Category: Case Studies

Last Tuesday, the gang at Sundance Institute’s #ArtistServices program helped release BURN into the marketplace. This thrilling and timely documentary, executive produced by Denis Leary, tells the story of Detroit through the lens of one of the country’s busiest Fire Departments. The film quickly became the #1 Documentary and #1 Independent Film on iTunes, despite lacking many of the conventional features and distribution resources of previous #1 films.

Indie Game: The Movie has quickly developed a name not just as a must-see documentary but also as a film pioneer in the world of distribution. Recently, I had a Skype chat with Co-directors James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot . The documentary darlings talked about their indie film and its truly indie journey to audiences.

Lance Weiler doesn’t like to do things half-way.  As a self-declared “Story-Architect for Film, TV and Games,” Weiler is considered a thought leader and pioneer in the mashup culture of #transmedia.  His early influence and consultations helped shape the very structure of the Sundance New Frontier Lab itself.

“This is the natural evolution of entertainment – going beyond the screens and traditional forms to allow audiences to live and participate in more ways with immersive worlds,” Susan Bonds said simply.On Sunday, October 22, Bonds, CEO of 42 Entertainment, presented the opening keynote to the Sundance inaugural New Frontier Story Lab. 42 Entertainment creates genre defining participatory and cross-platform entertainment often described as “alternative reality games (ARGs).

Transcendent Man is a documentary film (directed by Barry Ptolemy) that chronicles the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the inventor and futurist known for his bold vision of the Singularity, a point in the near future when technology will be changing so rapidly that we will have to enhance ourselves with artificial intelligence to keep up. In Transcendent Man, Kurzweil predicts an astonishing future in which we will be billions of times more intelligent, merge with our machines, and even overcome death..

Cora Olson and Jennifer Dubin formed Present Pictures to produce smartly-budgeted, cutting-edge content from select talent in today’s independent film industry. Their films have premiered at some of the world’s top festivals including Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca. Credits include The Babysitters, Good Dick, The Perfect Family and Future Weather.

Super 8 is a film written and directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg.

Todd Sklar loves coffee. In early 2008, he founded Range Life Entertainment, a privately-held film exhibition and marketing company, which tours independent films across the country on a bi-annual basis. Focusing on event-based screenings and niche marketing, Range Life currently programs over 120 events per year, while also producing original content, and continuing to parade dive bars and karaoke rooms across the U.

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.