Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2011

The Flip Cam May Be Dead But The Rebel Indie Spirit Is Very Much Alive

Back in April it was announced that Cisco was planning to shut down its video department--in other words, the Flip Video Camera . While it came as a shock to most people, it pays to remember that technology these days changes quicker than an infant's diaper. It doesn't mean that the Flip Cam is obsolete; Cisco is just off to new ventures. What I always liked about the Flip Cams--and what I still do like about them--are their tremendous reach. Not reach in depth of field but in how easily they can be toted around and pulled out in a blink's notice. These are the REAL instruments of guerrilla and indie filmmaking. Fuck the setup--just point and shoot. Now that Cisco has stamped an "RIP" on these cameras, I feel that they will grow to be treasured tools for true indie auteurs. In the same way that certain "film" cameras resurfaced for experimental filmmakers, Flip Cams will be Thor's hammer for digital filmmakers. And with no more of them bei

Cross-Platform Media, A Foil For SXSW & Tomorrow's Digital Life. The Future Of Indie Cinema Is Now.

For the longest time, movies were constrained to only exist in the time and space of a single screen (albeit a theatrical or television screen). Yes, they lived on in our heads, imaginations and aspirations but the sender-receiver model remained archaic (in plain terms that is). With the "New Cinema" upon us--that sometimes dangerous, always exhilarating landscape which is truly indie film--movies have now stretched to avenues of social filmmaking , Transmedia, revitalized underground cinema and much more. The short film, for example, is no longer a stepping stone; it's a valuable entity in a new market (VOD, iTunes, Mubi, etc.). And Transmedia, with its cross-platform approach to storytelling, is quickly becoming less of a novel gimmick and more of a cultural phenomenon. In this Tribeca (Online) Film Festival piece , this popular genre is put into context: "Whether called transmedia , multi-platform , cross platform or just cross media , filmmakers from all