David Lynch has just worked out a deal with French production company Studio Canal to self-distribute his low budget, experimental DV feature Inland Empire in the United States and Canada. As part of the deal, Lynch will retain all the film rights and he will collaborate with theatrical and home video partners to launch the film later this year. Producer Mary Sweeney comments: ``Basically we learned a lot from our experiences with The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive... There was a lot spent on P&A. Those experiences, the new technologies of digital distribution available today, along with David's completely avant-garde attitude towards life make this the right film at the right time for this approach." I anxiously await to see how the release is handled on both theatrical and home video fronts. Neat.

(via diyfilmmaker)

There's no denying the success of YouTube... Alexa puts it as the 10th most visited website on the internet. [in case you're wondering, DV Guru is about 13,000]. With all that success, many pundits around the web said YouTube was Web2.0 Napster and would likely see the same fate, but they've come through and proved all the naysayers wrong. Now that they're nearly legit, with only a regulatory hurdle away, the $1.65 Billion company isn't being sued into oblivion, but instead striking content deals with big media companies.

While the site was worth $1.6 Billion to Google, and the big media companies feel like they've got a place to distribute their content online to the masses, what does the deal mean for indies? The impending sale doesn't affect independent content creators as much as it does big media, but there are defininite advantages for the independent content producer. Read on after the break for a breakdown of today's transaction.

8BIT is an independent documentary about video games, art, and music directed by Marcin Ramocki and co-directed/produced by Justin Strawhand. I got a chance to interview Justin about the project just before it premiered Saturday night at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

First things first, how did you come up with the idea to make a documentary about video games?

The original concept for the movie came from Marcin Ramocki, who is credited as director. He runs a very cool new media art gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and for almost five years has had this group of musicians who use hacked Nintendo Gameboys to make music performing there. He became very friendly with them, and they had a discussion at a local bar one night about documenting this totally new and unique scene.

I see you used a DVX100a to shoot with. What led you to pick this camera over others?

I chose the DVX100a after a lot of sweat and research. I had shot extensively on both the PD-150 and XL1 previously, and while I like both cameras for their different capabilities (the PD-150 gives a very cinematic image, I think, and the XL-series is the past, current, and future king of low-cost ENG) I was really intrigued by the customization capabilities of the DVX, as well as the whole 24p thing. We planned from the beginning to treat this project as something that would be a success, that would go to the theaters, and come hell or high water, we went ahead with that goal in mind. So, I shot it in 24PA, with an anamorphic adapter, and had to fix the framerates for the 60i stuff, much of which was archival footage, as well as various grabs of games, artworks, and demos going back as early as 1950.


See the trailer after the break.

It seems like a lot of great things begin in garages. Apple started in a garage. So did Google, and HP. Many of my favorite bands also first rocked it out in their garage. With the sheer number of garage success stories (have you ever heard of a company starting in a garage and not making it?) it's no wonder John Munro wants to start a studio in his.

Studio 380 in Nevada City, California (weird huh) is poised to become a veritable media mecca for video, photography, and other creative projects. Set to open next month, the 1600 square foot space (more a commercial garage really) features a green screen, Sony digital cameras (the article didn't say which) and both Mac and PC editing bays. The studio will also feature a full compliment of lights, and miscellaneous equipment.

Studio 380 is a good example of a growing trend in the production biz. When I was younger, Salt Lake City (my hometown) really only had 3 places capable of doing television quality production work. Now, all three have disbanded, and their former employees have branched out to form a dozen smaller companies. These days, television quality production can happen in a garage or basement. The lower cost of equipment, cameras, and editing suites make it affordable for upstart studios to become a reality. These new smaller shops can operate more affordably, and pass those savings on to their client.

Don't get me wrong, there will always be a place for big studio work. But many production houses tend to adopt a "smaller is better" mentality, and Studio 380 is a fine example of that. Now they just need someone to design them a website.

Click READ for a link to the Union News article.

Adobe thinks it is important for kids to develop multimedia skills in the classroom, along with selling units of Photoshop to eager kids. That is why they've announced the Digital School Collection. The bundle, aimed at K-12, featuresPhotoshop Elements, Premiere Elements, Acrobat, and Contribute. Included for teachers are lesson plans and tutorials to better integrate digital learning with their curriculum. When I was in school, we never had audio/video courses but if we did, I believe I would have found my calling earlier. Digital content creation is an important skill to have because this technology is becoming more prominent in our lives everyday. And it is about time we see a big push in digital media; the teachers have a lot of catching up to do since the kids seem to pick up digital video/imaging like the ABCs. Just check out YouTube, MySpace, and these kids for example.

Did/do you have video courses at your school? What are they like?

Licensing pop music for big productions makes sense since they have the budget for the big fees. But what if you plan to make only 11 copies? ZOOM hopes to address this problem by making music licensing feasible for small productions. To start off, you buy credits which gives you the rights to use the song for "personal use" for up to 25 copies. If you plan on broadcasting your production, you're out of luck for ZOOM doesn't cover that. More credits can be purchased as needed depending on how many copies you plan to make. The advantages of licensing music is to give you legal protection for being sued due to copyright infringement. ZOOM deals with all of the nitty-gritty details like getting approval from the record label and the publisher which can be a long and grueling process. The site is expected to go live in early October (um.. any day now?) and is in talks with EMI Music Publishing. So if your client insists they just have to have that song, ZOOM will make both of your lives easier.

Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom hope to merge TV and the web with their new project codenamed The Venice Project.

"People love to watch TV. They love professional storytelling by people who know what they are doing. And people love the Internet, because of the choice and the social qualities. We are trying to bring the best of both worlds together," Friis said.

The premise is simple; combine the interactivity of the web with TV in a system designed for content owners, advertisers, and consumers. Unlike YouTube or Google Video, there will be no central server hosting the content but rather using peer-to-peer technology, like previous projects Skype and Kazaa, The Venice Project will stream content to viewers. Friis and Zennstrom are shopping the idea around to small, medium, and large media companies in hopes of getting full length professional content on the network. Of course, anyone will be able to contribute video and use this new medium to grow their audience. Should be interesting time come November when The Venice Project is set to go live.

Amateur videographer Alex Favin records his friends doing skateboarding and break dancing after school. An independent entertainment company was looking for action videos to be streamed to cell phones and stumbled across Alex's MySpace page. This has propelled Alex into beginning his first feature film, XYZ backed by private investors. The kicker -- Alex is only 17! Talk about a lucky break! The Philadelphia Weekly ran a cover story about local youths who are going big thanks to the Internet and the whole social community aspect. Thanks to the internet, there are more and more opportunities to go independent with less risk than receiving backing from Hollywood. Take these kids' example and go for it!

Macsimumnews.com believes the iTunes store should open up to Indie Filmmakers, just like they have for Indie music labels. Currently, only movies from Disney and its studios are available on iTunes. With movies flying off the virtual shelf on iTunes, I am guessing more studios will join in the fun. It only makes sense on Apple's part to include Indie films. I have to admit though, the iTunes store interface still bugs me -- it is slow, search capabiliites are not accurate and there is no way of stumbling into finding something great. For that, you have to rely on your web browser. However, iTunes is becoming a mall onto itself where consumers are already shopping for stuff which is unlike other movie download sites so including Indie films could be real benefit to the filmmakers.

CustomFlix is a subsidiary of Amazon that allows companies and individuals with original video content to produce and sell customized DVDs through the CustomFlix website. The service has recently announced their plans to allow users to make their content available as digital downloads through Amazon Unbox. Pricing details have yet to be announced, but this opens up some new possibilities for independents looking to get their stuff out to the public through a pretty major retailer. Unfortuntely, Unbox's reception has been a little sour, but this is still a potentially useful gateway for increasing indie exposure.

(via CinemaTech)

Joe Swanberg is a notable independent filmmaker I've been following for a little while now with significant interest. His no/low budget, DIY, and totally self-reliant filmmaking style is what really attracts me to his work, and although I have yet to actually see any of his features (missed the recent LOL screenings in New York, and Kissing on the Mouth is on my GreenCine rental queue), I can still say I respect what Swanberg is going after. A director, editor, and photographer, Swanberg shoots with a single video camera (Sony PD-150), and uses nonprofessional actors and real settings. This all-in-one, use what you have, low key style of filmmaking is exciting and invigorating, and something I personally and specifically respect. There are a number of great interviews with Swanberg up on the web that are worth reading, the latest offered up by FilmThreat. If you have any interest in DIY filmmaking, filmmaking on the cheap, or anything remotely like that, give him a looksee. His official website features several shorts that will give you an idea of what he has to offer. Swanberg has made some headway with his first two features, with Kissing on the Mouth receiving an official DVD release from Heretic Films, and LOL making nice rounds on the festival route, and his recently completed third feature, Hannah Takes The Stairs should hit festival screens in 2007. UPDATE: Here's a podcast interview, via The Flux!

With so many social video sites wouldn't it be nice to search through all of them in one fell swoop? Scoopvid sure thought so and developed a swift, minimalist search engine to do just that. Scouring Grouper, YouTube, MSN Video, AOL Games, Ourmedia, ROOTV, BBC News, iFilm, and others, Scoopvid finds the videos matching your keywords. The service is built using open source code (which we like) and uses AJAX to minimize reloading and wait time. All the important meta data like runtime, rating, and description are included to help you narrow down your results. Truly a great service for the online video-holic. And it is a good thing they're good, otherwise we would call them Poopvid.

The South by Southwest Film Festival is quickly becoming one of the top festivals to run in the US. The festival has received an increasing amount of exposure in recent years and is now open for submissions for the March 2007 event. The festival is accepting both shorts and feature length films in multiple categories. Submission fees vary from $25 to $45 and you only have till December 8th before the final deadline. If you have a work in progress or finished film which you are looking to get some serious exposure for SXSW is a must on the festival scene.

Engadget has a how-to on making a simple sound mixer. It get a little technical and you will probably spend some money. And you will need some tools like a solder and decent work table to do the work, but it is a great way to learn how to build something or how something is made. I seriously wish I had a spare life where I could tinker around with this stuff.