Indie Film and Silicon Valley Tech?

In a Nov. 18th, 2011 Huffington Post blogpost producer Gina Hall interviews a number of Silicon Valley types ("the young, creative tech sector that's been invading the office space in Santa Monica and Venice") who are beginning to collaborate with independent filmmakers: "It seems they really appreciate the art (and business) of making movies and they are quite sincere in wanting to help the independent filmmaker in creating original content and getting it out to an interested audience."

For example, Gina Hall interviewed Sean Hood, screenwriter on Conan the Barbarian and Halloween: Resurrection, who said: "When you no longer need to distribute your content on a spool of film, or send it over broadcast tower, or pipe it through a TV cable, anyone can fund and distribute content. Since the people with all the money and the new platforms are in Silicon Valley, that's where you will see the artists going as well."

This trend - blending motion picture content with Silicon Valley technology and methods of funding - is giving rise to new opportunities for pitching and incubating ideas. For example, see the TechZulu interview with Michael Jones, former CEO of Myspace, who in Nov. 2011 launched his own Santa Monica based incubator Science. Jones calls Science a "kind of studio," promising to shepherd entrepreneurs (including filmmakers) "through the critical phases of growth for their business, such as product design, business strategy, marketing and business development."