By David Tames - This post concludes my coverage of DIY Days, a conference held in Boston at MassArt on October 4, 2008. Please visit part one and part two if you’ve not already read them. Do keep in mind these notes do not necessarily represent the views of the various speakers at the conference, sometimes it includes my own parenthetical thoughts, which are not always clearly delineated, but the goal is to preserve the essence of the conference.

Navigating The Distribution Divide

Lance Weiler (filmmaker and DIY Days co-organizer) gave a presentation comparing traditional independent film distribution and a hybrid DIY model. Much has been written about the erosion of the independent film distribution business over the past year, including the widely circulated and discussed “Yes, The Sky Really Is Falling” message delivered by Mark Gill at the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Financing Conference.

Many distribution companies have closed, specialty films are experiencing lackluster box office results, and with the replacement of video stores with big-box retailers, shelf space for independent films is shrinking. And all of this is happening at the same time the supply of independent films is skyrocketing due to the democratization of production, post-production, and distribution. Here’s a juicy quote from Mark Gill’s piece in IndieWire:

Here’s how bad the odds are: of the 5000 films submitted to Sundance each year– generally with budgets under $10 million–maybe 100 of them got a US theatrical release three years ago. And it used to be that 20 of those would make money. Now maybe five do. That’s one-tenth of one percent.

Put another way, if you decide to make a movie budgeted under $10 million on your own tomorrow, you have a 99.9% chance of failure.

OK, so we have a problem, but where are the new business models? What models can independent filmmakers use to get their film in front of an audience?

Lance’s presentation slides are available as a PDF download: diydaysBoston.pdf (the two charts in this post are from the presentation).

Lance began his discussion with an explanation of current release windows, which is rapidly compressing due to changes in the marketplace. Right now, mainstream distributors think in terms of the following windows and in this order for the most part:

1. Festivals: indie filmmakers have traditionally seen this as a gateway to a distribution deal and did not have to worry about the other windows, I think a classic example of the old way is Darren Aronofsky’s Pi, the film premiered at Sundance where it picked up an award and the producers quickly sealed a distribution deal, however, this is rarely the case for independent filmmakers, these stories are exceptions to the rule, and it’s becoming more and more rare with the decline of speciality film distributors. Arin Crumley and Susan Buice’s Four Eyes Monsters, provides a classic example of the more realistic and difficult DIY model, none of the specialty distributors saw a way to make money with the film, however, the film did indeed find an audience, but the filmmakers had to take distribution into their own hands (which at this point has been written about widely, it has become an excellent case study).
2. Theatrical: classically this has been the window after festivals, but a lot of studios now start with a single festival and go right into wide release, classically the independent filmmaker’s goal was to get a distribution deal that included a theatrical release, and this “builds value in the ancillaries” and is an effective marketing campaign for for all the other forms of release of the film (home video, pay-per-view, etc), but this is becoming more and more expensive to do, and independent specialty films are being shut out as the number of screens for specialty films dwindles, distributors are taking less risks, and audiences for specialty films are increasingly watching them at home rather than in a theater.
3. Pay-Per-View: 90 to 100 days, only a few ways to get into cable and telcos, only a few players here, pay-per-view has been good for Lance, he’s managed to negotiate deals for this, his suggestion is to carve out each release window and negotiate rights separately, this can be very complicated, but worth it in the end, as you retain control of the destiny of your film.
4. Home video and DVD.
5. Pay cable, black-out deal, no competitive releases are allowed.
6. Basic cable.
7. Network TV.
8. Internet. Right now this is seen as the last window, but this is certainly on the verge of change with a growing number of aggregators and online distributors experimenting with direct distribution models. There is lots of room for innovation and experimentation in this window.

This multi-tiered strategy offers exclusivity to each exhibition and distribution entity in the value chain during its particular stage of release. In essence, each tier operates as an exclusive window in which an exhibitor or distributor may screen the film. Day and date, on the other hand, eliminates exhibition and distribution exclusivity, as more than one entity in the value chain (e.g. theater chain, DVD distributor, internet aggregator) is allows to show the film at the same time. Historically theatrical releases have had the largest advertising budget because it clearly helps create value in all of the other tiers down the chain

As release windows shrink, theatrical release no longer operates as effectively as an advertising campaign for releases in other formats and therefore this may have a serious impact on the viability of theaters, who have depended on the traditional model for their survival. As the release window model is undergoes change, traditionalists feel it’s a problem to move the Internet window sooner in the process, however, this perception is changing among some people, you can do an internet release sooner, in fact, why not consider doing it immediately after a successful festival screening that might have gotten you buzz and press for your film (as Scott suggested in his session)?

Lance urges filmmakers to make sure that in any distribution deal you make, negotiate caps on expenses, marketing, and promotion. Otherwise you provide the distributor with a way they can have a creative accounting loop.

Lance stressed that it’s very important to make a deal with an exit strategy, this is critical, you need to be able to walk away with your rights if the distributor does not perform, otherwise they might shelve your and you can’t exploit it. The moment a distributor thinks they are not going to make lots of money on your film, or think they will lose money, they will abandon it, they are in a portfolio management business, you film is just one of many assets they are exploiting at any one time, and often good films get shelved and end up in distribution limbo. Sometimes distributors do this to take a competitive title off the market.

If the contract does not have the distributor releasing the distribution rights to you after a certain amount of time, you can’t exploit your own film, so make sure you negotiate an exit strategy. I know of several films which ended up stuck in distribution limbo and the only DVDs that have been released after the theatrical run are bootleg DVDs made by the director himself, this is a horrible situation to be in, unable to distribute your own film and giving away bootlegs which in theory the distributor could sue you for releasing.

Lance thinks it’s essential when dealing with a distributor that you look and see what other films have gone through the process with them and ask the filmmakers what it was like to work with a distributor. I would add to this you need to find a good entertainment lawyer with experience negotiating with distributors. Some even will take a percentage of their fee now and the rest when a deal is made. It’s always good when your critical partners have skin in the game. Share the risk and reward. Lance also discussed what has become a horrible stumbling for many independent filmmakers: the average $15K to $20K cost to prepare all of the deliverables for a distributor (these figures are for small films in the under $1M budget category). I suggest looking over a couple of deliverable contracts to see what kinds of things are expected. They vary from distributor to distributor, what Lions Gate expects is very different from what ITVS expects. Sometimes you might get an advance to cover the cost of the deliverables, but this is not always the case.

Lance reminded us that if you give something away, you get nothing below it, therefore Lance’s strategy is to carve it all up and break it down, multiple deals across and have movie revert back to him and this allows him to repackage his work again and again. Lance provided some ranges of figures you can expect from distributors for specialty films:

• Overall global rights: $0 to $450K
• General domestic rights: $0 to $250K
• Home video rights: $0 to $60K
• Video on demand rights: $0 to 40K
• Pay cable rights: $45K and up
• Basic cable rights: $5K and up
• Internet rights: $0 to $5K

Try to cut a deal with at lease a $15K advance towards delivery costs, which can kill you. You will spend between $8K to $12K for E&O Insurance. Get E&O rolled into the deal is an option, so try to negotiate for that. Transfers can run you $3K to $1K for HD, DigiBeta masters etc. Music and effects tracks can run you $1 to $2.5K. Clearances and title search, music clearances and release forms and contracts could cost you $1K to $100,000K for this. Legal fees $2K to $30K. In other words, many first-time filmmakers fail to account for the cost of finishing their film from a legal and distribution perspective. If you want to get your film out into the world, you need to know what it costs, in summary, traditional delivery averages around $15K, with a wide variance depending on your specific film. Original music, for example, is much cheaper than negotiating music rights and clearances. Look at a sample deliverables contract, all sorts of arcane requirements, you typically get paid for all of this at delivery.

In the traditional distribution model, there are lots of players taking a piece of the pie, which is why in the traditional model the filmmaker get a very small percentage of the retail DVD price. Along the chain you have: Consumer DVD « Retailer/Rental (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Netflix, etc.) « Distributors (e.g. Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Studio Labels, entities large enough to talk with major retailers) « Sub-distributor (with enough volume to talk with the big distributors) « Filmmakers. It costs $20K for endcap placement in a large retailer, lots of pressure in the marketplace to sell mainstream, not specialty, titles. So what’s an independent filmmaker with an excellent specialty film to do?

Lance showed a digital distribution version of the chart, with iTunes, Voodo, Amazon, aggretors, studio labels, sub-aggregators, indie distributors, and with the exact number of steps, the same number of gatekeepers as before. So there remains lots of layers in the “value chain” between filmmaker and audience, each step extracting value at each stage and leaving very little for the filmmaker at the end of the chain, which reminds me that there are some similarities with the specialty coffee business, with retailers taking a larger percentage of premium prices so the coffee growers don’t see as much additional revenue as they should for their premium crops.

A new model may be evolving, from Festivals to Home Video DVD + VOD/Streaming, cable/sattelite/online + Pay or Basic TV. Shrinking release windows. Retailers might have issue with you being online, but From Here to Awesome is experimenting with this approach. Head Trauma started out as a virtual reality game before the film came out, then did the festival circuit, Lance did theatrical on his own. Lance also mentioned how Four Eyed Monsters did a podcast on their distribution saga. These have all been attempts to invert the model. DIY is flexible. Lance talked about 50/50 split vs. four-walling (you take all the risk) for doing theatrical screenings.

There’s lots of experimentation with new models going on right now. With Brave New Films Robert Greenwald has changed his style and distribution techniques based on political needs, clear calls to action, spreads the political message, he’s building a strong relationship with his audience, in contrast to Hollywood which has a hollow relationship with their audience, most of the interesting stuff that comes out of Hollywood properties like fan fiction are things that the Hollywood studios have nothing to do with, at least traditionally. I think the studios are getting smart and understand the value of storytelling across multiple media forms (known as transmedia storytelling), but so far, they’ve only controlled the movie and commercial tie-ins, not fan-generated media, however, in the near future I’m sure you will see some serious attempts to create new transmedia experiences by the studios, but but what makes fan fiction and fan media special is that it is NOT commodified media production, it’s all labor of love, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the studios try to step into this world. Some researchers at MIT are providing guidance in this area.

Lance believes that Audiience 1.0 was about traditional “broadcast” one to many marketing and distribution. Now with the emergence of Audience 2.0 the audience becomes part of the distribution network, they can amplify the message and become distribution hubs, all the people who help make a movie can become distribution points for the film. Examples of this include Wreck a Movie which provides a way to creating a film through connecting people and spreading information which was born from the film Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning. The producers of the film worked with people across the Internet to make and distribute the film. Lance reported that 3,000 people worked on the movie for 7 years, there’s real value in “crowd-sourcing” and all of those people can become distribution hubs. Another example is Swarm of Angels, driven by creative crowdsourcing and peer production, essentially a people-powered film studio.

Lance provided an excellent list of things to think about in terms of how to build an audience for your future:

1. Consider your own viewing habits
2. Who is you audience and why do they care?
3. Spend time thinking like your audience, how do they consume media?
4. Create a two-way conversation
5. Be prepared to spend time responding, this is huge, and time consuming
6. Build trust
7. Think of your audience as collaborators, never think you are smarter than them, they can revolt at any time
8. Have a clear call to action, consider the Dr. Horrible example, let your audience (collaborators) know “this is what I’m doing and why, help us spread this was the message,” this turns out to be one of the things people click on the most, consider why the Obama campaign has done well online, they offer people need simple steps in a call to action
9. Reward and respect the audience
10. The audience can not be controlled, can’t be stressed enough
11. Some tools are not for everyone, social media, it will not build the audience for you
12. Creating accounts won’t build the audience for you
13. Be willing to experiment
14. Share your findings openly with other filmmakers, this is the most important part and what DIY Days is about, this will help everyone in the community, this is about cross-pollinating audiences, and this can lead to real numbers

Lance also suggested five web tools that every filmmaker should understand:

1. Blogging with WordPress: blogging tool, make active, not static sites, updating constantly, people can subscribe, repost your content, other blogging tools include Blogger, Typepad, and Moveable Type (I think WordPress is the best among them), see wordpress.org if you want to host the blog on your own server
2. Sharing updates with Twitter: Lance uses it as an update tool, now CNN is twittering, lots of people are getting into this wonderful “micro-blogging” tool which is excellent for timely updates known as “tweets”
3. Content syndication with Feedburner: let people pull, easy to have blog posts sent as email to people, people can get your blog via RSS or Email
4. Social bookmarking with Delicious: share the things you enjoy, share with others, the more you share, the better, actively engage with the community, be conscious how you use these communities, sharing bookmarks is wonderful
5. Photo sharing with Flickr: this has helped Lance for high-res photos on presskit, prepared to link for photos, different versions of images, etc. document your work

I would add a sixth item to to this list, any one of the popular video sharing site like blip.tv, Vimeo, or YouTube, provides excellent way to embed trailers of your film on your web site or blog without dealing with any video hosting or bandwidth fees, also a good way to give away free shorts and behind-the-scenes materials.

Members of the audience suggested other sites that filmmakers should be aware of: Exposure Room for sharing your work and/or reel online for exposure and Seesmic for asynchronous visual conversation kind of a Twitter meets Video kind of thing, which was used successfully at Cannes. There’s also direct distribution start-ups doing interesting work like Caachi and Super Indie Films. All of these tools are a new part of the distribution and publicity mechanism available to independent filmmakers. There is a tipping point, the more you use it, the more people will help to amplify, many people think the filmmaking process is glamorous, tap into that using social networking tools.

Lance believes that “audience direct” is the future, especially for international distribution, some DIY solution providers worth looking into include:

• IndieFlix is a one-stop shop for non-exclusive distribution with a focus on community and discovery. They provide multiple revenue streams via PPV, sponsored streaming, download and DVD delivery direct from IndieFlix.com, and via third party delivery partners all at no cost to the filmmaker.
• B-Side is a technology company that provides acquisition, marketing, and distribution services to filmmakers, festivals, and distributors. Their mission is to find great films at festivals that fall through the cracks of the traditional distribution system and connect them with distribution opportunities.
• Breakthrough Distribution helps content creators maximize their distribution possibilities via online, retail, theatrical, broadcast, and other channels. Its independent producer platform provides rights holders with services, tools, and strategic frameworks to leverage new business models, technologies, and marketing approaches on a global basis.
• Neoflix is an integrated e-commerce, fulfillment, and customer support platform created specifically for self-distributing independent films.
• E-Junkie provides you shopping cart and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, Craigslist and other websites using PayPal, PayPal Pro, Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, 2CheckOut, ClickBank and TrialPay.
• CreateSpace, formerly CustomFlix, acquired by Amazon in 2005, allows you to sell directly through Amazon,and now Without a Box has become an Amazon company, they are buying lots of movie companies, interesting huh?

From Here To Awesome Filmmakers Roundtable

Arin Crumley led a discussion with From Here to Awesome filmmakers Matt Von Manahan, Zeke Zelker, Raffi Asdourian, Javier Prato, and Fritz Donnelly on how social media is working for them, how has the festival experiment changed the ways they think about making and releasing their films, and what they learned from “day and dating” their films.

Day and date is a release strategy in which a film is screened theatrically on the same day it goes into home video and/or broadcast (cable, broadcast, video-on-demand) distribution. This strategy been tried with films like Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble and Ten Items or Less. One reason for the day and date strategy is to maximize economies of scale in marketing and distribution expenses for films that are not expected to have a long theatrical run. Given current distribution trends and shrinking release windows, many experts predict more and more films will be released theatrically, on the internet and on home video formats at the same time. The day and date strategy diverges dramatically from the traditional release window model that Lance discussed in his presentation.

For Javier, From Here to Awesome was “the only festival” he submitted to (presumably because as a short film his piece has it’s best chance to find an audience online). Raffi said, “the results has been amazing.” Zeke said it was good for his film since it was “too controversial [for traditional distribution]” and people are “afraid of the [sexual] content.” Matt shot his film on 35mm and made in his parent’s basement. From Here to Awesome is a “user generated film festival,” viewers curate what films come in, filmmakers do their own social networking and see what opportunities are available, and they can get other filmmakers in this pool of opportunities. Javier said, “I had no idea of all these tools,” for him the “experience [was] amazing,” and he said, “I think this is a revolution and it’s happening, it’s just the beginning, it’s basically a school, a little bit of effort in learning all this amazing tools to get your work out there.” The panel also mentioned tools like Hulu and Our Stage for getting your work out there. Matt said that “YouTube was a good fit for us, 170,000 subscribers,” so he plugs his movies through videos on YouTube, which he said was a “creative way to market the film [that] does not cost anything.” Fritz said he sold his film To The Hills the on the streets of New York one on one and sold 3,000 copies that way, a lot for him, his perspective coming into this, screenings in little venues, movies in the hallway. When Matt was asked why in this day and age an indie filmmaker would shoot 35mm, he replied, “I wanted to it to look like a real movie,” but lamented that it involved, “dealing with the sacrifices, so much of the film was one or two takes” and apparently he would not do that again, because “the medium should not dictate the story that you tell.”

The panel spoke of a need to start establishing standards and best practices for DIY distribution and to get the word out how important it is to clear rights before putting the film online, especially if you worked with SAG, who starts chasing you after you start with making money with your film. It would be good to have more resources on DIY and the law, another example is that filmmakers need to establish best practices for brand inclusion as that has gotten several filmmakers in trouble. Some brands see inclusion as free product placement, others see it as trademark infringement.

There is a strong need to broaden the community, we’re not watching each other’s films, why not? We should be watching each others films and helping each other out in terms of distribution. My take on this has always been, people watch lots of movies, the competition is not really among indie filmmakers, it’s between the majors with the large advertising budgets and indies that have to vie for attention, but people have time to watch more than one indie film, so cooperation in this endeavor of distribution can go a long way in floating everyone’s boat.

An Open Conversation About Workflow

Andy Williams (Executive Producer, DIVE division of Shooters Post & Transfer) discussed the workflow involved in making and releasing a film and preparing deliverables that digital and traditional outlets require. The process of making and releasing a film can be a complicated process but a clear workflow path can ease the pain and reduce anticipated costs. In this session Andy took questions and comments from the audience and provided advice and suggestions. There were several questions about the new Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) specification for digital theaters and Andy said mastering for this is a pain in the ass, it adds significantly to delivery costs, and you should do whatever you can to have the distributor pick up the cost if they want to release your film to an emerging number of digital theaters that are using this standard. So much of the DCI standard is about piracy protection rather than digital distribution, so it’s complex as a result. Standardizing on your video and audio formats for finishing your film in post and knowing what your deliverables are going to be will help you streamline your workflow and reduce costs.

Related post

On a related note, take a look at my post Distribution in the Digital Age for various lists of interest: Resources for independent filmmakers, Good blogs to read, Organizations, and start-ups doing interesting things, Related articles and interviews, and a list of industry publications.

Embed and Spread
<center> DIY DAYS SF - The Art and Science of Crowdsourcing<br /><br/><br /> <embed src="http://blip.tv/play/kG3NkzqIsVY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="370" height="325" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br/><br/><center> <a href="http://workbookproject.com"> fund, create, distribute and sustain</a></center>

David Tames over at www.kino-eye.com covered the event and provides some valuable insight into the day’s presentations.

The DIY Days Boston conference was held at MassArt on October 4, 2008. The conference drew a full-house of both seasoned and emerging filmmakers and media artists who came to learn about online tools, techniques, and strategies for building and sustating their audience. DIY Days follows an open source model, the conferences are produced with the efforts of the organizers, volunteers, and generous supporters like MassArt Professional and Continuing Education for the Boston event.

Lance Weiler said, “if there is anything that you find valuable [we ask that] you share with someone else, that’s the cost of admission […] embed it and share it.” Some of the gems from the conference include Lance’s suggestion (I’m paraphrasing) that “your movie is only a seed from which to build a community” and he is urging filmmakers to stop thinking of themselves as being in competition with each other and helping each other, creating a new community of sharing ideas and films and strategies from the ground up, this is what the Workbook Project is all about. Slava Rubin of IndieGoGo put it in terms of DIWO (Doing It With Others). Here are some of my notes from the sessions.

Part one
Part two


Marie Lamb from ARGNet attended and found striking similarities to issues faced by game designers.

When I heard DIY Days was coming to Boston, mostly I was looking forward to reconnecting with filmmaker, Alternate Reality Game enthusiast and ARGFest Boston speaker, Lance Weiler, (Hope is Missing and Beyond the Rave) and maybe getting a scoop on his next project. While I did get to do all that, I also got to meet some incredibly talented independent filmmakers, culture researchers, and writers, and participate in a great discussion not only about independent filmmaking, but also about the future of media and technology.

DIY Days is an offshoot of Weiler’s The Workbook Project, and is paired with the From Here to Awesome Film Festival. All are grounded in his commitment to open-source filmmaking, mentoring and encouraging creativity and helping independent filmmakers to finance, distribute and promote their projects inside and outside of traditional media channels (but mostly outside). Weiler’s partner in DIY Days is Arin Crumley, co-creator of indie film/YouTube phenomenon, Four Eyed Monsters.

Read More

On Saturday we held our last DIY DAYS event in the US until next year. It was a day full of workshops, presentations and round tables. We’ll be posting various audio, video and power point files in the coming weeks. All the content is open so feel free to embed and spread.

DIY DAYS Boston opened with a conversation with Todd Dagres. Thanks to Scott Kirsner over at CinemaTech for recording and posting the conversation. We’ll be posting the video soon.

Todd has produced several independent films (including the Sundance entry ‘TransSiberian’ this year), but he is best known as a venture capitalist who funds start-up companies like Veoh, EQAL, Twitter, and Next New Networks. Our conversation focused on how TV is changing… the as-yet-unproven business models of Internet video… financing and making independent films… how distribution is evolving… and why the word “community” ought to replace the word “audience” in your vocabulary

Listen Now

And big thanks to everyone that helped us to stage four DIY DAYS events (LA, SF, NYC, Boston) in the last four months. We’re in the planning stages for next year so if you have suggestions on where we should hold events, speakers we should include, projects we should cover, ways to improve the events or if you’d like to volunteer to help make an event possible we’d love to hear from you.

This event is FREE thanks to Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Professional and Continuing Education, From Here to Awesome and the Workbook Project

DIY DAYS - fund :: create :: distribute :: sustain
How do we sustain ourselves as filmmakers and storytellers in this day of shifting film distribution systems? How do we monetize our film and get the word out without studio support? Presented by MassArt, From Here to Awesome and The Workbook Project - DIY DAYS aims to answer these questions with a day of roundtable discussions and workshops: A look at how to fund, create, and distribute and sustain.

SPECIAL SCREENING of FROM HERE TO AWESOME FILMS
Friday, October 3, 2008
Tower Auditorium
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
621 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Directions Link: http://massart.edu/x474.xml
7pm to 9:30pm

DIY DAYS CONFERENCE
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Trustees Room, 11th Floor Tower Building
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
621 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Directions Link:: http://massart.edu/x474.xml
10am to 6:30pm

Event schedule:

10:00
DOORS OPEN

10:15 to 11:00
AN INVESTOR’S PERSPECTIVE ON INDIE FILM AND DIGITAL MEDIA
Todd Dagres has a unique perspective on the funding of film and digital media. As a founder and General Partner of Spark Capital, he’s led Spark’s investments in Veoh Networks, Menara Networks, Verivue, EQAL, Covestor, Tjet, and Intune Networks. Mr. Dagres’ Entertainment and Media endeavors include establishing two film and television production companies (Prospect Pictures and Ealing Studios) that together have produced over 10 films and TV shows since 2003. He has also been involved in the production of several films including Pretty Persuasion (2005 Sundance Film Festival) which was released by Samuel Goldwyn and Sony Pictures Entertainment and TransSiberian (2008 Sundance Film Festival) which was released by First Look Studios.

Fireside chat - Todd Dagres, Scott Kirsner, Lance Weiler

11:00 to 12:00
IF IT DOESN’T SPREAD, IT’S DEAD: CREATING VALUE IN A SPREADABLE MARKETPLACE
Xiaochang Li and Ana Domb from MIT’s Convergence Culture Consortium look at how media content spreads in the current landscape and how the audience engages with it. Moving away from the “viral” metaphor that strips the user of its agency, they examine the shift away from a “sticky” model to a “spreadable” one. This notion of spreadability is intended as a contrast to older models of stickiness which emphasize centralized control over distribution .This presentation is the result of research project developed over the last year with Dr. Henry Jenkins.

12:00 to 12:30
SHOW ME THE MONEY – Slava Rubin
As today’s global financial markets struggle, the U.S. presidential candidates are raising over $1,000,000 a day online in sub $1,000 contributions from individuals. In other industries, companies like Prosper, Kiva and Sellaband are eliminating the middlemen and democratizing fundraising as well. The secret is crowdfunding and fan participation. Through a direct connection (i.e. social networks, email, distribution outlets, blogs, house parties, twitter, chat) and a call to action, each case study is converting niche audiences into their fundraising and promotional base. “Show Me The Money” discusses the trends, the tools, and the companies pioneering DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) Funding and Filmmaking. From widgets to VIP perks, this presentation is for the independent artist interested in engaging their audience to raise money.

12:30 to 1:30
LUNCH

1:30 to 2:00
THE ERA OF DIGITAL CREATIVITY: OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES - Scott Kirsner
We’re living in the era of digital creativity: ideas can take shape and reach audiences with unprecedented ease. The tools of production and the channels of distribution have been democratized. And yet… the old forms — half-hour TV shows, hour-long dramas, 90-minute feature films — don’t seem like they work quite as well in this new environment. What forms and story-telling strategies will replace them? How will creators build audiences for their work, and earn a living?

2:00 to 3:00
MODERN FILMMAKING- Arin Crumley
What are the new story telling tools? How can technology enhance the creative process. What new styles and techniques of filmmaking are now possible? What are the new ways to create collaborative films? What does it mean to be a director immersed in a reality in which everyone has a camera and is their own director? What’s the potential for two way filmmaking conversations between creators and audiences? How does this new media landscape effect the timing of how content is ideally released, democratic availability to all and being sustainable for the creative teams that play a role in making these new films?

3:00 to 4:00
NAVIGATING THE DISTRIBUTION DIVIDE – Lance Weiler
Much has been written about the erosion of the independent film business over the last year. We’ve seen the shuttering of various distribution companies, poor box office for specialty films, a reduction of shelf space - not to mention the complete saturation of films in the market due to the democratization of the tools. We all know the problems, but where are the evasive new business models? How does one advance beyond first mover advantage, marketing gimmicks and press hooks? Where are the models that can be operationalized and developed into real options for all filmmakers? We’ll look at the traditional, hybrid and DIY opportunities.

4:00 to 4:30
NETWORKING BREAK
Members of the audience discuss and share the projects that they are working on.

4:30 to 5:30
FROM HERE TO AWESOME FILMMAKERS ROUNDTABLE
Join From Here to Awesome filmmakers for a discussion on how social media is working for them. How has the FHTA experiment changed the ways they think about making and releasing their films? What have they learned from “day and dating” their films?

Discussion leader Arin Crumley - Roundtable: Matt Von Manahan, Zeke Zelker, Raffi Asdourian, Javier Prato, Fritz Donnelly

5:30 to 6:00
BRAINSTORMING SESSION – David Tames
Can giving something away lead to a profit? David Tames opens up his strategy for releasing his latest doc Smile Boston Project. The film profiles artist Bren Bataclan and his hybrid model of giving away artwork for free and how it has lead to a profit. In this special brainstorming session David layouts out his releasing plans and welcomes audience feedback.

6:00 to 6:30
AN OPEN CONVERSATION ABOUT WORKFLOW – Andy Williams
The process of making and releasing a film can be a difficult process but a clear workflow path can ease the pain. What do you need to know and how do you best prepare for the various formats, transfers, and deliverables that digital and traditional outlets require. This open session will take examples from the audience and break them down step by step and provide suggestions.

Parking details:

Park in the Ward Street lot

MassArt is at 621 Huntington Avenue. Boston, 02115

The Tower Building is on the corner of Huntington and Evans. It’s a modern thirteen story tower. Hard to miss in the area. The Ward Street parking, however, is tricky to find.

The Ward Street Parking Gate will be open Saturday, October 4th
from 7am until 2pm. THIS MEANS THAT YOU JUST NEED TO ENTER BETWEEN 7am and 2pm. AFTER WHICH YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE AFTER 6PM.

Here are detailed directions for people driving to the Ward Street lot:

COMING WEST ON HUNTINGTON AVE
If you’re traveling west on Huntington Avenue towards MassArt, as you pass the main campus on your right, take a left at the light onto Longwood Avenue, crossing over the trolley tracks. Go straight to the stop sign and turn left, then immediately turn right onto Ward Street. MassArt’s parking lot is short distance ahead on the left. See the Google Map of the area if you need visuals.

COMING EAST ON HUNTINGTON AVE
If you’re traveling east on Huntington Avenue towards MassArt, right at the light onto Longwood Avenue, then a quick left and right and you’re on Ward Street. MassArt’s parking lot is short distance ahead on the left. You can’t turn right onto Ward Street from Huntington avenue, so if you miss the intersection, you’ll have to take a long loop around the blog. See the Google Map of the area if you need visuals.

We’re looking for volunteers to help with the events. If you’re interested please contact us at info [@] workbookproject dot com

We need the following:

1. people to help with setup, collecting tickets, registration, breakdown and cleanup
2. folks with cameras and audio gear to help document the events
3. editors to help edit, encode and upload the footage
4. live blogger to document the conference

DIY DAYS is headed to NYC. We’re in the process of finalizing plans for a different format. This time around we’ll be holding a dinner with a collection of interesting guests from various industries. The conversation will be documented and streamed live. Stayed tuned for more details.

Meanwhile content from SF will be filtering out across the web in the coming days and we still have quite a bit to share from LA. In LA, Robert Greenwald gave the following opening keynote. For more on Robert and his work visit www.bravenewfilms.com and www.robertgreenwald.com

Embed and Spread
<center><b>DIY DAYS LA - Robert Greenwald - Opening Keynote</b></p> <p> <embed src="http://blip.tv/play/kG3E_AyIsVY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="255" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> <br/><br /> <a href="http://workbookproject.com" mce_href=”http://workbookproject.com”>fund, create, distribute and sustain</a></center>

Current TV, From Here to Awesome and the Workbook Project

SAN FRANCISCO
Sunday, August 17th
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
http://www.111minnagallery.com

Schedule for the day

10am
Doors Open / Registration

10:30am to 10:50am
INTRO: Open source filmmaking
An overview of the current landscape presented by Lance Weiler

11:00am to 11:30am
CASE STUDY: The Tribe
Tiffany Slain on the production and distribution of her short .

11:45am to noon
CONVERSATION: What are you working on?
Open discussion & networking

Noon to 1pm
LUNCH

1pm to 2pm
ONE ON ONE: War Stories
Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and Caveh Zahedi (I’m a Sex Addict) have a candid discussion about the process of getting their films made and distributed. What really goes on behind the scenes? Join us as Arin and Caveh compare battle scars.

2pm to 2:15pm
CONVERSATION: What are you looking for?
Open discussion & networking

2:15 to 3:15pm
PANEL: The art and science of crowdsourcing
There is power in the crowd. When they rise up they can fund, create, distribute and promote. But how do you turn an audience into an active community where members become collaborators? Panelists: Slava Rubin (indieGoGo), Skot Leach (Lost Zombie), Jason Harris (Mekanism), Bryan Kennedy (Mobmov.org), Blair Erickson (Millions of Us) Discussion Leader: Lance Weiler

3:15 to 3:30pm
BREAK

3:30 to 4:15pm
CASE STUDY: Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer on the production and distribution of their feature.

4:15 to 4:45pm
ONE ON ONE: Cinema and the singularity
Exponential growth of technology has brought on a paradigm shift in the nature of cinema that has yet to be fully understood. How can we anticipate changes in the coming years, and what can media artists do to take an active role in innovation that shapes the art and business of storytelling?
Brian Chirls and Jerry Paffendorf discuss.

4:45 to 5pm
CONVERSATION: How can you help?
Open discussion & networking

5:00 to 6pm
PANEL: Content is King but are the outlets and services listening?
As the landscape changes new outlets and services are emerging. With so many choices what is a filmmaker to do? But most importantly what are they going to do for you? The system is in flux and there are no rules. This is your chance to let your voice be heard: have a say in how outlets and services think about working with you and for you. Panelists: Scilla Andreen (indieFlix) Alex Afterman (Heretic Films), Sara Pollack (youTube), Tom Hicks (Caachi), Saskia Wilson-Brown (Current TV), Mark Rotblat (TubeMogul) - Discussion Leader: Arin Crumley

6:15pm
BAR OPENS

6:15 to 6:45pm
HOT SEAT: M Dot Strange
M dot Strange takes to the hot seat to go one on one with random people from the audience.

6:45 to 8pm
SPEECH BLITZ
Attendees stand up and talk for 3 minutes to offer their insight on how we take the industry “from here to awesome.” In other words, what’s broken and how do we all fix it?