Lights, Camera, Broadbana
Amateur filmmaking has exploded in popularity with the advent of Web sites that feature short movies
By Cal Creek, Jayplay writer
Dan Ryckert clicks away at his keyboard, while onscreen, President James Monroe travels back in time and becomes addicted to heroin. Ryckert laughs quietly as a group of students behind him giggle. The students are laughing at Ryckert's 15-minute opus, The Monroe Factor, a short comedy he made. They're able to watch it thanks to the internet.
Ryckert, an Olathe sophomore, showcases all of his films on www.studentfilms.com. He is one of millions of student and amateur filmmakers that have found an audience thanks to the Internet.
"The Internet has blown open so many doors, I don't know what I'd do if the Internet didn't exist," Ryckert says. The young filmmaker has posted his short films online for the past two years. He has always used studentfilms.com.
Chris Wright created studentfilms.com in August 1998. The site now features 600 films. Wright created the site so students could show their films to people who would never see them. "It has certainly made it a lot easier to get your work out there to be seen. Before the Internet, for example, when I used to make films as a kid the only people that ever saw the films were my parents and my friends," Wright says. Studentfilms.com takes any and all submissions, as long as the movies don't contain NC-17 (or worse) content.
To submit movies, filmmakers such as Ryckert, must fill out a submission form on the Web site and send that with a VHS tape of the the film, as well as one
dollar per minute of video tape. There is a $10 minimum.
The Web site allows people to review the filmmaker's work as well. Ryckert has received feedback that ranged from people calling him the next Wes Anderson to reviewers who thought his movies were the most boring 12 minutes of their lives.
Another Web site that helps filmmakers get their films out to the public is www.ifilm.com. The site features a wide variety of content ranging from amateur short films to Super Bowl commercials.
Posting a film on the Web site gives the movie another life and keeps it off the shelf says John Halecky, short film programmer for ifilm.com. In its five years of existence there have been 10,000 clips featured on ifilm. Their most popular movie, right now, is 405, a three minute film chronicling a jet crash-landing on a Los Angeles freeway. The film has been viewed more than
"Before the Internet... the only people that ever saw the films were my parents and my friends,"
4 million times. Halecky says it is the most viewed movie on the Internet to date.
Anyone can submit a movie, as long as he or she goes through the registration process posted on the site. The entire process is free, but the filmmakers pay for the postage it costs to submit a VHS copy of their film. And the movie can't be more than 30 minutes long. Ifilm.com allows all kinds of content because it isn't regulated by the FCC.
One success story from ifilm is that of Jonathan Liebesman. Liebesman had a film he directed available on ifilm.com, Genesis and Catastrophe. The look, style and popularity of the film helped Liebesman earn a job as a
director of a big budget studio film, Darkness Falls.
Not only are Web sites hosting films and film reviews, they are now hosting film festivals. An estimated 600,000 people visited the Sundance Online Film Festival in 2003, far surpassing the actual festival in Park City, Utah.
While the growing Internet film industry might seem perfect, even its supporters have noticed a few disadvantages to making their films available online. Ryckert says the Internet can be a double-edged sword because there is no standard for submission or quality control on sites such as student-
films.com. Halecky says problems can arise when filmmakers submit a film to a Web site and a film festival at the same time. Many festivals want to be the first to show the movie. If a film is available on the Internet, it hurts its premiere standing. This can cause tension
between filmmakers and film festivals.
As the Internet expands the film industry, the possibilities expand as well. Some, like Wright, see the Internet becoming a learning resource, a tool where filmmakers can learn from each other. Others, like Halecky, say the Internet will grow in its entertainment capabilities, and before long people will be going online to watch feature length movies, not just shorts.
— Cal Creek can be reached at ccreek@kansan.com.
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Jayplay 4.08.04