4 Comments »

Allen Green said:

Zak,
very good job and so true.
- 22 April 2009 at 2:40 pm
Daniel Maldonado said:

Great look behind the festival process guys. I myself have never been to a large scale film festival so I’m sure there are 1,000 mistakes to be made.
- 22 April 2009 at 6:59 pm
Jon Raymond said:

This is an ongoing discussion that I think we’ve heard before in various contexts. But there is one constant that I think is paramount, and it is this: Make a great film. If you have a great film, all else will follow. If you have a good film or an OK film, but not a great film, maybe making contacts makes the difference, maybe not. Maybe the less than greats are the ones who come and go. There’s the old Hollywood saying, “You’re only as good as your last film.” So, I’m wondering, what is the ratio of having a great film to knowing the right people in gaining success? I’m guessing it’s something like a passing grade point average, i.e at least a 2.5 out of 4, but more likely the ‘A’s make it (or 3.5s and 4.0s), meaning if your film is an A or B on the greatness scale, you can get by with a D on the “who you know” scale. On the other hand, if you know the right people, they might help you to become great, e.g. Marlin Brando (if you know his story). But wouldn’t even they need to see greatness in you?
- 23 April 2009 at 7:01 am
Mike Hedge said:

Hunter rocks! Zak great SXSW recap! I can’t wait to edit my 2008 videos.
Mike
- 5 May 2009 at 6:15 pm

Leave a comment!

DIY DAYS LA & SF 3 DVD set

Help support open source filmmaking today!

3 DVD set with over 10 hours of keynotes, panels and case studies. To see a list of speakers and topics visit www.diydays.com

Make a donation to the project and receive your copy of DIY DAYS LA & SF. Pick the donation you'd like to make and receive the 3 DVD set today.

$40 donation

$20 donation

$10 donation

-----------------

Culture Hacker

• Transmedia as a Tool for Audience Building
  The purpose of this blog posting is to show how I’ve been using transmedia for audience building and to welcome comments from others who can suggest points for improvement. You might also like to check-out what’s been implemented and give it a whirl! […]
• Moving Filmmakers to a Transmedia Business Model
  I’ve been working with two entertainment properties and a media start-up the past couple of months and I wanted to share the business models I developed to explain where we’re heading. Here’s what we already know:  pulling in an audience is tough but pulling in finance is tougher. The Old Days In the “old days” – as shown [...] […]
• The Fight for Exlusive Content
  When there are too many platforms competing with each other content will become king. Right now entertainment has been devalued when you can rent a new film or TV show for 99 cents at a Red Box kiosk at 19,000 different locations, can download unlimited films through Netflix, and a rent/buy a film through iTtunes. I [...] […]
• Doing the Wave
  Now that Google Wave has been out for a while, have you joined up? Is it living up to all your expectations, plus some? Or is it just something that you slobbered over because invitations were rare, but now you just keep forgetting to check in because you can’t figure out what to [...] […]
• The First Ever Culture Hacker Gift Guide
  Deck the hall with boughs of holly! Tis the season to redefine storytelling as it evolves through collisions with new forms of media! Fa la la la la la la la la! Oh dang…that isn’t catchy at all. Here are some particularly culture hackerly gifts, old and new, hand picked by the culture hacker [...] […]
• May the mystery be with you – no matter if you are a storyjedi or storysith
  Quickly thinking out-loud tonight … The element of mystery has grown to become just as powerful to cross-media storytelling as the force to the Jedi and Sith. And just as the force, there exists a dark-side to the element. While the techniques and tools of cross-media storytelling vary from those used to tell a story for the [...] […]
• Ten Interactive Story Ideas for Layar
  Layar, the augmented reality browser that has been creeping up on Android phone users since May, hit the iPhone App Store last month. And yet, the Layar web site lists a big fat goose egg under the heading “Games.” I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Surely, someone out there has to [...] […]
• IGC Independent Game Conference
  November 5-6 I covered the Independent Game Conference where game designers peddled their wares to buyers inside the halls of the Marriott Hotel in Marina del Rey. In between all this networking my friend Don Le filmed (later edited) my interviews with notable professionals and panels that explored subjects as diverse as building personal relationships [...] […]
• The Legos from Another Universe
  In retrospect, of course it was obvious that Legos had to be from space. Right? The Bradford Rant Institute seems to think so – they’ve been tracking mysterious Lego Pods that have been falling to earth in various locations around the globe. The next pod is due to hit the southeastern United States [...] […]
• Exoriare – An ARG Takes Center Stage
  Smoking Gun Interactive is taking its new ARG very seriously. Just because the game is intimately tied to the release of a new graphic novel and a planned console game, they aren’t about to treat it like an advertising campaign.  In fact, they’ve been sending out press releases, writing stories for BoingBoing, and talking to The [...] […]
• the internet and the film industry can be friends
  Once the dust settles there will be more money in the movie biz than during the time of physical formats. MySpace and Ustream teamed up to livestream the premiere of Twilight Saga: New Moon. It had almost 3 million total viewers. Once everyone has a TV that is internet enabled fans can have Twilight parties together [...] […]
• Crowdsourcing for Indies?
  This post looks at crowdsourcing from the perspective of the independent filmmaker and presents some considerations when asking an audience or fan base to create content. There’s a range of things an indie might do to engage an audience but this post looks specifically at crowdsourcing. It’s worth noting up front that getting an audience to [...] […]

NEW BREED

• LOST CHILDREN TRANSMEDIA PLAN
  In this video, I talk about the transmedia effort for the film Coraline. Here's the panel I attended where the creators talk about what they did: SUNDANCE TRANSMEDIA PANEL. In this video, I also talk about the main points of THE LOST CHILDREN plan. They are: Add new story-related content to our ... […]
• PARK CITY: Exploring the Solutions, Part 2
  SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah speak with Dan Mirvish, Brian Newman, Ira Deutchman and Ted Hope to further explore the solutions that are emerging for independent filmmakers – featuring a proposal for a new relationship between filmmakers and festivals as outlined by Peter Baxter at the 2010 ... […]
• PARK CITY: Exploring the Solutions, Part 1
  SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah speak with Ted Hope, Jon Reiss, Mynette Louie (Children of Invention) and Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards) to explore the solutions that are emerging for independent filmmakers – featuring some of the insights and actions that came from the 2010 Filmmaker Summit. […]
• THE LOST CHILDREN TRANSMEDIA EFFORT
  I pretty much say everything in the video, so I won't repeat it here. But I wanted to provide a couple of the links I talk about in the video: THE LOST CHILDREN website and THE LOST CHILDREN Transmedia Kickstarter Campaign If this stuff is useful to you as a filmmaker, you might ... […]
• PARK CITY: Seeking the Answers, Part 2
  SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah move away from identifying the questions toward some possible answers that may, in fact, lead to the solutions we seek. Insights from Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards), Jon Reiss and Brian Newman are fleshed out with more thoughts from the pre-Filmmaker Summit roundtable. […]
• PARK CITY: Seeking the Answers, Part 1
  SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah move away from identifying the questions toward some possible answers that may, in fact, lead to the solutions we seek. Insights from Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards), Habib Azar (Armless), Dan Mirvish, and Brian Newman are fleshed out with more thoughts from the ... […]
• PARK CITY: Discovering the Questions
  Filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah of Sabi Pictures arrive at Park City with an intent to define the questions most relevant to independent distribution options. Insights from Brian Newman, Dan Mirvish, Jon Reiss and Ira Deutchman open a path toward discovering some real solutions. Part of an on-going series ... […]
• PARK CITY: AN OPEN DISCUSSION
  Sabi Pictures documents an open discussion between Lance Weiler, Peter Baxter, Saskia Wilson-Brown, Brian Newman and Paul Rachman in preparation for the upcoming Filmmaker Summit in Park City. […]
• Assembling a Distribution Team
  The Filmmaker Summit is just two days away tomorrow - the event is a collective effort of the teams behind the Workbook Project, Open Video Alliance and Slamdance. I've been spending some of my free-time keeping up with the discussions on WBP, many of which dealing with festivals, distribution methods, ... […]
• Change is good
  In advance of the Filmmaker Summit at Slamdance this weekend, Zak Forsman put forth some questions to this community, and asked that we consider doing a video blog. One question he asked in particular, resonated with me, "What are you doing now that you weren't doing a year ago?" Well, for me, ... […]
• Quick Video from Mike Hedge
  2010! Here's a quick video I threw together for the Filmmaker Summit 2010: www.mikehedge.com www.asthedustsettles.com […]
• How To Be a Guerrilla (Lessons in DIY Filmmaking)
  FOREWORD: In shooting “What’s Up Lovely” there were several techniques that I had to use in order to keep the costs down. Working with a micro-budget forces one to be very resourceful and aware of one’s limitations (sometimes in a good way….sometimes not). With this film, not having much money meant ... […]