There's an interesting review of MySpace Film over on Shared Creation ... here's a quick teaser:

Whilst I’m still not that comfortable with Myspace - the fact remains that this is a valuable outlet and marketing tool for new film makers. My suspicion is that very soon we will be seeing mainstream news articles about some amateur film makers making it big through Myspace. The question I have is who will it be?

Read the review here

So, I've been using MySpace for about a week now and it's very interesting. One of the most amusing things I've found is MySpace accounts for characters in TV shows. For example, every character in Lost seems to have several MySpace accounts (e.g. the beautiful Kate ) ... which means you can make friends with these fictional characters. And the characters leave comments for other characters.

It probably is quite a powerful marketing force... but it's also quite surreal... and, in a way, it's also aggressively cynical because it explicitly underlines that, in our modern society where people spend much more time watching TV than hanging out with their friends, individuals forge stronger "relationships" with TV characters than with their own friends. I know I'd love to have Kate as a friend!

(A neuroscience friend of mine did a functional brain imaging study where she monitored the brain's response to three classes of photos: personally know friends, famous people and strangers. The response was virtually identical for the friends and famous people.)

I agree, i think myspace has also allowed people who may have low self esteam to reach out to other people. If you look at the majority of myspace photos they are taken at angles to show the person in the best light, black and white to hide spots etc. I think myspace is a very powerful tool for all marketing it is so simple whihc makes it so accessable. As far as filming making goes we should see over the next few months as the film accounts imporve and a greater network is made. I certainly hope it makes a good forum for new filmmakers.

Hi, thanks loads for the reply.

As far as filming making goes we should see over the next few months as the film accounts imporve and a greater network is made.

How long have the film accounts been available?

I certainly hope it makes a good forum for new filmmakers.

I've taken a look at the MySpace film forums and they seem a little unstructured to me. Are they a good place for having meaningful conversations?

Myspace is already proving to be a great promotional tool. Our film 'The Loft' has had many more veiws than it would have done if not for myspace. Also, as a script writer, I'm finding it an ideal place to pitch my work. At the moment myself and Vortex42 are trying to promote a scheme called 'Mutual Financial Support'; a way in which the independent film industry could become self financing. Please take a look at the scheme on my site if you're interested in paying your cast and crew and financing your films. See ya over there.

Forgot to put this in:

Me At Myspace.com

Hey myspace is great, i've had great feed back from users and even got some freelance work from it -which i've never had before

Some interesting comments.

Myspace is for the average user who has the luxury of a computer, interactivity for the unactive.

As filmamkers(?) we should be the opposite to that. So instead of plugging the films we know arent that good> go out and make some more!!

I mainly make music videos so for me its a good way to meet bands/artists, but if your looking toward making features then myspace isnt really going to be the answer. I cant imagine top producers/distribution companies searching through myspace watching really bad quality quicktimes looking for the next kubrick. Could you imagine lynch/kubrick/cronenberg having a myspace page?

but its great to see others film makers on here, all these musicians need taking down a peg or two.

Mr Anonymous. I bet the same was said about the music section in the beginning. But look at the bands that are on there now. Spritualised - Muse - Morrisey - Creation record's McGee for gawd's sake the list is endless. The film section is still in it's infancy and growing daily. Already because of a myspace link, I've enjoyed a number one film at grouper.com and I've been able to pitch a full length feature to two serious film company's and I'm pretty confident that they will make it to someones desk before they go in the litter bin. Without myspace I'd have needed an agent to do that. And anyhow, where do you suppose the next Kubrick is gonna come from? These people aren't just invented you know. They all have to start somewhere. So. Even though you're a bit of a negative bloke I wish you good luck on there...Martin.

I am not able to upload any of my videos... I think, it's a problem with being in Germany, since all the German filmmakers are listed with 0 plays, too. So I had to upload the videos in dropshots, which is of course bad for me, not only as far as the quality, but also because people have to actually go to my profile to watch the clips... and I am still listed with 0 plays, even though a lot of people have seen my stuff... I tried to contact MySpace about this, but they have never answered me...

To finally answer the question. Yes, I think that MySpace is a good place to promote, but an even better place to network, it's more of a let's do something together/talent sharing place than a place that actually sells..

Y'all have a beautiful day
Peace,
Jazz

Jay Dob Entertainment

yes

Welcome, David.

Erm... would you care to expand on your comment?!?

How effective is branding on MySpace? Are companies/brands more or less successful than individuals?

Is it only me who finds it shocking that MySpace makes about 7 million dollars a day in advertising revenue ??

well, it's said to be the biggest, most popular website in the world* at the moment, so they ought to be making some money. I've no doubt ukfilm.org be up there competing with them in a few months :-p

*This is just hearsay from the web developers at my work, i've got no facts, so don't blame me if it's balls.

(Thanks for the disclaimer)

But even as the most popular site, isn't 7m usd per day a lot of money for a company hosting a free website?? What do they do with that amount of cash? I wonder if they would invest in a film? : )

What do they do with that amount of cash?

New suits for Mr Murdoch? or maybe just save it up for taking over the world?

i'm sure they would consider investing some of that in a film zara, probably "x-men 4 the return"

We agree that MySpace is a valuable outlet and marketing tool for new filmmakers. So we started the MySpace Film Project. For more info visit http://www.myspacefilm.co.uk