When a mysterious cyber-attack cripples civilization, a group of old college friends and lovers retreat to a remote country home, where they must cope with an uncertain future while navigating the minefield of their shared past.
[Goodbye World] wears its heart on its sleeve, is engagingly performed, beautifully shot and always absorbing.
You can get tickets to see Goodbye World here. There are two screenings left at the Festival – Wednesday, June 19 at 7:10pm and Thursday, June 20 at 9:40pm. So say hello to Goodbye! (I’m going to the Wednesday show.)
And if you’re not in Los Angeles, connect up with Goodbye World on Facebook for updates and news on where and when to see it in the future. You know, assuming the apocalypse doesn’t hit, of course.
Now, according to Box Office Mojo, it will expand to 600 theaters nationwide.
That’s a lot of theaters for an indie film.
Perhaps the expansion is being fueled by fans of the earlier films. Or maybe it’s the 98% positive reviews (according to Rotten Tomatoes). The film even got a wildly positive review from Variety, which is rare. Whatever is fueling moviegoers to go see the film, if you liked the first two, you’ll like this one. I found it very honest, affecting, funny, and inspiring. Check it out.
(Note – studio movies This Is The End and Man Of Steel are opening this week, and both are also supposed to be good. And if indie Sundance darling The Kings Of Summer is in your town, that’s supposed to be good, too. It’s a good time to go to the movies.)
Shooting on cameras that you aren’t familiar with can definitely get confusing when you are switching from menu to menu. It’s important to quickly be able to change any necessary settings in the field so you can focus on the shoot instead of the technology.
The Black and Blue is a great place to read about set experience, how to’s and the latest gadgets and gear. The best thing this blog has to offer is the Digital Camera Pocket Guides – a comprehensive resource for camera assistants, cinematographers and filmmakers. They are easy to read to help you better understand breakdown of camera setups and menus. Great to keep in your back pocket on every shoot. The Black and Blue recently updated the guides to include the ARRI Alexa XT, and Sony F5/F55. You can “pay what you want” and download the guides here.
As brands continue to evaluate their budgets, now is the perfect time to introduce new ideas for engaging customers. one branding concept that is growing in popularity is social storytelling through digital video. Barry Poltermann, CEO of About Face Media, has worked with Fortune 500 brands in retail, banking government and consumer products.
“What interests me in video content that generates user-initiated views, as opposed to pre-roll, auto-play or other interruptive techniques.” says Poltermann “In particular, I like storytelling videos that bring a brand to life in a genuine manner.” Storytelling videos, valuable information (to the consumer and interesting characters get consumers to give a brand attention. Companies are realizing that even if they get customers to click on their video within social channels, they aren’t retaining or engaging customers with their marketing message by using traditional corporate video techniques.
“When you produce a storytelling video and see that it’s watched 60% – 70″ through the end on average, and then compare that to your TV commercial and see that only 20% of viewers are still watching after 10 seconds, you start to question the value of that content,” says Poltermann. “The more people measure what actually gets watched and how long it is watched, and often it is shared, the more videos will focus on storytelling.”
PUT YOUR STAMP ON IT: Bring your brand to life with videos and characters that show your company’s personality and tell the story of what you can do for clients.
Dick’s Sporting Goods is releasing a series of documentary stories called “Every Runner Has a Reason” every week with thirteen runners sharing their personal story. A web series with true stories about runners and what they run for. Viewers can click to buy gear or share their own story via the #RunForFacebook campaign. The videos are produced by Anomaly New York and GreenPoint Pictures.
In the midst of the financial crisis, Vonita Murray found herself without a job and without purpose. After fulfilling her dream of owning a farm, she built a running track to help the next generation live a healthy lifestyle.
Simply Business has compiled a huge number of great resources to help small business get started and / or improve existing YouTube videos and channels. From developing ideas and producing content, to uploading files and optimizing YouTube channels.
The Small Business Guide to YouTube is organized in a flow chart format so you can pick and choose how granular you want to get and drill down on different aspects of YouTube marketing.
In 2011 YouTube announced that 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute. Last year they announced that that number had grown to 72 hours. One short year later and that number has ballooned to more than 100 hours of video every single minute, that’s more than 4 days worth of video every sixty seconds according to the official YouTube blog.
What does that mean for your marketing videos? It means that shiny new video you worked so hard on doesn’t have a chance unless you put in the extra effort to make your videos discoverable and by investing heavily in promotion.
No one plans to make bad marketing videos. Yet, the majority of them ARE bad. And most of the time, it’s because the clients or the video producers fell into one or more of these deadly mistakes.
A few months back, I talked about deadly video content and the “advertising vs. programming” mindset that can turn branded content into wasted opportunity. Here I take it a step further and look at two common mistakes made by brands in their video content creation, along with practical solutions for making the content sing.
Mistake #1: Starting video production with “We want to tell people about X.”
Nobody tools around the Internet seeking a good sales spiel. Cat videos, yes. Sales spiels, no.
Now, you may think that people should find your company’s sales pitch way more interesting than a cat video. But you don’t get to control what your audience finds interesting.
So instead of saying “we want to tell them about X,” you need to start with “we think our audience will find Y interesting.” It’s possible, of course, for X and Y to overlap. But in this event, X will usually end up implied or only tangentially addressed, while Y will be the direct and explicit focus of the videos.
A few years ago we produced a pilot episode for a car company showcasing a new owner’s reaction as he took a test drive in one of the company’s new vehicles.
Why?
The choice of content was dictated by the desired audience, which happened to be customers who had pre-ordered a vehicle and were still awaiting its delivery. Our audience members wouldn’t have been interested in a traditional promotional piece, but they were interested in seeing new owner reactions because they too were awaiting a ride in their new-technology cars. It was a subject matter that had inherent relevance to their situation and interests.
The “Y” in this case was: “Here’s what it’ll feel like when you get your new car.”
The “X” was: “You made the right decision in buying a X-Brand vehicle, and we’re delivering new cars daily while working very hard to get you your new car delivered ASAP.”
Without Y, no one wants to hear X.
Not surprisingly, the video was widely shared by these car owners, primarily online through their owner’s club. In fact, of the 1,000 or so people who had pre-purchased a car, nearly half of that entire target audience watched the pilot episode.
The ESPN30 For 30 Films are widely celebrated and watched. “You Don’t Know Bo“, about the rise and strange disappearance of two-sport star Bo Jackson, is the highest-rated of all the ESPN documentaries. It is now available on Netflix, too. Whether you’re into sports or not, it’s a great watch and delves into what makes a legendary figure, a superhero type, in this case in the world of American athletics.
The film’s director, Michael Bonfiglio, was kind enough to talk to me about the film, its origins, and the filmmaking process.
Read this, then watch that. Or watch that, then read this. Your call!
John: How did you get this project going? Did ESPN pitch you? Or were you pitching ESPN?
Mike: It actually was sort of a weird thing. I work with @Radical Media and one of the executive producers here, a guy named Dave O’Connor, he came to @Radical from ESPN. For years when he worked at ESPN, he and a bunch of his colleagues over there had been talking about doing a Bo Jackson film. Everyone at ESPN was a really big fan and about one year ago, they decided they wanted to do it. ESPN had two criteria for the film. They wanted to focus primarily on Bo’s professional career and they wanted to make sure that the Nike campaign was a part of the film, since it was such an iconic campaign and part of Bo’s story. Those were really the only two directives that I was given.
@Radical has long-standing relationships with a lot of advertisers including Nike and Wieden and Kennedy, who was the ad agency for Nike. So, it was sort of a natural fit to bring it to @Radical. So, they came to Dave, who’s now an EP here at @Radical, and they talked to a bunch of directors here. For whatever reason, Dave decided that he would trust me to be the guy to do it. And, ESPN went along and agreed. We were off and running from there.
I’m not a sports guy. I’m… I’ve never been much of a sports fan. I don’t know much about sports at all. I really kind of just knew Bo from just being alive at that time, you know. I was a young teenager when he was at his height. And, so I knew the Bo Knows campaign. I knew he was that guy who plays baseball and football. But that was pretty much it. So I just started diving into research. I watched tons of highlights online. I read his autobiography. I read a couple of other books about him, one really great one called “Bigger Than the Game” by Michael Weinreb, who’s in the film.
I came up with this sort of take on it which was, based on everything that I’d read about Bo, the thing that just kept coming up again and again and again, in the way that people talk about him, was that he was just like this superhero, and I thought that was kind of cool. Because, I think, I don’t really like sports, but I like sports movies, and I like superhero movies, so let me make that. So I pitched that back to ESPN and they were totally into it and so we kind of just took it from there.
Director Michael Bonfiglio
The thing that was initially really challenging about it was that, you know, “30 for 30″ has been such a good series and the bar was set really high. I’d seen a few of the films before the project came to me, I’d seen them and I thought they were great. I started watching more of them when I got this project and was basically like, “Oh, fuck, (laughs) this, you know, there is a really high bar to these things, you know?”
As for funding the flick – we nearly Kickstarted the budget back in November (talked about at great length here: http://smodcast.com/episodes/giant-sized-annual-1-clerks-iii-audience-0/ ). But now I’m feeling like that’s not fair to real indie filmmakers who need the help. Unlike back when I made CLERKS in ’91, I’ve GOT access to money now – so I should use that money and not suck any loot out of the crowd-funding marketplace that might otherwise go to some first-timer who can really use it. So if I can get away with it, I’m gonna try to pay for CLERKS III myself. As much as I love the crowd-funding model (and almost did it myself in early 2009 with RedStateGreen.com), that’s an advancement in indie film that belongs to the next generation of artists. I started on my own dime, and if I’m allowed, I should finish on my own dime.
In a more pointed argument (but remarkably similar sentiment), Emmy winner Ken Levine had this to say on his blog about Zach Braff and Veronica Mars raising money on Kickstarter:
Check out the newly released YouTube Trends Map - a new interactive map that allows you to see and compare trending videos by age, location, and gender by both views and shares. It’s a great way to watch in real time as videos shift from region to region.
Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed a short film and invited fans to be a part of it by leaving a few bits unfinished.
People could record themselves acting in a scene and potentially be plugged into the film via green screen. There are also a bunch of needed still photos of “missing” people to plug in. And a few other odds and ends such as designing a weapon to be used in the action scenes.
It’s a fun use of green screen technology and a fun way to involve fans.
Here is the on-air spot that Showtime is currently running about films Broken Kingdom (I produced this one) and Kingdom Come (I produced, co-directed with Paiman Kalayeh, and am also in this one).
The double feature is being billed as A Night Of Independent Filmmaking, with Kingdom Come being a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of independent narrative film Broken Kingdom.
“Community” creator and all-around comedy hero Dan Harmon said this about the documentary – “Funny and honest, devastating and uplifting. A rare kind of cautionary tale that leaves you with less caution. I’d recommend this movie to anyone that has ever felt driven by anything.”
And after seeing the doc, Jennie Garth came up to me and told me she was a fan of me. Of me! Jennie Garth. I nearly passed out.
Anyway, that’s my way of saying, “Don’t take my word for it – the movies are worth watching.”
The Vice team travels all over the world, to extremely dangerous places, and shines light on issues and situations that most of us don’t think about – and we should, because they are big, scary problems.
The always-on-the-brink border between Pakistan and India.
Taliban using children as young as six for suicide bombings.
The dangerous struggle to escape North Korea (which goes through China, and Laos before making it to South Korea and refuge status).
It’s very compelling documentary/journalism. And, man, does the Vice team have balls to go where they go and do what they do.
The online audience for online video advertising is hungry for content. A new Inforgraphic from Adweek highlights the growing trend. It’s true that advertising dollars are shifting from television to online video but there is still a large gap. It’s easier to reach your target audience, less expensive and more effective. Even harder to reach and niche demographics are becoming more receptive to consuming content online.
Vimeo Video School brings independent content creators from all over the world to teach users the best practices for their videos. Investing in production and equipment is the first step but what really drives your content is the storytelling.
They have released two videos going over what they call the 4 P’s of Storytelling.
I was about to sign a typical financing deal in order to get the money to make “Wish I Was Here,” my follow up to “Garden State.” It would have involved making a lot of sacrifices I think would have ultimately hurt the film. I’ve been a backer for several projects on Kickstarter and thought the concept was fascinating and revolutionary for artists and innovators of all kinds. But I didn’t imagine it could work on larger-scale projects. I was wrong.
He then cites the Veronica Mars campaign as proof that it could work for bigger projects, and then mentions:
Financing an independent film the traditional way often means having to give away your right to “the final cut,” casting choices, location choices and cutting down your script to make it shoot-able on the cheapest budget possible.
Having produced a half dozen indie films, I can attest to the truth of that statement.
That said, what isn’t mentioned here is that when you utilize traditional financing methods, like private equity or small/major studio backers, they get their money back before the filmmakers participate in revenues. In this model, Braff is not only retaining creative control, but he or whomever he appoints will be pulling in revenues without having to pay the Kickstarter contributors their money back – so essentially with no negative costs for production to pay back.
What does that mean?
It means that if you can get a traditional source to pay for your movie, that’s great. But if you can get Kickstarter contributors to do it, they’re handing you the potential to make a bunch of money off of their contributions, which is way better than a traditional financing deal.
There are some rumblings online about how it’s icky for a guy who was a network star for nearly a decade and presumably has a healthy bank account taking money from regular people to make his film and then keeping anu money that comes in from sales. Everyone can make up their own minds on that front. But what is certain is, if you are a filmmaker and you can raise your money via donations, it’s a great deal for you compared to traditional financing. And I’d say do it sooner than later, because there are a million ways that someone who isn’t you could spoil the mood of the online community and this whole generous thing could be good and over at any moment.
Here’s how it worked: The first few minutes were put online, with a website for amateur screenwriters to sign up as users and submit their own content. Scenes were uploaded as individual episodes, and users contributed their own scripts for the next segment of the story. Verhoeven and his collaborators chose which submissions they wanted to film, occasionally modifying the scripts to fit their overall vision.
A quarter of the average online branded video’s shares occur in the first three days of its launch. That’s according to new research by video technology company Unruly Media into the lifecycle of a viral video.
They are sharing what they call the Social Diffusion Curve based on the 200 most shared branded videos of 2012.
“The Social Diffusion Curve, which measures the average number of shares a video attracts across the social web throughout its lifetime, also found that the ‘viral peak’ of a brand’s video campaign occurs on the second day, when the average online ad will attract one in 10 of its total shares across the social web.”
This makes it critical to be absolutely prepared when you launch your video by making your video search friendly as well as investing in promotion right out of the gate.
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