Saturday, January 27, 2007

Wow

I had no idea. Just found out about this. A little bit of something positive to keep me up. Horror Bob over at the Horror Review put up his top 10 of 2006. And my movie The Midnight Special ranked #2 for the year. Right under Lance Weiller's Head Trauma and right above Night Watch and Feast. Wow. Thanks Horror Bob. That is quite an honor.

View the list here.
No news yet on my father. As far as I know he's in ICU in the Phillipines. Some other bits of tragedy have arisen that I really don't want to rehash online. I'm just so worried about my family.

It happens. It's all ups and downs and sometimes you don't know when the downs are coming. Usually comes when your concentrating on staying up. I just got myself psyched up about self distribution. Now I can't concentrate.

I feel like I got the wind knocked outta me. I'm not ready for another tragedy. I wish I had the energy to work. I just wanna work. So much to get done. But all I've been doing all day is stare at the wall.

I'll fight through it though. Gotta stay positive.

Friday, January 26, 2007

My father just had a heart attack.

It's late and everyones asleep. I don't want to wake anyone. So I'm posting it here and on my livejournal.

I'm just waiting to hear about his condition.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Map Test

Don't mind me, this is just a test. Researching how this whole mapping idea works. Taking a page from the guys over at Foureyedmonsters. They've become an internet and indie film sensation with the ways they've come up to market their movie. As a fellow indie I'd be a fool not to follow in the same foot steps. One step they took in particular that I am fond of, and will attempt as well, is the idea of a map where people can post where they want the movie to be screened. If they could get 150 people to request the movie on their map in a specific area then they could get a screening of the movie there.

I'm in the midst of talking to a few theatres about setting up screenings, and it looks good, as long as I can prove that there is an audience. So here I go messing with map schemes. This may take me a bit.

X-Men Gag Reel Sample

I thought this was kinda neat.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Uncharted

I try not to do anything unless I research it to death. And lemme tell ya I think I know more about cable advertising and media buying then I ever wanted to know. All this research is part of the marketing plan. No, no, don't expect to see any Monster Cop commercials anytime soon. But perhaps in the future. Just trying to flesh out every bit of the agenda. You can add on top of all that the current research on guerrilla marketing that I've been brushing up on. I've always been a fan of Jay Conrad Levinson. I feel I've learned much about marketing from all of his books.

I found myself wondering around the book stores and libraries today before going into work. I realized that there was really nothing for me to look for. Most of the research I needed has been online. If it is in book form, I've already read it. After perusing most of Mr. Levinson's teachings, which I had actually read years ago, I realized that there was nothing left to learn. Ok, well that's not true, there is always something to learn. But as far as a book on filmmaking, independent movie making, movie marketing, low budget production, digital production, and DIY distribution? I don't think there is anything left for me to read.

I flipped through the usual mags, Filmmaker, Moviemaker, yadda yadda. Don't get me wrong, great mags they are, but I don't need another article telling me how easy it has become to self distribute. Every article, every book, every piece of paper that had anything to do with movie making or distributing, I had already read, or already knew what it was going to say.

The thing is much of that info is obsolette. I picked up a book on No budget distribution, published just last year, already the data in it was outdated. It is after all January 2007. Technology is moving fast and the opportunities for DIY movie making and distribution are growing faster than can be documented. It's pretty easy to find publications that already have it wrong just weeks after they've been published. It's come down to it. The knowledge has caught up to the present. Nothing in books can prepare me. It's all about the current trends being reported now.

It was just today that I learned of 2 new trends in technology and marketing that will be quite useful for the indie distributor. Hopefully I'll get to utilize them soon. All the old data I've already consumed, and the new stuff I'm keeping an eye on. The preliminary research is over, and it's time to start taking some very big steps. We're most definitely off the map here, and perhaps soon, instead of me reading the news, I'll be making some.

This whole DIY distribution thing is some scary shit.

Ain't it cool?

- P

Monday, January 22, 2007

Without A Box

The Golden Globes. Yeah, I forgot about em. I was at work.

The Superbowl. I'll probably forget about that too.

The Oscars. I really don't care.

The Superbowl, well, that has to do with me not keeping up with any sporting even that didn't involve cards, pool, or free form fighting this past year. As far as awards. I'm at the point where I don't really care what movie wins an award, because I've got my brain wrapped around making and marketing my own. However I am quite happy that Jennifer Hudson won. And it's about damn time Eddie Murphy received something as well as Forest Whitaker. So good for them. And Sacha Baron Cohen, yes I am happy you won too. But I'm still envious that you get to bang Isla Fisher with frequency. So congrats and screw you.

I didn't care to tune in, cuz I'd rather be working. I'm glad for the winners, but I don't find myself taking nights off for award shows or TV events anymore. Unless there is some sort of segment on Indie Self distribution, I most likely will not be tuning in to the Oscars. Especially if I'm working, either at the day job or my real job.

I find myself lately surrounded by budget sheets and scrap pieces of paper covered in scribbles of numbers and prices and costs and sales figures. I'm trying to take a note from a wise piece of advice Lance Weiller (The Last Broadcast) said in an article on DIY Distribution. "Don't lose that same empowerment that you felt when you picked up the camera and shot the film in the first place."

So very true. It doesn't end when the movie is in final cut. That is honestly only the beginning. And since that final edit last year, it's been a bumpy road that hasn't really alloted me the chance to get going. But I've got my second wind back, and I'm ready to get going on distribution.

I'm aiming for a DVD release date of March, but in reality it may be more like April. This is also going to coincide with Festival Screenings as well as separate theatrical screenings. Any place I can show this movie I will and at the same time let people know that they can own it on DVD. This is also going to coincide with some fundraising for the sequel. I'm going full steam ahead on MONSTER COPS the movie. The series will come after. I fully garuntee an interesting and fun fundraising and marketing ride. Get the bail money ready, cuz I've got a plan.

I've got 5 packages to send out. Each with a DVD screener/press kit/promo kit. I already did one video about the basic DVD screener creation and what that entails, but I'm documenting the creation of the full kit and promo materials. I hope to have that up in a few weeks.

I really don't know what I would do without WITHOUTABOX. If you're an indie filmmaker and you're not utilizing Withoutabox.com, than you are just plain missing out. It's a festival data base and a one stop shop for entering festivals online. No need to fill out any paper work, now you can find the fest or fests you want, submit your info and press kit details, have your entry form and applications filled out automatically online, pay all of your entry fees online, and all you have to do is mail your DVD screener in. Entering fests have been so much easier since Withoutabox came along a few years back. It's also a huge help that you get discounts on many of these fest fees.

And they've really grown too. Almost every fest on the planet has signed up with them, making it easier to enter fests in one shot. Now they also provide DVD on demand delivery. They will burn and send in your DVD everytime you enter a fest online. Soon they will be much like Indieflix or Customflix where indies can distribute there DVD's on demand. They've even started something called AUDIENCE. It's pretty much MYSPACE for Filmmakers. Got a movie to promote, you can start your own Audience Page and upload pics, info, and trailers. Check out THE MIDNIGHT SPECIALS AUDIENCE PAGE. Many films have already used Audience to build buzz about their movie.

I'll tell ya though it's getting hectic having to keep up with all these promo pages. Audience, Myspace, Indieloop, etc. But it's worth it everytime I see how many new hits there are on monstercops.com. How the hell are we so popular in Germany? Everytime I check the stats, there's 20 new hits from Germany. I don't think I've even sent a screener out that far. Whatever, as long as they spend as much time as they do on the site getting to know the movie, I'm cool with it.

As posted on the WTW Blog, there will be some major changes to monstercops.com and whethertheweather.com. Got some major work to do.

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