BC Funders Share Tips on Winning Pitches at DOXA Industry

Submitted by Robert Alstead on Tue, 05/07/2019 - 22:13

Documentary funding can be a bit of a black box. Who gets funding and why certain projects get backed while other apparently strong projects are left by the wayside is a reliable topic for heated discussion whenever any two independent producers meet.

The goal posts always seem to be shifting. Funding decisions are inevitably subjective, often political, and producers must chart a route through a seemingly byzantine application process to grasp what looks like an increasingly slender slice of the funding pie.

VIFF 2018 Documentaries - The Serengeti Rules, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, and Shirkers

Submitted by Robert Alstead on Thu, 10/18/2018 - 13:09

Of the clutch of films - all documentaries - that I saw at The Vancouver International Film Festival there was an impressive range in content and style. I just wish I’d been able to watch more - it wrapped on Friday.

Further to my earlier VIFF documentary reviews, here’s my second set of reviews:

Inside Job Review

Submitted by Robert Alstead on Mon, 03/26/2018 - 15:51

Earlier this month, we passed the tenth anniversary of the Bear Stearns collapse and the near total melt-down of the global financial system.  The financial crisis took many forms, from people lining up outside banks desperate to get at their savings, to the dilapidation of newly built suburban homes that were foreclosed on. Inside Job (2010), a punch-packing documentary by San Francisco based Charles Ferguson, the director who previously picked through the wreckage of US Iraq policy in No End In Sight, goes straight to the top.

Beyond the Vlog - The Business of the Web Series

Submitted by Robert Alstead on Fri, 10/09/2015 - 23:47

As broadcast and cable television series have proliferated we’ve seen a massive growth in the dramatic web series.

One of the panels at VIFF Industry on Friday focused on two very different web series in terms of style and content: Carmilla is a contemporary vlog style adaptation of a 19th century Gothic vampire novella about a young woman preyed upon by a lesbian vampire.

Canadian Broadcaster Looking for Next YouTube Stars

Submitted by Robert Alstead on Thu, 10/01/2015 - 22:03

The seismic shifts that the internet is bringing about in the entertainment and media industry continued to concentrate minds on the second day of VIFF Industry.

The themes that speakers came back to were familiar ones: the old guard is rapidly slipping away. Business models are by necessity being re-invented. New stars are rising. Audiences fragmenting and exploding. For those nimble enough, opportunities abound. For producers and media companies trying to follow the traditional path, it will only get tougher.