Day And Date (And Festival) Release For Joss Whedon's IN YOUR EYES

As the film world continues to go digital, a new model of getting films out to the public has taken off this year. In recent years, so-called day-and-date releases where a feature would be made available on all platforms theatrical, VOD, download, on the same day was becoming popular and increasingly successful.

Now the latest twist in this happened on Monday when a new Joss Whedon's feature IN YOUR EYES (which he co-wrote and produced) opened at the Tribeca Film Festival while, on the same day, was made available on Vimeo as a digital download for $5. The release was a bit of a surprise, promoting many to compare it to Beyonce's recent out-of-the-blue album drop on iTunes.

As strange as it may seem to drop a movie out there with no advance warning, it's a model that makes some sense in that when a film is riding a wave of reviews and press coverage at a festival, it's the prime time to make the film available to the public at large who is reading about it everywhere. Netflix realized thiswhen they released the documentary MITT a week after its Sundance premiere. And, when you're Joss Whedon, with a sizable social-media footprint and devoted fan base (me included!), that helps spread the insta-word rather quickly too.

Here's the preview of the film below...
In Your Eyes - Trailer from Bellwether Pictures on Vimeo.

In 1990, Spielberg-Lucas-Scorsese Talked About The Future Of The Movies

The Tribeca Film Festival email alerted me to a fascinating video on YouTube; a one-hour special interview, done by Siskel and Ebert, of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Martin Scorsese back in 1990 about the future of film. 

The thoughtful, intercut discussion with all three directors touches on many topics, including the role of technology in film (Lucas has a few things to say) and also the preservation of the movies, which is a cause these three have brought to prominence since then. Spielberg notably talks about looking into the original elements for JAWS and finding them in a shambles. Cut to last year, when a definitive Blu-Ray restoration of JAWS was released. Spielberg also promises that there will never ever be an ET sequel...and he's actually kept that promise. Lucas, on the other hand, promises three new STAR WARS films and most of us wish he didn't keep that promise. :) 

Late in the show, they all talk about the future of HDTV which was just making it's first impression with some experimental sets. There is even a widely expressed concern that people will stop going to the movies with the home movie experience being the same as at home. But Lucas aptly predicts that the movie theatres will be home to more spectacles and personal films will gravitate towards the home screen.

Could Your Cat Be An Amazing Photographer Too?

The Tribeca Film Festival wrapped last week and one of the more talked about shorts was CATCAM.  It's about a German engineer named Juergen Perhold living in the South who has a very adventurous cat named Mr. Lee who would disappear for days at a time.  Curious what his cat was up to, Juergen engineered a little "catcam" that hung around Mr. Lee's neck that recorded 500 photos at different intervals of his cat's many adventures, like finding a snake or crawling through a drain.  

You can view Mr. Lee's photos (like the extremely artful shot above of a garage) on Juergen's website. And if you have a cat who wanders, you can buy a catcam of your own for just $53 dollars! Now you can see how your cat lives when you're not around.  It could seem like spying but, if your cat has as great an eye as Mr. Lee, who knows...your kitty's photos could be worth millions in the art world.