This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix – Brian Clark joins us for a discussion about filmmaking, audiences, breaking the rules and the value of going DIY. Founder of GMD studios and co-founder of indieWire, Brian has been at the forefront of the independent film scene for well over a decade. GMD studios has created digital experiments, campaigns and games that flow seamlessly between the …

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This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix and Breakthrough Distribution – Skot Leach and his brother Ryan are on a mission to warn the world about a secret zombie outbreak. Their Lost Zombies project is a crowdsourced zombie flick that has user-gen sightings coming in from all over the world. Community members submit video, audio, photos, and articles as they document zombie outbreaks. In our discussion Skot …

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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 …

First off, if you haven’t checked out Brett Gaylor’s open source cinema project you should. It is an exciting doc project that pulls from collaborators around the world. Brett is currently looking for some materials to finish the film. Here’s a request that he sent out to his Open Source Cinema members. If you’d like to join this ground breaking project visit http://opensourcecinema.org
Hello dear members of Open Source Cinema! This …

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 …

M dot Strange reports – This was part of a presentation called “Adventures in self distribution” I describe the journey I took with my animated feature film “We are the Strange” From my bedroom to Sundance and beyond and back to my little studio again after turning down Hollywood deals and deciding to self distribute and make my films my way.
M dot Strange: Berlin Talent Campus 08 from M dot …

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 …

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 …

Brett Gaylor’s “Basement Tapes,” is a collaborative documentary project about copyright in the digital age. We interviewed Brett a bit ago for TCIBR.
The above video was a group project done by 64 students from Concordia University.
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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 past week, we concluded our latest cinema ARG experiment entitled HOPE IS MISSING. The design of HIM is covered in an article that I wrote for the current issue of filmmaker magazine. This post will focus on the results of the experiment. A more detailed case study surrounding the cinema ARG will be released later in Nov.
Layers of interactivity
HOPE IS MISSING consisted of four web films that were loaded …

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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Producing a feature-length motion picture is a daunting task. All the more so if you do it without the support of a major studio using money you have raised yourself. But according to independent filmmaker Lance Weiler, “the real struggle” comes after the film is completed. Distributing a theatrical feature — and doing so profitably — poses an even greater challenge. As Weiler put it during a recent interview with …

Today we are joined by filmmaker Brett Gaylor, who is also the founder of OpenSourceCinema.org. Brett is currently in production on an interesting documentary called BASEMENT TAPES. The doc focuses on copyright, digital music and its impact on remix culture. The project is embracing a user-generated / remix component that allows people to contribute to the documentary. In our discussion Brett explains how he’s turning audience members into collaborators.

For more …

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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 …

Filmmakers That Think Outside the Film
By Christy Dena
In the 1940’s filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (known as “The Archers”) championed a multi-artform cinema. They created films that represented music, dance, painting, literature and photography; for they believed that ‘all art is one’. Now, with the proliferation of media platforms, the palette for filmmakers is stupendous. Not only is it impossible to encompass all artforms in a single film, but …

Today we are joined by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky. Miller is a writer, artist and musician. His work often combines art, technology, and politics. One of his recent media projects entitled “Rebirth of a Nation” is a remix of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 “Birth of a Nation.” Miller’s work is at the forefront of the emerging remix culture and during our discussion he shares his feelings about art, technology …

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I’m a fan of remixes and mashups. A couple years back mashups exploded onto the scene. One of the most downloaded albums of all time is Danger Mouse’s Grey Album – a creative mashup of JayZ’s black album and the Beatles’ White Album. The Grey Album was plagued by copyright issues and couldn’t be officially released but that only fueled demand and massive downloads via p2p networks.
They often say where …

A few weeks ago the HEAD TRAUMA mashup / cinema ARG had its first screening. The event was a collision of movies, music, gaming and theatrics. In a previous post I questioned the viability of traditional theatrical releases for “truly” independent films. The mashup / cinema ARG has promise and event driven theatrical experiences could in fact become an interesting model for independent distro.
- The event attracted …

Our guest today is David Dudas. David is the CTO and co-founder of an interesting remix community called eyespot.com. eyespot enables users to easily shoot, mix and share media. During our conversation we discuss remix culture, media consumption and how content creators can work within the commons.

For more on David Dudas and eyespot click here

To listen NOW click the play button below.

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I’ve heard a lot of people challenging the theatrical experience – box office numbers are down from previous years, and home theater systems are only getting better. Not to mention all the competition for viewers attention thanks to a 500+ channel universe, broadband and a shrinking amount of free time. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that people still want that communal experience that a theatrical film can provide. …

Our guest today is Matt Hanson. Matt is the creator of the cinema 2.0 project, A SWARM OF ANGELS. SOA is a collaborative filmmaking experiment that uses “crowdsourcing” to create and distribute a full length feature film. The project is open to anyone who would like to join the process. For a small fee you become an Angel and have a vote in everything that happens from script to screen.

To …

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The Center for the Study of the Public Domain has put together an excellent resource that sheds light on the confusing issue of “fair use”. They’ve created a graphic novel entitled “Bound by Law” that translates public domain law into plain English.

“A documentary is being filmed. A cell phone rings, playing the “Rocky” theme song. The filmmaker is told she must pay $10,000 to clear the rights to the song. …