Ted Hope interviewed by Flyp Media

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/plus/18/#1/1

The UK and Indie Film digital policy

This is a total repost from TRULY FREE FILMS. The UK is ahead of the game, when it comes to the new world of digital indie film distribution and the future. Interesting stuff. Thanks to Ted hope for posting such great stuff.

The New Rules: An Indie Film Digital Policy

Over in the UK they have a state-backed initiative to try to figure out this new digi-film culture universe. Here in The States of course we are asked to sink or swim on our own.

Luckily we can crib some of the insights The Brits generate.

Screen Daily reported today:

The UK Film Council and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is calling on the film industry to expand digital distribution, seek new sources of funding and work with online audiences as publishers not just viewers, as part of series of findings from their digital innovation programme.

Some of their initial recommendations are:

• Film companies should see online audiences as participants, authors, contributors and publishers as well as just viewers, and use this to their advantage
  
• Directors, writers and actors should be encouraged to write a blog or Twitter, to engage audiences in the film-making process
  
• Free tools such as Google Blog Search and Twitter should be used to track the performance of campaigns by monitoring site visits and bookmarks. But popularity should not be mistaken for financial success.
  
• Companies should be wary about giving away potential revenue in return for digitisation costs, and instead look into getting it done themselves.
  
• The aim should be to sell content to as many platforms as possible and to keep the deals non-exclusive or for short exclusive periods.
  
• Film-makers should look to new sources of funding. Brands and content creators are potential sources, as in the case of Shane Meadows’ Somers Town, which was financed by Eurostar.
  
• Companies should think about what would make audiences pay for content, and the principle of ‘added value’ in the form of quality of experience.
  
• The whole industry is still learning and there is no perfect online campaign, so experimenting is the key.
  

If you aren't following these recommendations, you are not living in the world of today. Indie Film culture's survival depends on the majority getting with the program.


PLEASE COMMENT any thoughts, reactions, ideas! Progress comes from a dialogue, not a monologue!

Restraint can be a strength!

Thank you Ted Hope!
Reposted from HAMMER TO NAIL.

/Qualities Of Better Film #25 of 31: RESTRAINT

Posted by Ted Hope
06 / 01 / 09

Let's Make Better Films

Some many films feel like a recitation of just the high points. These movies live at a peak emotional level and there is no ebb and flo to them. The audience is not given any room to breathe. It is as if the filmmakers felt the audience had no imagination and that everyone is a sensation junky. As much as clarity is something to be praised, an ambitious filmmaker leaves room for an audience to make their way through a film. Whether it is the pleasure of getting to complete a thought on your own and not needing to have it spelled out for you, or the delight in the avoidance of the grandiose, holding things back can be equally as powerful as displaying other things.

#23 of 31 Qualities of Better Films by Ted Hope.

I read this post by Ted Hope at Hammer to Nail and I have to repost it here.
It's one of the most inspiring thing I've read all year.

RESPECT FOR THE AUDIENCE:
Film is a dialogue between the audience and the screen, and like an individual, film can talk down to its audience or ignore its audience’s needs. Respect is an equal relationship and in film it is reflected by the creative team indicating that they don’t think the audience is a bunch of fools or unwilling to work for a deeper and richer experience.

After 100 years of filmmaking, most audiences recognize that a handgun introduced in the first act will most likely go after in the third. Audiences know that an overt close-up at the end of a shot sequence means that the subject is important or will be important in an unexpected way. Filmmakers who don’t acknowledge our shared cinematic language demonstrate a lack of respect for an audience.

Since audiences generally have seen many films, to not show them something new, make them feel something new, or think of something in a new way, demonstrates a disrespect of the audience’s time and investment. Movies have to do more than just get made or made with high technical standards; they have to aspire to taking us somewhere not just new, but something that will provoke us beyond the common place conclusions of the concept.

Studios and financiers frequently ask filmmakers “who is the audience?” in regards to a project, and they never want to hear “everybody”. They expect to have a clearly defined group whom they know how to reach and communicate with, but even this demonstrates the beginning of a disconnect with the true nature of any community. Nobody likes to be defined as a specific demographic. One of the true joys of cinema is that it speak to the expansiveness of the human spirit. Sure we have our favorite things, but generally what we initially respond to, are just a few of them initially – film can expose a greater part of ourselves, and filmmakers willing to do this, show the greatest respect for an audience. A movie does not have to be a singular tone. It does not have to fit firmly within the dictates of a specific genre. Great movies do not require that all the lead characters are people we “love” and “sympathize” for. We show audiences respect when we recognize that everyone likes to experience new things and recognize them as part of themselves.

To Read all the Qualities of Better films by Ted Hope CLICK HERE.

THANKS TED!

-Ryan
ryan@ryanbalas.com