I attended the Fearless Filmmakers last night. If you didn't go, here is a summary of what you missed:

The preview for Darkon got some MAJOR laughs. I can't wait for this to come out.

The Sleepy Eye crew were there with their latest work called 'Buzzkill'. The production was good, but it could easily have been cut in half (literally turn it off right in the middle), and made better. The movie hits the punchline, but drags that dead dog of a joke for another 4-5 min. Too long of a short? I guess you could say my attention span is that of an A.D.D. teen after a 6-pack of Red Bull.

Smokin Yogi Films showed the trailers for the pilot episode of 'Abnormally Normal'. I hated it about fifteen seconds in, and it went on for another ten minutes, the longest damn trailer I've ever seen. Makes me wonder how long the movie is. Maybe it just felt like ten minutes. I wanted to say that people with emotional problems shouldn't make movies, but then we wouldn't have movies. I also don't want to say that people shouldn't work out their emotional bullshit on film and pan it off as art, because we have got great films that were motivated by suffering and loss. I think Spoon nailed the problem; 'Abnormally Normal' is a drama. I don't think dramas work well as internet shorts, and at the very least, they can't compete with comedy in this market.

Uncle Forehead Filmworks showed "Suspension" which I thought was awesome and artsy, but a little laggy. Tension was built up pretty well, but the length could have been cut back on this one too. Good effects and mood music.

Kevin Meyers showed "Intermural Glory" a really funny thirty second spot...that went on for ten minutes. I guess this one has done really well on the net. If you like mockumentaries then you will most likely like this. What tends to make or break these is the character personalities, and whether the actors can pull them off. If they can, then you have a hit, and that seems to be the case with Intramural Glory. I am amazed at the level of work that goes into this production, they are an actual intramural basketball team, that tours and is looking for a sponsor. Clever marketing.

SER International Corp was the sleeper hit of the night, Jesus Christ Action Figure (With Water Walking Action). It actually got him death threats. It also got him the biggest laughs with the audience. SER also showed a series of commercials for Butterfinger candy bars Excellent, although you cannot credit SER with these, they simply picked the best from those who sent in homemade commercials. Cheating, if you ask me, but they were really funny.

Melody Gilbert showed some spots for Best Buy which were made for the companies internal website. Strange I thought, and she agreed during the panel discussion, as she isn't an Independent Filmmaker by any means. The spots were auditions of Best Buy Employees trying out to be in Best Buy commercials. (Sorry, they weren't Employees, we call them Blue Shirts...) It is pretty easy to make fun of people put on the spot in front of a camera, but she is getting paid to do it...

Of course, the real reason to go to this Fearless was to see the premier of Ryan Wood's Fear of Girls 2. The first installment was a work of genius and a web cult phenomenon, which attracted the attention of networks and landed Wood the funding for Fear of Girls 2 as well as the launch of a comedy website later this year. Finally, a real success story about a great moviemaker who makes entertaining movies. From the Midwest. Wow.

After the films, the moviemakers held a panel discussion about the 'viral market'.
The discussion was disappointing for me. The pitch was that these people had a grasp on the viral market, and were manipulating it to make money off internet short films. When asked about how they did it, they said, "...Um, we just put it on the interweb, and uh...got lots of hits...then Hollywood called, and we partied with Kevin Spacey. It was cool..."

Thanks. I suppose that was helpful if you don't know what viral marketing is. It occurred to me later that they never did define or explain how viral marketing works. Since I already knew, it didn't bother me.

Not one mention of SEO, Technorati, or Digg. If you're trying to schlepp your .mov on the internet, then you better be a master of all three. As far as online distribution, they mentioned Revver, YouTube, and Google Video. That's it. But that is not all that there is.

All in all a good time, a few pits to spit out, but the fruit was worth it. I think what really set apart the good from the bad here was pacing, and Ryan Wood even mentioned it. Someone asked what the 'standard' length of a 'short' was, he said it doesn't matter so much if the pacing is correct. Amen. Online video shorts are new territory, and you can tell the moviemakers are having a hard time trimming their projects down. I think they need to have the mentality of advertisement commercial makers, but make sure they are boiling down a good plot into a short with good pacing, and leaves the viewer wanting more, instead of fluffing up a funny idea into a short that is way too long.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Hollywood, indie movies, movie reviews