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Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 1:40 PM PST

My March 1st Rant.

I still love Hollywood films. Even after spending 7 years living and breathing independent film, something about big budget films still pulls at my heart. There is something that 100 million bucks buys you that 1 million cant. The funny thing is even 100 million cant buy a good film. I digress.

The films I love are the slapstick comedies. Marx Brothers films, Spaceballs, Airplane. Films that are funny and over the top. Pat Proft has written some of the best. Naked Gun, Hot Shots, Police Academy, Police Squad. So I was excited to see it was making a comeback and decided to test the waters with "Date Movie". Water not good!

I don't understand why this film would get made. It told the same jokes over and over again. Jokes that have been used in other films, over and over again. Not one person laughed through this 85 minute film. Now these were 1/2 the writers who did scary movie. It makes me wonder if that means the Waynes Brothers really have that much talent when it comes to writing movies. Cause the other half sucks! Where are the good spoof films at? Where are the good comedy writers at? From the looks of it, the reviewers seem to be funnier then the screenwriters!

"Date Movie takes already funny movies and makes them completely unfunny."

"The kind of brutally painful movie-going experience generally associated with the lesser efforts of Rob Schneider."

"Take your date to this laugh-less stinker and it may be your last."

It looks like we have two chances to make things right, Scary movie 4 . Watch the trailer.

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 11:26 AM PST

A huge splash at this year's SXSW Film Festival

On-line Independent Film Retailer,
Filmbaby.com Premieres
Independent Films
At SXSW

Party and screenings on March 11, 2006
at renowned Austin hang-out
THREADGILL´S

Films will be shown outside on inflatable movie screens

(Portland, Oregon) March 1st, 2006 -- On-line independent film retailer FilmBaby.com will make a huge splash at this year's SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. On March 11, the second day of the festival, Filmbaby.com will host a party at the legendary Threadgill´s beginning at 4pm with cocktails.

Live Music presented by the Austin Music Foundation, will be feature artists 33 West, Real Heroes and headlining the event is 2005 Austin Music Award´s "Best Rock Band" Wide Awake . The screening then begins at 7pm outside, shown on a 30 Foot inflatable movie screen. Admission is Free.

Threadgills is located in the heart of Austin at 301 W Riverside Drive.

"SXSW is synonymous with the independent spirit and filmbaby.com is proud to
be a part of this important festival. This is a natural fit for us as we support Independent film makers at the festival." Jamie Chvotkin, president of FilmBaby.com says. "The outdoor screening will bring attention to the six films that we have chosen to screen. "We are excited to welcome festival attendees to an unconventional venue to screen these films that are conceived, created and distributed outside the traditional Hollywood system.

"The tide of the Indie Film world is changing rapidly as the barriers to entry for film makers are continuously lowered via technological and distribution advancements. As a result of the surge of indie films being created, a new audience of film fan is emerging as well. "We are excited to be a facilitator for connecting these artists with their new fans."

Critically acclaimed films such as *Heavy Metal Parking Lot*, referred to as one of the greatest rock and roll films of all time and *Helicopter* made the cut to be screened at the filmbaby.com party along with several other films.

Immediately following the screenings, guest will have the opportunity to download the films for one week from exclusively from Film Baby´s digital distribution partner, Google Video. Log on to video.google.com and download the film or exclusive clips at no charge.



**

*Below is a complete listing of the films that will be screened at Threadgills: *

7pm Helicopter
In the aftermath of a helicopter crash, a young man tries to remember his mother's face. An autobiographical tale of love, rock'n'roll, and loss. Oscar Winner (Student-Alternative); "The year's best short film" (Film Threat)

7:30 Baby Its Cold Outside
Holly Hawkes a hotel manager from south Florida meets and marries Rob Robinson a successful Christmas wreath maker from northern Maine in the middle of winter. Holly, who has never experienced snow and freezing winter weather before hates it. As it turns out Holly is not the only tropical mammal up there out of place. A fuzzy little anteater was brought up there to be part of a petting zoo. When it's discovered the anteater is not hibernating but could be dying he is returned to the tropics. But what will happen to Holly?

9:15 Hit and Run
Inspired by a true story. Witness an accident with no witnesses.

9:30 Choppertown
Custom chopper builder and punk rock guitarist Kutty Noteboom builds his Working Man's chopper from the ground up with the help of his good friend Rico and the rest of the Sinners. As they criss-cross California finding parts and trying to stay out of trouble, we learn that there is more to these tough bikers than meets the eye.

11:00 Heavy Metal Parking Lot
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT is considered one of the greatest rock & roll movies of all time, although it's actually a hilarious documentary tribute to rock & roll's GREATEST FANS. Filmed in 1986 at a Maryland concert arena parking lot before a heavy metal show, HMPL is an unvarnished anthropological study of American metalheads in their mid-'80s glory.

11:30 Cow Monkey
"Cow Monkey" follows the hazardous trail of Roy and Gil, twin brothers intent on exacting sweet revenge upon Big Foot for the horrible death of their dog, Wanda II. "Deliverance" meets "My Dinner With Andre" in this harrowing story of backwoods redemption. Please do not reveal the shocking finale to your friends and loved ones!


*ABOUT Filmbaby.com*

Filmbaby.com was created by Independent film enthusiasts eager to provide an outlet for the many excellent films that simply do not get a chance to gain a worldwide audience. The company provides a marketplace in which fans may search for films, view trailers, read reviews, and purchase DVD copies. Filmbaby.com's worldwide customer base gives a new level of exposure to the creators of Independent cinema.

The company makes weekly payments to film makers for films sold and offers transparent, real-time accounting for the tracking of sales. The company has made payments in excess of $100,000 to film makers in its first nine months of doing business. Artists control the pricing of their films and make the lion's share of the sale price with Filmbaby.com earning only a small flat rate per sale.

Filmbaby.com is a valuable resource for independent film makers to expose their works directly to a global audience of film fans, as well as the Internet's premiere collection of Independent films.

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 11:23 AM PST

WE ARE BACK!

Ok, so it has been a while since anything has been posted here and for that I am sorry. It has been non-stop from the 2005 holiday season all the way through to SXSW which starts in just 9 days! We are back and you will now find daily posts from us here!

Thanks and sorry.
Jamie

Monday, July 11th, 2005 2:06 PM PDT

The outlook marked DreamWork's second profit warning in two months. In May, it said full-year results would be hurt by poor video sales of "Shrek 2."

Some analysts believe there is a fundamental change in the way that DVDs are sold at retail stores. Although overall DVD sales have risen, studios are releasing more and more titles, raising the competition for shelf space in stores.

As a result, retailers are quicker to return unsold videos to the studios.

The problem with brick and morter stores is you have a base of usuable sq feet and you need to get the maximum ROI of those sq feet. There is no money in being the largest DVD store or the largest music store. You need to rotate the product as fast as possible. I love how every movie company is blaming its recent losses for bad video sales. TRY BAD MOVIES. Or don't think so high and mighty of your films and think each will sell 10 mil copies.

Thursday, July 7th, 2005 2:37 PM PDT

Watched the movie SAW last night. I love taking time to watch the bonus stuff. SAW has a "short making of… documentary" but as the review says "aren´t particularly engrossing." The making of was MAYBE 4 minutes. If you are going to take the time to do a making of, lets make it enjoyable. If you are going to take the time and add Bonus features, then add bonus features that make people want to watch them. The only cool thing I loved from the making of it was that they filmed it in 18 Days. Looked good for such a short shoot.

The one cool thing is a lot of Indie films now come with bonus materials. A great way to say thank you to the customer who is buying it. Just make sure your making of is not 4 minutes! PLEASE.

And I promise I will post more often. Have been a bit sidetracked with some Film Baby pet projects that we cant wait to launch.

Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 12:15 PM PDT

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything. Days have been long and updates have been short, but I will take care of that. Please forgive me. We are working on some great new services to offer Film Baby members get more exposure to their films. I am pleased to announce the FIRST of many new FREE services we are going to launch this summer. Check back here or FilmBaby.com for more information as we get closer to launching.

CampusFlix

CampusFlix is going to give EVERY film maker the chance to break into the college market and have their films be a part of a schools film series. An open market place where schools will pay a flat rate for the right to show your film on their campus. With low, competitive rates, schools can feel free to expand their showcases to include rarely booked independent films.

There are three ways schools will be able to book movies from CampusFlix.

1) Yet untitled 3-Day film festival
We have created a 3-Day film festival that will feature 30 films, have two premieres and a search for America's Next Top Director. Something that has never been done before, film makers will BE PAID to have their films shown at a Film Festival.

2) A La Carte
Schools can choose from the CampusFlix catalog and pick individual movies to screen on their campuses.

3) The Hollywood Experience
Schools looking to recreate that film premiere experience on their campus will find the "Hollywood Experience" a night to remember. The experience features a film premiere hosted by the Director of the film, a Q&A with the director after the film and a party hosted in honor of the premiere.

Film Baby is excited about offering both filmmakers and schools the chance to book AMAZING films, that have been flying under the radar for too long. We hope you will find CampusFlix to be helpful in getting more exposure to your film!

Friday, May 27th, 2005 3:38 PM PDT

With Popcorn, DVD's and TiVo, Moviegoers Are Staying Home
From the NY Times

LOS ANGELES, May 26 - Matthew Khalil goes to the movies about once a month, down from five or six times just a few years ago. Mr. Khalil, a senior at the University of California, Los Angeles, prefers instead to watch old movies and canceled television shows on DVD.

He also spends about 10 hours a week with friends playing the video game Halo 2. And he has to study, which means hours on the Internet and reading at least a book a week.

"If I want to watch a movie I can just rent it on DVD," he said. "I want to do things that conform to my time frame, not someone else's."

Like Mr. Khalil, many Americans are changing how they watch movies - especially young people, the most avid moviegoers. For 13 weekends in a row, box-office receipts have been down compared with a year ago, despite the blockbuster opening of the final "Star Wars" movie. And movie executives are unsure whether the trend will end over the important Memorial Day weekend that officially begins the summer season.

Meanwhile, sales of DVD's and other types of new media continue to surge.

READ THE REST HERE

Monday, May 2nd, 2005 11:51 PM PDT

David Hasselhoff named Bollywood's international star of the year

Thursday, April 21st, 2005 12:55 PM PDT

As your movie is getting ready to open, you need to use every avenue available to promote it. Like we always say, it does not matter how much your film cost to make, the only way people are going to see it is if you market it correctly. Wonder if this will work for WB:

"Join Paris and friends as she shops, parties, poses and publicizes in the days leading up to the May 6 opening of House of Wax"

View the site to steal some ideas!!!

Tuesday, April 19th, 2005 4:51 PM PDT

A SAD DAY IN AMERICAN MOVIE HISTORY

Congress OKs Bill to Strip DVD Movie Smut
28 minutes ago
By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON - Fledgling technology that helps parents prevent children from watching movie scenes depicting sex, violence or foul language won new legal protections Tuesday under a bill Congress is sending to President Bush.

The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act would assure manufacturers of DVD players and other devices using such technology they would not be violating copyrights of the Hollywood producers of movies.

The House passed it Tuesday on a voice vote. The Senate passed it in February.

The bill also would make it a federal crime to use video cameras to record films in movie theaters, and it would set tough penalties of up to 10 years in prison for anyone caught distributing a movie or song prior to its commercial release.

"Imagine the frustration of spending months or even years working on an album only to have those carefully crafted plans usurped by an eleventh-hour theft," said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive for the Recording Industry Association of America.

Moviegoers caught using video cameras in theaters would face up to three years in prison for a first offense and up to six years for later arrests.

More than 90 percent of pirated movies are recorded by people in the audience with a camcorder, said Dan Glickman, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"Video theft hurts taxpayers, it hurts consumers, it hurts the creative process and it hurts the hundreds of thousands of people who work hard each day to make the magic of the movies," said Glickman, whose son is a producer.

The bill's most controversial provision focused on new filtering technology that lets parents automatically skip or mute sections of commercial movies that contain foul language, violence or nudity.

The author of the provision, Rep. Lamar Smith (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, compared a parent's freedom to skip violent movie scenes to skipping offensive passages in a book. That section of the bill was rewritten to explicitly provide no legal protections for companies that sell copies of edited movies.

"It lets parents decide for themselves what children see and hear on television," Smith said. "Raising children may be the toughest job in the world. Parents need all the help they can get."

Some lawmakers said they objected to the filtering provision but voted to approve the bill because of the crackdown on copyright infringement in other parts of the legislation.

"The intent of the movie-filtering technology is to sanitize movies to protect children," said Rep. Diane Watson (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "While I support family-friendly entertainment, I believe this method is not only a violation of filmmakers' copyright protections but also an infringement of their artistic vision."

Critics of the bill have argued it was aimed at helping one company, Utah-based ClearPlay Inc., whose technology is used in some DVD players to help parents filter inappropriate material by muting dialogue or skipping scenes. ClearPlay sells filters for hundreds of movies that can be added to such DVD players for $4.95 each month.

Unlike ClearPlay, some other companies produce edited DVD copies of popular movies and sell them directly to consumers.

Hollywood executives have complained that ClearPlay's technology represents unauthorized editing of their movies. They maintain that ClearPlay should pay them licensing fees for altering their creative efforts.

The Directors Guild of America sued ClearPlay in federal court in Colorado alleging copyright violations. The company's chief executive, Bill Aho, said he expects the lawsuit will be dismissed after Bush signs the bill into law.

The bill is Senate 167.

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