailer for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. “My boss tossed me the project saying, ‘We don’t know what to do with this, so come up with something.’  It turned out to be one of my most satisfying challenges. Janácek’s chamber music set the tone for the editing.  The film tanked at the box office, but AFI now includes it on their 100 best American films list.  A young Daniel Day-Lewis stars with Juliette Binoche.”

How does editing a trailer differ from editing an entire film?

 

“These are not only two different styles of editing, they’re two distinctly different realties.  A trailer incorporates the same scenes as the full-length piece but uses a totally different “language” to express them.  When filmmakers come to me, it’s often because they tried cutting their own trailers.  After much labor in the edit room, they were never able to achieve a sequence that felt like a trailer.  There is a characteristic pace and flow to a trailer you don’t find in narrative editing.  It’s the same material but presented with an urgency and immediacy that’s very different from your whole film.

A feature documentary has emotional moments, but a trailer is basically one emotional moment from beginning to end.  It takes you immediately into an emotional reality and holds you there until it drops you at the end.  During that span, it must also convey specific information: who the characters are, what the story is about, why the characters are doing what they’re doing.  Most importantly, it must answer the questions: Why is this doc (or feature) something you should see?  And why is it important to see it now?

These are a few of the many elements that make a good trailer and constructing it is more complicated than most narrative filmmakers realize.  A well-edited trailer is a very busy ‘world.’  At every moment you’re moving through multiple arcs: characters’ arc, the main story arc, the emotional arcs.  They’re all intertwined.  It’s a lot to keep track of.  And over-arching all that is ‘the build.’

The ‘build’ is probably the element that most clearly defines the difference between trailer editing and feature editing.  A trailer must maintain a continuous forward momentum.  This momentum usually picks up in speed and urgency in the second half of the trailer.”

How to evaluate a potential trailer editor for your project?

“Beware the editor/producer/filmmaker who has some downtime and says, ‘Sure, I can cut you a trailer.  I’ll do it as a favor.’  Also, stay away from anyone who thinks a trailer is basically a cut-down of the feature – because you will get a cut-down of the feature and not a trailer.”

Why should a trailer editor be used instead of just an intern or the editor already working on your film?

“During the past 10 years, the role of the trailer has changed, especially in the funding strategy of documentary and indie production.  Traditionally, trailers were edited by the filmmakers themselves because (a) budgets were tight and (b) they had the edit system and media sitting there in their second bedroom.  ’Outsourcing’ a trailer didn’t make sense.   Over time, with the development of the Internet, people became accustomed to seeing videos (addicted to seeing them, really).  Eventually, the pitch, the proposal, the text on your website – all of these took second place to the video trailer.  It was as if your project wasn’t real unless your intended audience could ‘see’ something on the screen.   Today, some distributors or funders will ask to see your trailer before talking to you. So the trailer has become the most critical element to getting your project funded or distributed.  It needs to be really good, really effective.  Paying a trailer editor is now considered a sound investment.” (I totally agree!)

What are the different types of trailers?  such as theatrical, TV etc

If  you check the Doc Trailers page of my website you’ll find this:

Fundraising Trailer – the key element to your project’s success

Work-in-Progress Trailer – to find your finishing funds

Showcase Trailer – specifically pitched to buyers/distributors/broadcasters

Sizzle / Teaser trailers – to generate buzz when you don’t have much to show

Theatrical Trailers – the all-purpose video that establishes your project’s identity

The majority of my editing projects now involve FUNDRAISING trailers.  As a trailer category, it’s wide open because it depends on what you have to show, how good your footage is and what you want to accomplish with it.  In terms of length, it could be anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes long, possible up to 12 if you’ve got a compelling story and/or extraordinary footage that can sustain it that long.  It also has to do with who it’s intended for: a foundation, grant qualification, a private funder.  Research your intended viewer and find out what they’re looking for.

Everyone agrees a trailer should not reveal the end of the story.  For theatrical-style trailers that is certainly the case.  But when you’re putting together a fundraising trailer the purpose is to sell your idea to people who can share your vision and might invest in it.  They need to see what they’re buying – all of it.  It’s important for them to know you have a satisfying ending so don’t hesitate to show it.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS trailers run longer so the viewer, usually a major funder, can feel confident about the project’s progress, that their investment is worthwhile and in capable hands.  In terms of length it’s determined by the funder’s needs and could be anywhere between 4 to 14 minutes.

Every project needs a THEATRICAL-STYLE trailer.  This is the one that’s used as the all-purpose “calling card” for your project, the one you post on YouTube and Vimeo and the project’s website.  It’s normally made after your doc is finished and mastered – but sometimes there’s need for it before the projects gets to that point.  This kind of trailer is short, usually 1.5  to 3 minutes.  It’s energetic and dramatic and makes no obvious solicitation for funds and does not reveal the end of story.  The cliff-hanger ending that works so well for commercial entertainment trailers is also the most effective “out” for documentary trailers.

Finally, there are TEASER or SIZZLE trailers.  These terms are used pretty much interchangeable.  Their purpose is generating advanced buzz for the project.  In both cases, they’re often put together with rip-o-matic images from the Net with a voice-over telling you how great the project will be once the viewer contributes the funds to realize it.  These kinds of trailers might include a “pedigree” montage of the filmmaker’s past projects – if they exist.  A teaser is short, 30 seconds to a minute and a half, unless the “past projects” are very prestigious and need screen time to be showcased.”

In part 2, Bill will talk about techniques such as motion graphics, using music to set the tone, using voice overs and the biggest mistakes he sees people make in editing a trailer. Stay tuned!

We released the book Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul 2 days ago. Not counting those who bought from the Amazon site or from Apple, we have had 1800 downloads so far. Not bad since this is a very niche interest book. I want to emphasize this book is FREE until October 1 on our site. After which it goes to $4.99 for all premium digital copies (Kindle, Nook, iBook) but there will always be a free pdf (text only, no URLs, pictures, charts, video) for those who just want the facts.

Also, today is the last day to RSVP for our book launch party in New York on September 19 from 6-8pm. We have about 50 places left at last count so if you’re in town, join us.

An interview I did with Cheap Fast Movie Thoughts was just published.  Here’s an excerpt:

What’s the biggest misconception that filmmakers have about distribution?

SHERI: That there is some kind of magic distributor fairy waiting to give them a fat check and make their dreams come true. I hear many, many times filmmakers say ‘we’re artists, making films is supposed to be fun’ and I am sure thinking about the business of art isn’t fun to them. But it is imperative. As my filmmaker friend Greg Bayne says, “You may not be interested in the business, but you probably like to eat.”

It is your responsibility to your investors, your crew, yourself to take charge of this and have a solid plan from the outset that isn’t solely dependent on a distributor coming along and making your film whole, which is to say paying a minimum guarantee that recoups your production budget with interest. VERY few of those deals exist now, no matter what producer’s agents and distributors like to say.

Ask many questions of anyone currently working in film today and if you can get them to admit it, there aren’t big upfront deals going on, there aren’t a lot of presales going on and the likelihood of most independent films recouping is slim. Don’t base your estimations on box office returns either. Until there is a number revealed that shows how much was spent to get those returns, you don’t have a clear picture of profit. A film that has a $10 million box office may have spent $15 or $20 million to get that.

Setting aside the goal of recoupment though, it is more than possible to start building a career off of the attention you can get from a release. That’s where having a prestige festival premiere comes in. Say what you like about the films that play Sundance or how difficult it is to get in, that festival has the cache to change the life of your film and your career simply because of the amount of press coverage it receives and that is why it is so coveted and competitive.

For the rest of the interview, head on over to Cheap Fast Movie Thoughts.

Many times when independent filmmakers send a request for help to me, they attach a link to their film trailer. This is the video they have on Youtube and on their website as a representation of their film, a reason to see it or buy it. Often, they are terrible. They are too long, they are too slow, there is no sense of what the film is about or why I would want to see it. A trailer should not be a 3 minute cut down version of your film. It is an advertisement meant to pique the interest of prospective viewers and there is a talent to making them work. This isn’t a job for your intern.

I asked professional trailer editor Bill Woolery if he would share his knowledge about what makes a good trailer, what are common mistakes he sees so many filmmakers (and distributors and studios) making, how to use trailers if you are trying to fundraise and what techniques are commonly used to ensure action is taken. Your trailer should make people say “I’ve got to see this film!” or “I want to donate money to help it reach its goal.”

For over 2 decades, Bill worked as a trailer editor for major studios and production companies on their theatrical and TV campaigns. He has since moved into editing trailers for documentaries and non profit humanitarian projects  for use in fund raising.  He has established himself as the go-to trailer expert for documentary and independent film producers and is often asked to speak and critique trailers in seminars hosted by Carole Dean and other high-profile members in the documentary community. His regularly scheduled “Trailer Clinics” help give filmmakers the tips and tools to improve their fundraising trailers.

An example of Bill’s past work is the trailer for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. “My boss tossed me the project saying, ‘We don’t know what to do with this, so come up with something.’  It turned out to be one of my most satisfying challenges. Janácek’s chamber music set the tone for the editing.  The film tanked at the box office, but AFI now includes it on their 100 best American films list.  A young Daniel Day-Lewis stars with Juliette Binoche.”

How does editing a trailer differ from editing an entire film?

“These are not only two different styles of editing, they’re two distinctly different realties.  A trailer incorporates the same scenes as the full-length piece but uses a totally different “language” to express them.  When filmmakers come to me, it’s often because they tried cutting their own trailers.  After much labor in the edit room, they were never able to achieve a sequence that felt like a trailer.  There is a characteristic pace and flow to a trailer you don’t find in narrative editing.  It’s the same material but presented with an urgency and immediacy that’s very different from your whole film.

A feature documentary has emotional moments, but a trailer is basically one emotional moment from beginning to end.  It takes you immediately into an emotional reality and holds you there until it drops you at the end.  During that span, it must also convey specific information: who the characters are, what the story is about, why the characters are doing what they’re doing.  Most importantly, it must answer the questions: Why is this doc (or feature) something you should see?  And why is it important to see it now?

These are a few of the many elements that make a good trailer and constructing it is more complicated than most narrative filmmakers realize.  A well-edited trailer is a very busy ‘world.’  At every moment you’re moving through multiple arcs: characters’ arc, the main story arc, the emotional arcs.  They’re all intertwined.  It’s a lot to keep track of.  And over-arching all that is ‘the build.’

The ‘build’ is probably the element that most clearly defines the difference between trailer editing and feature editing.  A trailer must maintain a continuous forward momentum.  This momentum usually picks up in speed and urgency in the second half of the trailer.”

How to evaluate a potential trailer editor for your project?

“Beware the editor/producer/filmmaker who has some downtime and says, ‘Sure, I can cut you a trailer.  I’ll do it as a favor.’  Also, stay away from anyone who thinks a trailer is basically a cut-down of the feature – because you will get a cut-down of the feature and not a trailer.”

Why should a trailer editor be used instead of just an intern or the editor already working on your film?

“During the past 10 years, the role of the trailer has changed, especially in the funding strategy of documentary and indie production.  Traditionally, trailers were edited by the filmmakers themselves because (a) budgets were tight and (b) they had the edit system and media sitting there in their second bedroom.  ’Outsourcing’ a trailer didn’t make sense.   Over time, with the development of the Internet, people became accustomed to seeing videos (addicted to seeing them, really).  Eventually, the pitch, the proposal, the text on your website – all of these took second place to the video trailer.  It was as if your project wasn’t real unless your intended audience could ‘see’ something on the screen.   Today, some distributors or funders will ask to see your trailer before talking to you. So the trailer has become the most critical element to getting your project funded or distributed.  It needs to be really good, really effective.  Paying a trailer editor is now considered a sound investment.” (I totally agree!)

What are the different types of trailers?  such as theatrical, TV etc

If  you check the Doc Trailers page of my website you’ll find this:

Fundraising Trailer – the key element to your project’s success

Work-in-Progress Trailer – to find your finishing funds

Showcase Trailer – specifically pitched to buyers/distributors/broadcasters

Sizzle / Teaser trailers – to generate buzz when you don’t have much to show

Theatrical Trailers – the all-purpose video that establishes your project’s identity

The majority of my editing projects now involve FUNDRAISING trailers.  As a trailer category, it’s wide open because it depends on what you have to show, how good your footage is and what you want to accomplish with it.  In terms of length, it could be anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes long, possible up to 12 if you’ve got a compelling story and/or extraordinary footage that can sustain it that long.  It also has to do with who it’s intended for: a foundation, grant qualification, a private funder.  Research your intended viewer and find out what they’re looking for.

Everyone agrees a trailer should not reveal the end of the story.  For theatrical-style trailers that is certainly the case.  But when you’re putting together a fundraising trailer the purpose is to sell your idea to people who can share your vision and might invest in it.  They need to see what they’re buying – all of it.  It’s important for them to know you have a satisfying ending so don’t hesitate to show it.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS trailers run longer so the viewer, usually a major funder, can feel confident about the project’s progress, that their investment is worthwhile and in capable hands.  In terms of length it’s determined by the funder’s needs and could be anywhere between 4 to 14 minutes.

Every project needs a THEATRICAL-STYLE trailer.  This is the one that’s used as the all-purpose “calling card” for your project, the one you post on YouTube and Vimeo and the project’s website.  It’s normally made after your doc is finished and mastered – but sometimes there’s need for it before the projects gets to that point.  This kind of trailer is short, usually 1.5  to 3 minutes.  It’s energetic and dramatic and makes no obvious solicitation for funds and does not reveal the end of story.  The cliff-hanger ending that works so well for commercial entertainment trailers is also the most effective “out” for documentary trailers.

Finally, there are TEASER or SIZZLE trailers.  These terms are used pretty much interchangeable.  Their purpose is generating advanced buzz for the project.  In both cases, they’re often put together with rip-o-matic images from the Net with a voice-over telling you how great the project will be once the viewer contributes the funds to realize it.  These kinds of trailers might include a “pedigree” montage of the filmmaker’s past projects – if they exist.  A teaser is short, 30 seconds to a minute and a half, unless the “past projects” are very prestigious and need screen time to be showcased.”

In part 2, Bill will talk about techniques such as motion graphics, using music to set the tone, using voice overs and the biggest mistakes he sees people make in editing a trailer. Stay tuned!

It’s a shocking title coming from me, I know and I had a hard time typing it. It isn’t as though I hate distributors, it is just that I see them largely as exploiting filmmakers’ work where the filmmaker receives very little in the process. A post yesterday from Seth Godin’s Domino Project made me stop and think about it from their side. His post takes the publishers’ view but that is the distributors’ view in the book world. The situations are the same.

In his post, Godin explains that publishers (distributors) take on the financial risk of bringing work to an unknown audience which is a huge risk and why they take the lion’s share of the profit. They don’t know if their risk will pay off until these unknown people buy and, to mitigate the risk, they have to spend even more money on getting lots of attention from strangers over and over again, which puts them even deeper into the hole.

Next time you are wondering why you can’t get a distributor to take your film, think about what you would do in their situation? Whenever you make a film with no identifiable audience, no connection to an audience, no identifiable marketing hooks (like genre or star quality actors), no festival wins from pedigree fests, you are drastically reducing your chances of being picked up. I know you’ve heard this, but every week I am contacted by filmmakers who ignore all of this so the message isn’t sinking in. If you don’t have the previous situations for your film, you can’t get attention unless 1)your film is exceptional AND 2) you have a ton of money to spend on getting attention in the form of advertising and publicity and then you are taking on the risk of the distributor, trying to get attention from strangers and hoping it will pay off. For distributors, they can better afford the risk because they have lots of titles in the arsenal. You don’t. So you are left with the choice of “giving up more and more freedom and cash to [distributors] in exchange for their taking the risk of finding, alerting and selling to strangers,” hoping to be picked, taking whatever deal they offer and having no say in what is subsequently done with your work

…or

doing the hard work upfront by building an interested group of supporters for your work, to gain their trust and permission for communication, to regularly speak to them and to get their buy in BEFORE the work exists. It is much more efficient than selling to strangers after the fact. “The speed, freedom and control will transform the way you [work] as well as how you engage with your audience.”

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NB

I hear a lot from artists and art critics who say you shouldn’t promote until you have work worth promoting. I completely agree. Please don’t use this as advice for how to “promote” because building a relationship with an engaged audience is separate from promotion. Promotion is one way communication. It is the thing that advertising was made for. It isn’t the thing that is best accomplished through using social media, contrary to what corporations and “digital agencies” think.

What I am saying is genuinely become interested in who your work would touch, delight and become emotionally connected to them. Start thinking about who “they” are while you are in the process of shaping your work. Start building up the relationship with them because you truly want to reach them. I think this is what expressing yourself is all about right? Reaching others? Chances are they are a lot like you so this shouldn’t be a difficult thing. You may not even do it online, choosing real life instead. The thing online allows for is finding your kindreds all over the world rather than the limited circle in your immediate vicinity. Those friends will become your base of support and won’t be able to stop themselves from telling others and online tools are a great free carrier for word of mouth, the most authentic advertising there is. When you have that support, the financial burden becomes lighter in that you can crowdfund to make work, you can spend little to reach the audience, and you will attract partners who want to help you service those you haven’t been able to reach yet without the absolute need for you to give up rights and control over your work.

This group isn’t built overnight, or even over six months. Get started right now. You need this, they need this connection.

I have been reading some of the articles about the film project that premiered at Sundance this year, Life in a Day, and is now being released theatrically by National Geographic Entertainment, YouTube and Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp. For anyone who doesn’t know, producer Ridley Scott and  director Kevin MacDonald requested anyone to send in footage from the day July 24, 2010; for most a typical day in their life. The team received over 81,000 submissions of over 4,500 hours of footage from which to cut together a 95 minute documentary.

I did not take part in this “experimental” form of filmmaking so anyone who did please correct me. I suppose there was a form to sign that said you agree not to demand any form of compensation or ownership over this work. You agreed that your footage would become the property of the production and they could do whatever they want with it, including copyright it and profit from it. Fine, that was your choice. I think the thing that gauls me is they produced a film from your footage and expect you to sign up for the privilege now of becoming part of the “marketing SWAT team” to promote it and pay to go see it. You’ve received a co director end credit (no credit on imdb that I can see, but there is a large cast list), but are left out of any decision making and do not enjoy any benefits of working closely with some pretty powerful industry insiders. In my book, this is an exercise in exploitation.

This experiment isn’t fan building or relationship building that benefits both sides. You were used to create a profit making vehicle for large corporations and now they want you to help them promote it so they can make more money. If you aren’t considered a close member of the team, you have no decision making power, you aren’t profit sharing in any way, the film premiered on Youtube during Sundance but is no longer available online for you to view a film you helped to create while they take it out to theaters and make money from it, then this isn’t true collaboration. Outside of a credit on a theatrical film end credit roll, there is nothing in this relationship for you.

The point I am making to my indie filmmaker friends is this. Don’t exploit your audience. True collaboration means there is something in the relationship for all parties. Don’t build up a following with the sole intention of using them for ideas, a workforce and profit that benefits only you.

“Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ is Trending to Become #2 Top Pre-Seller in Fandango History

LOS ANGELES – Although there’s one more day before the July 15 release date, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ has already leaped over the year’s previous box office winners to become Fandango’s top-selling title of the year so far.

Fandango has sold more tickets for “Part 2″ than it has sold for any other movie this year, including pre-release and post-release ticket sales.

Fandango’s Top 5 Ticket-Sellers of the Year (as of July 13, 2011):

1. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”

2. “The Hangover Part II”

3. “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”

4. “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”

5. “Bridesmaids”

“Part 2″ is also on track to become the #2 advance ticket-seller in Fandango’s eleven-year history, following “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.”

Fandango’s Top 5 All-Time Pre-Sellers (by day’s end on July 13, 2011):

1. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”(2009)

2. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” (2011)

3. “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”(2010)

4. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1″(2010)

5. “Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith”(2005)

The final adventure of the “Harry Potter” franchise is currently conjuring up 91% of daily ticket sales on Fandango, the nation’s leading moviegoer destination. More than 5,000 showtimes for the film are already sold out across the country, with theater owners continually posting additional show times to meet the fan demand in all the fifty states.

“It’s our fastest-selling movie of the year and our best-selling ‘Potter’ movie of all time,” says Fandango Executive Vice President and General Manager Rick Butler. “So many film fans grew up with ‘Harry Potter’ and want to celebrate the series conclusion together on the big screen. The first ‘Potter’ helped put advance ticketing on the map in 2001, so in some ways, Fandango as a company grew up with ‘Potter’ as well. It’s fitting that the grand finale would break records with fans on our Web site and mobile applications.”

Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the participants for its annual Creative Producing Labs and Creative Producing Summit, both held in the same week at the Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah.

Nine projects have been selected to participate in the Labs (July 18-22) and receive ongoing creative and strategic support throughout the year, as well as direct granting to further development and production. The Fellows represent five projects from the Feature Film Program and four from the Documentary Film Program.

Immediately following the Labs, leaders in independent film and a wider group of Sundance Institute-supported projects will join the Fellows for the Creative Producing Summit (July 22-24).

“The Sundance Institute Creative Producing initiatives are a unique combination of intensive focus on the producers’ individual projects and larger discussions with industry leaders about the state of the independent film community and where it’s headed,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute. “These initiatives are an opportunity for producers to explore and develop their projects in a forward-thinking, supportive community. We thank the many experts that will participate.”

FEATURE FILM CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab is a five-day Lab where narrative feature film producers work with an accomplished group of Creative Advisors to develop their creative instincts, communication and problem-solving skills in all stages of film production. This year’s Creative Advisors include producers Paul Mezey (Cold Souls), Jay Van Hoy (Beginners), Alix Madigan (Winter’s Bone) and Amy Kaufman (Sin Nombre).

The Fellows and projects selected for the Feature Film Creative Producing Fellowship are:

Ad Inexplorata
Producing Fellow: Danielle DiGiacomo
Captain William D. Stanaforth is a NASA pilot alone on a one-way mission toward the unknown. (Writer/Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg)

In the past decade, Danielle DiGiacomo has worked as the Community Manager at IFP and Head of Documentary Acquisitions at IndiePix Films, produced the first two Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Film, and associate produced Jennifer Venditti’s Billy the Kid (Best Documentary Feature, Los Angeles Film Festival 2007 & SXSW 2007) and Samantha Buck’s 21 Below. In 2010, she produced three short films (two premiered at the 2011 Cannes’ Short Film Corner) and Associate Produced one feature, Andrew Semans’ Nancy Please. She is currently producing Chris Kelly’s documentary The Cause of Progress and Samantha Buck’s Best Kept Secret. (Mark Silverman Honoree)

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
Producing Fellows: James M. Johnston & Toby Halbrooks
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints tells the story of an outlaw who, in the 1970s, escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas countryside to reunite with his wife and the daughter he never met. Along the way, however, his past starts to catch up with him. (Writer/Director: David Lowery)

James M. Johnston and Toby Halbrooks, collectively known as Sailor Bear, produced the award winning and critically acclaimed short film Pioneer.  Johnston also produced the feature films St. Nick and Carried Away, operates two successful vegan restaurants with his wife, and has directed and produced several short films of his own. Halbrooks came to film after touring the world for six years as a member of the rock group The Polyphonic Spree. He has been working in Dallas as a commercial producer/director for the last 6 years.

The Maglev Story
Producing Fellow:  Melissa Lee
Actions speak louder than words in this offbeat romance set in Shanghai between a reclusive Japanese hikikomori (“shut-in”) boy and a broken-hearted Chinese girl. Well, at least this unlikely couple hopes so. (Writer/Director Anthony Ng)

Melissa Lee graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Literature from Harvard University and received her MFA in Producing from USC. She has produced two feature films: Dear Lemon Lima, co-starring Academy Award winner, Melissa Leo, which was released theatrically earlier this year; and Circumstance, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, received the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, and is being released theatrically in August 2011.  A Hong Kong native, Melissa splits her time between Los Angeles and China. (Steve Bing Fellow)

One & Two
Producing Fellow:  Kim Sherman
Set at an isolated farmhouse, One & Two is a look at the bond between siblings in an abusive and neglectful home, told through a sci-fi lens. (Director Andrew Droz Palermo, Co-Writers Andrew Droz Palermo & Neima Shahdadi)

Kim Sherman is a Missouri-based filmmaker and musician. Most recently, Sherman produced the feature A Horrible Way To Die from director Adam Wingard and Sun Don’t Shine from Amy Seimetz. Sherman has won numerous advertising awards for her directorial commercial work and produced a handful of daring and groundbreaking narrative shorts, including the experimental drama, A Face Fixed, by director Andrew Droz Palermo. Sherman serves as one half of the psych-folk duo, Jerusalem and the Starbaskets. Their latest full-length album, Dost, is out now on De Stijl Records.

Sadie
Producing Fellow: Lacey Leavitt
A young girl living in a trailer park with her mother while her father serves repeated tours overseas resorts to inappropriate measures to preserve her family when a handsome and mysterious stranger threatens to tear it apart. (Writer/Director Megan Griffiths)

Lacey Leavitt is a Seattle-based producer whose first two narrative features, The Off Hours(director Megan Griffiths) and The Catechism Cataclysm (director Todd Rohal), premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.  She also produced and co-directed the roller derby documentary Blood on the Flat Track (Strand Releasing) and produced Dan Brown’s award-winning short film Your Lucky Day, starring Rider Strong. She recently co-produced Safety Not Guaranteed, executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass, and is in pre-production onHayden Lake, the new feature directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenke (Blood Into Wine), which she is line producing. (Sheila C. Johnson Fellow)

DOCUMENTARY FILM CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB

Participants for the five-day Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab are selected from a pool of Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program grantees and invited to participate in one-on-one consultations, and presentations aimed at honing the craft of producing documentaries.

Producers Bonni Cohen (Producer, The Island President) Ellen Schneider (Founder, Active Voice), Joslyn Barnes (Producer, Black Power Mixtape) and publicist Nancy Willen will serve as Creative Advisors at the Lab.

The Fellows and projects selected for the Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab are:

Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry
Producing Fellow: Alison Klayman
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry follows three tumultuous years in the life of Ai Weiwei, when he became a superstar of the art world, a “dissident” in the headlines, a first-time father, and an online god to tens of thousands of Chinese netizens. But can an artist change China?

Alison Klayman is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker.  Living in China from 2006 to 2010, Klayman shot and produced radio and television feature stories for programs.Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry is her first feature documentary. Klayman speaks Mandarin Chinese and graduated from Brown University in 2006.

Betting the Farm
Producing Fellows: Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann
In a desperate attempt to save their farms, a group of Maine farmers launch a new, organic milk company. Will their gamble rescue them – and with them an entire way of life – or will it leave them worse off than when they started?

Cecily Pingree is an independent filmmaker who began her film work with Big Mouth Productions in New York. She has worked on stories ranging from the controversy surrounding media consolidation to rural health in Africa to fishing and farming issues in Maine.

Jason Mann has worked as a cinematographer and editor on numerous documentary projects. Most recently, he collaborated with Cecily Pingree on Meet Your Farmer, a series of eight short films about Maine farmers.

Cesar’s Last Fast
Producing Fellow: Lisa Remington
Cesar’s Last Fast is a multi-platform feature documentary film about the private sacrifice behind Cesar E. Chavez’s struggle for the humane treatment of farm workers, and the impact Chavez’s inspirational and complex legacy has on new generation of organizers fighting today.

Lisa Remington is an independent documentary producer who recently teamed with Lawrence Bender (producer) and Lucy Walker (director) on Participant Media’s chilling nuclear weapons documentary Countdown to Zero. Lisa regularly consults with emerging and established filmmakers in early stage fundraising strategies to create actionable production plans and lives in Los Angeles.

JR: Inside Out
Producing Fellow: Alastair Siddons
The French artist JR wins the TED Prize 2011. He gives his wish, and in turn, his art back to the people, and creates a global participatory art project called ‘Inside Out’. He becomes the ‘printer’ and invites people to stand up for what they care about through the power of their own image. From Tunisia to the Bronx, Lisbon to Iran, the film follows individuals and communities pasting their portraits in the streets. Now they don’t just see the art, they make it.

Alastair Siddons is a London based film maker who has worked across a range of formats including documentary, drama and music video. His first feature was the large scale documentary Turn It Loose. The film followed six b-boys from very different corners of the globe preparing to battle in the world championships held in Soweto, South Africa. The film was produced by Partizan Films and picked up for international distribution by MK2.

My Good Name is Stalin
Producing Fellow: Kavita Pillay
My Good Name Is Stalin is the story of two young men named Stalin and Lenin in Kerala, India – home to the world’s first democratically elected communist government – as they struggle to reconcile their shifting notions about communism and capitalism in the Age of Migration.

Kavita Pillay is a Boston-based media consultant and film producer. My Good Name Is Stalin is her first feature-length documentary.

CREATIVE PRODUCING SUMMIT

The Creative Producing Summit is a three-day, invitation-only gathering that connects 40 independent filmmakers with 30 top independent film professionals including producers, agents, distributors, and other executives to build a dialogue on film producing and the state of independent film. Programmed events include case study sessions, panels, roundtable discussions, one-on-one meetings and pitching sessions. Panelists include Josh Braun (Submarine Entertainment), Victoria Cook (Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz), Liesl Copland (William Morris Endeavor), Eric d’Arbeloff (Roadside Attractions), Marian Koltai-Levine (PMK*BNC), Alex Kruglov (Hulu.com), Tim League (Alamo Drafthouse), Susan Margolin (New Video), Celine Rattray (Maven Pictures), John Sloss (Cinetic Media), Dan Steinman (Creative Artists Agency), Ricky Strauss (Participant Media) and Nancy Utley (Fox Searchlight). For a full list of panelists visithttp://www.sundance.org/programs/creative-producing-summit/.

Sundance Institute receives major support for its Creative Producing Initiatives from B.Co., Cinereach Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Charles Engelhard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Sheila C. Johnson, the Open Society Institute, SAGindie, the Skoll Foundation, and Sundial Pictures, LLC.

Sundance Institute Feature Film Program

Since 1981, the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program (FFP) has supported more than 450 independent filmmakers whose distinctive, singular work has engaged audiences worldwide.  The program’s approach to the discovery and development of independent artists has become a model for creative development programs internationally. Program staff fully embrace the unique vision of each filmmaker, encouraging a rigorous creative process with a focus on original and deeply personal storytelling.  Each year, up to 25 emerging filmmakers from the U.S. and around the world participate in a year-round continuum of support which can include the Screenwriters and Directors Labs, Creative Producing Fellowship and Lab, Composers Lab, Creative Producing Summit, ongoing creative and strategic advice, significant production and postproduction resources, a Rough-Cut Screening Initiative, a Screenplay Reading Series, and direct financial support through project-specific grants and artist fellowships. In many cases, the Institute has helped the Program’s fellows attach producers and talent, secure financing, and assemble other significant resources to move their projects toward production and presentation. In addition, the FFP is providing strategic resources to completed Lab films in distribution and marketing across all platforms to support and expand their connection to audiences worldwide.

I realize that good marketing is made up of a mix of tools. One of those tools is advertising and it is probably the easiest to use and the most expensive. In order to get attention for every window of release, Hollywood studios spend buckets of money on advertising because it is the quickest and least painful way to get attention. Do they realize that they are not building any lasting assets for their company when they do this? They are renting space over and over instead of retaining consumer attention that they can stimulate again and again. But that takes work and when the budget is reduced (or gone), access to the rental space is reduced too.

I’m sure you know that your website is the biggest piece of online real estate you own. You control it and when you attract audience attention, it is up to you to keep it and to keep in touch for the future. Studios don’t do this. They really don’ t see it as useful to contact audience directly or to hear directly from them. Just have a look at the Warner Bros. site as an example. You can fill out a survey that basically asks you to be their web designer. You can click on the Facebook link which takes you to their page where they have hundreds of thousands of likes. But look at how the page is used. Just advertising the titles.  A few comments are left but rare that they ever answer them. To connect is damn hard work and if you can just buy everything, why bother?

But I’m thinking indie filmmakers can’t buy everything, you can’t just buy an audience. This is why you need to pull an audience to you rather than push a message out. Pulling is much harder than pushing, much more time and much more work. Think of this pulling as building assets to continue to attract and add value to your audience so you can minimize the amount of cash spent on renting advertising space and so you can build and maintain a sustainable audience.

What’s an asset?  A strong website that has heavy traffic derived from SEO, link authority and interesting content. A blog that repeatedly attracts the interest of your audience because you know what they are interested in and you find or create information to give them. This builds your email signup list and RSS subscriptions (the basic message here is they WANT to hear from you, you have their permission to communicate with them). A social media presence that attracts a like minded community to your work. Communities expand over time. If you are working for the long term, you want this continued expansion.

Why are these assets? Because in order to monetize your work, first you have to  build up interest in what you do and a network of people who want to support you. It is you, your talent and your knowledge that keeps them coming back, not a PPC ad, not a half baked contest. YOU and what you have to share.

It’s going to entail work and lots of time though.

I was listening to a podcast on the Pixability site last week that was supposed to be about using video in your publicity efforts. I am not really sure I took much away about that subject. Their angle was using video press releases instead of text ones. I get why Pixability sees things that way, but I am not sure about that approach both as a journalist and someone who courts publicity. I did take away some great, succinct advice from the speaker, Cameron Herold,  on the most effective uses of PR and understanding exactly what PR is. I will share these with you over the next few posts.

The Right Mindset for PR

It is best to look at PR as a service you are offering to journalists. You aren’t selling a product to them, you are providing them with story ideas. Story ideas are something they need on a regular basis. If you keep up a blog, you know what I am talking about.

Do not send a one sheet, which is a piece of sales material typically designed to attract buyers like at a film market. There is no story hook in a one sheet, nor is there a story angle in some typical press releases. Journalists are not in the business of simply promoting your film (the ones whose sites are not owned by studios/distributors anyway), they are in the business of developing and writing a good story for their audience. How does your film or your work help them do that? Hint: it should be unique. It is NOT that you have made a film. The easier you can make a journalist’s work, the more likely they are to write and publish a story.

You should be researching what these journalists write about and what their audience typically reads on the site or in their publications and find a way to tie your work into their interests. This doesn’t mean send mass press releases to a big list of journalists (believe me, I am still getting these from PR people who should know better because I was on the Sundance press list), it means crafting a custom pitch to select journalists who can help you achieve your objectives. Those objectives could be audience attention, but they could also be industry attention for your career.

Finding Journalists

A few resources were offered and most were geared more toward the needs of a corporate entity, like PR Newswire and Vocus which caters to the masses. Masses are not what you want. Tightly focused, interest driven publications are your goal. First start with Google and look for journalists in a particular region (if you want to promote a screening or if you are shooting in that location or if you are from that location), or journalists who cover a very specific topic (something related to the interests of the audience of your film). Again these could be industry publications (covering Jewish filmmakers, or women filmmakers, or LGBT filmmakers) too. My recommendations for finding journalists is not to look for lists because those only encourage you to send one email en masse which is the lazy approach and unlikely to result in much coverage. This is going to take some time and effort, research and reading to figure out the best fit for your story. If you take that little extra time, your email is less likely to end up in the mass delete column in a journalist’s inbox.

You may also want to target journalists who have syndicated columns which can result in your story spreading through many different publications, even worldwide. Once it starts to spread, other publications that aren’t even part of the syndication are likely to pick it up.

Next up…finding an angle and crafting a pitch

New York – Woody Allen announced today the full cast for “The Bop Decameron,” his latest film in pre-production. Starring, in alphabetical order, are: Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. Co-stars include Antonio Albanese, Fabio Armiliata, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ornella Muti, Flavio Parenti, Alison Pill, Riccardo Scamarcio and Alessandro Tiberi.

“The Bop Decameron” is a Gravier Productions film produced by Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum. This is Allen’s first film to be financed by the Italian production and distribution company, Medusa Film. “The Bop Decameron” begins production on July 11 and marks Allen’s first time shooting in Rome. His latest film, “Midnight in Paris,” is currently playing in theaters.

Beverly Hills, CA – The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted on Tuesday to add a new twist to the 2011 Best Picture competition, and a new element of surprise to its annual nominations announcement.  The Board voted to institute a system that will now produce anywhere between five and 10 nominees in the category.  That number won’t be announced until the Best Picture nominees themselves are revealed at the January nominations announcement.

“With the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we’ve been looking not just at what happened over the past two years, but at what would have happened if we had been selecting 10 nominees for the past 10 years,” explained Academy President Tom Sherak, who noted that it was retiring Academy executive director Bruce Davis who recommended the change first to Sherak and incoming CEO Dawn Hudson and then to the governors.

During the period studied, the average percentage of first place votes received by the top vote-getting movie was 20.5.  After much analysis by Academy officials, it was determined that 5% of first place votes should be the minimum in order to receive a nomination, resulting in a slate of anywhere from five to 10 movies.

“In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies,” said Davis.  “A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit.  If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn’t feel an obligation to round out the number.”

If this system had been in effect from 2001 to 2008 (before the expansion to a slate of 10), there would have been years that yielded 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 nominees.

The final round of voting for Best Picture will continue to employ the preferential system, regardless of the number of nominees, to ensure that the winning picture has the endorsement of more than half of the voters.

Other rules changes approved by the Board include:

In the animated feature film category, the need for the Board to vote to “activate” the category each year was eliminated, though a minimum number of eligible releases – eight – is still required for a competitive category.   Additionally, the short films and feature animation branch recommended, and the Board approved, refinements to the number of possible nominees in the Animated Feature category.  In any year in which eight to 12 animated features are released, either two or three of them may be nominated.  When 13 to 15 films are released, a maximum of four may be nominated, and when 16 or more animated features are released, a maximum of five may be nominated.

In the visual effects category, the “bakeoff” at which the nominees are determined will expand from seven to 10 contenders.  The increase in the number of participants is related to a change made last year in which the number of films nominated in the visual effects category  was increased from three to five.

Previously, the Board approved changes to the documentary feature and documentary short category rules that now put those categories’ eligibility periods in line with the calendar year and thus with most other awards categories.  The change means that for the 84th Awards cycle only, the eligibility period is more than 12 months; it is from September 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011.

Other modifications of the 84th Academy Awards rules include normal date changes and minor “housekeeping” changes.

Rules are reviewed annually by individual branch and category committees.  The Awards Rules Committee then reviews all proposed changes before presenting its recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors for approval.

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network.  The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

I was watching this very brilliant presentation from artist Shea Hembrey. It is funny, entertaining and gives true insight into a creative mind. As a Southern girl, I can relate to Shea’s background very well!

During the presentation, he talks about how he judges “art.” He said after visiting hundreds of exhibitions and seeing a lot of work, he identified what he found missing from the experience and from a lot of art. One was work that was appealing to a broad public, meaning that a lot of art is not accessible to most people. They can’t connect with what the artist is trying to show. I think many people also cannot connect with the artist as a person which helps in making the art accessible. Some art is just too personal to the artist with no meaning for anyone else and many artists are introverts, preferring their work to speak for them. If you are an introverted artist making work that only speaks to you, how are you going to attract people to you work? As filmmakers, you have to consider this. Are you making work that only appeals to you? If so, it is inaccessible and there is no business model for that. Which is fine, just know going in that you can’t sustain yourself on inaccessible art. Also if we, the audience, cannot connect with you as a person given today’s reality that everyone is personally accessible through multiple social networks, you will find it increasingly harder to exist as an artist.

I know, it isn’t a popular concept. Are there artists in history that managed to rise above the noise and become a “name” without the need (or existence) of social networking? Of course, but in comparison to all artists, you can name them on a few hands and in the past, there were very few outlets one could use to rise above the din. Traditional mass media in the form of art critics was about it. Now there are thousands of outlets and it is just too easy to access them not to be actively doing that. As an artist, I wouldn’t want to hope I get “discovered,” I would want to make sure of it and actively make it happen.

Shea says he developed 2 sets of criteria for judging art he would want in his exhibition (a biennial that he devised. You’ll hear the all about it in the presentation.). One was the Meemaw test (love the term!) which was if he couldn’t explain the art to his grandmother in 5 minutes, then it was not accessible enough and wouldn’t be considered. The other was the three H’s, head, heart and hand. Great art has interesting intellectual ideas for the head; it has passion and soul and can touch people in an emotional way for the heart; and it has great craftsmanship and technique made by hand. I think this is a great way to critique films (both independent and studio made). The work that lasts, garners audience, and succeeds must have all of these things. Just as Shea was having trouble finding these things in the exhibition art world, I have trouble finding these things in the film world. Many independent films are either not accessible or do not have head, heart and hand.

I bet if you examine the film that inspired you to be a filmmaker, you’ll find that it had all three of these things. And you can explain that film in five minutes to someone and they can “get” it. When making work of your own, consider if it has head, heart, hand.

Silver Spring, Maryland — Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists convened this weekend for the first, formal face-to-face discussions between the AFTRA New Union Committee and the SAG Merger Task Force at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland.

The two groups, comprised of members including actors, performers, recording artists and broadcast professionals, met together as the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA Group for One Union (G1) to facilitate the creation of one successor union to represent all of the members of AFTRA and Screen Actors Guild.

The G1 established a series of work groups to discuss six key areas that rank-and-file members identified as important during the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA Presidents’ Forum for One Union nationwide Listening Tour. The six workgroups are:

• Governance and Structure
• Finance and Dues
• Collective Bargaining
• Pension, Health and Retirement
• Operations and Staff
• Member Education and Outreach

The work groups will meet throughout 2011, formulate recommendations for how the successor union should address each area and bring those recommendations back to the G1 for approval. These recommendations will inform the G1’s work to create the Merger Agreement, National Constitution and uniform dues structure that each union’s National Board has required for review by January 2012.

In a joint statement, AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon and Screen Actors Guild President Ken Howard praised the unions’ inaugural meeting saying: “We applaud the members and staff of our two unions for their incredible solidarity and vision during this intense and substantive weekend. We know the members of the successor union will be well served by their diligent and hard work during the months to come.”

On Friday, June 17, AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, joined by Department of Professional Employees President Paul Almeida, welcomed the members and staff of Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA. Trumka addressed the group and praised the unions’ leaderships for their commitment to solidarity and their work on the effort to unite AFTRA and SAG saying, “I encourage you to keep an open mind and base your decision not on any preconceived notions but on this measure alone: what is best for our members, our unions and our future. That’s the big picture we must all keep our eyes on. Whatever your decision the 12 million members of the AFL-CIO will support you.”

The weekend’s meetings were facilitated by Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations Professor Susan J. Schurman, and noted labor consultant Peter S. DiCicco. The next meeting of the full AFTRA and Screen Actors Guild Group for One Union is scheduled for August 27 – 28 in New York City.

About Screen Actors Guild

Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents more than 125,000 actors who work in film and digital television programs, motion pictures, commercials, video games, music videos, industrials and all new media formats. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Headquartered in Los Angeles, you can visit SAG online at SAG.org.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO, are the people who entertain and inform America. In 32 Locals across the country, AFTRA members work as actors, broadcasters, singers, dancers, announcers, hosts, comedians, disc jockeys, and other performers across the media industries including television, radio, cable, sound recordings, music videos, commercials, audio books, non-broadcast industrials, interactive games, the Internet and other digital media. The 70,000 professional performers, broadcasters, and recording artists of AFTRA are working together to protect and improve their jobs, lives, and communities in the 21st century. From new art forms to new technology, AFTRA members embrace change in their work and craft to enhance American culture and society. Visit AFTRA online at http://www.aftra.com, and follow AFTRA on Facebook and Twitter.