Apr 27 2010

(Social Media Expert PanelHollywood, CA)  This year’s Los Angeles Showbiz Expo took place last weekend, April 24-25, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. While the actual exposition was smaller than in years past, I found the real value to be the wide range of workshops offering valuable insight by industry veterans. One such workshop I attended and found especially valuable was titled “Social Media for Film & TV.” The panel was moderated by Robin Rowe (Co-founder| ScreeenPlayLab , COO | MovieEditor.com) and Gabrielle Pantera (Co-Founder | ScreenPlayLab, Executive Producer | Gosh!TV) and included the following impressive ensemble of entertainment industry social media experts:

Jeff Ragovin (CRO | Buddy Media)
Jan Coleman (Executive Producer | MTV’s “The Buried Life”)
Todd Greene (Consultant | MovieSet)
Linda Nelson (Co-Founder | Nelson Madison Films/Indie Rights)
Adam Armus (Executive Producer | NBC TV’s “Heroes”)

The workshop experts offered a nearly constant stream of social media “takeaways” that can be used by anyone interested promoting themselves or their project online. Below are my top 10 list of “takeaways” from this session:

  • Create an online presence from day 1 of your project! It is never too early to start building a fanbase.
  • The Facebook page for your project should be separate from your personal profile page.
  • Let go of your content! Let people get involved that otherwise would not.
  • Build an audience and the sponsors (read: money) will follow!
  • Social media feeds are proving to be a more accurate predictor of box office revenues than more traditional methods (http://mashable.com/2010/04/02/twitter-the-killer-box-office-predictor-2/)
  • Use social media to let others tell their story!
  • Advertise on Facebook. It is very targeted and cheap!
  • With the disappearance of middlemen it is now up to you to find the target audience for your project!
  • Millennials gravitate towards authentic prosocial action. The key word is authentic!
  • Find a “voice” for your Twitter feed. Use separate Twitter accounts for different voices.
  • Feedback from social media can act like a focus group and may be used to help direct your project as it is being developed.

Yes, I know there are actually 11 items here. I threw in the last one for free! Good luck on your next project. Just remember to go out, go online and BE SEEN!

Jason Waterman
CTO & Co-Founder | FilmEmerge

http://www.filmemerge.com

Apr 06 2010

The latest  news that ‘Spiderman director Mark Webb is consulting with Cameron himself on how best to use 3-D.

Just a month ago,  ‘Spider-Man 4′ was going to be a conventional sequel, with director Sam Raimi and Tobey Maquire  still attached, and that Raimi, inspired by ‘Avatar,’ wanted to make a film with unusually elaborate — but not 3-D — special effects.

You may also recall that Sony abruptly scrapped this story idea as too expensive and time-consuming, parted ways with its expensive director and star and hired the bargain-priced  Webb who agreed to make the new movie in 3-D.

Both Raimi and the studio wants the next Spidey to be more like ‘Avatar’ but they didn’t agree on what that meant. To Raimi, it meant extra spectacle for the audience. To Sony, it meant the audience should pay extra to wear spectacles.

http://www.filmemerge.com

Feb 11 2010

By Jessica Nunez | MLive.com

February 08, 2010, 10:49AM

First came the gigantic film tax incentives, then came the phone calls.
“Hello, this is Drew Barrymore (or Clint Eastwood, Jason Reitman or some other lucrative actor/director) and I want to make my movie in Michigan. How do I get those tax breaks?!”

They may not have spoken those exact words, but Hollywood did come calling in 2008, and Michigan is still attracting a healthy number of both small and large feature film productions.

Just look at this list compiled by the Michigan Film Office as evidence: before 2008, Michigan averaged about five feature films per year. In 2008, there were 31; and in 2009, 35.

In anticipation of booming business opportunities, scores of Michigan entrepreneurs announced they would be breaking ground on massive new film studios (See: Unity Studios in Allen Park, Raleigh Studios in Pontiac,Hangar42 in Grand Rapids) and that these studios would in turn provide massive amounts of new jobs for the cash-strapped Mitten State.

So far, the future looks bright for Michigan’s film industry. Recently, Detroit was number eight on Movie Maker magazine’s list of 10 best cities in which to be an independent movie maker.

But is there a potential for failure when so many people are banking on Michigan’s film success just two years into the experiment?

Steven Wild, president of Grace & Wild, a 25-year-old Hollywood-style production studio lot in Farmington Hills, says he thinks the Movie Maker magazine ranking is a good sign.

“That’s probably the first time Detroit has ever made a list like that,” Wild said. “And the more resources we supply as a state and a region, the more films will come here.”

And while Grace & Wild has had something of a monopoly on Detroit’s film business up until now (they have credits on many of the recent high-profile films in the area including “Trust,” “The Irishman,” “Stone” and “Prayers for Bobby“), Wild says competition would be welcome.

He even compared Michigan’s film industry to fast food.

“If you’re going to get off the freeway to get something to eat, are you going to stop at an exit with one restaurant, or a bunch of different ones?” he said.

“People want options, and the more options and resources we have in Michigan, the more films we will draw.

Jonathan C. Rayos

CEO | Executive Producer

FilmEmerge

http://www.filmemerge.com

Aug 24 2009

Updates on the emerging studios for SE-Michigan

Written By: Jonathan Rayos | Category: News | Comments : 0 comments

Raleigh Michigan Studios – Wonderstruck – Unity Studios Allen Park

Even with the unwanted front page news of one of financiers for Raleigh Michigan Studios – the Pontiac studio financed by A. Alfred Taubman, Linden Nelson, John Rakolta Jr. and William Morris Endeavor – Ari Emanuel has arranged the $75.8 Million required to break ground in 30 days on ten soundstages to be ready for summer 2010 according to Steve Lemberg, CFO of RMS.

Jimmy Lifton’s Unity Studios in Allen Park while delayed from its June groundbreaking continues toward the October opening of The Lifton Institute and the initiation of the bond issue needed to fund the land purchase. A ground breaking event is scheduled for August 27th.

Wonderstruck Studios, which was formerly announced to take shape at the temporary MGM Grand facility may be considering other locations.

Jonathan Rayos
CEO | Co-Founder FilmEmerge