SF360.org Pic from The Conversation

Anna-Mae Chin from the San Francisco Film Society was one of the people who helped us get the word out about The Conversation.... and she just posted this snapshot of me, Lance Weiler, and Tiffany Shlain.

Thanks, Anna-Mae!

LECTURE: Redefining Digital Content Distribution

A lot of people missed my lecture on Saturday about license-based digital content distribution, so Scott suggested I post a link to it here. Please read it at your convenience and let me hear your thoughts:

Redefining Digital Content Distribution, or Why Apple is About To Get Its Ass Kicked

You can email me directly or through Facebook.

Notes from The Conversation on CinemaTech

I posted some not-very-copious notes from the event on CinemaTech...mostly quotes, data points, and predictions that struck me as so good I couldn't not write them down. But it's far from a comprehensive run-down of everything smart that got said...

Tiffany Shlain at The Conversation. Clip 1

Here is the first of a series of clips from an interview I did with Tiffany Shlain. In it, I ask her about the biggest challenges facing independent filmmakers today.

Larry Jordan
HDFilmtools.com

Videocast from The Conversation

Lance Weiler, one of the co-hosts of the event, broadcast much of it live from his Nokia cell phone, via Kyte. You can see that footage archived here...

Blog Coverage

Dutch Rall posted some thoughts on the event.

Roger Erik Tinch of CineVegas had some notes on the opening session with John Batter and the session on 'New Forms of Storytelling.'

Larry Jordan blogged a bit of Friday's proceedings.

Pics from The Conversation

JD Lasica has posted a great set of photos from the event, featuring the JibJab Brothers, Reed Hastings (that's him at right), Tiffany Shlain, Slava Rubin, Chris Thilk, and a number of other participants.

JD's blog, which focuses on social media, is here.

What Independent Movies Need to Learn from Graphic Novels

Christopher Allen of Skotos (an interactive storytelling/gaming studio) gave a great 10-minute talk yesterday in the "Open Ideas Forum" session... and he has posted the slides on SlideShare.

One interesting idea was that filmmakers should be making comic books and graphic novels related to their movies -- either to sell or for promotional/marketing purposes.

What Independent Movies Need To Learn From Graphic Novels

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: novels graphic)

Woody Benson Video Interview

Chris Albrecht from NewTeeVee was at the event, and he posted this video interview with Woody Benson, one of The Conversation's advisors (and a panelist on the 'New Rules of Finance and Funding' panel on Friday.)

Just click Woody's nose to play it...

Shameless plug

Great to meet everyone, and have some great conversations this weekend. I can't help but use this opportunity for a shameless plug for a talented kid... check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjj0G0EKEHk

Open Forum Sessions

We just added all the Open Forum Sessions to the schedule... check them out here.

Tweets and Flickr Pics from The Conversation

Interesting way to track the tweets and Flickr photos from The Conversation, posted by people like Bill Holsinger-Robinson from Spout, Ingrid Kopp from Shooting People, Christopher Allen, and Roger Erik Tinch from CineVegas.

Some polls for Saturday

Here are links to some of the polls we'll be using on Saturday... you can vote on the Web (as well as via cell phone).

- How I'm Feeling About the Future

- Questions for Dean Valentine and Ted Hope

- What Kinds of Games Do You Play?

Photos from TheConvo 2008

All of the photos taken by Christopher Allen at the conference are uploaded automatically by EyeFi from his digital camera directly to Flickr. Once approved they are all placed in the theconvo 2008 set

Event Schedule for Mobile Phone Viewing

We just posted a schedule that's suitable for viewing on mobile phones with Web access...

It's at http://www.tinyurl.com/theconvo.

Questions?

If you have questions about the event, please post them below as a comment... we'll answer as quickly as possible. (Click "E-mail follow-up comments..." if you'd like to be notified when we reply.)

Recapping DIY Days, Future of Digital Distribution, and Looking Ahead to The Conversation

Lance Weiler and I had a chat earlier this week in which we recapped the DIY Days Boston event, talked about the two "Future of Digital Distribution" events organized in LA and SF by ITVS and the Paley Center for Media, and looked ahead to The Conversation, on October 17th and 18th.

Here's the MP3.

From SF360: Let's Talk About the Future of Cinema

Wrote a short piece this week for the blog SF360, published by the San Francisco Film Society (which has been a huge supporter of The Conversation).

Here's the opening:

Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope did it. So did talkies, Technicolor, and television. In the 1970s and 1980s, home video did it again.
When new technologies arrive, they usher in creative and business opportunities that never existed before (though some people choose to ignore them.)

When the very first Kinetoscope parlor opened in Manhattan in 1894, showing short films for 25 cents admission, or when the Warner brothers finally made synchronized sound work in 1927, it created phenomenal new possibilities for artists and entrepreneurs. When television and home video arrived later in the 20th century, some people saw them as a threat to the cinema—while others seized the chance to tell different stories, work on different budgets and deadlines, and, not insignificantly, make money in new ways.

Technological shifts like these also open a door for new people with new ideas who might not have previously found their way into the industry.

We’re at one of those transitional moments right now.

What Are We Gonna Talk About?

Tiffany and I sat down in San Francisco yesterday to talk about our hopes and expectations for The Conversation. This is as much for participants as it is for folks who are thinking about coming.

MP3 file is here.

Ted Hope Will Join The Conversation

Legendary indie film producer Ted Hope is going to join us on Saturday morning as part of our opening "fireside chat." I'm looking forward to that...

Worth reading before you hear Ted speak is this transcript of a talk he gave last month at Film Independent's Filmmaker Forum in Los Angeles.

A snippet:

When someone says "Indie is dead," they are talking about the state of the 'Indie Film Business,' as opposed to what are actually the films themselves. They can say "The sky is falling" because for the last fifteen years, the existing power base in the film industry has focused on films fit for the exisiting business model, as opposed to ever truly concentrating on creating a business model for the films that filmmakers want to make.



This is where we are right now: on the verge of a TRULY FREE FILM CULTURE, one that is driven by both the creators and the audiences, pulled down by the audience and not pushed onto them by those that control the apparatus and the supply. We now have the power and the tool for something different, but will we fight to preserve the Internet, the tool that offers us our new freedom? Can we banish the the dream of golden distribution deals, and move away from asking others to distribute and market it for us? Can we accept that being a filmmaker means taking responsibility for your films, the primary responsibility, all the way through the process? That is independence and that is freedom.

Tiffany Previews the Event

Tiffany Shlain talks about The Conversation in a podcast with Matthew Jeppsen, editor of FreshDV.

Beet.TV Interviews Scott About The Conversation

I happened to bump into Andy Plesser, the host of the videoblog Beet.tv this week at MIT. What'd we talk about? What else: The Conversation.