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'Mahjong'
Crime story made for only $60,000
By Jonathan Landreth

SHANGHAI -- On the sidelines of the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival, a darkly comic story of a foreigner caught up in a Chinese love-triangle and a vicious game of mahjong highlights the grit it takes to get an independent film made these days, even in cash-rich China.

Although China's film industry is increasingly described as "booming," Beijinger Donald Li, a Cal State Fullerton graduate, made "Close Encounter of Mahjong," which he wrote, produced and directed for $60,000 raised largely by star A Wei, well-known for his roles in China Central Television dramas.

Shot almost entirely around a gaming table, "Mahjong" -- which co-starts Tang Ke, the only other professional in the cast -- will be finished in July. It grew out of a short film Li made and then passed around at SIFF in 2008.

Li is hopeful he'll manage himself to sell the film to a Western buyer visiting SIFF. Pacing the lobby of the festival hotel, the Crowne Plaza, for takers, Li pitches a film inspired by the small-time crooks of the Coen brothers' films.

"This film won't ever show in China. It's too much about crime and trickery," said Li, the son of a stage director and an opera singer who encouraged him to study business and computer science but failed to talk him out of filmmaking. "But this is the only thing I can do," he said: "make films."

Li said translating the "Mahjong" dialogue for English subtitles took him three months, even despite speaking English competently. He said he got help from Hollywood veterans he met in his seven years in L.A., such as "Friday the 13th" writer Victor Miller and Barry Glasser, executive producer of the 2009 China release "Diamond Dogs," starring Dolph Lundgren and Chinese actress Yu Nan.

"Mahjong, traditional medicine and feng shui are all hard to translate for the common English speaker," Li said.

"Mahjong" was made in association with 22Film Studio, run by Li Zhe, sound director to many independent Chinese films, and with help from Xing Xing, a Beijing-based digital animation company that recently provided special effects to films such as Disney's "High School Musical China," company president Wang Lifeng said.

"They're doing all the little cool shots of close ups on mahjong tiles that cost money to make," said Li, noting that he hopes the film will sell on the story alone. "There's a murder, double-crossing affairs and then a desperate salesman who provides the comedy," he said.

Of Li's debut effort, Hawaii International Film Festival Director Chuck Boller said, "It's tough to make an indie film in China. But I liked this one very much and look forward to seeing the finished feature."

Source link:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3icd5f9626039b502c5359254c5f06e433

 
 
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Written by Michael P. Connelly (and reposted here for educational purposes only)!

A creative mind is a low budget filmmaker’s most valuable tool. It all starts with an original thought; from there it is all about nurturing that thought until it grows to be a brilliant idea. After that it is a matter of getting that idea made into a movie using every ounce of energy and resources you can possibly muster up.

Most of the successful films that are showing at film festivals these days are movies that were made at a fraction of the cost that it takes to make a major Hollywood studio film. Advances in technology have made it so that just about anyone can make a movie. Film cameras, video cameras, sound recording equipment, and just about any other kind of equipment that one needs to make a movie can be purchased at very affordable prices these days. The equipment that is available these days can provide a very low budget movie with a production value that looks like James Cameron had something to do with the project. This professional look coupled with a unique story can help any film’s chances at being accepted into film festivals like Houston Worldfest, Cannes, Toronto Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, etc…

Try as they might, the major Hollywood film studios will never have a monopoly on creativity. They spend millions of dollars on marketing research in an effort to figure out just what it is that the film-going audiences of the world look for when they go to the movies. Despite all of this effort, they still have not come up with a formula. The tastes of people who go to the movies are as hard to predict as an earthquake is, for the pattern changes all the time. Because of this fact, the door is left wide open for the creative types of the world to enter the game. All they need to do is come up with a unique idea that they can transform into a movie, enter their film in festivals like Sundance and then let the judges decide. While the big studios have tried to take over the film festival circuit in recent years, it is still the little guys with the small, yet creative films that are King in that realm.

It does not cost as much as you would think to make a movie that can be entered in contests like the Sundance Film Festival. Sony is about to release a line of High Definition camcorders that are perfect for anyone who wants to make movies on a shoestring budget. While movies made with these cameras will not be shot on “film” (like movies have been since the beginning), they will (almost) look like they were. These new cameras will be able to give a high quality image that is comparable to the image that film provides. The two camcorders are the PDW-F330 and the PDW-F350, and they offer all sorts of film production features that even the most film-loyal professional filmmaker must respect. Both cameras offer true 24P recording in both SD and HD, interval recording, and slow shutter recording to name a few. The F350 model also offers true variable frame rate recording capabilities which are also referred to as the “slow motion/fast motion” features. Features like these are very valuable to anyone making a low budget movie for it allows them to include motion effects in their films without the use of an expensive film camera or a high priced film lab. Both of these cameras will be on the market in March of 2006. The F350 will cost about twenty five thousand, while the F330 model will only cost about sixteen thousand dollars. A PDW-F30 deck will be available in June for about nine thousand. These are small prices to pay to be a self-sufficient independent filmmaker.

A low budget filmmaker can invest in a relatively low-cost HD camcorder and deck and have everything they need to make as many movies as their mind and body can crank out. All they will need after that is a creative mind, a few thousand dollars, a few ambitious friends for their actors and crew, some script writing software like Final Draft, and an iron resolve to make a movie. They do not have to worry about the high costs of film stock, film processing, or film-to-DVD transfers. All they will need is their camera and a $30 disc (23.3GB) and they will be set to film an entire movie. Buying discs for a camera is a lot cheaper than buying film and all the financial baggage that comes with it.

Once they shoot their movie with one of these cameras, a low budget filmmaker can go right to their computer with the disc and start editing it using one of the many affordable editing programs that are available these days such as Final Cut Pro. They can do all of the post production work for their movie on their home computer, as long as they are willing to shoulder a mother load of work responsibilities.

Technology has allowed independent filmmakers to bypass many expensive steps in the filmmaking process. Instead of paying a bunch of people hundreds of dollars an hour for film services that are only available in cities like Hollywood and New York, they can now do all of these steps in the comfort of their own home on their own computer.

For anyone who has ever had a dream of making their own movie, there is no better time than now to make it happen. The playing field has been leveled in terms of technology, but you still need a creative story to get anywhere on the film festival circuit. The affordable equipment can get you on the field, but you must bring a good game to win. A creative mind is your best player in this game, so if you have that part taken care of you are halfway to making your film vision a reality. Nurture your creative idea until it becomes a unique script and then dedicate your life to making this script into a movie. If your idea is as good as you think it is you will do quite well on the film festival circuit. If this happens it could lead to a decent distribution deal for your movie. If you stick with it and continue to make films you may even find that you have made yourself a career as a professional artist who makes independent films, and that dreams really can become reality.



 
 
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Written by Jim Carroll

We knew things were bad in the record business, but this bad? Last weekend, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) had their annual shindig in Chicago. Music retailers of every stripe schmoozed, supped and sang their hearts out to Cyndi Lauper, Taylor Swift and Melissa Etheridge.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. Over the weekend, Nielsen Soundscan, the company who collate US sales figures, gave what amounted to a state of the nation address to the gathering.

Per Soundscan’s numbers, 98,000 albums were released in 2009, with only 2 per cent selling over 5,000 copies. Yep, that’s right, most albums racked up less than 5,000 sales. There was also a sidebar that three-quarters of sales are still physical, but let’s concentrate on the marquee statistic.

While there is much headline focus on mainstream frontloaded acts like Lady Gaga, Susan Boyle and Justin Bieber, the bulk of album acts just aren’t getting off the block. It was always a given that the majority of acts signed to major labels never went into the black, but most of them could at least shift 5,000 copies even on their very worst day.

Of course, there are caveats to all of this. There are, for instance, sales which are not counted by Soundscan (ie albums sold at a band’s gigs) and there are also many bands who can quite happily survive and thrive on 5k sales.

But such a low number means it’s high time for the record (and live) business to realise that there are problems aside from the net slippage in sales. After all, if acts can’t get over the 5,000 sales mark, where are the breakthrough acts and venue-fillers of tomorrow going to come from?

 
 
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The AK-HC3500 HD studio camera is a native high-definition studio camera system for studio/direct-to-air switcher facilities and electronic field production. Incorporating three high-performing 2/3" 2.2-megapixel IT CCDs, a newly developed 38-bit digital signal processor, and a 14-bit A/D converter, the HC3500 delivers exceptional HD images in 1080/59.94i and 1080/50i.

It's bare bones price is 56,000.00, fifty six thousand dollars!

Or you can go with a Walmart 40 dollar Cam Corder. That's the point and great thing about the times we live in. You don't need millions of dollars to make an Independent Film and become famous!

If your planing to show your movies on the Internet, a 40 dollar cam corder will do the trick. But if your planning to show your film at a film festival or have private showings and have it distributed your going to need a higher quality camara for it to be shown.

Filming for the big screen requires a cam corder with the definition close to 35 mm film. That's where the 56 thousand dollars comes in with the camara above.

A bit of history, Independent Films

Independent Films came about due to the control that Hollywood had on the Film Industry. This total power over who made Films and Movies shut everyone but a select few out of the business.

What really toppled this control were people like Robert Redford and others that gave an outlet to the public, a choice of Films not made in Hollywood. These not made in Hollywood Films and Movies were called independent films and movies.

The cost of a full length film was very costly. The cost of the raw 32 mm film could run into the hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars. A camera could run close to a million. This allowed the large film producers total control of the industry.

But with the advent film festivals, giving an outlet to people that were entering into un chartered waters a chance to have the public at large view their independent films and movies. These films were shot with 8 and 16 mm film that was still costly but much cheaper then 32 mm film. These independent films were also a lot shorter then a full length film.

What really changed the movie industry was the video camera. In the beginning these cameras would still cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, they opened the world to TV. Though they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars they still could not be use for big screen movies because the quality could not come close to the quality of 32 mm film

But as time went on these video cameras became better and cost just droped to a point where any one could become an independent film maker. With software programs that ran on PCs peoplewith little or even no budget could produce indie films. The quality has become so good that today many of your full length films are made with video cameras.

Independent films and video movies are now a part of our everyday life. No one understood the power of indie films better then Google who now runs the largest indie film site on the World Wide Web, "Youtube.com" now features millions of independent films or videos, if you want to call them that, to the world for free. Anyone with a PC video cam can produce their own independent film and up load it to the world in seconds for free.


 
 
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Usually I am asked on a regular basis about motion picture soundtracks and the role that they play in getting your independent film completed. Recently I spotted this article from an independent filmmaker Sid Kali. Check out what he has to say about getting your music done. Our team went through a similar process to secure the music for Real N' Raw. In our csae, the key was linking the film to a charitable trust, Fruit For Our Children.


A majority of indie filmmakers, myself included, do not have the flush production budgets to hire a well known music supervisor or professional composer to score their movie. Let alone can we afford to license or pay royalties to top musicians to use their songs or tracks on the soundtrack. I had produced a urban action movie, Consignment, that had a very limited amount of money to spend on music. Turns out after some additional post-production expenses I had even less than expected.

Movies need music. There really is no way to argue against it. Good music adds impact, emotion, and mood to a film. Tartantino has made amazing use of music in his films. Many viewers have commented that the music is like a character itself.

I was faced with the choices of putting the completion of Consignment on hold indefinitely until more money could be raised for the soundtrack or trying to find quality music that I could get for free or as close to free as possible. Not wanting to put the movie on hold I set out to shake some trees for music that moved me. It was a gamble I hoped would work.

I checked out some companies on the internet selling royalty free music in all types of genres from rock & roll to world beat for very affordable prices. Type 'royalty free music' into a search engine to listen and shop around. I listened to tons of sample tracks. Most didn't fit the feel of the urban action movie Consignment. A few tracks I did like were out my budget.

A cool thing I did discover is there are some filmmaker friendly sites that will allow you to download free original music to use in your movie. All they ask is that you properly credit the creators behind the music. Sonny Boo offers this on his website. I did not end up using the free downloads, but I think it's good karma they put it out there.

The anxiety and stress of not finding the right music was becoming a mental drain. Nothing worse than the thought of your movie not getting done. I decided to try a different approach to getting the soundtrack squared away. I was going to contact independent bands, artists, and musicians directly with the chance to get exposure on a independent films soundtrack. Indie artists from the music and movie arena collaborating sounded like a win-win.
There's many places to find independent artists and record labels looking to get their music heard. What better way than to be featured on a movie soundtrack? I religiously set aside hours everyday to listen to music from up and coming artists. After I had a narrowed down list of the tracks I wanted to use on Consignment I tracked down these artists and record labels contact information.

My independent music campaign was launched. I emailed, phoned, and faxed my pitch to the people on my list. I was excited about adding music I believed would add tremendously to the overall viewing experience of the movie. It was a tougher sell than I thought to get independent artists and record labels to contribute to an indie movie soundtrack.

My pitch was truthful about only offering credit for their music. My advice is not to BS people. Be upfront. I let them know this was a indie movie without big names or a Hollywood budget.

Here's the rundown of how it played out for me using this approach. I was able to land the music of two artists I felt was perfect. Another artist was interested, but was honest enough to voice their concerns about not knowing how the movie would look when it was done and decided not to contribute to the soundtrack. After Consignment was done I sent them a DVD. They liked it and agreed to compose an original track for my next movie for free.

Most of the record labels ignored my requests or said no money meant no go. I respect that. One record label representative took the time to speak with me at length and made a point that stuck with me. He basically said until you have a name or a movie you've done to show your work people will be skeptical about lending their music to your indie movie. There not against cross-promotion and exposure. There against being associated with terrible movie and bad exposure. That made a lot of sense.

With a few tracks secured that I liked I decided to go directly to the people to find the rest of the music. Consignment being a urban action movie I wanted some hot hip hop tracks. I started hitting websites that had hip hop forums where people could list links to their demos, post beats, and battle other hip hop artists. I posted open calls for artists to submit their tracks for an urban movie.

I got a huge response, but it was chaotic dealing with the amount of tracks that came in. Plus their were obvious copyright infringements and looping done by some contributers. Last thing you want is music on your movie that causes legal problems for your movies release when you sign on with a distributor. I wasn't making a bootleg underground movie to sell out of the trunk of my car. I was going for mainstream rental and retail outlets. I took the time to get all the releases, clearances, and paper work on the movie. I was going to do the same for the music.

After seeing my post I was contacted by the fellas at Jackin4Beats.Com about helping me out. They streamlined and organized the submission process. They posted calls for music on their website for free. Their efforts increased the quality of the submissions ten fold. They only forwarded me tracks that were free and clear to use on the soundtrack with no legal worries. All music clearance forms were signed on the dotted line.

The buzz was there. Next a rising independent music label specializing in West Coast hip hop wanted to be on the soundtrack. They headed into the studio with the synopsis of the movie and cut an original track with the same name as the movie. This song brought and hit hard. I used it on the opening and closing credits of the film. Then I got some tracks from some emerging East Coast rappers with a latin edge that put the soundtrack over the top. These talented artists music rounded out the soundtrack. They understood it's about exposure.

I wanted to touch on my experience and they way I got the movie soundtrack done. There's a lot of avenues for you to land the right music for your movie. Obviously the more money the more choices, but money doesn't have to cut you at the knees making you put bad music on your movie.

There's talented artists and upstart record labels in the same boat as you grinding it out to make in the entertainment business. Everyone is looking for a break. Sometimes you can get it together to make it work and sometimes you can't. Just keep fighting to get what you want. Never settle for music you hate for the sake of completing your movie. You will regret the end product. It won't be easy to secure music you love, but isn't your movie worth the effort? You're damn right it is.

About The Author:

Slice of Americana Films was launched in 2005 by Sid Kali to produce red-hot urban movies that are gritty, intense and fiercely genuine in the portrayal of strong subject matters. In 2006-2007 Slice of Americana Films completed the powerful urban drama CONSIGNMENT and stylish crime thriller IN WITH THIEVES. 

 
 
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DVD sales collapse continues in 2010.
Amid continued sluggish sales, now the rental business has dropped badly in the first quarter.
__________________________________________________
The other shoe seems to have dropped for the moribund home-entertainment industry.

The previously buoyant rental side of the business fell 14 percent in the first quarter, according to trade organization the Digital Entertainment Group. Overall, revenues were down 8 percent, to $4.8 billion,

The retreat comes after a 5 percent overall drop in 2009 for the industry, which managed to reach the $20 billion mark for the year based largely on rentals.

DEG attributed the rental decline to retrenchment of brick-and-mortar outlets. Blockbuster is in the middle of a plan to trim nearly 30 percent of what was 4,350 outlets. Number-two operator Movie Gallery, meanwhile, cut 450 stores last year.

Adding to the poor first-quarter year-to-year comparison was Circuit City’s liquidation sale in early 2009, which resulted in significant sales for DVD and Blu-ray titles.

There were a few bright spots. Blu-ray sales spiked 74 percent in the first quarter. And digital distribution – which includes both downloads and video-on-demand transactions -- grew 27 percent to $617 million.

“We are still facing a challenging environment but are very pleased to see positive indicators of stabilization in our overall business,” said Ron Sanders, president of Warner Home Video and the DEG.

Still, with high-definition Blu-ray still only accounting for a small portion of the overall revenue pie -- percentage-wise, it’s in the low teens -- the first-quarter data represents troubling signs for the studios.

Equally worrisome is the momentum of the less profitable portion of the rental market -- low-cost vendors like Netflix and Redbox.

Last week, Fox became the latest studio to reach an agreement with Netflix, delaying supply of hot new-release titles to the leading online rental service until 28 days after their release in exchange for concessions on price and more catalog titles for streaming, including full seasons of Fox TV shows.

Warner Bros. and Universal also have agreements with Netflix, and Warner reached terms with kiosk renter Redbox in February that called for a 28-day delay, with other studios believed to be working on similar deals of their own.

Unfortunately, there is some risk to the studios' efforts.

By coming down on Netflix and Redbox, they are hindering the two outlets responsible for the bulk of home-entertainment transactions.

Last year, even though overall revenues were down 5 percent, transactions – including DVD and Blu-ray sales and rentals, downloads, everything – increased nearly 3 percent to 3.5 billion.

With Redbox charging customers only $1 to rent discs out of its big red machines at the local quickie mart, the studios are hoping to redirect some of those transactions to the more profitable variety.

But of course, there are no guarantees.


Link: http://bit.ly/dvd_sales_drop_april_2010
 
 
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If the United States experiences a horrifying economic collapse (and it most definitely will), will that cause a complete and total collapse of society?  Will we experience crime, violence, riots and social unrest on a scale that is unprecedented in U.S. history?  Before you dismiss such notions as utter foolishness dreamed up by a few bloggers with too much time on their hands, perhaps you should consider what one of the biggest credit rating organizations in the world is saying.  According to a report on sovereign debt by Moody's, the world's five biggest AAA-rated countries (including the United States) are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten "social cohesion".  In case you are wondering what happens when "social cohesion" starts to break down due to economic factors, just check out the recent examples in Iceland and Greece.  If even Moody's is warning that there is a realistic possibility that "social cohesion" in the United States may break down due to economic factors, perhaps we should all start listening.

Or if you will not listen to Moody's, then perhaps you will listen to the man who has been called the top trends researcher in the entire world.  Gerald Celente is the CEO of Trends Research Institute, and he is convinced that we are heading into what he calls "The Greatest Depression".  The picture that he paints of the future of America is extremely alarming and extremely sobering.  It would be easy to dismiss his forecasts as just the ramblings of another useless "talking head", but unfortunately Celente has been dead-on accurate time after time after time in the past.  Considering his exemplary track record, what Celente says is coming next for America is incredibly frightening....

At this point you may be tempted to think that America has been through extremely tough economic times before (The Great Depression for example) and came through them okay.

So what is so different now?

Well, the truth is that the character of the American people is dramatically different.  At the time of the Great Depression, the American people were tough, self-sufficient people who knew how to live off the land.  Today, most Americans are weak, spoiled little children who will throw a temper tantrum whenever anyone tries to take their toys away.  The character of the American people has been decaying for decades, and there is no way that the current crop of Americans has any chance of weathering a horrible economic depression the way Americans back in the 1930s did. 

Already we are seeing early signs of what the rest of America could soon be like.  The city of Detroit is a rotting, crime-ridden war zone that has a "real" unemployment rate of somewhere around 40 to 50 percent.  The state of California has become a cesspool of gang violence, rampant unemployment, rising foreclosures, unchecked drug dealing, and depressing economic decline.  Even in New York City we are seeing early signs of what is ahead.  Residents are quite alarmed about the dramatic rise in violent crime that is happening throughout the city.  Many New Yorkers were convinced that the days of "The Rotten Apple" were behind them, but economic problems are going to cause an increase in crime in just about any city.

But it just isn't crime that is on the rise.  Millions of normal, law-abiding Americans are angry.  This anger is coming out in various ways - including the Tea Party protests that are sweeping the nation.  The majority of the American people are frankly disgusted with the government, and the approval ratings for both major parties continue to hover around record lows.  As things continue to get worse for the U.S. economy, the anger of the American people is going to continue to rise.   

All of this is causing many in the U.S. government to view "troublemakers" inside the United States as one of the greatest threats to national security.  In fact, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller,"homegrown terrorists" represent as big a threat as al-Qaeda.

As big a threat as al-Qaeda?

Is he serious?

Not only that, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is comparing Tea Party members to Timothy McVeigh.

Considering the fact that Timothy McVeigh received the death penalty, that is a very frightening parallel for Clinton to draw.

Does Clinton actually believe that Tea Party protesters should receive the same treatment as McVeigh?

Even more alarming is new legislation being pushed in the U.S. Senate.  A new bill introduced by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman would allow the U.S. military to round up large numbers of Americans and detain them indefinitely without a trial if they "pose a threat" or if they have "potential intelligence value" or for any other reason the President of the United States "considers appropriate".

The reality is that as "necessary" as bills like that may seem to many as we edge ever closer to the breakdown of society, the reality is that the United States is quickly becoming just like so many of the other horrific totalitarian regimes that we have seen rise throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

In fact a time may soon be coming when authorities in the U.S. may soon be able to legally utter this bone chilling phrase: "Your Papers Please!"  Lawmakers in Washington D.C. working to create a new immigration "reform" bill have decided on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card that all American workers would be required to obtain.

Can you imagine being forced to carry around a national identification card?

Or worse?

A startup company developing "chipless RFID ink" has already tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats. 

Could one day we all be required to sport an "RFID tatoo" to prove our identity to authorities?

Let's hope not.

But many of us never thought that the day would come when we would see things such as the Patriot Act, "no fly" lists, the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, DNA databases, Guantanamo Bay or full-body scanners at airports that reveal the graphic details of our naked bodies either.

America is quickly changing.  The next Great Depression is coming, and society is not going to be able to handle it.  How the U.S. government (and governments around the world) handle the coming social problems is going to be very interesting to watch.  Let's hope that all of this does not degenerate into the absolute societal nightmare that many are projecting that it could be.

Link to original: http://bit.ly/collapse_overview_2010



 
 
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Hollywood still undecided.
...but movie box office receipt trading undecided!

Written by Monique Georges


On Friday, over the objections of Hollywood executives, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved Media Derivatives, Inc. (MDEX) for designation as a contract market. While this decision paves the way to the development of a film futures and options exchange, the CFTC has not yet approved any trading based on motion picture box office receipts.

Last month, MDEX announced its plans to launch The Trend Exchange— the first federally regulated film exchange to offer futures contracts based on opening weekend movie receipts. Although the approval of its application as a contract market is a positive development for the firm, it is not quite time to break open the champagne. The CFTC has stated that it is still considering MDEX’s request to trade film box office receipts. In a press release, the Commission qualified:

Given the novel nature of the contracts that MDEX has proposed trading, the CFTC has requested, and MDEX has agreed, that rather than self-certifying such contracts, MDEX must submit all new classes or categories of media-related contracts it lists for approval by the Commission. The Commission has not approved the trading of any futures or options related to box office receipts at this time.

Nevertheless, Trend Exchange Founder and CEO Robert Swagger seems hopeful. He enthused:

Like all Americans, we cherish the entertainment industry. We believe that our products, designed in partnership with the broad industry constituency, will help better manage economic uncertainty and financial volatility, thus enhancing opportunities for success.

Hollywood executives disagree. They believe that film futures and options trading may expose the studios to adverse speculation. Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) requested the CFTC to block the proposed trading of film futures contracts. In a letter to the agency, Interim MPAA CEO Robert Pisano, warned:

The reputation and integrity of our industry could be tarnished by allowing trading in the movie futures contracts in a manner which allows them to be viewed as the economic equivalent of legalized gambling on movie receipts.

Investment banking firm Cantor Fitzgerald wants a piece of the action. The Wall Street firm has recently announced its own plan to open a film stock exchange. Cantor Fitzgerald’s Hollywood Stock Exchange was founded on 1996 as an entertainment gaming site. The Los Angeles-based website invites visitors to use Hollywood Dollar® currency to buy and sell virtual shares of celebrities and movies. According to The New York Times, the company has recently begun allowing customers to fund their accounts with real dollars. The firm expects to get final CFTC approval for its exchange on Tuesday.

In good news for Hollywood, Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) appears to be taking the side of the film establishment. On Friday, Lincoln--who as Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry has jurisdiction over futures markets--unveiled new financial reform legislation that contains language which favors the film industry. Among other items, her Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 amends the term “commodity” to specifically exclude motion picture box office receipt and related contracts. 

Also in Washington, on Thursday the House Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management is scheduled to hold a public hearing “to review proposals to establish exchanges trading ‘movie futures.’” A number of major Hollywood players are expected to attend.

 
 
Fear that it may expose studios to speculative harm

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Tina Fey and Steve Carell are shown in a scene from “Date Night.’’
By Todd Shields

WASHINGTON — Regulators approved the first futures market based on movie box-office returns yesterday over the concern of lawmakers and Hollywood executives that the exchange may expose studios to speculative harm.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 5-0 to let Veriana Networks Inc.’s Media Derivatives Inc. unit open a market for professional traders to make financial bets on how well a new movie will do in ticket sales.

A plan by Cantor Fitzgerald LP to create a market that includes retail investors is pending before the commission.

Media Derivatives’ market, to be called Trend Exchange, “will help better manage economic uncertainty and financial volatility,’’ Rob Swagger, chief executive of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company, said in an e-mailed statement after the vote.

Professionals would use the market to hedge risk to movie investments, from “catastrophic events such as the World Trade Center bombing, to climate events such as severe snowstorms,’’ the company said.

Media Derivatives told the commission its proposed market could transfer financial risk from producers, studios and theaters to “a community of speculators willing to assume these risks’’ in return for being paid a premium.

The market plans to begin trading in the third quarter, Stephanie DiIorio, a company spokeswoman, said before the vote.

The CFTC must still approve the type of contracts to be dealt before Trend Exchange can begin. The company has said its first product will center on opening-weekend box office.

Product approval is “a very different question’’ from exchange approval and raises “significant concerns,’’ CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton said in an e-mailed statement. He said he had “reluctantly’’ concurred in yesterday’s vote.

“I’m worried about manipulation,’’ Chilton said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

“We have serious concerns regarding the trading of media contracts and we support a very thorough review of all of these first-of-a-kind products,’’ CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia said in an e-mailed statement.

Hollywood studios that participate by hedging their films’ prospects will doom ticket sales, said Peter Guber, chairman and CEO of independent production company Mandalay Pictures LLC.

“The word will get out in three seconds and the picture will be a complete catastrophe,’’ said Guber, who was chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment in the early 1990s.

Key members of Congress also expressed doubts.

Senator Blanche Lincoln, an Arkansas Democrat, added language yesterday banning trade in movie futures to a broader derivatives bill she is writing. Lincoln is chairman of the Agriculture Committee that oversees the commodity commission.

Senate Judiciary Committee members warned CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler in a letter Thursday of the risk of “creating perverse incentives for movie failure that may undermine the integrity of the industry.’’

Activity on the exchanges would bring about “risky and manipulative’’ behavior, said the letter from Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who heads the Judiciary Committee, and Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.

“I just don’t know if this is something that makes sense,’’ said Representative Collin Peterson, Democrat of Minnesota and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, in a conference call with reporters.

“A kernel of wheat is a kernel of wheat,’’ said Peterson, whose committee oversees the CFTC. “Movies are very subjective.’’

He said he had “significant questions about this whole idea.’’

 
 
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By Saskia Wilson-Brown

In the past several years I’ve had the opportunity to participate in and listen to a lot of conversations about the shifting role of film festivals, particularly as those shifts apply to mid to high level independent festivals. There are a number of conflicting opinions on the role of film festivals – from ‘they’re useless and will die’ to ‘they are the future of theatrical’. In truth, all theorizing aside, nobody knows the role film festivals will take over the course of the next few years because nobody know how time-based media will evolve. I do, nonetheless, believe that they can retain their relevance… if they adapt.

What follows here are several thoughts that came to me about the functionality of film festivals, in four parts and in no particular discursive order.
Thought 1.
For small festivals, the ‘shifting’ purpose of film festivals is actually not shifting at all.

People seem to concur that the primary purpose of film festivals is (was?) akin to that of an art gallery: To sell art.

Festivals have long acted as the gatekeepers to commercial distribution. As such, the ideal and well-trodden path for an independent filmmaker was a simple one: Make a film; get into a good fest; get the film acquired for distribution. Done.

This was an apt trajectory when dealing with a festival like Sundance, one of several festivals which were indeed the most functional gateways through which films could join ‘the system’. For the smaller festivals catering to independent or local film (and for the indie filmmakers whose work was typically programmed there), however, this was never a relevant model. The reason for that is simple: Distributors tended not to attend those festivals.

This ‘festival-as-marketplace’ raison d’etre , then, has only ever been a functional purpose for the bigger festivals. Further to that, this is sort of inherently understood by the film community: Not many filmmakers ever submitted their film, for instance, to the Tulsa Overground Film Festival, Nevada City Film Festival or Cucalorus with the intention of selling to HBO.

The obvious deduction? We’re assigning and bemoaning a dwindling commercial purpose to small festivals retro-actively in light of a perceived dearth of distribution deals – a dearth which, again, is only really relevant to festivals that were the hosting space for sales in the first place, and entirely irrelevant to the continued purpose of the small festivals who saw no such activity in their lounges and meeting rooms. Most annoyingly perhaps, small festivals gamely play along, trotting out their one or two success stories as bait for a system that never functioned for them or their filmmakers in the first place.

With the advent of digital media and the burgeoning (but hopeful) success stories around online/DIY distribution strategies, the purpose of the festival as a sales agent becomes even more obviously questionable.

We’ll look at that in the next post, but for now, I leave you with a recent tweet from Ted Hope: David Brown’s Secret To His Success: “I never lived beyond my means, & therefore, I never had to be a slave to Hollywood.”
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Silver Lake Film Festival
Thought 2.
Money-making should not a successful small festival make. Culture-defining should.

In my time running the Silver Lake Film Festival in Los Angeles (alongside my partners Greg Ptacek and Kate Marciniak), we rarely hosted any distributors at the screenings. Those that did attend never cut a deal with any of the festival’s filmmakers.

I’m pretty sure that the Cucalorus Film Fest in North Carolina has never immediately helped filmmakers pay off their credit card debts, either.

In these two instances, the festival hosts no commerce: No one involved is making any money to speak of. Are these festivals, then, to be seen as failures?

The answer, of course, lies in how one defines the purpose of a cultural event. I believe that if we put aside commercial functionalities for a minute, we see that though the utility (and success) of smaller festivals becomes inherently value-based, it is nonetheless inherently of value.

Here are some points, then, on the value and purpose of film festivals, above and beyond commerce:

• To curate, provide imprimatur and thus help shape culture;
• To create access to independent voices and new stories within specific, underserved geographic communities;
• To educate filmmakers;
• To grow independent film communities and foster creative collaboration;
• To help create de facto four-wall releases for filmmakers through festival-run programs and partnerships above and beyond the event itself;
• To assist with DIY distribution by offering access to distribution tools through festival-run partnerships with emerging content platforms

These last two functionalities are becoming more important as filmmakers and festivals realize that- scary as it may be- the ‘old’ system is falling apart. It thus becomes incumbent upon a festival to help build up a new system through an increased focus on helping filmmakers sustain and exhibit their work. This can be achieved by brokering and supporting digital distribution deals for filmmakers, or simply by providing education in self-distribution. Further still, festivals can create four-wall programs and partnerships that allow greater visibility for the participating films beyond the festival itself (a traveling screening series, for instance).

Acknowledging an alienation from the mainstream film industry has big repercussions for festivals and filmmakers alike. Silver Lake Film Festival, for instance, with all its focus on working outside the system was unable to harness the sponsorships that festivals so drastically need for survival, and died a fiery financial death in 2007 (the results of which I am feeling to this day).

With that said… it still felt successful. It spoke to several of the points I believe to the inherent in a fruitful arts organization- points that have nothing at all to do with (immediate) economic exchange. The organization focused- largely- on what we thought should be its primary goals: Empowering a community and its artists through coherent promotion; leveraging the festival name to garner publicity and opportunity for its participants; facilitating radness in general– Art for art’s sake, as it were. The efforts of the core team, then, were mostly spent on promoting and advocating for micro-communities through programming decisions, and fostering creativity and creative collaboration in our neighborhood and beyond. Mainly, though, Silver Lake FF focused on curating a very cool and forward-thinking festival (under the benevolent expertise of programming director Roger Mayer, as well as a plethora of guest curators), the results of which are still bearing fruit in the continued existence of some of its former programs and ongoing collaboration.

So do these artsy, community-driven, low-budget, no-commerce festivals like the still-thriving Cucalorus, Nevada City, or even Slamdance still have value? My conclusion would be that yes, they do. These festivals’ value (and purpose) lies in providing an imprimatur – an edge – for its filmmakers, and a strong platform for community-empowerment. This value, for a filmmaker, supercedes the worth of some horrid exploitative distribution deal, and lasts longer. At the end of the day, sometimes being part of something amazing and cultural is worth more than being paid a grand to have your documentary air once or twice on TV.