The New Definition of Theatrical Release

Indie filmmaker John Reiss talks at DIY Days about changing the definition of “Theatrical Release”.  While Jon acknowledges alternative forms of distribution, he speaks candidly about the emotional importance of the theatrical release.

Reiss’ talking points include:

• Why theatrical is important
• Week long vs short runs
• Rethinking film festivals
• Alternative distribution models

Happy Turkey Day to all - I hope everyone ate 10 pounds and gained 20  !!

Adobe Announces Screenwriting Software

Adobe Systems’ recently announced Adobe Story, the newest addition to the popular Creative Suite product line.  Adobe describes Story as “A collaborative scriptwriting tool for film, broadcast, and rich media.  Adobe Story enables the online pre-production workflow for those who want to collaborate and expand their ideas anytime, anywhere, with anyone.”  Adobe Story is an obvious addition to the most robust software suite for designers, developers, filmmakers, and recording artists… what took them so long?

According to Adobe’s documentation there are four different roles that you can assign to someone you wish to share your screenplay with:

Co-authors
Co-authors can add, modify, or delete content from the script.  However, they cannot delete the script itself.  Co-authors can also, like reviewers, comment on the script.

Reviewers
Reviewers can add comments to the script but cannot edit it.

Viewers
Viewers have read-only permissions to the script.  They can read the script but cannot modify content or add comments to it.

Taggers
Taggers can add extra information to the script.  This information could include location details, schedule, instructions, and so on.

StreamingMedia.com was given a preview of Adobe Story and made the following observations about the new screenwriting product.

• Because Adobe stores the metadata for each character and portion of the script, the product has the potential to eliminate one of the bottlenecks of metadata in the production process: the need to rekey information, gathered in pre-production, into the production and post-production workflow.”

• Adobe has made security a clear priority in developing Story. Besides a user name and password required to login and work on the web version of the application, collaborators must also have an invitation from to work together on specific projects.

• One problem we noticed was that anyone that has privileges to a given project can edit another person’s comments without any trace. In the second comment down, Tim added the sentence after the hyphen to my comment, but there’s nothing to indicate that on the screen. We’d like to see additional security that only allows the original commenter to edit his or her comments, or at least some sort of tracking of individual users’ modifications to others’ comments.

• Color-coding is included for each character given a bio. Story only allows for six colors, so for now you’ll have to stick to writing scripts with no more than six main characters in them. Sorry, soap opera or epic screenwriters; you’ll have to wait until Adobe enhances this feature to keep track of your casts of thousands. It would be nice to see the color-coding show up in the script for either the character’s name or name and dialogue.

• The script editing is pretty standard as far as screenwriting software goes, and it can ingest FinalDraft as well as Word documents that have been created in a script format; one nice feature, though, is a handy tool called Smart Type that automatically suggest a variety of commonly used words and descriptions in order to speed up the process of writing your script. I found this very helpful and quickly got used to the “interruptions” that really freed me up to write meaningful dialogue instead of consistent script terms.  Spell check would be a helpful addition to the screenwriting portion.

For screenshots and more, visit StreamingMedia.com’s Story review.

Technical Tips For Online Movie Production

Shoot progressive not interlaced
Online productions should always be shot in progressive mode to deliver to best viewing experience over the Web.  Though most filmmakers do this already, it is worth noting.  Since streaming video is delivered progressively, productions should be shot in progressive mode to maintain the best image quality.

Minimize the background
Complex backgrounds make it difficult for encoders to achieve optimal image quality during file compression.  The effect of complex backgrounds (high contrast, textures and moving objects) is often artifacts that result in a loss of detail around the focal point of the frame.  The human eye can perceive an enormous degree of complexity, Web encoders cannot.

Lighting is critical
Filmmakers know the importance of lighting for film.  However, keep in mind that the more elaborate your lighting, the more difficult it is to compress your film for streaming purposes.  When creating Web specific video for your film production (interviews, extras, etc.) try to make the lighting as simple as possible.

Test, Test, Test
The video that you release on the Web reflects the quality of your film.  Before you publish, test!

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Streaming Production: Improving Your Video Quality was delivered at 2009′s Streaming Media East conference and provides an in-depth guide on producing the highest quality online video.

Top Five Film Financing Problems

New York City filmmaker Ted Hope posted a fantastic blog (or utterly depressing depending on how you look at it) last month titled 30 American Independent Film Problems/Concerns.  The list below contains the top five as they relate to independent film financing.

1. Too many films available and being distributed to allow films to stay in one theater for very long, making it more difficult to develop a word of mouth audience.
2. Reliance on large marketing spend release model restricts content to broad subjects (which decreases films’ distinction in marketplace) and reduces ability to focus on pre-aggregated niche audiences.
3. Collapse of International sales markets requires reduced budgets for filmmakers, and thus resulting in limiting content.
4. Collapse of US acquisition market requires reduced budgets for filmmakers, and thus resulting in limiting content.
5. Bootleggers have developed a platform that allows audiences to simply download whatever they want where ever they want whenever they want — something that the film industry has yet to do.  (This is a contributing factor in the demise of the DVD market – something that pushed many independent films in the black.)

Declining Film Pre-Sales & The Silver Lining

The global economic crisis has resulted in a sharp drop-off in sales of foreign-distribution rights.  Foreign pre-sales have historically been a reliable source of film funding, even during prior economic crises.  Today producers feel lucky to raise any money through foreign pre-sales. Even worse, the foreign pre-sales decline appears to be a secular trend, as countries like Japan continue to produce more of their own films. However, I believe the there is a silver lining.

The economic crisis has resulted in substantial losses of net worth.  Many investors bought in to the surefire buy-and-hold strategy that they were raised on.  The financial losses in the equity, bond and real estate markets have fundamentally changed this flawed perception.  Going forward investors will rely on diversification as the only free lunch and they will spread their money across new asset allocations.  I believe that film will be one of them.

Lower Production Costs, Increase Returns

So you have a good idea for a film… great, so does everyone.  The problem with most filmmakers raising equity financing is a complete lack of thought regarding how their film is going to make money.  Returns are the only thing that matter to the majority of investors.  Before you deliver your first pitch, be able to answer this question in a thoughtful, precise and convincing way.  Focus on distribution, marketing and keeping production costs low.  Investors care little of a film’s moral and cultural impact.  Your job is to convey how those aspects translate to profits on the bottom line.

I recently came upon a good guide for lowering production costs.  Eliminating/restricting some of these elements will help you keep costs low and mitigate downside risk.

1. Crowd scenes
2. Music
3. Too many characters
4. Multiple Locations
5. Exterior Shots
6. Dolly shots or tracking shots
7. CGI Effects
8. Music/Singing
9. Blue screen/green screen
10. Television and movie clips
    

Scott Kirsner On New Media

CinemaTech’s Scott Kirsner sits down with HDFilmTools to talk about how the entertainment industry is changing for individual content creators.

 

New York Film Tax Credit Economic Impacts

The recent study completed by Ernst & Young shows the astounding impact of the adjusted 30% film tax credit in New York State.  Some of the findings worth highlighting:

• From April 23rd, 2008 through the end of the calendar year, film applications rose 60% over the same period in the previous year.
• Film Industry spending on labor, facilities and vendors in those same periods increased from $940 million to over $1.8 billion (91.5%).
• New York enjoyed an increase of 7,031 jobs following the adoption of the film tax credit, reversing the declines experienced from 1999-2004.
• The total direct and indirect impact of the film tax credit on New York’s employment is an increase of over 19,500 jobs.
• Over $2.69 billion of state and local taxes are expected to be generated from 2005-2010 as a direct result of the film tax credit.
• Discounting the $690 million in credits claimed, New York will generate approximately $2 billion in revenue.
  

Download Ernst & Young’s New York State Film Tax Credit Study

The study indicates that without the film tax credit program New York’s share of employment in the industry would continue to decline.  Bottom line, the New York film tax credit has had an overwhelmingly positive impact, creating thousands of jobs and generating hundreds of millions for the State.  Take a look at the charts below from the study.

Panasonic’s Dream Camera

Read the full review of Panasonic’s AG-HPX300 at B&H Photo… Is it Christmas yet?

Shooting On The Red

“If you tried to do this show five years ago, you’d go bankrupt.”

This quote was taken from an interview between KCRW’s The Business and producer Dean Devlin.  Devlin’s new show Leverage is the first show to be shot solely on the Red camera.  Listen to Devlin talk about his experience with the Red and how it is helping Leverage to streamline and lower the costs of production.

 

 

 

 

 

Part One: How Leverage Uses Red (78 seconds)
 

Part Two: The Look of Red (40 seconds)
 

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