Yo La Tengo have been performing their famous eight-night Hanukkah run for the better part of 18 years, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish. “We’re not all Jewish, for one thing,” frontman Ira Kaplan tells Rolling Stone. “Even those of us that are are not religious in any way. It was more that it seemed challenging and funny to play eight nights in a row with all the hoopla over Christmas. I thought that Hanukkah could use a bit of a spotlight.”
Even so, their annual run...
Even so, their annual run...
- 11/21/2019
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
The festival of lights is getting a boost this year from Hanukkah+, a collection of Hanukkah classics and originals from artists like Haim, the Flaming Lips, Jack Black and Yo La Tengo.
The album, produced by Grammy-winning music supervisor Randall Poster, will be released November 22nd via Verve Forecast. A vinyl release will follow on December 13th.
Loudon Wainwright III, Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green, Holy Ghost’s Alex Frankel and Craig Wedren also contributed to the album. Haim take on Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will,” from Cohen’s 1984 album Various Positions,...
The album, produced by Grammy-winning music supervisor Randall Poster, will be released November 22nd via Verve Forecast. A vinyl release will follow on December 13th.
Loudon Wainwright III, Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green, Holy Ghost’s Alex Frankel and Craig Wedren also contributed to the album. Haim take on Leonard Cohen’s “If It Be Your Will,” from Cohen’s 1984 album Various Positions,...
- 11/13/2019
- by Emily Zemler
- Rollingstone.com
Warning: There may be some contentious points on piracy and the future of online distribution in this article. Please feel free to comment and debate below!
I had a chance to attend the "Future of Film Summit" in Beverly Hills produced by Variety and DigitalMediaWire. The ambitious one-day event focused on "the current state of the industry, and how film and transmedia deals will be struck in the coming years." That's a pretty grand scale, but I'd have to say it delivered a good mix of traditional film perspective mixed with a suprisingly high-level group of online experts. The keynotes were given by Tom Bernard, Co-founder and Co-president, Sony Pictures Classics and by writer-director Kevin Smith (comments on the keynotes follow my conference takeaways below.)
A few takeaways from the conference:
Mike Vorhaus, President of Magid Advisors, a leading entertainment consulting firm, opened the conference with a fascinating collection of data about the general state of the film industry in terms of movie-going demographics. The most interesting part for me was that avid digital "streamers" spend the most money at traditional theaters, purchasing movies and TV shows online, and renting the same online. Hence, "Regular moviegoes not only are loyal to the cinema, they are also spending a lot of time with digital devices." (and spending money for content on these devices!)
Great news for indies, since the internet is still, for now, wide open for distribution to the savvy filmmaker. Other important points from the study:
Video is one of the top activites on smartphones (young people know this, but anyone over 30 producing content Needs to internalize this.) Full-length video watching on tablets outweighs smartphones, but the phones are growing - both in physical size and in full-length video watching habits. Tablet and iPhone users are the most likely to purchase TV and movie content on mobile.
Want to see all the exact figures and media demographics? Watch the entire 32-slide presentation and let me know your thoughts here.
If you can't beat 'em?
I was fascinated to see that the infamous BitTorrent was a headlining sponsor of the event. It definitely raised some hackles (see Tom Bernard's comments below.) Matt Mason, Executive Director of Marketing for BT, has the enviable/un-enviable job of both improving BitTorrent's image to the film industry and educating about potential areas for BT to actually become an asset to an indie film's marketing plan.
As a filmmaker/distributor I find my heart wrenched by the concept, but I'm fascinated at the possibility of torrents to empower filmmakers so I sat down with Matt and asked for some specifics. ~i.e. It's a new model...evolve or die?)
Zack Coffman: What did you think of the conference?
Matt Mason: I saw a lot of great films and projects I didn't know about and as a result, we're now working with some of those producers to help them promote their projects through the BitTorrent ecosystem. It's great to see so much positive change happening in the business. There's a sense of optimism about all the opportunities ahead and I really felt that at this event.
Zc: You are fighting very hard to change BT's image to filmmakers as a piracy enabler. Thoughts on this observation?
Mm: We are and there has been good momentum. The BitTorrent protocol is designed to move large files across the Internet; it fixes a problem inherent with the way the Internet was designed. At that time no one imagined the need for moving data as big as files are today and BitTorrent is the very best way to move large files. Much of that is personal media, such as a 20Gb video from your smart phone. Many people aren't aware of how BitTorrent is used for legitimate purposes by companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and Blizzard to push updates and move large amounts of data around their ecosystems.
We can't change human behavior, and piracy has been a fact of life throughout the history of media. What we can do is change the environment around piracy. We know that when Internet users are offered legitimate content from creators and publishers and the experience of getting that content is good, they will choose to interact with those content creators and reward them. We're working to create those experiences in BitTorrent, which at this point, is moving 30-40% of the world's Internet traffic everyday - more than http. We see a bright future. The music industry is coming back strong now that people are starting to really get a handle on digital - the same thing is starting to happening in film. We see only good things ahead and we're committed to being part of the solution.
Zc: Can you give filmmakers some real advice how to use BT to further their film marketing goals?
Mm: It really depends who your audience is, what you want them to do and what kind of marketing materials you're putting in front of that audience. We've had great success this year driving awareness and engagement for filmmakers. Giving someone a real, immersive glimpse into the story you are trying to tell and then giving the consumer a number of ways to interact with your story (email collection, social media, pushing them to your site) via BitTorrent has helped a number of filmmakers this year. Our key insight has been that there is no one solution, but as many solutions as there are pieces of content. Each piece of content can have a unique approach and our mission is to create a set of tools for content creators to access.
Zc: Examples?
Mm: Recently we worked with Stacy Peralta and the Bones Brigade team on their documentary that's playing now. Skateboarding’s 1990s youth revolution was a direct result of analog file sharing. Kids copying and swapping Powell-Peralta tapes made the Bones Brigade, the most famous - and the most successful - skate crew in history. Stacy Peralta’s acclaimed 2012 film, Bones Brigade: A Documentary, followed the handmade and hard-fought rise of this crew. But as a documentary about a niche sport, it faced barriers to attention and mainstream interest.
We wanted to create a 2.0 reinvention of the Diy distribution paradigm at the heart of the crew’s original success, and help generate reach and activation, beyond the Sundance and skate circuits. In partnership with Topspin Media and Stacy Peralta, we created a BitTorrent Bundle of media that gave BitTorrent users and Bones Brigade fans exclusive content from the film. The Bundle included the film’s HD trailer, graffiti stencils, artwork and music from Tommy Guerrero. Each Bundle was free for users to download. In order to unlock the content, users needed to provide an email address.
The Bones Brigade Bundle was offered to users at high-engagement touch points within the BitTorrent ecosystem: during software installation, as part of our Featured Artist program site and within the BitTorrent clients.
The result? Over one million views of the extended trailer on BitTorrent in a month (compared to 188,000 views on YouTube), over 81,000 new users driven to Bones Brigade social media properties and 185,000 fans driven to the movie's website. According to TopSpin, BitTorrent was the most potent form of marketing outside of the film's websites. They will be presenting a full breakdown of that campaign at Sundance in January.
Conference Tracks:
The conference offered two simultaneous "tracks" for the afternoon panels and while the studio production track seemed interesting and had some heavy hitters, I decided to stick with the Digital Future track.
Josh Dickey, film editor at Variety led a spirited panel entitled "Social Marketing Revolution", but he showed his digital chops by basically hijacking the gathered experts into a wider debate about various online marketing techniques. You'd expect Sony to be a leader in digital, but Elias Plishner, VP Worldwide Digital Media for Sony Pictures really had his act together and stood out by giving practical insight into how his department functions.
With a veritable army of digital team members in the back of the room, Plishner explained how every morning they create a "Digital Report Card" for every film currently in release. The report card includes the five top analytics for each marketing program: Site traffic, Buzz, Video Views, Social Activity (basically Facebook's TalkScore value), and organic search volume. All of these values are compared against a "genre norm" and followed by goals the team has set. With these numbers in hand, you could see it leading to a very efficient digital marketing effort. [Sony is really paying attention to the analytics and data that the net can provide. Every indie content creator needs to be doing this! - I'd like to see subscores of various social platforms since Fb isn't the only game in town any more.]
Discussion Point- What would be the impact of a property's score handicapped for: A) Pre-existing brand awareness B) Star power C) Marketing $ expenditure D) Film quality E) Seo F) PR intangibles. A handicap formula would be fascinating and I'd love to see its predictive value of a film's financial success vs. cost to produce/market. Thoughts?
The "Trendsetters of the New Platforms" panel featured several content producers discussing how they are using the new distribution model of the net. Afterwards, I caught up with Marc Lieberman, Head of Business Development for The Onion.
Zack Coffman: The Onion has been seeing amazing results from it's online programming. Can you please outline some of the areas you've been focusing on?
Marc Lieberman: Certainly. Recently, we've been expanding our online presence with the launch of our new daily show, 'ONNCast.' As we've done with our written content, we're taking a renewed focus on covering breaking news and timely news first and foremost.
Zc: Why do you think they've been successful?
Ml: As we saw with more timely written content, people want to watch and read our coverage of current events the very same day that these events are occurring. Even if you're a fan of some of our lesser-known competitors (The New York Times, The Huffington Post and CNN to name a few), you know that a visit to TheOnion.com will yield smarter, more in-depth reporting on the news of the day paired with our trademark attention-getting headlines. Sure, we no longer allow our writing staff time to sleep, but this is just one of the many sacrifices that true journalists must make. That, and attaining worthless college degree that renders them wholly unfit to work outside of a newsroom.
Zc: What's the overall goal for The Onion?
Ml: Since our first issue debuted 1783, the goal of The Onion has always been to shape and control the opinion of the American public. It has done so with nothing short of overwhelming success.
Though The Onion has been 'America's Finest News Source' since that time, the Internet has enabled us to also shape and control the opinion of those that live beyond our borders. Some, mistakenly, consider this part of our overall goal, but we assure you that it's merely a bi-product of our tremendous influence.
Zc: Do you actively employ Seo and Sem?
Ml: We do in terms of Seo. However, our large amount of web traffic no doubt gives us a quite an advantage over smaller sites. But, again, timely content will go a long way on search, as does our large story archive which proves the old adage, "news is cyclical."
Zc: The Kim Jong-un article was like a PR blitz for you, was it pure chance or are your writers that smart?
Ml: To be perfectly frank, we benefitted greatly from a lack of "sexy" news otherwise on the day that story broke. To clear up some confusion, our editor, Will Tracy, sent the following statement to the press:"For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades."
Zc: How have you leveraged that explosion into your overall marketing efforts?
Ml: First, we actually added Will's statement to the article, and re-promoted the article through our social media channels and on our site. However, when something that does much the marketing work for you, the strategy that we employ is to not interfere with where it might go. That said, it afforded us many opportunities to be interviewed by a bevy of media sources, which is something we didn't shy away from.
Zc: The Onion has always been a beacon for independents, do you have any advice for indie film marketers out there?
Ml: Don't change your message, but be willing to change the way in which you deliver it. In this way, we were able to evolve from our print beginnings to an online presence that allows us to gain the readership of new people every day.
"The New Distribution Formula" panel dealt with changing release windows and new opportunities afforded by VOD. Tom Quinn and Jason Janego, co-presidents of Radius-twc joined Rob Sussman, Evp, Business Operations, Development, and Strategy, Epix, Jamie McCabe, Evp, worldwide PPV, VOD, Est, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Todd Green, General Manager, Tribeca Film, and Daniel Solnicki, Head of Worldwide Franchise Development, DreamWorks Animation in a discussion about new theatrical/VOD strategies; particularly focused on the day-and-date model and changing of traditional distribution windows. The discussion was frankly much too short, but it will be interesting to check in with Quinn and Janego about how Radius-twc achieved their cross-platform success with Bachelorette and watch very closely their upcoming release of Only God Forgives by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling.
The last panel of the day was ambitiously called "Monetizing Film and Video Content in a Digital Age". It featured some big names, but ended up being a bit of a PR piece for the panelists, as they didn't really offer any concrete ideas for the jam-packed room. However, Jordan Metzner of Xsolla did try his best to explain specifically what his company does for filmmakers. "Xsolla provides in-game payment services for some of the largest video game developers and publishers in the world and can help filmmakers with our film monetization arm, called Cinify. We help film makers get on major networks as well as monetize content on their on sites using Cdn's and Xsolla as a payment solutions."
Apparently Xsolla's platform allows the viewer to watch/play a few minutes of a film/game before being asked to pony up and pay for the content. In my opinion, this is way better for indies than the other current models that ask for payment based on viewing only a trailer. I'll be curious to have a follow-up with Jason and investigate it further.
Notes on Notes:
The day's two keynotes offered some insight into filmmaking from two different perspectives.
Tim Gray, the big Kahuna at Variety sat down with industry uber-vet Tom Bernard of Sony Classics for the morning keynote and Bernard was suprisingly frank in his outlook for the future. He mentioned that Spc's audience skews older and he was concerned about that demographic aging problem. I had a chance to chat with Tom further about this conundrum and he explained that Spc films were traditionally a print media audience, but the new college of film is the internet so Spc has been acquiring more films that fit a wider demographic such as Searching for Sugarman- that has a huge online audience and huge audience of baby boomers, and Rust and Bone- a modern film, and very different than traditional foreign films which is getting a wide demographic as well.
"People determine their own DNA online," he continued saying that Spc is excited about opportunites the 'net brings because they are saving so much money by scaling back on print and "narrowcasting" on the net, resulting in their highest profit margins ever. When I asked him about his thoughts on BitTorrent being a sponsor of the show he was unequivocable on his position, "I was shocked and appalled. They are pirates and have caused huge amounts of money to be lost on our pictures. Those guys should be in jail."
Kevin Smith gave an entertaining and inspiring keynote speech, fielding questions posed by his Hollywood Babble-On co-host, Ralph Garman of Kroq. He's definitively taken some licks over the years (some self-inflicted, some not) but survives with his "indie cred" intact. His best quote of the night was a real winner, ""It's not about kissin' up, it's about kissin' down."
Smith continued, "Spend every second with your fans, connect with your audience." A proponent of crowdfunding, he said he routinely supports interesting projects and even sent some money recently to a campaign for a guy that wanted to become a glass-blower. "I just wanted to see that guy fucking do it!" exclaimed Smith, "Remember, they [media gatekeepers] need you [content creators] more than you need them."
Indies in the new film economy should worry more about online culture-building and dealing directly with their audience and less about trying to impress the gatekeepers and distributors that hold sway over the theaters and traditional media outlets.
I look forward to everyone's thoughts and comments! Have a wonderful holiday.
Written by Zack Coffman, a producer specializing in online strategy and monetization, live streaming, and Seo for film. Connect with Zack on LinkedIn and follow his film marketing tips and adventures @choppertown on Twitter.
I had a chance to attend the "Future of Film Summit" in Beverly Hills produced by Variety and DigitalMediaWire. The ambitious one-day event focused on "the current state of the industry, and how film and transmedia deals will be struck in the coming years." That's a pretty grand scale, but I'd have to say it delivered a good mix of traditional film perspective mixed with a suprisingly high-level group of online experts. The keynotes were given by Tom Bernard, Co-founder and Co-president, Sony Pictures Classics and by writer-director Kevin Smith (comments on the keynotes follow my conference takeaways below.)
A few takeaways from the conference:
Mike Vorhaus, President of Magid Advisors, a leading entertainment consulting firm, opened the conference with a fascinating collection of data about the general state of the film industry in terms of movie-going demographics. The most interesting part for me was that avid digital "streamers" spend the most money at traditional theaters, purchasing movies and TV shows online, and renting the same online. Hence, "Regular moviegoes not only are loyal to the cinema, they are also spending a lot of time with digital devices." (and spending money for content on these devices!)
Great news for indies, since the internet is still, for now, wide open for distribution to the savvy filmmaker. Other important points from the study:
Video is one of the top activites on smartphones (young people know this, but anyone over 30 producing content Needs to internalize this.) Full-length video watching on tablets outweighs smartphones, but the phones are growing - both in physical size and in full-length video watching habits. Tablet and iPhone users are the most likely to purchase TV and movie content on mobile.
Want to see all the exact figures and media demographics? Watch the entire 32-slide presentation and let me know your thoughts here.
If you can't beat 'em?
I was fascinated to see that the infamous BitTorrent was a headlining sponsor of the event. It definitely raised some hackles (see Tom Bernard's comments below.) Matt Mason, Executive Director of Marketing for BT, has the enviable/un-enviable job of both improving BitTorrent's image to the film industry and educating about potential areas for BT to actually become an asset to an indie film's marketing plan.
As a filmmaker/distributor I find my heart wrenched by the concept, but I'm fascinated at the possibility of torrents to empower filmmakers so I sat down with Matt and asked for some specifics. ~i.e. It's a new model...evolve or die?)
Zack Coffman: What did you think of the conference?
Matt Mason: I saw a lot of great films and projects I didn't know about and as a result, we're now working with some of those producers to help them promote their projects through the BitTorrent ecosystem. It's great to see so much positive change happening in the business. There's a sense of optimism about all the opportunities ahead and I really felt that at this event.
Zc: You are fighting very hard to change BT's image to filmmakers as a piracy enabler. Thoughts on this observation?
Mm: We are and there has been good momentum. The BitTorrent protocol is designed to move large files across the Internet; it fixes a problem inherent with the way the Internet was designed. At that time no one imagined the need for moving data as big as files are today and BitTorrent is the very best way to move large files. Much of that is personal media, such as a 20Gb video from your smart phone. Many people aren't aware of how BitTorrent is used for legitimate purposes by companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and Blizzard to push updates and move large amounts of data around their ecosystems.
We can't change human behavior, and piracy has been a fact of life throughout the history of media. What we can do is change the environment around piracy. We know that when Internet users are offered legitimate content from creators and publishers and the experience of getting that content is good, they will choose to interact with those content creators and reward them. We're working to create those experiences in BitTorrent, which at this point, is moving 30-40% of the world's Internet traffic everyday - more than http. We see a bright future. The music industry is coming back strong now that people are starting to really get a handle on digital - the same thing is starting to happening in film. We see only good things ahead and we're committed to being part of the solution.
Zc: Can you give filmmakers some real advice how to use BT to further their film marketing goals?
Mm: It really depends who your audience is, what you want them to do and what kind of marketing materials you're putting in front of that audience. We've had great success this year driving awareness and engagement for filmmakers. Giving someone a real, immersive glimpse into the story you are trying to tell and then giving the consumer a number of ways to interact with your story (email collection, social media, pushing them to your site) via BitTorrent has helped a number of filmmakers this year. Our key insight has been that there is no one solution, but as many solutions as there are pieces of content. Each piece of content can have a unique approach and our mission is to create a set of tools for content creators to access.
Zc: Examples?
Mm: Recently we worked with Stacy Peralta and the Bones Brigade team on their documentary that's playing now. Skateboarding’s 1990s youth revolution was a direct result of analog file sharing. Kids copying and swapping Powell-Peralta tapes made the Bones Brigade, the most famous - and the most successful - skate crew in history. Stacy Peralta’s acclaimed 2012 film, Bones Brigade: A Documentary, followed the handmade and hard-fought rise of this crew. But as a documentary about a niche sport, it faced barriers to attention and mainstream interest.
We wanted to create a 2.0 reinvention of the Diy distribution paradigm at the heart of the crew’s original success, and help generate reach and activation, beyond the Sundance and skate circuits. In partnership with Topspin Media and Stacy Peralta, we created a BitTorrent Bundle of media that gave BitTorrent users and Bones Brigade fans exclusive content from the film. The Bundle included the film’s HD trailer, graffiti stencils, artwork and music from Tommy Guerrero. Each Bundle was free for users to download. In order to unlock the content, users needed to provide an email address.
The Bones Brigade Bundle was offered to users at high-engagement touch points within the BitTorrent ecosystem: during software installation, as part of our Featured Artist program site and within the BitTorrent clients.
The result? Over one million views of the extended trailer on BitTorrent in a month (compared to 188,000 views on YouTube), over 81,000 new users driven to Bones Brigade social media properties and 185,000 fans driven to the movie's website. According to TopSpin, BitTorrent was the most potent form of marketing outside of the film's websites. They will be presenting a full breakdown of that campaign at Sundance in January.
Conference Tracks:
The conference offered two simultaneous "tracks" for the afternoon panels and while the studio production track seemed interesting and had some heavy hitters, I decided to stick with the Digital Future track.
Josh Dickey, film editor at Variety led a spirited panel entitled "Social Marketing Revolution", but he showed his digital chops by basically hijacking the gathered experts into a wider debate about various online marketing techniques. You'd expect Sony to be a leader in digital, but Elias Plishner, VP Worldwide Digital Media for Sony Pictures really had his act together and stood out by giving practical insight into how his department functions.
With a veritable army of digital team members in the back of the room, Plishner explained how every morning they create a "Digital Report Card" for every film currently in release. The report card includes the five top analytics for each marketing program: Site traffic, Buzz, Video Views, Social Activity (basically Facebook's TalkScore value), and organic search volume. All of these values are compared against a "genre norm" and followed by goals the team has set. With these numbers in hand, you could see it leading to a very efficient digital marketing effort. [Sony is really paying attention to the analytics and data that the net can provide. Every indie content creator needs to be doing this! - I'd like to see subscores of various social platforms since Fb isn't the only game in town any more.]
Discussion Point- What would be the impact of a property's score handicapped for: A) Pre-existing brand awareness B) Star power C) Marketing $ expenditure D) Film quality E) Seo F) PR intangibles. A handicap formula would be fascinating and I'd love to see its predictive value of a film's financial success vs. cost to produce/market. Thoughts?
The "Trendsetters of the New Platforms" panel featured several content producers discussing how they are using the new distribution model of the net. Afterwards, I caught up with Marc Lieberman, Head of Business Development for The Onion.
Zack Coffman: The Onion has been seeing amazing results from it's online programming. Can you please outline some of the areas you've been focusing on?
Marc Lieberman: Certainly. Recently, we've been expanding our online presence with the launch of our new daily show, 'ONNCast.' As we've done with our written content, we're taking a renewed focus on covering breaking news and timely news first and foremost.
Zc: Why do you think they've been successful?
Ml: As we saw with more timely written content, people want to watch and read our coverage of current events the very same day that these events are occurring. Even if you're a fan of some of our lesser-known competitors (The New York Times, The Huffington Post and CNN to name a few), you know that a visit to TheOnion.com will yield smarter, more in-depth reporting on the news of the day paired with our trademark attention-getting headlines. Sure, we no longer allow our writing staff time to sleep, but this is just one of the many sacrifices that true journalists must make. That, and attaining worthless college degree that renders them wholly unfit to work outside of a newsroom.
Zc: What's the overall goal for The Onion?
Ml: Since our first issue debuted 1783, the goal of The Onion has always been to shape and control the opinion of the American public. It has done so with nothing short of overwhelming success.
Though The Onion has been 'America's Finest News Source' since that time, the Internet has enabled us to also shape and control the opinion of those that live beyond our borders. Some, mistakenly, consider this part of our overall goal, but we assure you that it's merely a bi-product of our tremendous influence.
Zc: Do you actively employ Seo and Sem?
Ml: We do in terms of Seo. However, our large amount of web traffic no doubt gives us a quite an advantage over smaller sites. But, again, timely content will go a long way on search, as does our large story archive which proves the old adage, "news is cyclical."
Zc: The Kim Jong-un article was like a PR blitz for you, was it pure chance or are your writers that smart?
Ml: To be perfectly frank, we benefitted greatly from a lack of "sexy" news otherwise on the day that story broke. To clear up some confusion, our editor, Will Tracy, sent the following statement to the press:"For more coverage on The Onion's Sexiest Man Alive 2012, Kim Jong-Un, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades."
Zc: How have you leveraged that explosion into your overall marketing efforts?
Ml: First, we actually added Will's statement to the article, and re-promoted the article through our social media channels and on our site. However, when something that does much the marketing work for you, the strategy that we employ is to not interfere with where it might go. That said, it afforded us many opportunities to be interviewed by a bevy of media sources, which is something we didn't shy away from.
Zc: The Onion has always been a beacon for independents, do you have any advice for indie film marketers out there?
Ml: Don't change your message, but be willing to change the way in which you deliver it. In this way, we were able to evolve from our print beginnings to an online presence that allows us to gain the readership of new people every day.
"The New Distribution Formula" panel dealt with changing release windows and new opportunities afforded by VOD. Tom Quinn and Jason Janego, co-presidents of Radius-twc joined Rob Sussman, Evp, Business Operations, Development, and Strategy, Epix, Jamie McCabe, Evp, worldwide PPV, VOD, Est, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Todd Green, General Manager, Tribeca Film, and Daniel Solnicki, Head of Worldwide Franchise Development, DreamWorks Animation in a discussion about new theatrical/VOD strategies; particularly focused on the day-and-date model and changing of traditional distribution windows. The discussion was frankly much too short, but it will be interesting to check in with Quinn and Janego about how Radius-twc achieved their cross-platform success with Bachelorette and watch very closely their upcoming release of Only God Forgives by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling.
The last panel of the day was ambitiously called "Monetizing Film and Video Content in a Digital Age". It featured some big names, but ended up being a bit of a PR piece for the panelists, as they didn't really offer any concrete ideas for the jam-packed room. However, Jordan Metzner of Xsolla did try his best to explain specifically what his company does for filmmakers. "Xsolla provides in-game payment services for some of the largest video game developers and publishers in the world and can help filmmakers with our film monetization arm, called Cinify. We help film makers get on major networks as well as monetize content on their on sites using Cdn's and Xsolla as a payment solutions."
Apparently Xsolla's platform allows the viewer to watch/play a few minutes of a film/game before being asked to pony up and pay for the content. In my opinion, this is way better for indies than the other current models that ask for payment based on viewing only a trailer. I'll be curious to have a follow-up with Jason and investigate it further.
Notes on Notes:
The day's two keynotes offered some insight into filmmaking from two different perspectives.
Tim Gray, the big Kahuna at Variety sat down with industry uber-vet Tom Bernard of Sony Classics for the morning keynote and Bernard was suprisingly frank in his outlook for the future. He mentioned that Spc's audience skews older and he was concerned about that demographic aging problem. I had a chance to chat with Tom further about this conundrum and he explained that Spc films were traditionally a print media audience, but the new college of film is the internet so Spc has been acquiring more films that fit a wider demographic such as Searching for Sugarman- that has a huge online audience and huge audience of baby boomers, and Rust and Bone- a modern film, and very different than traditional foreign films which is getting a wide demographic as well.
"People determine their own DNA online," he continued saying that Spc is excited about opportunites the 'net brings because they are saving so much money by scaling back on print and "narrowcasting" on the net, resulting in their highest profit margins ever. When I asked him about his thoughts on BitTorrent being a sponsor of the show he was unequivocable on his position, "I was shocked and appalled. They are pirates and have caused huge amounts of money to be lost on our pictures. Those guys should be in jail."
Kevin Smith gave an entertaining and inspiring keynote speech, fielding questions posed by his Hollywood Babble-On co-host, Ralph Garman of Kroq. He's definitively taken some licks over the years (some self-inflicted, some not) but survives with his "indie cred" intact. His best quote of the night was a real winner, ""It's not about kissin' up, it's about kissin' down."
Smith continued, "Spend every second with your fans, connect with your audience." A proponent of crowdfunding, he said he routinely supports interesting projects and even sent some money recently to a campaign for a guy that wanted to become a glass-blower. "I just wanted to see that guy fucking do it!" exclaimed Smith, "Remember, they [media gatekeepers] need you [content creators] more than you need them."
Indies in the new film economy should worry more about online culture-building and dealing directly with their audience and less about trying to impress the gatekeepers and distributors that hold sway over the theaters and traditional media outlets.
I look forward to everyone's thoughts and comments! Have a wonderful holiday.
Written by Zack Coffman, a producer specializing in online strategy and monetization, live streaming, and Seo for film. Connect with Zack on LinkedIn and follow his film marketing tips and adventures @choppertown on Twitter.
- 12/17/2012
- by Zack Coffman
- Sydney's Buzz
Antonino D’Ambrosio's Let Fury Have the Hour documentary adds new poster Cavu Pictures release opens in New York on December 14th, and expands to Los Angeles on January 24th The film includes Eve Ensler, Lewis Black, John Sayles, Shepard Fairey, Chuck D, Van Jones, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Billy Bragg, Ian MacKaye, D.J. Spooky, Hari Kunzru, Tommy Guerrero, Edwidge Danticat and Suheir Hammad. Rough, raw and unapologetically inspirational, Let Fury Have the Hour is a charged journey into the heart of the creative counter-culture in 2012. In a time of global challenges, big questions and by-the-numbers politics, this upbeat, outspoken film tracks the story of the artists, writers, thinkers and musicians who have gone underground to re-imagine the world – honing in on equality, community and engaged creativity – in exuberantly paradigm-busting ways.
- 11/30/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Antonino D’Ambrosio's Let Fury Have the Hour documentary adds new poster Cavu Pictures release opens in New York on December 14th, and expands to Los Angeles on January 24th The film includes Eve Ensler, Lewis Black, John Sayles, Shepard Fairey, Chuck D, Van Jones, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Billy Bragg, Ian MacKaye, D.J. Spooky, Hari Kunzru, Tommy Guerrero, Edwidge Danticat and Suheir Hammad. Rough, raw and unapologetically inspirational, Let Fury Have the Hour is a charged journey into the heart of the creative counter-culture in 2012. In a time of global challenges, big questions and by-the-numbers politics, this upbeat, outspoken film tracks the story of the artists, writers, thinkers and musicians who have gone underground to re-imagine the world – honing in on equality, community and engaged creativity – in exuberantly paradigm-busting ways.
- 11/30/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Cavu Pictures have released the first trailer for Antonino D’Ambrosio's "Let Fury Have the Hour" documentary which includes Eve Ensler, Lewis Black, John Sayles and Shepard Fairey. The film opens in New York on December 14th, followed by a Los Angeles release date of January 25th and more cities to be announced. D'Ambrosio directs and writes the documentary which also has Chuck D, Van Jones, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Billy Bragg, Ian MacKaye, D.J. Spooky, Hari Kunzru, Tommy Guerrero, Edwidge Danticat and Suheir Hammad. Rough, raw and unapologetically inspirational, Let Fury Have the Hour is a charged journey into the heart of the creative counter-culture in 2012. In a time of global challenges, big questions and by-the-numbers politics, this upbeat, outspoken film tracks the story of the artists, writers, thinkers and musicians who have gone underground to re-imagine the world – honing in on equality, community and engaged creativity – in exuberantly paradigm-busting ways.
- 11/28/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Cavu Pictures have released the first trailer for Antonino D’Ambrosio's "Let Fury Have the Hour" documentary which includes Eve Ensler, Lewis Black, John Sayles and Shepard Fairey. The film opens in New York on December 14th, followed by a Los Angeles release date of January 25th and more cities to be announced. D'Ambrosio directs and writes the documentary which also has Chuck D, Van Jones, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Billy Bragg, Ian MacKaye, D.J. Spooky, Hari Kunzru, Tommy Guerrero, Edwidge Danticat and Suheir Hammad. Rough, raw and unapologetically inspirational, Let Fury Have the Hour is a charged journey into the heart of the creative counter-culture in 2012. In a time of global challenges, big questions and by-the-numbers politics, this upbeat, outspoken film tracks the story of the artists, writers, thinkers and musicians who have gone underground to re-imagine the world – honing in on equality, community and engaged creativity – in exuberantly paradigm-busting ways.
- 11/28/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Wow, the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival already has been amazing!
Sliff’s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il
The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.
http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012
Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Thursday, November 15th
Shorts Program 8: Quirky Relationships
Shorts Program 8: Quirky Relationships plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre
Shorts that give romance a twist.
Boo! (Rupert Reid, Australia, 2012, 5 min.): An aging married couple keep their love alive by staying one step ahead of each other. Coffees (Alex Beh, U.S., 2012, 11 min.): As a last-ditch effort, Mikey decides to go to his ex...
Sliff’s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il
The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.
http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012
Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Thursday, November 15th
Shorts Program 8: Quirky Relationships
Shorts Program 8: Quirky Relationships plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre
Shorts that give romance a twist.
Boo! (Rupert Reid, Australia, 2012, 5 min.): An aging married couple keep their love alive by staying one step ahead of each other. Coffees (Alex Beh, U.S., 2012, 11 min.): As a last-ditch effort, Mikey decides to go to his ex...
- 11/15/2012
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Powell Peralta’s Bones Brigade skate team is hands down the most influential group in the history of skateboarding. They’re largely responsible for making the sport and the industry what it is today, for better or worse depending on your point of view. Stacey Peralta’s (“Dogtown and Z-Boys”) new documentary, “Bones Brigade”, made the film festival rounds this year, and hits Blu-ray, DVD, and on-demand November 6. Check out this new trailer for the release. Guys like Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill, and Tommy Guerrero, were the first rock stars of the sport, and helped transform skateboarding from a fringe activity to a legitimate mainstream sport. This garnered them tons of praise, but almost as much spite and contempt from traditionalists who wanted skateboarding to remain pure. This is a debate that still rages today, though given how frequently you find skateboarding featured on Espn,...
- 10/27/2012
- by Brent McKnight
- Beyond Hollywood
Here's another great trailer for Stacy Peralta's latest documentary Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, which follows the rise of skateboarding in the 1980's. This was such an incredible documentary, and a must see for anyone that is a fan of Tony Hawk and the skateboarding scene. Hell, even if you're not, it's still an amazing documentary worth watching!
The Bones Brigade is a skateboarding team that was organized by 70's skateboarding legend and the film's director Stacy Peralta in the early 80's. He set out to start his own team of skaters, gathered together a group of no-name kids that had a deep passion for skateboarding, and mentored them to the top. This team produced some of the greatest, most legendary skateboarders of all time including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen, who I admired as a kid growing up in the 80's.
The Bones Brigade is a skateboarding team that was organized by 70's skateboarding legend and the film's director Stacy Peralta in the early 80's. He set out to start his own team of skaters, gathered together a group of no-name kids that had a deep passion for skateboarding, and mentored them to the top. This team produced some of the greatest, most legendary skateboarders of all time including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen, who I admired as a kid growing up in the 80's.
- 10/27/2012
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography was one of the best and most entertaining documentaries that I saw up at Sundance this year, and today we bring you a great new trailer!
The Bones Brigade is a skateboarding team that was organized by 70's skateboarding legend and the film's director Stacy Peralta in the early 80's. He set out to start his own team of skaters, gathered together a group of no-name kids that had a deep passion for skateboarding, and mentored them to the top. This team produced some of the greatest, most legendary skateboarders of all time including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, and Rodney Mullen, who I admired as a kid growing up in the 80's. These guys took skateboarding to a whole new level of awesomeness, brought the sport into the mainstream, and turned it into a booming business that they could make a ton of money from.
The Bones Brigade is a skateboarding team that was organized by 70's skateboarding legend and the film's director Stacy Peralta in the early 80's. He set out to start his own team of skaters, gathered together a group of no-name kids that had a deep passion for skateboarding, and mentored them to the top. This team produced some of the greatest, most legendary skateboarders of all time including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, and Rodney Mullen, who I admired as a kid growing up in the 80's. These guys took skateboarding to a whole new level of awesomeness, brought the sport into the mainstream, and turned it into a booming business that they could make a ton of money from.
- 9/21/2012
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Ahead of its Sundance premiere, we got a 3-minute-plus extended look at the next film from Dogtown and Z-Boys director Stacy Peralta, a documentary titled The Bones Brigade: An Autobiography. Now with premiere many months ago and the fall approaching, the filmmakers have decided to self-release the film, and along with it we’ve got a new trailer and the first poster.
Following the famous troupe of skaters, it chronicles the rise of skateboarding and its effect on an entire generation. Instead of a kinetic punk-rock aesthetic, it looks like an emotionally touching portrayal of the sport judging from this look. Check out a poster and trailer below via The Playlist for the film that also features Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen.
Synopsis:
Today skateboarding is omnipresent. Take a walk down any street in any town, and you are destined to see someone riding a skateboard.
Following the famous troupe of skaters, it chronicles the rise of skateboarding and its effect on an entire generation. Instead of a kinetic punk-rock aesthetic, it looks like an emotionally touching portrayal of the sport judging from this look. Check out a poster and trailer below via The Playlist for the film that also features Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen.
Synopsis:
Today skateboarding is omnipresent. Take a walk down any street in any town, and you are destined to see someone riding a skateboard.
- 8/21/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Most people don't have enough happen in their life to make one documentary, but it turns out Stacy Peralta has enough to make at least two. Eleven years after he delved into his own adolescent history with “Dogtown And Z-Boys,” Peralta has made another skateboarding doc about the next phase of his career after the Z-boys. When Peralta founded his skateboard company Powell Peralta in the late '70s, he brought together a bunch of unknown amateur skaters, cherry picked from around the USA -- including Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen, among others -- and created a skate team called the Bones Brigade. In case you know less about skating than me, these guys pretty much all grew up to be the top competitors of the 1980s, and went on to inspire and shape the next generation of skaters and their culture -- in short,...
- 5/6/2012
- by Samantha Chater
- The Playlist
For being such a documentary hotshot, Stacy Peralta is one of the coolest directors I've ever met. His films, which include the classic skateboarding film "Dogtown and Z-Boys," "Riding Giants" about surfing, and the definitive South La gang film, "Crips and Bloods: Made in America," are just as cool. Both Peralta and his films are unpretentious, straight-to-the-point and completely affecting. Here at Toronto's Hot Docs' Doc Talks, Cinema Eye's Aj Schnack sat down with Peralta, who is in town promoting his film "Bones Brigade: An Autobiography," about the group of skateboarding legends he was a part of in the 1980's, and "No Room for Rock Stars," a film he produced about the Vans Warped Tour. Peralta's friends, it turns out, asked him six years ago to make "Bones Brigade," about the skateboarding team that included Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero and...
- 5/3/2012
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society: Mirage Friday 2/17 at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia, Pa Saturday 2/18 at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY
No matter how mainstream and unhip a band is, there is always the chance that it will become so unhip that its very unhipness will make it hip. Especially if something's got actual merits, after a sufficient amount of time has passed, distance will bring the perspective that says that the band's demerits have been overstated and are unfairly overshadowing its value. Throw in a healthy dose of nostalgia for something fondly remembered, and the "fifty million [fill-in-the-blank] fans can't be wrong" syndrome turns out to be true.
There may be no better, or more deserving, example of this than Fleetwood Mac. So popular as to have been ubiquitous, and thus rebelled against and held in contempt, yet such consummate musicians and songsmiths that even their lesser work holds up quite well. So...
No matter how mainstream and unhip a band is, there is always the chance that it will become so unhip that its very unhipness will make it hip. Especially if something's got actual merits, after a sufficient amount of time has passed, distance will bring the perspective that says that the band's demerits have been overstated and are unfairly overshadowing its value. Throw in a healthy dose of nostalgia for something fondly remembered, and the "fifty million [fill-in-the-blank] fans can't be wrong" syndrome turns out to be true.
There may be no better, or more deserving, example of this than Fleetwood Mac. So popular as to have been ubiquitous, and thus rebelled against and held in contempt, yet such consummate musicians and songsmiths that even their lesser work holds up quite well. So...
- 2/17/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography was a hell of a great documentary and one of my favorite movies at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film give us an in-depth personal look at the Bones Brigade skateboarding team put together by Stacy Peralta in the 1980's, and it included the boys who changed skateboarding forever: Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, and Rodney Mullen.
The video featurette includes interview with Peralta and many of the other cast members mixed in with some footage from the film. To watch a film clip click here, and to read my review click here. Watch the video below that was shot in Park City during the festival, and tell us what you think!
Source: Trailer Addict (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/bones-brigade-an-autobiography/featurette-meet-the-artists)...
The video featurette includes interview with Peralta and many of the other cast members mixed in with some footage from the film. To watch a film clip click here, and to read my review click here. Watch the video below that was shot in Park City during the festival, and tell us what you think!
Source: Trailer Addict (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/bones-brigade-an-autobiography/featurette-meet-the-artists)...
- 2/11/2012
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography Directed by: Stacy Peralta Featuring: Tony Alva, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Rodney Mullen, Stacy Peralta, George Powell In his break-out documentary, Dogtown and Z Boys, director Stacy Peralta told us the story of how he and his friends turned skateboarding from a goofy novelty for dorks and children into an extreme sport. Now, with Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, Peralta shows us how the next generation of skaters (that he personally scouted, coached, and sponsored) turned skateboarding into a worldwide phenomenon. Prepare yourselves for 90 minutes of fluorescent t-shirts and Flock of Seagulls haircuts. Like most historical docs, Bones Brigade is driven by talking heads and archival footage, but there is such an incredible array of amazing archival footage here, much of it from Peralta's own personal collection, that the film is never dull. What is surprising about the footage, most of...
- 1/27/2012
- by Josh
- FilmJunk
"We pioneered the way to make money at skateboarding." - Lance Mountain Before the 80's skateboard boom, the industry had hit another downward spiral so bad it had been coined the "Dark Ages." Zephyr, the world's biggest in-your-face skate team at the time had disbanded and the sport started fading away (again). Soon after, Stacy Peralta (one of Zephyr's former riders) built and managed a new team with fresh, young talent. He scouted and handpicked them by way of contests and friend recommendations. Six riders would make up this team: Rodney Mullen, Lance Mountain, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, and Tommy Guerrero, and they would be known as the Bones Brigade. Not knowing it at the time, these six misfits would forever change...
- 1/26/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Here's a film clip from Stacy Peralta's (Riding Giants, Dog Town and the Z Boys) new documentary Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, which is one of the best films that I've seen up at the Sundance Film Festival so far. It's a documentary that follows the 1980's skateboarding team the Bones Brigade, who changed the sport forever. This was a team of young unknown skaters who were brought together by Peralta in the early 80's to kick skateboarding's ass.
The video below is listed as a trailer, but it's actually a film clip from the movie showing Tony Hawk going against his rival Christian Hosoi, and goes into detail about the fans and their rivalry. I absolutely loved this movie, and it's one you have to watch! Even if you're not into skating, it's still just a great documentary.
Check out the clip and tell us what you think!
Here's...
The video below is listed as a trailer, but it's actually a film clip from the movie showing Tony Hawk going against his rival Christian Hosoi, and goes into detail about the fans and their rivalry. I absolutely loved this movie, and it's one you have to watch! Even if you're not into skating, it's still just a great documentary.
Check out the clip and tell us what you think!
Here's...
- 1/24/2012
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Due to my lack of research preparing for the Sundance Film Festival, Bones Brigade: An Autobiography wasn't even on my radar. When I first saw the title I wasn't even sure if it was the "Bones Brigade" skateboarding team that I grew up knowing, reading about, and watching. Then when I saw that it was directed by Stacy Peralta I knew that it was, and I was excited as hell to see it!
The Bones Brigade is a skateboarding team that was organized by 70's skateboarding legend Stacy Peralta in the early 80's. He set out to start his own team of skaters, gathered together a group of no-name kids that had a deep passion for skateboarding, and mentored them to the top. This team produced some of the greatest, most legendary skateboarders of all time including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, and Rodney Mullen,...
The Bones Brigade is a skateboarding team that was organized by 70's skateboarding legend Stacy Peralta in the early 80's. He set out to start his own team of skaters, gathered together a group of no-name kids that had a deep passion for skateboarding, and mentored them to the top. This team produced some of the greatest, most legendary skateboarders of all time including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, and Rodney Mullen,...
- 1/24/2012
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
If you are anything like me, then most of your skateboarding knowledge comes from the Tony Hawk: Pro Skater videogame series. Who knew the famous skater had stirred up some controversy as an initial outcast? Exploring that and more director Stacy Peralta returns to Sundance with a new documentary titled Bones Brigade, after the famous troupe of skaters. Following up the much-praised Dogtown and Z-Boys, this looks to be just an engaging and informative. Check out a trailer below via THR for the film that also features Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen.
Synopsis:
Today skateboarding is omnipresent. Take a walk down any street in any town, and you are destined to see someone riding a skateboard. Well, it wasn’t always like that. In the early ’80s, skateboarding was fading away until Stacy Peralta brought a profoundly talented group of outsiders together and dubbed them the Bones Brigade.
Synopsis:
Today skateboarding is omnipresent. Take a walk down any street in any town, and you are destined to see someone riding a skateboard. Well, it wasn’t always like that. In the early ’80s, skateboarding was fading away until Stacy Peralta brought a profoundly talented group of outsiders together and dubbed them the Bones Brigade.
- 1/19/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
The annual Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off this weekend, is one of the most renowned film festivals on the circuit and has been known to launch the careers of many a rising talent. The Festival has changed over the decades from a low-profile venue for small-budget, independent creators outside the Hollywood system to a now media extravaganza for the Hollywood industry. One thing that hasn’t changed is the number of great movies which premiere each and every year. It’s a true haven for creativity and this year has one of the best line-ups in recent memory. From niche horror to promising indie debuts, the festival is screening 110 feature-length films from 31 countries, so I’ve decided to narrow it down for everyone. Some movies are already getting buzz, whether for star power, the directors behind the camera or because of an intriguing premise. Here are the movies you...
- 1/19/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Sundance kicks off tomorrow and the journey for many films that will hit your arthouse and garner awards season heat will begin in Park City, Utah. While the lineup of feature films is always impressive, this year in particular features an equally strong array of documentaries with subject matter in a wide range of topics and interests. So here's a few that might catch fire over the next week or so. First up, skater/filmmaker Stacy Peralta, the man behind "Dogtown & Z-Boys," returns with "Bones Brigade." Focusing this time on the '80s skate scene and culture, the film will chronicle folks like Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen. THR has dropped the first clip from the film, and it's fascinating account of Tony Hawk, who reveals his near dominance of the scene at such a young age was threatening to eat away...
- 1/18/2012
- The Playlist
Stacy Peralta returns to Sundance this year with Bones Brigade: An Autobiography, a continuation of sorts of his first documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys, which had its premiere in Park City in 2001. Both films explore the creation and culture of modern skateboarding, along with Peralta’s part in it -- this time during the 1980s era, with Bones Brigade members Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain and Rodney Mullen. Photos: 10 Buzzing Sundance Films That Will Sell THR hosts the first exclusive clip from the movie, which will have it world premiere Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Marc
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- 1/18/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Directors Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn's documentary, "Make," is about four artists on the furthest fringes of our society. Isolated by their disabilities, they find a voice and try to make sense of a world that shuns them, through incredible works of art. These are the characters that inspired Sufjan Stevens' album, "The Age of Adz." Stevens, who called the film "a beautiful and insightful look at the sublime task of making art when nothing will else do," based his album's narrative specifically on the life and apocalyptic work of the schizophrenic artist, Prophet Royal Robertson featured in "Make."
Ogden first began documenting these people 12 years ago, beginning with a trip to visit Ike Morgan, and his paintings at the Austin State Hospital. The blind sculptor Hawkins Bolden, and severely disabled crafter, Judith Scott followed. Then Hearn joined Ogden in traveling the country, documenting more of their four subjects,...
Ogden first began documenting these people 12 years ago, beginning with a trip to visit Ike Morgan, and his paintings at the Austin State Hospital. The blind sculptor Hawkins Bolden, and severely disabled crafter, Judith Scott followed. Then Hearn joined Ogden in traveling the country, documenting more of their four subjects,...
- 6/13/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
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