HBO Adopts a Transmedia Approach

I found out about this project via the excellent website of Screenwriter, Producer, Director, Editor and cinema business Blogger Miles Maker. Leave it to HBO to be the first mainstream entertainment outlet to embrace Transmedia Storytelling as a method of content creation and proliferation.  It will be interesting to see how successful they are with this campaign and how widely they roll it out.  I've yet to see it pop up on HBO primetime.

Unlike current television forays into multiplatform storytelling (see Lost and Heroes) HBO Imagine "sets out to prove that there are many sides to every story and a change in perspective changes everything." On television shows currently employing some multi modality,  the story offshoots are typically one-dimensional, and rarely if ever influence the primary narrative. These secondary stories take place within the same world as the primary, but aren't crucial to an audience's understanding of the main characters or the events taking place. According to World Screen.com:

"HBOimagine.com offers 41 pieces of content, including short- and long-form video, audio files, news stories, letters and images that are connected to each other.  There is also an outdoor installation, The Cube, which HBO calls a "storytelling device" that offers four different perspectives on the same scene simultaneously, telling the same story from four points of view."

TV Everywhere...For A Price

Jeff Bewkes (left) announced this summer the start of a new pilot program called TV Everywhere that would give subscribers access to their favorite content across multiple platforms.  Sure, this sounds great to subscribers, but what does it mean for the currently democratized internet space?  What will happen to alternate content distributors if material is suddenly yanked from their sites?  They may lose the advertising dollars necessary to turn a profit as consumers are forced to watch their favorite shows through their service provider's pay site .  In return, it could become harder for independent content providers to find a foothold .  If alternate online distributors start to disappear, and the independent content providers' material isn't being carried by a major subscription service outlet, how will this content find an audience?  Will every independent creator have to become their own distributor as well?

Service providers are so scared about losing revenue from the traditional source (subscribers) that they fail to see the merits of diversifying (ad supported streaming).  The way we consume media today is fundamentally different from the way we consumed media just five years ago.  Society is used to viewing content for 'free' in an ad supported model.  I can see TV Everywhere potentially working as a premium service, allowing subscribers to access content from their archives, see episodes before they premiere, watch content without commercials, etc.   However I can't see people embracing it in the form Bewkes is currently proposing.

Back to School / Women and Directing

Last night was my first "Producing Fundamentals" class through NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. From what I can tell, the class is going to be really engaging; an even mix of personal stories from our instructor and practical information. Our instructor Jamin O'Brien (Boynton Beach Bereavement Club, Lymelife, Handsome Harry) seems genuinely interested in us and in teaching us what he knows (or at least did a good job pretending!) which, based on his credits, is quite a bit. However the most interesting aspect of the class was its gender breakdown. In a class of about 16 people, only 1/4 were men. This seems to follow through to the actual industry. What is it about producing that attracts so many women? Why are there so many more female producers than directors or writers?
Yes, I realize there are a number of strong female voices out there: Kelly Reichardt, Jane Campion, and Kathryn Bigelow to name only a few. But this number doesn't even begin to compete with the legions of male directors all around the world who've forced their projects into being. And when one narrows the scope to include just Hollywood films, the number of female voices shrinks even more. In the history of the Academy Awards, only 3 female directors have ever been nominated for an Oscar, and none have won.
Perhaps many would-be female directors lack the confidence in their own vision or story to commence the behemoth task of finding supporters, time and money to see it through the pipeline. Being a director is about constantly making creative decisions that affect everything from budget, to start and wrap times, to lighting and design setups. The stress of not only having this whole production machine waiting for you to make a decision, but also having the artistic responsibility of making a film that will find critical and commercial success is a burden that may prove too heavy for most women to carry. Men seem to have an easier time throwing off the opinion of others and plowing through with their vision. Women tend to feel more responsible for their decisions. As a result, they take on supporting positions that allow them to shepherd others' work along without having to bear the brunt of the creative responsibility. This might be why it's easier to find female directors in the independent world. Here, the crews are smaller and there are no frantic production execs waiting for you to prove your worth. The failures tend to hit softer and are forgotten quicker.

Buzzkill!

This was a short film my friend and Margaret and I submitted for the TriggerStreet/Stella Artois Film Competition. Triggerstreet.com is the interactive arm of Kevin Spacey's media company dedicated to discovering and showcasing emerging filmmaking and writing talent. I keep meaning to become more active in the TriggerStreet community, as I believe that it has the potential to be a really valuable tool to producers (like myself) looking for potential content and creators looking for feedback. I'll report back my thoughts once I've test driven their site a bit more. Anyway, here's "Buzzkill"! The credits aren't correct (my "Story By" credit is missing) but other than that, it's in pretty decent shape. We were able to pull it together for a little under $2K and in only a months time, which, considering most of the people involved work full time, was quite a feat. Enjoy!

Buzz Kill from Larry on Vimeo.

DIY: Music Videos

I was blown away by the quality of this music video, shot entirely on the iPhone. Sure, the video's concept was simple to execute and the resulting picture may not have a lot of depth, but the image is crisp and the colors pop, which for a simple low budget web video like the one here, is all that you really need.

Music Video Shot on iPhone from Kenny Mosher on Vimeo.

Making A Movie? First You'll Need A Website

In today's DIY world, it's important to plan how you're going to market and distribute your film before you even get your first shot in the can. One of the most effective ways to do that is to establish a web presence for your film or company where you can post messages, images and video detailing your progress. I found this great website that compares the top web hosting sites. Screen shot below. Enjoy!

'Gamer' Gave Me Epilepsy

I was looking for some mindless popcorn fare to cap off my Labor Day weekend and figured watching Gerard Butler blow things up was as good a choice as any. And the trailer was set to Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" which, I hate to admit, would even pump me up to read the most boring book ever written.
However, the icing on the cake was probably this NYTimes article on the directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who made their names directing the high octane, (relatively) low budget 'Crank' movies. 'Gamer', like '12 Monkeys' or 'Videodrome', is a dystopian film, one of my favorite genres of movies(see previous post). The best examples of dystopian filmmaking are able to synthesize a political or societal warning or message and an entertaining plot that features some sort of journey, adventure or mystery in a highly stylized or innovative manner. 'Gamer' takes place in a future in which reality TV and video games have merged, allowing players to manipulate real people via a home console in such games as Society (think the Sims, except with real people) and Slayers, where death-row inmates compete in a gory tournament not unlike the ones seen in video games today. Shot to resemble games like Call of Duty or Halo, Neveldine claims that the film's high contrast, handheld, frenetic style serves to bring in an audience--the film's underhand objective is to criticize the volume of trashy content output by today's entertainment market.
But Neveldine and Taylor go too far to mimic the style they claim to mock. At times I had to close my eyes just to give myself a break from the contstant cutting. I thought I was going to be ill, and not from the boobs, blood, and bruisings (of which there are plenty). In the end, the visual virtuosos can't cover up what is a generally amateur entry into the genre. While there are flourishes of genius, like the Michael C. Hall dance number, the film generally remains bogged down by poor dialogue, worse acting, and a plot that's so lean, few of the supporting characters are given names, let alone motivations.The directors claim they want to criticize the type of trash they see on TV today, but the film never really feels like it succeeds in rising above.
On another note, it's these same "weaknesses" that could potentially lead this film to do robust business overseas. Video game playing teens all over the globe will probably respond much more positively than I to Neveldine and Taylor's epilepsy inducing visual style. And the sparse dialogue and lack of plot will make it easy to translate. Plus, Gerard Butler and Ludacris (in a small but highly marketed role) have decent international appeal. It will be interesting to track how this film does in ancillary markets as well. I can see it potentially having a long and lucrative career as a cult favorite.

'Carriers' Dumped by Shuttered Paramount Vantage

Like bulls in a china shop, studios always seem to mishandle lower budget genre fare. A movie like this could have benefitted from a well-planned viral campaign culminating in a November or December release as counter-programming for Oscar season. Instead, it was dumped into the veritable B.O. wasteland that is Labor Day weekend, only one week after the dual release of "Halloween II" and "The Final Destination".
'Carriers' Review Shared via AddThis

Cooking With Cormac McCarthy

This parody of Mr. McCarthy is from an old issue of Vanity Fair but my friend reminded me of it today and I just had to repost:

Cooking with Cormac McCarthy as told to Craig Brown

Pasta. Plain. But Good.

INGREDIENTS:
Pasta.
And salt.
And water.
And Fire.

DIRECTIONS:
Place the pasta in the water and the salt in the water and the water in the pot and the pot on the fire.
In the pot? The fire in the pot?
No. The water in the pot. The pot on the fire.
The pasta in the water?
Yes, in the water.
And the salt in the fire?
No. The salt in the water.
And the water on the fire?
No. The water in the pot and the pot on the fire. Not the water on the fire. For then the fire will die and dying be dead.
Nor will the water boil and the pasta will drain dry and not cooked and hard to the teeth.

The salt falls nor does it cease to fall.
The water boils. So be it.
Cease from placing your hand in the boiling water. Place your hand in the boiling water and it will cause you pain.
Much pain?
Very much pain.

In the pot the bubbles bubble up and bubble some more. The bubbles are bubbly. Never more bubbly bubbles bubbling bubbliest. And having bubbled the bubbles still bubbly.
Or bubblier?
Or bubblier.
Across the kitchen a board intended for chopping. Here. Take it. Chop.
What will I chop? There are no ingredients to chop.
Just chop. Don’t cease from chopping. To chop is to become a man.

After 10 minutes. The pasta stiff and dry and upright no more. The pasta lank and wet and soft. In the eternal damp of water.
Pour water free like some ancient anointing. The pasta left alone in the pot. Alone and naked.
The salt? Where’s the salt?
The salt is gone. Lost to the water and gone forever.
I grieve for the salt.
It is the salt for which I grieve.

Tip the pasta out.
The pasta?
Yes. Tip it out. Onto.
A plate?
Yes. And stop.
Finishing your sentences?
Yes.
Why?
Because it's so.
 Irritating?

Nothing in your memory anywhere of anything so good. Now the pasta is eaten. Disappeared. The pasta disappeared as everything disappeared. As the comma disappears and the semicolon disappears and the inverted comma disappears and the apostrophe disappears and the adjectives and the pronouns all disappear.
Leaving just full stops and And.
And And?
And And.
And And.

Sundance Evolves! (Finally)

I just read on Variety that Sundance Institute has added a new section called "Next" to the festival to showcase six to eight microbudget films. For a festival that is known (and criticized) for premiering Hollywood's nominally independent fare or films made by a small cadre of Sundance alumni, this decision is a real departure from the past. As funding and distribution options are disappearing for indie productions in the 5-10 million dollar range, lower budget, alternatively financed features are finding success by harnessing the power of the internet (see Arin Crumley's "Four Eyed Monsters" and Franny Armstrong's "The Age of Stupid" ). DIY filmmaking is no longer being looked at as the ugly ducking in a pond full of swans. The fact that Sundance has come calling shows that the swans are now looking for ways to be more like the duckling.  Not so ugly anymore!
All of this just goes to further prove that there is enough room for films of all types (and budgets) to coexist. You can find the Variety article here.

Why Hollywood Still Matters

From the articles criticizing the engorged budgets of films like "GI Joe" and "Land of the Lost" to the plunging prices of media stock chronicled in salacious detail by media analysts, one would think that the buzzards were already circling the Sony, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros and Fox lots. While some see the downfall of this corporatized system as the dawn of a new era of a more democratized system of filmmaking, I think Hollywood is needed now more than ever.

Take a look at the countrywide efforts by lawmakers to add filmmaking tax incentives to their budgets. Much attention has been given to "Gran Torino", one of the first movies (if not the first) to be made in Michigan since lawmakers enacted a 42% tax credit for film productions with budgets over $50,000. On Kim Masters The Business, Gran Torino producer Bill Gerber cited the incentive as the main reason they decided set the film in the suburbs of Detroit rather than Minneapolis as the writer Nick Schenk, had originally envisioned.

Michigan is only one of a dozen to do so. Massachusetts, Lousiana, and New York are other states that have publicized their hefty rebates in an effort to woo producers fat with studio money. Just last Thursday, North Carolina signed legislation that will give production companies a 25 percent tax credit for film projects in North Carolina. That’s a boost from the previous credit of 15 percent.

Critics of these programs want lawmakers to roll back the incentives, questioning their wisdom in the face of high state budget deficits. Massachusetts State Representative Steve D'Amico claims productions don't employ enough local labor and don't invest in putting down roots in order to chase higher subsidiaries in other states. But with the high number of new films and television series going into production each year, the incentive programs seem to be worth the risk. The numbers provided in an online ABC News story about the Michigan incentive show how much the film industry has done to create jobs and sustain small businesses:

In 2007, before Michigan offered the credit, two films were shot there. In 2008, after the credit was enacted, 35 films were, according to the Michigan Film Office. In 2009, there are already 85 movies made or with production applications filed with the state. In 2007, moviemakers spent $2 million producing in the Great Lakes state. In 2008, that soared to $125 million.

And its not only Michigan thats profiting. A study published by the New Mexico film office found that in 2007 local governments earned approximately $1.50 for each $1.00 of state credit. In addition, 2007 productions activities created 2,200 direct jobs. When factoring in film related capital spending, the number rises to 3,769.+/-

To take a another contemporary example, the recently enhanced incentives offered by New York allowed Ang Lee to shoot "Taking Woodstock" in Lebanon, New York rather than on an LA film set. “’Taking Woodstock’ is a New York story, but without the enhanced tax credit incentive we never could’ve filmed in New York,” says executive producer Celia Costas. The benefits proved to be twofold. According to the popular production newsletter "Resource 411", the production ‘Taking Woodstock’ generated an estimated $8 million to boost the local economy and spent nearly $25 million throughout New York State. In an article about the film published in the NYTimes on August 23rd, locals couldn't say enough positive things about the effects of the shoot on their community. Mr. Lee remembers how one woman stopped him and said: "All the events are on the other side of the border, in Massachusetts. Finally [the residents of Lebanon] have got a cultural event here." Restaurant owner Michael DeBella told the Times reporter "Without the movie, I doubt we would have made it through last winter. That's how close to closing we were."

While its easy to decry the excesses and waste of corporate Hollywood, its these same corporations that are helping (in no small part) to bring new jobs and renewed pride to economically depressed areas. Does this mean I think Jeff Bewkes deserves a Distinguished Service Award? No, but just as there's a need for small independent productions to push the boundaries of storytelling and distribution, I think there's also a need for the big, bloated productions of Spiderman and the like to keep pumping a little movie magic into areas that could use it.