‘Red State’ Comes To VOD Labor Day, Will Have Digital Q&A & Podcast In Theaters | vis SlashFilm #infdist

By Germaine Lussier:

Excerpt:

The innovative, controversial but undeniably successful distribution of Kevin Smith‘s Red State will enter its next phase this Labor Day. On Smith’s morning Smodcast Plus One Per Diem Tuesday, he announced Lionsgate will exclusively handle the video on demand and Blu-ray rights to the film and that audiences can watch it beginning this Labor Day. Then, when the film opens in October, theaters showing the film will follow the screening with a live, digital, interactive Q&A and a live Hollywood Babble-On Smodcast. Read more info after the break.

Smith’s full explanation of the plan is on The Red Statements. He explains why he’s doing this, goes through some of the history and more. Basically, Video on Demand will cost about $10 in September for a few weeks. Then in October, it won’t have a traditional wide release. It’ll play selectively – at whatever theaters agree to Smith’s wild idea – which means screening, satellite digital Q&A then a live podcast that the audience can watch all for about $20.

Here’s Smith with more about the theatrical side (bolding and links are all Smith’s):

Any good business person tries to limit their costs to maximize their profits. If I accompany the film at all public exhibitions, then I can charge what any movie theater would consider a premium, because I’m giving the audience real 3D – me, answering their questions right there in the third dimension – as opposed to that murky bullshit they’re overcharged for this summer. I refuse to buy my opening with millions of dollars when I can accompany the film into the world and return more profits to my investors than fellow Sundance 2011 alumnus Cedar Rapids can return to Searchlight (this is not me slagging on Cedar Rapids – the Fox Searchlight flick that followed us in the Eccles that night at Sundance; like every flick Miguel Arteta directs, Cedar Rapids is worth your time)...."

New Alternate Reality Game Halo 4 Related? I Love Bees REboot?

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June 28, 2011, By Nicholas Davis via devicemag.com

Excerpt:

"One of the biggest announcements during Microsoft’s press conference during E3 2011 was Halo 4. The announcement of the game was a surprise to all but what was even more surprising was that Microsoft and 343 Industries are starting a new Halo trilogy. Halo will always be the franchise that receives the most hype and some give that credit to the world wide success of Bungie and their fine tuning of the Halo franchise. It was not only the gameplay that added to the Halo experience, but the Alternate Reality Games that preceded some of the title. ILoveBees.com (ILB) and 42 Entertainment were the most known and really caused a stir in the industry and amongst gamers. ILB was an Alternative Reality Game (ARG) that served both as a real world experience and a viral marketing campaign that was commissioned by Microsoft. If you haven’t been to the website recently, now may be the time to check it out again. There’s a brand new countdown...."

THE MICROBUDGET CONVERSATION: CROWDSOURCE…NOT OUTSOURCE | #infdist

Excerpt from Jesse Borkowski guest post:

"...The MicroBudget Conversation: Crowdsourcing

My take on utilizing crowdsourcing with regards to micro-budget filmmaking is not about how to use it as a business model to reduce production costs and save money. To me, that falls under outsourcing. Instead, I am interested in exploring how crowdsourcing can be used to create opportunities for audience participation and how the power of the crowd might be leveraged to bring more diversity and collaboration into the filmmaking process.

Engram: Crowdsourcing Memories

Engram is an alternative-narrative, micro-budget, sci-fi epic that explores human emotion through a combination of both fictional and documentary storytelling. The film takes place in the post-Future and focuses largely on the discovery of the Engram 2000, a satellite that contains recorded emotions and memories from all of humanity.

In the film, the Engram 2000 serves as the holy grail of emotional content, and for the storyline we need this satellite to contain dozens of on-board memories for our main character to experience. However, as we began developing the script and structuring the film, we decided not to write the memories ourselves. Instead, we chose to use crowdsourcing to gather real memories, from real people.

Extending the depth of Engram’s narrative structure through the use of primary source documentary material was appealing to us for several different reasons. For one, I have always believed that the structure of a film should match the content of the film whenever possible. So, it just made sense to me that a fictional satellite could contain real memories, from real people, living all over the globe. The Engram 2000 was supposed to contain humanity’s memories, so we decided to let it do just that...."

Read the full post on John Yost's filmmakermagazine.com

THIS LABOR DAY, LIONSGATE WILL RUN RED! | The Red Statements - Kevin Smith #infdist

Excerpt:

"Six months ago, I stood on a stage in the mountains, brandishing a hockey stick, announcing (in a rather dramatic and long-winded-though-not-nearly-as-long-winded-as-I-am-on-the-podcasts fashion) that I didn’t believe in my flick’s ability to earn out after ridiculous marketing costs were attached. I told folks my weird little opus wasn’t commercial enough to punch through the din of a thousand other theatrical releases. I said I was tired of spending ridiculous amounts of money to make the audience aware the film was coming...." I said I wanted to try something else.

DVDs are no longer the world's favourite movie medium - here's why — Transmediator #infdist

Excerpt:

"...DVD sales are dwindling because it’s no longer the most consumer-friendly format. Geo-restricting DVDs by making them region-specific was the kiss of death. And now they are geo-restricting digital downloads. Has anybody learnt anything?

I can only imagine a world where I can effortlessly download/stream films to whatever device I happen to be using at the moment – WITH ONE CLICK. Oh, yes, there is such a place… it’s called Pirate Bay.

And the industry wonders why DVDs are dying…

What was insightful about this experience is that the Studios still don’t understand the needs of consumers. They presume that tying digital downloads to DVD purchases will halt some of the piracy but then they encumber the digital downloads process with all the same nonsensical restrictions that they place on DVDs. This is a bad band-aid. It won’t fix the problem.

Here’s the mantra again: anything, anytime, anywhere.

If you don’t give people what they want, they will find an easier way. And, I’m sorry to say, pirated content is by far the easiest way. It’s easy to find with search. It’s one-click. It’s generally pre-formatted to the widest common denominator. It doesn’t have licensing restrictions. And, it’s free...."