FREE CINEMA NOW

"Piracy is great." - Harmony Korine Last week Facebook pissed off a lot of its users, detractors and indifferent site visitors when it introduced its new feature : the "Timeline." As if privacy was erased yesterday, a good chunk of Internet bloggers questioned the ethos behind having one's entire life available in a social media platform. But am I missing something? Aren't we over the whole privacy hump already? Are people still under the spell of attaining some romantic mystery? These people need to get with it. This is OUR era: An open, free network of information, ideas and innovation. Non-transparent walls are not welcomed.   Facebook isn't doing anything it wasn't bound to do anyway. A massive social network that spent years building a base of active users HAS to raise the level of access and interactivity at some point. The only logical way of doing this is by highlighting and exercising the key trait of every user (and of every...

Microbudget filmmaking--or as it's known these days as "zero-budget"/"guerilla" filmmaking--is at a crossroads. As the DIY filmmaker, we're sometimes asking ourselves: Is this worth it? I'll admit that in a macro-centric-industry, one that is in a constant flux, it can be disheartening to still be a "micro" player. Big changes are happening. For content producers, Netflix is looking like less of a venue for streaming content, as they will probably lose their core audience soon . For the social media pioneers, an online earthquake will push followers to start trending Google+ sooner than later . With such industry-redefining events happening, how do we micro/DIY folks look to nab the eyes and ears of the masses? I hate to sound like a broken record but I still think it'll come in innovation and a knack to be REALLY cavalier in how we tell, brand and deliver our stories. The dust hasn't settled yet. DIY is still very much alive an...

For the longest time, movies were constrained to only exist in the time and space of a single screen (albeit a theatrical or television screen). Yes, they lived on in our heads, imaginations and aspirations but the sender-receiver model remained archaic (in plain terms that is). With the "New Cinema" upon us--that sometimes dangerous, always exhilarating landscape which is truly indie film--movies have now stretched to avenues of social filmmaking , Transmedia, revitalized underground cinema and much more. The short film, for example, is no longer a stepping stone; it's a valuable entity in a new market (VOD, iTunes, Mubi, etc.). And Transmedia, with its cross-platform approach to storytelling, is quickly becoming less of a novel gimmick and more of a cultural phenomenon. In this Tribeca (Online) Film Festival piece , this popular genre is put into context: "Whether called transmedia , multi-platform , cross platform or just cross media , filmmakers from all...

This past weekend I wrote of the newly revitalized underground cinema as being a palpable gateway to the "New Cinema" (Regardless, the New Cinema is organic, ever-changing). That said, I still think it's essential for us independent filmmakers and content creators to start addressing the void in our immediate industry, our immediate culture. That void comes in the misguided collective mindset that ours is a failing or unfulfilled industry . Anyone who entered in the independent cinema game should NOT be surprised when they soon realize that overnight financial gains aren't a realistic feat. We become independent filmmakers because we are first artists. Those who think otherwise should read Ted Hope 's powerful post, "A 'Career' In Indie Film? Better Have That Second Job Lined Up..." In times of struggle and uncertainty--key words for our independent film realm--there lies great potential for reinvention, risk and (hopefully) reward. Wh...

I need you. And you need me. It's that simple. Our rising new media industry--you know that always changing frontier for independent filmmakers--is going to live or die by our willingness to cross-promote, engage, inspire and sustain work for each other. I'm beginning to sense that something remarkable will happen soon among the independents. What is it? An aggressive, hard-to-ignore community of innovative DIY digital filmmakers will take to the frontlines. It HAS to happen. In his latest Hope For Film post , producer Ted Hope expressed: " I’ve written a lot about the increasing responsibilities of filmmakers and the absolute need to focus on audience/community building.  How to we get our work seen in an entertainment economy that has shifted from being based on scarcity and control, to one of super-abundance and ever-increasing access?  The tools get better daily, and slowly we start to map out a series of best practices." It's a very re...

The beautiful and elusive aspect to the golden Hollywood exhibition model is that the work you create could actually be projected on thousands of screens across the country. How about that? But if you're not at the helm of Just Go With It or The Green Hornet or any studio-backed production, chances are you are also amidst the undefined the landscape that is new media independent moviemaking. So where do you go? How do you begin to stake your claim in this market ? For a while now, many of the articles I have published on Cinefile.com have marched to the same beat: Today the notion of DIY is less novel and more necessary. The Do-It-Yourself mentality has (luckily) grown into more of a business mindset and less of a "renegade" or "guerilla" mentality . It was inevitable. When an industry like ours sees less opportunity for independent film to flourish--albeit through domestic sales or production capital--on a mainstream scale, doesn't it seem n...