Preaching to choir rings so true, it seems the community of filmmakers

This was my response to the post below from http://blog.filmtiki.com/
Preaching to choir rings so true, it seems the community of filmmakers 'that are active online' are aware of whats going on, but even then, there's very little focus in any solid direction.

One of the first pioneers in content distribution online was David Stewart Best known as one-half of the groundbreaking synth-pop duo Eurythmics, Dave Stewart was also a highly successful producer, and on occasion, a solo artist. David started his version of YouTube in 1995, called the Slyfi channel, he had artist like Bono from U2 and others convinced they could have their TV show online. Well to say the least the world wasn't ready, is the world ready now?

I think we are ready, with internet media moving to peoples TV's, and with independent distribution media platforms coming into play. We will know longer be preaching to the choir.

Of course social media platforms will play the biggest role in all this, but in my opinion the larger social networks like facebook will only be a starting place for building an audience. A filmmaker just has he does in the real world, is going to go after established markets such as amazon and netflix. Beyond amazon and netflix/Hollywood are the independent film sites, and some of those have their own social network such as a forums, all great outlet for filmmakers to distribute and get the word out, and Film Tiki could be a platform to expedite some of this process for filmmakers, and filmmakers need all the help we can get.

There is a social media platform that I think people, filmmakers, business have yet to fully understand and embrace, and that's Ning.
With over 600,000 growing communities linked to facebook and Youtube. Ning. Communities also are inter linkable in a way that allows you to have a common ning user ID, that you can use to join any other network, and any friends you make, can be invited to your other networks.

In my opinion we will see an explosion of independent online movie sites for filmmakers with lots of options, but the one that will survive and flourish will be the ones that best embrace web 2.0 using all social media tools and platforms, this includes businesses.
The day of the build it and leave websites are coming to an end, filmmakers are going to half to get involved

Social Media use is exploding - in a good way!

I love saying “I told you so”. But then who doesn’t…

Before I start my rant for the day, let me give you a bit of background info: for the last couple of years I have been working as a researcher and consultant on how to use Social Media to promote and distribute products and services, especially films, which is where the idea for developing FilmTiki came from. In my work as a consultant and speaker I often get asked who uses Social Media to find out about products anyway. Who cares about what their online “friends” say? Surely, it must only be teens hanging around myspace in their suburbian bedrooms - that is the most common statement. And these teens only watch “Not another teen movie”, “The Dark Knight”, “Gossip Girl” and the likes.

Well, that is not true. Not true whatsoever. A new report from Forrester Research shows that “usage of social technologies increased markedly in 2008: three in four US online adults now use social tools to connect with each, up from 56% in 2007.” (quoted from ReadWriteWeb)

Apparantly the use of ratings and reviews will continue to grow and become a staple when making purchase decisions (I certainly take user reviews on Amazon.com into account). Also, blogging and tagging remain popular.

Some of the best news for niche content producers (read: independet filmmakers) is that youtube look-alikes for a huge range of niches are popping up almost daily. Sure, not all of them are actually going to survive or be useful, but by utilizing the right mix of huge or at least big streaming platforms (along with proper TAGGING) and niche platforms suitable for ones content, filmmakers can build and reach engaged audiences for their films. And, those audiences will tell their friends about the films they like.

Things are looking up, online. Be sure, I’ll keep telling you. But if you are reading this, I am probably preaching to the choir. So… tell your friends! Especially those who doubt the usefulness of Social Media.

This entry was written by iris, posted on October 23, 2008 at 2:17 pm. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

What does Hulus success mean to filmmakers?

With Hulu's success comes a new model of distribution for big networks and small networks too find success with this ever growing demand for on-demand content.

But what about independent networks, and better yet what about indie filmmakers, is there a way for filmmakers to tap into this new model. We believe we have a solution at Fans Of Film, one of the first online PPV on-demand theaters of it's kind. Filmmakers can set up a profile and sell DVD, downloads, and now Paypal on-demand video, with file sharing so fans can build a library of their favorite indie films. Come visit as we learn ourselves how to make this model work, for filmmakers in a way that empowers with self distribution, and you the filmmaker gets paid first, and makes all the profits.

In just a year, Hulu has morphed into what is arguably the most successful television network--online.

The co-venture of NBC Universal and News Corp.'s Fox already is the sixth-most-viewed online video hub, providing insights into how consumers transfer their television viewing preferences and habits to the Web. Here's what Hulu CEO Jason Kilar told MediaPost about that future.

MediaPost: What important difference is Hulu making to the evolution of online video?

Kilar: One of the most important new notions is that users can transport their favorite content--right down to a specific moment--to their social networking page or blog, or email it to friends and start a conversation around it. That creates newness to what has been a relatively static experience, which is sitting down and watching 22-minute episodes of something. Now, we are seeing so many people watch a two-minute clip of SNL in ways they never watched before.

MediaPost: How will worldwide pickup of the Sarah Palin "Saturday Night Live" clips influence your decision to expand globally?

Kilar: It confirmed what I have always believed: that it is so easy to underestimate consumers' appetite for good content. When you marry good content with innovation that makes it easier to consume, demand grows. The Sarah Palin skits on SNL were really good and timely content. So, that it was being accessed 24/7 and syndicated everywhere on MySpace, Yahoo and so many other places didn't surprise me.

The concept of Hulu is predicated on being a global business. Our mission statement describes us helping people to find and enjoy the world's premium content wherever and however they want. That will be predicated on finding the right partners and having a business model that enables us to create value for advertisers, content partners and our shareholders.

We are able to measure on a daily basis (mostly geo-filtered access logs) what the latent demand might be for content all over the world for a Hulu service overseas. We are obsessed about it. The majority of our team has worked in global positions; I was global when I worked at Amazon.

MediaPost: What have you applied to Hulu that you learned at Amazon?

Kilar: Believe it or not, I'm probably taking even more from the few years I was at Disney's theme park business and my two years at Disney Design Development that included Imagineering. The theme parks have always been a cut above the rest because of the high-quality standards and the attention paid to every last detail. So we have been unusually obsessive about the layout of Hulu. We sweat over every pixel and element of the user experience the same way Disney street sweepers sweat over every square inch in their parks. Our technology is so intuitive--the users don't even notice what we are really aspiring to.

MediaPost: How else will you use technology to take Hulu beyond where it is today?

Kilar: There are a couple of ways technology is being invented and then leveraged to provide a new experience in discovery. Even with more than 100 content partners, technology makes it a delight to browse, search and then discover the content. We are doing a lot of work on applications that will aid users in discovering relevant content they may not know exists once they tell us about their interests.

MediaPost: So it's like hyper-targeting for content?

Kilar: Exactly. We're also leveraging new technology by making sure that the advertising is relevant and solicits a better response. Advertisers will be more than willing to pay dearly for that type of a service. So, having much more relevant and engaging advertising is critical in all of this. We're starting to do this already by allowing users to choose their own ad--to watch a full movie trailer instead of watching traditional commercial spots during or before a program. All of these things serve to put the user in charge and to heighten their level of engagement so that recall and response rates are so much higher. There is already a migration of advertisers who are willing to invest in that kind of high-value video advertising.

MediaPost: When will users be able to search for specific brand or product advertisements?

Kilar: We don't have that today. What you describe is something we could do rather quickly, in a matter of months. The most important element of that whole equation is to assemble a very large library of advertising to utilize. We have been very fortunate to go from 10 charter advertisers to over 100. I would not be surprised if that number in the fullness of time gets to be over 1,000 advertisers. That's when you can have a substantial body of advertisers in any one category for users to choose from if they are interested in a product. So, the thing we have to drive is the volume of advertisers. Relevant adverting is not only a function of the algorithms we can write, but the data set--or library--under it.

MediaPost: Will Hulu eventually provide content downloads instead of losing that business to iTunes and Amazon?

Kilar: That's absolutely fair. I absolutely believe the streaming business is and will be a bigger business than content downloads. The main reason is that it's instantaneous and people are spending more time being connected. The notion of downloading heavy files to a device that takes up a lot of space is something that had value several years ago when we were not connected all the time. So, the bigger opportunity for users is to focus on the streaming part of the business.

MediaPost: What kind of metrics do you see the need to develop for your own space?

Kilar: There are different metrics that would be helpful to an advertiser, content partner or even to a user. The one that is most basic for us is the size of the audience that is watching your content throughout the day--what the trending is. We'd love to know from an advertising perspective not just how many people are watching and where, but also their recall rate and their intent to purchase. Those are the things we are very careful about measuring, and the good thing about the Internet is that you are able to capture these metrics. So, we are able to have very good transparency in real-time. The user data we log gives advertisers a visibility into the business they've never had before.

MediaPost: Will Hulu do for television and video what the iPod did for music?

Kilar: I would regret it if in the fullness of time, Hulu could not be accessed in places it is not available today. The biggest trend in online video is where and on what people will watch. The access point is not long just the PC; appliances like refrigerators are connected to the Internet. When you take away all the barriers to finding content, the best content rises to the top.

MediaPost: How much of Hulu content should continue to be original versus recycled?

Kilar: Because there is so much library content out there, it will remain the biggest bucket of premium content, as well as current content. The area that will grow the fastest is original content, like our Dr. Horrible. The big question is, what will users care about?

MediaPost: How will you continue to differentiate in an increasingly crowded online video space?

Kilar: I am not surprised that so many players are answering the market. At the end of the day, what differentiates Hulu is our culture. And we are nothing if not obsessive about our culture. And one aspect to that culture is our neurotic devotion to quality. That really is what drives the Hulu engine. Tenacity and speed of execution are critical. The fact that we are a start-up is a very big advantage in that we are not dealing with an existing or legacy culture we are trying to refashion. We have a custom-created culture for our mission.

MediaPost: Do you need to attract any more capital investment or take on new equity partners?

Kilar: We're all good in terms of our $100 million-plus investment capital. We're very frugal. That is a very generous amount of money, and we're being very careful with it.

A new Model Of Distribution for filmmakers

By Michael Palombo
filmmakershelp.com helping filmmakers with online distribution

When I find articles like the one at the bottom of this post, I know I'm doing the right thing. My efforts for providing a new model of distribution started about a year ago, when I teamed up with a couple of other like minds in the film industry, thinking along the same lines.

Getting filmmakers to think the same has been a task that has taken all my efforts to keep alive, and connect with the filmmaker without any real connection to the upper crust of the film making world, and even having some connections here in New Mexico, and even speaking in front of a group of filmmakers. The response has been slow for filmmakers to adapt a new model of distribution that would put them first. To any filmmaker reading this, read the full article on Ted Hopes Views on indie filmmaking. And then come back to me for a new model that is going to put filmmakers first.

This morning, Saturday September 27th in Los Angeles, producer Ted Hope gave the keynote speech at Film Independent's Filmmaker Forum "There is no crisis," Hope proclaimed in his opening comments. How can there be a "Death Of Indie" when Indie -- real Indie, True Indie -- has yet to even live?" he asks. Creativity is not a victim of a distribution meltdown. Hope notes that the moment when the constraints of traditional models are changed for the collective good is now. His complete prepared remarks, as delivered to indieWIRE today, are included below.
read more
http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/09/first_person_pr.html

Blogging for filmmakers

By Michael Palombo

I know I’ve posted a few things about blogs, but after using most of them, I’ve settled on blogger for my blog network and here’s why.

It’s easy and it’s a google application, I really don’t need to say anymore.

I will, because a lot of people use google, and have know idea their gmail account is a google app. As is blogger, YouTube, google analytics, google groups, adsense, adwords, igoogle and more.
All these app are part of your google account, as attached app.
Making it easy to manage all from one place.

Back to blogging and blogger” As we all know google goes to great lengths to make app easy to use, I think this is so google doesn’t waste time on stupid questions.

Blogger is not only easy, with it’s free hosting, but it supports “i-frames” and most embeddable video, very important for those in the business of visual arts, and every post gets registered with google automatically. So blog on with blogger a google app

Note: Using blogger like a website.
It's just as easy to to use a main blog as your home page with links to other blogs/page's.

Coming Soon

The KingDomWood Christian Film Festival, concluded on October 12, 2008. As a sponsor of the KingDomWood Christian Film Festival, The Filmmakers Channel Network will provide the winning films with sponsored PPV Movie resources and make them available from "The Filmmakers Channel" and KingDomWood website using Maxcast PPV capability to the benefit of the festival and the filmmakers both. Press Release.

DIY Film/Video Distribution In 1 Day, And Under $50

Four Steps To DIY Distribution For Filmmakers, under $50
By Michael Palombo
Fans Of Film

Step 1: Go to blogger and get a blog to match your URL that your going to purchase from Google
for $10

Step 2: Go to custom blog publishing and follow the easy instructions Google provides, for publishing your own URL to Blogger for free. You can always point your domain to a more advanced website later, and you still have your blog to go with your website. Making the transition easy without effecting your SEO ranks that you've established with your blog

Step 3: Go to Maxcast and get a paypal video player, the best streaming commercial video player available to the public. $9.95 a month for built in Paypal the player is free.
Load your film are send it in for best quality. Then embed video on your blog, with bio and synopsis

Step 4: "Optional" Go get an AWeber, it's free for the first month giving you time to learn how to use it. This tool will give you the ability to build your list of fans, by offering a news letter or something that will encourage them to sign-in. This will give the ability to keep in touch with your fans, so you can tell them about the next movie you have coming.

For more things a filmmaker can do visit Filmmakers Help Forum
And if you just help with any of this go to filmmakershelp.com

Google has launched a new feature for YouTube Insight

Brought to by Fans Of Film
Sponsored by FilmmakersHelp.com
This is great you tube is on to something here, this could give filmmakers the ability to make better trailer

YouTube's 'Hot Spot' Reveals Where Videos Lose Viewers

Google has launched a new feature for YouTube Insight: Hot Spot, which enables clients to play their videos alongside a graph that reflects the "ups-and-downs of viewership at different moments within the video."

"Hot" and "cold" spots in the content are determined by comparing a videos abandonment rate to other videos on YouTube of similar length.

"Users can figure out which scenes in their videos are the 'hottest'" and edit them accordingly, Google wrote. "Partners might similarly create better content — like more exciting promotional trailers — for use on and off YouTube, and advertisers and agencies can study the effectiveness of their creative."

Fans Of Film Blogging And Community IS ‘Real’

By Michael Palombo
Here is a post I can relate to, I've been working hard for almost a year. It's been the hardest work I've ever loved, as I continue commit, to what I believe is a new model of distribution for filmmakers, that puts the filmmakers first. Fred said it best, "blogging is the realest work hes does" I also like to think of it more than just work "It's an investment" investment in a better future for filmmakers. One that says you make all the profits and get paid first, you set the price, you control the ads on your films, and best of all no contract. The opportunity for filmmakers to take control of their destiny, and spread the art in a way thats more profitable for the filmmakers and the fans.
Learn More.
FilmMakers Help.com Empowering filmmakers with self distribution

Blogging And Community IS ‘Real’ Work
Posted November 21st, 2008 by Max
blogging is the "realest" work he does.

He says: "Do You Ever Do Any Real Work? That's a question I used to get all of the time in the early days of this blog. I don't get it so much anymore. Because slowly but surely people are wising up to the fact that blogging is work and it's a very valuable use of my time… the time and energy I've put into this blog for the past five years has built a unique and very sophisticated audience. You are connectors and hubs of influence."

Then he adds: "But in the world of social media, word of mouth and word of link marketing, it is connectors and influencers like all of you that make the difference. And that's one of the main reasons I keep writing, commenting, discussing, and participating in blogs, tumblr, twitter, disqus, and the social media world at large."

I share Fred's sentiments. And as a marketer, I thank him and others for leading with progressive thinking on how businesses and individuals must interact and manage relationships in this age of open connections and online reputation. This is new territory, and he is pioneering by example.

And what about you? Similarly, you, too, are connectors and hubs of influence. Many of you also are my virtual and physical neighbors, friends, colleagues and, often, harsh critics. You share your ideas, build on mine and help shape context in our industry and beyond. You're an important presence in my professional and personal life, which, for better or worse, blurs more everyday. You are why I keep writing, commenting, discussing and participating.

A quick note about Twitter

A quick note about Twitter I seem to be spending all my time there these days. For those of you not aware, Twitter is not just another tool in the internet of social networking, it's really is a small business. You have to run things as such, I've recently realized how much of a benefit Twitter can be.

On the surface, Twitter is an "update" tool used to keep you, your family, friends and colleagues in the loop of each others lives. You can post picture links, articles or gossip you just read, are how much you like this and not that. You can update via the web, a third-party application like TweetDeck, or from your phone (sms or an application like TinyTwitter).

But from a networking standpoint Twitter is a gold mine. If you follow the right people, you not only have the opportunity to talk with people in the same field, you'll find blogs on marketing and the web that you may not otherwise come across. I've bookmarked a dozen articles in the last week alone, that have valuable insight and information on how to market your business in today's market. I've met other filmmakers, and media networks.

I'm excited about the opportunity that Twitter has opened up for me, although I wish the site came with hourly pay

Find me fansoffilm.com or fansoffilm Twitter

Filmmakershelp Press

Dan Latrimurti from TheFilmmakersChannel.net asked Michael Palombo the founder of Filmmakershelp.com to make a statement about his affiliation, and partnership, with thefilmmakerschannel.net
Dan’s passion for what he's doing, as been a joy to work with Michael says, as he too has become tunnel vision in his work with Dan, building a possible viable market place’s for filmmakers.
read more
Press Release: PayPal PPV Distribution As Easy As YouTube

Fans Of Film Injoys Independent film quantum physics

Testimonial

Anthony DellaFlora
Using the same Streaming Video Technology, a website
and a couple of press releases
I got an offer of national distribution for my 10 year old film,
"High Strange New Mexico" in two weeks.
My 10 Year Old Documentary Gets New Life.

Documentary, High Strange New Mexico, $ 5.95
Produced by Anthony DellaFlora and directed by James Lujan. High Strange New Mexico is an exploration of the subculture of UFO believers, contactees, skeptics, cattle mutilation experts, abductees and conspiracy theorists. Winner of the 2008 UFO Congress EBE Award for Best Feature Film - UFO Related Theme. 112 Min, Released 1997