MISSION STATEMENT
In the summer of 2007, I reached out to Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and Mike Belmont (We Are the Strange) with a concept to create a virtual conference / festival. After a series of discussions we decided that the virtual event would be a way to hopefully connect filmmakers directly with audiences. That the event itself could become a model for open content distribution, one which allowed filmmakers to have a say in how their films were reaching audiences. It also enabled us to take concepts from the Workbook Project, an open source project for content creators, and to put them into practice.

Well the virtual event has evolved into an online and real world event which is broken into two parts. The first is a festival called From Here to Awesome which will play out in theaters, living rooms, online and via mobile devices. The second part is a series of live conferences / discussions know as DIY DAYS happening in LA, SF, Boston, NYC and London. Our goal is to create an open discussion and debate that will evolve over the next four months. At the end we intend to share all the results and then go back to the drawing board to plan for year two.

UPDATE: August 2008 – It’s a year later almost to the date of our first conversation and From Here to Awesome has evolved into an R&D lab for the creation of new business models, open tools, and standards. We are looking for volunteers who are interested in helping FHTA grow as an open source project.

We welcome your comments, suggestions and thoughts.

Lance Weiler
filmmaker and co-founder FHTA / DIY DAYS