Ted Hope lays out a very helpful to do list for filmmakers to take on prior to commencing principal photography.  The top 3 items include:

1. Recognize it is about audience aggregation: Collect 5000 fans prior to seeking financing. Act to gain 500 fans/month during prep, prod., post processes.
2. Determine how you will engage & collect audiences all throughout the process. Consider some portion to be crowd-funded — not so much for the money but for the engagement it will create.
3. Create enough additional content to keep your audience involved throughout the process and later to bridge them to your next work.

Predictions 2010: Media

CNBC’s Joolia Boorstin shares her insights on the movie industry’s top trends of 2010.  Here is what made the list:

1. Control over distribution will shift to consumers.
2. Social media will grow and be increasingly influential.
3. More content than ever will be produced, forcing media giants to distinguish themselves from unprofessional alternatives.

…Though I don’t believe these to be “predictions” (all have been occurring for the past 5 years), her thoughts on them merit reading.

Cinemark Could Be the Ticket

As the second largest U.S. theater owner, Cinemark provides a good barometer to measure the film industry’s health.  Cinemark recently beat on Q3 earnings and stated in their conference call that, “The fourth quarter box office is off to a good start, as patrons continue to enjoy the cinema as an exciting, low cost form of entertainment.”

Higher margins, the ability to collect and use information about customers, more revenue and greater willingness to share content with Internet operators is prompting Hollywood to join forces with the likes of YouTube or set up its own Internet portals.

Bill Mechanic On Moguls’ Bad Decisions

Bill Mechanic, former chairman/CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, shares  his thoughts on the present as well as the future of independent film production.  Mechanic spent 7 years at Fox, from 1994 – 2000, bringing it from a “doormat” to the #1 studio.

Film Fund-amentals: Across the Digital Divide

Despite the extra money that Paramount had to invest in preparing Paranormal Activity for commercial release, the film is such a low-rent item that it will make a profit after the first six customers finish paying for their tickets.  What is especially interesting about the release of Paranormal Activity is the film’s online strategy…

Comcast & NBC-U: ‘They’ve All Agreed to Agree’

What I am hearing from inside and around the deal is that indeed the Comcast deal to buy 51 percent of NBC-Universal is done in principle, but it will be several more weeks before anything official is announced.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog reports that 2009 is poised to be the first time ever that more than five movies will exceed $100m in box office revenues.  Up, Ice Age and Monsters vs. Aliens already did it, and the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel — er, squeakuel — will do it; the only question is whether Meatballs and Disney’s hand-drawn The Princess and the Frog have the stuff.  Even without them, the sector could get over the hump thanks to Pixar’s re-release of the two Toy Story pics.

A New Venue for Indie Films: Your iPhone

Did you see the latest Jude Law movie?  The film titled Rage is a murder mystery from art house director Sally Potter.  Potter went an entirely different route for her new indie flick: Rage premiered exclusively on the iPhone through the mobile application Babelgum. This begs the question, does anyone really want to watch a full-length film on their mobile phone?  Industry insiders are watching (pun intended) with deep curiosity.

Sites Specific: Can Streaming Save Indie Film?

The way we watch movies is changing. And no one knows how, in the not so distant future, cinema’s going to be consumed — especially those independent and art films that are increasingly unloved by the Hollywood distribution system. Multiplexes may not be the place for defiantly indie cinema, but are iPods, Xboxes, laptops and flat-screens their next best hope?

ReadWriteWeb’s Top 5 Web Trends of 2009:

1. Structured Data
2. The Real-Time Web
3. Personalization
4. Mobile Web & Augmented Reality
5. Internet of Things

THR: Distributor Report Cards

• Lionsgate
• Overture Films
• Summit Entertainment
• The Weinstein Co.
• Focus Features
• Fox Searchlight
• Miramax
• Sony Pictures Classics
• Freestyle Releasing
• IFC Films
• Magnolia Pictures
• Here Films
• Oscilloscope Laboratories
• Peach Arch
• Roadside Attractions
• Samuel Goldwyn Films
• Zeitgeist Films