Broadband Jungle Blog

filmmakers 2.0

Younger viewers increasingly lose interest in television, and so networks and cable are trying to engage what’s left of them on broadband. The result is yet another opportunity for finding your way into the business: FX recently ran an online competition soliciting comedy pilots on MySpace to which 3000 people uploaded quite ambitious submissions. The best 20 were featured on the site for about a month, the winner gets $ 50,000 to produce a professional pilot that the network apparently plans to consider for series pick-up.

With audiences eager to watch and money at stake, it’s no surprise that the next generation of professional filmmakers is ready to roll out: Recently, Ring My Bell, World Of Wonder’s brilliant daily call-in broadband talk show, introduced Little Loca, a colorful 18-year-old East LA resident who’s managed to find a cult following with her video blog-style shorts that she’s been posting on YouTube.

And since wizkid David Lehre woke up the industry with his myspace : the movie, some Internet discoveries were brought into the network fold: the Lonely Island gang went from quirky internet sketches straight to the big time at SNL, and Carson Daly signed 20-year-old Brooke “Brookers” Brodack to a talent / development deal fresh off of YouTube. Her whimsical pieces now routinely reach more than half a million viewers.

It’s possible that the Internet experience has already created a new kind of storytelling at the movies as well: The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down, a slick low budget first feature by commercials director Paul Sapiano about Hollywood’s Cahuenga Boulevard bar and party scene, premiered at this week’s Los Angeles Film Festival. It’s built like a website in cinemascope, with multilayered graphics standing in for chapter marks that almost leave you with the feeling that you’re sitting there, in the auditorium, your hand on the mouse, clicking your way through the fast moving storyline.

A sign of things to come?

filmmaking 2.0

In the digital world, you no longer need to go to school in the big cities to become a filmmaker: Anyone can access research, distribution and a supportive community through the Internet.

One of the best web communities in this regard is TriggerStreet.com, an initiative started by actor-director Kevin Spacey’s company after they were flooded by thousands of unsolicited pieces of mail from aspiring filmmakers. TriggerStreet is relaunching this week with a new sponsor (Budweiser) and an expanded offering for its currently 150,000 members: You can post screenplays and short films (and soon, according to their newsletter, novels, plays and short stories).

Members are encouraged to review each other’s films and screenplays, and after a certain amount of posts you’re allowed to upload your own labor of love to the site in exchange for critique from the rest of the community. Very involved members eventually make it into the into the upper echelons of “TriggerStreet Academy” – I shall report should I get there.

Current TV also has its TV academy, only theirs is staffed with some of the best storytellers in the business. Their website offers film and writing classes with Robert Redford, Catherine Hadwicke and Dave Eggers. Not bad for the first network to fully integrate viewer-generated content into their programming.

With viewer-generated content heating up the web, competitions and festivals to showcase mobile and Internet films are popping up like mushrooms: The Huffington Post hosts the ongoing Contagious Festival, American Express introduced the 15 Second Clips Competition at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, The 48 Hour Film Project goes online courtesy of BitTorrent, Current TV co-sponsors the VC2 Competition with IFP and even AOL just launched the open ended Festival de Cine Corto.

What could be next?

Johnny Staccato @ Trio

“Trio” was always the favorite channel I couldn’t watch because my cable company wouldn’t carry it. I used to drool over bootlegged tapes and programming grids of what seemed to be a great combination of arts and culture-style programming with some pop references and Hollywood history thrown in. A little bit like the old Bravo before running commercials spoiled everything. Trio promised to be the missing link between A&E and IFC, and they went at it with a refreshing attitude.

The cable network died a slow death, though, in spite of some inspired original programming and promotional blitzes after the takeover through NBC Universal. Shows from the vaults were added but couldn’t help generate the momentum to cross over and Trio was finally cancelled at the end of 2005.

But it instantly reincarnated as Trio Plus, and it may be the first professional broadband Television network around. And it’s better than ever, only now everyone on the planet can watch if they like. A visit is well worth the trip, because in addition to the under-stacked “originals,” “interviews,” “comedy” and “shorts” section, Trio veteran Brilliant But Cancelled got its own channel, and that’s where they hide the precious stuff.

Buried between episodes of EZ Streets, Delvecchio and Touching Evil you can find Johnny Staccato, the 1959 TV series starring John Cassavetes as a crime-solving Jazz piano player in a Greenwich Village bar. He had been shooting and editing his first picture “Shadows” in between TV and film parts since 1957, and the TV show presented a welcome opportunity to go west and pay off some of the debt incurred.

The episode available is “Tempest,” co-starring a beautiful Elizabeth Montgomery, with a pulsating jazz soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein. 39 episodes were apparently ordered and shot in 1959, with Cassavetes involving himself in rewrites and ultimately directing a total of 5 installments.

A treat for anyone who’s interested how the Master managed to make a living while inventing Independent Cinema on the side. Go, Trio!