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From AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft)

FOUR PIRACY SEIZURES IN FOUR MONTHS IN BANKSTOWN AREA

Sydney: A 36-year-old woman was arrested by New South Wales Police in Bankstown late yesterday and charged with copyright offences in relation to possessing for sale pirated movie DVDs.

Police discovered the woman selling the illegitimate movie DVDs from the rear of her parked car in Bankstown's Brandon Avenue Carpark. Officers seized around 2,500 pirated movie DVDs, including copies of Land of the Lost and Angels and Demons which have only just been released in cinemas across Australia. Other titles included copies of Valkeryie, which is not yet legitimately released on DVD.

Following the arrest, Neil Gane, Director of Operations for the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) said: "We commend the work of the New South Wales Police for putting a stop to the sale of these pirated movies in our communities. Legitimate suburban businesses like cinemas and DVD rental stores have enough challenges in these tough economic times without having to compete with criminals."

The operation yesterday represents the fourth seizure of pirated DVD movies in Bankstown in the past four months. Over 7,000 pirated DVD movies, with an estimated street value of $35,000, have been seized in these operations.

Police enquiries are continuing and further charges may be laid.

Penalties for copyright crimes are up to $60,500 and/or 5 years jail per offence.

 

"What are you really burning?": AFACT's anti-piracy campaign.

The Independent Television Service in San Francisco has just released a new report which looked into new ways of creating distributing and promoting films.    The report focuses on 10 case studies, and it's well worth a look.   The focus is on social filmmakers, but not strictly documentary.

They also highlight the Top 5 stategies in each area.   I particularly like the sugggestion that you could make an international film by collaborating with other idependent filmmakers in other countries.

Source: CinemaTech

Here's another good example of how documentary can be successful outside the normalk distribution chanels if there content is right.   It's all about being in the right niche.

From Variety, Anne Thompson reports on How Sports Films Thrive on the Net.

Director Michel Gondry's latest film 'Be Kind ReWind' has been described as the least surreal thing he's ever done.   The French director was behind some of the quirkiest short films and oddly stylish video clips for bjork, Massive Attack and Daft Punkbefore he moved into the feature film area with 'Human Nature', 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' and 'The Science of Sleep'.   

His new film comes with a cross platform project of a different kind.   It has it's own art instillation at a New York Gallery.

It's not the first time an art exhibition has been used for a film, Australian film '10 Canoes' also had an accompanying art exhbition.

In November we posted a link to a story about webisodes, FTI Member Justine Smith provides this guest post in response to the article.  

I think the article is focussing on points which are not completely relevant. What they are referring to, I think is the re-packaging of material and putting a price on this for creative development. If you want to understand more about this have a look at the current negotiations in Hollywood between the Writers’ Guild and studio execs. Hollywood is on hold waiting for this to be resolved. The Directors’ Guild of America are coming in behind the Writers’ as their agreements are also up for negotiation soon.

But if we’re talking purely content generated for on-line viewing I have a lot to offer. I was recently a participant in the Portable Screen Academy in Melbourne which is directly exploring this territory.

The first point is: People are already making money from creating webisodes.

{Have a look at this surprise hit story of a one-off http://www.catfish.net.au/index.php?h=NewMedia} 

The main examples that we studied were extremely profitable enterprises. We met and were mentored by the creators of these success stories.

In North America Miles Beckett and team started the “Lonely Girl 15” phenomenon. They looked at what works on YouTube, mostly copyright rip-offs and video-blogging. Obviously the only profitable area was focussing on video-blogging.  Lonely Girl created a video blogger identity. A short series began, with Bree complaining about her parents and not being able to go out as much as she would like. 

A buzz was created. People started to wonder who this person was, where they lived, what her parents did for work, which religious sect they belonged to. And those people were asking these questions on-line in forums and on Lonely Girls profile pages.

Eventually the Lonely Girl team came out and stated publicly this is a fiction, we have created Bree and her story.  It was a scandal without too much bite, a victimless crime, and Lonely Girl’s buzz increased as word got out. 

Now Bree has loads of fans and followers and the story still continues 18months after it started.

Next step, the spin-off.

The Lonely Girl team noticed that they had world popularity, but the most impact was close to home where users has more opportunity to interact with the characters and story. So they created a new series in the UK, Kate Modern. 

Luke Hyams is a key writer and producer for the Kate Modern series. Using the same format profile, but new characters and storylines the new UK series was created. But this time they started with a big budget. Due to the notoriety of Lonely Girl, the team garnered immediate sponsorship and alignment with the social-networing site, Bebo. Bebo is the primary social-networking tool in the UK, and they saw this as a way keeping there difference and excitement for consumers. They held initial first- run of all episodes, before the ep’s could then be re-distributed in ‘traditional’ on-line areas, such as You Tube – a virtual free-to-air distributor.

Highly successful. Highly interactive.

A standout story for me was hearing how they held an Art Gallery opening of Kate’s work. Only 12 viewers showed up as no-one really believed it was for real. The writers had devised a double-whammy for this event and thus staged an abduction of another character at the Opening. Some savvy viewers recorded this on their mobile phones and effectively scooped the Kate Modern team by uploading that night. But it also created a greater buzz and there are loads of loyal viewers and participants in this show week-to-week.

Profitable Webisodes Downunder

The local version of this type of online serial is the Melbourne based “Forget the Rules”. Their second series is uploading as we speak. 

They started out in the first series offering viewer participation by giving a choice of 3 endings which would be voted on, chosen, written, filmed, edited and uploaded all within a week. Loads of fun and very vital filmmaking.

They are linked with Optus for the second series and also received development funding  from Film Victoria.

Portable Screen Academy

We produced in two teams of 12, two separate on-line serial formats. Then we broke our teams down and in smaller groups to create individual episodes. Bearing in mind that we filmed in about an hour and half, and edited in an hour then compressed and uploaded all in one day, a mighty effort. All our work was fitted around seminars and speakers, but it feels great to have put it into practice and see how possible it all is. The other West Australian on the course was Kane Jason. He was on the Help Me Get Karen team, and I was on the Forever storyline. 

Follow the links below to learn more about these on-line serials. And if you are going to look at my story (Forever – Episode 3) please put in a comment and favourite it, and give it 5 stars. Support local content, harnessing these new delivery forms.

Cheers,

Justine
 

YOU TUBE

Forever – Episode 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=x0mwaCd5yY0

Forever – Episode 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=HqYPZwQLlBU

Forever – Episode 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=zjLB8luUDRQ

 

Forever Productions http://youtube.com/user/foreverproductions20

 

YOU TUBE

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=SN-pvoTA9vQ

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=oBuklV1YA70

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=W6Kfkj6I1ZI

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=pzq5k6JI5m8

 

It is what it is what it is http://youtube.com/user/itiswhatitiswhatitis

 

PORTABLE FILM FESTIVAL

http://portablefilmfestival.com/

 

Forever – Episode 1 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=206

Forever – Episode 2 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=209

Forever – Episode 3 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=207

 

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 1

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=202

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 2 http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=203

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 3

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=204

Help Me Get Karen – Episode 4

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=205

 

Also of interest:

Have a look at our actor Oliver Clark, in another online creation…

http://portablefilmfestival.com/video.php?video=167

 

Australian made webisodes, generating an income, and harnessing the form.

http://www.forgettherules.com/

 

Lonely Girl 15 – from the USA

http://youtube.com/user/lonelygirl15

www.lg15.com

 

Kate Modern – the UK spin-off

http://youtube.com/user/KateModernLG15

http://www.bebo.com/katemodern

 

The SYDNEY MORNING HERALD has an article about Foxtel using advocates to build hype around new shows.   In the USA around 10% of a marketing budget for a product may be spent on swaying the influentials - the people who tell the other people.   FOXTEL has used the approach to build audiences for it's new show 'The Gossip Girl'.

We've seen similar approaches in Australia before, earlier this year Channel 9 allowed people to see the first episode of 'Sea Patrol' in advance online, hoping the reactions of the people who logged on would generate buzz ahead of the shows launch.

FOXTELS approach takes it one step further though, they are targeting the influentials, the people who form opinions and influence other people.    The people who have enough friends to invite around to  a opening night house party for a new TV show.

In the SMH article others are quick to dismiss this as an effective approach for marketing television in the free to air world because of it's reliance on making big numbers quickly to guarantee the success of a show.   BUT this is the model that needs to change in the new media world.

For a television show to be success there are two models of program development, firstly you can do the big bang approach, start big and get a big audience.   That plane crashed in Episode 1 of 'Lost' for precisely this reason.   A nuclear bomb went off in Jericho.   The new BBC soapie set in Manly is going to start with a murder.   Alternatively you can stick with a show for a period of time and allow it to develop.   Everyone is chasing 'The Chaser' at the moment. It’s a ratings powerhouse and it's on the ABC - strangely commercial networks were never chasing the same team as CNNN four years ago.   The ABC stuck with the Chaser boys and let them grow.

So if your going to let a show grow, the media world is all set for you - you just have to change everything in your programming mentality.   You have to show a new show several times in it's first week, give me lots of chances to tune in.   You have to let me know a new show is on, give me lots of notice - I'm busy and not really paying attention.   I need a countdown - 5 days to the new Jimmy Smits show.    I need a chance to catch up if I decide I did want to watch the show after all - 5 weeks into it's run - so give me a marathon of episodes on a Saturday afternoon.    Re-play the show on your Digital channel or time shifted channel a few hours or days later.   Before Season Two starts - replay Season one late at night.    Basically give me lots of chances to engage.   

If your working in that world - which Foxtel and to a lesser extent Channel 7 are, the use of advocates makes so much more sense.    

There are lots of books recently on this topic, 'The Tipping Point' by Malcolm Gladwell, 'The Influentials' by John Berry and Ed Keller or 'Cool Hunting' by Peter Gloor and Scott Cooper.   There a good read if you want to delve further.        

Over at READ-WRITE-WEB there is a great article by Alex Iskold about the rise of hyper local information.   If you've never comes across the discussions focusing on this phenomenon this is a great place to start. 

DROWING IN INFORMATION
As we drown in the ‘The Age of Information’ we can find more and more information about particular people, places and events.    The challenge as always been in managing and organising the masses of information.   While tagging has allowed for a different methodology geo-tagging linking a photo or video or story to its latitude and longitude opens up a whole new world.   Imagine if everyone who ever lived in a house loaded up their home movies and photos and linked them to the physical location.   The history of a particular space is exposed.         

FILMS FOR A SMALL AUDIENCE
We often here that the future of film is in mass global audiences and our key to open the door is the unique qualities of our locale.   Sure this is true, W.A. looks amazing if your not here everyday – just as I think Iceland looks spectacular.   Yet there is another way to look at this, as hyper-local information increases we know more about our local audience, and filmmaking gets cheaper and cheaper.   Will we soon be making films for tight select groups of people? 

Some would argue that many filmmakers already do this.   (but joke’s aside)

Yet there are films for small audiences, corporate film often falls into this category.   Large corporations might make their quarterly report into a visual format.   When I worked at Crown Entertainment Centre in Melbourne they used to produce an internal thrice weekly news bulletin – The Crown News.   Video Blogging is often for a small audience.

Will hyperlocal geo-tagged information show us some select small markets?   What happens when you know there are 57 young guys interested in snowboarding in Mount Lawley, who also drinks at the Flying Scotsman and like rap music – is that a Market of the fragmented future?

A SIDE COMMENT
If you have predictive texting on your mobile phone and you’re not careful your phone may call the ‘Scotsman’ the ‘Pantsman’.    This has caused many trendy young filmmakers to send an SMS asking their friends to ‘Meet them at the Pants Man’.   This has lead to the popular drinking spot rapidly being given a new informal name.     

It's a questions that has been asked many times, a few weeks ago we highlighted the discussion that occurred at FTI on this topic when Christy Dena presented her seminar on Filmmaking in the Cross Platform World.   In a recent article by Paul Arendt in THE GUARDIAN has sparked some debate on both their site and the ARTICULATE site here in Australia. 

Over at Cable and Broadcast there is a great article that explores the world of the webisode.   As writers in the US strike over rights to earnings from online content, a deeper question is asked, can you make money from online content?

The introduction of directors commentries as a special feature on DVD's has provided a generation of new filmmakers with the best mentors available.   From my local DVD store I can get hours of advice with Ridley Scott, Robert Zemekis and Bernardo Bertolucci.

Increasingly though more of the fimmaking process is becoming part of the product, storyboards are made available, design sketches are realsed as books and the shooting script can be bought as well, behind the scenes footage is now standard.

Increasingly the filmmaking process is revealing more and more of what goes on behind the scenes and subsiduary work product is now becoming part of the main event.  

Yesterday we posted about the new film '10mph' and how it's using the Radiohead model of distribution and payment.   Did you notice the film also has a manual on how you yourself can make a film using their methodology.    Similarily the film 'Four Eyed Monsters' lists on it's website all the equipment used to make the film.     

The team behind '10mph' have already begun planning their next project, a new film called '10 Yards' which focusses on Fantasy Football, you can visit it's site and by a t-shirt for the film to help them get the film made and listen to podcasts about the films development.   This example is pulling the curtain back a little further than the directors commentarries and behind the scenes, giving the audience exposure into the worlds of development and preproduction.

The next step is a logical one, we will be asking the audience to give us the ideas for the film.

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Which DVD's have the Best Directors Commentaries?