Stop this Ride! I'm Out!

I swore I wouldn't write yet another 'resolution/New Year/I'm gonna get skinny in 2013' blog post - but I lied. I will keep it short and sweet though: I'm glad this rollercoaster of a year is over and I am grateful for everything it brought. I'm completely content in knowing that I gave my all in love, life and career. I tried new things, starred in a Batman parody video, started my PhD, produced my first short (and endured by first horror film festival) and even met Mr. Bobby D for a second time... where I did NOT ask if he was talking to me. 2013 will be a much quieter year. 

Don't get me wrong, I'll still be all up in your faces, with more mustache photos and nostalgic indie band tweets. But I think next year will be more about self-care. Back to health and fitness, looking after my family and looking out for my friends and loved ones.

Before we all gag some more, let's wrap this up with something you might actually care about. Below are my top and bottom ten films of 2012. For some, I give reasons. For others, tough shit - it's 1 am and I dont need to explain myself. Also, for those of you nosey shits, there's a top 5 'grateful' moments of 2012. No, they've got nothing to do with the film industry (mostly) - get over it. Happy New Year, kids. 

Top 10 Films

1. Cabin in the Woods - the lift scene. That is all.

2. My Brother the Devil - James Floyd is FLAWLESS in this. Best film of the DIFF 2012. 

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - everything I was expecting and more.

4. Chronicle - I still hate Max Landis.

5. The Raid: Redepmtion - do I need to explain?

6. Headhunters - again, flawless.

7. Robot and Frank - magic.

8. Tabu - watch it.

9. Asham: A Man Called Hope - directed by Maggie Morgan. Love.

10. Alexis/Lot 254 - brilliant FrightFest shorts.

Bottom 10 Films

1. Prometheus - has Damien Lindelof quit life, yet?

2. The Hunger Games - utter shit. Awful interpretation of a great book. Scared to see the sequels.

3. Un Jour Sang - FirghtFest short: disgusting, unnecessary, gave me an anxiety attack.

4. End of Watch - don't get it, don't wanna get it, end.

5. Red Dawn - watch 'Tomorrow when the War Began' and spare yourself this pain.

6. Jack Reacher - meeehhhhh.

7. Wrath of the Titans - I mean, REALLY?

8. The Five-Year Engagement - no, seriously, WHO FUNDS THESE FILMS?

9. Battleship - why, Liam, why?

10. The Possession - ridiculous.

Top Five 'Gratefuls'

1. A healthy 2013 for an amazing friend. Up yours, cancer!

2. Bday lunch at Le Deux Maggots, Paris - ten minute walk from the Louvre, killer champagne Pimm's.

3. Seeing Rhys Darby/a Smiths tribute show at Ed Fringe.

4. Recieving mystery flowers. Discovering they're from a brilliant human being.

5.  Family.

Live!

I will be - and have been - here (in the screen below to be precise) for the next six days of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2012, interviewing some brilliant directors, actors, screenwriters and personnel from the Doha Film Institute, live from their respective Red Carpet events.

In the past couple of days, we've hosted the directors of The Lebanese Rocket Society, Joanna Hadjithomas and Khalil Jreige, homegrown talent in the form the directors of Arab hip hop/revolution doco Lyrics Revolt, and the Raging Bull himself, Bobby de Niro.

Over the next six days of festival, we will be hosting some of the most promising regional talents, including Ali Cherri (Pipe Dreams), Ehab Tarabieh (Al Mansiyun), Hanan Abdulla (In the Shadow of a Man), Damien Onouri (Fidai) and more.

 

Tips, How-Tos, Dos and Donts

This is what you look like when you use internet speak in a serious context

I am by no means what some people call a social media ‘expert.’ The entire notion of labelling someone as a digital guru or transmedia wizard is cringe-worthy. Being a part of an environment that evolves, adapts and transforms as fast as the digital industry means the vital and constant need to listen, study and learn from experiences and trends. It’s what makes my job exciting.

However, I thought it might be nice to share some basic tips (mostly Twitter-based) that can make your social media lives a lot more interactively savvy, and a lot less face-palm inducing for me. If you disagree on any of the below, I would love to hear why:

•  Live event tweeting. Not everyone will care about the launch of the new cheese grater cum headphones from Apple. If you absolutely need to do this, then warn your followers. However, unless you’re covering an event from a brand account for professional purposes, I suggest you avoid this entirely. Selectively tweeting the cream of the event crop is best - and it stops you from spamming your followers and potentially being unfollowed.

•  Overt self-promotion. Listen, we all want to be recognised for the awesome things we’ve accomplished, and it’s always especially nice to be recognised publicly. However, if fifty magazines have tweeted about how exciting your new film is, you absolutely need NOT re-tweet fifty messages within a ten minute time frame. Be selective, pick the best and then let the tweeters do the promoting for you. Don’t give your followers the chance to label you as gloat-y or self-obsessed. Also, use the ‘Favourite’ tool – highly underrated, and allows you to archive tweets for later use.

•  This isn’t Mean Girls. You don’t need to unfollow me if I’ve decided to unfollow you. Twitter (unless it’s reality television based) is not a popularity contest. You should be following people you find interesting, have similar interests with, educational even. In effect, someone’s decision to unfollow you should really have no impact on your ‘following’ list. Get over it and engage to grow your followers list.

•  Remember the lol cats? They were cute. But its over now and ToO much of these LULZ internets sp3aks cud make me confooz yew with A prepubezcent tEEn. It’s annoying. Grammar rules still apply on social media, so use your internet lingo in sarcasm and/or only in absolutely LULZ circumstances. 

•  Deleting people’s comments/your previous tweets. Pet social media hate. If you’re posting something online, expect savagery in return. Okay, it’s not always that bad, but the internet creates a safe zone for discussion (sometimes incredibly heated) and if you’re a ‘dish it out’ social media peep, then you need to be ready to take it. Think things through before you post them, “Will this get me in trouble?” “Who’s going to see this post?” “Am I being overtly controversial?” etc. Remember, the internet is like a big log book for everything you’ve ever done.

Show.. Me.. Your Crowdfunding Plan

Indie darling, director Charlie Kaufman recently broke all fundraising campaign records via crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, doubling the target amount for the animated adaptation of his play ‘Anomalisa.’ The result was a whopping $400k that saw Kaufman laughing - past all the Hollywood studio big guns – and straight to the bank. At the heart of the debate that ensued on social media platforms Twitter and Facebook was whether Kaufman’s success was a positive influence on the omnipresent lack of faith in crowdfunding.

Working for the argument was that a name like Kaufman’s can only help solidify conviction in the capabilities of crowdfunding. Opposing views expressed concern regarding the potential lack of willingness to contribute to campaigns without a recognised name attached and if directors with leverage like Kaufman’s even needed to explore crowdfunding as an option. With valid points being made on both sides, the smartest option would be to equip you with the top industry tips on how to launch – and hopefully, complete – a successful crowdfunding campaign:

Transmedia: ITS NOT* MARKETING

Let’s get started…

New York, Tribeca, Sundance, Austin, Sheffield and more… what do these film festivals have in common? They have all recently introduced a new festival category in which transmedia producers and their projects can compete within the realm of multi-platform storytelling. Transmedia productions are now working towards eliminating the concept of linear storytelling, arming filmmakers, artists, musicians and, most importantly, authors, with the tools to diversify the ways in which an audience can become immersed in a story, myth or ideology.

However, with misconceptions about these tools infiltrating the filmmaking circuit, the embrace of transmedia storytelling has in fact been a surprisingly slow and laborious process, especially in considering that the first recorded transmedia campaigns date back to the mid-80s with the introduction of Alternate Reality Games.  Said misconceptions often originate from the uneducated view of transmedia as purely a marketing tool as opposed to the multifaceted component of storytelling that it actually provides, helping to further enrich user and audience experiences.