Coelho puts MySpace on hold for Festival gamble

After first signaling that he was ushering in a new era of filmmaking and distribution, Paul Coelho is apparently re-thinking the distribution plans  for  Experimental Witch.

When I first heard about it, I looked forward to following  Coelho’s crowd-source filmmaking experiment for Experimental Witch, when he announced his plans to solicit MySpace friends to help make the film, and then distribute the film in partnership with MySpace. The plan sounded innovative and fresh, and his announcement of the winners of the MySpace competition signaled this might really work. I had visions of a new model for filmmaking and film distribution.  Very exciting stuff!

Turns out, the monumental shift I was anticipating may be a while coming. Coelho appears to be sliding back towards the classic ‘festival first’ mentality. It seems a “major European Festival” is considering accepting the film as long as it’s not shown anywhere else first, including on the internet. Coelho, hoping to grab critical attention, as well as a possible theatrical distribution deal, by showing the film at major festivals, announced he’s delaying the MySpace premiere while he woos the festival circuit.

This is turning into to a textbook case of old-world film distribution clashing  against, rather than embracing, new-world approaches to reaching audiences:

Old-world: Exclusivity.  Filmmakers allow their films to be trapped by a festival vs. New-world:  Open and accessible.  Filmmakers insist on distribution freedom.

I wonder if the day will ever come when festivals drop this archaic requirement of  our-festival-first exclusivity, and realize that festival audiences are not necessarily the same as global audiences, and that one doesn’t negate the importance of the other. 

I can only imagine the MySpace filmmakers that contributed to Experimental Witch, not to mention Coelho’s fans, are disappointed in the delay.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.

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.

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]

 

Your film discovered in an AWESOME new festival

I occasionally volunteer my services to a film-related activity (seminar, educational article, festival, charity benefit).  I don’t volunteer very often.  I don’t have much free time on my hands, and frankly, I’m discriminating about which projects I want to support.   They have to fit with my own desire to advocate and publicize quality films, to educate filmmakers about publicity and promotion in the era of social media and social networking, and to support the art.  They’ve got to be something really special.

I’ve recently signed on to support something very special.  Actually, a better word for it is ‘awesome’.  Founded by DIY filmmaking pioneers Lance Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma), Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are The Strange), From Here to Awesome – a discovery and distribution film festival is the first of its kind, and if you’re a filmmaker it just might be the perfect system to get your film blasted to audiences in theaters, living rooms, online and via mobile phones.

Online Publicity Case Study: Focus Feature’s “Reservation Road”

Chris at MovieMarketingMadness.com lets us know about SearchEngineWatch’s analysis of online publicity for Reservation Road.  It provides an interesting case study on the basics of film publicity on the Web.

It’s well worth reading the entire analysis.  The cliff notes version of the lesson to be learned would be:

1. Every film needs its own website.
2. Every film needs a presence on a major social networking site, like MySpace or FaceBook.
3. Every film needs production stills and promotional photos that can easily be downloaded and shared.
4. Every film needs SEO.