In September 2010, I taught a short course on 'Sustaining Independent Filmmaking through the Internet' at Tampere University of Applied Science.
This is lecture 3: Production.
1. Using the World Wide Web
to Sustain
Independent Filmmaking
- Production -
2. The Hunt for Gollum
Premiere on 8 May 2009
£3,000 budget (Cast & Crew volunteered)
6.8 million views on YouTube & Dailymotion
11,500 comments on YouTube & Dailymotion
Offline Premiere at London Comic Con
Screenings in Brazil, Switzerland, Spain,
France, Germany, Canada
21. Further Readings
Jon Reiss (2010). Think Outside the Box Office (invaluable; for US market)
Scott Kirsner (2009). Fans, Friends and Followers (lots of good examples)
Dave Evans (2008). Social Media Marketing. An Hour a Day
TrulyFreeFilm.HopeForFilm.com (Ted Hopeʼs Blog)
WorkBookProject.com (DIYDays, New Breed, etc.)
Notas do Editor
Internet allows you to connect to people. Huge Tolkien fan base who would provide Crew and Actors but also Equipment for The Hunt for Gollum. This way, there is no need for Money anymore.
Through Openness, people get together, Share ideas and solve problems - and this on a Global Level. Advantage: Wisdom of the Crowd, rather than the lone super-brain. E.g: YouTube, Wikipedia, Linux, Second Life but also The Hunt for Gollum.
Another example for collaborative filmmaking.
Communities that support collaborative filmmaking.
Internet also speeds up the process of getting film to audience. Greenwald used this to stay on top of events in Afghanistan. He published short interviews immediately. Only later, he edited them together to the typical feature length film.
Tools for Distribution, Marketing and Production of films.
Story is extended online.
Audiences make decisions in story-telling process. They interact with the story. Here: They can click on the map to decide what part of the story (which town, which date, which person?) they are interested in.
Very sophisticated example: http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
A game can be a stand-alone storytelling device or as addition to a film.
Dafur is Dying: Game to understand the Genocide in Dafur.
Make films in a virtual environment (Second Life, YouTube, Archive.org, webcams, betting sites, Pirate Bay, etc.?)
Use multiple media synchronously to tell a story.
Summary: It depends on your goals how you can use the Internet. But there are options to help with most of your problems.