Established Movie Directors Heading to the Web

Posted on August 13, 2006
Filed Under Channels and Content, What's New |

I recently swapped correspondence with Dan Myrick, co-director of the Blair Witch Project.

You may remember Blair Witch was the first movie to use the web to provide film background (and hype of course).

Dan used it to establish the authenticity of his characters and story and to ramp up interest in the film’s core conceit - that it was in fact made from original footage shot by three students who went into the woods one day and …..

Though he has a couple of new theatre releases in the pipeline Myrick is pretty much committed to the web and he says other movie directors are headed there too.

Myrick’s film Venice Strand played out as a web only movie broken down into seven parts.

Now he tells me Venice Strand will go back into production while remaining a web only product. He’s setting up a MySpace presence to revive interest in the first Venice Strand and his Gearhead Productions will launch an independent movie portal in September.

The idea of the independent movie portal might seem a bit Web 1.0 but Myrick says Venice Strand brought him a lot of plaudits from film makers who appreciated his attempts to by-pass theatrical release and secure creative control. Myrick says those in the know hold Venice Strand in high regard.

Venice Strand has been unfairly neglected. I took the time to watch it a couple of weeks back and it really is a refreshing return to traditional film story telling values.

Yes, traditional. From an innovator. Something I’ve pointed out before is that creative peope using the web often do it so they can recapture the core values of their trade.

Commercial pressures have changed TV and film making in ways they find uncomfortable - I’m thinking also of the documentaries on MediaStorm.

It may be that the new era of community sites makes the idea of a Hollywood director setting up a film portal irrelevant though. Be interesting to see how Myrick adapts to the web’s fast changing reality.

Regardless, Venice Strand is out there waitig to be seen. It used to be a 99 cent download but now it’s for free, and very worthwhile.

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