I want to thank everyone for your continued support.
Find more videos like this on Streaming Indy
I have been working a lot lately on logistics and behind the scenes web development for the distribution model that will make what I am talking about on the seminar video a reality.
I keep running into obstacles which tells me I am definitely doing the right thing. Real distribution for the idependent that puts them in control and reduces the chance of losing all revenues through bad distribution contracts.
As of this writing I am developing a script to shoot as a feature following the mainstream template to a point of names and faces that are recognizable to the general public with the sole intention to distribute online through the network.
I have a budget established around 400K for production and marketing.
This as you can imagine is a difficult number to come up with for an unknown business model but that is exactly what I am doing.
So just to keep you up to date. We need something that is ready to distribute and of course I am a filmmaker. That is what iI want to do., make films.
And so I shall.
I have the player almost ready for distribution but found some issues with censorship from the host company trying to force their agenda through the business and have been trying to work that out.
Otherwise we can't have any nudity language gore or violence in a feature.
I mean seriously, that is just not reasonable If I was James cameron I couldn't load Titanic under those restrictions.
So obviously, I am still fighting under the radar and just want you to know that I am still working for all of us.
Rob Ellis
Streaming Indy
Founder
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Hollywood and the economy of the calculated sequel
There seems to be a shortage of original thought in the industry of film and from what I am hearing from the audience members they are getting tired of the bigger explosion and faster paced action selling the show.
What about art? Why isn't that being really cultivated in the market?
Well it's a lot like the recent bailout of the stock market. The choices were made clear and what should have been done wasn't.
I will clarify this. One politician stood up in the forum and said that if the government was going to try to bail out the economy it should give the $700,000,000.00 distributed to the citizens of America instead of to the very people responsible for the debacle in the first place. (that is paraphrased of course or I would have named and quoted)
But he was right. Look at what the money distributed to the people would have done:
For each citizen that would have been about $300,000.00 as a economic boost from the government.
What would the majority of American's do with the money?
Spend it of course. They would pay off debts and buy new cars, electronics and all the things that they buy now and some would even invest in the stock market.
Honestly who cares what the stock market does if they don't have money on the line?
But the people we elected to make decisions with that kind of money, our tax dollars, decided to give it to the failures that got everyone scared in the first place.
I personally think that is stupid. They don't trust their own constituents.
I think it would have made this a much better country to live in over the next five years and before the money is spent they should put it to a vote.
This is supposed to be a representative democracy. The problem I see is the the elect are representing the wrong people.
And so it is with Hollywood. Instead of letting the artist have free reign in the creation of the cinematic piece, the industry is controlled by the non creative financial types and decisions are based for distribution on what a film just like x or y has boxed in the past. The sure thing, or as close as they can get.
Very much like Paul Zane Pilsner talked about in his book, "The Next Trillion". Predominately about the wellness industry. He talked about the drug companies being a for profit group making decisions for research and development based on not what the world needs, but on the profit generated in the outcome of the research. He gave the example of a comparison of the profit between a one pill cure for cancer and a maintenance drug that the patient (customer) would take for the rest of their life.
The decision is obvious. The greater profit is in the maintenance drug of course.
Therin lies the problem with a capitalistic approach to decisions of this nature.
Don't get me wrong I'm up for profit just like every red blooded American, but where do you draw the line between sanity and profit margins?
Art and politics, The carving of the future by the desire for the almighty buck.
What about art? Why isn't that being really cultivated in the market?
Well it's a lot like the recent bailout of the stock market. The choices were made clear and what should have been done wasn't.
I will clarify this. One politician stood up in the forum and said that if the government was going to try to bail out the economy it should give the $700,000,000.00 distributed to the citizens of America instead of to the very people responsible for the debacle in the first place. (that is paraphrased of course or I would have named and quoted)
But he was right. Look at what the money distributed to the people would have done:
For each citizen that would have been about $300,000.00 as a economic boost from the government.
What would the majority of American's do with the money?
Spend it of course. They would pay off debts and buy new cars, electronics and all the things that they buy now and some would even invest in the stock market.
Honestly who cares what the stock market does if they don't have money on the line?
But the people we elected to make decisions with that kind of money, our tax dollars, decided to give it to the failures that got everyone scared in the first place.
I personally think that is stupid. They don't trust their own constituents.
I think it would have made this a much better country to live in over the next five years and before the money is spent they should put it to a vote.
This is supposed to be a representative democracy. The problem I see is the the elect are representing the wrong people.
And so it is with Hollywood. Instead of letting the artist have free reign in the creation of the cinematic piece, the industry is controlled by the non creative financial types and decisions are based for distribution on what a film just like x or y has boxed in the past. The sure thing, or as close as they can get.
Very much like Paul Zane Pilsner talked about in his book, "The Next Trillion". Predominately about the wellness industry. He talked about the drug companies being a for profit group making decisions for research and development based on not what the world needs, but on the profit generated in the outcome of the research. He gave the example of a comparison of the profit between a one pill cure for cancer and a maintenance drug that the patient (customer) would take for the rest of their life.
The decision is obvious. The greater profit is in the maintenance drug of course.
Therin lies the problem with a capitalistic approach to decisions of this nature.
Don't get me wrong I'm up for profit just like every red blooded American, but where do you draw the line between sanity and profit margins?
Art and politics, The carving of the future by the desire for the almighty buck.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Movie Reviewers haven't got the balls
I think that's what it is really. Go ahead write a review on a film that everyone else is talking about that's easy. And you will find thousands of others there competing with your blog. Really everyone is doing it, so why be different?
But sift through the Indie film reserves even in Netflix without an agenda. Like producers posting their blog on their films, just another sham that readers are sick of. That isn't working. Who will be the first to blog about the films no-one else is writing about? Who will break the cycle that makes the indie filmmakers and viewers get lost in the hype of big industry, big business film propaganda?
Will it be you? I'm a filmmaker and making films. That's why it shouldn't be me.
But what about you?
What's your excuse?
But sift through the Indie film reserves even in Netflix without an agenda. Like producers posting their blog on their films, just another sham that readers are sick of. That isn't working. Who will be the first to blog about the films no-one else is writing about? Who will break the cycle that makes the indie filmmakers and viewers get lost in the hype of big industry, big business film propaganda?
Will it be you? I'm a filmmaker and making films. That's why it shouldn't be me.
But what about you?
What's your excuse?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Filmmakershelp is here to help filmmakers and it's free? Whats the catch?
Hey all,
We've been cooking up some fun ideas at filmmakershelp, and we have a message to all filmmakers out there that would like to get help, or find ways to help filmmakers find solutions to monetize their content and finance future projects. We've got quite a group of talent already gathered at the filmmakershelp website. Some of our members have been busy creating tutorial videos only found here on the free social site, for free and designed in order to really help filmmakers.
One of the popular interests of our particular group is the contest for helping Netflix with a more effective solution for recommending new films to users. The currently employed offered are nearly all about some program or mathematical algorithms.
My personal viewpoint is that they are missing their most valuable assets; The members.
But first following some of the most obvious trends, let's take a look at what the public wants:
Let's look at the trend of social element being part of all the major online players for content on the web.
We see Youtube growing even now after reaching an average of 52 million visits a month.
Myspace is actually on a trend to outdo the mighty Google for traffic, along with Facebook and more sites, and more social membership programs are popping up daily.
Looking at this topic from a sociologist's standpoint one could surmise that; people are moving farther apart, and want to more than ever belong to something, to fit somewhere, associate with something, be heard and respected by their peers.
Next we look at the content available, Youtube and blip.tv, as well as Google and the others have dominated the user generated content market by getting the audience involved. They put the most popular videos om the front page giving the users that are most effective at getting attention even more popularity and status within the group. Now Youtube is opening profit sharing opportunities with this new breed of social filmmaker, and growing even more because of it.
This is the online viewing audience. and they are looking for content. If accurately tagged and reviewed by the public (an option for the member).
I say give the public a chance and like with wikipedia you could be surprised what becomes of it. Wiki has redefined mans view of fellow man in a way and in general we want to have our line in the page if we know for sure, we're helping.
I think there is a social network solution to the Netflix contest issue give this new social filmmaker a place in the system. Here's a possible scenario:
Netflix Social Solution
The real essence of the system has to be the focus on the social system, bloggers, video bloggers, and podcasters compete to be reviewers or critics and the social network picks the ones they want to listen to.This way bloggers and this new breed of social filmmakers become critics (and of course have their paid Netflix membership) to watch and review the films thus becoming potentially professional movie critics,(and who doesn't want that job?)
the critic after watching the film, leaves a review that covers quality, genre', acting, and or story contents(but not giving away the plot surprises)and recommended list of similar movies with each review.(Herein lies the secret to effective film association.)
The social network then comes in and comments on the reviews, the reviewer getting a large number on positive comments (and rating stars)should be paid by the content provider with a standard to be set by the provider, (rating and popularity, number of completed views, etc.)
In this way the public knows how the system works and the potential of getting paid to blog is integrated, thereby embracing all the current trends of the web.
Honestly, I predict that the solution ultimately derived from this contest will look similar to what I have outlined here.
But I'm also willing to put my money where my mouth is, I can create the website and run the beta test through a service I recently discovered and would call it netflixindy
We've been cooking up some fun ideas at filmmakershelp, and we have a message to all filmmakers out there that would like to get help, or find ways to help filmmakers find solutions to monetize their content and finance future projects. We've got quite a group of talent already gathered at the filmmakershelp website. Some of our members have been busy creating tutorial videos only found here on the free social site, for free and designed in order to really help filmmakers.
One of the popular interests of our particular group is the contest for helping Netflix with a more effective solution for recommending new films to users. The currently employed offered are nearly all about some program or mathematical algorithms.
My personal viewpoint is that they are missing their most valuable assets; The members.
But first following some of the most obvious trends, let's take a look at what the public wants:
Let's look at the trend of social element being part of all the major online players for content on the web.
We see Youtube growing even now after reaching an average of 52 million visits a month.
Myspace is actually on a trend to outdo the mighty Google for traffic, along with Facebook and more sites, and more social membership programs are popping up daily.
Looking at this topic from a sociologist's standpoint one could surmise that; people are moving farther apart, and want to more than ever belong to something, to fit somewhere, associate with something, be heard and respected by their peers.
Next we look at the content available, Youtube and blip.tv, as well as Google and the others have dominated the user generated content market by getting the audience involved. They put the most popular videos om the front page giving the users that are most effective at getting attention even more popularity and status within the group. Now Youtube is opening profit sharing opportunities with this new breed of social filmmaker, and growing even more because of it.
This is the online viewing audience. and they are looking for content. If accurately tagged and reviewed by the public (an option for the member).
I say give the public a chance and like with wikipedia you could be surprised what becomes of it. Wiki has redefined mans view of fellow man in a way and in general we want to have our line in the page if we know for sure, we're helping.
I think there is a social network solution to the Netflix contest issue give this new social filmmaker a place in the system. Here's a possible scenario:
Netflix Social Solution
The real essence of the system has to be the focus on the social system, bloggers, video bloggers, and podcasters compete to be reviewers or critics and the social network picks the ones they want to listen to.This way bloggers and this new breed of social filmmakers become critics (and of course have their paid Netflix membership) to watch and review the films thus becoming potentially professional movie critics,(and who doesn't want that job?)
the critic after watching the film, leaves a review that covers quality, genre', acting, and or story contents(but not giving away the plot surprises)and recommended list of similar movies with each review.(Herein lies the secret to effective film association.)
The social network then comes in and comments on the reviews, the reviewer getting a large number on positive comments (and rating stars)should be paid by the content provider with a standard to be set by the provider, (rating and popularity, number of completed views, etc.)
In this way the public knows how the system works and the potential of getting paid to blog is integrated, thereby embracing all the current trends of the web.
Honestly, I predict that the solution ultimately derived from this contest will look similar to what I have outlined here.
But I'm also willing to put my money where my mouth is, I can create the website and run the beta test through a service I recently discovered and would call it netflixindy
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