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What If Movies Went Away?

There is a very interesting post on Techdirt asking this question and giving some interesting pointers to future posibilities;

For years, in discussing how copyrights really aren't necessary, it's always only a matter of time until someone brings up the infamous $200 million question -- first asked to me by someone at NBC Universal years ago: "But how will Universal make $200 million movies without copyright?" As we've explained, that's the wrong question....The real question is how will movies make money -- and that's easy enough to answer. As plenty of folks have been pointing out for years, the movie business isn't selling movies, but selling seats to an experience. Put on a good moviegoing experience and the money will still come in.

 
Cinéma tous Ecrans

From an interesting email we recieved:

CINEMA TOUS ECRANS, in Geneva, Switzerland opens a new multimedia section: REGISTER YOUR FILM NOW !

Cinéma tous Ecrans opens a new multimedia section, which will be partly competitive, comprising the following categories:

Multimedia Interactive Fiction: fiction and interactivity;
Series for the Web: serial audiovisual works with possible extensions for other screens;
Auto-produced Drama for the Web: the best of drama produced on the web;
Cinéma Tout Mobile: international competition for short films up to 2 min for mobile phones.

The works and entry forms can be submitted until 30 August 2008. The entry forms can be downloaded on our website: www.cinema-tous-ecrans.ch

 
The Cinematic Experience

A new book out, The Cinematic Experience edited by Boris Debackere and Arie Altena has lots of interesting stuff in it;

The book focuses as much on theories of the cinematic experience, as it does on the practice of artists working in the fields of cinema, contemporary media art and sound. It shows how artists develop their work and theories on the cinematic experience‭, ‬using different technologies and materials‭, ‬and offers a many-sided‭ ‬theoretical journey into the history, present and future of the magic we call cinema. 

  But then we would say it is interesting as we're in it ;)

 
Bristol Filmmakers Festival

Bristol is going to play host to a new film festival that sounds really exciting - focusing on independent filmmaking and with three local film exhibition and network outfits – Cineformation, Bluescreen and the Misfit Collective - behind it, it should be great.  They have issued a call for entries;

On the weekend of 14/15th June, the Bristol Filmmakers Festival 2008 comes to the Watershed and the Arnolfini, an event which gathers together and celebrates the independent film community in the city....

The weekend will feature a host of special screenings and provide the chance for independent filmmakers to meet, swap ideas and knowledge.  More information will be released closer to the event, but we are currently calling out to independent filmmakers in the city to send in their films so that we can select the strongest programme to screen.  The criteria is that the films must be submitted on DVD along with the submission form that can be obtained by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - also the address to direct any questions.  The deadline is Monday 26th May, and films should be sent to BFMF2008, C/o The Misfit Rising, 82 Colston St, Bristol BS1 5BB.

We are also inviting filmmakers to submit material to the Sweded Classics section of the Festival.  Following on from Michel Gondry’s feature film Be Kind Rewind , we are looking for ‘sweded’ films, where a classic popular feature film – or extract – is refilmed with DIY inspiration and resources (and at much shorter length). Can you swede the whole of Terminator in 6 minutes?   There is a later deadline for Sweded Classics: Saturday 7th June at the above address.

There is also a website with more details and the entry form; www.bristolfilm.co.uk

 
Iron Men and Nails
A couple of interesting updates in our ongoing Media Models discussion.  First off the new Iron Man movie is reportedly so stuffed full of product placement that it is little more than and giant advert ;

When Downey busts out of his desert jail in his MacGyver-meets-Robocop suit, for example, the first thing he says he's going to do when he gets home are hold a press conference and get "a real American cheeseburger". Cut to the next scene, and there he is at the press conference, very conspicuously holding a Burger King wrapper in his hand....Consumer group Campaign For A Commercial Free Childhood have already complained about Burger King, but look on the back of last week's Film & Music supplement, or virtually any other current publication, or the TV ads, and there's Iron Man/Downey with his sporty new Audi supercar.

Which makes you wonder why execs would worry if it ended up on the net being shared?  And goth-techno musician Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) has taken the sharing music thing and really run with it ;

Two months after releasing a new album online, and quickly selling [a $300 deluxe version] that earned him a pretty penny, he's back offering another new Nine Inch Nails album as a completely free download in a variety of high quality formats. However, it's not just that. He's also planning to then sell (scarce) versions of the product as well, in CD and vinyl format for those who want it. And, given his past experiments, it seems likely that he'll figure out a way to make it worth buying.
 
GTA: Games vs Films

Grand Theft Auto IV is out – and the hype is huge.

As with the launch of its predecessor, San Andreas ;

The fact that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas eclipsed the sales of every other videogame in the UK on its launch weekend is important, but only to the games industry. The fact that revenues from the opening weekend of the game narrowly beat the UK's biggest ever movie box office opening weekend (Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban, if you're wondering) is a lot more relevant; and combined with the fact that the buzz and media coverage generated by the game has touched the hallowed levels reached by a new movie release, it provides more proof of the growing importance of videogames than could be provided by a mountain of figures.

It is again being compared to film. This time not as an equal, but as a predator !

GTA IV is expected to earn more during its first few days of release than the $400m made by the third instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean, the Hollywood record holder, in its opening weekend....The film magazine Variety has suggested the game's success could affect interest in this summer's blockbusters, which may struggle to compete for the same audience of young men....Iron Man, the high-octane movie based on the comic book character, which is expected to be one of the year's biggest action films, is just one of those which could be harmed by going on release the same week as Grand Theft Auto IV.

 

GTA IV Logo (with the old release date!)

 

 
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skate dreams

skate dreams
skate dreams
The idea was to create a gutsy, lively and entertaining film using engines from a computer game that could create low bandwidth/quality images that would be fitting to be screened on the net. One of the things I really like about it is the extreme pixellation in places where it has undergone quite dramatic compression for the web...it really adds to the grungy feel.

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