CHICAS PRODUCTIONS: March 2013

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Indie Pics Gaining Spinoff Success...

Filmmakers repurpose projects into multimedia ventures

Gregg Goldstein

In the indie world, it used to be that the most a filmmaker could hope to land from a film festival was an award, an agent or a distributor. But as producers wrap up Sundance deals and head to SXSW, more are finding that their films can be spun off into new multimedia ventures and repurposed for unexpected moneymaking properties.

In recent years, entrepreneurial lensers have transformed seemingly conventional fest fare into a hit cartoon series ("Black Dynamite"), a New York Times bestseller (Sebastian Junger's "War," made alongside his "Restrepo" doc), and even a Tony-winning Broadway musical ("Once").

One top film agent says that in the next year, there will be numerous deals in which such pics are the basis for digital applications and Web series on YouTube, Netflix and other outlets. "You'll see more transmedia storytelling, turning those films into television series, books and social videogames," he says.

Hit studio films have launched such multimedia franchises for decades, but in recent years, even indies that underperform at the box office have shown moneymaking potential in spinoff projects. The 2009 Sundance pickup "Black Dynamite" made only $242,000 in theaters, but an Adult Swim animated series based on the Blaxploitation spoof was just renewed for a second season by the Cartoon Network.

The 2012 Sundance horror anthology "V/H/S" is a film that has used genre economics, emerging platforms and the omnibus structure to self-replicate. The pic earned a paltry $100,000 at the box office, but the Magnolia/Magnet pickup's compressed window VOD take was enough to elicit a seven-figure offer from the studio for its sequel at this year's fest, "V/H/S/2," and inspire a third compilation that producer Gary Binkow hopes to debut in Park City next year.

Moreover, Binkow, a partner in the pic's production company the Collective, says he and fellow producer Brad Miska have bigger plans than just another sequel. They're developing two "V/H/S" segments — David Bruckner's "Amateur Night" and Joe Swanberg's "The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger" — into separate feature-length films.

"From the beginning, Brad and I talked about creating a platform that incubated ideas for features," says Binkow, who plans to bring new filmmakers into the fold when the next anthology begins production this spring.

The producers are also discussing a "V/H/S" TV series and comicbook series. "We have an opportunity to become the first VOD franchise," says Binkow.

Hit docs have spawned profitable reality series, including the MTV version of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's "Catfish" and FX's "30 Days," adapted from Morgan Spurlock's doc "Super Size Me."

And docmakers are also mining unused footage and research material for spinoff projects. Cary McClelland, helmer of Pakistan doc "Without Shepherds," had 900 hours of filmed interviews with some 50 subjects transcribed for translation purposes while making the pic. Since its Slamdance preem, he and his team have been narrowing the text down for a book of production stories and oral histories that goes far beyond what the film can cover, and hope to time the tome's release with the doc's ancillary bow.

Kief Davidson crafted some unused footage from his 40-minute Oscar nominated doc on Rwandan children seeking heart surgery, "Open Heart," into a three-minute short, "Emergency," that preemed at GE and Cinelan's Focus Forward series in Park City this year. Davidson says his shorter short's online exposure added awareness both to the issue and the "Open Heart" theatrical run.

In order to raise funds for a larger project, some filmmakers have taken to serializing portions of their pics: Quentin Dupieux screened a 45-minute section of his crime drama "Wrong Cops" in this year's New Frontiers section, a film shot in standalone chapters as it is being financed, screened and released.

Others are using bringing shorts to fests as a calling card for feature financing. John Cameron Mitchell, who's producing Dash Shaw's upcoming animated feature "Shell Game" with Howard Gertler, recruited Shaw to co-write and direct the Sigur Rós-scored "Seraph." "We took a character [from "Shell Game"] and extrapolated a different story around him," Mitchell says. "It's a free-standing piece, but it's also a demo of the animation style of the feature we're trying to get financed."

Gertler scheduled meetings around its Sundance preem. "It was the first time potential financiers saw Dash's work on a big screen with big sound, and it whet their appetites in the way we'd hoped," he says. The producer also pulled off one of the most lucrative coups for a Sundance film, pacting with ABC to turn David France's Oscar-nommed AIDS doc "How to Survive a Plague" into a narrative miniseries.

But the transmedia trend is not a one-way street. Festival shorts developed online can also deliver a windfall.

"Talent-based digital films can yield millions of dollars in profits," says one agent, citing Lisa Kudrow's Internet-to-Showtime series "Web Therapy." And one of Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner's "Drunk History" clips from the Funny or Die website won Sundance's 2010 short filmmaking jury prize before Comedy Central snapped it up for a half-hour series due this summer.

As more indie filmmakers continue to exploit the crossover potential between old and new media, audiences will follow — on their tablets, cell phones and laptops — and even in theaters.

Thank you Variety

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Cuba Film Censorship Grip Loosens...

A new breed of filmmaker is emerging in Cuba, where travel restrictions to and from the U.S. have eased, allowing digital-savvy helmers — many of them alumni of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez-founded Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV), which has spawned two generations of Latin American and Cuban filmmakers — to aim at a wider audience.

Helmer-scribe Alejandro Brugues' zombie satire "Juan of the Dead" drew thousands of rabid filmgoers at its Havana Film Fest preem in 2011, and has been sold to 40 countries. Now he's prepping his first English-lingo pic, to be shot in Cuba. Tentatively titled "The Wrong Place," the pic tracks a retired thief who has been exiled to the island nation, with his dwindling funds motivating him to pull one more heist.

"Our government didn't notice `Juan' until it became successful, and then they realized they didn't like it," says Brugues, whose satire takes some sharp digs at the current state of affairs in Cuba. "They say censorship has loosened, but that's not entirely true."

National film org Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC) wanted Havana's December Festival of New Latin American Cinema to pull the plug on Carlos Lechuga's feature debut "Melaza" (Molasses) for its political tone, says Brugues, who co-produced the drama. The pic is set against the closure of a sugar mill and the impact the shuttering has on a young couple. ICAIC, the sole distributor of Cuban pics on the communist island nation, has no intentions of releasing the pic, but Lechuga has been fielding offers from various fests, and has taken the film to Rotterdam. Next up is Miami, where it will have its U.S. debut.

Lechuga, who adapted another Havana Fest feature debut, Charlie Medina's black-and-white "Penumbra," based on the allegorical baseball play "Penumbra en el noveno cuarto" by Amado del Pino, is prepping a more mainstream project, "Vampires on Bicycles." "Vampires" is set in the early 1990s, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Cuba's key trade partner and benefactor, plunged it into economic crisis. In Lechuga's pic, the ensuing famine turns people into vampires. One of them converts a Yank Tank — slang for the vintage American cars that pepper Havana's streets — into a taxi, and preys on his passengers.

One sign that the grip of censorship may be loosening somewhat is that helmer Daniel Diaz Torres' wry comedy "La Pelicula de Ana," (pictured) about an actress who pretends to be a prostitute in order to earn extra money, is being released by ICAIC, which backs just four to five nonfiction Cuban pics a year, as well as a handful of co-productions. At the Havana fest, the film took home prizes for screenplay and actress (for Laura de la Uz) and scored a distribution deal with Venezuela's Amazonia Films.

Docus are also making headway in Cuba, but with subject matter seemingly more in line with the national agenda. Last year, says ICAIC senior adviser Luis Notario, the funder invested in 10 docs.

Standouts include Catherine Murphy's short docu "Maestra," a chronicle of Cuba's groundbreaking 1961 literacy program that sent thousands of students and teachers into the countryside to teach peasants to read and write. Murphy, who was given access to ICAIC's national film archives but leaned on private funding, uses archival footage and testimonies of women who participated in the program in their teens to recount the effort, which raised the national literacy rate to 96%. The docu has screened at some 30 film festivals worldwide.

"As a result of making this film, I found out that literacy is the biggest factor that determines the life expectancy of women in the world," Murphy says.

Cuban women are also the focus of docu "The Cuban Wives" by Alberto Antonio Dandolo; the pic features the spouses of five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. over espionage allegations.

Meanwhile, EICTV has grown into a breeding ground not only for Latin American filmmakers but also for film students from around the world, representing some 36 countries. Charging an annual tuition of €5,000 ($6,676), EICTV is arguably the most affordable film school in the world, says its director, Rafael Rosal.

Getting in, however, isn't easy.

"We get 400 to 500 applications a year, of which 40 are accepted," Rosal says. Lechuga, Diaz Torres and Brugues are former students; the latter two now mentors.

Mirtha Ibarra, the grand dame of Cuban cinema ("Strawberry and Chocolate," "Guantanamera," both helmed by her late husband Tomas Gutierrez Alea), is impressed with the nation's fresh crop of talent.

"There's a new generation of filmmakers making interesting films," she says simply.

Thank you Variety

Study: Chinese Censors Police Social Media with Blinding Speed...

A new U.S. study explores the mechanisms used by censors to filter the 70,000 posts that are made each minute on China's wildly popular Sina Weibo service.

While Chinese hackers were topping global headlines for poking around the computer systems of the United States' most valuable tech and media companies -- and movie studios -- a team of American researchers was busy carrying out its own clandestine inquiry into Chinese tech territory.

A new study published on Monday by independent researcher, Tao Zhu, and four U.S. academics details the workings of China's most politically sensitive online activity: social media censorship.

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Analyzing 2.38 million posts on China's most popular social media platform, Sina Weibo -- a service similar to Twitter -- the researches break down the methods used by censors to police the millions of comments made by users on the site every day.
China is known for having the world's most comprehensive and sophisticated Internet censorship system. But what's often left out of the conversation is that it's rarely the government itself doing the censoring when it comes to social media. Rather, the companies offering the services -- Sina, Tencent, NetEase, all of which offer their own `Weibo' or micro-blog platform -- operate aggressive operations of self-censorship as part of a tacit agreement with the government, which essentially says: "we'll let you stay in business, if you make sure your users don't cause us too much trouble." Government censors are presumed to only get involved when they feel the service providers aren't doing a good enough job of scrubbing their portals clean of offending social and political commentary.
The main takeaway from the inquiry is a palpable sense of awe over how fast censors are able to filter the service given the massive volume of postings. With Weibo messages posted at an average rate of 70,000 per minute, the researchers found that "nearly 30 percent of the total deletion events occur within 5-30 minutes, and nearly 90 percent of the deletions happen within the first 24 hours."
STORY: Hollywood Targeted by Chinese Hackers
It goes on: "Considering the big data set that Weibo has to process, the speed -- especially at the 5 to 10 minutes peak -- is fast, especially [since] it cannot be processed in a fully automated way."
With this speed in mind, the researchers speculate that censors likely use automated lists of sensitive keywords and prioritize users who have a history of politically affronting activity. When they discover an offending post, they delete it and quickly chase down all of the retweets -- usually eliminating them all within five minutes.
Only 10 percent of the posts aren't deleted until after 24 hours. Those posts typically contain clever neologisms invented by users to sneak past the censors' automated keyword filtering. For example, last year, many micro-bloggers employed the word "tomato" to refer to disgraced Chinese leader Bo Xilai, because of the similarity of the pronunciation of one element of Chongqing, the city Bo ruled, and the Chinese word for the color red. "Bo" also happens to mean "thin" in Chinese, so some users briefly used the expression "the not thick king" to make reference to the fallen political star.
The researchers say that once Chinese censors discover the widespread use of a new code word, they quickly add it to their automated list and scan and delete all past instances.
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To prevent users from finding sensitive information, they also constantly update a list of key words that are rendered unsearchable on the service.
When a user is highlighted as a repeat offender, their entire account is deleted. The researchers say this happened to 300 of the 3,500 accounts they tracked for the study.
Pity the Chinese tomato farmer attempting his first foray into social media.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Malaysian Police Crack Down on Movie Piracy Site...

A 27-year-old man behind a popular local file-sharing service was arrested for hosting downloads of "Sky Fall," "Life of Pi," "Jack Reacher," "Argo" and more.

Officers from the cyber crime unit of the Royal Malaysian Police arrested a 27-year-old man on Wednesday for hosting links to illegal downloads on the popular local message board and file-sharing site, SYOK.org.
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According to the police, the suspect, who is from the city of Kulim, is believed to be the operator of SYOK.org, which counts registered users in the hundreds of thousands (according to the website's own Facebook page). In order to participate on the forum, users must register a username and password.
PHOTOS: Cut, Censored, Changed: 10 Hollywood Films Tweaked for International Release
Among the downloads the suspect allegedly hosted are recent high-profile Hollywood titles including, Sky Fall, Life of Pi, Jack Reacher, Argo, and more – some of which are still on release in the region.
"This successful action puts other websites on due notice that the authorities will take every measure to investigate and prosecute those involved with the illegal uploading and sharing of films and television shows," said Norman Abdul Halim, honorary secretary of the Malaysian Film Producers' Association, after the arrest. "I know that many colleagues throughout the screen community will be pleased with this outcome, as it represents an important step to further protecting their creative work from being shared online without their permission."
If convicted, the suspect faces fines of $650 to $6,500 for each illegal copy he uploaded, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years -- or both.
In May 2012, Malaysia was removed from the U.S. government's "priority" watch list of countries committing egregious violations of intellectual property rights. Mayalsia is now on the government's so-called "lower level" watch list, which comprises country's that could be included among those considered to have a clean record, should they make further efforts in preventing copyright violations and intellectual property theft.
STORY: Hollywood Targeted by Chinese Hackers
"Rogue websites present a major threat to the ability of filmmakers to conduct a sustainable film business, employ people in production, distribution and exhibition, and deliver quality films and television shows to audiences," said Mike Ellis, president of the Motion Picture Association in Asia-Pacific. "This action by the Royal Malaysian Police sends a clear message to operators of such websites and we look forward to working with them to crackdown on more such cases."
The Malaysia arrest comes after a similar crackdown in Japan on Sunday, where officers from the Saitama Prefecture police department's cyber crime division arrested a 45-year-old man in Tokyo for uploading copyrighted movies to video hosting website FC2 Video.
FC2 Video ranks behind just Yahoo Japan and Google in the rankings of Japan's most popular websites, according to Alexa, an Internet analytics company that provides commercial web traffic data (Alexa calculates popularity by combining the number of unique daily visitors with page views over the preceding three months). FC2 Video is also the 37th most popular website in the world, by Alexa's rankings.

GUEST COLUMN: Warning to Hollywood: Chinese Hackers Want Your Secrets
According to Tokyo police, the suspect uploaded several feature-length movies, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Descendants. Police say he has admitted to the charges and faces up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $109,000 (10 million yen) under Japan's Copyright Act.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Hollywood market research evolves to reflect tech-savvy moviegoers...

In an age when the text and the tweet can destroy a movie an hour after it opens, Hollywood market research firms are scrambling to rethink the way they help movie studios promote their films.

That has created new challenges for companies such as Capstone Global Marketing and Research Inc. in Sherman Oaks, which must adapt their testing methods to the changing habits of the tech-savvy moviegoer.

"None of us knows the answers," said veteran marketing strategist and researcher Catherine Paura, Capstone's co-founder. "And when you think about the rapidity of technical change between 1990 and now, who knows what is going to happen in the next 30 years?"

Paura, 62, and her late business partner, Joe Farrell, founded Hollywood powerhouse National Research Group 35 years ago. Paura and Farrell, who died in 2011, sold the firm in 1987 but ran it until 2003.

Such market research companies typically used phone calls, door-to-door surveys and post-screening evaluation cards to help movie studios determine how to tweak their movies and promotional materials to ensure the best possible box-office results.

But in the decade since Paura left NRG, Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone have rapidly changed the way consumers communicate, making word-of-mouth a key factor in determining weekend box-office sales and diminishing the value of traditional research techniques.

"It's a moving target," agreed former Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, who knows Paura's work well. He calls the business of movie research "compelling and crazy."

Paura and her sister, Angela, launched Capstone a year ago to provide worldwide market analysis to such clients as Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, DreamWorks Studios and Relativity Media.

Capstone's surveys are partly designed to examine alternate entertainment choices, including video games and online streaming, Paura said. Questions no longer ask simply whether a person will see a movie, she said, but what actor makes them less likely to buy a ticket or how the previews make them feel.

Among Capstone's initiatives is a market research study called "Moviegoers in Theaters."

Last fall, Capstone sent researchers into eight cinemas across the country to talk directly to filmgoers, something that's almost never done. Pollsters asked more than 10,000 audience members a few demographic questions, then asked them to complete an in-depth online survey.

More than 1,200 people responded — a larger sample size than most market researchers typically use.

The age makeup of those surveyed skewed older than it would have 20 or 30 years ago, Paura said. Industry surveys increasingly focus on the oldest quadrant of moviegoers.

Baby boomers are still going to the movies, shifting what for decades has been a youth-dominated business. When NRG started, the company didn't sample moviegoers older than 49. Now, research includes up to those in their mid-60s.

"You can have a big hit and not find one teenager in the audience," Paura said. "That didn't used to be the case." Old and young audiences now go to the movies with roughly the same frequency. Baby boomers, she said, never got out of the habit of going to the movies.

Studios are working harder to create movies that appeal to everyone. For the films that don't, they believe it's best to aim campaigns at specific age groups.

DreamWorks Chief Executive Stacey Snider has begun looking at data that create hypothetical profiles for a targeted audience member, including education, income levels and where someone shops.

"A movie today has to matter to somebody," said Snider, who has worked with Paura for nearly 20 years.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

Five Studios Sign on for Satellite Movie Delivery...

DCDC's digital cinema distribution platform could begin rollout by midsummer.

Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition has reached agreements with Lionsgate, Universal, Disney, Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures to provide each with theatrical digital-delivery services across North America.

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DCDC -- formed by AMC Theatres, Regal Entertainment Group, Cinemark Theatres, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. -- has created a satellite and terrestrial digital-distribution network capable of delivering feature, promotional, preshow and live digital-cinema content to theaters.
The studio agreements mark another step toward realizing the promise of digital cinema, including the belief that when d-cinema reached critical mass it could significantly reduce the cost of distribution, which at the start of the transition involved shipping film prints and today often has involved shipping hard drives.

"Our goal is to drive the cost of distribution as low as we can get it," DCDC spokesman Randolph Blotky tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We'd like to drive it to zero over the course of time."
Blotky expects the DCDC service to begin operation "when we have about 300 sites deployed, which should be midsummer." This involves installations of a theater appliance from supplier KenCast. Deluxe/EchoStar will provide satellite operations. Said Cinemark president and CEO Tim Warner, "It's one-port access to thousands of screens, for both movies and alternative content, from all content providers."

Said Darcy Antonellis, president of technical operations and CTO at Warner Bros. Entertainment, "The vision of creating a cross-industry distribution service to benefit distributors, exhibitors, service providers and consumers is becoming a reality,"

Added Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution at Warners: "The service ensures that audiences have the most high-quality entertainment experience while exhibitors and content providers achieve a strategic, secure and cost-effective new business model."

The majority of the domestic theatrical market is now digital. Some insiders predict that this could be the last year that film prints are distributed to North American theaters.'

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

BRIEF VENEZUELAN STORY

For those who want to know a little more about VENEZUELA, here's a little animation we made, ENJOY ...

ASCAP gets cable TV boost...

While overall payments and revenues at ASCAP remained relatively flat, the performance rights group logged substantial increases in revenue from cable TV, according to unaudited 2012 financial figures the org presented on Monday.

In total, ASCAP managed to distribute more royalties to songwriters, publishers and copyright holders than last year, despite accruing less in total revenue: Annual revenue of $941 million represented a 4.5% decline from 2011, while total royalty payments accounted for $827 million, a slight gain of about $3 million from 2011.

Owing to a growth in cable TV and a number of license agreements with cablers, ASCAP's revenue from cable television increased 20% over last year, representing $204 million in income. In contrast, revenue from network television was down slightly, at $104 million.

ASCAP acknowledged the impact of a DMX rate court settlement upon its decreased revenues. It credited itself, however, with reducing operating expense, which fell to 11.3% from 12% last year.
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ASCAP's president and chairman Paul Williams pointed toward the org's advocacy efforts in a statement, saying, "We are navigating in a complex, rapidly changing environment in which huge, cash-rich technology companies are developing business models that fly fast and free with our copyrights. Only a thriving community of songwriters and composers — who can make a decent living from their work — can ensure a vibrant music ecosystem going forward."

Thank you Variety

France Examines Even Tougher Anti-Piracy Laws...

Regulatory body issues first report aimed at curbing the streaming and downloading of copyrighted content.

PARIS: Already home to some of the strictest anti-piracy laws for users, France's Internet Authority (HADOPI) has issued a new report examining ways to curb usage of streaming and direct download sites.

Internet Providers Launch Copyright Alert System
Looking to stop piracy at the source, the report suggests a combination of techniques including site blocking or domain seizures if operators do not comply.
The authority suggests the implementation of content recognition by site owners, including digital fingerprinting technology. These systems could be used to remove content upon the request of copyright holders, similar to YouTube or DailyMotion, or restrict user access based on location.
If site operators are unwilling to add these mechanisms or if illegal content reappears on the site, the report suggests initial steps such as search engine de-listings. If sites fail to comply with the warnings, HADOPI suggests it could also resort to involving the the courts in order to seize or permanently block the domains.
The agency would also seek to target the finances of any sites subject to the copyright alerts, taking steps to block PayPal accounts, the use of credit cards and third party advertising. Again looking to the courts, HADOPI suggests that if financial partners refused to cooperate, it would seek legal action.
Since 2010, the country has had a "three-strikes" warning system to combat torrenting, but while HADOPI has seen "a clear downtrend in illegal P2P" usage, the new report focuses on streaming and direct downloading sites (DDL) which the agency sees as sites that are "specialized in the massive exploitation of illegal content."
The current system sends a series of warnings to users before alerting the authorities. By the end of 2012, 3 million IP addresses had been issued a first warning, but only 14 were referred to French prosecutors after a `third strike.' In September 2012, the first case was sent to court with the account owner found guilty for his wife's downloading of Rihanna songs and ultimately receiving a fine of $196 (€150), though the court decided against terminating the account.
ISPs in the U.S. have just followed suit with the Copyright Alert System (CAS), a similar "six-strikes" warning system, that was launched earlier this week.
The HADOPI report will be reviewed further before the agency decides on any action.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Film London Creates Department for Artists Looking to Make Movies...

The U.K. government-backed agency appoints current production and talent development tsar Maggie Ellis to run the newly formed unit.

LONDON – Film London, the British capital's movie agency familiar to Hollywood's location decision makers, is setting up a dedicated department for artists looking to make movies.

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The U.K. government-backed agency has tasked current head of production and talent development Maggie Ellis with the job of overseeing the newly created department.
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Ellis is named head of Artists' Moving Image and will aim to build on the growth in artists turning to film.
Funded by Arts Council England (ACE), Film London launched its Artists' Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) in 2005 to provide British capital-based artists working in the moving image access to funding, guidance, development opportunities and promotional and exhibition platforms.
The present set up runs the successful Film London Jarman Award, an annual prize which awards $16,000 (£10,000) and a broadcast commission alongside FLAMIN Productions, the commissioning fund behind the multi award-winning Two Years At Sea directed by Ben Rivers and West Hinder by Elizabeth Price, who won last year's Turner Prize, the U.K.'s highest profile art nod.
Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said: "Over the past seven years we have seen extraordinary growth and development in this sector. This is of course down to the talent of the artists and the work, but in part it is also a result of the work of FLAMIN, which has been integral in supporting and nurturing many of those individuals in this area of work. Maggie has been a guiding force in that work and her appointment as Head of Artists' Moving Image will ensure she is in a position to drive it further."
Ellis said: "When we started this work at Film London we were one of very few voices championing artists' moving image practice. Artists' films are now being released theatrically in cinemas as well as being screened in galleries and across other platforms, commanding large audiences. This work is gaining in profile and momentum – a fact demonstrated last year when three of the four artists nominated for the Turner Prize were moving image artists. We have seen an exciting blurring of boundaries over the past few years, due in no small part to Film London's and ACE's commitment to artist film-makers."
Film London will appoint a new head of talent development and production in the coming months with Ellis continuing to oversee all of the agency's production activity including Film London Microwave and its shorts and training programs.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

NAB 2013: Deluxe to Showcase Cloud-Based Playout Platform...

MediaCloud service is developed for broadcasters and content owners.

Deluxe will feature its new cloud-based playout platform at the upcoming NAB Show, April 6-11 in Las Vegas.

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For the past year the MediaCloud service has been quietly tested by several broadcasters, reported Maurizio Cimelli, managing director of MediaCloud. It includes tools to enable versioning for new media platforms and distribution over IP to transmission headends.
While core customers would be broadcasters, it could also be used by content owners, Cimelli said, noting that the platform includes select tools for video content creation, management and online delivery, as well as additional Deluxe Media services such as archiving.
Developed over the course of two years for an undisclosed sum, Deluxe MediaCloud supports full HD image quality and operates on a private cloud.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Hollywood executives predict technology-fueled changes..

Grainge has devoted his career to the business, having worked with and signed a multitude of songwriters and artists, including U2, Elton John, ABBA, Eurythmics, Metallica and Amy Winehouse. These days he's been focusing on building digital distribution models and technology partnerships around the world (and serves as a United Kingdom trade ambassador).

Some of that Grainge gravitas was on display at this week's Innovation Forum, a two-day event in Los Angeles that attracted prominent players from media, technology and venture capital -- and a surprise remote appearance by British Prime Minister David Cameron from 10 Downing Street (who put in a plug for British film and TV production).

One session featuring some of the biggest names in Hollywood -- Grainge, Sony Corp. of America Chief Executive Michael Lynton, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment co-CEO Ari Emanuel, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and FX Network President John Landgraf -- produced some surprising insights about the intersection of technology and entertainment.

Katzenberg predicted that a decade from now, Hollywood films will be ubiquitously available a short time after their theatrical debuts. The price people pay to watch a movie might well be dictated by screen size -- in his words, "based on the square inch," almost like commercial real estate.

Moviegoers who want a high-quality theatrical experience -- one that could include drinks and a meal, and the best possible projection -- could well pay $35 to $45, Katzenberg said. Those who prefer to watch on a smartphone might pay less than $1.

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"Pricing has been screwed up through our industry for a long time," Emanuel said. "We'll get to the right pricing."

The idea of price based on screen, while on its face radical, is not that big a departure from Hollywood's current release strategy, known as "windowing." These days, the price a consumer pays is based on the amount of time that has passed since a movie screened in theaters (the longer the wait, the cheaper a film becomes).

Lynton said technology is driving an even more fundamental transformation in Hollywood. People are getting away from the idea of ownership, he said, and increasingly paying for access to content. (Think Netflix, whose U.S. users pay an $8 monthly subscription fee and gain immediate, unlimited online access to its catalog of movies and TV shows instead of buying DVDs.)

"That's going to change everything we do, in terms of film and content," Lynton said. "People are breaking that emotional hold of 'I have to own it if I'm consuming it.' Once that shifts, a lot goes with it."

FX's Landgraf -- who has helped shepherd the cable network's edgy scripted dramas like "Sons of Anarchy" and dark comedies like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Louie" -- predicted a revolution in TV advertising.

"I'd say pricing is broken in advertising," Landgraf said. "Not only do you have to watch 20 minutes of advertising, it's incredibly irrelevant to you."

In the future, Landgraf said, technology will enable advertisers to more precisely target TV audiences through "addressable advertising."

"We're going to be able to reduce the amount of advertising you watch by 50%," Landgraf said. But "everything you are watching is going to be relevant to you. If you don't have a dog, you don't see an ad for dog food."

Thank you Los Angeles Times

Foreign TV Shoots Boost Ontario’s Economy...

Features drop but network series rep $943 million in local spending
Jennie Punter

TORONTO — Ontario's film and TV industry contributed C$1.28 billion ($1.25 billion) to the provincial economy last year, up slightly from $1.26 billion in 2011, the Ontario Media Development Corporation said Friday.

Despite a dip in both foreign and domestic feature film spending, growth in the TV sector more than made up the difference, with domestic and foreign series representing 76% ($943 million) of Ontario's 2012 total.

The most notable trend was the uptick in foreign, primarily U.S., series — an almost 80% increase from $146 million in 2011 to $263 million in 2012. NBCUniversal's "Hannibal," pictured above with star Mads Mikkelsen, and "Defiance" and Netflix' "Hemlock Grove" were among 18 foreign skeins shot in Ontario last year.

In Toronto, the province's production hub, local industryites have noted a higher level of client retention the past two years, reversing the previous trend of series shooting one season in town then moving to a different jurisdiction.

"These 2012 production levels are a testament to the heavy lifting that we and other stakeholders have committed to in order to create a positive and productive environment for film and television in Ontario," said Jim Mirkopoulos, vice president of operations at Cinespace studios, where the fifth season of NBCUniversal skein "Warehouse 13" and Paul W.S. Anderson's sword-and-sandal pic "Pompeii" will lense this year.

"Lost Girl," "Rookie Blue" and "Beauty and the Beast" were among 140 Canadian series that spent $679 million in Ontario in 2012, an increase from 2011's $609 million total.

Foreign feature spending fell to $103.5 million from 2011's record-busting $266 million; that total included Sony's "Total Recall" and Legendary Pictures' "Pacific Rim," two of the biggest foreign features ever shot in Ontario. Both lensed at Pinewood Toronto Studios.

Domestic features spent $120 million in 2012, a drop from 2011's $161 million on the back of more production — 39 vs. the previous year's 28 — but budgets were lower.

As of Feb. 22, Ontario had 21 productions shooting or in prep, including season two of BBC America's "Copper" and Malcolm Lee's "Best Man II" (Universal).

Thank you Variety

VES Calls for California to Expand Incentives...

Society also wants a vfx congress for artists worldwide

The Visual Effects Society, prodded to action by recent protests and anger among vfx pros worldwide, has issued a statement with two calls to action for the visual effects industry.

The first calls on the California legisltature and Gov. Jerry Brown to "immediately expand its tax incentive program for the entertainment industry and to include a focused approach concentrated on the visual effects and post-production sectors of the industry."

That aligns the VES with the California portion of the vfx industry, which has complained subisides in other states and countries put it at a fatal disadvantage. However taking such a stand risks alienating much of its membership, which works in those other states and countries. Many of the protesters at Sunday's pre-Oscars visual effects street demonstration complained about foreign subsidies.

"We know that there are some out there who are calling for the elimination of all subsidies and tax incentives everywhere around the world," said the VES statement. "We think that's a great idea and if there were a magic button that could be pressed to make that a reality, we would press it in a nanosecond. Why? Because California can compete with anyone, anywhere if there's a level playing field."

The second VES call to action is the announcement of a visual effects congress to allow "all artists from around the world" to share their concerns and find common ground.

Following Sunday's street prostest planning continues for more action to raise awareness of the problems facing the vfx industry and its artists. Protest organizers are calling for a "Pi day" walkout on March 14 (3.14), in which vfx artists worldwide would not report to work. Efforts by IATSE to organize vfx artists are also expected to pick up.

However the Sunday protest included several distinct factions. Pro-union, anti-subsidy, and general pro-fairness demonstrators walked side by side. VES chair Jeffrey Okun posted a statement following the protest saying that while change is needed and he supported the protesters, "We need a clearer sense of strategic thinking about what we should be asking for with the support of the entire VFX community. I felt that to organize a formal protest without well defined goals was not the best way to capitalize on the anger in our community (although I was heartened to hear that hundreds of artists from our community took part)."

Thank you Variety

Chinese government launches screenwriting contest for U.S. writers...

In the latest effort by China to expand its cultural influence and build stronger ties to Hollywood, government officials in Beijing are looking for U.S.-based screenwriters to help tell their stories.

The Cultural Assets Office of the Beijing Municipal Government on Monday will announce the 2013 Beijing International Screenwriting Competition, which organizers called a "groundbreaking initiative" to foster artistic collaboration and an ongoing creative dialogue between China and the U.S.
Open to U.S.-based contestants of all nationalities, the competition will consider screenplays for feature films and short films centered on Beijing and its culture. Finalists will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Beijing in June to meet with potential investors in their movies. Winners will receive cash prizes totaling more than $100,000.

"This Competition is one of the first established routes for U.S. filmmakers to obtain direct access to the Chinese market," said Competition Chairman Kevin Niu. "It will serve as a model for future cultural collaboration between the U.S. and China — one that bridges the gap between our two cultures."

The endeavor underscores the expanding relationship between China and Hollywood. Several Hollywood studios are building operations in China, which took steps last year to ease restrictions on the number of foreign movies it allows into the country. China also is rapidly expanding its own theater industry to cater to an expanding middle class, and its media companies are heavily investing in the U.S. Dalian Wanda Group last year spent $2.6 billion to acquire AMC Entertainment.

Honorary competition presidents will include Vice-Mayor of Beijing Wei Lu and two-time Academy Award-winning director Mark Harris. Harris and Tracey Trench, producer of "The Pink Panther" and "Ever After," will serve as the competition's grand judges.

Proposals for the first round of the feature film competition are due April 7, and short-film screenplays are due April 20. Up to seven short film grand prize winners will receive financing for the production of their films.
The competition is sponsored by the state-owned Beijing International Creative Industry Corporation. Other partners include LeTV, China's biggest online video content distributor for TV dramas and movies, and Harvardwood, a nonprofit organization for Harvard University alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends working or strongly interested in the arts, media, and entertainment.

Thank you Los Angeles Times

Women in Film Accepting Applications for Film Finishing Fund Grants...

The 28-year-old program has awarded more than $2 million worth of grants to more than 170 movies in its history.

The Women in Film Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2013 Film Finishing Fund grants, the fund's co-chairs Betsy Pollock and Nancy Rae Stone said Tuesday. The deadline is April 29, and the winners will be announced in October.

Since its inception 28 years ago, the fund has awarded more than $2 million worth of grants to more than 170 films from all over the world.

Women in Film will grant each winning project up to $15,000 in cash, in-kind and consultation grants. To qualify for entry, submitted projects must be by, for or about women. Filmmakers must have completed at least 90 percent of principal photography and have a rough cut at the time of application.

The program funds both short and long formats in all genres: narrative, documentary, educational, animated and experimental. Entrants do not have to be Women in Film members to apply for a grant, and WIF encourages international applications. Detailed criteria for each category and a download of the application can be obtained at www.wif.org [4].

In celebration of the fund's 28th year, and for each of the eight weeks of the grant cycle

Thank you Hollywood Reporter