Winners selected for Coelho’s “Witch of Portobello” MySpace film experiment

When I first heard about Paulo Coelho’s MySpace collaboration for turning his latest book into a film, I knew this was the kind of experiment in filmmaking by crowd sourcing that would be interesting to follow. 

Over 6,000 people subscribed to Coelho’s proposition.  I don’t know if that means he received 6,000 video entries, or if it also represents other forms of participation from MySpace users.  In any case, he recently announced the provisional selection of the winning videos that will be part of the film.  As expected, the provisional winners will have to comply with some fine print and complete required legal transactions. 

Coelho mentioned the film now runs at 380 minutes, much too long for commercial distribution. He does want, however, to show the full cut on the Internet, before submitting an edited version to film festivals.

In the meantime, you can watch the provisional winning videos.

The problem with movies is there are too many of them

The Wall Street Journal joins the chorus of “too many films and too few theatrical slots”. 

It’s yet another example of why alternative film distribution models may eventually save the day.

Links: interesting happenings in indie filmmaking

As competition for audiences, especially for indie films, becomes fiercer than ever,  the exploration of alternative methods for finding audiences and attaining distribution is increasingly becoming the focus of discussion, and in some cases, the deciding factor in actions, for independent filmmakers.  Here are just a few recent samples:

• An award-winning indie filmmaker pulls out of his distribution deal with IFC Films and opts for self-distribution. [via Cinematical]
• The discovery and distribution film festival, From Here To Awesome, announces DIY Days, a series of workshops and panels focused on film funding, creation, distribution and sustainability.  FHTA will also soon announce which films have won a spot in the festival showcase.
• An indie filmmaker (full disclosure: he’s my client), having already bought into the idea of joining the conversation with film audiences, takes it one step further by opening his own blog and recruiting actors whom he has directed to blog with him.
• A group of filmmakers, investors, entrepreneurs, journalists and consultants is putting together “a two-day conversation” to talk about how new technology is changing the business of making film.

Paulo Coelho turns his book into a feature film with MySpace users’ videos

This should be interesting. Author Paulo Coelho is going to collaborate with MySpace to make his latest book into his first feature film. The MySpace collaboration will center around creating a mashup of videos and songs created and submitted by MySpace users.  Coelho will choose the winning videos and songs to use in his film.

But here’s the rub: Coelho is going to own the film.  What do the MySpace filmmakers and musicians get?

Winners will enjoy significant publicity, and their work will be featured across MySpace worldwide including the homepage, MySpaceTV and an extensive banner campaign.

Well, exposure is always a good thing, right?  Not as sweet as a percentage of the gross, or residuals, but you have to start somewhere.

Oh, and the fine print says that if there aren’t enough videos and songs submitted that meet the required standards, the whole project will be scrapped.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this. [Via Publishers Weekly]

 

Know your audience: demographics on bloggers

BIGresearch.com has released a survey on the demography of bloggers. Since reaching out to bloggers should be an integral part of the publicity and marketing campaign for a film, knowing a bit about who blogs can help.

Highlights of new media use by bloggers:

Regular/Occasional New Media Usage (Top 5)
	% of Regular/Occasional Bloggers	% of Adults 18+
Cell Phone	93.0%	87.5%
Instant Messaging	75.3%	49.3%
Download/Access Video/TV Content	72.2%	45.0%
Video Gaming	66.9%	47.5%
Text Messaging	65.5%	45.2%
Source: BIGresearch, January 2008, N=15,727

I found it interesting that the survey indicates the most common trigger for a blogger’s internet searches is  reading an article (48.8%). I wonder whether those articles read were located in a print publication, or online? [Via mediapost.com]