We fail to utilize the two years from greenlight to release to market our film and build our audiences. Despite having the key economic indicators (i.e. stars & concept) in place at the time of greenlight, we underutilize that two year period when we could be sourcing fans, aggregating them and providing them with both the ramps and the bridges necessary to lead them to our work and then carry them to other new work.

This is why I now say in the sidebar that I’ll be “launching my first feature-length project in July.” It’s not that I’m not going to be releasing the feature itself in July (I wish), but rather that the whole feature will be a very open process from soup to nuts — it will have a website (with content!) from the beginning, that grows and adapts over the course of the production. As for Ted’s quote that “the majority in the film industry are essentially luddites and technophobes, barely aware of the tools we have available to us to enhance, economize, and spread our work,” I hope to make NoFilmSchool a notable resource for this by sharing not just camera-related know how, but web tools and techniques as well.

One of the reasons I’ve focused on learning the technical aspects of film production — ranging from shooting to editing to motion graphics to graphic design — is because I believe modern filmmakers should not limit themselves to the traditional definition of “filmmaking.” The project I’m working on now will involve true multimedia creation, from videos to novellas to street art to social games. I could go on and on but I’d rather let the work speak for itself, when and if it sees the light of day.

Some aspiring filmmakers I’ve talked to look down at transmedia, as if it’s inherently beneath them — they want to be the next Martin Scorcese, and Scorcese just makes features so that’s what they should do too, right? To them I would ask: would you rather do something that’s been done before, or would you rather push the boundaries and do something new? If the answer is the former I think you’re in the wrong field!

Here’s an overview (and a bit of hype) about some of the changes to this year’s festival:

The Sundance YouTube account has dozens more videos from the festival, including this three-part producer’s roundtable:

And the guys from Sabi Pictures put the following videos together (in conjunction with Filmmaker Magazine and the Workbook Project):

If you’ve seen some good videos I missed, please add them in the comments. Finally, for any aspiring filmmaker, the Sundance labs (click “I am a” at lower left) are some of the most respected — and selective — grant/mentorship programs in the country.