This month...

February 2012

Oscars 2013: Independence Day

85 years since the first Academy Awards ceremony to grace Hollywood, films not typically attached to the behemoths of movie financing entered onto screens worldwide and vied for the Academy's blessing.

It once again raises the question, where is the line drawn between the mainstream and conventional in movie-making spirit?

As Screenwrite/director John August puts it: "There’s a reason the word “independence” so often shows up in proximity to “revolution” — a shared spirit of frustration, anarchy and apple-cart-upsetting."

Give Indiewire Tambay A. Obenson's article a read and decide for yourself!

Did your Oscar faves do as expected?

July 2012

On connaît la chanson

Cine-Karaoké 2012 von festivalpariscinema

Yes, French people love a good sing-along. 

Yes, French people love a good movie.

And yes, French people love a good party.

Lucky for them, then, that they have Ciné-Karaoke! Taking place in the realm of the Paris Cinema IFF in the halls of the beautifully decorated CENT-QUATRE, this year's event was a real success. The audience enjoyed a happy mix of cult musical movie scenes, from Marilyn Monroe in 'Some like it hot' to Renee Zellweger's hilarious 'All by my seeeeeelf' solo in 'Bridget Jones' Diary'.

Name it ciné-karaoke or movie quiz, making people sing and play together often proves to be a both social and fun way to enhance a cinematic experience and have your audience (re)-connect with cult movies, with each-other, and with their local cinema: you!

Der Himmel über Berlin

via Stefanie and (c) by Pierre Wolter http://pierrew.de/Photos/Photo/7468503554

This is how you go viral.

This story starts with Pierre. He captures a picture of last night's lightning bolts ripping through the Berlin skyline. The picture looks great and is spotted by @lana74, who tweets it to her followers. One of them is my colleague J. who doesn't sleep much and also finds it great. It's past 3am when he posts it on Facebook. The next day, the picture has already been "liked" and shared by hundreds of people. "How exciting", J. thinks. He gives it a push (J. is in the social web at home) by posting it on one of his Facebook fan pages. Today the picture has been liked over 10.000 times, shared over 5,000 times and commented on (!!) by more than 500 people.

Here is the URL of the picture on Facebook.

I like this story because it unveils a nice parallel between social media buzz and thunder: mysterious, a bit scary and quickly gone. 

June 2012

Holy Motors / © Pierre Grise Productions

LE cinéma found a home in Paris, and celebrates with the 10th edition of Paris Cinema IFF. Taking place from June 29th until July 10th in several Parisian venues such as MK2 Bibliothèque or SylC cinema partner Grand Action, this year's festival chose to honour Hong Kong cinema and will open with a selection of more than 90 Hong Kong movies in the presence of Johnnie To.

Paris Cinéma has grown as an ambitious event over the past 10 years and offers Parisian independent venues a prestigious showpiece and Parisian audiences an alternative cinematic experience. Star singer Kylie Minogue will be presenting Leos Carax's intriguing work Holy Motors and special events such as ciné-karoké will be hosted in the innovative cultural space CENT-QUATRE. 

And yes, the current Paris Cinema IFF provides us with another excellent opportunity to talk (again) about Holy Motors, which was our undisputed favorite at Cannes.

 

May 2012

Amour, Gloire et Haneke

Et de deux! After The White Ribbon in 2010, Amour gives Austrian Director Michael Haneke his second Palme d'Or. Although the movie did divide French critics it was largely praised by Cannes' international audience.

Amour will be released in the Autumn in most European Countries...will you go and watch it?

Where do you go to my lovely?

We? Oh! Nothing, we just paid a short visit to world' little famous Cannes Film Festival. More about it soon...

Allez HOPE!

*Goodbye the dwarf, ndt 

This is the end. French vote has given rise to many parody visuals and comments inspired from the movie world- a few of them going viral as relayed on the web2.0 by social media society observers and trend setters. 

On the same note, check out the closing credits ofa bad French B-movie (Any resemblance to real facts or people is purely coincidental).

Newsletter April 2012:

Hi Friends and Partners,
take a walk on the Support your local Cinema side !

France : Elections, Cannes, and mobile app
It does not feel so good to be French this week, and I know what I am talking about- however, I have some nice news for my friends on the other side of the Rhine.
Our iPhone app is being developed and we are preparing our launch in France at the moment! The first cinema which should get it is lovely parisian venue Action Christine. Hopefully it should be ready for Cannes next month. French cinemas, it is NOW the moment to get in touch if you are interested by our mobile app!

Highlight on...

Have you heard of Transmedianext? A bunch of experts- among them SylC beloved former coordinator and independent film director and producer Rachael Castell- offer an immersive training course for experienced media professionals in the art, craft and business of storytelling for the 21st century. It takes place in London 14th - 16th May 2012 and if storytelling has ever appealed to you, this is the moment to sign up ! Read more here and look here for the Facebook event.

SylC only makes sense with its wonderful partners. We are proud to count among them CICAE- doing an amazing job supporting European independent film in general. They also offer a training courses for exhibitors in Venice this summer. Film, sun and fun: we warmly encourage to get in touch.
Finally, we would like to present The Other Cinema, the latest initiative by the founders of Future Shorts and Secret Cinema. Please have a look at their website, they are fantastic. If you have read my blog post about my great night out at Future Shorts Spring Festival in Berlin and absolutely want to host a screening in your venue (which I can only recommend)- you know how to find me: lea@moviepilot.com

Online Survey: what do your app users say?
Okay, so we got the results. Thank you to Casino Aschaffenburg, Kinobar Prager Frühling, Abaton, Zeise Kinos, Schlachthof Kino Soest and Universum Kino Braunschweig for distributing the survey to your audience. Unfortunately, “only” 40 users took part, but they gave a first interesting insight on the use of the app.
So the good news is: 88% of the users are satisfied to very satisfied with their app, and only 3% are not satisfied at all. 97% consider the app as very reliable!
To read the complete summary of the survey, please join our SylC app beneficiaries group.

What’s à la page auf dem Website?

If you are NOT a native english speaker, here comes the moment of truth: we are trying to make this site a lovely place for everyone. We created landing pages dedicated to French and German content, which we are willing to develop in the future.
Also, you may have noticed the small chat window at the bottom of the page. At some point we hope you come and talk to us- and to each other of course!

March 2012: in France

I was in beautiful Paris two weeks ago to meet Franck Ciochetti from Action Christine cinema. A nice place to launch our mobile app in France, since according to Franck, even Woody Allen likes to stop by in the traditional Parisian venue for a good screening when he happens to be in town.

During my trip, I brought back some images... why not have a look!

Please get in touch if you are interested in our iPhone / Android app for your cinema in FRANCE or in the NETHERLANDS, it's not tool late. Get in touch! lea@moviepilot.com

February 2012

...we were at the Berlinale !

Berlinale is over, long live the Berlinale.

So long! 10 days of movies, parties and meetings. And this is, in short, what SylC got awarded with.

Opening different doors

Thank you! For those of you who came and participated to our gathering and workshop and to those who visited us at our moviepilot HQ offices during the festival. It was a pleasure to meet you! 
With the great input of SylC apps’ pioneer, Traumpalasts and Passage Kino Hamburg cinemas’ director Andreas Baumann and iOS (Apple developers’ operating system) developer Eno (Enrico) Thierbach, we were able to gather useful feedback and come out with thoughtful solutions to user’s complaints. Here is the summary of the session. For those who could not attend it, please feel free to add your ideas and thoughts.

Asking your audience*

To get to know our apps’ users better and getting YOU quality feedback about your app, we have put together this online survey to distribute to your audience.
It’s available in English and in German. We tried to make it as short as possible, but we need your help pushing it through. We would really appreciate it if you could advertise this link online, on your website, in your newsletter, in your social media feeds. 
The more answers we will receive, the better we will be able to optimise the app and prioritise its improvements. 
The participation is anonymous and obviously we will hand over a detailed summary of the results to each cinema promoting it to its audience :)

Did we say “parties and movies” before?
The Berlinale is a great opportunity to attend inspiring events, such as the Berlinale Talent Campus’ talk on cross-media story telling- the summary of which you can read here. But it’s also a fantastic choice of very neat parties. 
Thank you Future Shorts for organising one ot the nicest ones:

Future Shorts Party in Berlin from Future Shorts on Vimeo.

I won’t tell you anything new, but here is the list of awarded movies. 
As far as I (Léa) am concerned, I have been slightly disappointed, having seen “only” The Flowers of war- somehow too cheesy for a war movie, Bel ami which I disliked as much as I enjoyed reading the book (= a lot), and Jayne Mansfield’s car, a movie that I would definitely have appreciated more if I had little more sleep and less wine the night before :)

image credit:

* Tidstjuven

** Undead

...we are workshopping our apps during the Berlinale!

and you are warmly welcome to join us !

There will be apps and cakes and co. 

The pic comes from here-

And I found it in Laurencesometimes' very inspiring blog.

January 2012

... we are changing the cover picture on Support your local...

I found this pretty image in We <3 it amazing visual database recommended by Nicola Sinclair.

... we are discussing Transmedia / Crossmedia / multiple platform narratives (and so on and so forth) and how the changing face of storytelling is having a positive effect on cinema

 

 

 

According to Jesse Schell (who I bet has the longest list of job titles including the word ‘game’ in the world), games are set ‘to subsume all other media’. So, as the advocates, exhorters and merchants of a key contemporary media - film - what does this mean for those of us who work in cinema?

 

Perhaps it is best to start the debate by turning to an expert...  Michel Reilhac is currently Executive Director of Arte France Cinéma and Director of Film Acquisitions for ARTE France and he blogs extensively about Transmedia for them. In a recent post he outlines his understanding of the potential of Transmedia to impact our experience as exhibitors and viewers of film:

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Just because everything is different does not mean anything is changed

Transmedia is about storytelling and experience design as a new artform. It is not a technique , it is a creative approach, potentially using the whole array of technologies and crafts available today in the field of culture , the arts, information and entertainment by inventing new interfaces and interactions among them. It challenges us to look beyond the traditional practices and definitions of our jobs in a much wider encompassing approach for tv, cinema, visual arts, performing arts… It embarks us into new directions and mindframes, exploring uninhibited hybrid ways of  transcending reality, which is what truly art and entertainment are all about. Transmedia is a way of mind.

Storytelling is a fundamental human need, as essential as eating, drinking, sleeping and lovemaking. It is the seed process that has generated all artforms.

The ways of addressing this need of escaping or transforming reality are constantly evolving, adapting to the technologies of our time and place. The current way to tell stories is done through films, books, performances, art exhibitions… Gaming is the most recent form in the mix. And internet, having become a household commodity, just as electricity and running water are, opens up endless options to combine all elements into unique interactive experiences, building alternate reality worlds for individuals and communities.

In the two or three years to come, a transmedia project will set the standard and have the same impact on the entertainment and audiovisual industry that Big Brother had years ago by inventing reality tv.

As transmedia and gamification are becoming buzzwords in the process, how do we reconcile our fascination for new concepts, new electronic gimmicks and constant internet innovations , our general craving for “new” and “fun”, with our longing for meaning, depth and relevance ? Where is the current trend of blurring the lines between reality and fiction, between audience and creators, between interaction and passive viewing, taking us? Why is the soon-to-come advent of transmedia as a new art form so exciting and why does it make sense to get involved?

A few thoughts and examples will be my contribution to this exciting rare moment when a new language is being shaped into reality by all of us whether we want it or not…

Michel Reilhac

November, 21^st, 2010

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As this exciting trend gathers momentum, we are looking this month at how the transmedia world of gaming is infiltrating the world of film and cinema, and ask: what does this mean for the future of our art and our work? Are our cinemas set to become huge living rooms filled with zombified teenagers plugged into alternate worlds? Or are we simply continuing our ancient tradition of storytelling and embracing new ways and means to share our narratives on a diversity of platforms?...

 

Links and information

 

What is cross-media?

Perhaps the most authoritative and information voice on the transmedia, cross-media scene is that of professor, analyst, consultant and all round transmedia guru Christy Dena. Her website Universe Creation 101 is a treasure trove of information about transmedia. For a direct hit, check out:

Resources

Terms, genres and formats

Terms, genres and formats visualised

 

Jane McGonigal : Gaming can make a better world

In this video, Jane McGonigal, PhD explores how alternate reality games could potentially improve real lives and solve real problems.

From the TED Conference Feb. 2010, Longbeach, California

 

Flatpack Festival, Birmingham

Rachael Castell looks at the diversity of cross-media content on offer at the surprisingly delightful Flatpack Festival.

 

Power to the Pixel

Power to the Pixel is a company helping international filmmakers and the film industry make the transition to a cross-media digital age. See their website for articles, videos and links to information about transmedia.

 

The Next Film Revolution: Crossmedia?

At the talent campus of the Berlin International Film Festival 2011, experts met to discuss film in the era of the internet. One major question that everyone was asking was: are future films going to be forced to become ‘interactive’ and include elements of video games to keep young people fascinated with cinema? Ricarda Saleh takes a look and asks whether ‘crossmedia documentaries’ are a sign of things to come…

For the same article in German: http://supportyourlocalcinema.com/profiles/blogs/crossmedia-der-film-der /

 

Michel Reilhac: blogs

As above, Michel Reilhac has written extensively on this subject in his blog.

 

COMING UP...

 

Filmmaker and social media advocate Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) will be sharing his experiences from a recent DIY Days event at which some of the latest technologies and trends were investigated and discussed.