FilmTiki at the UNERHÖRT Musicfilm Festival 2009

Submitted by wolfgang_g on Tue, 12/08/2009 - 07:53

Last Friday, December 4th 2009, I took part in a panel discussion focussing on the question 'What happens to the film industry in the age of 2.0?' at the Unerhört Music Film Festival in Hamburg, Germany. Moderated by Ina Krauß, me and the other panelists - Wolfgang Junghans, founder and CEO of Eumagine TV; Andreas Weitkämpfer, A&R Director Frontline at Warner Music Group Central Europe and Joachim Kurz, chief editor http://www.kino-zeit.de - discussed recent trends in online movie marketing, film distribution, the future of film, cinema in general and music film.Last Friday, December 4th 2009, I took part in a panel discussion focussing on the question 'What happens to the film industry in the age of 2.0?' at the Unerhört Music Film Festival in Hamburg, Germany. Moderated by Ina Krauß, me and the other panelists - Wolfgang Junghans, founder and CEO of Eumagine TV; Andreas Weitkämpfer, A&R Director Frontline at Warner Music Group Central Europe and Joachim Kurz, chief editor http://www.kino-zeit.de - discussed recent trends in online movie marketing, film distribution, the future of film, cinema in general and music film. Unfortunatly we had limited time, so we couldn't explore the depth of the subject. But here's a short summary of what I talked about on Friday, plus some more examples from the (music) film business I came across during my research for the festival: Es muss was geben First I was asked what my favourite music film at the moment was, so here it is: Es muss was geben - der Film. This Austrian documentary is based on a book with the same title by author Andreas Kump. It's about the beginnings of alternative music in Linz, Austria. At the moment the project is in its development stage, but the directors Oliver Stangl and Christian Tod have already done some interviews, which they partly post on their Facebook Fanpage. They also use their Facebook account to ask their friends to participate in making this movie and find further material: es muss was geben Bud Spencer - The Documentary I also talked about another Austrian movie, the Bud Spencer project, by Karl-Martin Pold. If you want to know more about it, I already mentioned it on our blog before. Star Wreck, Iron Sky, Wreck a movie and Hercules Filmnet A goof example to illustrate the power of the audience or a community was given by Wolfgang Junghans referring to the Finnish cult-movie Star Wreck, which premiered in 2005 on the Internet for free and since then ranges under the most popular Finnish films of all time. The same team is about to produce Iron Sky, a movie about Nazis on the moon. Both films are part of a collaborative filmmaking platform called Wreck-a-movie. In this context I also mentioned Hercules Filmnetwork, a collaborative filmmaking platform from Austria. It is a powerful tool, especially for emerging filmmakers and music video producers, because once you got an account you can organise your whole movie on this website, even when it comes to financing or distribution. Mass Animation on Facebook I didn't mention this project, althought it's really awesome. Here's what it says on the Facebook Fanpage:

With over 50,000 participants from 101 countries from around the world, Mass Animation is the largest global animation collaboration ever.

The result will be an animated music video - check it out. Here's the Trailer:

Music video competitions Some bands run competitions to get their music videos made. A recent example following this trend was posted on video streaming service Dailymotion. The Prodigy invited filmmakers to create a music video for one of their tracks. Competition is till open, the winner wins £3,000. U2 on YouTube I didn't have the time to speak about U2 on YouTube, but I think it's pretty interesting for all bands and music film producers. They recently screened the whole concert at the Rose Bowl live and for free on YouTube. Some might say that they lose millions of Dollars, but exactly the opposite will be the result. Because U2 didn't only brand their channel in their corporate band design, but also put some prominent links on top of their channel: BUY ALBUM NOW, U2 MAILING LIST and VISIT U2.COM. I guess they will sell more copies than ever! U2 on YouTube Financing a movie and getting it seen! Another part of our discussion focussed on alternative ways to finance a movie and bringing it to an audience. I mentioned Sita sings the Blues and its donation approach. But there are several other ways to raise money, e.g. by selling end credits, like the guys from buyacredit did. Recently this model was used by Paranormal Activity and other movie projects too. By the way, Paranormal Activity was brought to a nationwide release by the power of the community! I'm sure you find all you need to know about it on Wikipedia :-) Another example for screenings organised by a fan-community is The Age of Stupid, respectively the platform Indiescreenings, which was created to let the crowd organise screenings for a good cause. A few weeks ago, Arin Crumley and Kieran Masterton tried to raise money for their project Open Indie by simply ask for a small donation. AND IT WORKED! If you're searching for a DVD-on-demand service try Filmbaby or CreateSpace. You only have to send your master copy to them and they print, pack and ship your DVD when demanded! You want to bring E.T. back to the theater? Tell your friends about it and register on Moviac. Anyway, I think that's enough ramblings on audience distribution for now. If you want to know more about community power there's a blog post called 'Let the audience distribute your film' on FilmTiki. It might get loud The movie about three guitar players of different generations will be the first music film on iTunes. According to Video Business

iTunes is promoting the film as a pre-order on its just-launched Music Movies area of its movie section, where it plans to offer weekly music exclusives and bolster its catalog offerings.

If you like rock music, follow Jack White, Jimmy Page and The Edge on Facebook. Some more links There's so much unsaid, but here are some more unsorted links for all of you who are interested in music film and video...

If I forgot something I mentioned during Friday's session, feel free to contact us on Twitter.