How Soon Is Now? Crowd Sourcing, Social Media Marketing and the Future of Filmmaking

There’s a forum if you’d like to go.

Are you full of great ideas on digital fundraising and distribution that seem ahead of their time but want to know more? When you tell other people to climb on the future wagon do they tell you to “shut your mouth, how can you say I go about things the wrong way?” Well not anymore. Unless you really are “the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar” you should get yourself off your ample behind and make a date for what promises to be a fascinating San Francisco Film Society forum. Here’s part of the blurb:

Over the past 20 years a revolution has changed the way that filmmakers operate. In the past, filmmakers had to pass through a succession of gatekeepers and raise enormous sums of money in order to get their work made and seen. Today, filmmakers are empowered by  digital tools that enable them to raise funds, control production and engage with audiences in myriad new ways that could not have been imagined in the past. What do current practices such as crowd sourcing, social media marketing, free online distribution and cloud-based collaboration portend for the future? Now that anyone can make a film, will anyone watch it? These questions are particularly relevant as program copresenter ITVS celebrates its 20th anniversary.

How Soon Is Now? takes a deeper look at our digitally democratized world and charts possible scenarios for the future of filmmaking. On hand will be a panel of filmmakers and trendsetters including Shawn Bercuson, founder and CEO of Prescreen.com; Carlton Evans, cofounder and codirector of the Disposable Film Festival; Jen Gilomen, filmmaker and BAVC Director of Public Media Strategies, and Jonathan Marlow, Fandor cofounder and vice president of content development and acquisitions. ITVS Senior Programming Manager Richard Saiz will deliver a keynote address and San Francisco Film Society Director of Filmmaker Services Michele Turnure-Salleo will moderate the panel.

Following the discussion, filmmakers in the audience are invited to participate in theLaptop Shop, a professional show-and-tell during which attendees screen clips from their current or recent projects on their laptops and solicit feedback from peers. It’s a lively exchange and a unique opportunity to see what’s brewing in the Bay Area film world. Filmmakers wishing to screen their work should bring a short clip, headphones and a well-charged laptop.

So come on, I mean who knows, “you could meet somebody who really loves you…” well your ideas anyway. Just please don’t go and “stand on your own”, do some networking like a real person.

“When you say it’s going to happen ‘now’. Well when exactly do you mean?” Oh, forgot to mention that: Monday July 25th at 7.30pm.

OK enough with The Smiths lyrics.