Scott Kirsner sent over a couple of links and resources for those wishing to build audiences.
NEW WIKI
Scott has just put up a wiki with some content from the book FANS, FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS which we covered a few weeks back on TCIBR. The wiki contains useful tools for marketing, outreach, promotion, and commerce. http://powertools.wikispaces.com So make sure to stop by and add to this new growing resource wiki. …

Lisa Salem reports – When David Hastings’ play ONE SMALL STEP was taken up to the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Festival this month – the festival’s most respected venue – the outlook was quite pragmatic: take the show up there, expect a financial loss but gather thy reviews and hope they harvest into eyeballs and cash in the form of a UK tour of the play over the …

Channel 4 in the UK is running a project called ‘Osama Loves’ as part of its Islam Season. The project is currently in blog form and will be made into an hour-long film aired on the channel sometime in September.
Farrah and Masood are in the last week of their journey across the world – attempting to find 500 ‘Osamas’ in 50 days to ask each one of them, “What do …

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) …

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution – Inventing the Movies is a new book by Scott Kirsner that details Hollywood’s epic battle between innovation and the status quo. Scott joins us for a discussion about cinema’s past, present and future. Of particular note for filmmakers is a discussion around the pull economy / attention economy and how building and maintaining audiences is going …

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This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution – Jeff Gomez turned his childhood passion for role playing into a successful transmedia venture. His company Starlight Runner Entertainment has expanded the intellectual property of brands (Hot Wheels, Magic: The Gathering , Pirates of the Caribbean) by developing cross-platform storyworlds that engage audiences in new and interesting ways. The design and builds of these worlds have …

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Timo Vuorensola is a filmmaker who has fully embraced the concept of crowdsourcing. After the success of his last feature film Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning which has been downloaded over 8 million times, Timo and his team created a platform to help others crowdsource their movies.

WB: Can you explain Space Wreck and how the audience played a role in the film?
TV: Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning was a huge …

I’ve just return from Hot Docs where I participated in a panel of judges for the newly formed Convergence Lab. Created by DocAgora, the lab focuses on a number of projects. The lab brings together producers, filmmakers and interactive designers in an effort to develop cross-media strategies for their projects.
Cross-media (the telling of stories across multiple mediums, devices and platforms) is a topic that we discuss often – an exciting …

by Marc Lougee
:: Mini Cameras: Small, like Diamonds There’s much talk on and offline concerning the advent of mini camera’s used in stop motion animation, specifically when used in tandem with DSLR’s. Some folks love’em, some hate’em, but either way, they keep proving themselves useful, relatively inexpensive and hard to boot when faced with the alternative of shooting all day only to find yourself facing a re-shoot for …

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This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution – Today we are joined by writer and director Steve Balderson. Often working from his home state of Kansas, Steve is a strong proponent of DIY filmmaking and the fact that movies can be made anywhere. He has written and directed narrative features (Pep Squad, Firecracker) and docs (Wamego: Making Movies Anywhere, Phone Sex). In our discussion, …

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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 …

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 …

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 …

by Marc Lougee
:: Digital Image Capture and why we went there
From the outset, I wanted to shoot the film utilizing a high resolution source. My experience with digital capture for animation started while Animation Director on MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch in New York, where we had used three-chip cameras built for medical operating theatres. The image resolution & color was great for standard definition television, but held no promise of …

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by Marc Lougee – In April 2007, I dropped a little article here on the workbookproject.com laying out a very basic DSLR/ shooting system that I had assembled for production of the stop motion animated short film, Ray Harryhausen Presents: The Pit and the Pendulum. Using Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera’s in place of traditional film camera’s we’d found a high quality, cost effective digital alternative to 35mm film.
So, in …

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution – Over the holiday break we recorded two editions of TCIBR that looked back on 2007 and forward to 2008. In part one we took a look at the year in digital entertainment. In part two we focus on films and distribution trends. Mark Stolaroff of the No Budget Film School and Paul Harrill of Self Reliant …

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I’m pleased to introduce a new contributor to the Workbook Project. Kfir Pravda is a marketer, content creator and blogger. His blog “Media, Technology and Rebel Filmmaking” is read and quoted by investors, venture capitalists, CEOs of technology companies, content creators and bloggers.
Kfir reports – In the past things were clear – broadcast television required a specific level of production. Lighting, sound, camera quality – all were parts of …

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution – Our guest today is doc filmmaker Don Argott. Don exploded onto the scene with his feature debut Rock School, an entertaining doc about the Paul Green School of Rock. Rock School was acquired by Picture House for a low seven figure advance out of the LA Film Festival. For his newest doc Two Days in April …

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Scott Kirsner of CinemaTech sits down with Dolby EVP Tim Partridge as he lays out his vision for how digital 3-D moviemaking will take over the world.
Partridge says that in the early days of Dolby’s audio noise reduction (and later, Dolby’s digital sound), industry insiders predicted that the new technology would only be used for big action pictures. These days, 3-D is regarded as something for action pictures and cartoons, …

One of our favorite crowdsourced projects, A Swarm of Angels is expanding. We’re members and supports of the project which is challenging the way films are funded, produced and distributed. We sat down with founder Matt Hanson to discuss the Swarm last year. Listen here.
“Phase 3 is where A Swarm of Angels really takes flight. With over 1000 members from around the world, and after a longer than anticipated pause …

M dot Strange reports – So I was lucky enough to be summoned to make an animated music video for one of my favorite bands “Mindless Self Indulgence” I used Cinema 4d 9.1 w/Cactus Dans tools, and After Effects 6.5.
I thought I would out together a little thang documenting my work on the Mindless Self Indulgence music video “Animal” There’s a ton of music video making-of’s out there but since …

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix – Our guest this week is producer and co-founder of Ghost Robot, Zachary Mortensen. Ghost Robot has been producing independent features, shorts, and music videos for the last five years. In our discussion Zach shares his experience with producing, getting the most out of test screenings and the importance of building a solid web presence for your work.

Special Note: Today …

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Make movies yourself. Distribute them on your own. 10 MPH’s director Hunter Weeks writes a thorough overview of how he and Josh successfully made 10 MPH one of the most talked about indie films of 2007.
AN INTRODUCTION:
If you watch 10 MPH, you’ll see that Josh and my approach to getting into the film industry was one of blind faith. We had no formal training in making films and very …

This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix – Our guest this week is Scott Macaulay. Scott is a producer and co-president of Forensic Films in addition to being the editor of Filmmaker Magazine. Scott along with his producing partner Robin O’Hara have been a driving force within the independent film scene since the early 90’s. Forensic has produced films like Gummo, Julien Donkey Boy, Raising Victor Vargas, …

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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 …

Jennifer Venditti’s directorial debut, BILLY THE KID is a touching and haunting portrait of a small town underdog named Billy. When we saw the doc at SXSW, we were struck by its depiction of teenage angst, love and awkwardness.
WHY: The DIY film is currently in limited release in select theaters in a bid for Oscar consideration. For dates and screening locations click here.

THIS CONFERENCE IS BEING RECORDED – Our …

Our guest today is Tani Cohen, who is an accomplished producer of documentary and narrative films. With over 20 years in the industry, Tani breaks down what has helped her to produce independent work that she cares about. Her most recent film Mr Conservative – Goldwater on Goldwater is hitting DVD on July 31st nationwide.

For more on Tani and Mr. Conservative click here.

To listen NOW click the …

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The micro blogging trend is alive and well. Joining the ranks of Twitter is a new upstart from Kevin Rose of digg fame called pownce. Limited in terms of mobile and IM integration but offering an interesting mix of event listing and file transfer options, pownce is a tool that some filmmakers might find interesting, especially when needing to communicate with a group.

Site: http://www.pownce.com
Service:
Provides a unified messaging solution and file …

Our guest today is JT Petty. JT is an accomplished author, screenwriter and director. Over the last few years he has moved fluidly between films, games and novels. When it comes to film he has directed two features; Soft for Digging (sundance 2001) and Mimic 3: Sentinel (Dimension Films). In addition he has a new disturbing doc entitled Sandman (HDNET) which has been playing to rave reviews on the festival …

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Shooting The Pit and the Pendulum with a Mac Mini computer & a Nikon D70s DSLR camera
By Marc Lougee
We shot the short stop motion animated film, The Pit and the Pendulum using Nikon D70s DSLR’s Apple mac Mini computers, and a low cost frame capture software program called Frame Thief (available for Mac). The basic system consisted of the Mac Mini computers, 15” flat screen monitors, Canopus analog / …

Our guest today is writer / director Todd Rohal. Todd’s newest feature THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE, is a visually stunning DIY feature shot on 35MM. Currently, Todd is traveling across the country on a DIY theatrical tour. In our conversation we discuss the process of working with non-actors, pulling off a lot of production values with little resources, and what to do with a film once the festival run is over.

For …

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Today’s guest is filmmaker Joe Swanberg. Over the last three years Joe has made four features Kissing on the Mouth, LOL, Hannah takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends and a web series for Nerve called Young American Bodies. He makes personal lo-fi films with a core of collaborators (Mark Duplass, Andrew Bujalski, Greta Gerwig, Kent Osborne, Ry Russo-Young, Kevin Bewersdorf and Todd Rohal) similar in approach to the way John …

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Today’s guest is writer / director Patty Jenkins. In 2003, Patty made her first feature film entitled Monster. In the film Charlize Theorn plays serial killer Aileen Wuornos. The film was well received by critics and audiences, and Theorn went on to win an Academy Award for her performance. In our discussion Patty explains what it took to package Monster and the struggles to make such an emotionally charged …

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Today I’m joined by Steve Balderson (Pep Squad, Wamego: Making Movies Anywhere, Firecracker, Phone Sex) and Christopher Garetano (Horror Business), two independent filmmakers who are creating their own work on their own terms. In our discussion we cover a variety of issues facing filmmakers today – funding, production, post and distribution.

To listen NOW click the play button below.

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Today’s podcast is a special DIY roundtable on film production with Mark Stolaroff (producer and founder of the No Budget Film School), and Paul Harrill (filmmaker and blogger Self Reliant). Over the course of the discussion we cover a number of topics such as; fundraising, producing, directing, casting, working with cast and crew, and how to obtain high production values with little money.

More about today’s guest:
Mark Stolaroff is an …

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