Industry

 

Adobe Unveils Major Update to Creative Cloud (Press Release)

Adobe Unveils Their CC Line

Adobe today announced a significant update to Adobe® Creative Cloud™, the company’s flagship offering for creatives. Available in June and packed with new features, Creative Cloud reimagines the creative process through a stunning set of “CC” desktop applications and sophisticated cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities. Creative files can be stored, synced and shared, via Creative Cloud, on Mac OS, Windows, iOS and Android; and Behance…

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NAB 2013: AJ Wedding’s Recap (News)

Kessler Cinedrive

The latest trend is to reach out with the same cutting edge technology to both consumers and pros alike, offering near or exact versions to both target markets. No more highly publicized example of this is Apple’s move with Final Cut X.

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Best of Show Feature Winner Shares Itself Free of Charge (News)

BTSOTH Thumb

Long time readers of MicroFilmmaker doubtless remember Best of Show Winner “Behind the Scenes of ‘Total Hell’”, which received an 8.8 score from Kari Ann Morgan in her critique. To celebrate the release of the Collector’s Edition and give love to fans of Indie films everywhere, the filmmakers are streaming the Behind the Scenes of ‘Total Hell’ Mockumentary free of charge starting on Sunday, April 21st! To find out more….

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NAB 2013 Coverage, Day 2 (News)

BlackMagic NAB Cover

Blackmagic proves they are interested in the microfilmmaker market with a $1k cinema quality camera. Another exciting day of NAB sent even more great news for Microfilmmakers everywhere, with both production and post-production related gear hitting the block. This year is as crowded as ever, with a bevy of interesting people and their cameras both purchased and on loan from the various companies fighting for exposure (no pun intended) crossing the floor to test, shoot vlogs, and hope to purchase at some date within the year.

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Chris Folino’s ‘Sparks’ to Premiere in Silicon Valley… (News)

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Long time readers of MFM doubtless remember Chris Folino and his hysterical comedy, Gamers, which won a 9.0 in our Special Critique Category (for those who are technically over the $50,000 budget cap, but whose ingenuity pushes the creativity of Independent films). Well, Folino’s new film, Sparks, is about to premiere in Silicon Valley and he let me know about it so that I could pass on the info…

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Tweeting & Crowdfunding Success: Ed Burns Explains How He Used these new Technologies (Interview)

Ed Burns (Sundance 2013)

Sheri Candler interviews Writer/Director Edward Burns discusses the value of using Twitter to connect with his fans and collaborate with them on his projects…to a point. His next project, Winter Spring Summer Fall, is now in production with a Kickstarter campaign…

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The Magic of the MicroBudget: Sheri Candler talks with Edward Burns (Interview)

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Writer/Director Edward Burns sat down with us at the Sundance Film Festival 2013 to discuss why he loves the freedom that comes with microbudget filmmaking, the compromises that are involved when working with less money, why digital distribution interests him more than conventional theatrical, using social media (primarily Twitter) to reach his audience and why he enjoys it.

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Interview with Director J.R. Hughto at Diamond on Vinyl premiere, Slamdance 2013 (Interview)

JR Hughto Interview

Director J.R. Hughto discusses his entry into filmmaking from being a photographer and graphic novelist starting with making short films, his new microbudget feature Diamond on Vinyl, and how he views the sacrifices filmmakers have to make in order to work within…

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$70K Micro-Budget Film becomes First 3D Indie film to Premiere In Dallas (News/Industry)

Zero One Logo

Zero One, a science fiction thriller written and produced by Kareem Gray, will be the basis for a TV series now in development, The Zero One Mandate. The film, which revolves around a man who discovers a computer program that has the power to save or destroy humanity, has been screened at film festivals around the world. It won the Best Screenplay and Best Original Music awards at the Boston Sci-Fi Festival, and was named Best Film at this year’s Dallas Black Film Festival. Ticket Stubs Entertainment called it ‘hugely enjoyable for all ages.’ Now the original 2-D version has been converted into a 3-D movie experience by P3DHD, a Dallas company that is pioneering quick, high quality, cost effective conversions of conventional film and video into 3-D.

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Panasonic Announces New Pricing For 2/3″ cameras including Micro-Budget Friendly AK-HVF70G (News)

New pricing on 2/3" Panasonic Cameras!

Panasonic has announced system pricing and initial delivery date for its new AK-HC3800 studio camera system, featuring three high-sensitivity 2/3 type 2.2-mega pixel IT CCD sensors and a next-generation, 38-bit DSP (Digital Signal Processor) with 16-bit A/D converter.

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Micro-Budget film, Friggin’ Aliens, Unveils Community Film Initiative in IndieGogo Campaign (News)

Friggin' Aliens Banner

Friggin’ Aliens is the first feature film for Darringer Productions and they are trying something new and experimental with the ownership of their film. Darringer Productions has created something they are calling the Community Film Initiative. CFI is a program in which the cast and crew (including the producers and director) receive non-expiring percentage of ownership in the film itself. (While it’s not uncommon to allow content creators to receive a percentage of profits to equal sweat equity, this usually has a monetary cutoff level or an expiration date.) This allows them to make the movie on a micro-budget, but also does something that is important to David Whitaker, Eric Henninger, and Lori Henninger (who make up Darringer Productions), and that is that it builds community. Eric Henninger says, “This is about more than just making a movie. It’s about building a community of creative and talented individuals and giving them a platform…

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MFM Writer Mike Flanagan Completes Production on Intrepid/Focus Feature of Oculus (News)

Oculus Feature Cover

After Mike Flanagan’s masterful release of Absentia–which won best feature film at LA’s 2011 Shriekfest and was distributed by Phase 4 films earlier this year–his Oculus franchise was picked up by Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans of Intrepid Pictures for the major Feature treatment. (The original Oculus short is a cult classic that was made for $1500, garnered a 9.5 from MFM when it came out, and used a single room, a single actor, and a cowled mirror to strike fear in the heart of viewers everywhere.) Intrepid is a production company that seems to be taking a page from the origins of New Line and focusing on films that have very targeted audiences. While they’re most recently known for producing James McTeigue’s (V for Vendetta) film, Raven, starring John Cusack, they’ve also produced or presented such varied works as The Cold Light of Day, Crush, and Balls of Fury.

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The MFM Straight Shooter review to be unveiled… (News)

(Photo Featuring Lorra Whitescarver.)

Our filmmaker fans have long had a single request for an improvement here at MFM: film reviews! While we are very well known for our film critiques, which are aimed at helping filmmakers learn from their mistakes and improve their craft as filmmakers, the technical details which make these critiques so helpful aren’t as great for folks who want to get publicity on the film viewer side of things. As such, we will now be launching our Straight Shooter Film Reviews. A “straight shooter” is someone who doesn’t shovel manure, but tells you the unvarnished truth. These reviews will be all the things our filmmakers have said they want for publicity: short, non-technical, and designed for film watchers!

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Starlite Film Festival Announces Film Submission Deadlines (News)

Starlite Film Festival Logo

The second annual StarLite Film Festival announces deadlines for film submissions.

This one-of-a-kind micro-budget film festival promotes the screening and development of feature length narrative films from across the globe that are produced, shot and completed for a total budget under $200,000. Over the course of three days, the film festival will feature 8 hand-selected films screened at the Garden Theatre in historic downtown Winter Garden.

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GenCon 2012 – Day 1 Events (News)

Kevin MacGregor and Shari MacGregor with Figments of Your Imagination

GenCon’s tag line is, “The Best Four Days in Gaming”. They have earned every right to that tagline. GenCon celebrated its 45th convention this year and has plans to keep going another 45 and more. I’m here for three of the four days and I am having incredible fun time gaming, seeing great films, learning new techniques and tips, and meeting people.

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New Media Storytelling Breaks New Ground with First Paladin (News)

Peter D. Adkinson Starts New Foray into New Media with a Blast from the Past

Roleplaying games as visual media just took a step closer to reality with the launch today of a new website for hobby game players around the world. Now roleplayers have the opportunity to experience a Dungeons & Dragons® campaign in a whole new way: through a Web series hosted exclusively at www.thefirstpaladin.com. Viewers can watch The First Paladin™, a campaign being played with D&D Next rules, and see the game evolve dynamically as game master Peter D. Adkison and the players make their own choices. This new series is produced by Hostile Work Environment™, a new multimedia company owned by Adkison, the former CEO of Wizards of the Coast and owner of Gen Con®, LLC.

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