Not screening in a Theatre? No problem…

We are at a stage in the distribution of Abraham’s Children were we hold grass-roots semi-theatrical screenings. What that means is we go to non-traditional venues, like school auditoriums and class rooms, mosques, meeting halls and living rooms to show the film. Last weekend I had the good fortune to show Abraham’s Children twice myself. Once at a high school auditorium and once in a 1-12K private school whose auditorium also functions as a prayer room.

Early on, Caitlin Boyle of Film Sprout had warned a bunch of us filmmakers at her (awesome) workshop on grass roots distribution outreach for social change documentaries, to let go of having the film screened in a ‘perfect’ setting. I took that to mean, that the film might be shown in 4:3 format rather than the intended 16:9 (widescreen) or that the sound was not going to be perfect, etc. I also assumed that I would not be there to have to witness it.

SO on Friday and Saturday I made sure we had it all set up perfectly – right aspect ratio, sound as balanced as possible with the sound system available, room darkened, temperature right, etc. Friday: perfect! Saturday? Not so. For reasons beyond my control it was decided stop the film after it was only about 80% done. Whaat?

Reason being, they had simply run out of time and needed the room for something else. I was dumb folded. Why invite me to attend? Why go through the trouble of holding a screening of a film whose length is known? Why schedule a speech and Q&A session with the director? The Q&A turned into a discussion in the hallway with a few interested parties and I was back at my car before I knew it. It was a bizarre experience and something tells me: not the last.

Moral of the story: you can only control so much and then you have to let go. You where right, Caitlin (and Mom).

All I can say: donate $50, get the DVD shipped to your home and FINISH watching it!

Screening Photos - Abraham's Children Premiere

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see (nearly) all the kids and their families in the same place and have them all meet and then have them up on stage with the crew! Thank you for all that came to the Premiere of Abraham's Children at the New World High School in the Bronx! It was a trek for those not from the hood, but I hope it was worth it.

And please, don't be shy ACT! and donate to get this film into classrooms! Thank you.

Photos are courtesy of Bob Cowin and Marc Seago.

Yasmine, Susan, Isma, Teresa, Claudia, Terry, Marc, Saraj, Tariq, Kasem & Ahmed

Terry, Claudia, Saraj, Tariq, Kasem, Ahmed, Haleema, Anam, Dareen, Nina















Yasmine with Teresa Pereira and Sister Susan

Ahmed and Saraj

My friend and supporter, Betsy holding up a donation envelope.

Visibility

When I go out biking I tend to wear bright clothing so I’m easily visible in traffic. Today I go out into Central Park for my lunch ride in my favorite screaming yellow fluorescent top. On my way out of the park I’m horsing around at a red light and loose my balance and can’t clip out in time from my pedals and I hit the pavement like a potato sack. I’m intact, only slightly bruised ego. However, as I’m dressed in bright fluorescent yellow, EVERYBODY in the four-way intersection takes note of my fall. Everybody it seems stares at me as I pick myself up and try to look concerned for my bike and not my elbow – I don’t dare make sure I don’t have a scraped elbow until two blocks up the road.

Visibility is a great thing – if you want it.

It got me thinking about a company’s visibility which of course ties in with their economic well-being and I got a new found appreciation for the work of PR firms. How do you spin the fall? Negative PR or no PR at all would spread the word that "Nina has lost her Mojo and fell with her bike, like a beginner at a red light". With good PR we could let word out that "Nina is developing this amazing new fall-proof clothing line for a high end cycling gear retailer and wanted to test the merchandise personally". See? Cool, no?

So: if you saw me fall at the red light with feet still clipped into the pedals (it’s super awkward when that happens, let me tell you), please assume that it was for the good of some kind of ultra cool and rad ‘research’.

What we share and what we don’t

A few months back I read this article in the New York Times science section by John Tierney and marked it because I thought it very interesting. When the topic of viral video distribution came up in our Think Tank “Quo F Vadis” that my friend Wilder and I started, about the future of the film industry on the internet, I had to go back and dig it out.

When it comes to newspaper articles, it seems that the ‘awesome’ factor out ways the ‘cool’ factor and that the stronger the emotions the more the article will be shared – interestingly enough in the newspaper world longer articles did better than shorter ones and I think with visual content we see the reverse. “Short, shorter, shortest” is the recipe for a viral hit.

I think where an article might have an advantage over a video is that it’s “scan-able”; a video is a linear affair. I also think that a forwarded article has a notion of “look how cool AND smart I am by forwarding you this awesome intellectual article about optics of deer vision” (no kidding – read the article). Whereas a video sub-text would be “look how hip and cool I am” OR “how outraged I am by this injustice”. No wonder Mashable has near daily list of top YouTube hits. This Sunday: 10 best wedding dance videos. Tomorrow: (educated guess) 10 funniest dog tricks.

Where does that leave us, content providers? Are we all decimated to 2 minute one-offs or webisodes? How will long format content be consumed in the future? Who will pay for it; consumers, aggregators, advertisers?

Have you watched yourself lately watch content on line? How long is tour attention span, when do you decide to commit or skip to the next video or task? What are you willing to pay for and what do you expect to be free?

Tell me…