Lionshare on DVD Talk, plus contest info
I recently was the guest on Cody Clarke’s DVD Talk to promote the movie. Check it out.
To enter a contest to win a free copy of The Lionshare signed by Josh Bernhard and Cody Clarke, send an email with a minimum of 100 words, on any subject, to dvd@lionsharemovie.com with the subject DVD Contest. Talk about anything you like as long as it’s at least 100 words. Entry deadline is March 15. The winning essay will be read on the next episode of DVD Talk with Cody Clarke.
‘The Lionshare’ is academic
My good friend Dan is currently in a screenwriting program at a university in Scotland. One of his classes has to do with copyright issues and file sharing (first off, how cool is that?). Last night, he sent me the following:
So in class we watched Steal This Film, a presentation from TOM by Larry Lessig called “Laws That Choke Creativity” (It’s really amazing, check it out if you haven’t seen it. It’s available here among other places.), talked about the Girl Talk documentary, RIP: A Remix Manifesto, but didn’t watch it, and of course we talked a LOT about file sharing. After the break (it’s a 3 hour class) he showed us this webpage called http://vodo.net. And as you know, SHIT! There’s The Lionshare on the mainpage on the giant screen at the front of my class. And my professor starts talking about the web site and how this is the first feature film that they’ve hosted. I told the class that the film is actually by a good friend of mine, how we graduated from the same program, told them a little bit about the film without giving too much away, and encouraged them to watch it. And remember, there it is on the giant screen in the front of the room. The coincidence was insane.
Actually I cheated just slightly with my storytelling. But don’t worry, that makes it even better. During the break (before he showed what is currently, basically a page advertising your movie to my screenwriting class), of course having a personal and professional interest in all this copyright stuff I spoke with the professor and mentioned the band Negativland because of all of their famous and infamous legal dealings on the subject. And then, of course, I mentioned The Lionshare. The craziest bit was that as soon as I mention “this film you should check out that was made by a good friend of mine.” He goes, “Oh yeah. I just downloaded that last night. I’m going to talk about the web site that’s hosting it after the break.” Insane. So minor though it was, The Lionshare was a part of the copyright and file sharing discussion during a lecture in one of my classes on my screenwriting course. In Scotland. It made my day actually.
Made my day too! It’s certainly quite a coincidence that a person I know very well happened to go to Scotland and happened to join this program and happened to take that class that happened to be taught by that professor. Sometimes I wonder…
Additionally, Andrew Currie, who wrote that great review on Open Attitude, followed up with another article titled Instead of “making it,” just make art. It’s generated an interesting discussion on his Facebook page. Here’s an excerpt from the original post where he mentions The Lionshare:
Will art suffer from a dearth of professional artists? I don’t think so — for example, The Lionshare is far more compelling a film than anything I’ve seen from Hollywood so far this year. It may well be that such grand projects are undertaken with the ultimate goal of “making it”, but what if artists were to free themselves of this antiquated notion — really just a blip of the 20th century — and concentrate instead on just making art?
Lionshare “‘Slacker’ for the file-sharing generation”
The movie was written up on the blog Open Attitude, and they had some flattering things to say about the movie:
Back in 1991, when yours truly was a starving comedian down and out in Los Angeles, he went to his local art house movie theatre and saw what’s since been hailed as the cinematic anthem of Generation X — Richard Linklater’s Slacker.
This week, almost 20 years later, he had the distinct pleasure of downloading and watching The Lionshare, which could arguably be called Slacker for the file-sharing generation… except that it’s a much better film.
That’s some high praise indeed, and I’m not going to argue! Click here for the full article and check out the rest of the blog while you’re at it.
New review from ‘sexy gypsy’
Came across this new review last night:
Bernhard very subtlety yet very clearly and unpretentiously shows us a contradiction in society. With our websites and our ipods, we are a disconnected society. Yet what we all have in common is this earphone-induced isolation.
In contrast to the work of the Duplass brothers and Andrew Bujalski, the cast in this film is a bit younger. With everyone in their early 20’s, the dialogue seems a little more natural and carefree. Maybe I don’t have friends like that now, but I did Sophomore year of college. The jokes cracked and issues discussed lend themselves to an image of youthful hope, rather than the meandering and jaded dissatisfaction of the soon-to-be-thirty-somethings that dominate the genre.
Check out the full review here.
Also, an article about the movie appeared in Monday’s edition of the Brazilian newspaper O. Estadao S. Paulo which I’m working on getting a good translation of. Pretty cool stuff! It amazes me the momentum this movie still has a full year after we finished it.
VODO creator namedrops ‘Lionshare’ at Slamdance panel
Jamie King, the force behind the VODO distribution platform that released the movie last month, was part of a panel discussion at Slamdance yesterday about the future of film distribution. While he was speaking, he mentioned The Lionshare’s downloads on the filesharing networks equaled 8 terabytes. It was quoted on the blog of Filmmaker Magazine:
Discussing a recent VODO film, Lion’s Share, King did point to one useful statistic. He said the film’s downloads on the filesharing networks totalled eight terabytes. “The value of that is in the thousands of dollars,” he said, “and that bandwidth cost has been shared by our community. It points to a future when the distinction between filmmaker, producer and distributor has been broken down.” In this future, he continued, “We will need to incentivize people to promote our films.”
Okay, so, they called it ‘Lion’s Share’ but that’s still awesome. Check out their full report on the panel here.
The Big Picture Show
The VODO release was a great success. They said in the first day the movie was download 10,000 times. 10,000 times! Even if only half the people who downloaded it actually watched it, that’s already an order of magnitude greater than the number that had seen it up til that point. I’ve been getting emails and tweets from people all over the world giving reactions and asking questions about the film, and it’s all been pretty overwhelming.
It’s been about a year since we finished the film. Every time I think it’s done with and I can put it on the shelf, the movie turns out to have more life in it. And, a year on, it had its most successful week yet.
Cool things that happened this week, in no particular order: landing the front page of The Pirate Bay. Getting a Lionshare Wikipedia entry (soon-to-be-deleted, but it was there nonetheless!). Being asked to be interviewed for a book about online media and downloading. Getting an email asking “what advice would you give to a young aspiring filmmaker?”
That last one took me aback. The notion that anybody was asking me for advice on how to succeed as a filmmaker was…I don’t know what. I don’t feel like I’m anywhere near being able to think about giving advice on how to “make it.” I wanted to say to him “Got me, but when you find some, send it my way.” But what I realized I should say was this: just go out and do something. Whatever you can. Make your movie however you can. It may seem obvious but it’s something a lot of people (myself especially) have a tendency to forget. You think you’re not ready, you make excuses for yourself, you’ll do it next month or next year. But unless you actually do some work, thinking about it is all you’re going to do. Do it and learn, then make another one that’s even better from the experience.
At least I think.
Anyhow, all this stuff combined with the looming end of 2009 has made me kind of contemplative. I really want to thank everybody who checked out the movie whether you liked it or not. And thanks to all the people who contacted me to tell me what they thought. And to all the people who made donations or bought the DVD.
See you on the next one.
‘Lionshare’ makes best-of list
Filmmaker and critic Tom Russell, whose review I linked to a while back, has made a list of his favorite films of the past decade. The Lionshare is on that list:
A multifaceted examination of how culture is created and disseminated and notions of ownership, all packed into a tight and sprightly sixty-five minutes. Entertaining, maturely stylish, ambitious without ever overreaching. The filmmaker has made the film available for free. It’s worth your time.
This is quite an honor to bestow upon our little film. Thanks to Tom and everyone else who has supported it.
‘The Lionshare’ at HHF Film & Music Festival
I’ve just been notified via email that we’ve been accepted to the Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival in Bay City, Michigan. From their website:
HHM Fest is more than an event for those who simply appreciate film and music. It’s a grassroots effort to develop a community that participates in the arts. The festival idea developed from a “wouldn’t it be great…” conversation, into “we can do it” action. We hope our actions will inspire others to develop new arts and culture opportunities in our community.
…
It’s our 4th year of fighting for independent film and live original music, and we have one “hell” of a line up of features, docs, shorts, animated, student and foreign language films. Plus, a Saturday night of music at the old Masonic Temple with bands Oh My God (Chicago), Baby Teeth (Chicago) and Champions of Breakfast (Detroit).
Help us fight for independent film and music. Plan to attend HHM Fest-4 October 1-4, 2009. For information on advance ticket and pass sales please contact info@hhmfest.com.
Sounds good to me! Doubtful we will be in attendance, but it’d be pretty cool…we’ll see what happens.
Lionshare Trailer
In what I can only describe as an inexcusable omission, until now I have not created a trailer for the movie. We have a poster, a DVD, reviews, promotional stills, but no trailer. I can only say that I had some difficulty getting something together that I was happy with, and that I am dumb. But I’ve finally come up with something I think works pretty well, so without further ado:
Another mention from TCWReviews
Clifford of TCWReviews.com made a new update today to tout the movie again and to spread the word about the upcoming DVD release. Check out the full story here on his website.
