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#ArtistServices: What I See After 30 Years
We just celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Feature Film Program Labs which started with the June Filmmakers Lab in 1981. Over these years, we’ve had the privilege of providing an immersive creative experience to hundreds of artists whose films have transformed the independent landscape and had a significant impact on audiences around the world. More recently, the Feature Film Program evolved to establish a year-round support system for independent filmmakers beginning at the script stage and continuing through distribution with Labs, granting, and ongoing creative and strategic support.
Adventures in Specialized Distribution: ‘We Were Here’
Red Flag Releasing is an independent distribution company owned by Paul Federbush and Laura Kim. The former Warner Independent Pictures executives shepherded films such as March of the Penguins, Good Night, and Good Luck and Paradise Now. Federbush also worked as a production executive on Slumdog Millionaire.
10 Ways in Which I Would Release Bomb It Today
Jon Reiss is a filmmaker who also helps filmmakers strategize and execute the releases of their films and train their PMDs. His new book is a collaboration with The Film Collaborative and Sheri Candler titled Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul to be released in September. His latest “film” Bomb It 2 will be released on iTunes and other digital platforms later this year.
Twitter for Independent Filmmakers: A Guide
Josh Grau (@grauface) leads sales development for Brand Solutions at Twitter. He focuses on developing large-scale event-based programs for marketers and works closely with movie studios to develop Twitter-specific marketing strategies for major releases. Prior he headed business development for YouTube Branded Entertainment, and Director of Marketing for ESPN and CBS.
State of the Union
The third annual Creative Producing Summit kicked off last night at the Sundance Resort with a panel of independent producers and directors mulling the state of the independent film industry. Festival Director John Cooper prefaced the discussion with a few sales numbers from the boom that was the 2011 Festival (a record 78 film sales), and moderator Dan Steinman of CAA sarcastically noted that this panel would—with ease—capture the “unified” mood of independent film in the allotted hour.With film sales spiking at many of the premier Festivals internationally, Steinman opened the discussion with the most pertinent question—is independent film back in business? Eric d’Arbeloff (Roadside Attractions) led the hesitantly optimistic responses, suggesting that the industry saw encouraging signs this year: “Maybe we’re back in business, but I’m not sure I see the sea changing.
Q&A: Go Behind the Scenes at the Alamo Drafthouse with CEO Tim League
As part of our Creative Distribution Initiative, we tapped Alamo Drafthouse CEO Tim League to find out more about how the Austin-based movie theater chain does business. Keep reading for League’s thoughts on building his brand, finding new audiences, and branching out into partnering with Magnolia.For you and for the Alamo, how does a film that does not have an all-rights-scale distribution model in place build out the booking process for screening in your theater?In terms of the Alamo, we have a programming office out here in Austin.
Manda Welcomes Us
Deborah Asiimwe is a Ugandan playwright and Specialist for Sundance Institute East Africa. Below she shares her experience at the ongoing Sundance Institute Theatre Lab on Manda off the coast of Kenya.
Here, the stars shine brightest and they seem so many—how does this sky hold all of them? We arrive as the sun is about to “return to his mother.
First-Ever Sundance Institute Comedy ShortsLab to be Held August 6 in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute is pleased to announce the schedule and featured participants for its first Comedy ShortsLab, a one-day symposium focused on the craft of comedic short-form filmmaking and exhibition. The Comedy ShortsLab will be Saturday, August 6 at Cinefamily@The Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles.
A Failure (or Opportunity) to Communicate
As chief innovation officer at Universal McCann, Marc Ruxin leads the agency’s global innovation practice across businesses and disciplines, working with traditional media companies on brand integrations, social media, and working with VCs and emerging media technology startups to create scalable digital marketing opportunities for clients. Ruxin writes about music and film at snooze button, and technology and media on HuffPo, among others.
“What we’ve got here is (a) failure to communicate…,” the warden in Cool Hand Luke said to the prisoner 45 years ago.
Bass Ackwards Moves Forward into Creative Distribution
Introduction: Orly Ravid, founder of nonprofit educational and services site The Film Collaborative, has given us an exclusive sneak at TFC’s digital book Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul: Case Studies in Hybrid, DIY and P2P Independent Distribution. This “deep dive into the real numbers and real details of independent film distribution,” as Ravid calls it, will be available in September. It’s a mostly free digital book (the enhanced iBook is $4.
Life in a Day
Hitting Theatresby John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film FestivalIt’s been almost seven months since I shared the stage in Park City, Utah, with Kevin Macdonald and the international filmmakers from the Life in a Day project. We had just created a kind of history: not only were we premiering a user-generated film to the Sundance audiences, we were simultaneously streaming it live to a global audience and taking their responses for a Q&A from Twitter and Facebook.It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year now since we first started working with YouTube and Scott Free on the concept for this unique premiere at our Festival.
ShortsLab: NYC Wrap-Up
“Every time you make a short, it will never be in vain. It’s a win-win situation,” said Debra Granik to a full crowd during an early Saturday morning at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “The short may never come together the way you want it, but look at all the things you just learned.
Calling All Alumni to #ArtistServices
Welcome Sundance Institute Alumni! We’re so pleased you could join us here at our newest and greatest tool for communicating directly with alumni. One thing we hear again and again from Filmmakers and Fellows is that Sundance is more than a Festival, or a Lab, or a Grant. It’s a community, a family.
The Independent Filmmaker’s Guide on How *Not* to Do Kickstarter
Mark Kitchell is best known for “Berkeley in the Sixties,” one of the defining documentaries about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s. He produced, directed and wrote the film, led a huge archival research effort as well as a successful distribution campaign. In the twenty years since that film, he has worked in non-fiction television, made films for hire, taught at UC Santa Cruz, done various freelance production work and developed “A Fierce Green Fire.
Filmmaker Ty Sanga on an Indigenous Experience
Ty Sanga is a Native Hawaiian filmmaker and 2011 Native Lab Fellow whose film Stones was selected for the Shorts Program at the 2011 Festival. He recently participated in the five-day Lab in Mescalero, New Mexico with his project Kalama Brothers, chronicling a boy’s struggle to reconnect with his estranged family in order to avoid the foster care system.I had the extreme honor of being a Fellow at the 2011 Sundance Native Lab that was held on the homeland of the Mescalero Apache tribe in New Mexico.