Raffi Asdourian

I've been working hands on with the workbook project and DIY Days since my short film Ai premiered as part of the distribution and discovery film festival From Here to Awesome. As some of you may know who follow the indie scene, DIY Days is an amazing event for filmmakers looking to learn, share and connect with other filmmakers and is FREE, making it the best value when compared to other pricey conferences offering similar experiences.

DIY Days is coming to the New School in NYC April 3rd and registration is open now (hurry limited space). The event features an amazing list of talented speakers including Ted Hope, Lance Weiler and Eclectic Method among others. I've been asked to be the techincal director of the event and am putting the call out to any budding NYC filmmakers who want to volunteer and help capture this amazing experience. Specifically I'm looking for people with video cameras and still cameras to document, film, photograph, live stream and publish the DIY Days event online. If you are interested in helping out and volunterring your time, please contact me directly HERE as the event is fast approaching and we need your participation to both sustain this amazing resource for filmmakers and share it with those who cannot attend.

Celluloid Spotlight The Bourne SpotlightI had the pleasure this weekend of recording an episode of the movie podcast Celluloid Spotlight with film writer and reviewer Merrill Barr. In the episode, we discuss the career of Matt Damon and his latest role in Paul Greengrass's Green Zone, which I was not a fan of. You can download the mp3 directly here and be sure to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. Enjoy!

For my friends on the west coast, Ai will be playing tonight at the Beverly Hills Hi-Definition Film Festival in stunning HD for the first time in public. The film starts at 7:15PM PST and you can get your tickets here. The film is playing off a master blu-ray copy which signals the oncoming of the Ai limited special edition blu-ray, coming soon!

Recently, I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Korean auteur filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho, director of the wildly succesful The Host, about his new film opening this weekend called Mother. Check it out above and be sure to check out my writing on the film stage, a great resource for movie news and reviews!

Support Cerise

Clever and personal interaction is what made me donate to the indie film Cerise by John Trigonis. In return, I received this personalized poem that I can treasure forever just for supporting another budding artist. This new wave of fanfunded filmmaking is something essential to creating a healthy independent DIY distribution business model for budding filmmakers. It's also creating a tidal wave of fresh original films, splashing onto the shores of hungry content-driven consumers minds. I personally believe that this system of audience funded films is the beginning of a digital revolution that will free the content from the capitolistic chains of the studio system. I encourage you to check out the many amazing projects on kickstarter and indiegogo and see if there is anything you'd be willing support, I promise you'll be surprised.