Recently in internet Category
The blog from Cosolidated Films follows the philosiphy of find fans, then make the film. They has an interesting post titled, 'Marketing Your Film Through Finding Actors' . Basically they highlight that if you take some time to put intestesing people in all those small roles, or make sure you have lots of small roles in your film, these people in turn will be evalgalists for your finshed product.
A greatway to see how true this is at the WASA Wednesday screenings that are currently on during the Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival, chasing the covetted 'Most Popular Film Award', filmmakers encourage as many people as possible to come down and see their film. Yet films that have more actors, can rely on more grandmas, aunts and uncles, flatmates and friends of each performer to be dragged along as well.
What the article of course fails to mention is that a film with lots of small parts is of course a lot harder to write and film.
A greatway to see how true this is at the WASA Wednesday screenings that are currently on during the Fremantle Outdoor Film Festival, chasing the covetted 'Most Popular Film Award', filmmakers encourage as many people as possible to come down and see their film. Yet films that have more actors, can rely on more grandmas, aunts and uncles, flatmates and friends of each performer to be dragged along as well.
What the article of course fails to mention is that a film with lots of small parts is of course a lot harder to write and film.
My current five favourite blogs are as follows;
TV Tonight
David Knox was formerly at Screen Industry subscription site, Screenhub. This new blog has the latest news, inside word, breaking news and observation on the local television industry. From the latest ratings, to critque of network programming and audience spoilers - it's a very juicy collection of information.
The Lamp Water Cooler
From the New Media section of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, this blog site covers a wide range of topics from the insightful to the just plain fun.
Wishful Thinking
I've only recently added this to my reading list. Mark McGuiness is a UK based expert in coaching for creative people, his posts on both creative process and business coaching are very insightful.
Idents TV
John Beohm has an interest in a very niche area, he's interested in TV idents, those little station ID's that brand a network. An indepth look at titles, logo's and promotion. He collects samples from all over the world. There is some amazing stuff in here and it's interesting how different networks in different countries tackle similar challenges so differently. My favorite thing he's recently posted was the adds from Channel 4 in the UK that encourage people to take up digital TV, they used 80's icon Max Hedroom - (now in an old people's home) - to get the message across.
Tama Leaver
UWA's Dr Tama Leaver always finds the coolest stuff online, with a healthy interest in censorship, Web 2.0, Digital Culture, Education and Battlestar Gallatica, there is always an item of interest.
TV Tonight
David Knox was formerly at Screen Industry subscription site, Screenhub. This new blog has the latest news, inside word, breaking news and observation on the local television industry. From the latest ratings, to critque of network programming and audience spoilers - it's a very juicy collection of information.
The Lamp Water Cooler
From the New Media section of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, this blog site covers a wide range of topics from the insightful to the just plain fun.
Wishful Thinking
I've only recently added this to my reading list. Mark McGuiness is a UK based expert in coaching for creative people, his posts on both creative process and business coaching are very insightful.
Idents TV
John Beohm has an interest in a very niche area, he's interested in TV idents, those little station ID's that brand a network. An indepth look at titles, logo's and promotion. He collects samples from all over the world. There is some amazing stuff in here and it's interesting how different networks in different countries tackle similar challenges so differently. My favorite thing he's recently posted was the adds from Channel 4 in the UK that encourage people to take up digital TV, they used 80's icon Max Hedroom - (now in an old people's home) - to get the message across.
Tama Leaver
UWA's Dr Tama Leaver always finds the coolest stuff online, with a healthy interest in censorship, Web 2.0, Digital Culture, Education and Battlestar Gallatica, there is always an item of interest.
Marshall McLuhan seems to be popping up everywhere again, in THE GUARDIAN, Nick Carr is writing about him, and more indepth on his blog. Finding new love for McLuhan in the internet age is nothing new though, he's been the 'patron saint' of WIRED magazine for ages.
A recent hit YouTube video on the modern educational experience also began with a McLuhan quote.
"Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterises the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified pattern subjects and schedules" - McLuhan 1967
Effective education in today's world is far removed from the classroom experience that our parents, or even we oursleves experienced. An effective educator needs to be able to teach for a vareity of learning styles, lifestyles and individual students needs. From this outside this can look disorganised and unstructured, chaotic and undisciplined. But from the users experience, it is education that is engaging, personalised and incredibly effective.
One of the things I love about working at FTI is that we often try out new ways of teaching, experiment and adapt. The team make constant change to our programs, they are living creatures, adapting and transforming as the world and industry around us changes at a rapid rate. There has been much debate about how McLuhan's theories and writings apply to the internet age, but I wonder if they can also been used to guide approaches in learning and eduction?
Last year following the ScreenWest strategic planning session I posted about a the new business models that digital downloads create. At the time the British band Arctic Monkeys had just hit the big time after building up a loyal fan base through their wensite, free downloads and love performances.
Now there is a similar example from the other end of the spectrum, Radiohead, arguably the biggest band in the world have just finished their new album a few days ago, they don't currently have a record contract. Instead they are offering it for download off a website, How much does it cost? As much as you think it's worth. It's up to you how much you choose to pay.
Radiohead certainly aren't the first musicians to utilise this methodology, last year Imogen Heap released her album through a similar strategy. The important thing here is that a huge band is trying out this methodology - the ultimate test of whether it works or not.
When Director Stephen Soderberg experimented with different release and distribution models with his film 'Bubble' many people were very quick to dismiss it as a failure. 'Bubble' was available online, on DVD and in cinemas on the same day. The problem was that 'Bubble' wasn't a big enough film to really test the model - it's a short art house film with no famous people, in fact it uses all non-actors.
The real test for this model is when a BIG film is released in cinemas and DVD's at the same time. One of those Brad Pitt or Superhero films.
This only works for Radiohead because they have an established fan base, they are one of those bands who have fans who will buy their album and then listen to it. This can work for film too though, brands can be built around actors, characters and some genres.
What films would you buy online? and how much would you be willing to pay? Feel free to add you thoughts in the comments section.
Now there is a similar example from the other end of the spectrum, Radiohead, arguably the biggest band in the world have just finished their new album a few days ago, they don't currently have a record contract. Instead they are offering it for download off a website, How much does it cost? As much as you think it's worth. It's up to you how much you choose to pay.
Radiohead certainly aren't the first musicians to utilise this methodology, last year Imogen Heap released her album through a similar strategy. The important thing here is that a huge band is trying out this methodology - the ultimate test of whether it works or not.
When Director Stephen Soderberg experimented with different release and distribution models with his film 'Bubble' many people were very quick to dismiss it as a failure. 'Bubble' was available online, on DVD and in cinemas on the same day. The problem was that 'Bubble' wasn't a big enough film to really test the model - it's a short art house film with no famous people, in fact it uses all non-actors.
The real test for this model is when a BIG film is released in cinemas and DVD's at the same time. One of those Brad Pitt or Superhero films.
This only works for Radiohead because they have an established fan base, they are one of those bands who have fans who will buy their album and then listen to it. This can work for film too though, brands can be built around actors, characters and some genres.
What films would you buy online? and how much would you be willing to pay? Feel free to add you thoughts in the comments section.
The team behind the useful Squidoo site have just launched something new, SquidWho!
I've found the Squidoo website really useful, if your teaching a class something on computers and want to assemble a whole bunch of links and text and images together it's really easy to use.
The idea behind Squidoo was it would allow Subject Matter Experts to easily corral a bunch of related links across the web into one place. So wehter you want to write a killer article, get into filmmaking or knit some socks, there is someone sharing their knowledge.
It greatest value though is it's usefulness is just putting stuff in a central place. So in early 2006 when we were doing internal professional development bringing staff up to speed with Web 2.0 developments we put together this. During the Learnscope Project with the ABC we used this site to share links during a training session, when I spoke at the 'Mind Your Arts' festival about video blogging we used this one.
Now the team have released SquidWho, the idea behind this is that it allow's you to create profiles of individual people, so if you want to know about someone you just type in their name and it searches for a profile. Unlike Wikipedia, it does not matter how globally famous you are, if your famous in your own neighbourhood that's enough. For example of some good pages check out Seth Godin, or Malcolm Gladwell. If the person your searching for does not already have a page their supercomputers scour the internet for info on them and helps you to start building a page.
I've found the Squidoo website really useful, if your teaching a class something on computers and want to assemble a whole bunch of links and text and images together it's really easy to use.
The idea behind Squidoo was it would allow Subject Matter Experts to easily corral a bunch of related links across the web into one place. So wehter you want to write a killer article, get into filmmaking or knit some socks, there is someone sharing their knowledge.
It greatest value though is it's usefulness is just putting stuff in a central place. So in early 2006 when we were doing internal professional development bringing staff up to speed with Web 2.0 developments we put together this. During the Learnscope Project with the ABC we used this site to share links during a training session, when I spoke at the 'Mind Your Arts' festival about video blogging we used this one.
Now the team have released SquidWho, the idea behind this is that it allow's you to create profiles of individual people, so if you want to know about someone you just type in their name and it searches for a profile. Unlike Wikipedia, it does not matter how globally famous you are, if your famous in your own neighbourhood that's enough. For example of some good pages check out Seth Godin, or Malcolm Gladwell. If the person your searching for does not already have a page their supercomputers scour the internet for info on them and helps you to start building a page.
