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
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 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
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- 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.
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.
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.
The internet has been witnessing a revitalisation of the short film. Once seen as a stepping stone, these small morsels of entertainment are becoming more and more high profile, BMW's 3 minute wonders are a fine example of this. We originally talked about this idea in the plugincinema book as well as in a recent blog entry. Now the idea is really taking off ;
"A newly formed NBC Universal production unit is teaming up with an advertising agency to create programs around sponsors' products, the company said....NBC Universal Digital Studio will work with a division of Omnicom Group Inc. to create programs that help advertisers sell their products, the entertainment giant announced in a statement Thursday. The programming will be broadcast on NBC Universal's digital properties, such as Web sites."
Product placement has been a familiar concept for many years now, in films as well as on TV. In the past, studios have been able to receive money from both the exhibition of the artefact, such as on a TV channel etc. and by selling copies, such as a DVD; as well as selling advertising and product placement. In the digital age, where the physics of media mean the first and second income method are on the way out, in terms of advertising at least, what would be the point in restricting the number of people who consume it? As we said in the book :
"In this case, the more the show is copied, the more 'viewers' it gets and the more people see the sponsors' message: TV on your PC."
There will of course, be a cultural creative cost associated with this method; the narrative will in some way need to be tailored to reflect the product. As we have all ready said, however, this is not a new concept just a little more overt. This is just one of the fascinating newly emerging models for providing revenue for content provision on the internet.
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.
