Films as Startups: How Indie Producers Build Buzz
[Philip Lelyveld comment: as more and more elements of film production are opened to the public, the whole philosophy of content protection will shift from 'everything' to special situations that the audience will embrace - like spoilers and surprise elements.]
The film industry is not what it used to be. Gone are the days when writers shopped a script around Hollywood, hoping to catch the eye of major production studios.
Instead, that model has been turned upside down. Films are aiming to captivate an audience first, without the assistance of studios. Technology and social media have made it feasible.
Writer Bill Balas entered his feature-length script into a contest for Fresh Voices, a social network for screenwriters, which captured the attention of producers Peter Katz and Don Le.
Rather than following the traditional path of production, the team used Balas’s script to create Already Gone, a short film about a crook who only robs from other criminals. The three-minute video is directed by Ross Ching, and stars Shawn Ashmore of X-men fame and Harry Shum Jr. from Glee.
This bite-sized teaser gets the premise of the film in front of an audience, and if the film is bought, will lead to a feature-length film at some point. Consider the video a less expensive pilot that will...
See the full story here: http://mashable.com/2012/05/02/indie-film-social-trailers/