Making Lemonade

When coronavirus shuts down everything, you gotta do something positive. Here's a quick roundup of some generally positive, good ideas that have come out of the crisis. Some are worth copying (or paying homage) if you're looking for ideas for your own film, organization or just your free time. (Note: the photo above is from the NYPost of some kids who made a hands-free lemonade stand in NYC).

Make a Global Cloud Film – that’s what Tiffany Shlain and Ripple are doing – collecting videos from around the world where people either read a poem she selected, or send their answers to a few questions (“What is the best thing that can come to this?”) and submit their videos, which her team will edit into a global crowd-sourced film. But the deadline is tomorrow! I’ve been doing a miniature version of this exquisite corpse artistic practice with a few friends, and love the idea of getting creative on a global project. This one would be easy for other filmmakers, brands and studios to duplicate in different ways.

Montclair Film Festival and discuss it with a group – While many festivals are launching online versions, the Montclair Film Fest is going to wait and have a “real” fest later in the year. In the meantime, they’ve launched Discover Together, where each Sunday, their programmers will pick a week’s worth of films to watch from home, available on various services, and then members can follow along with the conversation in  a private Facebook group. A nice way to engage existing and new members.

Filmmaker launches Theatrical at Home campaign - I know you're thinking, hey, anyone can call streaming by that name, but this is pretty genius. The filmmakers behind Phoenix, Oregon had scheduled a theatrical tour for their film, which was put on hold. So on March 20th they did a "theatrical at home" where you selected your theater and they let you stream it online for a fee, but shared the revenue with the theater where you would have seen the film. Thus helping the theaters that were taking a chance on them at the same time. Good lemonade. I'll try to find out how it went. There are now many other examples of this same strategy being put in place - or variations of it, see below for just one - but this was among the first, I think.  Attend a Virtual Cinema and Support a Real One – KinoLorber was one of the first distributors to launch a program to showcase a new film - that would have been in theaters – online, in conjunction with those same theaters. It’s called KinoMarquee and you pick your local arthouse that would have been showing a film and they get a split of the revenue if you rent it online. In theory, the arthouses promote these films and both can succeed. Here’s FilmLinc promoting Bacurau this past week. We are now seeing several other distributors with variations of this idea. Distributors in China are allowing Movie Theaters to Screen some old Blockbusters and keep all of the revenues to help them re-open – Details are scarce, but ChinaFilmInsider has the article, and apparently more re-releases are being done soon to help theaters recover and get audiences back in the seats. According to some other reports I've read, while many cinemas are opening again in China, they are reporting very low box office, so this idea might help lure people back to group viewing. Might be worth doing this here when we can copy it.

SXSW and MailChimp Team Up to Present Shorts - MailChimp Presents has teamed up with Oscilloscope and SXSW to present shorts from the recently cancelled film festival. This is a great way for brands to do something innovative and fun during the crisis, especially when curation helps more than production. Deadline reports.

Film Will arthouse theaters go out of business? – that’s what many are worried about as they speak with Vice – Christopher Escobar of the Atlanta Film Fest and owner of the Plaza Theater (he took the shot here), and my old stomping grounds, says: “"If this really does last for two months, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do," Christopher Escobar, the Plaza’s owner, told VICE. "We're the only historic theater in Atlanta, the only locally owned theater. All of the love, blood, sweat, and tears of all the people who have done this before me is counting on me not fucking this up, and somehow finding a way to make it work." What the heck should filmmakers do about distribution during this crisis? DocNYC has a workshop for that - this Friday from 2-3pm est. DESCRIPTION: Filmmakers are scrambling for new strategies to connect with distributors and reach audiences as Covid-19 sweeps the globe. DOC NYC’s programming team has been in constant contact with sales agents, distributors and marketing consultants to gather the best advice on how to navigate these unprecedented challenges. Among the questions we’ll address: How do films recover from cancelled spring festivals? Will streamers need new content? As education moves, online, how can docs play a part? What are DIY strategies for this moment? RSVP here. DocNYC has also compiled a list of workshops and resources for filmmakers. Great start - but can every film org please create a group calendar somewhere and showcase it on each of your homepages? Might help a bit. How do you host a screening event to replace a theatrical event or tour? Together Films and PictureMotion joined together to hold some online webinars on how to navigate digital and impact during this crisis. Online every Monday at 2pm ET for the foreseeable future, and archived as well. Their first workshop covered the numerous tools available for hosting live event screenings, and the pros and cons of each one, as well as some other key tips and even legal issues to consider. It is archived at the link. Will coronavirus lead to a new "better" normal? that's what Sarah Mosses of Together Films hopes for in her last newsletter, which gives a long run-down of the many ways things have changed (like less emissions, republicans becoming socialists, etc.) and how that could be a change for the better. Windows are even be shortened in France – In France, windows – the time between theatrical and VOD – have been enforced by law, with most films needing a 4 month window and smaller films required to keep to 3 months. But as part of their COVD-19 response, the government has allowed distributors to shorten windows. ScreenDaily reports. I predicted shortened windows would become a new norm a few weeks ago, but this is big news. How much has the quarantine effected viewing of films and TV?HBO/Now/Max has a small report. Among the interesting data-points: "We’ve also seen tremendous growth in movie viewing, with engagement this past week growing 70% from the four-week average."   MISCELLANY: Arts orgs – keep marketing during the crisis! That’s the very strong and good advice from Colleen Dilenschneider in her blog, KnowYour Own Bone, and in her latest article, Why Marketing Matters During COVID-19 Closures – Key Factors to Consider. She uses excellent data to show just how much more expensive it is to re-gain a member/subscriber in her other article, The Cost of Cutting Marketing Budgets in Cultural Organizations. It can be hard not to cut marketing when you’re in a crisis and likely cutting staff and wondering if you can stay open, but the data is clear – keep marketing (but change it to reflect the times, which she discusses). (h/t on this one to Andrew Rodgers, who sent this out to many film fest folks recently). Rotterdam's Philharmonisch Orchestra recorded Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' -in isolation, but as a group- and then the Colorado Symphony did the same thing. In a very Kutiman-esque style, showing that as Colleen suggests above - you need to keep marketing as an arts org during this crisis. And it can be quite creative. Here's Alvin Ailey doing something similar on Instagram. Is the NYT bad for democracy? That’s the question asked by Chang Che at Quiellette, noting that perhaps a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats, and that as the NYT increasingly owns more of our news and media consumption, perhaps we should think about the downside of this monopoly, and what it means for a diversity of voices and news sources. I Lost my Gig - Support for Austin Gig Workers  - some folks put together a website where gig workers who lost income from the cancellation of SXSW can post their lost wages, and folks can donate. It's for Austin-locals only, not the thousands of others affected from across the world - but it's already above $4 million in losses for 750+ people. Donate now, if you can.

Posted: 30th Mar 2020

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