Paramount’s Insurge Resurfaces
PCN has followed the mysterious development of Paramount’s micro-production unit Insurge with interest. Several media outlets covered the announcement story with screen shots and links to the division’s web site but shortly after, the link was redirected to the main Paramount site and the elusive Insurge web page was never to be seen again. Until now.
Anne Thompson’s blog Tomson on Hollywood, ran a story earlier this month detailing the troubled start for Insurge:
Insurge is happening, but not in the form the studio had originally envisioned. Reportedly allotted a budget of $1 million to seek out promising young filmmakers and give them $100,000 budgets, Insurge is now more under-the-radar . . . . the trade guilds prevent a major studio from funding movies at that level
and
So far nothing has been acquired for Insurge. But acquisitions execs are on the prowl for projects, at festivals and elsewhere
The article is an informative read and offers a look at the future social networks will play in deciding which films get made:
“Digital opportunities will continue to increase over the next couple of years,” says Goodman. “And nothing is too small. We can pull different levers. We’re figuring it out as we go along. We want the audience to tell us what to do.”
One thing I found funny interesting, is that in addition to being charged with finding worthy micro production feature films, Insurge also has the mission of helping to stop piracy. The following statement reminds me of the recent PR debacle where NASA said that their focus includes increasing relations with the Muslim world.
In this new incarnation of Insurge, the studio wants to recreate the excitement of bringing people together at a movie theater, revamping ways to tell stories (and fight piracy, too).
I think it’s great to use new technology to make and distribute movies and it’s an exciting time to be a micro production indie filmmaker. But I question taking on the mission of using social networking and new media opportunities to help lock down old business models. I found this attitude prevalent at this year’s Digital Hollywood Conference. The same companies trying to lock down digital content and the user experience also want to leverage social networks and peer to peer marketing. At Digital Hollywood, a mobile phone exec on a mobile distribution panel said that the future of mobile content is strong DRM and user shareability. WTF!
Inexpensive HDSLR cameras and the new breed of large sensor video cameras like the Panasonic AG-AF100 and the Sony NEX VG10E are lowering the barrier to entry and paving the way for micro budget filmmakers to tell stories that otherwise would be out of their reach. Paramount has the right idea and a good head start in finding innovative ways to get projects from this new breed of filmmaker produced and distributed.
