Beyond the Iron Sky

On the last day of the Power to the Pixel seminar in London we, the Internet filmmaking community, gathered together into a closed round table discussion about the future of what we are doing.

The main question was: what can we do to make what we are doing an acknowledged way to make films for the filmmakers, for those who fund filmmaking, and for the audiences out there. Also, we were there to share experiences, thoughts and beliefs on how should we, who already are “in there”, could proceed with what we are doing and maybe even join forces to help the something big take place.

I was expecting a bit more general discussion that would answer the basic questions every filmmaker has: how to do it and how to make money with it. The discussion kinda jumped around the topic a bit, but a bit surprisingly quite soon settled into an in-depth discussion on metadata.

For those who are unaware on what I’m talking about, metadata means information that’s inside a file, tied to it, giving you more information on the actual file. In Mp3 this means file info on the artist, name of the song, what year it was published – some metadata goes actually very deep, naming individual players, where it was recorded and by who etc. In film, there would be requirement for much, much more metadata, that could be filled in with WIKI apparatus to make it a community-embedded metadata.

Basically, it would mean we would have all the cast & crew info, filming locations, dates, websites, subtitles and all that embedded and easilly viewable by anyone watching the video. But what would make it more interesting are the two-sided functionalities of it: embedding a “pay”-button to the film, embedding a “buy a license for this film” -ability to it, and in general, embedding all the copyright information to each clip. With these functionalities, we would see propably much more commercially succesful films distributed via BitTorrent and other filesharing systems, when a viewer would have the possibility to download a film and pay for it if he likes it.

Arin Crumley

But metadata won’t answer to the problem of how to get filmmakers around the world start doing their films much closer to the Internet – how to make them understand than in order to survive in the coming changes, filmmakers need to start to understand what the Internet actually is – a huge community of communities – and how to find your community from there, and eventually, what good does it do to your film.

The last hour of the think tank was much more about trying to find answers to these questions. Even more, we were trying to find out how we, who already know what to do, could work together to educate filmmakers, film funders, distributors and government entities that they would be more willing to look at the alternative production and distribution options out there.

Personally, I think this is a very important question, because I believe that the only way the change will happen the way we want is working with both filmmakers and those with “soft money” for culture - government money, that is. If that happens, the distributors will follow, because they are dependant on content, and if content is going different way they are going, they’ll soon be out of business. Because, in the end, and even more nowadays, distributors are the ones who are clients of film productions, not the other way around. They are no more needed in order to get film distributed to millions of viewers around the world, and even less in the future – we can do that, we have YouTube and BitTorrent. The reason we want to use distributors still is that they are the ones who know how to get the film out there, people watching it and paying for it so that we would eventually get money for our next films. And if it seems – and it seems like that even more nowadays, when you are looking at how many distributors coping with “piracy”, that they have no clue anymore. The question remains, where do we need them? If that question strengthens too much, and too many filmmakers do “Radioheads” and find it more profitable than working with them, they are in deep shit.

So, they’d need to actually really hop onboard the wagon that’s already rolling onwards, try to regain the trust of the filmmakers and even more the trust of the new filmmakers – and, what’s even more trickier, because in the future it’s not just a filmmaker, but a filmmaker and his or her’s community of thousands of active people – and start to work the way they want.

The question a distributors and big studio heads need to ask in the future is certainly not “how to stop piracy”, but “how to make them want to pay”. (A tip to those pondering this: ass-rape is not a very good way to seduce.) They need to get over the fact that whatever they do, the films are out there, for free, and there’s nothing they can do about it. If you can’t beat them, join them, right?

Well, back to the Power to the Pixel. It was an awesome seminar that had gathered all the filmmakers with really good, fresh and brilliant ideas together, got them talking about their experiences to other people in the industry or outside the industry, maybe planting some new ideas there, and eventually got them talking together to help to find the better future.

I think that’s pretty much. An achievement not to be belittled. There’s a lot of work to do out there, but Power to the Pixel is

Power to the Pixel is a part of London Film Festival held in - surprise, surprise - London. It’s a technology-minded part, a bit separate from the festival itself, and it humours the subject of filmmaking and -distribution online. This year, they had a nice lineup of people flown over from the States and some from the Europe - the online filmmakers family get-together, more or less.

Again, the topics were the same I’m quite used to: everyone can make films, nowadays everything is cross-platform, utilize your community, don’t work with the old media industry, piracy is good, copyright is bad - maybe not so original, but hopefully for somebody it was inspiring. I think somebody said it well: “Nowadays, there’s no more “audience”. Today, it’s the community. So act accordingly.”

And eventually everyone was asking and trying to answer the question: how to make money with your film that’s released for free. And, as usual, nobody was able to answer to it. Why? Because there’s not one idiot-proof model to it. It’s stream of revenues that combined make the profit. One thing is for sure, at least: nobody has made a million with it. And on the Internet, you only count in millions. But then again, in the ideal world, every filmmaker would be happy to make a decent living and enough revenue to do the next film. But I don’t think that most important issue is the money, it’s the way of working, the philosophy of working with your audience, your community. If it’s sustainable, it will turn to dollars. If it’s not, it would’ve died already - so guess it’s on the good route, let’s just stick to it.

Before the model starts to work, or - God forbid - to make money, we need to sort out the biggest problem of the whole new industry. Why so few filmmakers make films online - there would definitively be a huge market for it, and when thinking further on the Long Tail theory, if that applies to film, there should be hudreds of thousands of new, aspiring filmmakers utilizing the Internet in the future. But there is not. It’s almost impossible to find good case examples from the Europe (Star Wreck is one of the very, very few), and in the States it’s mainly the same guys they wheel to festivals all the time - Four-Eyed Monsters, We Are The Strange and Steal This Film. So what’s the problem? Everything is out there, why don’t people make more Internet films, but stick to the old, supposedly non-working models and industry that they voluntarely let assrape them over and over again? The fragmentation of the whole field (of Internet filmmaking) is the biggest problem. Nobody would know where to start out with - there are dozen of community funding possibilities, tens of tools to collaborate on the film, and hudreds of ways to self-distribute it on the Internet and make some cash out of it. But there’s nobody that’s gonna take you by the hand and show how to use the Internet for filmmaking.

One of the problems is the platformisation of the working model, versus the requirement for the filmmakers to be independent. There, I am quite aware, also WAM has things to develope. The problem is that nobody wants to be “just another production in a platform”, so they’d rather create an own platform to it (if they are ambitious enough to start with, and if they are not, prolly they never finish the film anyway) instead of setting their films to a heap of other films fighting for the lebensraum. Instead of everyone flipping out their platform plans, the independent internet filmmakers should focus on trying to find ways to make the process as clear as possible, as understandable as possible, and have some good references of successful executions to back up the message.

There are few that try to do this - From Here to Awesome and Workbook Project, also IndieGoGo has some good guidelines on the Internet. But I’m looking forward into even more clearer system that would answer the few main questions *every* filmmaker has to ask:

1. Where to start?
2. What then?
3. Will I get paid?
4. Who have succeeded on it before, and how well?

When these questions are answered, filmmakers are more willing to approach this model. And eventually, it’s the filmmakers that need to be assured, definitively not the distributors and other middlemen. If somebody answers the four questions there in a convincing and clear way, it’s the middlemen that lose their jobs. But fear not, there’s always room for middlemen in whatever kind of industry future, and eventually it will be as always - the middlemen make the money. But maybe in the future the filmmakers would be more free to express themselves?

Right now I’m in a SAS plane flying over from London to Stocholm, where tomorrow morning we have a Nordic Cultural Commens Conference , with a discussion about “how to make money by giving away stuff for free”. I’m not expecting any groundbreaking revelations to pop up, but this is the only way - the clearer the concept gets, the clearer people identify the problems and needs of the people on both sides of the community, the closer to the surface the best answers travel.

So let’s just hope next time this industry - no, this form of art, storytelling and entertainment - makes the rules, it’s the filmmakers, not the middlemen, who set them.

M dot Strange talking about his experiences in creating a community around We are the Strange, and distributing the film on the Internet.

(This one is in Finnish, and it’s about the film Sauna’s premiere, that’s the first feature to come out of WreckAMovie.Com!)

Tämä on avoin kirje kaikille Wreckereille Suomessa:

Suomi on kusessa. Auttakaa, hyvät ihmiset.

Teattereihin valuu kirjailija-, muusikko- tai kansanpellefilmatisointeja, talvi-, jatko- tai kansalaissodan jeesusteluja, romanttisia komedioita tai keskinkertaisia lasten- ja koko perheen elokuvia, jotka napsivat pääosan katsojista.

Elämme kuitenkin jännittäviä aikoja: myös vähän poikkeuksellisia pätkiä on alkanut näkyä: kukapa olisi muutama vuosi sitten vielä uskonut, että vuoden näyttävimmin mainostettuja elokuvia olisi kauhuelokuva Lordi-monstereista, tai että teattereihin odotettaisiin suomalaista zombieleffa?! Tai että Elokuvasäätiö lähtisi tukemaan, herra paratkoon, kuunatseista kertovaa scifikomediaa? Tai että suomalainen kauhuelokuva keräisi ylistystä “elokuvana, joka kuuluu Solariksen ja Ringun kanssa”, pitkin festareita ympäri maailman? Eipä juuri kukaan. Ja kylmältä näyttää tulevaisuus: Lordi floppasi, Stone’s War seisoo jossain edittiluolassa tuottajien riitakapulana ja Iron Sky:tä päästään ihastelemaan vasta parin vuoden päästä.

Hugo-peikkoa lainatakseni: nyt on tosi kyseessä! Jos kaikki tästä “suomalaisen elokuvan uudesta aallosta” jäävät vaille katsojia teattereissa, voidaan olla varmoja, että levittäjät, tuottajat, tuotantoyhtiöt ja säätiö palaavat takaisin romkom-epookki-suurmies -linjalle, ja saadaan odottaa taas seuraavat 15 vuotta ennen kuin joku rohkenee yrittää samaa. Siksipä vetoan nyt Wreckereihin: jos tänä vuonna aiotte maksaa *yhdestä* suomalaisesta elokuvasta teatterissa, pistäkää rahanne Saunaan, joka tulee perjantaina ensi-iltaan teattereihin ympäri maata.

Pari hyvää syytä:

- Tulette näkemään parhaan kotimaisen elokuvan tänä vuonna. Guaranteed!
- Annatte äänenne suomalaisen elokuvan uudelle aallolle. Saunan onnistuminen teattereissa on viesti, että täällä jotakuta ihan oikeasti kiinnostaa.
- Sauna on ensimmäinen WreckAMovie.Com -palvelua käyttänyt, julkaistu elokuva! Myös se on hyvä syy tukea!

Ja vaikka ette teatteriin jaksaisi raahautuakaan, vaan odottelisittekin torrentien rantautumista piraattilahteen, ostamalla leffalipun Saunaan pistätte pari euroa kohti vähän parempaa elokuvailmastoa tässäkin maassa. Syystä tai toisesta mulla on semmoinen fiilis, että vähän kun puserretaan, Suomesta voi tulla seuraava Espanja - maa, josta kansainvälisesti odotetaan laadukasta genreleffaa!

Ai niin mikä Sauna? Tsekatkaa vielä traileri alta, ja käykää pelaamassa HUIKEAA Sauna-tekstiseikkailua jonka mainiot Energialaiset Antti ja Jarmo suuressa viisaudessaan tekivät!

Ps. koska allekirjoittanut on sairaalloisen kiinnostunut teidän mielipiteistänne, jos olette nähneet Saunan, käykääpäs pudottamassa parin sanan arvostelu Energia-boardille, aihetta varten avattuun threadiin, tai kommenttina tähän blogaukseen.

So, we had a crazy idea yesterday! We have been asked to come over to the Alternative Party in Helsinki, a computer/music/anything-cool -event that’s taking over the Kaapelitehdas from October 24th to 26th - next weekend, that is. We were asked to throw some kind of a workshop there, but didn’t actually have any idea - until yesterday! Why not make a workshop that would actually provide us with something we could actually use in the film!

Thus, let me present you: HAKENKREUZIERUNGMACHINEWORKSHOP!

The ALT PARTY people got so excited that they wanted to give a little discount to the Iron Sky community - so if you are coming over to the party, instead of paying 30€ for the tickets, you’ll get them through us at the price 22€ (unless you’ve already bought the tickets). Just click the picture above, and you’ll be directed to the info page!

Here’s the pitch (in Finnish):

–

IRON SKY JUGEND esittää:

WORKSHOP: Tehdään yhdessä HAKARISTEYTYSKONE!

Tule suunnittelemaan Iron Sky -elokuvaan tärkeää proppia: Hakaristeytyskonetta (”Hakenkreuzierungmachine”)! Mikä se on? Millainen se on? Miten se toimii?

Nyt kaikkien steampunkkareiden päät pöhisemään, kaikkien aikojen huikein suomalaisleffa tarvitsee teidän apuanne!

LAUANTAINA 25.10., ALTERNATIVE PARTY -tapahtumassa Helsingin Kaapelitehtaalla Energian tiimi järjestää klo 19:00 hakaristeytyskoneworkshopin!

Herzlich willkommen!

–

Having said some nice things about the Max Payne trailer before I went to see the movie on thursday with cautious optimism.

No need to beat around the bush: it just wasn’t very good.

It was kind of a celluloid vampire; it looked good (and resembled something that once was good and god fearing), wore black and went trough all the motions. But in the end it had no soul and existed only to suck your blood.

As somebody said on Facebook, it’s been a while since I’ve played Max Payne, but I remember how the game made me feel and this movie didn’t feel anything like it. The film looked amazingly like I remember the game looking, but the feeling wasn’t there. The plot, while it took the basics from the game, was 3/4 cliche and 1/4 incredibly stupid. But I did love the Valkyries (not the look, the idea).

Personally, I think that a film about Max Payne should have been uncompromised homage to film noir. This wasn’t.

In addition to working on Iron Sky, the Energia team keeps on with their reputation as “the group of nerds that keep on inviting beautiful girls to the office and shoot them “. There’s actually a bit more elaborate reason behind this than snuff-films - see, we also need to eat. Therefore, we’ve started looking for commercial customers that have some 3D/CGI needs we may fill with our unchallengeably mad skillz!

Last week we were shooting one of these videos, a short clip with a dancer, and we re-built our studio to the office and shot some nice dancing. I actually got the idea originally from Bronson Club’s blog, from an entry where they blogged about shooting the title logo for the company, and thought that wouldn’t it be nice to use the same dancer they had used. We tracked Miia Saastamoinen down, invited her over and did the scene, and the result was wonderful!

Oh, do check out Energia’s webpages and the demoreel, and if there’s a need, don’t hesitate to drop us message!

sales@starwreck.com

It’s quite clear that the autumn is here to stay. I noticed it when taking a walk today without gloves and a hat and almost froze to death. It seems that Helsinki is still a bit warmer, being closer to the sea, but in Tampere it’s already starting to feel that the winter is coming, and this year, I think, it’s gonna be one hell of a winter - at least compared to last one.

We just had a long chat with Samuli about Energia and our future. We noticed that the whole autumn has been quite damn hectic (no, we didn’t have summer vacations…), but it feels like we haven’t actually completed and released anything in ages. That’s not the whole truth, but compared to the first half of the year, we’ve been more under the radar during the latter part. It’s not a surprise, since we did release the Iron Sky teaser in the summer, we had few seasons of Energia Dailies and visited all kind of festivals here in Finland - and latter part of the year we’ve just focused much more on the film itself.

So what’s actually going on with Iron Sky? Well, let’s have a quick glance at where we are right now:

The Script:

The script for Iron Sky has been under construction for over a year now, and we’re putting the finishing touches on the second draft as we speak. Johanna Sinisalo has been writing like a madwoman the last few months, and the story is getting better and better after every revision. Right now, if you take some wild guesses on the length of the film - judging by the normal 1 page / 1 minute - it’s around 2 hours. But fear not, the original script of Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning was well over 2 hours at one point, and ended up in 100 minutes, which is our aim this time as well.

As we’ve said before, and I’m going to repeat it again: the script is the most important part of the film, that’s why we’re putting so huge amount of work on it at this point. I’ve found out that 20 minutes is exactly the amount of time a film can fly without a good story, but after that it’s dead. In science fiction (and in horror genre, which I’ve been digging a lot lately, as well) I’ve seen so many good, original ideas ruined by a fluffy and weak script, and there’s nothing any ensemble of actors, directors, producers or musicians can do about it if that’s the case.

To quote somebody in Iron Sky Teaser’s YouTube-comments: “This is a great idea. Please, please don’t fuck this up.”

We intend not to.

The script of the Iron Sky, written by Johanna Sinisalo.

The Actors

We’ve also started the castings for Iron Sky - that means, we’re picking the actors for the roles! Working together with our German producer Oliver Damian and a German casting agent Uwe Bünker we’ve found some smashing actors for the nazi roles of Iron Sky, and although we’re not yet revealing any names, I would say that we’ve more or less nailed the main role and some supporting roles for the film. The search goes on, and next we’re extending it overseas for the US leg of the castings. We’ll be dropping some names as soon as we are able to!

Casting session for Iron Sky. On the right, our German co-producer Oliver Damian, on the left our casting agent Uwe Bünker.

The Schedules

Our very faint idea in the beginning was that we’re going to be shooting the film in 2009, and release it a year later, 2010, and so far there’s no reason to be changing those, even though now we are much wiser and know much more on the realities of everything. Starting in few weeks, me and our cinematographer Mika Orasmaa are going to start to work on the storyboards, and our production designer will be starting to plan on how to create the required sets. Iron Sky will be shot in Berlin in the fall of 2009, and there will most definitively be Dailies from the set coming to YouTube for you to enjoy!

So, it’s gonna take FOREVER for you to finish the film? What can I expect to see/hear/read next?

We have to admit we’re already pushing ourselves far beyond the limits just to get the wheels of the production running smoothly, and we’re focusing all of our energy to that. But hopefully things are rolling nicely by the end of this year, and we have a bit more brain capacity to focus on producing some of our/our community’s wicked ideas!

But until that happens, you can do is help us to get there. By joining the production in WreckAMovie.Com we’ll get a good community ready to work on some of the crucial tasks that are soon to be launched in the platform. Also, all I can say is BUY MORE WAR BONDS! We’re always short on money, and any contribution will be respected greatly! In addition to that, keep on spreading the YouTube link for the Teaser, it’s the best promotion for the film you can do!

We’ve been visiting some original Nazi bunkers under Berlin. It’s creepy fun!

Woohoo! We’ve won the Grand Prix price from MindTrek 2008 -event in Finland with WreckAMovie.Com! totalling to 20008€, plus also we have been nominated as Finnish candidate to World Summit Awards!

Photo by Tommi Järvinen.

Way to go to the whole team behind WreckAMovie! But MUCH MORE than that, MASSIVE THANKS to everybody already subscribed to the platform, you made it real!

Grande! Muy especiale!

Keep on Wrecking in the free world!

Los Hombres Sexuales! From left: Samuli Torssonen, the Producer; Peter Vesterbacka, the Mobility Mastermind; Timo Vuorensola, the Director; Vesa Nieminen, the Developer; Atte Joutsen and Lare Lekman, the Architects.

Timo.