Hi, I'm Antonio Barimen, aka skribe Forti. My background is in the film and television industry but about 15 years ago I began building both virtual and online communities. Now I use that experience to provide professional consultation to business, from SMEs right up to Fortune 500 companies.
My philosophy is simple: improve the lines of communication by establishing strong, engaging communities. And then build from there. It works for both B2C and B2B
In case you didn’t know, YouTube has a small selection of feature-length movies that appear not to be geographically limited like some of those that are available only in the US. They include movies starring Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Abbott and Costello. Sure, they’re mostly B films but there are a few gems like George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Not all of them are embeddable (hence the choice above) though.
This is a great clip featuring George Miller talking about the forthcoming Mad Max 4. He also talks about the state of the Australian film industry which is in a pretty shocking state at the moment.
George is spot on about what the industry needs. What he doesn’t say, however, is where the money is going to come from.
The experiment of having a pool of government money that is assigned by bureaucrats has produced a plethora of features that even Australian audiences don’t want to watch. The government simply can’t afford to spend the money needed to kickstart the industry and keep it going. Only private capital can do that. Ultimately only a tax concession will rejuvenate Australian film like it did in the late 70s and early 80s when a 150% concession was on offer to investors. It’s not a coincidence that our most successful and most iconic films were created during this era.
I’m a big fan of using machinima to tell stories. Some of the best are the trailers for the Call of Duty games. Lots of action, mixed with a sprinkling of narrative and character. Just like most movie trailers. Here’s the latest:
Telstra have hit upon a brilliant marketing strategy for expanding upon their current Bigpond ‘Rabbit’ campaign. You know the one, where the kid asks about the Great Wall of China and his dad tells him that it’s to keep the rabbits out. Well, word has leaked that Telstra are considering making a film featuring those characters. The basic plot is that the kid searches the Internet – Bigpond, no doubt – for a wife for his dad. It’s corny. It’s cliched. It may just work. And even if it doesn’t then Telstra may not be too much out of pocket if they get the Australian federal and state government film funding bodies to pay for it. Read More
