30 Zero Zero – 30 Day Challenge.

Alison has been challenged to see if she can live with minimal waste and impact on the planet for 30 days starting April 1st. She will be checking in live via the web every day at 5pm…

 

30 Days Zero Waste, Zero Impact.

1. Mobile

What are some of the major trends in social media and technology that will be felt with more impact through 2011 and beyond that you need to be aware of so that you can take your life and business to the next level and not become an extinct species that is struggling for relevance and survival.

2. Social Media Integration

 

3. Social Web Democracy

 

4. Location

 

5. Google’s Social Search

Full story  www.jeffbullas.com

We all know how powerful Google is as a research and information gathering tool but now you can create a video to tell a story. Enter a string of search criteria to take your audience on a trip through Google. Here’s an example of a video created for Transmedia Producer Alison (Noni) Richards.

Search On.

Click on logo at end of video to create your own!

The Final Frontier

What are the barriers to a complete democratization of the film industry that will allow every man, woman and man-child to be his or her own mini-studio?

Financing and distribution — the two remaining pillars.

The corollary to anybody being able to shoot a movie is that now everybody wants to make a movie. 

But no matter how easy or cheap it is to make a movie, it still requires capital. As a result, the masses that democratized film production are now demanding a democratization of film financing. This natural evolution started with the aptly named Age of Stupid, a small indie film that crawled out of the primordial ooze of conventional finance and eventually became the first film to successfully use the Internet to solicit production capital from the masses. The idea germinated in 2002, but the producers didn’t start sourcing money from the crowd until 2004; by November 2007, they’d crowdsourced over half of their 500,000GBP budget. The film was completed in 2008, released in 2009, and the crowd received their first profit shares in 2010. Since then, crowdfunding has continued to adapt to the increased accessibility of digitalization, with a running leap in 2010 with the launch of dedicated crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter. These gifting sites accept funds on behalf of a film project, and once they meet their fundraising goal, the cash goes to the filmmaker, allowing a film to get made. Undoubtedly, this new fad of “gift-financing” will allow some crowdfunded films to get made that probably should not have been made, but in the meantime some crowdfunded films are now appearing at prestigious film festivals like Sundance. A premiere at Sundance no doubt allows your “crowd producers” who donated to the film feel like they got a little piece of celebrity with their $100 donation. But is this enough to incite a gift larger than $100, in order to satisfy the necessary increase in funding that elevates a $10,000 film into a $1,000,000 film? Probably not.

If your goal is to break the one-million-dollar threshold via crowdfunding, then you’ll need to tickle a person’s greed chromosome, which means you must offer something in return, like profit, i.e., an investment. Unfortunately, soliciting funding from people you don’t know through the Internet or other forms of advertising violates numerous federal and state securities laws (see Goldman Sachs recently botched Facebook investment). Nonetheless, IndieGoGo, Kickstarter and others have collectively raised tens to hundreds of millions of dollars for films, startups and other niche projects. These new alternative financing structures are yet to be transformed into a system that can finance features with investment, and therefore, aren’t ready to be incorporated into traditional finance models. But their foot is in the door, and it’s only a matter of time until film finance barrier-to-entry is toppled. I’m already aware of one US film that has received SEC approval for crowdfunding. I’m hopeful that we can put our minds together and find a way to scoot the transition from a grassroots structure into an industry-effective structure. It’s not about just being able to physically execute it; once the financing structures are revamped, everyone can afford to do it. When we can get beyond the costs to minimize expenses every step of the way in making a movie, budgets will continue to drop. If social media can facilitate a political revolution in Egypt, it should allow a filmmaker to raise one million to make a movie.

Jeff Steele: Power to the People: The Democratization of Film.

 

I read this earlier today and it was haunting me so I decided to repost it.

Seth Godin’s Blog (Link to original post)

The 1960s and 70s were the golden age of magazines. Why?

• Lots of people wanted to read them
• The newsstand could only hold a few of them (barrier to entry permits some to win)
• The winners had no trouble selling ads because they had motivated readers, in quantity
• The cost of making one more edition of the magazine was relatively low

Enter tablets. To some, it feels like the dawn of a new golden age. People page through apps like Wired and gasp at the pretty pictures and cool features. Surely, we’re going to recreate that moment.

Here’s the problem, and here’s how Apple is making it much worse:

The newsstand is infinite. That means that far more titles will have far fewer subscribers. There are more than 60,000 apps on the newsstand. Hard to be in the short head when the long tail is so long…

plus, the cost of each issue is far higher, because it costs a lot more to pay a videographer, a video editor, a programmer, etc. than it does to pay John Updike to write 4,000 words…

plus, advertisers are harder to come by, because the number of readers is always going to be lower than it was back then, and the ads are easier to skip.

Of course, the good news is that the publisher doesn’t have to pay for paper, so the profit on each subscriber ought to be way higher. Except…

Except Apple has announced that they want to tax each subscription made via the iPad at 30%. Yes, it’s a tax, because what it does is dramatically decrease the incremental revenue from each subscriber. An intelligent publisher only has two choices: raise the price (punishing the reader and further cutting down readership) or make it free and hope for mass (see my point above about the infinite newsstand). When you make it free, it’s all about the ads, and if you don’t reach tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers, you’ll fail.

In a rare glitch, John Gruber got Apple’s decision about the 30% subscription task completely wrong. By his logic, Apple would have been just as good for its users if the tax was 60%.

For content to be fabulous, for tablets to be more than game platforms, folks like Apple need to do two things:

• Reward creators instead of taxing them.
• Create promotional channels so that curated great stuff (not merely things from big companies) has a chance to reach a mass audience.

The web has been a hotbed of siloed content, of deep dives for small audiences. The large scale stuff, though, has tended to be mostly about gossip and other quick reads that’s cheap to produce. Tablets offer a new chance to create content worth paying for. Paving the way for that to happen is a smart move for anyone who cares about the audience and the devices.

I got this email from Bonnie at Tulsa IFFF and decided to share it:

Hello,

I came across your site and I was wondering if you might consider sharing information about our festival with your members. We are accepting entries now and our next deadline is April 4th.

The Tulsa IFF will spotlight films across multiple genres from around the world and, in addition to feature and short length narrative & documentary films, will also feature themed subdivisions for Indigenous Cinema, Women Behind the Camera, The Nightmare Division, and Emerging Filmmakers (College & High School).
The Audience Choice: Best of Fest will receive a cash prize of $2,500 and a production package valued at $10,000. The Grand Jury: Best Film will receive a $2,500 cash prize in addition to the offer of distribution. The winner of the Tulsa International Film Festival Excellence in Screenwriting Award will receive an option offer from Dolphin Bay Films for purchase at 4% of the final budget along with $2,500 cash consideration up front for signing.

The Festival runs from September 22nd to September 25th, 2011.

For more information, check us out online:
http://www.tulsafilmfestival.org
http://www.facebook.com/tulsafilmfest

Submit through Withoutabox

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Thanks,

Bonnie Lindsay
The Tulsa International Film Festival

 

The Next Stage in Social Media connection.

How old technology is changing the way we meet people today.

Transmedia Producer, Alison (Noni) Richards, is introducing the world to QR dating.  For lonely hearts looking for love, QR Meet-Up tackles an age-old challenge with Quick Response.  A self-proclaimed techno-geek, Ms. Richards spent fifteen years away from her native BC studying global culture.  Despite social restrictions and language barriers, singles around the world have the same goal; to seek companionship.  Upon her return to the Pacific Northwest, Alison Richards seized opportunity to update the dating game.

Putting a new twist on an old technology, Alison developed an opportunity for singles to instantly share their social media information for potential hook-up at a later date.  A secret location will be announced at noon on February 13^th and by 3pm participants will converge on that spot wearing, carrying or displaying their unique 2D code.  QR (Quick Response) has been around since the 1994 and was initially used in Japan for inventory and tracking of auto-parts.

Marketing and promotions experts discovered that QR code was perfect for instant delivery of detailed information direct to consumers.  In the past few years QR code usage has exploded worldwide.  Once you’re aware of QR code, you start spotting it all over the place.  Wine labels, Real Estate signs, auto and boat shows and recently used by print publications, including the Vancouver Sun and Metro News to link readers to online specials, photos, videos and more.

QR Meet-Up isn’t just for singles.  Although the first event scheduled for Feb 13^th in Metro Vancouver, Saint Valentine’s Day MassQR, is geared to match prospects for Valentine’s Day, QR Meet-Ups can help connect any individuals with similar interests or backgrounds such as sports enthusiasts, opera lovers, book clubs, parenting groups and geeks.  The next event is slated for St. Patrick’s Day and will cater to Irish beer drinkers.  QR Meet-up can be at http://qrmeetup.com or found on wordpress.com and on Facebook

Tired of Online Dating? Here’s a new idea:.

With QR Meet-up you approach someone in the group (flash mob) who catches your interest, exchange greetings then capture their code to learn more about them later.

It’s similar to SPEED DATING but with the option to roam at your own pace, approach only those who you are interested in and capture as few or many QR codes as you like.

The best part is that you don’t have to waste time speaking with someone you have no interest in meeting.

Here’s all you have to do:

QR Meet-Up – Inaugural Event.

Saint Valentine’s Day MassQR – Feb 13th @ 3pm

1. Go to BeQRious.com and create your own unique QR code that will direct people to your Facebook page, business or personal website, Myspace or unique URL.
2. Print out copies of your QR code so that others can capture your code at the meet-up location.  You can print the code directly to a T-Shirt, hat, scarf… hand out stickers, hold a big sign with the QR boldly displayed… be as discrete or stealth as you like… or hand out flowers/candy/cards with your unique QR code attached.
3. Post your QR code to the QR Meet-up Facebook page and watch for others to do the same
4. Post your QR code and comments to this blog and share by tweeting, liking and posting.
5. Promote the Saint Valentine’s Day MassQR to your single friends and colleagues.
6. Check in at noon on February 13th for the announcement on the location for the Meet-up.
   (Note: Location will be a public space within a short walk of public transit and major transportation routes)
7. Show up at the special location by 3:00pm  with your QR code clearly visible.
8. Capture as many likely candidates as you can.
9. Make sure that others can capture your code.
10. Dress to impress or wear a silly costume.
11. Reveal the unique person that you are, and look for that someone special that captures your eye or quickens your heartbeat… or makes you LAUGH!
12. Use your Blackberry, iPhone, Android or SmartPhone with QR scanning software to capture the code of as many people as you can.

Need a scanner application for your phone?

http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

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