When it comes to small fry, Cloud South Films is inanga.
We’re one unpaid, married couple, some willing adult kids and an occasional intern. It would be fair to say we value every cent we bring in.
So when we were approached by Michael Bloom – who claimed he was an iTunes producer with all the right connections - we were pretty excited.
Bloom explained his ‘special relationship’ with iTunes very clearly. Most importantly he claimed he could get us on the front page. Of iTunes! This was huge. Our fortunes were made.
He just needed the cost of digitsing up front. We scrapped together the US$1500 (it was really US$4000 but he liked us so was helping us out).
We had a 24p Master of This Way of Life made at our expense. We shipped it all of…. And you can see where this is going right? Straight into the Las Vegas version of a Nigerian scam.
Of course iTunes had never heard of him. No digitizing ever took place. His address was dodgy. There was no ‘special relationship. There was just a couple of fools and their money waiting to be parted. If you’re reading this Mr. Bloom – there’s a special place reserved for people like you. Hopefully a long way from sitting ducks like us. Oh the joy of independent filmmaking.
And in other news: If you’re in Auckland Sunday 4th September get the girls together and make an afternoon of it. http://www.missrepresentation.org/auckland.html
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SIMPLE CINEMA(c)
Simple Cinema is a book on effective, low-cost filmmaking from your founding idea all the way through to the marketing and selling. For a while it was called Frugal Filmmaking and before that: ‘Kamikaze Lighting for the Low Budget Cameraman - a socio political manual on the Etiquette of the Film Set.’ (I kid you not).
The first half of the book is all the techniques and ideas Tom has learned and developed from over 30+ years on film sets all over the world. It’s fair to say many were squandering their big budgets while he was quietly squirreling away ideas on how to do it differently. The delightful and amazing The Insatiable Moon was made for an insanely low budget using Tom’s techniques. By the way – catch it on Rialto Channel Beginning 20 August at 8:30 p.m
The second half is all about what to do with your independent film the day after you close the edit room door. It’s not the fastest book in the world to write. But stay tuned as we will soon start offering snippets and anecdotes gleaned from our experiences (see iTunes above).
FOTON RELEASING
In our spare time, in addition to producing our own films we also dabble in a little theatrical distribution in New Zealand of others films. We’re still just finding our way in this complex arena but one thing is for sure: New Zealand has a whole raft of really great, committed and skilled boutique, digital cinema operators.
So far this year we’ve released the totally wonderful US made doco Queen of the Sun
And the great NZ doco Sam Hunt, Purple Balloon and Other Stories.
In September we’ll be running with the amazing, heartfelt warm fuzzy doco Steam of Life.
We love this film. If you’re in New Zealand call your local independent cinema to make sure they’re screening it. You don’t want to miss it.
THIS WAY OF LIFE and OTHER NEWS
After the iTunes debacle we got serious about VOD and Streaming. It’s a complex and fast moving area. Onlinefilm.org came to our rescue. Run by filmmakers for filmmakers they have transparent, no cost systems and share profit equally with filmmakers. If you’d like to download the film for 8 Euros or stream for 24 hrs for 6 Euros click here..
They are also hosting One Man, One Cow, One Planet
This Way of Life recently screened on Maori TV. It was one of their highest rating Sunday features – rating higher in the repeat than it did in the first screening. 178,510 viewers tuned in to the first screening on 22 May and 247,050 viewers tuned in to the repeat screening on 5 June. We love MTS by the way. They scheduled the film with integrity and respect and this was repaid with audience support.
This Way of Life in Official Selection at the 8th Annual BendFilm Festival October 6 – 9, 2011!
This Way of Life screening at the Webster University Film Series, St. Louis' on September 2, 3, & 4.
Looking for a great, totally unique HOBO camera? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=396258853&permanent=0
BE THE CHANGE!
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