Paranormal Activity Film Festival Screening

Fantastic Fest have just screened Paranormal Activity 3 at a midnight screening, and this has already prompted a swathe of blogging on the internet. You can check out a review at Dread Central .com, and also at indieWIRE.com.  Think about how this is creating hype and word of mouth advertising for the movie outside of the official marketing strategy.
Fantastic Fest is a film Festival in America that specialises in Horror and Sci Fi type genre films. You can link through to it here.

Paranormal Activity 3 - the viral release

So - it's 2 months before the PA3 is released - and the viral marketing appears to have started.  The current internet buzz is about a leaflet which appears to have been handed out in America advertising 'Darren's Timeless Memories'.  Although it seemed to be advertising a company that copied VHS video tapes to DVD,  the website also contained teaser material for the film PA3.  At the time of writing the site has 'white noise' fuzz for about 10 seconds then closes down.
Here is a link to an article about the pamphlet.

Here is a fan in America talking about the pamphlet.

And finally here's another link to a review of the site 'Darren's secret memories', showing the photo of the reverse of the flier with the image of the young girls from the movie.

Paranormal Activity 3 - thoughts on the release

I was just looking at the release dates for Paranormal Activity 3 on the imdb Link and I noticed that the movie has pretty much a simultaneous release across the world (21st October), except for Japan, Germany and Finland where it is released just over a week later. You need to consider why movies are beginning to release across the globe at the same time, what technology is allowing this to happen, and why movie companies may see this type of release strategy as fighting the battle against piracy.

Ataque de Panico!

Panic Attack: this amazing short movie was made on a budget of $300!! Just shows what you can do with the latest digital technology! Director Fede Alvarez uploaded this to Youtube, and within 4 days had over 1 million hits.  It was spotted by director Sam Raimi who immediately invited him over to Hollywood and offered Fede $30,000,000 to make his first full length movie.



What the BBC said at the time:

"A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film.

The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films.

Fede Alvarez's short film "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.

It is 4 mins 48 seconds long and was made on a budget of $300 (£186).

So far it has had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

"I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios," he told the BBC's Latin American service BBC Mundo.

"It was amazing, we were all shocked."

The movie Mr Alvarez has been asked to produce is a sci-fi film to be shot in Uruguay and Argentina. He says he intends to start from scratch and develop a new story for the project.

"If some director from some country can achieve this just uploading a video to YouTube, it obviously means that anyone could do it," he added."


Link to Fede's youtube channel:
Fede Alvareez's Youtube Channel

Everything Avatar: 22mins

This is a 22 minute 'behind the scenes' documentary about Avatar.
Performance Capture is discussed about 10mins into the clip.
Virtual Camera is at 12.54 mins into the clip.

The Making of Beowulf

Beowulf also used performance capture technologies during the production phase. Watch this clip to see how it was done.

Leona Lewis "I see you" video

Marketing and Distribution is key to the financial success of the film.  Consider why Avatar needed a big budget synergous music release to coincide with the release of the movie.

Jon Landau interview - Avatar

In this clip Jon Landau, producer of Avatar, is interviewed by 3 film students and he talks about the technology used during the production of Avatar.

Avatar camera technology

During the production of Avatar James Cameron developed 3 types of camera.  This meant that a completely new style of editing was adopted.  WAtch this clip to find out about the new technology developed during production.

Avatar and the future of cinema

When you watch this clip, consider how the makers of Avatar see the future of films in cinema.

Avatar and Performance Capture

In this clip James Cameron talks about how the Performance Capture technique used in the Porduction stage of making the film.

Making of Avatar part 1/3

In this clip about the making of Avatar, you will learn about some general information about James Cameron's ideas for the movie, how he had to wait for the technology to develop, and how the world of Avatar was created.

Mark Kermode on Film Piracy

This is a great clip where film critic Mark Kermode gives his opinions about Film Piracy

Media Ownership Prezi

This Prezi covers all aspects of media ownership.

Paranormal Activity Trailer

This the first trailer for Paranormal Activity 3

Inbetweener's Trailer

Startrek 2009 Trailer

Here is one of the trailers for Startrek 2009.

AVATAR trailer

Here is one of the trailers for Avatar.