After Dark Originals... What You Need to Know and What You Think.

If you click on this link, you'll be taken to the future home page of After Dark Originals. Now, you may be asking yourself, "What, exactly, is After Dark Originals?". Well, let's take a look...

After Dark Films is an independent motion picture studio, formed in 2006, by Courtney Solomon and Hong Kong based real estate magnate, Allan Zeman. Solomon is a filmmaker, most notably having directed both "Dungeons & Dragons" and "An American Haunting". Allan Zeman lives in Hong Kong, is of Jewish decent, and is involved in everything from Wynn Resorts to fashion to film and TV. Their paths must have somehow crossed in Canada, as Solomon is from Toronto and Zeman lived in Canada for most of his life, just recently renouncing his citizenship in 2008. The first film under the After Dark banner was Solomon's "An American Haunting". Shortly after that, After Dark formed a multi-year marketing and distribution deal with Lionsgate for Horrorfest's "8 Films To Die For". After Dark would handle the theatrical marketing and releases, Lionsgate would handle the distribution of all ancillary forms, such as home video, pay TV, pay per view, VOD, etc. Building on the success of Horrorfest, After Dark and Lionsgate are going to team up with NBC Universal's SyFy channel with the new series, After Dark Originals. Basically, instead of acquiring films, they're now going to produce their own - full control from script concept through final editing. Seven of the eight films slated have been shot and they've already green lit the second set of Originals for season two.

Now, let's get to my thoughts. Well, there's a lot of good stuff going on here. I love the fact that they've tapped directors like Brett Simmons, the guy behind "Husk" - a film that took Sundance by storm and Steven C. Miller, who did the low-budget zombie masterpiece, "Automaton Transfusion". It's also great to see NBC and Lionsgate getting involved in bringing some lower-budget horror to fruition. I can only hope that the guys over at Paramount, who are heading up the new micro-budget label, Insurge, are watching closely and taking notes. All of this is great for us and it can do nothing but grow the awareness and prominence of micro-budget and low-budget horror films, but... I'm still weary about how these guys are handling it. So, here's my concerns... My main issue comes from the fact that they're continuing to tap the existing success stories, as opposed to reaching down into the indie trenches and nurturing the potential of up-and-coming talent. I understand that Lionsgate, After Dark, NBC, Paramount and Viacom are all looking for profitability over good will, but there are ways to hedge for success. They have a chance to not only expand and develop an audience for these films, but they also have the chance to introduce new distribution channels and formats that will pave the way for up-and-comers to become those success stories. I can only hope that they keep that in mind... In reality, film talent can be a renewable and growable (is that a word?) resource and if they tap the potential, they can build this small sub-sect of the industry along with building some careers. If they just try to tap the success stories and existing talent, they're treating film talent like a finite resource and, I'm sorry, it's going to dry up. How do you manage all of this successfully? Well, I've got some ideas swirling around in my head... and if anyone from Lionsgate, After Dark, NBC, Paramount or Viacom wants to hear them, just reach down into the trenches and contact me.

Those are my thoughts, what do you think?

Paramount's Micro-Budget Film Division Has A Name

A month or so ago, we wrote a post called "What I Would Say To Adam Goodman, Production Chief of Paramount", in response to hearing that Paramount was planning to open up a micro-budget film division. Well, I'm happy to say, there's been developments...

I would like to add that I actually did reach out to Adam Goodman. I took a wild stab at guessing his email address and I got it right... after a few tries. Then, low and behold, I got a response. It was brief, concise, but he said that, yes, there was going to be a micro-budget filmmaking division and that I should stay tuned. I was quite impressed. Now, I didn't really get the chance to mention all the things that I wanted to in that first email, so I laid them out in my second email... which I didn't get a response to. In any case, I did stay tuned. And I just found out that Paramount's micro-budget division has a name, a site and a leader.

The division is called Insurge Pictures. The tagline is, "Do you want to see more movies that don't conform to the Hollywood mold? Sweet. Us too." I heard that the website, insurgepictures.com, was actually live, but every time I try to go to the site, I'm forwarded to Paramount's main site. Do me a favor, click on that link there and let me know if you get through to it. If you do, I'd love to know what it says, as far as what they're about and all that. As mentioned before, the division does have $1million to finance its slate of films - 10 movies on tap in the first year, budgeted at approximately $100,000 each. The division hasn't been formally announced yet, but it should be soon. In fact, it may have already been announced and I just don't know it. It's going to be headed up by Amy Powell, who's currently the studio's SVP of Interactive Marketing. Interesting choice, obviously they see these micro-budgeted films closely tied to social marketing, the web, mobile, etc. The micro-budget division will also develop an online community to fuel the initiative and they're expected to support their goals with additional elements, yet to be announced. So, that's what I got, so far.

Somewhere on the Insurge site that I can't log on to, you'll find this quote, "Aren't you tired of being fed the same movies wrapped in different paper? We want to find and distribute crazy, unpredictable, and hopefully awesome movies - movies that make you want to line up to see at your local theater with all your friends (and us). Movies that a big studio would never release because they're too risky, too silly, and they don't star Sandra Bullock." Sandy, don't listen to them. "Blind Side" was good, but "Speed", "Demolition Man"? Classics. I also liked that movie where you played a drunk, "28 Days".

Anyhow, the same worries and trepidations that I illustrated in the last post persist. I hope they reach out to the right teams of filmmakers, I hope they involve the micro-budget filmmaking community and I also I hope that they make the right films. However, what I hope most is that their 'difference making' doesn't end at the conclusion of the filmmaking process. You see, they also need to come up with "crazy, unpredictable, and hopefully awesome" ways of distributing these films. Pave the way... please. The fact that they say, "movies that make you want to line up to see at your local theater", makes me weary. When's the last time you saw a micro-budget film at the theater? Okay, besides "Paranormal Activity"? We need new and revolutionary ways to get these films out there. That's the key. And I hope they put as much thought into that as they do in finding and making these films.

In any case, the whole thing can do nothing but good for the rest of us. It shines a spotlight on micro-budget filmmaking and, hopefully, a little bit of that light actually falls on to the micro-budget filmmaking community. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and guess Amy Powell's email address and see if she'll get back to me... I've got some things to say, but I'll save them for my second email.

What I Would Say To Adam Goodman, Production Chief of Paramount

There's been a flurry of activity surrounding the indie and micro-cinema world over the last few days and it all started with Paramount announcing that they're going to get into developing and producing micro-budget films. I recently read a post from Mark Stolaroff, the guy behind "No Budget Film School" and a writer for Film Radar, that lit Paramount up. Here's a link to the post. He's 100% right, for sure... however, as an optimist, I'd like to hear what Paramount's game plan is before I lambaste them. As someone who's been involved in indie and micro-budget filmmaking, when I hear that Paramount wants to get involved, I certainly hope that they do it right and doing it right would definitely involve reaching out to the existing micro-cinema community. In fact, I read through every article I could find, trying to find some sort of lead on who I could contact, and the only name mentioned is Adam Goodman, who happens to be Paramount's production chief. So, I guessed at his email address and sent him an email. Will I get a response? Doubt it. But if he did and he asked for help... after asking for some sort of paid position in guiding this micro-cinema initiative, coupled with some sort of signing bonus, this is what I would tell him...

Micro-cinema is a different animal than indie film. Really, there's less of a jump from indie film to studio film than there is from indie film to micro-cinema. When I talk about "indie film", I'm talking about stuff like "The Wrestler" or "Little Miss Sunshine". When I'm talking about micro-cinema, I'm talking about "Paranormal Activity" or "Blair Witch". I'm not going to touch on studio films here, they're put together by armies of lawyers, marketers, writers and producers. For studio films, the story and how the films are shot pales in comparison to what the overall concept is and how marketable the film will be. For example, "Transformers 2" was one of the biggest grossing films of the year... I'm not sure 'story' was high on their list of concerns. In any case, when dealing with indie films, story becomes extremely important. In fact, the film is ALL story. You'll need an impeccable screenplay and you're going to need great actors to bring characters to life, adding to what's on the page and giving them three dimensions. You'll probably want the director to work closely with the writer, if they're not one in the same, and you'll want an editor who's fully on board with the directors vision. In the end, it's all about story. With micro-cinema, you require an equally impeccable story, but micro-cinema filmmakers have to deal with another element that no other filmmaker has to deal with... and that's the medium itself. Micro-cinema, by its own nature, has a distinct look and feel. It's handheld, it's choppy, it's shot on DV, the lighting sucks, the sets are cramped, locations are never ideal... it's called micro-cinema for a reason. Fix all of those things and you're really not a micro-cinema film anymore. So, you have to justify the medium. "Paranormal Activity" and "Blair Witch" were both shot as documentaries. The handheld HD on "Open Water" gave it that 'real' look, like something you'd see on the National Geographic channel. A recent film that I saw, "The Butcher", was shot as a first person snuff film. The list goes on, but the point is that you need to embrace the look and feel and justify it... try to be something you're not and you're going to fail.

So, I agree with Mark when he says, "Good Luck, Paramount", but I'm cautiously optimistic. There's a lot of good micro-cinema filmmakers out there... and they're not all offspring of current Paramount employees, toiling around in L.A.. They're everywhere. Hopefully Paramount realizes this and reaches out. There would be something very cool about a studio reaching down into the micro-cinema community and asking for assistance in lifting this little sub-genre, that we all love so much, out of obscurity. If Paramount wanted to do it right, that's just what they would do. They would reach into the micro-cinema community, find some filmmakers, give them some budget... but also give them the keys to the kingdom. Keep the budgets under $100K, BUT let the filmmakers use the resources that they take for granted... Treat it like a training ground, work with them. Have your team of lawyers, marketers and developers sit in with them every once in a while and everyone can learn from each other. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, we'll see what happens... at least I know what I'm going to say to Adam Goodman if he gets back to me.