FROM HERE TO AWESOME

Showcase is annouced

We’re pleased to announce the From Here to Awesome 2008 Showcase. Special thanks to all who submitted to the fest and big thanks to all the volunteers who have helped to make the fest possible. We’re going to be making some exciting announcements in the coming weeks. In the meantime we’ve just re-launched www.fromheretoawesome.com with all the showcase films. The films will hit outlets on July 26th which is also the kick off to the fest and the date for DIY DAYS LA.

Variety covered the fest today - From Here to Awesome: Alternative Film Fest

Amid a tough economic climate for indie films, Lance Weiler, a guru of the open-source DIY indie film movement, is launching on July 26 a new-model open-source film fest, From Here to Awesome.

Melding social networking and viral Web marketing, the “discovery and distribution festival” showcases twelve micro-budgeted features selected from 115 submissions via a complex online process…

…From Here to Awesome and sponsor Current TV are also staging a series of live events called DIY Days in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, San Francisco and London where Weiler and other DIY filmmakers including Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are the Strange) will discuss new models of funding, production, distribution and sustainability.

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FHTA update and DIY DAYS

Well the voting process is over and we are currently in a review period. FHTA experienced a large amount of traffic over the last month as the deadline approached. We’ve started to reach out to a number of the top filmmakers and will continue to do so this week. In order for FHTA’s showcased films to reach the widest audience possible they need to meet a number of clearance requirements. Clearance pertains to music rights, talent releases, location releases and all the other fun legal stuff needed to release films within VOD and digital outlets. We’re currently contacting filmmakers and requesting screeners. For more on the topic of clearance and the dreaded delivery process read this primer by producer Tani Cohen which she wrote for the workbookprojec.com

In addition to discovery and distribution, FHTA has a special FREE educational section entitled DIY DAYS. The DIY DAYS events are a joint effort between FHTA and Current TV and will consist of workshops, case studies, panel discussions, and screenings. LA and SF are locked and we’re working on events for Boston and NYC. All the activities will be recorded and “embedding and spreading” of the materials will be encouraged. There will also be some live streaming as well.

DIY DAYS are shaping up here’s a partial list of speakers:

Tommy Pallotta - producer of A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life
Mark Pellington - director of Henry Poole is Here, Arlington Road and Mothman Prophecies
Lance Weiler - The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma
Arin Crumley - Four Eyed Monsters
M dot Strange - We Are the Strange
Saskia Wilson-Brown - Current TV
Jon Reiss - Bomb It
Alex Johnson - digital media strategist / filmmaker
Christy Dena - cross-media strategist and designer
Matt Hanson - filmmaker and founder of A Swarm of Angels
Timo Vuorensola - director of Space Wreck and co-founder of wreckamovie.com

More details coming soon.

Festival Update

So we’ve been working overtime to pull together a number of exciting things around FHTA.

JUNE 6th
Festival films will have until June 6th to build audiences around their work. So if you’re a festival filmmaker the clock is ticking. Checkout what your fellow FHTA filmmakers doing to promote their work. The more you spread the work the more it is likely that people will find it. Consider possible groups, sites, bloggers or other filmmakers who could help you reach a wider audience. One of the driving goals of the festival is discovery, so we encourage you to think creatively about how you can use the web to build your audience.

DIY DAYS
We’ve teamed with Current TV to produce two live events around FHTA. DIY DAYS will be held in LA on July 26th and in SF on August 2nd. The events will consist of screenings, panel discussions, case studies, and workshops. For those not in LA and SF fear not we will be documenting the whole affair so that it can easily be embed and spread.

Distribution outlets - this is what everyone wants to know - where will the showcased films be shown?

Theatrical - special screenings in LA, SF, London, Melbourne, Montreal, and Paris to name a few. We’re also working on 25 other screening locations.

Living room - VUDU, Amazon Unbox via TiVO, other outlets include AT&T, TVN, and NetFlix.

Online - FHTA miro player, Amazon Unbox, Myspace, YouTube, IndieFlix, BlipTV, OurStage, Joost, and Hulu

Mobile - we’re working on a couple deals here that would have films playing on mobile devices in the US and Europe

For certain films there could be additional retail and online outlet possibilities.

*Outlets subject to change and some outlets require that films can meet clearance and have E&O.

ON THE WEB
Independent Films Direct an excellent new filmmaking resource and news site has decided to feature a number of FHTA films weekly for the next six months! So if you’re a festival filmmaker make sure to spruce up your film page and include those links to myspace, youTube, myspace, OurStage, twitter and delicious.

Spout.com is one of our festival partners and they’ve established a new section to their site just for FHTA. On the section their featuring projects that they feel that they’re community will find interesting. If you’re not a member of spout make sure to join. Drop by the discussion to introduce yourself . It is a place to discuss filmmaking, the festival and films. Special thanks to spout for setting up the dedicated space. Festival filmmakers make sure to drive your audiences there. Not only is it a great way to promote your work it is also a way to introduce your projects to Spout’s community of film lovers. To visit the special FHTA spout group click here.