It is interesting to notice the inclusion of Radiohead & Thom Yorke in the Guardian Media's Top 100 People , on the back of their sucsess with new media models ;

At a time when musicians and record labels are struggling to persuade people to pay for their music, the Oxford band turned the issue on its head with the digital release of their seventh album, In Rainbows, and invited fans to pay as much - or as little - as they thought it was worth. It is a pioneering example of the new business model in today's digital landscape, with creatives cutting out the middle man - in Radiohead's case, their old record label EMI - and selling the content online themselves. 

(Tom from plugincinema says he paid £5 for his copy and he loves it!)

Greenwald, 62, began his career in television before directing movies, including the kitsch classic Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton-John. The death of his father and the 9/11 attacks convinced him to switch to doing more socially worthwhile work. He began making feature-length documentaries, tackling such targets as Fox News - in 2004's Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism - and the world's biggest retailer in Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.

The films were critically praised and reached a large audience, but Greenwald decided to abandon long documentaries and move into producing fast turnaround online videos 16 months ago.

Calling it "an interesting transition", Greenwald recalls being in the same editing room a few months ago in which he once edited a six-hour mini-series. "Back then I was trying to lose 20 minutes from an edit - now the finished film I am making may only be four minutes long and the job is to lose 20 seconds."...

"You could spend 12 months making a documentary and releasing it, and having your moment in the sun about something that may no longer be in the news cycle any more. Or you can spend 24 hours to put together a short viral video which can actually make a difference." 

We interviewed Robert at plugincinema, as well as flagging Outfoxed as an interesting example of open source media . How is he funded, you might ask? 8,000 subscribers who give monthly donations of around $10 a month.

 Recieved by email;

AsoloArtFilmFestival Asolo, August 29th – September 7th 2008

641 works coming from 52 countries

The 27th edition of the AsoloArtFilmFestival will take place from _August 29th to September 7th 2008, in_ Asolo (TV), at Teatro E. Duse.

The Festival was revived in 2001 in the wake of the "Festival of Art Films and Artist biography", founded in 1973 by Flavia Paulon, brilliant biographer and soul of the Venice Film Festival.  Holding on to its continuity, but also opening itself to new means of expression, the Festival was founded again by the association A.I.A.F., with the name of AsoloArtFilmFestival. The Festival consists in six sections: Films on Art, Artist’s Biographies, Video Art and Computer Art, Films produced by Schools of Cinema, Architecture and Design, Making of.

The Films that we received during this edition are 641, coming from 52 countries. The Selection Committee is now making the selection and the list of selected films for each category will soon be published.

http://www.asoloartfilmfestival.it

There has been plenty of deals where film industries have been buying into games companies, but it is interesting to note that the increasing power of games as a media form is resulting in a games publisher buying a film company ;

Ubisoft has heralded its acquisition of the VFX firm responsible for effect in movies such as Sin City and 300 as "a groundbreaking event for digital entertainment". At a press conference in Montreal today Ubisoft Montreal, the firm's biggest internal studio, announced the purchase of local VFX outfit Hybride, which works in cinema, TV and advertising. 

There is a very interesting post on Techdirt asking this question and giving some interesting pointers to future posibilities;

For years, in discussing how copyrights really aren't necessary, it's always only a matter of time until someone brings up the infamous $200 million question -- first asked to me by someone at NBC Universal years ago: "But how will Universal make $200 million movies without copyright?" As we've explained, that's the wrong question....The real question is how will movies make money -- and that's easy enough to answer. As plenty of folks have been pointing out for years, the movie business isn't selling movies, but selling seats to an experience. Put on a good moviegoing experience and the money will still come in.