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Filmmaker
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Hollywood Film Festival Seminars: Just do it! The Hollywood Film Festival, which ran from August 2 to 7, is about the most ambitious 6 days in filmdom. Paralleling the Festival is a different kind of stellar event, the Hollywood Film Conference. This highly ambitious feast of ideas features a dizzying array of seminars and panel discussions, ranging from film development to casting to the brave new world of Internet marketing. The caliber of the professionals inside the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the Conference, made one panelist quip that "if a bomb goes off in the building, they might as well move Hollywood to Cincinnati". Korean Cinema : Story of a Revelation The selection of Chunhyang by the Korean filmmaker Im Kwont'aek for the 2000 Cannes Festival cuts markedly the international consecration of the New Korean Cinema. As a flashing melodrama shot in the past with appropriate costumes and settings, the film perpetuates the aesthetism of a leading genre, at the same time it reflects the exceptional soaring of the cinema industry in Korea. Chunhyang has benefited from the largest budget ever spent on a film in Korea, that is about 4 million dollars. Only such an amount of money could make it possible to get the necessary settings, costumes and work in natural lighting. Spec Script Market Develops Online The indie film business first began flirting with the Internet in the form of web sites that marketed and promoted films. In the aftermath of the legendary Internet success of The Blair Witch Project, that flirtation exploded into a torrid affair. In a short period of months, independent filmmakers have been turning to the Internet for all aspects of their film, including buying or selling scripts and financing their productions. “The Internet affords writers the opportunity to have their scripts seen by filmmakers and producers who normally wouldn’t see it.” Vancouver: "Hollywood North" Any conversation about filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest begins and ends with Vancouver, British Columbia. As a matter of fact, this fledgling city is such a popular destination for American filmmakers that workers in the industry have dubbed it “Hollywood North”. According to Kevin Reidy, a prominent Vancouver producer and Unit Production Manager whose credits include Swimming with Sharks and One False Move, as of April 1st there were 39 full-fledged film productions simultaneously shooting in the greater Vancouver metro area, not to mention a plethora of television programs. “We were doing toe shots [filming actors in a car being towed by a special truck], driving in downtown Vancouver. We went to make a left turn at an intersection and nearly got in an accident with another film crew doing the same thing we were, coming in the opposite direction,” Reidy related. That Vancouver is the Film King of the region is undisputed; explaining why is a more complicated affair.
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Fly Film-making Three
indie filmmakers took the
Seattle
International Fourth Annual Film Festival's
Fly Filmmaking Challenge this year to come to Seattle and scout, cast,
shoot, edit, and screen a short film in seven days. The program, designed
to showcase local filmmaking talent, vendors and crew as well (re)
ignite the spark of creative impulse in filmmakers, also re-invented
itself to address the new media digital technologies as directors
Jim Taylor, Meg Richman and Clay Eide shared three formats: Super
16mm, High Definition and Digital Video with varying success. The Ins and Outs of Internet Film Distribution The
Internet is by far the most powerful marketing tool available to the
independent producer. It goes without saying that independent productions
are hopelessly outgunned when contending with a Hollywood marketing
campaign that involves TV, magazines, radio, billboards and newspapers.
The Internet is proving to be the one form of media where your production
can compete on the same level as a major studio. Film Festival Strategy: Guerilla Marketing Given the intense competition, how does an independent filmmaker make himself heard? This is the striking question I took with me to the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festival in Park City. Although not entirely scientific, I did carefully study the guerilla marketing techniques of the low budget productions and noted not only their methods but also the effectiveness of their from-the-hip marketing campaigns. Film Festival Strategy: A Seminar of Ideas As any experienced independent filmmaker knows, completing your film is only the beginning. Signing a distribution deal is the ultimate exit strategy for many filmmakers and the quickest route there is through a film festival, where distributors and agents will be scouting for new talent and content. However, with so much riding on this shot at fame and fortune (or simply the continuation of a career), a filmmaker must have a carefully planned and executed strategy if they plan on succeeding... |
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