Thompson On Hollywood

Amazon Launches New Video Streams

As the battle for the video/computer/TV interface continues, Amazon launches a new video streaming initiative.

IndieWIRE Finds Deep-Pocketed Backer

It makes sense that filmanthropist, doc lover and web enthusiast Ted Leonsis, the former vice chairman of AOL, would not only launch doc-friendly website SnagFilms but would also buy IndieWIRE, the trusted New York-based indie film newswire, social network and hub.

The deal to buy IndieWIRE from publisher GMD Studios, which built the website, was in the works for six months and closed Tuesday night, the anniversary of IndieWIRE’s 12th birthday. IndieWIRE will supply SnagFilms with archival content, news, analysis, blogs and film reviews. IndieWIRE will also feature SnagFilm’s virtual movie theater widgets, including indieWIRE editorial picks from the SnagFilms library. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.

SnagFilms will also provide new resources to grow IndieWIRE, which will retain its editorial autonomy, something that editor-in-chief and co-founder Eugene Hernandez insisted be spelled out in the deal. IndieWIRE will continue to operate as an independent, standalone website. Leonsis also named Hernandez as editorial VP of SnagFilms, overseeing news content on both sites. Continuing to work with Hernandez are his two full-time IndieWire staffers, Brian Brooks and James Israel.

“We hope to continue to do what we do, better,” said Hernandez, “not by just putting more resources to editorial. Indiewire has become a hub for independent film and now more than ever with indie films under assault, this deal only makes sense if we can find a way to bolster IndieWire as a hub for the independent film community, and to help support it.”

Digital Distribution Future

At the recent LAFF, Matt Dentler, the former SWSX Film Fest program director who is now at Cinetic Media, laid out his view of the indie digital distribution future. Make that present.

From Here to Awesome: Alternative Film Fest

Amid a tough economic climate for indie films, Lance Weiler, a guru of the open-source DIY indie film movement, is launching on July 26 a new-model open-source film fest, From Here to Awesome.

Melding social networking and viral Web marketing, the "discovery and distribution festival" showcases twelve micro-budgeted features selected from 115 submissions via a complex online process. The features, many of them weary vets of the global fest circuit, plus ten shorts, are being distributed in many different ways, including handheld devices, Amazon Unbox, Netflix, Hulu and VUDU. All revenues will go to the filmmakers.

From Here to Awesome is an “experiment to directly connect filmmakers and audiences,” says Weiler.

Fest has no submission fees; filmmakers retain their rights and can earn revenues directly through distribs.

“The internet has provided all the tools needed for filmmakers to make feature films,” says Weiler, “but the struggle to secure a distributor and to market their film is still a paramount obstacle.”

From Here to Awesome lets filmmakers know that “getting into film festivals is not the end of their movie’s life but just the beginning,” says Weiler, who uses Radiohead as an example of a band selling its music directly to the consumer.

From Here to Awesome and sponsor Current TV are also staging a series of live events called DIY Days in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, San Francisco and London where Weiler and other DIY filmmakers including Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are the Strange) will discuss new models of funding, production, distribution and sustainability.

Fest kicks off with its first DIY Days event on July 26 in Los Angeles and will continue over the next six months via theaters, living rooms, computers and mobile devices.

From Here to Awesome has assembled partnerships with sites and services including MySpace, Withoutabox, Current TV, IFP, IndieFlix, Heretic, Breakthrough Distribution, Tubemogul, indiegogo, Miro, OurStage, Bside, Viddler, BlipTv, Spout and YouTube.

Here are three YouTube promo clips of films being shown at the fest:

Abel Raises Cain:

Moonshine:

Charlie:

Full list of fest showcase titles is on the jump:

Ex-Magazine Editor Caruso Goes Viral

Facebook, it seems, is also the proper venue for making announcements these days. Here's former magazine editor Michael Caruso's alert to his pals about his new gig, The Daily Tube:

Hey, everyone. While you were all scarfing burgers and lighting M-80s over the weekend, we were slaving over hot computers to deploy our cool new design. Check it out at The Daily Tube.com and please tell all of your coworkers, friends, extended family and casual sex partners about the site that's like YouTube--but is actually good.

I'm also happy to announce that The Daily Tube has formed a working partnership with Slate, the award-winning daily Web magazine. We now power the "Did You See This?" feature of the Slate V video section.

The Daily Tube is also a featured link on TWO of Huffington Post's pages (Media and Entertainment).

It's no wonder that we tripled our traffic this year. Please help spread the word!

Your partner in creative procrastination,
Michael Caruso
p.s. Forgive mass e-mail. I really love YOU the most.

The first few You Tube videos were no longer availbale when I went on the site, and this Onion video, which I liked, has no embed code. Hmmm. They're basically doing our browsing for us so we don't have to.

There's going to be an onslaught of stuff like this, as old media meets deep-pocketed new media in different ways. All I can say is, judging from how behind I am in every aspect of my life, my inbox is way overloaded and likely to remain so.

Ecritic Mr. Cranky Shutting Down

Snarky ecritic Mr. Cranky is retiring after 13 years of posting nasty reviews. Rising gas prices, increased web competiton and decreasing ad sales led to his decision to leave at the end of August.

The online movie critic space is crowded with folks trying to gain traction. Glenn Kenny, now blogging at Some Came Running, posted his Wall-E review at The Auteurs.

Here's a sample of Mr. Cranky's often too-purple prose, on the teen romance She's All That:

It's like emotional farting. You can actually see the fumes from this thing cascading off the screen like some computer-generated space anomaly overtaking the Enterprise as the audience sort of buckles from the impact.

And here's a segment of his last post.

Film critics, in general (myself included), are full of themselves. They believe that their opinions actually matter. They also believe that somehow there's a right and a wrong when it comes to film criticism. Mr. Cranky was started to thwart that notion by making fun of film critics and film criticism and pointing out that film writing could be subjective to the point of a critic who didn't like anything. Besides, if these junkets proved one thing, it's that most film critics could be swayed by nothing more than a plate of donuts (watching a group of largely fat film critics charge toward a free plate of food while in the midst of a junket in which they're supposed to form unbiased opinions of the film is its own form of hell). And if the Internet has proved one salient Mr. Cranky point, it's that anyone can be a film critic. The forums were put in place for just this reason. Mr. Cranky was the first site to invite the reader to challenge the film critic, in fact, to make that challenge a founding principle of the site.

A.P. vs. Blogosphere

A.P. is fighting against lefty social news site Drudge Retort (which according to the NYT started as a parody of the conservative Drudge Report), demanding that the site remove seven pieces containing short quotes from A.P. stories. And Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is banning A.P. from his blog until they change their policy. Jeff Jarvis is also pissed off.

This reveals yet another rift between content creators and content aggregators, between people who spend huge amounts of money reporting and providing news stories and those who list, borrow, rewrite, source, quote and pass on those stories. It happens to Variety all the time.

Arrington says A.P. should regard a post on the Digg-like Drudge Retort as a "gift."

What is A.P. really fighting against? How are their profits and livelihood threatened? A.P. is still the first story out--or is it? Bloggers are often getting there faster, cheaper, without the copyediting and factchecking and proofreading and legal concerns that plague the "real media." And they're grabbing eyeballs---the numbers that feed advertising revenue.

Here's a bit from the NYT story:

Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed” and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers.

The quick about-face came, he said, because a number of well-known bloggers started criticizing its policy, claiming it would undercut the active discussion of the news that rages on sites, big and small, across the Internet.

Am I quoting more than I should here? Is this fair use? Or am I infringing on the NYT's livelihood? Is this OK because I am commenting on the story, as opposed to just posting it? My approach has been: provide the link, which invites someone to go to the source; but quote a bit from the piece too. Am I publicizing them, which is good, or ripping them off, which is bad? We have not heard the last of this debate.

Critics: The March of Time

There's been a huge outcry on the web about the current critics' crisis. (When did people start calling them crickets?) Here's a sampling:

My column and last critics blog entry with links. And responses from Spout and FirstShowing.

Sean Means is keeping a list of departed critics.

A spoof on the situation.

Is the Internet killing the film critic?

UPDATE: FilmSchool Rejects responds. And last but not least, Patrick Goldstein.

Cuban Puts His Foot on Blogging

I have long enjoyed reading Mark Cuban's insights on new media, technology and the internet, mostly, on his blog. But he makes a strange argument about blogs here. He seems to be saying that blogs are tarred and tainted by all the regular folks (like him?) who blog, while any self-respecting big media outlet with journalistic cred would be foolish to sign onto the blog trend--unless they call their "blogs" something else.

Is he embarrassed to be a member of the club he belongs to?

Is he saying good blogging and good journalism cannot coexist?

It appears that he is twisting himself into a pretzel over his decision to ban bloggers from the Dallas Mavericks locker room. Hmmm.

Blogging is a technology, a fast and simple self-publishing platform. As you can see from the fascinating range of responses to Cuban's post, there are plenty of examples of decent journalistically-sound big media bloggers, at the NYT and elsewhere. If anything, they are helping to give blogging a good name. Anyone can use the platform, at home, or at work, as an amateur or a professional. And we all get to pick the blogs we want to read regularly. Some of the ones I read are by at-home bloggers who do better work than the media professionals. And there are also pros--with unusual access to the beats they cover-- who post stuff that non-pros can't.

For old media, blogs are an online marketing tool, a road to the future. They spread media content to a wider not-necessarily local readership. And they are interactive community-builders.

Cinematical's Kim Voynar weighs in.

Paramount Provides Film Clips to Facebook

What took Hollywood so long to miss this clear marketing opportunity? Paramount, FanRocket, VooZoo and Facebook are joining forces to make thousands of clips from Paramount movies available on Facebook. Other studios may follow suit. I've been looking at more film clips on Facebook via Flixster, and I have no doubt that viral exposure to fave clips will boost DVD rentals and sales down the line. This is one sign that studios are prepping for the long tail world.

Meanwhile, at SXSW, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's key note speech was a huge sell-out, as rooms full of folks watched him on videoscreens. PaidContent has coverage and video. UPDATE: Zuckerberg's interlocuter got twittered by a hostile crowd.

Here's the 2002 Paramount logo with fanfare:

And a history of the Paramount mountain logo with stars:

Google to Sell Video Ads

Trying to find an ad model that makes sense, Google is starting up AdSense for Video. It could transform media on the Internet.

Oscar Watch: Get Your Oscar Info on Mobile

If you should decide to --heaven forfend--skip Sunday night's Oscar telecast, NBC Mobile's Entertainment Buzz host Seth Goldman will supply breaking Oscar news to your mobile. Two years ago, Goldman was the first reporter to cover the Oscars specifically for cell phones; this weekend he'll to do it again.

His mobile programming includes two pre-show clips: predictions of who should--and will--win in all the major categories, plus details on final preparations for the Oscar show. An additional two-clip package on the morning after the show will analyze the winners and Red Carpet fashion.

Buzz NBC Mobile to keep posted with text messages on the winners during the Oscar show by texting BUZZ to 46833.

Madonna, Burns Turn to Alternative Distribution

You know something's wrong in Hollywood when movies with stars can't get a theater opening. Edward Burns took his latest relationship pic Purple Violets exclusively to iTunes, and Madonna is threatening to do something similar with her badly reviewed Berlin flick Filth & Wisdom. That would be an interesting test of the power of the Internet, if Madonna used her marketing machine to sell her film online.

This weekend, Ebert & Roeper critics Tony Scott and Richard Roeper did a segment about movies with marquee names that have gone direct to DVD. Scott recommended the Michele Pfeiffer/Paul Rudd romance I Could Never Be Your Woman, while Roeper thought Jennifer Lopez was strong in Gregory Nava's The Border. And here's a review of a 2001 unreleased Alan Rudolph movie finally hitting video stores.

Nowadays a minimal theatrical release is just a short-cut to the video store. With the current indie-finance glut, there are more movies seeking alternative distribution than ever, judging by how few got picked up at Sundance. Here's my column on alternative distribution on the Internet.

Many small-scale success stories are out there, as filmmakers and online distributors such as B-Side, IFC, Withoutabox, Cinequest, iTunes, Amazon and Netflix experiment with economic models. It's only a matter of time before we have more breakouts to show the way. Check out the online break-through flicks Head Trauma, Blood Car and Four Eyed Monsters (pictured) as well as the hockey doc In the Crease.

Poland Vents on Old Media vs New Media

Every few months or so, Movie City News' David Poland goes on one of these rants about who's covering the industry on the old and new media side, usually involving swipes at the LAT and NYT Hollywood beat reporters and other rivals on the Internet.

While Poland makes some good points, I often feel that there's an element of envy involved in these outpourings. I agree with him that the LAT should let Claudia Eller loose--but the reasons why they wanted to defang her still exist: they aren't willing to take the inevitable heat from the studios.

I too admire Spout's Karina Longworth, but she is a child of the Internet; she's thriving in her fave milieu after trying to survive in a more conventional day job at Netscape Movies. Gawker Media's Nick Denton should give her the Defamer spot. She's not a witty charmer like Mark Lisanti--she's more of a NY film geek insider-- and there would have to be an adjustment, but she's a gifted blogger, and would bring her own following.

David Lynch vs. Phone Movies

Blogger Attacks Variety Slanguage

As a Variety staffer, I enjoy throwing around slanguage like prexy, helmer, boffo and pics with legs. They're ingrained in my brain. What's not to like? This acerbic Brit blogger takes issue with Varietyese, especially as it applies to our film criticism. There is an argument to be made that slanguage works better in the print edition of an entertainment business trade than it does online, where it's read by millions of industry-philes all over the world. So we tend to tone down the headlines a bit on Variety.com.

Here's the Variety slanguage dictionary. And Variety editor Tim Gray, the master of the witty headline and author of The Hollywood Dictionary, is interviewed here by NPR.

Does Varietyese annoy you? Or are you fond of it? Update: Kristin Thompson mounts a defense with the headline: Crix Nix Variety’s Tics.

Site Measuring Stirs Heated Debates

Page views, site traffic and how to measure them is spurring huge debate in the New Media Internet Age, when eyeballs equal ad dollars.

Kenny Vs. Finke on Torture Porn

Premiere's Glenn Kenny does not buy Nikki Finke's Elle.com suggestion that a Hollywood blogger can change the way the studios do business.

Online Flops and Busts

Editor and Publisher examines the trials and tribs of online journalism. We're all figuring out this frontier every day, and learning the hard way that the world of online media is a constantly evolving beast.

The NYT has launched its MyNYT with its own reporters' picks.

Mark Cuban: The Portfolio Profile

I'm still not sure that Mark Cuban has ever understood the movie business (2929 Entertainment), theatrical exhibition (Landmark Theatres), indie film distribution (Magnolia Pictures) or even high def cable (HDNet). But he does understand the Internet --love his blog: his latest post, "the internet is dead and boring"-- and insists on doing his press interviews by email. Judging from this Portfolio Q & A, clearly, Cuban is impatient with the pace of change.

New Media: Journalist Social Network

Scott Karp and blogger Robert Young of GigaOM are forming a social network and news aggregator for journalists called Publish2, Inc.

On the other hand, I've got social networks coming out of my ears, all needing care and feeding. I rarely go to Journalspace or Tagworld or MySpace anymore, although I continue to passively grow my MySpace friends. The movie review site Criticker is an escapist time waster. I check Rottentomatoes and Metacritic for the reviews.

iKlipz is fun for streaming video (their player is excellent) if I had the time. I search for specific things on YouTube, I don't browse. LinkedIn and Facebook are the most active right now. Facebook is on the cover of Newsweek--Nora uses it constantly; she's already in touch with her college roommate.

I have yet to figure out Stumbleupon or Spout (which does boast Karina Longworth's excellent blog) and I know Withoutabox is building a filmmaker community, but I don't go there. Huffington Post is for politics, and I use the journalist community site Mediabistro.com quite a bit.

Media Watch: The Future of Newspapers

The always intelligent Tim Rutten provides the kind of in-depth analysis the LAT will need more of, it seems, as newspapers chart their future.

The NYT has a spiffy new moderne newsroom that looks a lot like Mike Ovitz's old offices at AMG.

Rupert Murdoch has The Grey Lady in his sights.

Online Video: Ad Models Up for Grabs

In the online video age, everyone is trying to figure out the best way to advertise.

Online Games: Studios Play with Dark Knight, Simpsons, Golden Compass, Seeker

Web contests and promo games are the latest marketing ploy for exposing film titles to younger moviegoers. At Comic-Con, Warners staged a viral Dark Knight promotion. You can pick your daemon for The Golden Compass.

And Fox's The Simpsonizer can turn you into a Simpson.J.J. Abrams has generated extraordinary online interest for a movie that doesn't even have a title yet.

Fox Walden is also hiding signs in their marketing materials for The Seeker: The Dark is Rising that unlock special content on-line when entered in the correct sequence. The action fantasy adventure, based on the novels by Susan Cooper, stars Ian McShane, Frances Conroy and Christopher Eccleston, and opens October 5.

SXSW Panel: Building An Online Fanbase

More and more, filmmakers are becoming responsible for the care and cultivation of an online fanbase. Variety contributor and CinemaTech blogger Scott Kirsner, who moderated this informative SXSW panel, "Building an Online Fanbase", believes that these days filmmakers are required to have a fanbase that follows them from project to project.

Kirsner talks with writer-director-producer Lance Weiler (Head Trauma) who runs a social open-source filmmaking site, The Workbook Project; Jim Miller, of Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films Foundation, which builds communities around such documentaries as Iraq for Sale; David Straus, COO of Without a Box, an online studio for independent filmmakers; Ian Schafer, president and founder of the Deep Focus online marketing agency which worked on Kill Bill, Entourage, Pan's Labyrinth and other films; and filmmaker Joe Swanberg, whose Hannah Takes the Stairs was the toast of SXSW.

[Hat Tip: Matt Dentler]

Celeb Interview: In Crisis

The Wash Post's Ann Hornaday thinks the celebrity interview needs overhauling.

Indiewood: Reviewing DVDs

For any indie filmmaker lacking a theatrical distributor who is eager to get their DVD reviewed, Last Night With Riviera knows a web critic who will review your film. Chris Gore at Film Threat will also review some indie pix.

New Media: Mediabistro Sells for $23 Million

Rachel Sklar's story makes sense of the Mediabistro sale to Jupitermedia. I go to mediabistro.com every day, something Nikki Finke tipped me to after I left Premiere Magazine in 2002 to freelance. I've watched them grow. During the period before I returned to a steady gig I used the Freelance Marketplace to store my resume and story archives, and took several of their courses. Every day I read their daily email round-up of media stories and blog posts.

In other words, it's a site that works. Serves people. Has a function. Is therefore worth something.

[Mediabistro founder and CEO Laurel Touby]

Women in Film: Glamour Lines Up Rookie Directors Hudson, Dunst and Wilson

When Glamour publisher Bill Wackermann launched the mag's Reel Moments shorts in 2005 with new directors Gwenyth Paltrow and Trudie Styler, he had no idea the first season's five shorts would be downloaded on iTunes 700,000 times. Jennifer Aniston, Bryce Dallas Howard and others also made debut shorts in 2006. Now Kate Hudson, Kirsten Dunst and Rita Wilson are joining the third year of Glamour's rookie directors club, shooting films this summer based on essays sent in by Glamour readers.

It has turned out to be a brilliant way for the greying Conde Nast title to reach out to a younger demo. Samsung video has also made the shorts available on its mobile phones. When Nora demonstrated her new video iPod to me, she showed me "Little Black Dress," which she had downloaded from iTunes for free. (I can't find it now.) That popular short got its director, writer Talia Lugacy, a gig directing her first feature, The Descent, also starring Rosario Dawson.

Wedding Bells: AICN Online Guru Knowles Gets Hitched

It was a pleasure to meet Harry Knowles at the first CineVegas in 2002; Emanuel Levy and I were on the jury with the aint-it-cool-news web guru. He's a buoyant film enthusiast who revels in hanging with fellow travellers.

Congrats are in order, as this Sunday, Knowles will marry his fiance, Patricia Jones. Here's Matt Dentler's description of the wedding invite, a DVD from Peter Jackson. Movie folks from far and wide are winging into Austin for the wedding ceremony. Knowles has some high-powered pals, so I'll be curious to hear who shows up. I'm getting several folks to call in with reports from the event.

All hail the happy couple!

UPDATE: A minister married Knowles and his bride Sunday at a private Austin ceremony attended by about 150 people. "It was sweet," said one guest, noting that Knowles did leave his customary wheelchair to walk down the aisle. Among the Hollywood guests were directors Eli Roth (who shot a wedding video), Richard Kelly and producers Jim Jacks and Elizabeth Avellan.

Stars Online: Willis, DiCaprio, Moore Use Web to Sell Movies

Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Willis, Michael Moore, Joss Whedon, Peter Jackson, Kevin Smith, Zach Braff, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have all figured out that talking directly to the fans sells movie tickets.

Here's Michael Moore's infamous rant against CNN's Wolf Blitzer and medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta. In case you missed any of his many recent media appearances, he has helpfully posted them all on YouTube.

UPDATE: MichaelMoore.com">Moore's 7/14 Letter to CNN is on the jump:

Second Life: Gibson to Promote Spook Country

How appropriate that William Gibson, the sci-fi novelist who invented the word cyberspace in 1984's Neuromancer, would be using an avatar to promote his new book Spook Country in Second Life.

[Hat Tip: mediabistro galleycat]

Transformers: MPAA Vs. Camcorder Pirates

Watch out for the MPAA Police! Once a popular genre movie like Live Free or Die Hard is in release, countless movie pirates infiltrate theatres with their camcorders and cell phone cameras, ready to upload their data files online. The MPAA has tracked down five movie thieves with camcorders at Transformers showings in New York, California, Georgia, Illinois and Florida.

Inside the movie download community, which is wary and watchful of the MPAA, pirates like these are seen as rebel warriors. ""These are the unsung heroes that sacrifice so much for the enjoyment of so many," writes one unapologetic movie downloader. The studios see themselves as fighting the good and righteous fight against movie pirates to preserve the status quo for everyone who works in the movie business. But on some level they are turning their own customers into criminals, who enjoy their maverick status in the download underworld.

It's a tricky wicket. Lowering the price on legit high-quality downloads ASAP is one solution--which the studios won't do because they are still making so much cash on DVD sales commandeered by giant retailers like Wallmart, who call the shots. But that won't last forever.

Classic library titles are one place to start. I still don't understand why the studos don't sell those titles themselves online and let the long tail rule, as it does on Netflix.

Here's the Variety story.

New Media: How to Take Print Online

As a weekly, The New Yorker is one Conde Nast mag that has embraced the online universe. Print Magazine shows how they did it.

Transformers: VFX Revealed

Here's a great example of what a magazine can do--and then do online. Unlike some monthlies, Popular Mechanics does both. We used to do these summer VFX stories when Popular Mechanics editor Jim Meigs was editor of Premiere.

UPDATE: Here's EW's FX takeout.

LAFF: Bloggers Poolside Chat

I had fun moderating the blogging panel poolside at the W. From right, Sasha Stone of Awards Daily, Kate Coe of Fishbowl LA, Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere and I all agreed that we are obsessed; speed is of the essence, although, Stone said, one can always throw something up fast and tweak it later.

Stone is a stay-at-home blogger with kids who started Oscarwatch out of her own passion for tracking the Oscars. Now it's a year-round thing with big traffic. She sells ads and has helpers. No one tells her what to do, although the Academy forced her to give up her name. She feels strongly, as do I, that she should stay away from putting promo spin on the blog. So she avoids the PR machine. She wants to remain objective, although she certainly makes clear her own rooting interests, especially close to Oscar night. She scours the news and posts from an Oscar perspective.

Coe is a sharp-witted industry pro who produces for TV. Mediabistro, the journalists' website, pays he