RAGE: First Made-for-Mobile Feature Debuts Today

RAGE. You’ve no doubt read some of the press about this first-ever made-for-mobile feature film. The story of a young blogger who shoots behind-the-scenes interviews on his cell phone, this feature–distributed by Babelgum–is notable for many reasons.

Producer Andrew Fierberg assembled an all-star group to make the film, including director Sally Potter, and actors who include Steve Buscemi, Judi

Lily Cole/from Sally Potter's website

Dench, Eddie Izzard, Jude Law, John Leguizamo, Diane Wiest, Simon Abkarian, Lily Cole, Bob Balaban, Riz Ahmed, Patrick J. Adams, Adriana Barraza, Jakob Cedergren, and David Oyelowo. In addition to directing, Potter also wrote Rage, composed the music and operated the camera. Steve Fierberg (Andrew’s brother) was cinematographer who designed the lighting.

Fierberg himself has a strong background as an producer of offbeat and critically acclaimed independent films including FUR: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Secretary; Broken English; and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing.

Babelgum launched the film today via its mobile application for iPhone and iPod devices.The film is broken up into seven discrete segments, each one an interview, and will be released one segment at a time throughout the week of September 21. Babelgum’s online release begins Sept. 28, and the U.S. DVD release launches on Sept. 22 through Liberation Entertainment. On Sept. 24, the film will have an interactive satellite premiere in the U.K. Adventure Pictures will release the DVD in the U.K. and Ireland also on Sept. 28.

MobilizedTV had a chance to speak with Karol Martesko-Fenster, GM & Publisher of Babelgum’s FILM Division and producer Fierberg.

How was the deal struck between Babelgum? Was the idea always to have a mobile release?

Fierberg: We were matched by CRM, one of the wings of Cinetic Media. I’d worked with John Sloss, one of the partners there who represents Sally. As this film was coming out of the pipeline, we’d been looking for a mobile partner so that we could experiment with the distribution part of the format.

We were not looking to only distribute via mobile. We had an idea that the film could perform on many platforms. Part of our struggle as filmmakers is to own a little bit of [a film] as it goes into the marketplace. It’s hard to figure where you’re supposed to make your permanent home; you have to keep your options open. The initial idea was theatrical, mobile and as an art exhibition. As the film got close to eing done, that’s when we were introduced to Babelgum as the perfect complement.

Martesko-Fenster: I come from the traditional film world as well and also know John Sloss, who was aware of my going to Babelgum. I’ve always been interesting in pushing the envelope in the distribution space. It became interesting to find films that made sense in online/mobile arena that were quality, professionally made films. Babelgum is about professionally made content. I’m also interested in day and dating with the traditional release patterns of films. Cinetic was aware of what I was trying to do and when they saw the rough cut of Rage, they saw the film was conceived by Potter and producers in an episodic format; on mobile, the shorter content seems to be working better.

When I saw it, I absolutely had to have the film. The story and the way it was made was perfect for this kind of distribution. It was easy for me to imagine distributing it on both of our platforms. The rights we are interested in are very narrow . One important thing to note: no downloading. This is strictly streaming, both online and via the mobile apps.

We launched Babelgum in March. The film takes place in the fashion world which happens in late September. So the timing to make a film available online/mobile was perfect in that time frame. Rage appeared in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Over the course of preparing what we were doing, I realized what we were able to release the film first on mobile apps. Because it’s a feature film with an iconic cast and director, I thought it was special and perfect for our platform to lead with the mobile distribution.

Since the film was shot over seven days, I thought, Great let’s release it over the course of seven days. We’ve been running selects on Babelgum’s Rage page to get people ready for what’s coming down the pike.

What was the budget and where did the money come from?

Fierberg: It was a combination of private equity and the U.K. Film Council, the latter of which allowed us to finish. Most of the filmmakers deferred fees. At the end of the day, the package was well below $1 million. It’s been a low-to-the-ground production.

How did you convince the actors to be part of this?

Fierberg: These films are all created on a shoestring budget for them to make sense economically so they have to correspond to certain production values. If you want to work with a first-time director on a YouTube thing, you’ll get that kind of quality. What we’re trying to do as a company is find established directors and people of certain talent to participate in these smaller, more intimate films that can experiment with production models. Sally is on the same team as that, and we were able to use her reputation to engage the actors and their agents to find the project exciting.

Producing any project is knowing what you lead with. If you lead with a $1 million offer, people respond to your phone calls. You have to lead with what you have, and Sally was perfect for that. Sally embraced the process and was the driving force behind it. But if people didn’t respond to the material and believe in the production value, they wouldn’t have continued and we wouldn’t have gotten these actors to perform. Because of the package with Sally, we were able to convince people that for almost no money and little time commitment, we were able to get people involved.

What was the time commitment? How long did production take?

The idea was that Sally needed one day to rehearse and one day to shoot with each actor. The offer we made to actors was that we would travel to wherever they were. The commitment wasn’t long so we were able to cast quite well. They would work with Sally to find their character and have that intimacy. While the film is structured as a seven day event, the shooting period dragged on for two-and-a-half to three months, perhaps a bit longer.

What aspect of mobile distribution informed the aesthetics of the film . Did it impact how you scripted it? Shot it? Designed it?

Fierberg: The mandate was go make a film of different formats and not lose anything– in fact to gain by different sizes and venues. The idea of being short-formatted and monologue-driven allowed it to be, in our minds, something that people could follow on mobile. The idea was always to have it be broken apart. It was a very rigorously designed aesthetic to be able to go small or large. When you see the characters on a small phone, it draws you in, it’s fascinating. And it was glorious in Berlin on the large screen.

How will Babelgum market this and build an audience for Rage?

Martesko-Fenster: We’ve been running the Rage page since July and using our regular social media campaign. It’s online, combined with some traditional print press awareness. There are a lot of long-lead activities going on internationally in magazines that come out during the Fall fashion week but primarily it’s online and pretty hefty social media. We have a relatively long exclusive time period it’ll be running mobile and online. Then we’ll have activities throughout the Fall and into early 2010, when the big film festivals take place.

At film festival events here and New York, we’re talking about how this was done. I’m doing a presentation at Power to the Pixel, part of the London Film Festival in October. This will have a continuous life in the film industry because of what Sally has done.

Fierberg: There is a huge paradigm shift in distribution now, and either a great state of denial or acceptance at the changes that are ocurring. People haven’t found the projects that can play or be marketed on the mobile platform but can also break through and generate an income stream that allows for higher production values and can attract higher talent. You can raise $200,000 and get it into Sundance. The medium-range films - the American version of what gets made in Europe, in the $1.5 to $2 million range–that’s ground to a halt. There is very little capital on the street that is encouraged to take a chance on films that don’t have a huge star with a direct line to a theatrical distribution model or cost so little money that with a DVD deal and a few film festivals can’t claw their way back to profitability. For filmmakers making a certain kind of film, we go to Hollywood hat in hand or go as low as possible.

The model of what we’re trying to do is noteworthy and newsworthy and an experiment. The product which is my film in this case is a vehicle is to see if a film can justify doing projects like this in the future and create a financial model off of this. The case study provides insights into how it’s done, what kind of deal was made, how it runs its course. I think the product is so engaging; it’s an interesting example for everyone. People are looking at the movie and the story about the movie. We’re marketing not just the movie but the entire process: the thinking behind it, the making of it and the distribution of it.

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