headbin

If I had a penny for every...

If only there were as many people wanting to volunteer time on Sanctuary as people wanting to know all the details and when they can see it.... but you won't catch me complaining about buzz.

How to obsfucate? Here's one tip from the current promos for The Simpsons - the movie.

RADIO ONE DJ
So what can you tell us about the movie?

ACTOR
It'll be around ten dollars.

Yet another video site

MOD Films is not just about video. Repeat. This is not just about video....

From TechCrunch � Online Video Sites: Breeding Like Rabbits:

The problem with all these sites is that I don’t think the time of the amateur video has really come yet. Whereas everyone has a digital camera these days (minimally on their cell phone) to power sites like Flickr, digital video cameras are relatively rare. So while there’s amateur stuff out there, it still pales in terms of quantity and quality to the professional (copyrighted) stuff.

So the ultimate winner here isn’t going to be the guy with the best video editing features, per se - it’ll be the guy who can get around these copyright issues, and even convince copyright holders to treat their service as a marketing platform, licensing their viral marketing videos and clips for the users to play with and remix. Till that happens I wouldn’t bank on any of these companies surviving for the long haul.

Invitation to We Media Global Forum

Wahey! Until Sanctuary is out the door and MOD Films gets more funding my capability to attend conferences is pretty much nought. So it was great to get a Fellowship to this one in May.

http://thequality.com/massive/weblog/
Massive: We Media Global Forum

Film Genome Project

Discovered Pandora, the first application from the Music Genome Project - a parallel attempt to do the most comphrehensive analysis of music ever.

Discover Music through The Music Genome Project by Pandora

It's interesting that this is 6 years old effort to do the analysis of tracks manually. I'm always looking for ways in which MOD can avoid this grunt work but it may not be possible - and in a sense, the opportunity to analyse films in this way is something that many people may want to do. We'll see...

Cannes International Critics Week

This is what I'd call a good kick up the arse. Got an email this weekend from a little outfit, known as the Cannes Film Festival, requesting a tape of Sanctuary. The new year has begun with a bang. Now all we need is a completed film! Moving swiftly along...

Actualit�s du Syndicat Fran�ais de la Critique de cin�ma

Hollywood’s Biggest Lies

Hollywood’s Biggest Lies
By Elliot Grove, 2005

The film industry is pretty simple to break into, if at first you understand some basic concepts.

However, there is basic bullshit that surrounds the industry that keeps first-timers away from writing, directing, producing or starring in a movie.

Lie # 1: FILMMAKING IS AN ART

If filmmaking was an art, you would go get some film stock, rent a camera and make your 'art' and then line up on Piccadilly on a Sunday morning with the other buskers and try to sell your art to passersby - or give it away for free for others to enjoy. But we both know that this doesn’t work like that.

To make a movie you need to write cheques--and lots of them. When your movie is finished, you will want to negotiate the best possible deal and the greatest amount of revenue. Now, filmmaking could be discussed as writing cheques, negotiating and revenue potential. To me it sounds like a business.
And everything in the British film industry is about business. The sooner you realise this, the sooner you are likely to succeed. You will learn much more about this concept at the Lo-To-No Budget filmmaking course on November 26/27. Details are at http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/courses/produce/lotono/

Or call Raindance on 0207 287 3833

Lie #2: THE FILM INDUSTRY IS ABOUT FILMMAKING

The film industry spends more money marketing a film than making it. You have probably heard about the way a distributor will 'open' a film, 'release' a film or 'market' a film. So if it costs so much to market, open or release a film, then surely the film industry is more concerned about this, than with the actual making of a movie. Technically, in the film industry, the marketing budget is called the P& A budget (prints and advertising). And the two elements of a movie that the industry markets are: Who is in the film, and What is the budget.

When you make your first independent feature film you should know what it costs to strike a print and what ads (print, radio, TV, etc) cost. You must know this, at the least, to market your film to distributors at a film festival. But please, always remember that the film industry is a marketing machine that creates perceived values every weekend. Allow me to make this very clear by talking numbers.

Numbers work. You’ve made a film. A film has no value. No one pays for a film.
Everyone pays for a movie. When does a film become a movie? The answer is, “when it’s in a movie theatre”. When it’s in a movie theatre you, the consumer-viewer, see newspaper ads. When you see a newspaper ad you think it’s a movie. It’s in a movie theatre. Question: “Are movie theatres free?” Answer, “No!” Thus, movies cost money to see. Films you can see for free.

Ergo, when your film (free) is picked up by a distributor and they put in their “P&A” money, it now has a value of $10. This is the normal cost of buying a ticket at a movie theatre. Next, there are 280 Million people in America and if only 1 out 100 people see the movie this translates into 2.8 million ticket sales times $10 for a GROSS of $28,000,000.

Now here’s the point. Distributors and Filmmakers don’t see that $28,000,000. That’s what theatre owners (shopping center owners) collect. Box Office Gross! Did you see the words…Box Office? But the moviegoer has now been taught that your free film is now worth $10. Of the other 99 out of 100 potential ticket buyers what do they do? Probably, at least half of them, when they see the newspaper ads, say “I’ll rent it”. Is it free to rent at Blockbuster. No, it cost $4.

Get it! That’s it! That’s how Hollywood works. Hollywood takes a film that has no value, puts in the newspaper ads and gives it a $10 value knowing that, at the most 1 out of 100 will see it at the theatre. However, the other 99 people thinking it’s worth $10 will now rent it at the video store because it only costs $4. The Film Industry is a film marketing industry, not a filmmaking industry. You will learn much more about this concept on Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking November 26/27,

Details are at http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/courses/produce/lotono/

Or call Raindance on 0207 287 3833

LIE #3: WHAT THE BUDGET IS

Is there any industry that tells you the cost of manufacturing the product you want to buy? Why is it that in the film industry we always seem to know what the budget is? Do you think the film industry really tells you the truth? And if anyone asks you what the budget of YOUR` film is tell them to mind their own business!

There are only 4 budgets in the movie industry (1) the Blockbuster Budget, (2) the Hyphen Budget, (3) the Million Dollar Budget and (4) the Micro Budget.

The Blockbuster Budget is a budget so big that it is marketed as the most expensive film in the history of cinema. The first was Gone With The Wind, the next one, the first million-dollar film was Cleopatra. Films like the Titanic, Waterworld etc are marketed as hugely expensive so we, the punters, will go to see what 100+ million looks like on the screen.

The Hyphen budget is marketed as between 40 and 45 million, as if the anal accounting department cant remember what happened to five million dollars! Can you believe that? It is the budget of a standard Hollywood film, and the actual production costs on a thirty - seventy million-dollar film are at most a few million, with the balance spent on stars and promoting the film.

The Million Dollar Budget is your typical entry-level independent film and the budgets are expressed as: 1.4 mil (sex, lies and videotape) or 800 thou (Lock Stock) 1.1 mil (Shallow Grave) 1.1 mil (Blood Simple) These films don’t usually have stars, and are story driven.

The Micro budget is broken down into three sub categories:
Under a mil = low budget
Under 500 thou = Micro Budget
Under a hundred thousand dollars/euros/pounds = No budget Films like Pi, Blair Witch, Clerks and the brilliant The Following by Raindance alumni Christopher Nolan fall into this category.

The budget of your feature film is going to be one of those 4 budgets. For more information and details on how to make a $1,000,000 Feature Film by spending $200,000 then check out the Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking course offered by Raindance. But stop thinking that you know what the true budget of a film is. The film industry lies!

LIE #4: THE FILM INDUSTRY MAKES FILMMAKER DEALS

The problem with all filmmakers that what to make a film is that they are perennially attempting to make-a-deal to get the money to make-a-film. This will never happen. You are putting the horse before the cart. You must first make-a-film to make-a-deal. I know this is confusing so allow me to use some numbers to understand the concept, which is “First Make-A-Film to Make-A-Deal”.

If you desire $20,000,000 to make a feature film you must go to one of the 7 major distributors (Warner, Paramount, Sony, Disney, etc). And, all they ask you to do to get their $20,000,000 is to first Make-A-Film with a $2,000,000 budget…that makes money. Because Hollywood (Lie #2) is a film marketing industry and the distributors want to be able to market “From the Producer Of, from the Writer of, From the Star of” on the poster and ads.

Thus, if you want $20,000,000, make a $2,000,000 Feature Film…that makes money. Now, how do you get $2,000,000 to get the $20,000,000? It’s simple. First Make-A-Film! Make a $200,000 feature film that makes money. Are you getting the point? And how do you get $200,000? You first make a $20,000 Feature Film!

First, Make-A-Film! And, if that film makes money…then you’ll make a deal!

For detailed information on how to make your first feature film knowing that you only have access to 20,000 to 200,000 dollars euros pounds attend the Lo-To-No Budget filmmaking class at Raindance.

Details are at http://www.raindancefilmfestival.org/courses/produce/lotono/

Or call Raindance on 0207 287 3833

Elliot Grove
Raindance
81 Berwick Street, London W1V 3PF
phone: 0: +44 (0)20 7287 3833, fax: +44 (0)20 7439 2243
e-mail elliot@raindance.co.uk www.raindance.co.uk

Mesmerized by the moving image from a young age, but unable to watch TV or films until his early teens due to the constraints of his Amish background, Canadian-born Elliot Grove followed up formal art school training with a series of jobs behind the scenes in the film industry.

Working as a scenic artist on 68 feature films and over 700 commercials in his native Toronto, he developed a distaste for the wasted resources on set and union red tape that prevented filmmaker wannabe’s like himself from getting their own features off the ground.

Elliot moved to London in the late 1980’s and thirteen years ago, when the British Film Industry was drowning in self-pity, launched the Raindance Film Festival, a festival devoted to independent filmmaking and its emerging talent.

Initially, Raindance catered mainly to American Independents who understood that the combination of a positive mental attitude and a pioneering spirit provides the essential foundation upon which to produce and distribute films successfully. Happily, that attitude has now filtered through to the UK; independent filmmaking, once a small organism, has become a global phenomenon. Elliot is proud of the fact that last year's Raindance line-up included 84 independent features and 200 shorts from 40 countries.

Upholding the ethos of Raindance, Elliot wrote, produced and directed 1997's feature, Table 5, for just over £200. He also lectures on screenwriting and filmmaking throughout the UK and Europe, and in 1992 set up the training division of Raindance which now offers nearly 2 dozen evening and weekend masterclasses on writing, directing, producing and marketing a feature film. These courses are designed for those with no formal training who want to break into the film industry, or for professionals who want to refresh their skills. Making films is expensive, so Elliot and Raindance work on the assumption that course participants do not have Hollywood-scale amounts of money to throw around.

Elliot founded The British Independent Film Awards in 1998 and in 2001 Focal Press published his book: Raindance Writers Lab: How to Write and Sell the Hot Script. His second book, Raindance Producer’s Lab Lo-To-No Budget Filmmaking was published by Focal Press in July 2004. Both are available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0240516990/wwwraindacouk-21/026-2576030-8814011?creative=6394&camp=1406&link_code=as1

His production company operates under the Raindance banner and is currently developing a slate of ten features, the first of which completed principle photography in Sept 2005.

Elliot firmly believes that success in the moviemaking business is a simple matter of demystifying the process of breaking into the film industry and allowing individual talent to prosper.

Wired in Jan

Looks like Sanctuary will be covered in the January issue of Wired. I was interviewed on the weekend after several months of "When's the release?" emails. Just got the email from the photos editor. This kind of publicity doesn't come about every day so would be good if we make the most of it. Hence the urgency to package up what's been done.

Any thoughts on images? Obviously this is good timing and feeds into efforts to package the work to-date funded by West Focus.

http://modfilms.com/twiki/bin/view/Sanctuary/WebHome?topic=ProjectProducts

Sputnik 7

sputnik7 - Music Videos, Film, Full-Length Anime, & Free MP3 Downloads

EMI loved these guys and their Video on Demand Internet setup. Good example of vapourware though. Check the dates and update frequency. Case study in what to do (creating a buzz) and what not to do (burning out straight after launch).

SMH article with Russell and Brad

Well not quite... but alongside anyhow. Now we better finish the damn things!

Mixing movies at home - Film - Entertainment - smh.com.au

PR photographs

Photos for the press. http://modfilms.com/pr. Only give this link out to people who are confirmed as writing an article on us.

Film Sponsorship leaflet

Latest version in ftp://ftp.modfilms.com/filmsponsorshipletter

Re-mixable or remixable?

To hypenate or not hypenate, that is the question. MOD Films pretty much dominates Googlespace for "re-mixable films" but will people use remixable more?

SPAA talk

My overview of the project as presented at SPAA 2004 in August on the Gold Coast.

http://www.modfilms.com/archives/20040808_spaa.ppt

Open letter to garner interest in project

Here is an open letter hopefully explaining the gist of the project and what we're looking for. Please forward as you see fit.

http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/docs/20040628_Open Letter.doc

NESTA Press Release Live

http://www.nesta.org.uk/mediaroom/newsreleases/4400/index.html

SPAA on the Gold Coast

I've been given a speaking slot at the Screen Producers Association of Australia conference on the 7th of August on the Gold Coast.

SPAA Conference 2004

Vapourware

Vapourware, get innawit...

http://www.cmpevents.com/m.asp?A=2632649741H&C=8&C4Pid=9376

Agents shopt movie scripts with game design documentation

About time...

"Taking things even further, agents now are beginning to shop movie scripts with game-design documents together, so that a movie studio and a game publisher can nurture a potential franchise simultaneously across mediums. "

Wired News: Games, Movies Tie the Knot

Industry endorsements

INTERACTIVE INDUSTRY

"The time is right to try something like this."
Adrian Curry, XBox Account Manager, Microsoft UK

"I'd publish something like that. I'll be your producer"
Grant Dean, Executive Producer (ex-Eidos, THQ, Midway Games)

You're selling looms, not cotton. That's interesting."
Terry Braun, braunarts multimedia production company.

"That sounds really interesting. I'll put you in contact with The Movies team so you can see how it might work."
Peter Molyneux, Founder Lionhead Studios (potential licensee)

"what you are planning - really stimulating and mind-stretching!"
Peter Wienand, Partner, Farrer & Co.

"What you're attempting is the holy grail of interactivity. Getting non-gamers to play."
Nick Button-Brown, Business Development Manager Europe, Electronic Arts

FILM INDUSTRY

"That's really interesting. I want you to meet my producers."
Marc Evans, Director My Little Eye, Trauma

"It's a good idea. Let's meet again."
Simon Pummell, Director, Bodysong

"Great idea. This should be looked at as part of entertainment. It's good that there are people like you out there. Otherwise things won't ever change"
David Glennon, Sales Manager, Filmbank Distributors (potential services client)

MOD Films strap-line

"The person who tells you everything right away is a bore."
Alfred Hitchcock (Film Director)

"You can't look at humanity separate from machines."
Will Wright (Game Designer)

"A bad artist imitates, a good artist steals."
Pablo Picasso (Artist)

What's your story? What are you doing with it?

Kelseus endorse project

Antics from Kelseus is reviewed in Develop magazine (Feb 2004):

"Productivity and flexibility are the buzzwords within the animation sector. Whether it be games, TV or movies, studios are re-using as much content as possible to reduce both costs and scheduling pressures."

Kelseus are providing a free license in support of the MOD Films proposition and to generate pre-vis sales.

http://www.antics3d.com/

Michael shoots the Concorde for VR

Michael Eleftheriades' work after the last-ever Concorde flight is being showcased on the REALVIZ site.

http://www.realviz.com/products/showcase.php?id=54&product=st

What's the Story?

Anyone wanting a ticket for "What's the Story?". Please contact Ken.

VJ storytelling

VJForums.com - ::Digital Storytelling...... AVit Narrative Lab::. Discusssions ahead of the event at the AVIT festival in Brighton.

Ecademy

Just posted a call for trusted bods to check out Ecademy. I'm a great fan of online community systems but more importantly, I think it's time that we start thinking about how this project is going to be marketed to the MOD community who will make or break it.

If it is possible to piggy-back off someone else's system for a community framework, that may be the way forward.

MOD the movies

An abstract proposal, MOD the movies - sustaining the story through live performance file, submitted for http://www.virtualstorytelling.com/ICVS2003/