I think I must go to Minneapolis! Look at these panel descriptions!
"Tali Krakowsky, founder of experience design studio Apologue, will be speaking at the Eyeo Festival on June 27th and June 28th in Minneapolis, and at the 2011 PromaxBDA Conference on June 30th in NYC.
At the Eyeo Festival, Krakowsky will be moderating in two panels. On June 27th is a panel that wonders “WHY” and features Golan Levin, Natalie Jeremijenko, and Zach Lieberman. Why do we do what we do? Why should our spaces be infused with the digital? Why data? Why code? Why generative? Why collaborative? Why interactive? Why color? Why sound? Why touch? Why do frameworks have to be open? Why design?
June 28th will feature a panel called “Coding Spaces” with Emily Gobeille, Theo Watson and Jake Barton. Peep behind walls made of bits and bytes to unravel and contemplate the art and science of imagining, coding and building interactive environments. The panel will search for some general process ideas, tips, warnings, recommendations and insights into the making of these fascinating spaces...."
Excerpt from a welcome review! I'll be catching Life In A Day when it's released in July
"Last year (2010) YouTube launched a campaign, supported by executive producers Tony and Ridley Scott, asking everybody with a camcorder to record a day in their lives. Fast forward a year to 2011 and director Kevin Macdonald and editor Joe Walker (never an editor has been more crucial to the making of a film), release their documentary to the world and to the same people who actually filmed it.
Apparently 80000 videos for a total of 4500 hours were submitted from 126 different nations.
The result is a film that tells the story of a day on Earth, and precisely the 24th of July 2010: 24 hours in the life of ordinary people. Their stories, their images, their thoughts, all linked together by an incredible work of editing and a rousing soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams.
You can argue that some of it might be slightly heavy-handed (a shot of a cow being killed on camera is then, non very subtlety, cut together with a man eating from a bowl of spaghetti), but some of the choices are absolutely inspired (montage sequences of people getting up in the morning or having breakfast or simply walking). It’s the amalgamation of all these little snippets of life that makes the film an incredible watch and in the end it ends up actually telling a story as the ordinary becomes extraordinary..."
Quote:
Film biz at digital tipping point.That was the main message at the “Digital Cinema and the New Entertainment Model” panel on Sunday afternoon at PGA’s Produced By conference on the Disney lot in Burbank.
The speakers agreed that recent developments - including the penetration of digital projection to about 50% of all U.S. screens and the rapid growth of VOD - are leading to radical changes in the way content is produced, distributed and consumed.
Exhibition would greatly benefit by going entirely digital and switching to a “networked, addressable model” in which content is sent to theaters digitally rather than via cumbersome, expensive 35mm film prints, said CAA’s Adam Devejian.
New technology is making possible all sorts of alternative content for exhibitors, whose theaters are now largely fallow most of the time, especially from Monday through Thursday, noted panel moderator Chris McGurk, the new topper at Cinedigm Digital Cinema, which works with studios, distribs and exhibs to expand digital technology.
Enlightened production shingles are prepping for the changes to come, including distribution via VOD, said GreenStreet Films prexy John Penotta. “We’re still a traditional film company, looking for product, doing budgets, finding P&A financing partners, but now we’re also building digital distribution dollars into our budgets, which we’ve never done before.”
“Igby Goes Down” producer Marco Weber is targeting a VOD release model. Today “I would never do a theatrical release on a smaller movie,” he said. “I would on a $10 million movie, but on a lower budget, a strong VOD situation would give me a better upside than a traditional big release with a big P&A. On those pictures, theatrical can eat up your profit.”
Digital home distribution numbers are now significant, said Clark Hallren of Clear Scope Partners, adding that they range between $1 million and $2 million for many films, and can rise as high as $10 million for some.
McGurk said exhibs want more independent product now to fill up their ample screen time, noting that they can use digital technology to raise revenues by programming theme weeknights around topics such as environmental films and docus, selling corporate sponsorships and advertising to supplement admission fees.
Ironically, panelists were lukewarm on the prospects of 3D, which is the biggest change enabled so far by the theaters’ conversion to digital projection.
“3D isn’t a game-changer for the indie world,” said Weber. “It’s an add-on,” said Hallren.
“I wouldn’t want to be an exhibitor,” replied Hallren when McGurk brought up the subject of premium VOD, whereby studios will make films available to the home 60 days after theatrical release for $30, noting the plan is a wedge that could be used to lower the window to 55 days, 45 days and less, and that the price could also drop to $25, $20 or less as the biz finds its market level.
End Quote. Contact Peter Caranicas at peter.caranicas AT variety.com
"By Lloyd Kaufman (Updated 1 hour, 52 minutes ago)
The cover of Lloyd Kaufman's recent book, "Sell Your Own Damn Movie!"
Like the headline says, the following is the (fiercely held) opinion of one Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma Films. His most recent book, “Sell Your Own Damn Movie!” is now available in paperback.
I met a Troma fan in Florida a few years ago who told me how he used to get eight Netflix DVDs at a time, keep them for a day or two while he downloaded them to his computer and then return them for eight more. Once he had the digital files, he would make copies for his friends, asking about $2 for the cost of the blank DVD and the effort.
One night, while extremely high, he had figured out that, based on the number of movies he had copied and the penalty for each one, if caught, he would owe the government about $2.5 million in fines and face the rest of his life in prison.
Now, for someone who had already sold himself to the government in the form of federal student loans for film school, the prospect of an extra $2.5 million was pretty frightening. He gave up the pirate DVD business and started selling weed instead, as there were fewer risks involved. That was how we met. Last I heard, he was in jail for selling drugs, but he’ll be out sooner than if he had been caught selling $2 DVDs of “I Know Who Killed Me” to his friends...."
by Dana Harris (Updated 59 minutes ago)
"A still from "Smile 'Til It Hurts," the documentary that inspired the IDA's battle against the IRS.
With the International Documentary Association doing battle with the IRS, it’s easy to believe only documentary filmmakers face the threat of their films being considered hobbies—and therefore nonprofit activities.
That would be a mistake.
“We didn’t raise (independent fiction filmmakers) in our brief because it seems like it would muddy the waters,” said attorney Michael Donaldson, who is representing the IDA as a “friend of the court” in the case. “[But] the logic of this case applies equally to documentaries and fiction films.”
That’s because if you’re an independent filmmaker of any kind, the odds are unkind. Financing a film is a speculative and deeply optimistic act; very few films receive meaningful distribution, and on and on.
Independent filmmakers take these daunting facts as articles of faith. The IRS, not so much.
That’s because a lot of independent films look pale and sickly when placed in the light of the IRS’ nine-factor test (see related article). It helps agents judge if an activity is intended for profit; no single factor, or even a combination of factors, automatically deem an activity as not for profit.
However, many facts about independent filmmaking—that it can be years before you see any revenue, that filmmakers often have another job, or have never made a film before—could make it look like a very bad business, one that’s so riddled with false hope, long odds and cockeyed optimism that you can’t call it a business at all. And at that point, it’s at risk of being classified as a hobby...."
Excerpt:
"In the book Design and Nature there is a chapter called “Nature and Architectural Design” and we can read about the sculpture house designed by Gillet, Roulin and Greisch:
Inspired by nature and organic forms, the design was undertaken as a synthesis of arts. According to their own words, they didn’t want to start a revolution, but simply wanted to create something new, opposed to the standardisation of forms in architecture and the conditions of mankind’s accommodation of those times, out of touch with nature.
According to the date of construction of the Sculptural House, we can think that Jacques Gillet was influenced by Kiesler’s Endless House and also by Archigram’s projects as the Living Pod or the Spray Plastic House. But we can come further to the current times and found a clear influence of Gillet’s work in another curious house, the Steel House by Robert Bruno, a house that took 25 years to be completed.
This continuity is a reflection around the idea on “what is organic architecture?”. This movement arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries mainly with Sullivan, Wright, Gaudi, Horta and Rudolf Steiner. It has been eclipsed in the middle of the twentieth century due to the Second World War and the mass reconstruction during the Post War period.
The most interesting thing behind these projects is how they let us learn about the philosophy behind organic forms and how they have evolved. Let’s see some images with dates to have a deeper overview of this evolution...."
Mr. Softie is an application for typographic manipulation that provides writers, graphic designers, animators and typographers a greater control over textual objects. It is based on the NextText framework, which facilitates the implementation of an interface that specifically targets the authoring of textual content.
The glyphs are managed in vectorial form which makes it possible to create graphics from small to large scale. It allows exporting of typographic compositions to common image formats (e.g., TIFF) as well as vector formats (e.g., PDF) to combine the creative process with other applications.
Mr. Softie includes a set of SoftType which allow spaciotemporal transformation of textual objects. SoftTypes are used as ’sculpting’ tools to create static composition with a kinetic feel, and also, to generate animation that the application export to file sequences.