1. Netflix Original Films?: Netflix had lots of big news to share in its call with investors on Monday. The streaming service announced that it has hit a new subscriber milestone of 40 million worldwide and also revealed that “Orange is the New Black” would “end the year as our most-watched original series ever,” surpassing “House of Cards.” In even bigger news, Netflix said the company would begin commissioning original feature films for the service and is open to a variety of genres. Chief financial officer David Wells said in the investor call: “On the movie side, I would
keep my mind wide open to what those films would be and what they would
look like. The driver of it is like we are able to kind of break
convention on television by operating all episodes at once… and we’re
hoping to do more of that in the movie space.” They didn’t reveal their timetable, but we’re excited to see what a Netflix original movie looks like. Read more about their plans here.
2. “Blue is the Warmest Color” GIFs: To build excitement about
the film’s limited release on Friday, IFC Films, which is distributing
“Blue is the Warmest Color,” created a standalone Tumblr featuring GIFs of the film’s lovers. Check it out here.
3. Drone Filmmaking: The questions around drone use have become important for the
filmmaking community as the aerial shots that the consumer UAVs allow
are often much cheaper than what it would cost to rent a crane, a
helicopter or to license footage. The
ethics and safety surrounding UAV usage, however, are front and center
in the minds of many people involved with the world of drones. Bryce J. Renninger writes about the safety of drone filmmaking here.
4. Artful.ly: Arts and tech nonprofit Fractured Atlas has unveiled Artful.ly, a web-based software system that allows independent artists and small arts groups to sell tickets, fundraise, and market
to their audiences. Read more about it here.
5. SXSW on Reddit: The Programmers and Organizers of the SXSW Film Conference &
Festival in Austin, which takes place next March, took to Reddit
yesterday to answer questions in a Reddit AMA
(Ask Me Anything). The SXSW team shared tips about what filmmakers
should and shouldn’t do when applying to SWSX and provided insight into
what sorts of films they accept. Read their tips here.
Got tech news for filmmakers and film fans? Send story ideas and news tips to paula@indiewire.com.
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