On Saturday April 3rd, the WorkBook Project and the New School present DIY DAYS NYC. This marks the first time that the roving conference for creators will make a stop in NYC. The day will consist of talks, presentations, workshops and a special section called Incubator that matches two media startups with a think tank of experts.

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!
For the last 3 1/2 years the WorkBook Project …

On March 27th The Conversation comes to Columbia University. Started in 2008, The Conversation is a look at the future of filmmaking and how advancements in technology are enabling new opportunities for filmmakers. The program for March 27th is extensive and will bring together a number of innovative thinkers in the space. For more information visit www.theconversationspot.com

We had a chance to sit down with Scott Kirsner to discuss The …

We’re excited to announce the Filmmaker Summit, a gathering taking place online and in Park City at the Slamdance Film Festival. The WorkBook Project, Slamdance and the Open Video Alliance have come together to stage a global event that will bring delegates from various parts of the world together to discuss and debate pressing issues that filmmakers currently face. But it isn’t just the delegates who will be shaping the …

Tomorrow IFP’s annual Independent Film Week and Filmmaker Conference kicks off with 5 days of keynotes, panels, meetings and screenings. The following are a few highlights from the upcoming program. To see the full program visit www.independentfilmweek.com Ana Domb will be on hand to cover the activities for WBP so check back for updates.

Paying the Bills – Sustaining Your Film Career
How do you make a living as an independent filmmaker? …

Thanks to all the volunteers, speakers and attendees who helped to make DIY DAYS Philadelphia such a success. Close to 300 people attended the day which included 40 speakers and 22 sessions in two different spaces.
The event yesterday showed the power that a community can have as people traveled in from all over the US not only to attend but also to volunteer their time and talents.
Over the …

We’re excited to be a partner of the upcoming Open Video Conference. The conference takes place June 19th and 20th at the NYU Law School. What makes OVC a must attend event is the combination of tech, creativity and policy issues that will be addressed during the two day conference. Full details after the jump.
Open Video Conference, June 19-20, NYC
40 Washington Square South (NYU Law School)
http://openvideoconference.org
Register now @ http://openvideoconference.org/registration/
on Twitter/Identi.ca: …

Lisa Salem reports –
ENDING THIS YEAR WITH A REMINDER OR A PRIMER – WHICHEVER THIS MAY BE FOR YOU…
“The number one threat to a filmmaker nowadays is not piracy, it’s obscurity.” (Matt Hanson at Power To The Pixel 2007, re-quoting from Tim O’Reilly).
I want to end the year by going a little retro, so in a kind of year-end look-back-as-a-means-to-moving-forward, I’m posting these three videos from Power To The Pixel …

Today Power to the Pixel a digital distribution and film innovation forum kicks off with a live streamfrom the conference.
CONFERENCE at NFT1, BFI Southbank
A day of keynotes, presentations and round tables by leading digital visionaries followed by an evening drinks reception at the Marriott Hotel, County Hall. Through a variety of case studies, experts will speak candidly about the challenges they face, the opportunities available and the …

STEAL THIS FILM, a documentary about file sharing was released in 2006 via torrents and to date over 6 million people have downloaded the film for free. The following podcast is from director Jamie King’s case study which was presented earlier today at the Power to the Pixel conference in London.
Jamie is currently working on VODO, a voluntary donation system for distributing films via torrents.
[Audio clip: view full post …

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We’re excited to announce that FHTA will becoming to NYC this week for a special three day engagement. All 22 films will be screening. In addition to the theatrical screenings there will be a series of virtual screenings . When we set out to experiment with a “day and date” festival model, we hoped that the filmmakers would embrace the collaborative aspects of the concept. At the heart of FHTA …

The Conversation is being held this weekend at the University Berkley. A “conversation” looking at the future of story, games, and technology. Here is audio from “Games & Cinema Collide: New Experiences, New Opportunities” panel.
Panelist include: Ken Eklund (World Without Oil), Richard Kerris (Lucasfilm), Cliff Plumer (Digital Domain) Peggy Weil (”Gone Gitmo” and “The Redistricting Game”) Lance Weiler (Head Trauma and “Hope is Missing”) Wendy Levy (Bay Area …

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DIY DAYS Boston opened with a conversation with Todd Dagres. Thanks to Scott Kirsner over at CinemaTech for recording and posting the conversation. We’ll be posting the video soon.

Todd has produced several independent films (including the Sundance entry ‘TransSiberian’ this year), but he is best known as a venture capitalist who funds start-up companies like Veoh, EQAL, Twitter, and Next New Networks. Our conversation focused on how TV is changing… …

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WHAT: A two day conference that brings together speakers from various industries for a discussion and debate around the future of cinema, games, and storytelling.
WHERE: Takes place 10.17 and 10.18 at the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkley.
For more info visit www.theconversationspot.com
From the site:
Our hunch is that we’re at an important moment in the history of technology and visual storytelling — a broad term that encompasses filmmaking, TV, online video, …

HELP SUPPORT OPEN SOURCE FILMMAKING – 3 DVD Set of DIY DAYS LA & SF available NOW
We’re happy to announce that we now have a 3 DVD set, over 10 hours of keynotes, panels and case studies that were shot this summer in LA and SF. Since DIY DAYS is part of a larger open source project focused on creating quality resources for the filmmaking community, the DVDs are available …

Over the next few days we’ll be posting various videos from the DIY DAYS LA event. The day consisted of a number of keynotes (Robert Greenwald, Marshall Herskovitz), panels (Tommy Pallotta, Femke Wolting, Alex Johnson, Micki Krimmel, Mark Stolaroff, Ondi Timoner, Hunter Weeks, Saskia Wilson-Brown), case studies (M dot Strange, Arin Crumley, Lance Weiler), a series of special video presentations (Matt Hanson, Brett Gaylor, Brian Chirls, Christy Dena, Timo Vuorensola) …

In addition to discovery and distribution, From Here to Awesome has a special FREE educational section entitled DIY DAYS that is an extension of the Workbook Project. The DIY DAYS events are a joint effort between FHTA and Current TV and will consist of workshops, case studies, panel discussions, and screenings. LA and SF are locked and we’re working on events for Boston and NYC. All the activities will be …

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 …

For those of you who don’t know FROM HERE TO AWESOME is an extension of the workbook project. In the spirit of bringing an open source philosophy to various parts of the filmmaking process, FHTA is focused on education, discovery and distribution. Over the next few months leading up to the festival’s kick off in Paris on June 3rd, FHTA is constructing a series of vids that detail the current …

Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech talks with Brian Chirls (filmmaker, technologist, self-distribution pioneer and workbook project contributor) about building audiences and harnessing the power of the internet.
Scott writes “Last Wednesday, I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with Brian Chirls, the tech guru who helped Arin Crumley and Susan Buice build an audience for ‘Four Eyed Monsters.’ More recently, he has been working with John Sayles on …

* PROJECTS
Esther Robinson’s debut feature, A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory is a touching and deeply personal cinematic journey. The doc centers on her Uncle Danny who was a talented filmmaker and Andy Warhol’s lover. In 1966, Danny mysteriously disappeared. The film’s subjects include Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, Paul Morrissey, Brigid Berlin, Billy Name and what may be the earliest known footage of the …

Via Filmmaker – The nominees for the Gotham Awards‘ Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You will be screening Friday, Nov. 16 – Monday, Nov. 19 at The Museum of Modern Art. Here’s a look at this year’s nominees. The winner, selected by Filmmaker and MoMA’s dept. of film, will be announced at the Gotham Awards Nov. 27. Click here for more on the screenings.

To learn more about …

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix – Our guest today is writer, co-director and star of THE BEACH PARTY AT THE THRESHOLD OF HELL, Kevin Wheatley. On Oct. 19th, National Lampoon will release the film theatrically in 27 cities. Kevin discusses how he and co-director Jonny Gillette created a post apocalyptic political comedy with limited resources and how they plan on reaching their audience.

For more on …

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This past weekend Arin Crumley of Four Eyed Monsters and myself did a panel about all things DIY called “Fast Forward – Filmmakers Seize Control.” The Vancouver International Film Festival held a special one week forum around the art and craft of filmmaking. Brian Chirls of FEM was kind of enough to man the camera – he had done a viral marketing panel earlier in the week.
Big thanks to the …

Tom Quinn reports – After an amazing week at the IFP Market and Conference, I am prepping my film for Friday’s Sundance submission deadline. The six days spent in New York were all remarkable thanks to months of hard work by the IFP staff, especially Amy Dotson who programmed the Lab and Emerging Narrative sections. Here’s a quick overview of our week:

Lab fellows with John Sayles …

In a special multi-part series along with live updates from the IFP Film Market, filmmaker Tom Quinn (The New Year Parade) will document his journey as part of the IFP’s narrative rough cut lab. Selected out of hundreds of submissions Tom’s film joins 10 other projects as the IFP helps to pull back the curtain on post, festivals and distribution.
This past June, I was fortunate enough to attend the IFP …

OpenSourceCinema.org is a collaborative documentary project to create a feature film about copyright in the digital age. The film entitled, Basement Tapes is a crowdsourced doc that welcomes submissions from the community mixed with footage shot around the world by a traditional crew.
WHY: Projects like OSC and A Swarm of Angels are new models in production and distribution. They harness the power of internet to build community around a project …

Our guest today is filmmaker Jon Reiss. Jon has made a number of features, both fiction (Cleopatra’s Second Husband) and non-fiction (Better Living Through Circuitry and Bomb It). For his latest film, Bomb It he traveled to 5 continents to document graffiti culture. In our discussion Jon shares how he funded, traveled and is looking beyond the festival circuit to bring his work to audiences around the world.

To find out …

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Since I’m knee deep in pulling together the next HEAD TRAUMA cinema ARG, I thought I’d share some of my promotional materials. The following is an invite followed by a press release for the event. We started by hitting horror blogs and then moved into some indie film and general movie outlets. When I come up for air next week I want to layout a detailed description of how we …