Durban Wild Talk Africa Film Festival

Tomorrow is the early bird deadline for Wild Talk Africa, the international film festival and conference for the global wildlife, travel and cultural filmmaking industry. The 2009 Festival will run from 19 – 23 April 2009, at the ICC Durban in South Africa and offers a forum for networking, debating and negotiating with commissioning editors, distributors and producers.

With the support of the global wildlife, travel and cultural community, the second Durban Wild Talk Africa Festival, held in August 2007, attracted 480 delegates over the 4 day Festival with representation from 22 countries.



Full registration is normally R3000, but click here until 28th February to catch the discounted early bird rate.

Elance

As research for this blog, and for this project, I've been looking at the IT and Music (and other) sectors to try and identify a whole range of programmes that could be adapted for the KZN Film Sector.


Here's one that caught my eye that might work for us - it's called E-lance...... (like freelance, geddit?) As the blurb says:

Elance is an online workplace where businesses hire and work with qualified professionals to get work done. Elance facilitates the entire work process from hiring to collaboration to payment.

Businesses and hiring managers use Elance to find, hire and work with qualified professionals with specialized skills. Service professionals ("providers") use Elance to meet customers, produce quality work and get paid for doing what they do best.

In other words, not only could KZN producers crew up for their productions using local crew who've posted their resumes on the site, it also offers the potential for clients could seek proposals from local producers via the site......

The Vertigo Effect

Another top-ranking blog with great information for filmmakers is The Vertigo Effect.

Designed as much as a discussion forum as a straight-forward "This is how you..." blog, The Vertigo Effect nevertheless contains a broad range of useful information, tips, ideas and comment. How about this suggestion for a Filmmaking Mastermind Group? KZN Collectives anyone?

PS - The Vertigo Effect is a camera move made famous by Alfred Hitchcock, but also known as a Dolly Zoom wherein the camera simultaneously zooms in/out and dollies out/in. What the audience sees is a perspective change while the main subject remains the same size on screen. The technique can be used to heighten suspense and more recently for comedic effect.

Looking Back

A 1981 report on the possibility that one day we might read our newspapers (gasp!) on our computers.



I'm loving the tag line "It takes two hours to download the paper....."

Americans now watch more than 151 hours of TV a month -- an all-time high -- while those who watch video online consume another 3 hours of video per month, and those who use mobile video watch nearly 4 additional hours per month on mobile phones and other devices, according to a report from Nielsen.

The study also noted that men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and television more than men.....

Time of the Writer Festival

The 12th Edition of the Time of the Writer has announced its programme and the key participants for the Durban-based Festival next month.

With a line-up of approximately 20 new and established writers, predominantly from South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent, the Time of the Writer festival provides a stimulating platform for dialogue and exchange between writers. It's therefore an opportunity for aspiring filmmakers to gain insight into different kinds of creative processes and perspectives that writers undertake - which may in turn, assist in the creation of even better Durban stories.



Tickets are R25 for the evening sessions, R10 for students, and can be purchased through Computicket or at the door one hour before the event. Workshops and seminars are free. Contact the University of KwaZulu-Natal 's Centre for Creative Arts for more information on 031 260 2506/1816 or e-mail cca@ukzn.ac.za

Filmmaker IQ

Filmmaker IQ is one of the most thorough blogs I've come across when it comes to online tutorials for Filmmakers. Not only does it provide the kinds of information you can use to build your skills and expand your range of techniques, it backs it up with a ton of useful links to other pages, You Tube sites etc. about the same really good stuff. Take this page on Final Cut Pro, for instance. Gobsmacking amounts of information that there's now really no excuse for you NOT to know. Remarkable.

Film Industry Review Update

Just keeping you in the loop with the Film Industry Review process.....



We're deep into the detail on the project and recently issued two more reports to the DFO and KZNDED, including the Review of the Durban Film Office and International Benchmarking, and an Analysis of the Durban Film Sector utilising a Value Chain Approach.

As you know, the Partnership blogsite is updated regularly with news, links and interesting snippets, we're now rolling out the full Economic Impact Assessment phase of the project, and I’m back to KZN next week for a further round of consultation and meetings......

Reminder: don't forget to have your say via the Questionnaires listed at the site.

DVD Sales

Well, here's a grim piece of analysis from DMW: the retail trend in the current US economy is for consumers to only buy DVDs that have a huge marketed presence - ie studio blockbusters with big name stars. And studios are therefore now increasingly only funding movies that they know they can sell on DVD. A vicious circle. Bottom line for indie producers: as this trend trickles down through the industry, it will become harder and harder to find financing based on dvd-sale predictions.

Let's just hope that our market for African films has more in common with Nigeria than it does the USA.

Piracy

A few days back, DMW reported that the U.S.A is claiming victory over China in a World Trade Organization dispute over the country's protection of intellectual property, and the unauthorized sale of copyrighted and counterfeit goods in the country. Specifically, the WTO found that China is not living up to trade agreements by requiring that foreign movies and music be approved by state censors before they are eligible for copyright protection. It also took China to task for allowing counterfeit goods seized by authorities to be resold after simply removing the fake trademarks.



In South Africa, movie piracy is often seen as something that only affects Hollywood; bootlegged copies of the latest Spiderman don't really drive a lot of people to distraction (well, they might do, depending on how bad the copy is, I suppose)

At this point in time though, it's home-grown piracy that will kill our local filmmaking industry stoney cold dead; by selling well-known Hollywood films at low, low prices and by copying and selling on local films and thereby denying revenue to self-finded producers, a growing Durban film sector is extremely vulnerable to copyright infringment and piracy.

Taking the Nigerian experience again as an example; allegedly if a Nigerian film can't make it's money back in about three weeks, it won't get made. After that point, the bulk of the profit is siphoned off to pirates. How many Durban flmmakers can afford to work in that economic environment?

Financing your Film Business

As discussed back in December, government has only limited numbers of ways to finance films made by South Africans.

However, comparatively speaking, the government has provided for a whole range of financing opportunities for people who want to run their own businesses or to expand their businesses to become more profitable. The Education and Training Unit for Democracy notes that an important part of the national small business strategy is therefore to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs and small businesses to access finances. That means you can create business models that possible investors into your film products can trust and can believe in.

So here's the ETU list of some of the entities funding small businesses:



National
* Contractors Finance Corporation
* Business Partners (formerly the SBDC)
* Community Projects Funds - CPF-SP
* Development Bank of South Africa
* Industrial Development Corporation - (IDC)
* International Tourism Marketing Assistance Scheme - (ITMAS)
* Khula Credit Guarantee Scheme
* Khula Micro Credit Outlets
* Khula Retail Financial Intermediaries (RFIs)
* Khula Thuso Mentorship Scheme
* Sizanani Scheme
* Zimele

KZN
* FINCA
* FNB Momentum UYF Progress Fund
* Ithala Development Finance Corporation
* Khethani Business Finance (Khula RFI)
* KwaZulu-Natal Development Foundation
* Marang Financial Services

Let us know if you have any feedback.

New Media - Cellphones

In case you weren't completely convinced of the impact that cellphones will have in our lives - and in the way we promote and distribute KZN films in the not-too-distant future: according to a report from the GSMA, worldwide mobile phone connections have topped 4 billion, and are expected to reach 6 billion by 2013.Nearly 100 million of these connections are mobile broadband accounts.



The GSMA credited the integration of mobile into previously unconnected devices, and subscriber additions in emerging markets for the growth rate. And remember, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Entertainment Media Outlook: 2008 - 2012.

“those that will see the most significant growth are those segments who take advantage of the opportunities in digital and mobile.”

People's Music Store

I like to hope that one day the opportunities becoming available for music distribution will be adapted and adopted for distribution of film content.

Take People's Music Store as an example; it's an online site that lets music fans create and operate their own digital music stores.

Music fans design their storefronts, choose tracks from a library of over 250,000 songs, write their own reviews, and market their stores online. Storekeepers pay nothing to join and earn 10% of every product they sell as "reward points" that they may then spend on music. Imagine something like that for African films! KZN's large population gives us great opportunities for this kind of relationshiop marketing.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

And just because it's Friday:

Online Video Viewership

DMW notes a report from market research company comScore, that U.S. Internet users watched a record 14.3 billion online videos during December, an increase of 13% from the previous year. YouTube again leading the way with nearly 6 billion streams, or 41% of all U.S. video traffic. A record nearly 150 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 96 videos per viewer in December, with YouTube attracting 100 million viewers -- or two out of every three Internet users who watched video.

Behind YouTube, Fox Interactive Media(which includes MySpace) took second place with 445 million videos viewed (3.1%), followed by Yahoo sites with 330 million (2.3%), and Viacom Digital with 291 million (2%). Hulu - which served 241 million streams - claimed the top session length of the top video sites, with viewers watching an average of 10.1 minutes of video on the site.

Incidentally, Battle at Kruger - a wildlife clip of a battle between lions and crocodiles over a buffalo calf - has had more than 41 million views.....

FILM LONDON PUBLICITY FUND FOR BLACK FILMS

We're about to present our first couple of reports in the Durban and KZN Film Industry review to the DFO and KZNDED. As part of this slate of activities, we've begun looking at some of the most innovative and dynamic programmes used by Film Commissions and Film Offices around the world, which could perhaps be introduced in SA to change the dynamic for locally made movies.



Here for instance is a fund operated by Film London to promote and increase the impact of Black film exhibition in the city. It provides funds specifically for additional publicity and marketing support, in order to both raise the profile of Black film talent, broadly defined, and attract larger audiences, from across all communities.

Examples of fundable activity might include:
• employing a professional PR company or individual
• a targeted advertising campaign in the press, radio, print or online
• enhancing the PR and audience potential of an event by inviting a film-maker or film-makers to attend
• innovation in online marketing
• adding venues to an existing screening programme
• cross-fertilising an event by bringing in another artform, for instance adding a live music element to a film screening event
• creating and running an ambassador or similar community outreach scheme.

The Fund supports additional promotional activity only and really hopes to enable Black film exhibition activity to ‘punch above its weight’ in the capital’s crowded media market. In South Africa, where local films struggle to maintain a cinema presence and often sink without trace after a week, I thought this was pretty cool.

Informative Blogs (4)

Whilst we're on the subject of screenwriting, here's a really good site with guidance and information from a successful Hollywood screenwriter, John August. Mostly, he answers reader-submitted questions about the craft, but occasionally he goes on tangents that run far afield of writing and filmmaking. You'll also find info on past, present and future projects.

The best thing about John August.com, of course, is that Mr. August's input is really, really well written, entertaining as well as informative..... who knew?!? The discussion and comment forums are also interesting too.

Submit your Screenplay

I found this post on Craig's List, of all places.....

SOUTH AFRICAN SCREENWRITERS
Pavaline Studios doors are open for submission by talented screenwriters. Here's an opportunity to submit your scripts without a lawyer or agent. Also join the filmmakers network for free and become a part of a global film network with connections. Visit today at: www.pavaline.com


It's not easy to write a great script......but now it's easy to get it considered.

www.pavaline.com

E-Script

E-script is the meeting place on the web for scriptwriters of all kinds. Since 1996, they've brought screen & TV writers from around the world together with top film and television professionals in unique online courses and workshops.



So: do you have a screenplay you want to start, or finish, with professional guidance? Want to write a TV spec script? Or maybe you're just looking to learn the basics of screenwriting. Whatever your level of scriptwriting accomplishment, E-script aim to provide an A-list working experience.

Video Nation

Video Nation is a BBC project to capture stories by ordinary people from around England. It sounds just the kind of thing the SABC could look at to get South Africans involved and interested in the tools of production. In the mean time however, the site offers free on-line learning of various aspects of filmmaking. Topics include Lighting the Subject, Recording Sound and Filming Action.

Blogs on Independent Filmmaking (3)

Film Specific is a blog specifically intended to educate independent film and television producers on distribution. They provide the ongoing training and a suite of professional resources needed to succeed in the global content marketplace - some of the services are free, some aren't. They claim to have hundreds of independent producers in their global community who are educating and empowering themselves, and getting distribution for their films and programmes. Here's a snippet on the business of film.....

We'd all love to believe the world of independent film is all about art for art's sake, but if you were to ask any distributor what is the main motivation behind all their acquisitions, they would tell you it ultimately comes down to dollars. Pure and simple just like any other business. While the indie world is obviously more open to original ideas and fresh voices and that remains its true bread and butter, it is still a business and the rules of business apply.