Nisimazine monthly May 2008

NisiMazine *9 MAY 08

Cinema and the Internet

Editorial A

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dvances in software and computer hardware, increasingly developed video cameras, and internet sites where all kind of audiovisual works can be exhibited. These things combined have completely revolutionized the cinematographic industry.

The alliances between YouTube, Google and the big industries of Hollywood reveal how a few Silicon Valley engineers, who had nothing to do with the cinematographic world, have created the axes of a media revolution. A revolution which cannot now be controlled by the big corporations behind it.

These gradual advances in audiovisual technologies have been focused on simplifying their use and making them cheaper. As a result they are now more accessible - today it seems that to enter into the traditionally elitist world of cinema, the only thing necessary is to demonstrate a bit of creativity. Upload your work onto the internet, and if people like it they send it to their friends, who send it to their friends, etc.

Of course, lacking the support of big producers or distributors, most of these works disappear into the oblivion. Nevertheless, there are already examples of such works realised in the last three years (since the birth of YouTube) that belong to our collective memory. This f leeting art, wherein real artistic currents are probably passing unnoticed, makes the big magnates of the cinema industry tremble.

Many people say that true cinema will disappear, whilst both the TV and cinema industries are busily obsessed by the new market that mobile phones and ipods are bringing. Yet the only certainty is uncertainty - the internet is in constant mutation because the users are creating it from their own homes. Also, history tells us that the appearance of new art forms does not have to mean the disappearance of others. It is true that we cannot post files with very high image quality yet, and that everything is a bit chaotic at the moment, but the seed is there and it’s only a matter of time before it germinates into something. Into what? That is all in our power.

Agenda May, 14th-24th

Cannes (France) Nisimazine Cannes Film Journalism Workshop

May, 21 at 3pm st

Cannes (France) Carte Blanche NISI MASA at the 47th Critics’ Week

Julia Sabina Gutiérrez

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Next Issue...

NISIMAZINE 10 ~ June 2008 focus : Favourite European Cinema Theatres

nisi masa fRANCE IN THE SPOTLIGHT Portrait: Vasilia Debrova

Nisimazine is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-chief Matthieu Darras Secretary of the editorial Jude Lister Layout Emilie Padellec Contributors to this issue Atso Parnanen, Jude Lister, Patricio Lopez, Orkun Sahin, Esra Demirkiran, Štěpánka Červinková, Anna Wolbank, Julia Sabina Gutiérrez NISI MASA (European Office) 10 rue de l’Echiquier, 75010, Paris, France; Tel/Fax: + 33 (0)1 53 34 62 78 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

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Special Focus: Cinema and the Internet

In this issue Nisimasians give their thoughts regarding the Internet and what it offers for young filmmakers and enthusiasts. From ‘YouTube’ clips to location scouting, the web is the medium that keeps on changing how the game of launching, financing, producing, distributing and viewing a film is done today, and how it will be done tomorrow.

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In Search of a Faceless Crowd

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an you still remember the time before IMDB? Or actually sending a letter to a film company to ask for some specific poster that you wanted instead of taking part in a weekly competition of freebies on the website of the latest premiere? The Internet may well be the end of the passive audience, allowing for an interactive participation of sorts. Dozens of websites offer a chance for us all to become critics, and your personal blog can become a trouble or a blessing for the studios.

At best the Internet offers - or at least creates the illusion of doing so - a platform to participate and have your say.

The f lavours of the month, whether it be sites, blogs, networking areas or places to upload your production photos, contribute to an ever-increasing consumption of movie tie-ins. But what is the actual value of this, and what can actually be done with it while we dream of Blair Witch-like success stories?

In productions, the Internet does of course offer a valuable tool in beating time zones and keeping part of the production working whilst the other sleeps. It saves time and paperwork, and makes it easier than ever before to search for possible locations, as many film commissions have uploaded photos and maps onto the web. For a filmmaker, the contacts gleaned from the web may save thousands in pure cash. Instead of hiring a diver and equipment, I found underwater footage by posting to a diver chat board. The tool is there, now use it!

Atso Pärnänen

Q&A: Itxaso Elosua Ramirez

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txaso was a participant of the European Video Letters project, which involved exchanging audiovisual correspondences with a partner in another country, on the topic of “the border”.

All of the videos were sent via postings on YouTube.

Did it feel strange to you to correspond with an individual via a public medium?

Yes, because normally through sites like YouTube people maintain some sort of anonymity by using nicknames and false aliases. I guess that’s what makes them so free; you can place whatever you want on it and no one will know it was you - unless you want them to know.

Do you think that such «user-generated content» video sites are changing our perception of what ‘filmmaking’ is?

Nowadays everybody can film whatever they see happening around them and share it with the world. This is creating a whole new niche within filmmaking, and the film industry itself is starting to appropriate the language of such videos. Buzzes are created around new releases with virals and short teasers on these sites. Filmmakers experiment with images made with phone cameras. They look at the videos on these sites for inspiration, not only for ways to film but also to see what’s going on with their audiences. In a way, filmmaker-audience communication has never been more open than it is today.

One of your video letters featured yourself lipsynching to a Madonna track and dancing around your room.

It was connected to the theme of the project: ‘Borders’. Thanks to internet-based communication, we can put ourselves and our stories out there for the world to see - but at the same time we maintain the concept of borders on paper. To me this seems like a total contradiction. Art also has the power to transcend borders - to maintain freshness and dynamism you need to open up to new impulses from other people, countries, art forms... So I asked myself: why do we use the openness of websites like YouTube mostly to post videos of ourselves behaving like idiots? Does it have something to do with society becoming more individualistic? And what does this mean for the arts? Do we put our energy into these videos instead of looking around us critically?

Watch Itxaso’s video letter via the following link: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ks53oMV_EAU

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Special Focus: Cinema and the Internet

Engage them, the money will follow

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isco, the leader in Internet networking, forecasts that by 2011, 60% of internet traffic will be related to commercial video services. Indie filmmakers now have a wide range of untapped opportunities to explore. Distribution and marketing are affordable, when not free, and very soon they will be able to capitalise on their works.

Archaic television and film executives are coming to terms with the idea that convergence with the Internet is unavoidable, and are finally developing new strategies. This wave of new synergies started slowly, only a few years ago - due to copyright concerns and paranoia - but is going to have a huge impact on the way the film business operates, moving towards the world wide web’s «economy of attention» model (with so many possibilities, engaging audiences is all-important. Otherwise, they will just click away).

Undercurrents

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Bree aka lonelygirl15

At the same time, YouTube expanded its partner program to reward the most popular content providers, by sharing a part of the advertising profits.

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If you want to get noticed, you could always try replicating the phenomenon of lonelygirl15 - a fiction series about a teenage character that quickly seduced online audiences. People thought lonelygirl was a real person broadcasting her life, and when they found out the truth it appeared in newspapers all over the world. The creators now have their own company, and recently received 5 million dollars from private investors to keep on creating content. Combining a clever hoax with creative interactive content can sometimes pay off!

non-profit audiovisual organisation based in Oxford (UK), ‘Undercurrents’ is a prime example of using the Internet to bypass the mainstream controls of established news broadcasting. Not linked to any particular campaign group, it is tightly linked to protest movements of all kinds, focusing on bringing images directly from protestors to the general public.

«The news you don’t see on the news»

What began in 1993 as “a couple of frustrated TV producers and a handful of environmental protestors” creating an alternative news service distributed on VHS, is now a successful internet-based network and an online TV channel called ‘VisionOnTv’.

Camcorders allow activist filmmakers to penetrate easier into the action, unnoticed by police, resulting in the kind of footage that is rarely obtained by TV crews. Regular workshops provide basic equipment training, in order to improve image quality. In an interesting twist, mainstream media channels now regularly show material from Undercurrents members.

As there motto states: “You need more than eyes to see. You need Vision!” www.undercurrents.org

To illustrate this, let’s take some recent examples: in January, P2P movie site ‘Jaman’ signed a deal with TIVo subscribers to allow access to Jaman’s catalogue of independent films from all over the world. In April, CBS, the US media giant, established an office in Silicon Valley to develop applications for broadcasting their content.

Patricio López

Useful filmmakers websites There are a multitude of websites designed for independent filmmakers.

Here is just a small selection….

www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork The BBC’s community of young filmmakers. www.dvoted.net Nordic website for young filmmakers. www.kftv.com Production service handbook. www.shootingpeople.org Tips and tricks, resources.

www.filmmakermagazine.com The magazine of independent film. www.shoots.com The international production crew resource. www.filmmaking.net Info on all aspects of independent filmmaking. www.filmaka.com

Rewarding creativity... !

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Special Focus: Cinema and the Internet

Crowdsourcing: what the #$%@#& is that?!

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s time is a major issue in film production, the cinematographic industry (as many other industries) is naturally using the Internet to reduce its costs. But the interaction doesn’t end there. The web is also inspiring filmmakers to use alternative production methods - directed mainly towards computer-generated imagery and Internetbased networking. It’s no surprise then to see films shot in Greece, animated in Japan, coloured in Finland and distributed from Ireland. The Internet links production steps through its high-speed data sharing and information possibilities.

‘Crowdsourcing’ is a concept that was not developed by film producers, but adopted by them. Basically, it’s a method of bringing ‘seekers’ and ‘solvers’ together in order to complete a specific task. In filmmaking, this can involve all stages of the process - funding, production, distribution...

Crowdsourcing seems relatively democratic, and fair in terms of sharing the benefits of a production. However, in practice it may become more of a challenge than a labour-saving device. That’s why project directors will need in-depth planning and adaptation skills.

Crowdsourcing may not be always a low-budget solution to realise a project, but it is certainly an efficient way of discovering talents and gaining creativity.

One proverb says: “If you are good at the thing you do, the ones who seek quality will find you even you are working on a mountaintop.”

As cinema is an art form rather than an industry to me, then bless the Internet - a tool for digging up talents and f lattening the mountains.

More on crowdsourcing: www.cambrianhouse.com Orkun Sahin

Q&A: Petko Dourmana

from ‘Interspace’ InterSpace, based in Sofia, Bulgaria, is an association composed of artists, computer engineers and do-it-yourself media makers.

Its projects and artistic productions use new media tools and promote FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). InterSpace held a workshop on video blogs (Vblog) during the NISI MASA Human Rights and Visual Culture seminar in Ankara, Turkey in 2005.

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he Internet and tools such as mobile phones, ipods, etc. have opened up a new dimension in producing audiovisual material.

The cellphone is the so-called “fourth screen”, after cinema, TV and the computer. For InterSpace, being strongly focused on new media, mobile technologies and devices are interesting due to their unique qualities such as creating Personal Area Networks communication, producing and distributing rich content in pocket multimedia, and of course providing a 24-hour digital interface.

What is the importance of using FOSS for producing works of art?

The main advantage is its f lexibility and unlimited possibility to be customised. Something that can be done with a sophisticated and specialised proprietary software package can be done even better with a small and fast script that will use all the hardware resources available. The time when FOSS

was only for geeks is far behind us, and nowadays the user can decide between working in text console and very sophisticated graphical interfaces. These are central issues in one of our current projects - a training programme for open source multimedia tools (http:// tosmi.org).

What is the role of the Internet and new media in InterSpace's projects?

It’s of course crucial in terms of preliminary research, but I think this is common now for everyone. Otherwise, any space for experimentation with new technologies is very much sought after. In curated programmes spanning different art fields and media, it is not necessarily central for our partners and the artists, but is an open option that we are always glad to make a reasonable advantage of.

More info: www.i-space.org Esra Demirkiran

Latest news New Trainee at the European Office

María Blanco Negre, a 24-year old student of film directing at the CPA-Salduie in Zaragoza (Spain), joined the European Office in mid-April to start a 6-week internship.

CONTEST WINNER ‘Lily’ NOW FINISHED! Winner of the NISI MASA script contest 2005 (“Silence”), Lily is the debut film of Marianne Griolet from Sweden.

The narrative is divided into five scenes, including a special university lecture, an out-of-the ordinary house party and a cartrip which ends in a surprising way… In each section which we meet the enigmatic protagonist of the title, who seems to be the only one who understands the strange goings on surrounding her.

Amongst various other tasks, Maria will be assisting the European Office with two big projects: promotion of the script contest 2008, and creating our long-awaited database system.

A newcomer to our network, she is learning quickly with an intensive immersion in the world of all things NISI MASA. Welcome María!

NISI MASA’s 10th ANNIVERSARY 2011 may feel far away, but planning has already started for NISI MASA’s 10th Anniversary, which will most likely be held in Turku, Finland (European Capital of Culture in this same year).

We need YOUR IDEAS for possible events to help celebrate a decade of our activities! Please stay tuned for more information via email.

For more info about Turku, European Capital of Culture 2011: http://www.turku2011.fi/ public/?lang=en

Cinemambiente Call for Entries Submissions are now open for the 11th edition of Cinemambiente - International Environmental Film Festival, which will take place from 16th - 21st October 2008 in Torino, Italy.

Cinemambiente, organised by the National Museum of Cinema, represents the first and most important international event on cinema and the environment in Italy.

As well as screenings, the festival will include special events such as panels with guests and directors, exhibitions, shows and concerts on environment topics.

Submissions deadline: 30th June.

Further information on: www.cinemambiente.it

Food Project Lily was shot in Stockholm during the summer of 2007, over a period of four days. The film, which was also made in partnership with Film Stockholm and Fanzingo, was premiered on the 17th of April in the Kulturhuset cinema.

Kulturhuset is situated in the very centre of Stockholm and offers cultural entertainment and events in many forms.

Next stop for Lily’s screening schedule is the Cannes Critic’s Week!

Marianne gushed about the experience: “I have made a film, which I thought would never happen in my life! I have learnt tons about people, inspiring others, being convincing with your ideas and many, many other things”. *** For the June issue, send us your news ! jude@nisimasa.com

Things are advancing well for the planned NISI MASA ‘food project’ (working title: “A Matter of Taste: Cinematic Journeys through Food and Culture”).

The initiative will focus on a wide range of topics linked to contemporary food production and consumerism in Europe, inviting young filmmakers to submit short works showing their own perspectives.

In the main stage of the project, an official programme of screenings during a major European film festival will also incorporate a series of public debates and culinary evenings.

The European Office are currently seeking high quality, full-length documentary films related to the topic for the programme. If you have any suggestions, please let us know!

The plan is still awaiting funding confirmation, but will hopefully be launched this summer. ***

In the spotlight Some members Founded in 2004, the ‘Fresh Films’ organisation has already produced 4 years of the fastgrowing ‘Fresh Film Fest Karlovy Vary International Student Film Festival’, which focuses on promoting young artistic talents by all means possible.

The 4th annual Fresh Film Fest in 2007 presented 245 films from 27 countries.

Apart from film screenings, the FFF offers various complimentary events every year, such as workshops tutored by film professionals and media artists, panel debates on common topics, exhibitions, new media installations and lots of concerts by local and international artists.

Fresh Film Fest has been a NISI MASA observer member since March 2008!

Štěpánka Červinková Štěpánka is a student of film studies and EnglishAmerican literature at the faculty of philosophy at the Charles University. She also works as a member of the production team for Fresh Films and participates in the organisation of the FFF. Štěpánka cooperates with the cultural magazine ‘A2’ as a film critic, and is also currently coorganising a musical festival called ‘Prague Summer School Shakuhachi 2008’.

Jakub Felcman Jakub graduated both in film studies at the faculty of philosophy of the Charles University, and in scriptwriting and dramaturgy from the Prague Film and TV Academy of Art. He worked as a dramaturgist for the various film festivals; ‘Febiofest’, ‘Anifest’… Nowadays, he is Programme Director of the FFF, with which he has been cooperating since its first year. Apart from this, Jakub cooperates with the film magazines Film a doba and Cinepur as a contributor of reviews and film analyses.

Martin Pošta Martin helped establish the FFF in 2004, and is still its Director. He studies film production at the film and TV faculty at the Prague Academy of Art since 2002. After that, his activities included working as head of the Czech guest service department during the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, a cooperation with AniFest in Třeboň, and organising the student film festival FAMUFEST. He has also featured as an associate producer for the film project Pánská jízda, and producer for the debut film Marta. Recently his production company Fresh Films has been preparing a documentary entitled Czech RAPublic (now in post-production).

Radka Weiserová Born in Prague, Radka graduated in cultural studies again at the faculty of philosophy at the Charles University in 2005. Recently she has been working as Head of Production for the FFF, and at the same time as Programme and Production Coordinator for the Prague Short Film Festival.

Between 2000 and 2006 she worked for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the film industry department, and since 2003 has cooperated on several projects of the Institute of Documentary Film.

Pictures on the left from the top: Štěpánka, Jakub, Martin, Radka.

Thanks a lot to Štěpánka for preparing this spotlight;)

The 5th edition This year’s event will take place in Karlovy Vary from the 27th – 31st August 2008.

It will consist of seven international programmes, and films of all kinds can participate: The Official Selection, Competition international competition of student features and documentaries.

The Official Selection, Theatre Optique international competition for student animation films and free audiovisual forms.

The Fresh Generation international competition of first and second features (both student and nonstudent).

Competition of films from Central and Eastern Europe – student films only.

The Official Selection, Out of Competition - noncompetitive programme of recent student film work.

Fresh Classics - noncompetitive film programme consisting of several thematic subsections: brand new films by contemporary masters and evergreen classics by all-time mavericks.

Special programmes - programmes curated by invited institutions, workshops, seminars, presentations of authors, schools and companies working in the sphere of audiovisual works, as well as concerts and other accompanying events. *

www.freshfilmfest.net info@freshfilmfest.net

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Special Guest Nik Powell

A complementary interview of the April Nisimazine on European coproductions.

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he same innovation and energy that Nik Powell - legendary producer of films such as The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, and Ladies in Lavender, and cofounder of the Virgin Group - has brought to the British film industry (becoming one of its all time top producers) will no doubt today charge the National Film and Television School that he heads. Powell kindly gave some time from his busy schedule to talk about coproductions. He comes across as a person who wants to keep things moving, but is at the same time polite and straightforward. ~ Many say that there is more money available than ever before for co-productions. Does this really hold true?

Correct, especially if you compare it to the 80s when I came into this business, but it is also more difficult pulling the money together and getting the film to go into production.

There are more countries and regions with film laws, more money for shooting in specific regions. There is more state money available than ever before but probably less taxbased money than there used to be, less when it comes to the industry’s commercial money… the declining revenues of television companies is affecting pre-sales and also the number of banks that will loan money based on pre-sales has decreased.

The best experience of co-productions you have had?

Commercial co-productions - and out of those I enjoyed Crying Game the most. It did not involve co-production treaties, but 7-9 people from different countries who wanted to back a filmmaker. We benefited from money across Europe but there were none of the restrictions that the treaties and agreements can have.

How should co-productions and programmes be developed, especially with regards to first feature directors?

People are and have been modifying the laws. With the exception of the UK, it is easier to do co-productions than 10 - 20 years ago because most filmmakers and financiers are familiar with them. Also, changes in the European Law have made it possible for more of them to be done. The modification of treaties themselves is helping them work better than before.

Regarding first feature directors? Not in regard of coproductions. In some countries they make a lot of films with first time directors. It sounds good, but often is not.

90% of them will never make a movie again. In France they give many first time directors a chance to make a film early on, in Germany too. I just spoke to a director who was in between films for 12 years. Directors need to earn their wings before they can reach the high bars that cinema requires.

David Yates went directly to Harry Potter but he had directed in television for 15 years. In the Englishspeaking world we start with the approach that you should learn your craft first. In non English-speaking countries they have often had a different tradition because the history of television is different there.

In the UK, people have had the chance to do a lot of great work in all the different fields… theatre, radio, television, etc. But in other countries as well, many auteur directors come through a route like this.

Kieslowski directed theatre for many years before his first film. Hanneke had worked in TV for 10 years before his first film and Wong Kar Wai did action stuff for TV. What I would say is examine the route of the people you look up to. Practise is the key; often nowadays directors are not directing anything, they are not actually acquiring the skills or experience. It is important that young filmmakers-to-be do not sit on their arses, but practise all the time – in theatre, television or commercials – while they wait for the opportunity to direct their first film.

Will American/international studios get more involved with local productions and bring new opportunities for European co-productions?

They will when it suits them. If and when the international studios get involved, they do so for political or commercial reasons, to make money. In Germany the heads of their subsidiaries have been active in local productions. It varies around the world.

In Bollywood the share of Hollywood is small so they are looking for a share by joining productions in order to get a good return on the investment. Economics and exchange rates affect all this of course. At the moment the studios are aggressive with national films, and that is good.

Atso Pärnänen

Anna Wolbank

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first met Christian a year ago, at the KinoKabaret in Vienna. When it was decided that we would act together in a short film named Belmondo or The Art of Kissing, I had never spoken a word to him. Our challenge was to display all possible ways of gross kissing - so quite frankly, I became acquainted with him in a horrible match of acted tonsil tennis. The rest is Kino film history. Only afterwards did I actually get to know him.

I could now list his good character traits - that he is a very charming, curious-natured person with the most smiling eyes you can imagine; that he is a rather shy, cautious observer, who would nevertheless be taken up passionately with something, provided he feels it’s worth it; that he loves music and big cities at night, since it makes him feel he’s the only one around.

However, I thought it would be more revealing to tell his very own real-life adventure story. So let’s start at the beginning…

Christian grew up on the outskirts of Vienna, in one of those heavy, typically Viennese council housing blocks. In his youth he hung out a lot with older guys he knew from the local rowing club, which - besides an early interest in sports - also brought along excessive partying. At about 16, he got more interested in his current passion: acting. He has always been more into films than theatre, because - especially as a kid - plays would seem pretty artificial and often a bit too bourgeois to him. It was the heroes of action movies who inspired him and triggered the drive to act and live through strange new situations.

After graduation, he applied to several drama schools, which either didn’t work at the first attempt or just couldn’t fulfil his notion of what a drama school should provide. Actually, he found that many drama teachers select very specific characters in the first place - types that fit into the current standard of what an actor should look and behave like - or want to

© Francesca Cirilli

Portrait

Christian Ruthner (kino5)

reshape their students to fit into that mould, always subtly communicating that you are never good enough.

Moreover, there seems to be an unwritten rule that an actor is by definition an extroverted person.

Feeling a strong need to push things forward, he dropped out of the Viennese Schubert Konservatorium after only two years. He hoped to find what he had missed in Austria (action, intensive training, and experiences) in New York. He spent the summer of 2005 reading heaps of Shakespeare, and in September found himself attending the Circle in the Square drama school in Manhattan. Living in a 9m² room for 650$ a month, he still wanted to follow it through, feeling it was about time to make a daring step - otherwise he would regret it forever. What followed were months of intensive drama classes and studying, and a job in a shabby burger joint in Queens to keep his head above water. He nourished himself almost entirely on Asian instant noodle snacks, “because they were warm, they’d fill you up, and they only cost 50 cents.” After about 6 months however, he was so exhausted that he needed to stop, so he went back to Europe. He refers to his return as “unbelievably soothing”.

However exhausting New York might have been, he keeps saying that the months spent there were the most adventurous you can imagine. He describes the city’s atmosphere as a perpetual party; sometimes you are invited, mostly you are not, but still, you can always feel its presence. He refers to it by using adjectives such as “challenging”, “surreal”, “ frantic” and “cinematic” everything but real-life.

And currently? An active member of kino5 for almost a year now, he has been acting in many short films and some theatre productions. Moreover, he is going to play a leading part in an Austrian feature film, which will be presented in the course of several film festivals next year. Seems as if he’s making his way without letting anyone squeeze him into a mould.