Onboard Diary

Power to the Pixel: Conclusions

Although we didn't look for it, we had already caught the attention of a small group spread in parts of the world like Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and the United States. But until now, there hadn't been a proactive will to show the project abroad, and least of all showing it to those who have acted as our gurus for issues such as online  marketing, free licenses, crowdfunding, cross-media projects, etc.

Nico and I got ready. We had a lot of 'kolibri' badges on us and a few business cards which went boom whenever we handed them out, after a pitch, a glass of wine or an interview. We've already told you about the teaser which we are doing and the photo shoot we did with Indiana. Well, some of these pictures were taken with a Polaroid and what Indiana created was portraits of the cosmonaut in a retro style. Here's an example:

In other words, two days of lectures and workshops (which were multiplied into seven days of meetings afterwards) at the BFI and the RSA, where we met a lot of people (you can watch all lectures on the Babelgum website). But here we're going to quote the people we interviewed (Get ready. We'll have another surprise for you very soon), and whom we could exchange ideas:  

-Franny Armstrong and Lizzie Gillet from The Age of Stupid. An example to follow regarding alternative funding and distribution and a project we had told you about weeks ago.

 -Nina Paley, director of the wonderful Sita Sings the Blues and the official author of this summer's hit 'Copying isn't theft' (now with a French cover too). She too, like us, has dared to license her film under the freest Creative Commons license: Attribution/Sharealike.

-Brian Newman, ex-director of the Re:frame programme at Tribeca's Film Institute, who shared with us many ideas on how the concept of 'value' has changed on the Net and how economic benefits can be obtained in spite of showing contents for free. I recommend his presentation, which you can find on Slideshare.

-Scilla Andreen, director of Indieflix. We're not telling you anything more about this, because that would ruin the big news will be dropping at the beginning of November.

-Efe Cakarel, director of The Auteurs, one of the best organizad VOD websites and one of the most beautiful initiatives to make auteur cinema and old-times films accessible to anyone. Efe works closely with Criterion and with Martin Scorsese's fascinating The World Cinema Foundation. 

Watch out: Efe has invited us to participate in a very selective -and still secret- project which will gather young, restless and talented film makers all over the world ;-). We'll keep you updated.

-Slava Rubin, one of the creators of IndieGoGo, with whom we had a very interesting debate on distribution markets and the real usefulness of the Internet.

Right, a briefing about London and Cosmonaut's deeds on a foreign land. It was worth taking the trip, because we have our spirits high after been presented as: "here are the guys from The Cosmonau and they're really doing it right". So, with a star on our foreheads, we can tell you this: We've learnt a lot. We will redirect some initiatives and after a workshop, locked up in the Riot office for four days, we'll do a huge brainstorming to set the necessary basis to make the life of this project long and productive. 

You have put your trust in us and you have embarked on this adventure. If you stay any longer, you will see it's all been worth it. 

Gabriela.