A great opportunity for filmmakers – both narrative and doc makers! Here is the official press release for this year’s forums:

“IFP’s Independent Film Week is the oldest and largest forum in the U.S. for the discovery of new projects in development and new voices on the independent film scene. The Project Forum is a meetings-driven forum connecting filmmakers who have new narrative and documentary projects with key industry executives interested in identifying projects with which to become involved at the financing or distribution stage.

It is qualitatively and quantitatively the best opportunity for an independent filmmaker to connect with industry professionals – including producers, funders, distributors, broadcasters, sales agents and festival programmers. The Project Forum also furthers filmmaker and industry interaction with opportunities for networking at social events throughout the week.

Now accepting applications for all three sections: Emerging Narrative (for writers and writer/directors seeking producers and agents to develop, produce, represent and finance their scripts), No Borders (for U.S. and international producers with partial financing on new narrative projects seeking additional partners), Spotlight on Documentaries (for U.S. filmmakers with projects in production or post-production seeking financing partners, broadcast/distribution opportunities, and festival invitations.)

Deadlines vary by section – from April 23 (for Emerging Narrative) to May 21 (for No Borders and Spotlight on Documentaries). For deadline schedule, criteria for all sections, and online applications, go HERE.”

Ira Livingston, longtime coordinator of the Minneapolis 48 Hour Film Challenge, just launched his own film challenge to take place this June called The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge.

This challenge changes up some of the rules associated with other film contests like The 48. For example, it gives something back to the winning filmmakers at the city level. On its just-launched website, the Challenge states, “We, at The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge, recognize the need for winning filmmakers to walk away with more than just their boosted pride… That being said, we are giving 50% of the ticket sales of your city to the Best Film!”

Also, this contest allows teams to choose 50% of their team’s genre at registration, so your team can start plotting and writing before the competition starts. At kick-off, each team receives the other 50% of their genre, randomly chosen from all the possible genre types (so you might end up with comedy/horror as your genre, or musical/sci-fi), plus a character and a color.

Teams then get 50 hours of pre-production time (writing, casting and locking down locations) and another 50 hours to shoot, compose and edit their films. Bonus: this contest allows time to sleep.

I think you’re beginning to understand why this challenge is called “The 50 Fifty,” right?

Finally, if your film wins the honor of Best Film, your team takes 50% of the net box office ticket sales from the screening.

The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge takes place June 2-6. You can register online now!

As a filmmaker, either documentary and narrative, there are certain times when you are forced for some reason to shoot with available light and in those situations there are most certainly times when that light is too low for your desired shots. This typically leads to grainy, noisy video. So, what is a shooter to do when they just have to have the shot or the editor isn’t provided a better shot to work with? Use NeatVideo and clean it up! This $100 plugin is worth its weight in gold (or hard drive storage or RED gear or something more valuable than $100) and really can produce stunning results on footage you may consider unusable. It takes render time, of course, to clean up all that noise and grain you wish to eliminate, but the results are well worth it. And, unlike some other solutions I’ve seen in reducing noise, NeatVideo does an amazing job at retaining details and can even sharpen up your video very nicely. Take a look at this sample video I made of two noisy night-time shots (download the original clip from Vimeo to really see the details) and I think you’ll be convinced like I was (I am not affiliated with NeatVideo, just love their product).

Demo of NeatVideo plugin from Jeremy Wilker on Vimeo.

Have you heard that the “Hollywood” film system is broken? That indies are having a tough time getting their films bought/distributed/shown? That if you want something done right you better do it yourself? Well, for indie filmmakers, if you want something done, period, you really had better do it yourself and Jon Reiss (”Bomb It”, “Better Living Through Circuitry”) aims to give you all the help and advice you need with his new book “Think Outside the Box Office.”

Subtitled “The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era,” Reiss covers everything you need to know (and recommends knowing it before you start shooting!) from assembling your team, building up your website and social networks, doing live events and theatrical (it doesn’t stop once it shows in a theater!), marketing and publicity and merchandising, to digital rights and foreign sales. Whew. It is a jam-packed treasure trove of how-to DIY advice and real world examples. There is even a well-done chapter on how to use WordPress (free) for your website.

TOTBO is a dense tome with step-by-step info and it doesn’t sugar-coat the reality that the current world of indie filmmaking is lots of really hard work. You may not be able to do it all yourself, but at least you’ll know what needs to be done. And you’ll be armed with knowledge from inside the trenches when it comes time to do a distribution deal.

Reiss delivers a timely, up-to-date and impressively useful book for indie filmmakers that is worth far more than the list price. In fact, I’d grab your copy now before Reiss figures out what an enormous value this is and starts charging the big bucks for weekend-long seminars!

A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste, indeed.  The filmmakers behind Dirty Country have taken a cue from that adage and documented, befriended, and ushered one of the dirtiest – and most prolific – minds into the spotlight with their 2007 SXSW Audience Award-winning feature documentary.  While extremely profane (and proudly so), Dirty Country is as touching and well-crafted as it is gutter-minded, telling the story of retired factory worker Larry Pierce as he pursues his savant-like talent for penning filthy songs.  (WARNING: Trailer not for the easily offended.)

Dirty Country trailer

And now, Dirty Country is out on DVD, just in time for everyone on your naughty list this holiday season! The unrated Director’s Cut DVD includes never before seen footage, a full Larry Pierce concert with i-tis, filmmaker commentary, a how-to video on playing “warshers”, and much more!  Just listen to the glowing praise…

“Easily the funniest thing I’ve seen at SXSW” -Film.com

“I have rarely heard people laugh so much at a documentary –
and not just giggles but full-blown belly laughs.” -Cinematical

“At the heart of ‘Dirty Country’ is an upbeat underdog story.” -MLive.com

“Good (unclean) fun.” -Jim Ridley, Nashville Scene

“‘Dirty Country’ is as critically engaging as it is jaw-droppingly foul.”
-Calgary International Film Festival

“A raunchy, surprisingly affecting doc.” -Tracy McCormick, Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine

The film has quite a bit of Minnesota talent tied to it, from producers to editors to post-production support… even a live concert section filmed at Fridley, MN’s own Main Event!  Show your support – spread the word and help build buzz for this epic release by adding Dirty Country to your queues on Netflix and Blockbuster Online.  Become a fan on Facebook.  And check out the official site for all the latest info!

QUICK LINKS:
• Netflix (add DC to your queue!)
• Blockbuster Online (add DC to your queue!)
• Hastings (order the DVD!)
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Visit our official site for all the latest info (and to order the DVD)

William Mitchell College of Law hosted a conference on “The Future of Entertainment Distribution” last Friday afternoon. The first panel was concerned with film and TV (or video, as the case may be) and featured Dan Satorius, co-chair of Lommen Abdo Law Firm as the moderator. The panel consisted of Jon Garon, professor of law at Hamline University Law School, Marcelino Ford-Livene of Intel Corporation and Ted Cohen of TAG Consulting in Los Angeles.

Whenever I listen to or get involved in a conversation about the future of media distribution, it doesn’t take long before my head starts to hurt but I did manage to glean a few nuggets of information before the talk ended and the entire room stampeded to the front to ask more questions or to the back to grab a cookie. Here’s one marketing technique that’s not going away anytime soon – winning people over with free food.

Some of the discussion on the collapse of the indie film market. As studios rely more heavily on what is referred to as “tent pole” films like Transformers or entertainment experiences that have yet to be replicated in homes (like 3D, although Apple is just one of several working on a 3D screen), the indie film is left amidst the rubble of the more traditional distribution model we used to know. Increasingly, domestic distribution is something that needs to be hammered out before production even begins. Budgets need to include costs for theatrical release, as the likelihood of theatrical distribution deals after production decline. How can an indie film or documentary accomplish this?

There was much bandying about of the phrase “crowdsourcing.” Crowdsourcing, according to Wikipedia, is “leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals.” So, basically, you get a bunch of people to perform a task an individual or business would have had to take on themselves in the past. How it’s applied here is in terms of fundraising for a film. You start a dialog with your intended audience or niche (hopefully  you already have an online presence) before you start production. You ask them to “crowdfund” your film with small donations. The example given on the panel was offering a thank- you in the credits for every person who donates $25. Then a thank- you plus an invite to the premiere for every $50. Then a thank-you, premiere invite and festival tickets for every $100. You get the idea.

Then you work on setting up advanced bookings to screen your film at independent theaters. You develop a website for “fans” even before the movie is finished. If you are particularly savvy and/or well-connected or there is an obvious link, you take on a sponsor to help fund you with the promise of rewards and visibility for them once the film comes out. This could be done through product placement (which many of us think of as an evil phrase but just about every network show seems to do it – even Dwight on The Office used a paper shredder from Staples in one episode and in another he goes to work there!) or it could be that an environmental organization wants to see your documentary about three-headed frogs get made so that it can further it’s own cause of clean water, air, soil, etc.

So some filmmakers are essentially pre-selling their projects in new ways, which requires them to be much more entrepreneurial than in the past. An online search for films following this model brought me to the Facebook page for Urban Scumbags vs. Countryside Zombies, a film from the early 90s that is being redone and some of it re-shot. Their donation levels are as follows:

For a contribution of $20 you can be a zombie in the May reshoots in L.A.

For a contribution of $150 you can be a featured bloody, rotten zombie in the reshoots

For a contribution of $550 you can be featured as the dead zombie rising from the grave

For a contribution of $1000 or more you can be a named zombie with a unique kill and credited as an associate producer in the film and on IMDB

Buying a Pre-Sell Special Edition DVD is a great way to help us out now and get a valuable, limited-release DVD or DVD set after the film is released later this year. “Rotten Hand Limited Edition” DVD Set – We “removed” the left hand of 20 zombies, and now offer them for sale to you, along with the original and reanimated DVDs and a bonus DVD.

“Rusted Special Edition” DVD Set (a limited release of “rusted” metal cases which includes the original and reanimated DVDs) or  a “Steel Edition” DVD (the reanimated version in a full-size, metal-encased DVD).

So you see how some filmmakers are taking matters into their own… uh, zombie hands, here. Is this the route for everyone? Let’s hope not. But it could be the route to take if you’re Eric Olson from Grand Rapids and you’ve got a movie about doctors in space – which is great. Now there is a route for Eric Olson from Grand Rapids and his doctors from space. The Internet and all the new technology associated with it opens the playing field. The hope is that talent still rises to the top and gets funded on its third or fourth time out. But if you never raise the money for that first project, no one will know about you at all. You can be 2010 and attempt to “crowdsource” or you can be all 1998 and put the entire movie on your credit card.  While we all may long for 1908, when rich patrons who took care of artists, rich patrons seem to be few and far between these days. Is there an online registry for rich patrons? Richpatrons.org?

I think what it all boils down to is that we are still in the “discovery” mode in terms of distribution in this Web 2.0 world. Develop your project and put it out there in a thoughtful way. It’s never too early to collect fans or “friends” or to think about the end result you’re hoping for. Assume your film will not be purchased in a bidding war at Sundance. Think about what body parts you might be able to sell.

That’s the spirit!

I encourage everyone to come down to BLB tomorrow and check out SCRAP, the new documentary from Paul von Stoetzel, which tells the tale of two men who live by a “something-from-nothing” ethos, creating massively amazing things from other people’s everyday junk.  The film is screening in the Twin Cities on Thursday, October 8th for a test run before it begins its stint on the festival circuit.

SCRAP follows the history of two eccentric builders and their amazing structures which were both built by a single man. The Forevertron, located in Wisconsin and built by Tom Every, is recognized as the world’s largest scrap metal sculpture which was created to send his soul into space after he dies. Bishop Castle, located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and built by Jim Bishop, is a ten story castle that he has been erecting without any outside help since 1969. The film focuses on the eccentric architects of these structures, as they are as fascinating and awe inducing as their creations.

So grab a Vita.MN tomorrow, check out the first review of SCRAP, and then come out and show some support.  Paul’s been working on this doc for over 5 years and a lot of amazing and talented people worked on this such as Brianna Deihl, Kari Jo Skogquist, and a phenomenal score by local legends Mike Gunther and His Restless Souls.

Advance tickets are recommended as seating is limited.

WHAT- One Night Only Sneak Peak Screening of SCRAP
WHERE- Minneapolis Bryant-Lake Bowl,
810 West Lake Street, Minneapolis MN, 55408
WHEN- Thursday October 8th, Doors at 6:00pm, screening begins at 7:00pm
TICKETS- $8.00 at www.bryantlakebowl.com

An ongoing blog about the final days of post production for the Dance Documentary “SOLO: 1X2”, following six dancers as they create unique solos for themselves. The film screens at the Southern Theater on September 25 & 26, 2009. See Trailer. Get Tickets.

This Friday is the Day! There is a great article by Caroline Palmer in City Pages about the film. Well, we got the movie off the system onto a DVD. It plays fine on Mac DVD drives – I’m having a little trouble with DVD players. It’s an 8.5 GB disc, and those have never play well for me. It is 2 hours and 3 minutes long. I should get another half hour out of it, but it’s way too interesting to do that.

It screens this Friday, but we have more work to do. I need to score it, take care of some technical issues, get my rights bible in order, and cut that pesky half hour out of it. Still, I am going to enter it in a festival as a rough cut. The dead line for that is this Friday – everything happens on Friday. I will have a questionnaire at the screenings and I want input from the audience – I guess you could call it a focus group. This will help because our partners are the audience, and if they don’t want to watch it, why make it? I’ve always wondered why painters don’t hold focus viewings. You go to the gallery, look at the paintings, fill out a questionnaire, and then, based on the opinions gathered, the painter repaints the picture. I guess they get to be more pure then filmmakers. Damn the audience – full speed ahead.

I am going to cut this short. We are showing the film, but it is only half the journey, we still have to raise funds, finish it, and get distribution. Plus, I haven’t even told you the whole story of the shoot, and I have lots of interesting side bits to share. And so, with Rebecca’s kind permission, I will continue this blog until you can see the film in theaters – which may take awhile.

Abdo Sayegh & Mifa Ko

Tickets are going fast – buy now.

An ongoing blog about the final days of post production for the Dance Documentary “SOLO: 1X2”, following six dancers as they create unique solos for themselves. The film screens at the Southern Theater on September 25 & 26, 2009. See Trailer. Get Tickets.

I’m back to counting: 18 days to go. We just got the Tech Week Section done — it’s very funny, but it wasn’t funny to those involved at the time, so even though I’m sure I will be looking back on these final days and laughing, I’m not laughing now.

We have made a great break through. I mentioned that we filmed “Guest Stars” — internationally recognized choreographers, dancers and critics. These “Witnesses” talked about dance, solo work, the life of a dancer, art – great conversations. We didn’t know how we were going to use them, but we thought it would add to the film. Actually these interviews transformed the film. These thoughts, comments, and philosophies, helped us to better focus on and structure the story of our six dancers

Two big events for the shoot occurred in March 2008: Colleen Thomas came to town to set Laura’s piece and Karla went to New York for her final rehearsals. Of course, the dates for these events had to overlap, so I’m shooting all day for a couple of days in Minneapolis, and then I flew to New York the next day. Colleen and Laura were a match made in heaven. Laura did not agonize over picking her choreographer – she just picked, and her instincts were perfect. I think that is one her great talents as a dancer – she just knows – she doesn’t have to think about it. Colleen and Laura worked like they were best friends and they had only met once before. Laura is also using video, a variety of music, and a rubber chicken. So they got into some technical issues that developed into CONFLICT: the key element of a good story.

The next day I flew out and landed in the New York, St. Patrick’s Day Parade. So I shot some background footage. Karla was in town with Natalie Nowytski, the singer who is working with her; Molly, a student of hers, who is doing research on Jazz Dance; and Joe Chvala, who she works with in Flying Foot Forum. Joe saw a lot of shows. I met Max Pollak, her choreographer; he was a whirled wind of energy. He blows into the studio and start talking his own language: “Boom Ba, Wa Da, Gee” . He’s a drummer, and rhythmic dancer, and it is amazing what he can communicate with sounds. Work, Work, Work – every second counted while were in the Studio. Then we’d meet Joe and Molly, have nice dinner, walk around, have a nice desert and head home. The next day was the same. All in all a very good trip. The next time I see Max is when he comes into town for final rehearsals.

As you probably can tell by now I shot this film alone – mostly. Sometimes, Caitlin and I both went on a shoot, but usually its either her or me. We have two cameras, but they don’t match, we aren’t lighting, we are recording sound with a mike mounted on the camera, or a lavaliere, and we will use footage shot by the dancers with their DV cameras. Early on we had to make a stylistic choice. We chose content over production value. Not only was that the right choice, but it was the only practical one. I sometime feel I’ve come full circle: I stared with a 16mm B&H wind up, moved on to an Arri S, did some 35mm, video, video walls, multi-screen, grip trucks, studios, CRAFT SERVICES and now its just me and a camera again — doing the best work of my life. My personality seems suited for this. If I was a painter, I would not be painting highly detailed, highly precise portraits, like Chuck Close: I would be wallowing in paint, like Jackson Pollock.  I would draw something like this:

Knife, In The Parlour, With Grandma

If you like this – you’ll like the film. If you don’t like this — you’ll like the film anyway, because my collaborators paint like Chuck Close.

An ongoing blog about the final days of post production for the Dance Documentary “SOLO: 1X2”, following six dancers as they create unique solos for themselves. The film screens at the Southern Theater on September 25 & 26, 2009. See Trailer. Get Tickets.

A digression: I was at a party last week and I got into one of those discussions about ART – you know: what is or isn’t ART. I defined art as intent: If I make something with the intent that it will be art, it will be art. It might be failed art, or lousy art, or art that shouldn’t be funded because it offends you, but it is art. Other members of the discussion disagreed with me, as per usual, and generally thought that you could make clear dividing lines between this and that and say this is art and this isn’t. So my question to you is (I have not been getting a lot of comments on this blog, so I am becoming interactive in order to see if there is anyone out there), “What makes a documentary Art and not just reportage, or observations, or promotion. “The Sorrow and the Pity” is art to me, not because it deals with Vichy France, but because it deals with human depths. Is any of Michael Moore’s work art? How about television documentaries produced by the networks, or PBS? How about the work being done for the Web? I think “SOLO: 1X2” is art, because we are trying to reveal the nature of people, why they do what the do, and the process they use to create their art. Let me know what you think.

Also, I have put a clip up on “SOLO: 1X2” Facebook Site, where Abdo Sayegh talks about what the solo and the film mean to him. Take a look because I think it might shed some light on the Art issue.