Archives For Shared Film Festival

Shared Film Festival at the Open Video Conference

BitTorrent —  September 14, 2010 — 1 Comment

Over the past few months we have worked with several indie artists to distribute their work via BitTorrent. As a company, this is something that we are passionate about, because we think there is great potential for artists to leverage the distribution economics of BitTorrent to reach a large and engaged audience to not only build a fan base but create a sustainable business

Shared Film Festival at OVC is Open to the General Public

model that allows them to create future works. We are encouraged by the results that we have had with VODO on the Pioneer One and The Yes Men Fix the World – P2P Edition releases, and most recently with PAZ’s mixtape “Young Broke and Fameless.”

So, in conjunction with the Open Video Conference (OVC) we are excited to launch the Shared Film Festival (SFF). The festival will bring notable films from creators who are experimenting with alternative media models and distribution to the big screen. The filmmakers will be on hand to present their stories, experiences and business approaches. SFF gives creators and audiences alike an opportunity to engage in a larger dialogue about shared culture and peer-to-peer distribution with other filmmakers, creators, funders and members of the general public not yet familiar with this rich, developing culture.

Each night following OVC, we’ll screen a short film, a feature length production, and then sit down to a discussion with the filmmakers, learning about the stories behind the films; their production experiences; and business strategies. We are excited to announce that The Yes Men will be in-person to screen their film during the first evening. On the second night, we will be screening a new film, “Person of Interest,” and the writer/star and director of the film will also be on hand. (The full schedule is below.)

So, as if the event could not get any better, we are opening it up to the general public for FREE! We are very excited about this event, and hope to see you there!

Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, 7 p.m.

 

Saturday, Oct. 2, 2010, 7 p.m.

  • VODO Short Film – Lilah by Nathaniel Hansen
  • Full-length feature: Person of Interest by Gregory Bayne
  • Panel
    • Gregory Bayne, director of Person of Interest
    • J. Reuben Appelman, writer and star of Person of Interest
    • Moderator – Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre and former CEO of Tribeca Film Institute
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First Ever ‘Shared Film Festival’ in Korea

BitTorrent —  June 14, 2010 — 2 Comments

Last week in Seoul, Korea the first ever Shared Film Festival occurred. The event was organized by Creative Commons Asia; HyoJung Sun, a shared culture activist and researcher; and myself (Jamie King), founder of VODO (a BitTorrent partner). It brought together filmmakers from all over the world, including Brett Gaylor of RIP! and others who’ve shared their work through the VODO and BitTorrent platforms. The filmmakers were there to meet local Korean audiences, showcase their productions, take part in Q&As, and of course, party!

The event kicked off in style with an appearance from Lawrence Lessig, founding board member of Creative Commons, alongside Deckard Choi from KODIFI, a Korean film organization, and filmmakers from the festival. The speakers introduced the audience to the benefits of a shared film culture, and how they’re getting increased exposure towards new business models that can sustain indie film production.

The idea of the Shared Film Festival is to bring free-to-share films that have already been distributed online to the attention of local audiences by promoting shared culture and the films and filmmakers involved. Around this core concept, the event also invited Korean filmmakers to submit films that could be screened at the festival and later distributed by VODO in a free-to-share form. In the future, a cash-prize competition is planned that will also give winning filmmakers the chance to be distributed through P2P platforms like uTorrent - giving them access to a large and engaged in audience in the many millions.

This event was critical in providing a venue in which P2P filmmakers could see their films on big screens, meet other filmmakers, and — perhaps most importantly — engage with other creators, funders and members of the public who were not yet familiar with shared culture. The lively discussions between the audiences and the filmmakers as they grappled with the realities and possibilities of shared film culture were one of the most memorable parts of the event. One of our hopes as founders is that future Shared Film events will expose more filmmakers to the idea of sharing their works by demonstrating the value that a free-to-share film offers.

HyoJung Sun and I are now in discussions to bring the Shared Film program to other events and are actively looking for international film festivals to partner with. BitTorrent is keen to support the Shared Film Festival as it develops.

- Jamie King, founder of VODO -

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