LONG LIVE THE NEW SHORT (PT 3)

The Revenge of Hal Roach

If you’re an ambitious filmmaker looking to get in on the action, you shouldn’t let the big boys in marketplace discourage you. The profit to cost ratio that makes for a short film success doesn’t fit the way giant media conglomerates operate. Just as the micro production studios of Mack Sennett and Hal Roach were once able to dominate the short subject market in spite of the major studios best efforts; today’s short film entrepreneurs will be able stay in front in a market that today’s majors are still wary of.

''I don't think it's a wise idea to throw everything at the wall.'' Fox entertainment’s president, Peter Liguori, said in a recent interview. ''We're taking a more measured approach to what works and what may not work.''

He means that the profit margin on a 60-second short subject, doesn’t exactly make it worth the time of one of 24 or The Shield’s Emmy award winning writers. My time on the other hand, comes considerably cheaper. Considering that the average locally produced short costs between $1,000 and $2,000 and can be licensed to an international television or online distributor for between $5,000 and $50,000, its easy to see how a boutique production company boasting a slate comparable to AtomFilm Studio’s two to four dozen projects per year, could turn a healthy profit.

Until now, short films have been considered little more than expensive “business cards” for US-based filmmakers, but even the international theatrical market is open to them these days. According to shorts distributor Apollo Cinema’s president and founder Carol Crowe, "The majority of overseas territories are purchasing shorts by the minute. A 30-minute short has the potential to make $30,000 plus.”

Typical of online short subject distributors, AtomFilms pays as little as $500 per film, up front. But Atom also offers filmmakers a cut of the advertising revenue generated by their films. According to Atom Entertainment CEO Mika Salmi, popular shorts have made more than $200,000.

To Be Concluded . . .

LONG LIVE THE NEW SHORT (PT 2)

Television, Internet and Mobile Device Markets hungry for shorts

International television markets in Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe are literally starved for American-made short films. Canada's Movieola Channel, for instance only shows shorts, and Canal Plus, Channel 4, and the German pay TV channel Premiere have made them an everyday feature of their lineup. US-based cable outlets from Showtime and Bravo to the Independent Film Channel and the Sundance Channel are following suit. Similarly, web-based short film specialists like AtomFilms, animation playhouse IceBox.com, and Big Film Shorts are gobbling up independently produced short subjects. The 60-second mobile device short may be new to the U.S., but Indian and Chinese teenagers are downloading them to their cell phones and iPods by the hundreds.

According to distributors, any place where people wait for more than a few minutes has become a venue for shorts. Both Air Canada and Delta Airlines have gotten into the business of buying shorts, and airports in general along with cruise ships are widely considered to be quickly developing markets for. Amtrak buys short films for its overseas lines.

For years advertisers have struggled to find ways to chase consumers into new markets. So, short subjects are also generating additional revenue through product placement the same way that producer Mark “Survivor” Burnett’s reality shows do. Companies like Miller Brewing, Ford, and AT&T have placed their products in the films themselves or run ads attached to the film’s online runs.

TO BE CON'T . . .

LONG LIVE THE NEW SHORT (PT 1)

In spite of recent pronouncements that might have led you to believe otherwise, a huge and growing entertainment market exists in international television, web-based film and cell cinema venues, which are buying short films like hotcakes. Scores of dedicated short subject distributors are dropping serious coin on acquisitions. And, the U.S. is in an ideal position to take advantage of it. Just as cities like Chicago became Mecca's of storefront theatre and improv comedy. Which is to say that if you're a member of what Richard Florida calls the Creative Class, and a resident of the Urban Archipelago besides, I've got a message for you: It's time to hop into the engineer’s seat of this particular train before it passes us by.

Last January, NPR’s Douglas Hopper did a Morning Edition story about an entertaining but penguins-at-the-zoo style report on the Cellflix Festival sponsored by upstate New York’s Ithaca College. On the surface the featured contest sounded like most university sponsored film festivals, open to high school and college students from around the world, a $5,000 grand prize. It even sported a built-in gimmick—to qualify, submissions had to be shot on a cell phone, have a running time of 30 seconds or less and include dialogue, music or other audio.

The “cell cinema” angle wasn’t a gimmick. It was the tip of an iceberg.

According to Cellflix organizer and Dean of Itahca’s Park School of Communications Dianne Lynch, the festival was her way of asking a question that everyone in our business should be these days: What do filmmakers need to know to be successful in spite of the shifting and changing media landscape that’s confronting all of us?

The answer is so close at hand it’s about to be missed: Short films are selling agan! Until the 1950s, standard commercial cinema included not only the feature films, but newsreels, cartoons and live action short films as well. Television altered the entertainment landscape completely, introducing a new set of market imperatives and consigning short film producers like Hal Roach and Mack Sennett to financial obsolescence. Now, after decades of film school/festival exile, the short as product is back.

Hoping to boost sales, Sony is sponsoring a series of short films designed for its PSP (PlayStation Portable). Verizon and Fox Entertainment Group have launched three "mobisode" series specifically for cell phone screens. Sprint actually beat Verizon and Fox to the punch with its cell phone dram The Spot. And CBS spent the latter half of 2005 inking deals to deliver programming, including it's own “micro-series” The Courier, through every available medium—the net, cell phones and iPods.

Sony, Fox, Sprint and CBS aren’t charting new territory; they’re playing catch-up, desperately trying to carve out a niche for their brand in one of the few filmed entertainment venues whose market-share is actually growing rather than shrinking.

TO BE CON'T . . .

HBO JUMPS ONTO CELL CINEMA BANDWAGON

HBO is jumping onto the Cell Cinema bandwagon by producing original mini-episodes of its hit series Entourage. The new mobile device friendly Entourage "mobisodes" will be available to Cingular Video customers who subscribe to HBO Mobile. This first-of-its-kind cell cinema deal (for cable TV at any rate) will expand on existing Entourage storylines with a series of "mobisodes" that will be written by, produced by and of course staring series regulars.

The mobile episodes of Entourage will focus on Kevin Dillon's hilarious and fame-hungry Johnny Drama, who will be given the opportunity to make a "cellivision" show. HBO Mobile also will also be offering full-length episodes of Entourage, segmented into chapters, of the series first season of Entourage, in addition to episodes of Sex and the City, Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Dane Cook's Tourgasm.

THE MISSION STATEMENT

From ArsonPlus Entertainment:

Every day, in a steady never-ending trickle, cities from Chicago to Hong Kong lose bits of their native creative community to the lure of New York and Los Angeles. It’s been going on for years. Fortunately, thanks to its uniquely deep and diverse talent pool, Chicago, like many other most cities is in an ideal position to take advantage of booming markets hungry for American made short films. These include international television, web-based and cell cinema—and in all honesty, that list is just for starters.

All three are starved for short-short films, ranging in length from under two minutes to half an hour, are designed to play on cell phones, over the Internet and on TV. They’re especially popular throughout Asia and across Eastern Europe, and scores of companies have cropped up and are dropping some serious coin on acquisitions. Atom Films, probably the best known of these companies, is just the tip of the iceberg. The market is an opportunity for ambitious filmmakers everywhere looking for profits to go along with the attention a smart and sharp short film can accrue.

The market is already huge, and it’s growing. The films that feed it will be produced somewhere. If it’s Chicago, it will definitely bring much needed revenue and film financing dollars into the city while helping to put a cork in that trickle.

Best of all, thanks to the online nature of this new marketplace, Chicago’s filmmakers will be able to get in on the action without having to deal with any of the hassles typically associated dragging their short films around to traditional festivals. The international market still does a certain amount of business in-person, but it’s definitely accessible via the Internet; the web-based market’s accessibility is self-explanatory and the cell cinema market is likewise setup to accept submissions online.

Just as Chicago became a Mecca of storefront theatres and improv comedy troupes, your home town and mine can get in on this bandwagon while the getting’s good. Filmmakers just need to be made aware of it. We have so much talent here, and the way to keep them is to create a viable market outlet.

To that end, the founders of Chicago's ArsonPlus Entertainment have decided to launch "Third Wave Central a meager, but hopefully informative that can help point us all in the right direction. We'll start with postings sketching out the market’s general lay of the land, follow up with updates and regular series profiles featuring short-film distribution and production companies, and of course the same futurist ramblings that coaxed this Blog out of us in the first place.