So when he started his Kickstarter campaign, I backed him immediately.  If I can help, even in a small way to contribute to his success, I’m happy to do so, which is why I am now asking you.

As of this writing there are 9 days left on his Kickstarter campaign, and he still has a long way to go.  If you can help in any way possible I promise you won’t regret it.

I’ve embedded his pitch video, which includes another of his shorts, “This Place I Hurt To Be.”

Now’s the chance to help a filmmaker who will be in the position to return the favor in the future.  Bet on Ayz.

UPDATE: The Kickstarter funding was unsuccessful, but Ayz is shooting anyway.  You can still help by donating via PayPal.  Click here.

As I’ve written about the democratization of film-making and the ability to make extraordinary films on limited budgets with the advent of modern tools, I’ve also discussed how this democratization would create a world where a lot more films would be made. This has come to pass.  There are a lot of films being generated, some good, some bad, some extraordinary, and some ordinary.   So while it used to be,  “How do I get my film made?”  Now it’s, “How do I get my film seen?”  With so many films and avenues for distribution from the web to on-demand, to DVD, to theatrical, how do we as filmmakers cut through the noise to get our work seen?

This is a new time, and new models are required.  If you don’t already subscribe to Ted Hope’s hopeforfilm blog, you should do so as he lays out a lot of the possibilities.  One thing that most agree on, is in order to get your work seen in this day and age, you have to participate in the community and grow your audience.  Sharing my experiences on the film-making process is one of my ways of contributing, but I want to do more.  I want to help those who are creating the extraordinary get their work seen.

So from now on every month I am going to pick an independent film that inspires me and I feel deserves to be seen by a wider audience.  I will post these inspirational films in a new Category titled “Inspiration” (clever huh?), as well as on my Facebook account.  Of course this will be subjective to my tastes, but I’d love it if the community at large submitted recommendations for me to watch and consider.

These can be your own films, or films you find inspiring that you want to share.  So share your inspiration with us all by adding films to the comments here or dropping me a line on the contact page.  I’ll be posting this months inspiration soon.

This small file based camera sports a Super 16MM sized CCD sensor with global shutter.  That means no jello-cam on fast moving shots like you might see on the CMOS based Red One, SI-2k or even the Sony EX-1.

The camera specs from their website:

Special features:
1:1 pixel zoom in viewfinder while recording for checking focus. Histogram. Preview monitor on right side for directors and sound people.

The preliminary price is €6.950 (about US$9,800) and includes 1 battery, 1 Ikonoskop 9mm lens and 1 Ikonoskop 80GB Memory Cartridge.

I love the fact that they are using the open standard of DNG files (pioneered by the folks at Adobe) , though a workflow will still need to be developed.

This doesn’t get you the resolution or depth of field characteristics of a Red One, but is a great alternative for 16MM film productions, or low budget independents who still can’t afford a Red with all it’s required accessories.  I’m glad to see the revolution continues.  We’ll all benefit from it.

A shout out to Stu Maschwitz for posting first!

UPDATE: now with video:

The audio file (which is unfortunately in RealAudio format) is about an hour and features Richard Chuang, co-founder of PDI/DreamWorks, Jeff Fino, co-founder of Wild Brain, John Knoll, visual effects supervisor at ILM, and Stu Maschwitz, co-founder of The Orphanage.

A must listen for the Digital as well as the analog storyteller, even if you do have to download RealPlayer.