• Minnesota and Shit

  • Posted on 5th Sep
  • Category:

  Jeesh, I go on vacation for a month and the whole world blows up. Or at least that part holding Minneapolis/St. Paul, where I learned that Jane Minton was unceremoniously dismissed as the head of IFP Minnesota. 

  Wow. For those of you who don’t know, Jane was the head of IFP Minnesota for decades. As many people have commented online, she was THE face of film in Minnesota for years. She was also a friend, mentor and someone I trusted. I met many of my friends in the business as a result of Jane – she introduced me to current and former staff, to filmmakers, producers, funders and even my current lawyer. When I first visited MSP for the NAMAC conference, she took me, and a group of others, under her wing and not only showed us a good time in Minneapolis, but also made sure we met all the right people. She remained a confidant over the years, and I had just seen her in Minneapolis a couple months ago when I was a panelist for the McKnight Foundation grants. So, I am a biased party when I say that I am flabbergasted that the board would not only choose to dismiss her, but would do it in such a bumbling, idiotic way. You can read all about it here and here and Jane’s note to the public is here. I’m sure some board member will defend their decision, they always do, but regardless of the circumstances (which I don’t know), it is clear that the board has incompetently handled the transition, and thus none of them deserve to remain in charge of the organization for that reason alone.

  But what really floored me, and the reason I’m writing this post, was that none of the usual press suspects wrote about this at all. Not IndieWire, not Filmmaker Magazine, and none of the old or new trades in the business. I’m not surprised that Variety wouldn’t cover it – in addition to being a relatively worthless publication these days, they are theoretically focused more on Hollywood. But there was a time when this would have merited not just a mention, but a long article (or two) from Indiewire. It shows how far they’ve fallen, and how little they care about true indies that they didn’t even see fit to mention it in any of their invaluable blogs. 

  Over the years, Minnesota has been a pretty active community in the indie film world. IFP Minnesota and Jane Minton have been central to that importance. Sure, it’s regional. Sure, not every person who follows IndieWire knows who Jane or IFP MSP even are. But they should, and it’s IndieWire’s job to cover the news, not just the press releases, that matter to the state of indie film. They dropped the ball. So did Filmmaker Magazine. This is even more troubling because it is a publication of IFP Minneosta’s sister in NYC, the IFP. I’m sure there’s politics in them hills, but that shouldn’t stop at least some reporting on the affair. Come on man, I’m sure the news hit the damn place sometime. Mind you, I’m not asking for unbiased defense of Jane here, as my post surely is, but just some reporting. You know, like respectable journalism.

  Oh wait. We don’t have that in the indie film sector anymore. It went away with AIVF and “The Independent.” It went away when the founders of IndieWire all left the publication. It went away when we started running stories like this instead of real news. I miss it. I’ll miss Jane at IFP Minnesota. But I’ll always remember our inside joke – Jane, here’s to “Minnesota and Shit.” Keep up the good work wherever you may land. 

• Annual Leave from Social Media

  • Posted on 31st Jul
  • Category:

  Not that I write on this blog much, but it’s gonna be less for awhile because I am going on year three of my vacation from all social media. Each year I take off the entire month of August from blogging, tweeting, reading blogs or Facebook posts – everything. 

   Why am I telling you this? Well, as I said in the past, I don’t want anyone to be offended if I don’t answer them on Facebook or Twitter for awhile. I’ll be back after Labor Day and I’m sure I won’t miss much (things slow down in August, that’s why I picked it for this kind of vacation). If you know me well, or are a client, you can find me on old fashioned email until August 15th, when I disappear for about ten days from all communications while I take my real world vacation.

  Two years ago, this little experiment led me to abandon FourSquare altogether, but I missed Twitter a bit and kept up with that. Last year, I stopped using Facebook except for linking my Twitter feed and reading comments/messages directed to me. I’ve actually started using FourSquare again, now that it keeps lists. I don’t check in much, but I do use lists a lot.

  Earlier this year, I took an unplanned social media holiday due to being without internet access on some mini-vacations, and I have to say – I didn’t miss social media at all. I don’t get much out of reading updates on Twitter, Facebook or elsewhere. I’ll likely stay on them, as I’m launching something where being social is a help, but I’m not a fan anymore. I am a fan of Instagram and Foursquare (lists only), but I might leave the rest altogether, we’ll see.

  I’m going to spend the next month using my free time to be more creative, and think about stuff a little longer, instead of filling that void with social media. I suggest you do the same sometime.

• Vimeo and Making Bank

  • Posted on 26th Jun
  • Category:

  I recently spoke at the Vimeo Festival and Awards about how to make a living from online video – or rather, how to start trying to make a living. I was lucky to have Ryan Koo join me, and we had a great conversation about how he and other artists have built their fanbase and are now able to make a living from their online lives. Vimeo was nice enough to record the conversation, and the video is linked below. I’ve also included my slides, in case you want to see those.

  Here’s the video:

  The Art of Getting Paid from Vimeo Festival + Awards on Vimeo.

  And here’s the slides:

  Vimeo: Art of Getting Paid
  

  View more presentations from Brian Newman.

• Upcoming: Filmmaker’s Collaborative and Vimeo

  • Posted on 5th Jun
  • Category: Newsletter

  ’ve got two upcoming speaking engagements to promote. If you live in/near Boston, I recommend stopping by the Filmmakers Collaborative “Making Media Now” conference, where I’ll be speaking. There’s a lot of great speakers and panels, check here for the schedule. Here’s the description of my panel:

  Panel: “Reframing Distribution: Times are a Changin’”
  Back in the day (like four years ago) the film distribution model was easy to understand: find a distributor, and sell cable and foreign rights. Now we live in a Balkanized world with many more options, and risks. There are many alluring new ways of finding an audience, and the filmmaker has more control than ever, if only the clutter doesn’t get in the way. In this panel we will explore where we are headed, and how we can best take advantage of the new opportunities that are definitely out there.

  Moderator: Garen Daly
  Panelists: Anthony Kaufman, Brian Newman, Paola Freccero
  Go to Speaker Bios

  The next day, I’m back in NYC for the Vimeo Festival and Awards. There are a lot of great sessions, but I’m really looking forward to mine: “The Art of Getting Paid:”

  “Yes, you create because you love doing it, but imagine loving doing it while being compensated appropriately—or even handsomely. Learn where the money is and how to get to it in this insightful look at the financial side of filmmaking through the eyes of fundraising expert and all-round maverick Brian Newman.”

  They called me a maverick, I think I just speak my mind. I’ll be joined by a special guest TBA, and you can get a clue as to what I’ll be speaking about in my recent post about disruption.

  I highly recommend checking out the schedules of both conferences as linked above, because the other panels and talks are what I’m looking forward to (oh, and the Vimeo Awards really, really, rock).

• Disrupted: Indie Filmmakers

  • Posted on 29th May
  • Category:

  File under: There’s something happening here.

  Freddie Wong (FreddieW). Ryan Higa (NigaHiga). Jenna Marbles. Kevin Wu (KevJumba). These are four names that I can mention in conversation with almost everyone I know in the independent film business and get blank stares. They aren’t the only four names that I could mention, but to me, they are arguably the four most important names that every indie should know about, but somehow no one does (hyperbole, I know).

  For those of you not already in the know, each of these folks are in the top 10 channels on YouTube, based on number of subscribers, and to make that more clear – that means they all have over 2 Million subscribers. FreddieW has over 3M and Ryan has over 5 Million. That’s just subscribers. If you look at actual viewership, Ryan’s videos have been viewed over 1.7 Billion times, yes, with a ‘B.’ Each video FreddieW makes gets an average of 4 Million views, and he also makes how-to videos of each video, which routinely get hundreds of thousands of views. The hilarious “How to Avoid Talking to People You Don’t Want to Talk To” video by Jenna Marbles has been viewed over 23 Million times.

  FreddieW did a Kickstarter last year for a new 10 episode, roughly 10 minutes long each, feature called Video Game High School. He turned that audience into about $274,000 of funding (versus a 75K goal) and quickly made his episodic feature. Episode’s one through three have premiered on RocketJump over the last two weeks. To my knowledge, he bypassed the festival world entirely.

  Independent Filmmakers: You have been disrupted. As in disruptive innovation. It’s a business term from Clayton Christensen, usually applied to companies: a little company disrupts an incumbent when they operate in an area that is of too little value to the incumbent. As the start-up grows, it takes on other “low value” segments of the incumbent’s business. The incumbent can’t afford to adapt and serve these areas and before they know it, they’ve been undercut by the small folks, who then usually take over the incumbent’s business.

  Disruptive Innovation is probably the most over-hyped concept in business, so I hate to circle back to it again here, but lately I’ve realized that the disruptive innovation in independent film that matters isn’t what’s happening in business – where start-ups are developing the new models of distribution and exhibition, etc. The real disruption is happening among the makers.

  While the old school indies (even, and importantly, the young ones) have embraced new technologies such as cheaper cameras and new methods of editing, they’ve been slower to embrace the real change from digital – the direct connection to their audience.

  Time and again, I see it – filmmaker makes interesting short. They don’t have a good website for themselves, have no presence on YouTube and valiantly spend more cash on festival entry fees than you can imagine. If they are lucky, the get into some festivals, but a year later, they still haven’t bothered to put it online. They’ve been seen by perhaps a few thousand people in theaters, have maybe amassed an email list of 50 names and 200 people have liked their film on Facebook. Five years from now, they’ll probably have two features under their belt, and if they’re really lucky, one of those films will get picked up and play one week at IFC Center to about 2,000 people total and then be on VOD and DVD for perhaps another 5000 viewers. They still won’t know who their audience is or how to reach them.

  Meanwhile, there will be a new crop of another four names, unheard of now, who spend that same time building their audience online and reach millions with their work. Those millions of views will translate into several thousand who will fund their next creative project – be it a feature or just another websiode.  The four mentioned above will probably have quadrupled their audience and will likely still be going direct to that audience, bypassing the indie system entirely. They’ll likely be making more money than their counterparts in the indie film world too. It would be nice to make a living doing what you love, right!

  The “old school” indies will shake their heads and talk about how they make art and that you can’t compare the two – an indie film in a theater is different than some 4 minute video. They won’t know where to begin in building that kind of audience, or that kind of career.

  Someone else came along and built it under their noses, and now none of that audience will care about the difference between RocketLaunch and Sundance. In fact, they’ll probably think of Sundance as something like the Metropolitan Opera – a place you go to see a wonderful artform that you know you should respect, but that no one cares about anymore and which very few can afford to make or attend. Hyperbole again, but sometimes it’s only through such overstatement that we can glimpse the truth.

• Does it Trend: Data and Impact

  • Posted on 27th Apr
  • Category:

  I’ll be attending Hot Docs to moderate a panel (amongst other things, see below) on Thursday, May 3rd at the Conference, on measuring and leveraging the digital space. This is a topic I’m very interested in lately – we’ve got new tools to reach, engage and track audience and “impact” and there are ever more conversations about how much, or little, these matter. I think they matter a lot, but not in the ways anyone thinks yet. That said, the more we think about it, experiment in this area and fly/fail, we’ll learn a lot, and that’s what this panel is about. From the festival description:

  Do audiences ‘Like’ your film? Does it trend on twitter? Did you attract 5,000 online views in 24 hours? Fantastic. Amazing. Congratulations. But how do you collect the data? How do you compare metrics and what does it all mean?
  
  Part experiment, part session, Hot Docs has asked Herman’s House (D: Angad Singh Bhalla) and Finding North (D: Kristi Jacobsen) to use a range of data aggregation tools and report back. With information on new metrics and analytics, this session will examine how we define and measure data, explore the relevance and impact of the results, and illustrate how the collected data can be leveraged for future impact.
  
  Using Sparkwi.se, a new, free online metric tool for aggregating social media and online presence in a personalized dashboard, both films are already tracking traffic to their websites, gathering views on videos, ‘Likes’ on Facebook, and mentions on Google. During the session our panelists will present their dashboards and participate in live data analysis. The session will also explore lessons learned during the process, and offer an in-depth assessment of how to use the accumulated data to support each filmmaker’s goal.
  
  Participating expert analysts and leading industry thinkers will offer context for this experiment, reflecting on how we use data, the significance it carries when approaching broadcasters, distributors and investors, and the potential for enhancing documentary’s capacity for social change.
  
  Learn more about the Sparkwi.se free online metric tool at sparkwi.se.
  

  Moderators

  Brian Newman – Co-Founder, sub-genre

  Panelists

  Jennifer Gilomen – Director of Independent Media, BAVC

  Marc Vogl – Executive Director, BAVC

  Jonny Bunning – Social Media/Community Manager, HERMAN’S HOUSE

  Kristi Jacobsen – Director/Producer, FINDING NORTH

  Bill Mohri – Head of Strategy and Partnerships, Advertising and Online Division, Microsoft Canada

  Thu, May 3 4:00pm – 5:15pm | Rogers Industry Centre (Victoria College), 93 Charles Street West, 2nd Floor

  Join us. Send me your thoughts in advance. Tweet us onstage at #hotdocsimpact and we might even answer your question onstage. Should be fun.

  In addition, I’m watching docs for acquisition by a new TBA doc distributor – have a great social issue doc, English language, with all US rights available? Come see me. We’ve got money, a cool plan and some new ideas. More will be announced publicly soon!

• Alamo – it ain’t just the beer

  • Posted on 9th Apr
  • Category:

  All of NYC has been rejoicing this past week, having heard the news that the Alamo Drafthouse is coming to town. Many of my friends and acquaintances in the film industry, and outside of it, have been talking, tweeting and oohing and aahing about it, but I noticed several who kept focusing on the beer aspect – essentially saying that having beer was the most important part of the Alamo experience. But it isn’t, never has been and theaters shouldn’t think so, or they’re missing what matters.

  I love beer, and it’s really nice that the Alamo Drafthouse let’s me drink beer while watching a movie, and it contributes to what makes Alamo great. On the other hand, if AMC or Regal (or even Landmark) offered beer, it would still be a bad experience to see a movie there. In fact, the entire experience of going to those cinemas sucks. If they had beer, they’d charge 20 bucks for it and the experience would still suck, so I might just puke during it. So it’s not the beer.

  It’s also not the movies themselves. Alamo plays many mainstream films too, so that’s not what makes it special either. It’s the entire experience. When I’ve visited Alamo, whether during a SXSW screening or at another time, the experience has been top notch across the board. Here’s why:

  The programming is great, and in addition to the usual Hollywood/IndieWood/LittleFilmThatCould screenings, they also add in fun, quirky programming (such as texting in the movie on purpose so it shows on the screen, but at designated screenings only).

  No Ads. This is huge. I’ll put a bullet in my head before I’ll watch another “The Twenty” at Regal and then watch 20 previews, more ads and that stupid train shit intro-ing the film. Alamo’s quirky pre-feature show is fun and not as in your face – if I want to still chat with my friends, I can. And you know what – as Alamo says – I already paid for the film so I shouldn’t have to watch ads.

  The food. I didn’t find it to be amazing, but I’ve always felt like it is at least somewhat fit for human consumption, and they actually have a chef who plans the menus, so they’re trying. Contrast that with the crap elsewhere, even most indie art houses.

  The service. This might be the biggest one. From the person who sells me my tickets to the “waiter ninjas” who deliver my food, the people don’t seem to hate their lives and mine. This, I think, comes directly down from the top – Tim League is a nice guy. He instills niceness in his staff. Mr. Duane Reade is a dick. He hates his staff, they hate him and this translates to the customer service.

  Employees, or Service 2. They actually seem to employ people. The right amount of them. When I go to AMC 25, there’s a 50 foot line not because it’s busy, but because they have one cashier and the machines are all broken. Same with the concession stand. This is true also of Landmark Sunshine and other arthouses usually. Short sighted managers/owners cut staff to the bare minimum. Well, guess what – sometimes having more people means making more money. Really.

  No phones. I think everyone has now heard the story about them kicking someone out for using her phone in the movie. And then distributed the audio of her call complaining for being kicked out. Was hilarious, but this wouldn’t ever possibly happen at any of their competitors, as the management there would be hiding to avoid getting involved, instead of being proactive about making a good movie environment.

  They care. Really, they do. I know this because I’ve talked with Tim and heard him talk – and he is passionate about the movies. He is passionate about having a good time. He started Fantastic Fest, and gets in the fight ring during it, because he cares. I’ve met many owners of other theaters, and I can only say this to be true about a dozen of them – most of them attend the Arthouse Convergence by the way – and that is sad.

  So folks, just like in other arenas, the entire experience is what counts. This counts for your individual films too. And your transmedia project. And your Duane Reade. And your nonprofit. And your film festival. And your film website. And your film store. And…

• Closed Systems and Crowdsourced Culture

  • Posted on 27th Mar
  • Category:

  I can now fund any movie I want made through Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. I can also set up screenings for any movie I want to see, by using OpenIndie, Gathr and Tugg. I can aggregate the news I want using gazillions of apps and plug-ins. I can in fact, live in a cultural world entirely decided upon by me. Or not just me, but me and the people who think and act like I do.

  This is a pretty nice gated community. It means that until Anthony Kaufman wrote an article about it, I had no idea that some anti-abortion film was number 8 at the box office last week. I missed it altogether, because I don’t run with that crowd or listen to what they do, unless it accidentally intrudes into my world, such as when my friends start tweeting about something going on with #Komen.

  I’m no anti-technology, anti-social network, can’t we have back the old system-kind-of-guy, but it seems to me this takes the whole losing of a common culture problem much further. You know – it used to be we could all gather ‘round the water cooler and talk Happy Days, or even Seinfeld, or heck…even Mad Men. This gave us some common culture to share, and arguably some commonness in our lives.

  Now, however, I can do this just with my cultural-clones. I wouldn’t think this was such a bad thing, but then again….several years back, many churches started building mega-centers where they could all worship, buy coffee, shop, mingle and not be influenced by the outside world. I don’t think we’d argue that this is not exactly a mind-opening way to live. We see this with many conservative groups (from all religions), and I think we can generally agree it doesn’t make for the best situation for anyone. It’s a closed system – self-referential to the extreme, and this creates not just extremism but shitty culture.

  It’s no better applied to other arenas – if I only get the liberal-minded films which I pay for on Kickstarter, Gathr to my hometown and spread to my network of like-minded individuals, all of culture will suffer as a result. In theory, all of these new tools are making things more open, but I worry about the self-referring loop syndrome of the closed system we’re building. Am I the only one?

  Then again, I’m probably missing a lot of right-wing crazy shit I don’t need in my life….crowdsource on dudes.

• Creative Albuquerque Talks

  • Posted on 13th Mar
  • Category:

  I’ve just left SXSW to help lead some discussions around how to build and maintain a vibrant media arts culture, with Creative Albuquerque. Here’s details:
  

  The Downtown Arts & Cultural District Steering Committee is pleased to announce a national speaker series to assist in stimulating the development of vibrant district and a strategic cultural plan. The speaker series begins with esteemed guest Brian Newman, who will lead an exploration of our community’s film and digital media assets. Brian’s expertise will be shared with the public on March 14th.

  focus group for Film & Digital Media Stakeholders
  A facilitated discussion on the future of film & digital media in ABQ
  9:00-11:30am at Creative Albuquerque located at 115 4th Street NW.

  public talk: “Creating A Vibrant Media Arts Environment”
  4:30-5:30 at the Cell Theatre, located at 700 1st Street NW.

  The speakers series and data gathering will continue over eight weeks with specialists in film and digital media, visual arts, music and performing arts, literary arts, culinary arts and marketing/branding. In addition to making public presentations, guest speakers will provide recommendations and assist in the development of strategies to spur vitality in the downtown district. These insights will be integrated into the district’s cultural plan, which aims to increase local and visitor engagement, foster economic growth for downtown businesses and ensure eventual recognition as a top cultural district in the nation.

  To RSVP to events or for more information, email info@creativeabq.org or call (505) 268-1920.

  Here’s their website.

• Script to Screen Conference

  • Posted on 5th Mar
  • Category:

  I’m going to be doing some networking meetings this year at IFP’s Script to Screen Conference on March 17th. The line-up looks great (I’m not speaking publicly here), and I highly recommend this conference if you live in/near NYC. Check out the details below:

  IFP’s Script to Screen Conference Lineup Announced

  IFP’s Script to Screen Conference, to be held Saturday March 17 at 92Y Tribeca in NYC, is the place to explore the art, craft, and business of screenwriting and creating the next generation of independent film and media. Anchored by a conversation with Oscar-nominated director Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote); Script to Screen will feature a live pitch contest; writing gamesand conversations with innovators in screenwriting, TV, and new media; and a networking lunch offering the chance to connect with representatives from organizations such as Writers Guild of America East, Tribeca Film Institute, YouTube, Cinereach, and the New York Television Festival. The day-long event will explore new opportunities available to indie filmmakers and content creators.

  The day will also feature a Writer’s Conversation with exciting new talents Ry Russo-Young (Nobody Walks), Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Liza Johnson (Return), and Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same).Other guests include Jonathan Ames (Bored to Death); Ethan T. Berlin and Eric Bryant (“Bunk”); Dia Sokol Savage (“16 & Pregnant”); and Collegehumor.com’s David Young.  Script to Screen is presented in partnership with the Writers Guild of America East, New York Television Festival, and BookExpo America. For information on how to submit your pitch, go here. For additional information and to purchase tickets, click here.

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