Just in from Sundance: “I’m already part of a big campfire…”
David Carr has a fascinating article in today’s NY Times titled “M dot Strange Finds a Way at Sundance” in which a young filmmaker from San Jose, California, M dot Strange, talks about how he built an audience in the hundreds of thousands via YouTube and his own site, leading up to his film’s premiere at this year’s Sundance festival — much like Haxan Films did via The Blair Witch Project.
Carr writes:
“During the last two years, he (M dot Strange) has been posting a video blog on YouTube letting people know how the movie was coming along. And then two months ago, he finally posted a trailer, and almost immediately it was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.
While we were talking at the Kimball Art Center in Park City, he checked the site and showed me that over 648,000 people had already viewed the trailer for a film where he served as writer, director, animator and effects coordinator.
Kevin Donahue, vice president of content at YouTube, said M dot Strange has created an audience in part by talking to it. ‘The originality of the work is quite high, but he has also built a real rapport with his audience,’ said Mr. Donahue. ‘He has an online film school and a very active community.’
…Wearing a black stocking cap and sporting a wisp of hair under his lip, M dot Strange, whose actual name is Michael Belmont, looks more like a snowboarder who wandered over from the nearby chairlift than a big deal filmmaker… but he represents a new paradigm of filmmaking that could have a profound effect on the traditional models of film production, distribution and animation.
‘I’m already part of a big campfire,’ he said. ‘We talk to each other all the time about what we are seeing and thinking. It’s a personal experience without anybody in between.’”
See the entire piece in today’s NY Times Business Section.
Technorati Tags: Sundance
July 31st, 2008 at 3:05 am