Mockumentary about History of Evil

A mockumentary about the “History of Evil”– what a wicked idea! I can hardly believe this is a student project.

Link via Boing Boing

From Freakomics to Freeconomics

Does the rise of “Freeconomics” freak you out?

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

Technorati Tags: Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine, business model, future of media, new media

Short Shorts For Sale Online — 2 bucks each

The online demand for short films has been growing and growing.

While indie features continue to struggle to find distribution, short film makers have a better chance of making some cash by putting their films on sale via iTunes, Xbox, and Netflix.

A recent entry at the Circuit Blog at Variety.com notes the irony of the situation — short filmmakers at Sundance 2008 may do better financially than their feature film counterparts.

The Circuit – Blog on Variety.com – 1390000339

The key reason for this: bandwidth. Greater bandwidth and faster internet access has turned the Web into a viable distribution system for short films.

Films in the “under 10 minute” category also play well to the internet audience, notorious for having the attention span of a flea.

In response, a slew of online film festivals have sprung up, trying to capitalize on the opportunity of Internet distribution:

• Babelgum Online Film Festival — This short film festival, championed by Spike Lee, has received considerable media attention.

Selected works will also be aired on a internet TV channel called the Babelgum Channel

• Pangea Day Festival

Do you have a short film that stands for social change? Pangea Day Festival is the place for you.
It is backed by Participant Productions, the same people behind the films, An Inconvenient Truth and
Syriana

Closer to home, specialized short film distributors such as, Objectifs Films, have carved a niche by bringing Asian short films to a global audience.

In the age of viral video and online short film festivals, film makers have to be ever more succinct.

If you have a film that will change the world, make sure it is under 5 minutes.

Technorati Tags: movie marketing, online distribution, video distribution, Sundance Film Festival, online film festival, Babelgum Online Film Festival, Pangea day Festival, Participant Productions

An Ode to the Proper Use of the Semicolon

I don’t know about you but I cannot recall the last time I have used a semicolon in my writing.

If and when I did use that venerable but often abused punctuation mark, I am convinced I must have employed it inappropriately.

I am grateful therefore for this timely article in the New York Times.

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location – New York Times

In the age of short text messages and punchy micro-blog entries, the semicolon seems to be in danger of extinction.

The diminishing use of that punctuation mark,which, links yet separates closely related ideas may well signify larger changes in our culture. Addicted to speed, we constantly accelerate and have little patience to pause to contemplate. We eschew the complexity of multi-part arguments in favor of the instant gratification of simplistic sound bytes.

Kudos once again to the NYT. Few other papers can do what it has done with this essay:make its reader reflect upon the social and cultural milieu in which proper language use finds its true significance.

I especially love this quote by Kurt Vonnegut in the article: “When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life. Old age is more like a semicolon.”

Oscar Nominations and The Alchemy of Resonance

The best films often don’t win the biggest awards.

This is the conclusion that I have come to after observing film competitions and award ceremonies on the sidelines.

I have seen very average films make it to the top film festivals in the world. On the other hand, highly nuanced and well produced pieces have been left out on the cold, hard pavement of rejection.

The key to this puzzle lies in that intangible and elusive variable we sometimes call “resonance”

Oscar-nominated documentaries send message of hope – Yahoo! News

News about this year’s Oscar nominations seem to confirm this educated guess. 4 out of 15 films that made it to the shortlist for documentary features deal with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of these, 3 out of the 4 war films, No End in Sight, Taxi to the Dark Side,Operation Homecoming, scored Oscar nominations.

We all know that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are millstones tied to the neck of the American conscience. So documentary film making,too,becomes a means of exorcising the ghosts of blood, violence and the tears of innocent victims. The war theme resonates with the American zeitgeist.

In other words, if you are making a personal film about a little known cause in an obscure place with a polysyllabic name that defies pronunciation, your chances of clinching an Oscar nomination and winning a big award are close to zero. No matter how well-made your film may be.

This is because your film will not find resonance with your intended audience. The jury panel and the film festival goers may be frustrated because they search, could not find, those reflections of their greatest sorrows and deepest anxieties in your work of art.

In that sense, the ability to read the times and have your finger on the pulse of your audience is just as important as the technical skills involved in crafting a good film.

Having said that, it is perhaps wise to go ahead and make that obscure little film anyway.

The making of the film that is after your heart is reward in itself, even without the coveted laurels of nominations and awards.
Technorati Tags: Oscar nominations, Oscar-nominated documentaries, documentary film making, movie marketing, film festivals

All the Great Films I Did NOT See at the Berlin Film Festival

One strange thing about attending one of the top film festivals in the world: I hardly saw any films.

Over the course of 1 week, I saw a grand total of 3 films. I quickly learned that I was not alone in being an anti-film buff at the Berlinale.

The modern film festival is no longer simply an event for movie lovers. The Berlinale film screenings are but one component of a whole array of parallel events, including the European Film Market, the Berlinale Talent Campus and Berlinale Co-production Market. Each event is a mini ecosystem in itself with its entourage of attendees, patrons and micro-celebrities.

Lost in the labyrinth of events, parties and dinners, I saw many great movie posters at the Berlinale but very few films.

One of the films I missed is the Italian movie, Caos Calmo, directed by Antonello Grimaldi. I saw the Caos Calmo poster everywhere I went but did not catch the film.

Ironically, I came home to Singapore and discovered on the Internet how Caos Calmo has found resonance with the Italian zeitgeist with its quiet desperation and existential angst.

What on earth would we do without the World Wide Web?

Technorati Tags: Berlin Film Festival, film making, movie marketing, Caos Calmo, Antonello Grimaldi, movie posters, European Film Market, Berlinale Talent Campus

How to be Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich

I have always been suspicious of self-help literature. Think about it, if all these self-help books really worked, would our bookstores still be inundated by fresh titles offering stale advice?

Nonetheless, I found this talk about the 8 secrets of Success by marketer and success analyst,Richard St. John , clever, succinct and entertaining.

TED | Talks | Richard St. John: Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes (video)

Boomtown Beijing interview on “35 mm” Film Magazine Radio Show

Being at the Berlin Film Festival helps me appreciate the difference that a film-literate audience can make to the film making experience

Here is a city where people have attended the festival year after year and over time they have developed the ability to articulate their analyses and insights about film.

Even films from little known places have sold out screenings. The premiere of Invisible City, a Singapore documentary about history and memories, for instance, was packed to the overflowing, with some people sitting along the aisle. From what I hear, other Asian films at the festival are doing equally well.

I have had the pleasure of chatting with quite a few people who have travelled to the festival every year. I have also met individuals who have volunteered tirelessly at the festival for decades.

One of these chance encounters led to an interview about my Beijing Olympics documentary, Boomtown Beijing, on German radio. “35 mm” is regular film magazine show on Radio Dreyeckland in Freiburg, in the southwestern part of Germany.

Alexander Sancho-Rauschel, the radio journalist who interviewed me, also volunteers at the student cinema at the University of Freiburg. The Aka Film Club, or Academic Film Club, has been around for 50 years. It was started in an effort to enable students in post war Germany to watch more international films. Although the name of the club sounds very stern and seems almost archaic in this day and age, it has been retained out of reverence for tradition.

I wonder what the listeners of Radio Dreyeckland will think of the interview of my little documentary about the Beijing Olympics?

One thing, for sure, the passion for film seems to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries here. So I cherish the hope being a little known film director making a small film in the Far East might actually be an advantage, fuelling curiosity about the project.

Highlights of Berlinale Talent Campus

I am attending the Berlin Film Festival 2008 as script consultant for the Singapore documentary, Invisible City.
The Berlinale deserves its reputation as one of the top festivals in the world. Every section at the festival is a film universe unto its own and has developed a distinct identity and  developed  a loyal audience base over the years.
The choices can be overwhelming, from the wonderful films you can catch to the parties and events.   Our senses are continuously bombarded by people, events and happenings.
On top of all this, there is the Berlinale Talent Campus, a week-long film academy that runs parallel to the main festival.     Award-winning directors and top-notch industry professionals are giving seminars and workshops on a broad cross-section
of topics, for instance

• Between Realities — Development Documentary Film Treatments
• Golden Key to the Archives: The Legal Path to Found Footage
• Indie Film makers´ Guide to Using the Internet
• Matters of Life and Death– Reviews that Make or Break
• Real Life Emotions:Biopics & Doc Stars

And the list goes on. I look forward to busy week of watching films and listening to others talk about films.

Life Cycle of a Blog Post

Have you ever wondered what happens after you hit the “publish” button to release your blog entry into the world wide web?

Wired Magazine maps the life cycle of a blog post in a series of elegant flow charts:

The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You

Berlin Film Festival Adventures

I will be attending the Berlin Film Festival 2008 (7th — 17th February 2008) There are two big reasons why I am going.

Invisible City, a film I worked on, is screening in the Forum section of the Berlinale.

I will also take the opportunity to market and promote my own film about the Beijing Olympics, Boomtown Beijing at the Festival and the European Film Market.

With thousands of journalists and film makers attending, I am sure Berlin will be a zoo. But hopefully, it’d also be a lot of fun.

Wish me luck!

Second Skin: Documentary About Virtual World

I have never been on Second Life so I have no idea what it means to inhabit larger than life personae in the virtual world.

Nonetheless, I am fascinated by this space in which everyone gets to place at being a comic book superhero.
What a fascinating topic for a documentary film and I am so glad someone has just made one!

Trailer for documentary about virtual worlds – Boing Boing

Check out the trailer for “Second Skin” , a documentary about the virtual world and the gamers who ‘live’ in them. You can also go to the official film website here.

There are so many ways to look at the virtual lives that people have created for themselves online.

It is the stuff of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Technology and Literature.

Perhaps the virtual world is like a mirror that reflect and refract our true selves.

“N” is for Nollywood

We all grew up on Hollywood fare. Most of us would have heard of Bollywood, India’s home-grown film industry.

Now we need to add the term “Nollywood” to our list. “Nollywood” refers to Nigeria’s fledging film industry that gives “guerrilla film making a whole new meaning.”

Making action flicks on a 9 day turn around, on a shoe-string budget of just a few thousand dollars and equipped with the bare minimum of digital camera equipment.

Nigeria’s fledging film industry has become the subject of a documentary film, “This is Nollywood”

I cannot wait to see this film because I think it will compel me to think about Africa in a new way.

Words like “fun”, “entertainment” and “movie-making” seldom come to mind when we think of Africa. Instead stereotypes of the Continent of Darkness persist. Our perception of Africa is often shaped by media stories of Aids, corruption and despair.

Any film that broadens that narrow view of Africa is a welcome addition to our world.

Technorati Tags: digital filmmaking, Nigeria, movie industry, documentary, Nollywood, African film, Africa entertainment industry, Nollywood