DIY DAYS
DIY DAYS EVENTS in LA, SF, Boston, NYC and London for more info visit www.diydays.com
A special section of the From Here to Awesome is a series of live events called DIY DAYS.
ABOUT
DIY DAYS
How do we sustain ourselves as filmmakers and storytellers in this day of shifting film distribution systems? How do we monetize our film and get the word out? Presented by From Here to Awesome and Current TV - DIY DAYS aims to answer these questions with a day of panels, roundtable discussions and workshops: A look at how to fund, create, distribute and sustain.
Proposed Discussion Topics
- New Forms of Storytelling
- New models of Finance, Production and Distribution
- Audience Building & The Audience Becoming Collaborators
- War Stories: “What’s The Real Deal?”
- Self-Sustaining: what to know when trying to make a living from your art
- Case Studies (Arin Crumley, Lance Weiler, M dot Strange and others discuss the making and
distribution of their work)
Open Discussion Topics
- What are you working on? What are you looking for?
- How do you consume your media?
- What needs to change in order for you to sustain?
Speaker List
Robert Greenwald - Outfoxed, Wallmart the high cost of low price, Iraq for Sale
Tommy Pallotta - producer of A Scanner Darkly and Waking Life
Mark Pellington - director of Henry Poole is Here, Arlington Road and Mothman Prophecies
Marshall Herskovitz - Blood Diamond, Quarterlife
Lance Weiler - The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma
Arin Crumley - Four Eyed Monsters
M dot Strange - We Are the Strange
Ondi Timoner - DiG, Join US, We Live in Public
Saskia Wilson-Brown - Current TV
Micki Krimmel - expert in social media and online community
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
Additional speakers to be added soon
Media Kit
The following media kit is intended to be used by anyone interested in covering the festival or for filmmakers who wish to promote their festival films. One of the core elements of FHTA is to encourage the embedding and spreading of festival films, educational content, festival news. The following media kit is a collection of video, audio, photos, links and text that sheds more light on the festival and the films that are taking part. If you have any questions or would like to schedule an interview with one of the festival founders or festival filmmakers we’d love to hear from you.
MISSION STATEMENT
Back in August I reached out to Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and Mike Belmont (We Are the Strange) with a concept to create a virtual conference / festival. We decided that the virtual event would be an experiment to hopefully connect filmmakers directly with audiences. That the event itself could become a model for open content distribution, one which allowed filmmakers to have a say in how their films were reaching audiences.
The experiment is off to a great start. We’ve assembled an amazing list of promotional and tech partners. Thanks to these partnerships the festival will be distributed across mutiple platforms - mobile, online, theatrical and even into the living room. The exciting part is that we’ve been designing the fest so that each phase returns revenue directly to the creators of the work. Filmmakers will set their own prices, retain all rights to their work and be able to reach global audiences directly. So in a sense From Here to Awesome is a distribution / discovery festival that has no submission fees and allows the audience to be the festival programmer.
More details coming soon.
Lance Weiler
filmmaker and co-founder of FHTA
PRESS RELEASES
FESTIVAL LOGO
Click HERE
PHOTOS
LANCE WEILER - filmmaker and From Here to Awesome co-founder (photo credit Jack Bromiley)
Click HERE
LANCE WEILER speaks at Power to the Pixel in London (photo credit Arin Crumley)
Click HERE
ARIN CRUMLEY - filmmaker and From Here to Awesome co-founder (photo credit Berlin)
Click HERE
ARIN CRUMLEY & SUSAN BUICE - We want you! (photo credit Power to the Pixel)
Click HERE
M dot Strange - filmmaker and From Here to Awesome co-founder (photo credit M dot Strange)
Click HERE
M dot Strange - talks about DIY in Berlin (photo credit Berlin)
Click HERE
FOR ADDITIONAL PHOTOS visit the FHTA flickr set
FESTIVAL DECK
Download the PDF (860k) a more detailed look at some of the goals of the festival.
FESTIVAL LIFESTREAM
a look at what festival filmmakers and staff are watching, listening to, commenting on, bookmarking and snapping. Click HERE to view.
Media Contact:
Jane Green
jane @ janegreenpublicity dot com
202-425-7567
Contact directly for interview requests:
Filmmaker and festival co-founder
Lance Weiler
Lance @ lanceweiler dot com
Filmmaker and festival co-founder
Arin Crumley
Arincrumley @ gmail dot com
Awesome Partners:
OurStage
IndieFlix
Breakthrough Distribution
Miro
Tubemogul
Heretic Films
Wonderland
PlaceVine
youTube
myspace
indiegogo
withoutabox
bside
Dog Woof Pictures
Spout
Power to the Pixel
Workbook Project
Amazon
Current TV
Blip TV
Festival Vids
How the festival works
Do you love movies? Do you make movies?
submit films | watch films | learn to make films | fest news | fest stream
Embed and Spread - copy this code into your profiles, blogs and pages
Film in Focus - Abel Raises Cain
My father is the legendary media hoaxer, Alan Abel. Growing up, I have watched him pull pranks on the the media with stunts that are always just ridiculous enough for people to believe. He exploits the fact that the media feeds on salacious, far-fetched stories and creates hilarious scenarios that people take seriously and become outraged by. He’s taught me we can’t always believe what we see in the media…and my goal is to carry this message to the world via this documentary. - Jenny Abel
Buzz Feed
Here’s what people are saying about FHTA
Arin and Lance talk with Newteevee
Arin and Lance did an interview with Newteevee.com
Arin recorded the conversation from his side.
“Hoping to bridge the gap between the independent filmmakers and a paying audience, From Here to Awesome is a new online “film festival” where indie filmmakers can post an online video pitch, drum up support from fans and win a chance at being selected for a finalist showcase in April. And unlike many festivals, submission is free.
The project is a collaboration between filmmakers Head Trauma’s Lance Weiler, We are the Strange’s M dot Strange and Four Eyed Monsters‘ Arin Crumley. All three are pioneers in using the web to promote and distribute feature films…”
To read the full story
