In this special video podcast Christy Dena interviews workbook project founder Lance Weiler. Dena, a cross-media entertainment strategist, mentor, designer, writer and PhD researcher conducted the interview for her universe creation podcast. Here’s what Dena had to say about the interview.

Filmmaker Lance Weiler is the special guest on this first video podcast at UC101. Weiler talks about the unique ways he has experimented with extending the storyworld of his feature films out to other media platforms and artforms, and he shares his insights into innovative digital distribution techniques he has been spearheading for years.

To jump to particular topics, here is a short guide:
03:02 The Last Broadcast
14:32 Head Trauma
44:14 From Here to Awesome
54:53 Workbook Project
59:01 Random Future

RELATED:
::ARG Netcast, Episode 39 Lance Weiler discusses Hope is Missing
::Hope is Missing CASE STUDY

For more on cross-media storytelling visit Universe Creation 101

Christy Dena is a Universe Creator and Transmodiologist. She is an industry strategist, mentor, transmedia writer and designer and PhD researcher. She has provided advice and presentations on multi-platform storytelling to the Australia Council for the Arts, Film Australia, Center for Screen Business, AFTRS, ABC, dLux Media Arts and the ACT Filmmakers Network. Christy presents regularly on Alternate Reality Game creation to a variety of organizations, practitioners and corporations such as Nokia in Finland. She co-wrote the International Game Developers Association Alternate Reality Game Whitepaper and manages an ARG Researcher & Educator listserv. She currently advises to clients including the Australian Literature Board and film production houses such as Killer Bald Men and Instinct Entertainment. She is part of the Sense Worldwide Network, a company that provides contextual research and concept development services to Blue Chip and Fortune 500 clients. Her PhD, at the University of Sydney, investigates narrative in the age of cross-media production. She recently gave a keynote at the First International Conference on Cross-Media Interaction Design in Sweden.

Christy runs two popular blogs: www.Cross-MediaEntertainment.com and co-edits www.WriterResponseTheory.org. She will be launching a podcast in July at www.UniverseCreation101.com and has her bio information at www.christydena.com.

Power to the Pixel is a conference that focuses on funding, producing and distributing films in the digital age. The next edition of PTTP will be held in Paris this coming June. Liz Rosenthal the founder of PTTP was kind of enough to share the following video. Please feel free to embed and spread.

The final Power to the Pixel session brings together five pioneering filmmakers who are reinventing the way that films reach audiences and audiences reach films. Lance Weiler, Arin Crumley, Susan Buice, Matt Hanson, Jeremy Nathan explain why they chose the DIY path. Moderated by Liz Rosenthal.

We’re happy to introduce another contributor to the Workbook Project. Steve Balderson is a DIY filmmaking machine. He self funds, produces, and releases his own films. Some of the films have been shot on 35mm and others on miniDV. He’s taken his work on tour and staged his own “freakshows” in cities across the country. We’re excited to have him join the project and if you happen to live in the Boston area make sure to stop by and meet Steve when he presents his latest film “Underbelly” later this month.

By Steve Balderson – We’ve all learned that we can make our own movies without the establishment, so why once we’ve finished our movies, and we want to release them, the first place we go to is the establishment?

You don’t need someone else to release your movie. It’s YOUR movie.

There are two kinds of filmmakers in the world. The kind who wants to appeal to industry executives and other filmmakers, and the kind who wants to focus on the audience watching his movie, regardless of what other filmmakers and executives think about him.

I am an independent filmmaker. I am not dependent on someone else to finance my movies, write my movies, make my movies, shoot my movies, design my movies, market my movies, or release my movies. This gives me the freedom to not be bothered what other filmmakers or movie execs think of me.

It took me a long time to get to this place emotionally because I was always so concerned with what people thought of me. It didn’t take very long financially because I made a project called “Phone Sex” that sold very well and didn’t cost a cent to produce.

For some it is really challenging to NOT compare yourself to other filmmakers or what the neighbors are doing. I had trouble at first. But trust me: once you confront it, and move past it, having total FREEDOM is something you’ll never want to let go of.

Like a wise investor who wants to diversify his portfolio, it is more logical for an independent filmmaker to make six $50,000 films than it is to make a single film for $300,000. There is a greater chance at the return on the investment. After all, you only have to sell 2000 dvds to make your money back.

Simply identify how many units you think your target market will purchase. If you think you’ll realistically sell 4000, and you want to make some money, you should probably not spend more than $60,000, or so, on the movie. I would avoid going into the movie making process without having first figured out how you plan on making your money back.

Let’s examine my newest, “Underbelly,” which is a belly dance documentary co-starring Margaret Cho. The target market for this kind of product does not read the Hollywood Reporter or Variety. So it would be illogical of me to try and get those publications to write articles about me making that movie. Instead, I decided to focus all the attention to belly dance magazines and the gay/lesbian crowd.

I noticed that filmmakers usually don’t have a merch table when they do screenings. Musicians do at their concerts. I think it’s really important to have dvds available for sale at a festival so when the audience walks out of the screening they can buy a dvd immediately.

It only costs $1500 or so to print a thousand dvds (that means you only need to sell 60 of them to pay for a nice looking dvd). There’s no reason not to do it!

And repeat.

————————
On March 23, Steve will unveil “Underbelly” at the Boston Underground Film Festival. On April 2, he goes into production on his next feature, the outrageous “Watch Out” based on the best-selling novel by Joseph Suglia.
For more information visit:
www.DIKENGA.com
www.myspace.com/dikengafilms

STEVE BALDERSON

Roger Ebert named Steve Balderson’s film FIRECRACKER (with Karen Black) on his list of 2005’s Best Films. Currently filming WATCH OUT, based on the best-selling novel by Joseph Suglia, Balderson’s other work includes: PHONE SEX (featuring Margaret Cho, Ron Jeremy, Penn Jillette and Lloyd Kaufman), PEP SQUAD (the satire that predicted American school violence), and UNDERBELLY (a year in the life of Princess Farhana). Steve is also the subject of the award-winning WAMEGO documentary series about DIY Filmmaking. If you are unfamiliar with Balderson’s movies, you can purchase them from anywhere in the world.

Tom Quinn reports – I flew home to Philly on Saturday and brought a wicked cold with me so am behind on this post, but we had some great news this weekend: The New Year Parade took the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative at Slamdance 2008!! We couldn’t be more thrilled or humbled. Some terrific reviews went up this week as well:

VARIETY: “Because Quinn encourages his actors to improvise, sometimes recording hours of footage to be condensed into a short scene, the narrative style takes some getting used to at first. Grocery shopping or band practice are weighted as equally as heated arguments and sex scenes, providing an unusually well-rounded sense of character even as it makes for a rather inelegant flow. Scenes don’t have obvious in and out points, but instead seem sampled from lives that continue when the cameras stop rolling”

INDIEWIRE: “Talented director Tom Quinn (no relation to the Magnolia Pictures exec) makes a stunning debut with this sterling observation of a brother and sister pair straining under the pressures of their parents’ divorce. Quinn has a calculated, Altman-esque approach to staging conflict. Because it functions as a wise examination of universal human despair, “The New Year Parade” proves that keen observation of human behavior yields the strongest results–although budgetary requirements probably hold a close second place spot.”

FILMMAKER MAGAZINE BLOG: “New Year’s Parade brims with wonderful glimpses of spaces the cinema rarely visits. Quinn, whose deftness with performers equals his eye for authentic detail, uses real South Philly marching bands, has his characters visit Geno’s Steaks and depicts the unraveling of the family against the backdrop of the implosion of Veteran’s Stadium, incorporating into the film a series of places and cultural events that resonate in this working class milieu. (The New Year Parade) with its flat narrative, subtle sensitivity to class, gently crafted performances by non or marginal actors and its rough hewn yet entirely appropriate hand held camerawork, does many of the things American Independent films have traditionally done well.”

So obviously, we are pretty psyched! It also is a reminder that roughly a year ago I found out about the IFP Narrative Rough Cut Labs through The Workbook Project. Submissions for this year’s lab are about to open up so I would strong encourage anyone with a feature in postproduction to visit www.ifp.org/labs for more information. The Lab experience was the turning point for The New Year Parade – we wouldn’t be where we are now otherwise.

Tom Quinn grew up in Bucks County, PA, where he directed his first feature, Lusting for Dust Words, several shorts, and freelanced as a camera assistant. His film, Via Bicycles, was a 2006 Eastman Scholars finalist and received a Motion Picture Association Award. His current feature film, The New Year Parade, was one of ten projects selected for the 2007 IFP Narrative Rough Cut Labs. He is currently working toward his MFA at Temple University.

So, we’ve been in Park City for five days now and my head is spinning. We premiered the film on Saturday and had a great crew in town: Jen Welsh, who plays Kat, Greg Lyons, who plays Jack, my finance Beth, high school pal Tom Bilotta, and Greg’s ECC bandmate, Josh Ostrander. Of course, 10AM on a Saturday is a difficult slot – especially after a ton of great parties Friday night. The film looked and sounded great, thanks to hard work of the Slamdance projection crew. The response was incredible – so many amazing comments after and questions for the cast. Jen and Greg did a fantastic job in the Q&A and really captured their experiences as first time actors now in Park City.

On Sunday morning, Greg and Josh hit the road for their tour while Beth and Jenny caught their flight back to Philly. Meanwhile, Irene Longshore, who plays Julie, flew in and we hit the town with Tom Bilotta to spread the word for Tuesday’s screening. However, when we arrived that the Treasure Mountain Inn we saw:

Three days before our screening and it was already sold out! Everyone we spoke to on Sunday had already heard great things about the film – the small Saturday crowd had been talking us up! By Sunday evening the phone was ringing and we began setting up meetings with interested parties.

So, right now, my head is spinning but the news is all good. Speaking of which, we have 2 very cool announcements to make in the next month….

I’ll touch base after tomorrow’s screening.

Tom Quinn grew up in Bucks County, PA, where he directed his first feature, Lusting for Dust Words, several shorts, and freelanced as a camera assistant. His film, Via Bicycles, was a 2006 Eastman Scholars finalist and received a Motion Picture Association Award. His current feature film, The New Year Parade, was one of ten projects selected for the 2007 IFP Narrative Rough Cut Labs. He is currently working toward his MFA at Temple University.