Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards and Los Angeles Film Festival, brought its annual Film Independent Forum for 2012 to a close this past weekend. In addition to providing aspiring filmmakers with its wide array of panels and networking opportunities, it continued its tradition on delivering an always-memorable keynote address.
This year’s speaker was Academy Award® nominated director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Abduction, Four Brothers) who took the stage to bestow his knowledge on the crowd of Forum attendees. Taking his cue from past year’s speakers, Singleton took the opportunity to drop knowledge and expletives in what can only be described as a “real” point of view of his experiences and understanding of how the industry works.
To check highlights from the speech as well as his exclusive interview with Film Independent visit www.filmindependent.org or YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HYUtkrq1Xg&feature=youtu.be
The 2012 Forum also introduced the first ever Movie Hackathon (www.zefrhackathon.com) sponsored by ZEFR, Inc. and Co.Create from Fast Company. The event, which took place at the Venice office of ZEFR, Inc., brought together teams of programmers to build new apps for filmmakers and film lovers. After 41 hours of coding, the top three were selected with each receiving a cash prize.
The winning teams and apps were:
1st Prize – Team: Deutsch LA Junior Varsity Team
Pop Over
A host your own movie party app that allows you to invite as many Facebook friends as you like while limiting the number of RSVPs to the actual capacity of your living room. Friends can sign up to bring drinks and snacks, as well as allowing the user to purchase the selected movie directly from the app via existing digital retail channels like Amazon etc.
2nd Prize – Team: Bio Digital Jazz
Cin Fest
Film Festivals are amazing platforms to launch a new movie, Film Festival websites…not so much. CinFest is a movie first application with an elegant user interface that positions themovie poster as the key element for interactivity. Bios, bylines, and synopses are deftly concealed to celebrate the key movie-marketing asset – a killer poster. Festival attendees can indicate which fest film they’re going to check out and invite their friends to tag along via socialmedia.
3rd Prize – Team: Code Frat
Act Roulette
Tapping the popular social phenomenon, Chat Roulette, Act Roulette allows fans and actors hoping to beef up on delivering their favorite movie lines to interact with each other via a live video chat feature. Famous clips containing famous quotes form the structure of the chat rooms and users can sign up to pop into those rooms to go head-to-head with other performers. An engaging way to bring movies to life, and maximize your acting chops anonymously.
Additionally, this past weekend’s Forum provided attendees one-on-one networking opportunities with key film industry executives as well as informative panels that covered all aspects of independent film production, marketing, distribution, and more. Panelist highlights included, filmmaker Jay Duplass (Jeff, Who Lives At Home, Cyrus), producer/director Rory Kennedy (Ethel, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) writer/director Sheldon Candis (LUV), producer Kevin Iwashina (Jiro Dreams of Sushi), director/producer Ondi Timoner (We Live In Public, Dig!), writer/director Lynn Shelton (Your Sister’s Sister, Humpday), producer Ram Bergman (Looper, Brick), and more.
The 2012 Film Independent Forum is presented by Indiewire, the leading news, information and networking site for independent-minded filmmakers, the industry and moviegoers alike. Additional sponsors include Premier Sponsors SAGIndie/Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, IMDbPro and Principal Sponsors Universal Studios, Montana Film Office, Korean Film Council (KOFIC), PUMit from UbicMedia, ZEFR and Co.Create from Fast Company. Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Water is the Official Water and Renwood Winery is the Official Wine for the Film Independent Forum. News submitted by Greg Longstreet
