Pass the mead, Jeeves

For anyone stimulated by US producer Ted Hope's recent speech (reported a few posts below) on the opportunities being created for filmmakers to reach audiences using social networking, this piece at Jim Emerson's Scanners looks rather more askance at the new mediscape, asking if it isn't opening up the way for the relentless self-promoters and colourful personalities to grab all the attention even more than they have done in the past.

Why, runs the argument, should a lively, interesting film need a colourful, articulate director to sell it? Isn't just making a good film enough? Can't we just leave the marketing to those specialised in that dark art?

My own feeling is that old media created plenty of opportunities for the egotists and motormouths to race ahead of the shrinking violets and that new media is creating new forms, new ways of holding a conversation and disseminating information and building the audience - even if that audience is destined to be a small one.

This is my last post for a while. I'm about to head to Europe for a holiday and work trip, where among other things I'll be staying with the clan in the splendid Welsh castle pictured above (and before you ask, no, it's not a family heirloom, I regret to admit).

I'll also be accompanying a group of Australian film and TV producers on a trip to meet German funding bodies to discuss co-productions. This will finish wth a visit to the Munich film festival , the second largest in Germany after the Berlinale. I'll be filing reports on the Goethe-Instut's Australian website.

For those of you in Sydney, have a stimulating time at the Sydney Film Festival - but you really must take a break from the festival to see Jon Hassell this Saturday.