reel-exchange

FIRST DIY DAYS EVENT IN L.A. (July 26th) TO PROVIDE FILMMAKERS WITH TIPS TO BYPASS TRADITIONAL FILM DISTRIBUTION AND PLAY FILMS DIRECTLY IN THEATERS, LIVING ROOMS, ONLINE, MOBILE

What's an independent filmmaker to do in these times of a struggling industry, piracy and increased competition?

From Here to Awesome (http://www.fromheretoawesome.com), a new discovery and distribution film festival platform using both traditional and new media vehicles, is putting the control in the hands of filmmakers and allowing them to reach their audiences directly. The festival has no submission fees and filmmakers retain their rights while seeing direct monetary returns from participating distribution outlets (i.e. Amazon, Vudu, Joost, Hulu, NetFlix and growing number of additional outlets).

Rooted in a Web 2.0 model and the concept of openly sharing information, From Here to Awesome and Current TV are staging a number of live events called DIY DAYS. The focus of DIY DAYS is to discuss new models of funding, production, distribution and sustainability. These events are coming at a time when the film industry is in a state of flux.

DIY DAYS is staging events in LA, SF, Boston, NYC and London throughout the next six months and Current TV is an official media sponsor of the events. The first DIY DAYS event will be held on July 26th from 9:30am in Los Angeles at Under Spring (1745 North Spring #4, Los Angeles, CA 90012). To register for the event visit: http://www.diydays.com or http://current.com/diydays

“From Here to Awesome is an experiment to directly connect filmmakers and audiences,” said Lance Weiler, co-founder of From Here to Awesome and director of Head Trauma and The Last Broadcast. “The internet has provided all the tools needed for filmmakers to make feature films but the struggle to secure a distributor and to market their film is still a paramount obstacle filmmakers face.”

The film industry is a permission-based culture and From Here to Awesome is a step toward letting filmmakers know they have options - not getting into one of the major film festivals is not the end of their movie’s life but actually just the beginning.

Last year, a similar to the direct-to-audience model shook the music industry when Radiohead became the first major band to release their album direct-to-audience.

A group of breakthrough DIY filmmakers, Lance Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma), Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are the Strange), have come together to share their collective knowledge to help guide this new open-source film distribution movement.

“This is just the beginning,” said Arin Crumley, another co-founder of From Here to Awesome. “From Here to Awesome and DIY DAYS will help revolutionize the film industry. These two projects will demonstrate the value of empowering filmmakers, movie theaters and other distributors by giving them a measuring stick to determine interest in a project and then allow the distributors to monetize the film and give the revenue directly to the filmmakers...”

Indie filmmakers are quickly embracing the concept. Since the recent launch more than 115 films have been submitted to the festival from around the world.