Religuous

Just got back from seeing Religuous staring Bill Mahr. Let me start by saying its EXACTLY what I expected. It was funny. Bill's final rant was intelligent and well structured. It was what Bill does well. What he's done for 20 years in standup and what he does on his HBO television show.

What it wasn't, was a documentary. Bill started off by saying he was seeking answers, but he really never asked any questions. He had an agenda and a message he wanted to get across and so that was what he delivered.

He focused on the extremists and shot holes in their personal philosophies. He is obviously informed and well educated on the topic, countering people's opinions and misguided facts effortlessly, but he really didn't discover or seek out anything. He came to no realization. He just made his point.

Get Ready for Changes

First things first. I'm sitting here with the Final Cut of MATCH.DEAD in my hand. Watch out world, here it comes.

Now that that's out of the way, start looking for some changes. We're going to be expanding. Bringing on some partners. Scheduling up some projects (a couple music videos, other projects, and some feature films). Stay tuned for news as it develops.

Cyncial Film Making

I'm starting to get cynical and I can't imagine how some of you keep from getting there.

WRITER/DIRECTOR with great properties and first class actors seeks, professional, experienced producer. As most creatives, I would much rather focus on the content rather than the commerce of filmmaking.

So without flowery words, and a remarkably well written sales pitch, let me get to the point...

I need a producer, with experience in raising capital, contacts within the industry, and the right amount of vision and madness, to allow me to create the type of movies that will be both entertaining and profitable. I am going to do great things in film, be with me at the beginning.

Fair compensation is negotiable, you get me the money, I'll create the product, and we'll make history.

What makes this guy think he's anymore great than the other dozen people that sent me the same thing today? If you want to work in the movie business then LEARN the movie business. Go out and raise money for your film. If you can't raise enough money for your budget, adjust the movie and make one for the amount of money you can raise. Baby steps. Do one, sell it, now make a bigger one, etc.

Sure, if you can convince someone to do all the work for ya, that's great. But you should also be aware that you won't own anything when its done. Its the producer that makes money AFTER the fact on the film. The director gets his paycheck during the film making process.

BlahGirls.com

Yep, Hollywood invades the web yet again. Ashton Kutcher presented at the TechCrunch50 yesterday his latest revenue stream: blahgirls.com. They talk about the interactivity of his property and how innovative it is. What is it really?

Another Hollywood funded video series.

Is it good? That's a matter of opinion. Think of it as the Southpark Girls and you've pretty much nailed the content (and the look). Although its not quite as irreverent.

Is it innovative and worthy of the Techcrunch50? Nah, not really. They have a unique feedback system that analyzes your content and sends you personalized messages back from the girls in the video, but it looks like its just a high-end version of magic eight ball.

But like I warned, Hollywood is coming and with the access to advertisers and deep pockets you can be assured that blahgirls.com will be a success. Now, Ashton, if you want to help fund some other projects outside of Hollywood, that would be great. There is a lot of great content that could get off the ground at a fraction of the standard Hollywood spend.

YouTube 2.0

It might be premature to coin this phrase, but I think we're actually inside, albeit subtly, the YouTube 2.0 generation.

YouTube started in February 2005. For those readers that don't know what YouTube is (and I find it hard to believe you found me but not them, YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. The sharing of video started with simple, home made video and pirated television clips. Soon, though, people began making series directly for the web. Much of these were amateur stories, but the quality grew. Soon new personalities were becoming household names as professionals outside of the system began to emerge online: Ask a Ninja, WallStrip, and the Totally Rad Show.

But now, Hollywood has come in full force. Oh, don't get me wrong, they've been testing the waters for the better part of a year but friend of all fandom, Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire and Firefly fame, came out with a very high profile webseries this summer: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

And this is the beginning of the end for the YouTube 1.0 generation.

Don't get me wrong, Dr. Horrible is a great television series episode. Shot like a web series, this little show has a budget and cast that no Gen 1.0 show could touch for its entire season, let alone for a single episode (OK, to be fair they cut it into three segments).

Time to wake up, because Hollywood is on the web and here to stay.