“Social Cinema” @ Brooklyn’s Northside Festival
Brooklyn’s premiere discovery festival began its entrepreneurship leg June 14th with panelists in industries from ESPN to Etsy. The first panel of the day at a ripe 9am was a two-part series entitled “Social Cinema” focusing on film criticism, curation, discovery, and distribution in the age of social media, a topic which has become increasingly vital to stay up to date on given the online world of viewing, distributing, and funding.
The panel included industry big dogs like Matt Spangler (Tribeca Enterprises), Brooke Tarnoff (MTV’s NextMovie) Sara Keiner (Film Presence), Christopher Rosen (huffington Post), and David Larkin (Gowatchit). The conversation essentially revolved around the influence—good and bad—that social media has played in the development of films today. Basically, if your film is not online in some way or another (whether it’s a VOD or a simple Facebook page) then you’re not going to find much success.
From the production side of the film world, social media has enabled film-makers to truly feel the birth of grass-roots independent filmmaking. With websites like Kickstarter and other fundraising platforms allowing filmmakers to forgo the classic ways of distribution and simply: self-distribute. Just like Matthew Lilard did with his personal project, “Fat Kid Rules the World”, filmmakers can now have the release that they want granted they meet their funding goals. It’s a shift that means smaller independent films can cater to their specific demographic (forget about targeting women, think local and close to the subject matter) by having smaller releases and limited distribution in the hopes of spreading the word and eventually making it into theatres. There’s even a website to make sure your film gets to a theatre called Tugg.
“Tugg is a new platform where fans can select the movie, theatre, and then create an event to screen that film there,” said Keiner, who works directly with distributing documentaries through grass-roots movements. “It’s up to the person to sell the tickets because if they make money, Tugg will book a night to screen the film and move forward to perhaps more screenings.”
This means anyone can get their film screened in an independent theatre as long as they get the backers to help them do it. In an age where major movie theatres like AMC and Regal Cinema refuse to screen films that have already been released online (an incredibly limiting criteria since most films are going straight to VOD) the theatrical release is quickly becoming a fairy tale of the past, similar to my generation’s idea of the “drive-in movie.” This means Tugg could help preserve the movie theatre magic for a little while longer.
The theatrical release is reserved for those big budget films which can afford to take a hit in profit, our little indies, can’t. But, Keiner reinforces the idea that a theatrical release is much more about building a relationship for the film.
“The emotional connection is so profound,” said Larkin. “People will watch the movie and tell their friends and then the film gets distributed before it’s even made.”
Tugg (and Kickstarter… and all those other funding platforms) seem to be some sort of saving grace, enabling the filmmaker to take charge over their product and give it the attention it deserves.
December 15th, 2012 at 9:09 am
competed in the 2012 Annual DFW Dragon Boat Festival. When you may well recall, Cassandra posted about SoftLayer’s participation during the Houston-area Dragon Boat Festival, so I’m using it on myself to discuss the Dallas
December 18th, 2012 at 4:53 am
Really good info can be found on site .
December 19th, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Thank you for another informative blog. Where else could I get that kind of information written in such a perfect way? I’ve a project that I am just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such information.
December 22nd, 2012 at 5:58 am
“”Its always good to learn tips like you share for blog posting. As I just started posting comments for blog and facing problem of lots of rejections. I think your suggestion would be helpful for me. I will let you know if its work for me too.”
December 23rd, 2012 at 11:57 pm
I really appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thanks again!
December 25th, 2012 at 7:05 pm
Do you have a spam issue on this website; I also am a blogger, and I was wanting to know your situation; many of us have created some nice methods and we are looking to trade strategies with other folks, be sure to shoot me an e-mail if interested.
December 26th, 2012 at 8:22 am
Clipping short article and it reads in a flash, especially because of the fact that it is written in understandable light language.
December 27th, 2012 at 12:38 am
I’m not sure why but this website is loading very slow for me. Is anyone else having this problem or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later and see if the problem still exists.
December 29th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
I haven’t found such a/an excellent entry for a long time. It reads amazingly well and I expect other entries of this author.
January 2nd, 2013 at 6:26 am
Hi, i believe that i saw you visited my web site so i came to go back the choose?.I am attempting to in finding things to enhance my site!I guess its ok to make use of a few of your ideas!!
January 3rd, 2013 at 1:23 am
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely glad I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!
January 8th, 2013 at 10:49 am
I was just seeking this info for a while. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, finally I got it in your site. I wonder what is the Google’s problem that doesn’t rank this kind of informative websites closer to the top. Generally the top sites are full of garbage.
January 12th, 2013 at 12:38 pm
My brother suggested I may like this blog. He used to be totally right. This submit truly made my day. You can not consider just how a lot time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
February 12th, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Exceptional blog! I found it extremely fascinating. I’ll check back later to see if more posts are added.
May 23rd, 2013 at 1:29 am
Sac Longchamp sont sur le discount dans notre longchamp boutique. Pas cher en ligne ont une qualite superieure et compe titive vente longchamp price.