This article first appeared (authored by me) February 20, 2011 on Technorati here.

————-

Mainstream media and major film distributors don’t speak “Crowd.”They just don’t seem to get it.

Crowd sourcing and crowd funding, by nature are not mainstream and Netizens happily communicate in their own language and with their own peeps.

Two filmmakers, Karl-Martin Pold and Sarah Noeringberg, are soliciting donations at StartNext online for their documentary, A Man Called Spencer; about famous Italian actor, Bud Spencer, who is most known for his spaghetti westerns.

When the Italian press got wind of it, one of the newspapers released a misguided story claiming that Spencer was poor and was trying to raise money to support himself.  Really?

In the cafe culture of creatives around the world who are familiar with the subject and meaning of crowd sourcing and its counterpart, crowd funding, the subject is still hot. They understand it and are embracing it by the thousands.

To clarify for those who may not yet have entered this democratized medium, crowd sourcing is a way to engage the talented citizens of the Internet in the creative aspects or other elements of a project, i.e., the script, music, effects shots, titles, trailers, etc.

A subset of crowd sourcing is crowd funding, a platform that enables filmmakers or other creatives to solicit monetary donations for their projects.

Perhaps one of the earliest films to appear online for free download was Star Wreck, released in 1997. It was 45 minutes long and message boards caught on fire.  The phenomenon had begun.

Star Wreck Cast

The same team released one of the first collaborative films to crossover into the mainstream press and become well known, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning.  It was launched in 2000 by maverick filmmakers (five students and several unemployed friends from Tampere) with little money, lots of idealism and their own home computers.

The blue screen used behind many of the scenes of the film, was a piece of linoleum painted with blue chroma key paint and their equipment may not have been the most exotic, but they worked together to make their movie and found themselves in the post production process by 2004, much of which was completed in their homes.

Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning was released online on October 1, 2005, and within four days had over 400,000 downloads.  It was subsequently shown on TV in Finland, Sweden and Norway and the DVD came out in the UK on April 4, 2009.

Timo Vuorensola, Director of Star Wreck, is making another feature and creating independent film history with Iron Sky. The trailer for Iron Sky was released just before the Cannes film festival in 2008 and was viewed over 1 million times during that year.

In February of 2008, a group of netizens gathered together on <a href=”http://www.wreckamovie.com”>http://www.wreckamovie.com</a> to contribute our creative thoughts and ideas to the filmmakers and eventually many also contributed money to help fund the project, Iron Sky.  At the time, it was fun, but we had no idea how the wreckers would end up changing the face of film-making.

Iron Sky, a sci-fi about Nazis in space, is an anomaly because of the size of its budget and its potentially mainstream appeal.  It may now be the great-granddaddy of them all.  This could very easily be the Matrix of independent films.

Although the final numbers fluctuate depending on who is reporting, the budget is 6,900,000 Euros.  The filmmakers are trying to raise 900,000 Euros through crowd funding and merchandising sales and are just over 30% there as of this writing.

On February 6, 2011, after traveling from Finland to Germany and Australia, Iron Sky completed shooting.

Watch a video diary with Timo Vuorensola, Iron Sky director here.

http://www.ironsky.net/site/

What most mainstream entertainment press and film distributors seem to overlook, is that the core roots of crowd funding were built for niche product; independent films on subjects that Hollywood or other major funding sources of financing, whether private of from governments around the world, would never fund. If, by happenstance these films find a major supporter, great, but most don’t and won’t.

This is a new day and a new way to finance.  Over on Kickstarter, which claims to be the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, numerous films have been funded.

If you wanted to make a movie about the death of the Linotype machines, you could have contributed to Doug Wilson’s Linotype: The Film, which was 311% funded by 279 backers for a total of $24,915.  Well shot and surprisingly engaging, it found its niche online and was born.

Happy – A Documentary, from acclaimed director, Roko Belic got finishing funds ($36,238), Girls Will be Girls 2012; was funded for $35,226 and other projects found backers as well:  i am i ($111,965), Ride with Larry ($62,695), A Perfect Ending ($53,585), Hidden Colors ($26,777) and many more.

Living on its own site is Artemis Eternal, a film in the making from Jessica Mae Stover who tells us, “This is the art of the possible.”  Stover is a dedicated creative purist who says, “We are part of a free-running pack wherein no one owns anyone else and everyone chooses to be here to look, to focus, to dream, to act in the same direction.”

World-famous French director, Luc Besson, known as a maverick filmmaker, recently set up a website asking fans to contribute to the screenplay and other elements for his next project.  See his latest video introducing the film here.

Besson suggests that we make a movie together. “This is a platform for people who really like movies to be a part of it right from the beginning. When there is heart, intelligence, humor and emotion in a film and we feel it, then there is a chance that others feel it as well.”

A crowd funding conference by digitalfilmcamp.de, was hosted this week at the event location, Home Base Lounge, a popular venue for professional tech and social media gatherings in Berlin, Germany.

Danae Ringleman, COO of IndieGoGo.com told Simon Chappuzeau and the crowd attending that, 20% of the people who donate are total strangers and find the project by browsing, but 80% already know the filmmaker or the project or have a relationship to the subject.”

What does this mean to those who would try to finance their projects this way?  In order to be successful, it is imperative that every project understands their target audience and employs a viable marketing strategy along with the solicitation for funding.

Chappuzeau elaborates, “Crowd funding is very interesting from a business perspective, because it forces every project to think about their target audience and by so doing, develop a clear marketing and sales strategy.  By the time you have listed your film on any of these sites, you are basically set to reach your target.  It is business integration at it’s best.”

Chappuzeau insists that crowd funding is only a successful tool if you maintain a strong connection with your marketplace during the process.  “In the old world a filmmaker would get his project ready and hope that it would sell.  This was a very risky model.  In the world of crowd funding, a filmmaker quickly knows whether or not the project will be successful and either starts it or not.  They have,” as he puts it, “a safety net.”

Crowd funding in the United States may be more advanced than some countries because of the donation culture that exists there.  “Americans are more prone to give money to things they like than other countries,” Chappuzeau says, but it is “picking up in Europe,” he continues.

IndieGoGo was founded in 2008 by COO Danae Ringelmann, CEO Slava Rubin and CTO Eric Schell. Although it is based in the United States, it claims to be the largest international crowd funder with members in 159 countries.  Why does this matter?  In order to receive funds, you have to have an active bank account in the country of origin of the project.  IndieGoGo boasts having as of this date, 19,239 campaigns.

Most platforms take a percentage of funds raised.  IndieGoGo gives you any money that you raise, but they take 9% if you don’t reach your goal and 5% if you do, thus creating a strong incentive to achieve full financing.  Kickstarter will only distribute funds if the project reaches its goal and they charge a percentage as well.

The important point of all of this is that a new kind of film is emerging.  Films that may not have seen the light of day are getting made.

The democratization of the filmmaking process is producing a fresh, energetic and dedicated crowd.  People like Dana Yuriko, who presented at the HomeBase Lounge seminar, talked of her film, Bar 25, about a notorious and very free-spirited nightclub in Berlin that raised 25,000 Euros (a large budget in Europe for a crowd sourced project) in less than a week through this incubation process.

Why?  Because there was a very loyal underground of club goers eager to see the film and they spread the word, encouraging each other to support Yuriko in her efforts.

And it doesn’t end there. Yuriko now has a fully funded film and can enjoy and reinvest the profits from several thousand potential DVD sales.

Creative people by nature are mavericks. Perhaps this new frontier will yield amazing projects supported by fans and enjoyed by many.

I, for one, hope so.

Article first published as Kevin Spacey in Margin Call, Business and Betrayal in the Hallowed Halls of Financeon Technorati.

(February 14, 2011 – Reviewed at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival – in competition)

“Margin Call” is a pleasant surprise for audiences otherwise expecting a good vs. evil, black vs. white depiction of the now world-famous events that rocked finances from the United States high above Wall Street to far-reaching corners of the globe.

Kevin Spacey Stars in "Margin Call"

This story is personal.  It is a taut, emotional and extremely engaging look behind the scenes at the lives of the men and women at the top of the crash as they hurtle one by one towards the oncoming abyss. Decisions are made, sometimes at will and other times by force.

JC Chandler directs Zachery Quinto in "Margin Call"

First-time feature director,  J. C. Chandor is no stranger to the world of finance, having grown up with a father who worked at Merrill Lynch. Chandor’s previous work in commercials, documentaries and short films served him well in this inaugural effort.  Expect to see a lot more of this very talented filmmaker.

The film opens on a busy day at an unidentified investment banking firm as the office is invaded by a group of executives who storm through the ranks as they pick out employees and send them to a fish-bowl office to be immediately fired.  By the end of the day, 80% of them are gone and we can smell contained panic in the room.

As soon as we hear Will Emerson, played by Paul Bettany, tell two young traders in his department, “Ignore it.  Put your head down and go back to work,” we know that this script is going to work on more than one level, for history tells us that it wasn’t just young traders who hid in the sand, it was entire corporations.  As the script unfolds, the story is peeled back layer by layer and we see the human toll work its way through the ranks.

Media stereotypes of evil bankers and an unwitting public are challenged by this film that succeeds in creating human multi-faceted characters out of those we might want to believe are true villains.  Have they sold their souls for a brass ring that will drag us all under to drown as they collect multi-million dollar bonuses?  Or, are some of them just following orders or to avoid being swept away into their own version of financial ruin?

These are flawed characters and it is the linked chain of those flaws that strangles our sense of right and wrenches it into darkness. When this is over we will have a newfound understanding of the weaknesses of the executive suite and a keener eye towards events foreboding our future.

Stanley Tucci plays an investment banker with a secret in "Margin Call"

Perched in a glass office, the hatchet woman tells Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) as she fires him, “These are extraordinary times,” then watches as her colleague hands him a magazine entitled, “Looking Ahead,” with a sailboat on the cover.

A few minutes later, personal effects in hand, Eric is headed for the elevator, leaving the company behind and the differing but subtle reactions of two young water-cooler friends immediately give us clues to their true characters as one, Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley), is only concerned with himself and the other, Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), sympathizes with Eric. In fact, it is this moment of sympathy that propels them into a series of events that over the next 24 hours will change the world forever.

Betrayal after betrayal is revealed through small words and actions well played by the cast. At the elevator, in the boardroom, in the executive lunchroom, driving through the streets, few are who we think they are.

Reserved and cool one moment, Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey at his usual best) grieves over his dying dog as his life crumbles around him. Commenting about this, Spacey tells us in an interview, “The dog is a metaphor for what is happening in the company and in his career.” “Don’t put everybody in the same wheelbarrow,” he continues.

John Tuld (played by Jeremy Irons), is head of the fictitious firm and admits when looking at the financials, “I can’t read these things.  Just speak to me in English…It wasn’t brains that got me here.”  We might have a moment of sympathy for him until his lack of understanding for those being affected is made clear when he says while enjoying his meal in his private executive dining room, that money is just a “picture on a piece of paper so we don’t have to kill each other to get something to eat.”

“Margin Call” is written and directed by J.C. Chandor.  It premiered in the United States at the Sundance Festival in 2011 and had its international premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 11, 2011.

Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci star.

The film is produced by Nichael Benaroya, neal Dodson, Zachary Quinto, Robert Ogden Barnum, Corey Moosa and Joe Jenckes; exec-produced by Cassion Elwes, Laura Rister, Joshua Blum, Kirk D’Amico, Randy Manis, Anthony Gudas, Michael Corso, Rose Ganguzza.

Director of Photography is Frank G. Demarco with production design by John Paino and costume design by Caroline Duncan.  The film is edited by Pete Beaudreau.

For more information about “Margin Call,” see http://www.margincallmovie.com

Article first published as 2011 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) Opens on a Serious Note on Technorati.

Artistic Freedom a Strong Message, Punctuated by Iranian filmmaker, Jafar Panahi’s Vacant Chair

Jafar Panahi's empty chair on stage at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival

(Berlin Germany, February 10^th, 2011)  The 61^st Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) began on a serious note Thursday, February 10^th, as the prominent absence of respected Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was marked with a solemn and empty chair on the dais next to Jury President Isabella Rossellini.

In December of 2010, Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and subjected to a twenty-year ban from filmmaking in his native country. He managed to smuggle out a letter that was read to the press by Jury President Isabella Rossellini, in which he said, “They have condemned me to twenty years of silence.  Yet in my dreams, I scream for a time when we can tolerate each other, respect each other’s opinions and live for each other.”

Isabella Rossellini reads Jafar Panahi's letter to the 2011 Berlinale

In solidarity with Panahi, members of the jury delivered a quiet but firm message to a room packed with press from all over the globe. They made it clear that governments throughout the world must allow freedom of expression in the artistic community.

Jury President, Isabella Rossellini said, “Freedom of art is freedom of speech…Censorship of any artistic work is unacceptable in any society…It is important that every voice be heard.”

Indeed, this year, there are many films screening at the Berlinale that are diverse, culturally revealing and political in nature, for example “Barzakh,” from Mantas Kvedaravicius;  Romas Zabarauskas’ “Porno Melodrama,” “Homo@LV,” by Kaspars Goba.  The Generation program features documentary films from younger filmmakers chronicling terrors of war, parent-child angst, rites of passage, death and dying, power, sex and the fight for our environment.

In an interview with Frauke Greiner, head of Press and Publicity for the Berlinale she elaborates, “The festival itself started with a political idea after the Second World War in 1951…Berlin was a divided city.” She went on to explain that the festival wanted to show an image of a changing Germany, “that there is some sort of Democracy coming to this country and to show that the festival and the city is also a showcase of the free world.”

Frauke Greiner, head of press and publicity at the Berlin International Film Festival, 2011

Greiner explains, “People take the opportunity to use this platform to speak out on what they think (and) to create a discussion between different views of the world and between different cultures.”

To honor Panahi and bring attention to his films as well as the plight of other journalists who are being censored, the Berlinale is offering a retrospective of Panahi’s films, “Offside,” winner of the Silver Bear in 2006, “The Circle,” “Crimson Gold,” “The White Balloon,” and his short film, “Untying the Knot.”

The Berlinale’s programmers, it would seem, are committed to screening films that have artistic and social merit.  Perhaps because of this, as well as the fact that the program also has the prerequisite commercial hits featuring major stars, the Berlinale has emerged as one of the top festivals in the world.

The City of Berlin, even in the midst of tough economic times, has become a global center for media creators. It is not unusual to hear it described as a Mecca for those who have migrated here from all points of the world in search of a place that will nurture creative endeavors without judgment.

If the opening day of the Berlinale is indicative of what we will be seeing and hearing in the next ten days, then the call for artistic freedom will ring loud and clear throughout this city.

The International Jury of the Berlinale is comprised of:  Isabella Rossellini, President, Jafar Panahi from Iran, Sandy Powell of Great Britain, Jan Chapman from Australia, Germany’s Nina Hoss, Aamir Khan from India and Guy Maddin of Canada.

The festival continues from February 10 to 20, 2011 in Berlin at Pottsdamer Platz. For more information about the Berlinale, www.berlinale.de