Written by Nic Wistreich | 13 December 2007 | in news - Latest

Paramount has become the first studio to experiment with free downloads of features, releasing Jackass 2.5 ahead of the DVD release for free. Sister company Comedy Central recently announced that they would offer every South Park episode on their site for free in an advert supported model. Paramount parent Viacom is currently suing Goo-Tube for 'copyright infringement' and has resisted releasing content on the platform, instead making gems such as the Daily Show and the Colbert Report available only on their own sites.

This Friday sees the release in the US of Look, a feature made entirely from surveilance footage, claiming to encourage viewers to ask "what safeguards exist to make sure highlights of your ass are not making it onto the most viewed list on YouTube?" but also a very cheap way of showing people undressing in clothes shop changing rooms.

The Golden Globe Noms are out. While the Coen Borther's No Country for Old Men picked up early awards season momentum, Britflick Atonement took the lead at the Globes with seven nominations. 

With the release of Be Kind, Rewind on the horizon, fan film is getting more serious with the establishment of the Organization for Transformative Works which will support fan works.

Other odds and sods, the ever excellent Cinematech is asking why film festivals don't move into distribution, YouTube has expanded its revenue sharing programme, and - whoooo - Tim Burton is set to direct a live action Alice in Wonderland.

Written by Administrator | 09 November 2007 | in news - Latest

Well in honour of being turned down for Film Council Publications Fund money - we've decided to revamp the site. You may notice the new design. There's also a few changes:

- profile URLs. Your profile can have it's own netribution.co.uk/myname address to share.
- profiles also now feature messaging, an image gallery, a video page (just YouTube and Google at the moment, but we will expand as soon as possible) and comments system.- custom profile pages.. this is quite limited at the moment, but you can change the colour of links, and set a background picture like this.
- new address.. no more netribution.co.uk/2/ nonsense, so you may want to update your bookmarks.

There's also a new link up with MovieScope magazine - more info to follow, and quite a few things in the works.

Written by North West Vision | 05 March 2007 | in news - Latest

Every inch of floor space was taken up by young, would-be writers, when acclaimed TV drama writer, Paul Abbott, addressed students attending the Northwest's huge Media Careers Information Day, held at Manchester's G-Mex.

And the maestro's message to those hoping to follow in his footsteps was simple - put two jobs worth of effort into one job, and believe in yourself. "You've got to think like you will make it, and have pride in what you're doing," he told the packed-event.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 05 March 2007 | in news - Latest

I'm in the final throws of pulling together a new book so haven't time to post properly, but here's a round up of some of the latest stories..

The big story in the UK is the sudden closure of the GAAP tax schemes, which Martin Churchill of Tax Efficient Review claims could cost the industry some £2bn. While the Treasury argues the scheme was being exploited, the sudden closure without consultation or warning brings back echoes of the careless confusion and uncertainty surrounding the replacement to Section 48, with Variety naming the day of the announcement Black Friday.  Prescience Film Finance's Paul Brett, who previously worked at the UK Film Council and BFI, told Screen Daily "We've got IFAs around the country that have been raising funding that we won't be able to use. That's terribly sad... A lot of UK films that were going to shoot over the next few weeks are going to fall apart". Films such as St Trinians, Brideshead Revisited and Genova were relying on GAAP funds for up to a third of their budget, and were set to start shooting shortly. Further uncertainty as to the status of films completed under sale and leaseback last year is also to be resolved as it seems the legislation inadvertently nulls the transitional arrangements from those films to the new system.  The Inland Revenue announcement in full.

Heyday Films' Tanya Seghatchian (left), who famously brought Harry Potter to the attention of David Heyman and continued to produce it for Warner Bros, is joining the UK Film Council as Head of the Development Fund. She also produced Pawel Pawlikowski's My Summer of Love.

FESPACO, Africa's largest film festival, has awarded its top prize to Ezra, a film about a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Director Newton Aduaka, who picked up the $20,000 prize has long been associated with the festival, nabbing its best short film and best first film prize. Africa's actually been on my mind this week as I tried to learn more about finance there - and with the help of James MacGregor's well trained eye learned that a) there's not much money b) 70% of films distributed in Africa are American and c) the impressive looking African Film Commission, the nearest thing to a screen agency for any part of the continent I've been able to find is actually headquartered in LA. 

While I remember it, Jonathan Letham's essay The Ecstacy of Influence makes me drool with envy for its lucidity on the subject of creativity as a gift, as opposed to a commodity (something I've also been thinking about in context of funding book 3, and my recent discovery of Lewis Hynde's The Gift). At its heart is as a discussion of how culture has always thrived from reusing, shaping, riffing and transforming creations. The Hollywood Reporter's Steve Bryant also speaks in favour of a remix culture with a more commercial angle: “Media that can’t be manipulated is almost useles.. Online, I can track who watches my clips, who reads my posts, who liked my mash-up. The Internet flatters us with attention in a way Hollywood no longer can.”

Written by James MacGregor | 28 February 2007 | in news - Latest

Shocking Exploitations Revealed in Media Companies

The NUJ will today (27/02/07) deliver a letter to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) naming and shaming employers who exploit journalists on work experience.

The union, which is launching its Work Experience Guidelines simultaneously, is demanding that the government investigate breaches of the National Minimum Wage legislation and take action to force media companies to comply.

The NUJ's allegations are based on the results of a recent major survey of work placements which revealed shocking exploitation.

Written by Internatiopnal Federation of Journalists | 04 January 2007 | in news - Latest

 155 Murders

Unexplained Killings

A Year of Unprecedented Brutality

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said today that 2006 was a year of tragedy for the world's media as killings of reporters and media staff reached historic levels with at least 155 murders, assassinations and unexplained deaths.

"Media have become more powerful and journalism has become more dangerous," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "2006 was the worst year on record - a year of targeting, brutality and continued impunity in the killing of journalists."

During the year the numbers began to accumulate with civil strife and resistance to military occupation in Iraq. The IFJ says media became prime targets of terror attacks or victims of poor soldiering. By the year's end, 68 media staff had been killed, bringing to 170 the number killed in the country since the invasion in April 2003.

Written by Nic Wistreich | 31 October 2006 | in news - Latest

As the first UN sponsored World Internet Governance Forum gets under way, Amnesty International is calling for greater awareness of countries with censorship and freedom of speech violations. The forum aims to provide global discussion between the multitude of potentially conflicting interests on the web.

Topping the box office charts in the UK and US, Saw 3 has provided distributor Lionsgate with dream PR after three people passed out during screenings in one night in Stevenage. A further woman collapsed at a cinema in Cambridge, tho it has not been confirmed what film she was watching.

UK think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research has argued that the UK's copyright laws should be updated to reflect the way people consume media, including a private right to copy (ie purchased CDs and DVDs onto a computer or portable player for viewing). Meanwhile a crack down on copyrighted content has begun at both YouTube and MySpace with the former removing (amongst other things) all episodes of the Daily Show. One system which allows for consumers to do pretty much whatever they want with the media they posess is Creative Commons, the 'copyleft' licensese used in over 160 million creative works since first being released, and which has just unveiled drafts for their version 3.0 licenses.

As Borat advance buzz escalates in direct proportion to anger from the nation of Kazakstan, creator Sacha Baron Cohen has reportedly signed a £22m deal with Universal. In New York, meanwhile, Aardman Animation's third feature, Flushed Away, staring Kate Winslett and Hugh Jackman, has received its premiere.

Written by James MacGregor | 08 August 2006 | in news - Latest

Eight Cities, Eight Film Crews -  Eight Features in 80 Hours

Inspired by their win in this year's Cannes 24 Hour Film Challenge with Towel Talk - a four minute mystery made in four hours from concept to completion,  Wysiwyg will now run an international competition with production teams from eight major cities, each one competing to produce an 80-minute feature in 80 hours.

Written by BBC | 30 July 2006 | in news - Latest

Britain's Biggest Sound Stage Completely Destroyed

The large James Bond stage at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire has been destroyed by fire. At least eight fire engines tackled the blaze at the set, where filming for the new movie Casino Royale has finished. Eyewitness Jen McVean, who owns a firm at the studios in Iver Heath, said the stage was "completely on fire".

The large sound stage had been transformed into a replica Venice where the film, with a reported budget of £39m ($72m), is partly based. Mrs McVean, 27, said earlier the stage looked completely on fire. "Nothing is salvageable and there are many, many fire engines there," she added.

Written by Film Academy | 15 July 2006 | in news - Latest

The 3rd Talent Circle Super Shorts Film Festival takes place in venues across Soho between 17-24 July. All events are admission free and include screenings, seminars, workshops, panel discussions and networking parties.