Posts categorized ‘Resources’
Aug 23 08
Link Dump
Alright, I know it’s late, but it’s the first week back at school, getting back into the swing of things, and, quite frankly, feeling more like spending as much time away from the computer as possible, given the amount of time spent on it while at school. Nonetheless, here’s my promised post-after-vacation (which was a great one, by the way).
To start it off with, this article, which I might have posted before, is all about The Dark Knight‘s effects, and offers some pretty crazy insight into the making of the thing. I’m heading off to see the IMAX version tomorrow. Should be fun. Next up in industry-related articles, I found but haven’t read this interview with Simon Reay, DP on the show Man vs. Wild (which I love), which should be interesting.
Among more indie resources, I came across this site, a sort of database of free sound effects. I know nothing of its value or quality or library, but it’s always nice to have one more place to look for that hard-to-find sound when you’re in a crunch. As always, IndyMogul came out with a few new episodes, and apparently are doing a steampunk combo episode with Threadbanger soon, which I’m pretty psyched about. One last thing I actually found quite a while ago but researched again for possible involvement is MobMov, a mobile movie theater group that basically promotes and premieres films in public places via projectors on cars and creating a mini drive-in theater. Sounds great, though their groups in my areas have always been small or nonexistent (though this is the only actual city I’ve been in while trying to get involved). Definitely worth checking out.
Aug 07 08
Link Dump
Alrighty, here’s another installment of the Link Dump, which I’m thinking about making a weekly piece, along with the Showcase segment I’ve been doing. So, first up, I’ve mentioned my fondness of Robert Rodriguez, his life and work on this blog a few times, so naturally an article about him caught my eye last week, just after posting the last link dump. It’s an interesting interview: pretty brief, not too expressive, but interesting nonetheless. I actually spent about three hours this morning looking through VFX job listings in the US and Canada, just to scope out the field a bit, and had trouble finding any kind of listing or contact info for Troublemaker Studios. Their site was incomplete, but new, so maybe there will be something up soon. I’m not getting my hopes up about working there as a junior though, but eventually, it’d be a pretty sweet job.
Anyway… on to more new stuff… I discovered Action-Cut-Print!, home to The Director’s Chair Ezine, an online magazine for filmmakers and directors. I haven’t personally read any of the articles yet, but it looks like a good resource, maybe something to accompany Judith Weston’s Film Director’s Intuition I picked up a couple years back and haven’t gotten around to reading yet.
I found this article (and this one which I just found, while searching for the links) on the gorgeous Burma short that Shilo made, causing my whole VFX class to drool every time we watch it. It’s also got a nice specific case study/general principle feel to it, so you can read it from either perspective (or both) and appreciate what it has to say however you please.
In brief news, VideoCopilot wasn’t saying goodbye to the world, just to the old website, and ushering in a new age of tutorials, as many of us suspected, accompanied by a new short cuts episode that helps get After Effects even closer to a 3D simulation package, without any expressions. It’s a pretty obvious tip, but I hadn’t actually thought about how to do this until I saw the tutorial. Also, a post of the a possible next tutorial topic?
I also found a few more technical things to throw at you. In case you’re wanting to monitor your system while working, maybe to check a program’s workload or a rendering’s impact on system performance (or whatever other reason), this might come in handy. Also, Adobe’s open (as far as I know) platform AIR has a ton of applications coming out recently that seem like a mix between web-apps and desktop-apps… that all run on a desktop (meaning non-web-based) system. A lot of them are ways to integrate your web life with your desktop life, combining the two into one cohesive digital component of your life. So, this one seemed like a good idea, as a way to store and share files online and access them in a nice, simple-looking interface. It struck me as a great way to showcase daillies to distant clients, share project files with distant collaborators, etc. Another one that looked like it had potential was Klok, a time-management app that might help keep track of projects and manage your workloads with multiple projects going at once. Celtx is still my favorite for schedule film shoots, (though I haven’t tried out Klok yet), btu this seems like it has quite a bit of freelancing potential.
Alright. Well, that’s it. For this week. As I mentioned in last week’s post I’m going to be on hiatus for a week, I’ve got a week break from school and am only bringing my laptop along to check on some personal things every few days. However, I’m going to try to stay away from the computer as much as possible during my time off, so I can really have time off and take advantage of that fact. However, have no fear, I’m sure these links and whatever else they lead to will tide you over for two weeks, and I promise when I get back I’ll have more fun stuff to post about and continue the stream of resources. Enjoy, have a great two weeks, and I’ll see you all when I get back.
Aug 01 08
Link Dump
Heylo everybody. It’s been just over a week and I’ve amassed a pretty impressive collection of links since the last post. From always good ones to some new random finds I can’t quite vouch for yet, I’ve got a bunch of stuff. So let’s get started…
Firstly, Adam Wilt is full of good info. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much chance to read much of it yet, but every time it’s recommended it comes from someone with experience and knowledge in the industry. Next, via VideoCopilot (which recently posted this, raising questions and suspicions) I found this article (on the admittedly questionable resource Wikipedia) on match moving and motion tracking in filmmaking. I haven’t read it, but I’ll be covering that in school next semester, and with our final projects piling up right now and only a week left before their due dates (and our first break of the year!), I’ve got very little time. Since we’re talking about compositing, I found the VTC site, which has tons of tutorials and training DVDs (the link’s for Apple’s Shake, which we use here at school for compositing) and whatnot for sale, but they’ve also got some free chapters of their DVDs online, which may prove useful for anyone with holes in their knowledge, or wanting to brush up on some skills. It’s worth taking a look, anyway, as they’ve got wide ranging catalog.
Next up, while doing some research on drop-frame time code and NTSC (maybe at some point I’ll post about how little sense I can make out of using that standard), I found this site which had a pretty long looking video glossary, which is always useful. Speaking of reference, I’m sure I’ve posted this at some point in the distant past, but filmmaking.net is always a good site for pretty random filmmaking related facts. Similarly, DV.com seems like a good resource the few times I’ve glanced at it, but it was down at the time of this posting. Check it anyway though and comments if you find it’s back up.
Later on, while having a discussion at the StickToWhatYouKnow forum about camera stabilizers, I was pointed over to Videopia, and discovered that Eric from the beloved-but-now-defunct DJTV maybe have found a new gig, unless it’s a temporary or occasional type deal. Either way, it was cool to see him doing something again.
Ahh… alright, a few more. Back while searching through After Effects sites, I rediscovered ae freemart and redefinery via maltaannon’s blog, which looked like a great place for more technical AE tips and info. You know, the good stuff.
Of course, IndyMogul has come out with new stuff, I already mentioned VideoCopilot’s mysterious new post, and we’ll find out what happens with that. So, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ve got a few things thing hovering in my tab list but I want to check them out before I post about it, and you can check out my Amazon wishlist to see a bunch of new film- and video-related books I added the other night, if you’re interested.
Also, there will be a showcase post coming up soon, but that just might be the last post for a bit. I’ve got a break from school starting next Friday, so I’m taking that week off. From everything. However, there’s at least one good post left in me before that, and even then it’s only a week and I’m back on (a rudimentary) schedule. Enjoy the links, leave feedback, additions to the list, etc.
Jul 21 08
New Resources!
Alright, it’s been a while and the site’s design is still in the works, but I’ve got some good news to share.
Firstly, in recent events, today I went to a screening of Apocalypto followed by a discussion and Q&A session with Dean Semler, the DP on Apocalypto and many other great films (Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, Waterworld, Dances With Wolves to name a few). It was interesting to hear stories from the set and listen to someone talk about their business from a still-active, first-person point of view.
On to things I can share with you… Andrew Kramer’s done it again with TWO great new tutorials from Video Copilot, the 3D Offset possibly now my favorite of all his installments. So definitely check those out, even if you’re not an avid or current After Effects user. A basic interest will surely be inspired by this guy and his knowledge. Among other online tutorials, I checked out CreativeCow.net today and found this one by Grant Swanson, which is absolutely brimming with tips and tricks and knowledge surrounding the main theme of the tutorial: making DV footage look more cinematic. It’s basic, quick, and works beautifully. Best of all, most of it could even be done in other programs like Premiere or Final Cut, if After Effects isn’t available where you are.
I’ve got a few more resources lined up to check out, but not having done so yet, I’ll hold off on posting about them until I’ve reviewed their quality. However, one’s a video on DVD vs. Digital distribution, a hot topic these days, and the other’s a video of John Knoll, VFX Supervisor on Pirates of the Caribbean talking about the role of VFX Supervisors in modern cinema. IndyMogul‘s posted some good stuff in the last few weeks and are always worth checking out, and though I haven’t read it yet, this article on Color Correcting might be good for anyone interested in the idea. I’ll be sure to post at some point about other findings I come across as I come across them, but for now, enjoy the wealth of stuff I’ve posted this time and best of luck in your films. Happy filmmaking!
Jul 03 08
Featured on Microfilmmaker!
You may have heard me mention my friends over at Microfilmmaker Magazine before in some previous post, say announcing their review of my last film, or something like that. Well, they’ve come through for me and the low-budget filmmaking community again and published an article I wrote about self-promotion and distribution in the DIY, low-/no-budget filmmaking arena in their most recent July issue.
The magazine is a great resource for all kinds of things from simple DIY instructions to cheap or free music for your film projects, reviews of films to reviews of software tools and packages, as well as articles by people working (and playing) in the industry. Check it out, it’s a great resource, and they happen to like my stuff so far, so obviously, they’re good in my book 
.
Jul 02 08
Healthy Computing
I found this and thought it was pretty cool of Microsoft to put out. I’ve been warned about the dangers of non-ergonomic computing numerous times by my teacher (and health teacher of a mother), and try to be healthy about my computing habits, but it’s easy to fall into that nice comfy little slumped position in a puffy chair, and it’s fine every once in a while, but it’s good to keep your posture, as well as exercise, keep those muscles strong enough to support a straighter posture. Here I am sounding like my mom, trying to get me to exercise back in high school. Now I bike everywhere and eat healthier than I used to. Anyway, I know VFX artists and many other people in computer-bound jobs would benefit from this, so I figured I’d share. Enjoy, and stay healthy .
Microsoft.com via Coding Horror.
Feb 24 08
From Here To Awesome
I stumbled upon this video today while surfing the Google blog, and decided it was worth showing to you guys. It’s a great testament to the fact that indie filmmakers indeed have power, and possibility in the socially-confined world we’re living in today. It also links to a few good videos with filmmaking tips, a video from Head Trauma and director Lance Weiler, both useful and interesting shot videos to really get your head around the fact that you have power, you can go out and make a short film and get the audience and make a splash.
The key here in my mind now, though, is that it’s a short film. Of course the length doesn’t actually matter, if the trailer looks good enough, someone will buy it, but if it’s a short film that looks thoroughly professional, well done and generally entertaining, it’s a good step in the right direction. The most important thing, though, is that it’s important to the filmmaker, and that they care about it and love it enough to carry it on despite the difficulties. Personally, LATENT(CY) wasn’t that project for me. But I’m hoping that after school ends (or even before) I’ll have scraped together some film-loving friends with enough interest and passion and drive to make another short film, and hopefully this time, we’ll be proud enough to make a campaign out of the thing.
It also occurred to me that if you’ve already got a short film made that can be shown on YouTube and other video sharing sites, then show it. And not only that, post bulletins about it, send messages about it to all of your friends, make a website, sell DVDs, get the name out in the public’s eye because it’s your project, and it’s your responsibility to showcase your own work. After all, if you’re not proud enough to show it off, what kind of impression does that give? Best of luck and happy filmmaking!
Dec 28 07
VFX Freeware!
Alright, I found these sites today pretty much all at once, and it blew my socks off. Quite literally… I was shocked and excited beyond words for a few moments. I’d found everything from free VFX and particle generation and animation software to a substitute for an already brilliant Terragen 2 all the way to a huge list of freeware/shareware/GPL-licensed software that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on. I’ve posted some of the links here, but this doesn’t even begin to list what I found today.
Some awesome Linux/freeware-related sites:
http://linuxmovies.org/
http://linuxmovies.org/software.html
Some purely VFX sites:
http://www.tml.tkk.fi/~tilmonen/vee/home.html
http://www.reptilelabour.com/software/flow/index.htm
http://terraform.sourceforge.net/tf_animation.html
http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/
And finally the big kahuna of them all…
http://www.digitaldarknet.net/thelist/
Dec 18 07
Social Advertising
I recently wrote a 12-13 page paper on the importance of advertising and marketing and promoting your amateur film, and on the methods to do so. This website caught my eye today when I was going through my RSS feeds in my Mail.app inboxes (oh yea, I got a MacBook recently, it’s like my baby). I thought I’d mention this cool site as a method for you guys to do just that – promote and advertise your films on your own, without the big budget Hollywood films always have built into their contracts.
So, for us, we resort to the internet, the most powerful form of spreading information this side of the 20th century. Social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, Orkut, and forums and message boards all share commonalities in that they give you opportunities to get down and dirty making friends, contacts and spreading the word about yourself, your work, and developing relationships, both personal and professional, with other individuals around the world despite age, gender, race, or any of the other stereotypes that often inhibit or change our attitudes toward people, even unconsciously.
Alright, I get it, enough about the power just give us the link! Well here you go, the site’s called ONEsite, and it’s basically a method to create your own social network site based on something of your choosing. For filmmakers it’s a great opportunity to create a free fansite for your film or film production company or group and raise awareness about the projects you work on. With the internet comes and overload of information, and the next step is to sift through that information and raise awareness to the right people about the kinds of things they want to know about – your film for film lovers, for example. This is just one small method we can tap into the social networking power of the internet and leverage it in our favor, taking hopefully big strides in the progress of our film project’s life and giving others what they want – some good entertainment. So enjoy the site, and best of luck with your creative and promotional endeavors. I’m hoping to put the paper online soon to download as a free ebook for those of you interested in self-promotion and free marketing for your films. Happy filmmaking!
What’s that? You wanted the link? Of course I’ll give it to you! Just go to ONEsite.com.
Dec 07 07
Rickshaw Vinny Dolly
Originally uploaded by amishjim
Take a look at this! I came across this photo while browsing through Flickr’s Groups and discovered this under one of the filmmaking-related groups. I have no idea what they’re using this rig for, or what kinds of shots they’re trying to get, but apparently they “ran and ran…” It’s an innovative design with some fun and dangerous appeal to it, and a true testament to the force of will that can exist on a low-budget set. Enjoy the photo, and send in your own if it inspires you to create something of your own!
Nov 28 07
Showcase: Cristo
Here’s quite a nicely done short film by indie film and game composer Justin R. Durban titled Cristo. (By the way, if you ever need some fantastic music for free for your non-profit film endeavor, check out his site, it’s loaded with great stuff!) It’s a nice blend of drama and sci-fi, and though I don’t particularly like the acting all that much, there are some strong parts in the visuals (including a nice crane shot and even an underwater scene) and of course, great music. I’d like to go into depths about what I think worked and didn’t work in this, but I think it’s best to watch and decide for yourself. Take a peek, he’s a wonderful composer, and a pretty nice guy from the little I’ve talked with him online, so check out his film below, and leave comments (here or there) on the piece as you see it.
I should also actually mention a project he’s also doing the music for, since they had a very nice preview video on their site that got me pretty interested in the project. It’s a 45-minute Machinima video called Sands of Fire and it looks quite impressive. I don’t really know anymore than that, but their website for it is a blog (over here). and it’s worth taking a peek at. Take a peek at the trailer below:
Nov 20 07
SpinXpress
This is one awesomely ambitious and incredibly useful resource for no-budget filmmakers everywhere. I can’t wait to get to start using this, and if it works as well as it does in the promo video on their site (which, aside from the Apple videos, is one of the best promo videos I’ve seen in a while), then this could take the no-budget world by storm. It looks awesome. Basically, where Celtx makes global networking possible for people in a given project and is most useful for pre-production and even production (with its powerful scheduling features), SpinXpress is its equal in the post-production arena. This program gives you the ability to communicate with people involved in your project all over the world, giving you a built-in Wiki, message board, file sharing and then after you’re done you can publish your work right to the Internet Archives or blip.tv right from the program. Their promo video blew me away and got me super excited to start working with it on a project… only problem now is I need to find some people to work on the project with. This won’t be necessary if you can afford to have everybody in one place (writer, producer, key players that don’t need to be on set), but if you’re like me and hopefully most of my readers, it’s going to come in handy hugely when you’re working on projects with people in completely different states or countries to have a program of such capabilities that you’re not relying on emails anymore, and you can communicate, share files, and even create a Wiki site for your project with all kinds of information about the project so it straightens and clears up communication and collaboration on a project for your long-distance filmmaking endeavors. It looks awesome, but I haven’t used it as of this writing, so any user testimonials will be greatly appreciated. Oh, and did I mention it’s got a searchable database of Creative Commons licensed works for your video projects? And you can remotely access your project’s account via the website as well, if you’re on a machine that doesn’t have SpinXpress installed on it already. And yea, it’s free. Holy #$@#!! Yea, that’s what I thought. Enjoy! 
Nov 12 07
Conversion & DIY Gear
That’s right, I stumbled upon a free media conversion app today (both for Windows and Mac) due to the monthly newsletter from Studio Daily. It’s a great newsletter that’s always got some interesting articles and videos, reviews, etc.
But this time, I noticed a link to an eternal website full of DIY rigs and gear by small-time filmmakers like you and me. This was wonderful. The site’s slogan itself is “linking filmmakers to helpful resources,” which in effect is what I try to do, but they’ve obviously made the jump to bigger promotional venues (like Studio Daily). However, their list was quite good, with links to other sites with tips and tutorials and even a video tutorial on making a jib/crane made by the fellows over at IndyMogul. I’ve seen most of the tutorials that they linked to before, but it was an admirable effort and a great thing to do for low-budget filmmakers. It’s like the tutorial version of homebuiltstabilizers.com, another good resource for, at the very least, inspirational photos of rigs from all different angles and some test footage with said rigs made by amateurs.
It was a great pair of discoveries to make today, and something definitely worth blogging about. I am in the midst of a research project on self-promotion and distribution for super-small-time filmmakers like myself and will hopefully come out at the end with a 10-12 page research paper on the subject, which will most likely be slimmed down for internet use. I’ll post it here when it’s completed and advertise it as many places as I can think of. Enjoy the links, and happy filmmaking!
Oct 29 07
Fund-Raising
Again, while perusing the articles on Microfilmmaker Magazine’s website, I discovered this article on fund-raising. It was less creative than the other articles I’d found, being more a business aspect of filmmaking than a creative one, but I think that was a little bit the point of it. Most people I know don’t realize the fund-raising part of filmmaking even exists. It’s very glazed over or even just avoided completely in amateur projects especially. I watched an interview once with Bruce Campbell where he said “You’ve gotta put on your businessman’s hat for just a few minutes and work out how your business is gonna work,” basically that the investors get a certain amount of money back, if you had investors to start with. Essentially, the point was that money is used and hopefully made at the end of a project, and what happens with that money needs to be clear from the beginning and you, as the head of your project, need to be careful to abide by those rules you set out for yourself from the get-go. It’s a very important part of filmmaking that I’ve barely even touched. We did have to raise quite a bit of money for LATENT(CY), the feature I directed last year, but before that I’d not fund-raised for any project I’d worked on. It was surprising how much effort went into just raising money and how much more work was added to the whole project when we began thinking about raising money. Not only through donations and helpful family members and stuff bringing food or offering gas money and what have you, but screenings of our older films with non-free tickets and such. Other things to do would be things like DVD pre-sales, or other merchandise you can easily make or acquire that’s related to your film and is legal for resale (T-shirts, coffee mugs, the memorabilia stuff that’s easy to get made in bulk or make yourself).
One thing I always wonder is why Hollywood movies cost so much money. It’s obvious that lots of it goes toward transportation costs, as well as paying the actors ridiculous amounts of money, and the directors and producers as well. They also have tons of people working on projects from the writer(s) all the way to the marketing department, comprised of most likely more than just a few people. I would also think that some of it goes toward locations, lots toward costuming, props and sets, if there’s much of that in the film, depending on when the film takes place and what it’s about.
The interesting thing now to me, mostly, is that when more and more effects are involved in a movie, it seems like more and more money is called for, only us low-budget guys often prefer films with digital effects (simple ones, for the most part) that can enhance the film because they’re easy, cheap and accessible. There are tons of people these days wanting to go into visual effects, 3D animation, graphic design, and all those fields, and often, filmmakers either double as effects artists or know enough about the technology and have friends or favors owed to them by people who work in the field that it’s often either free or super cheap to get some good effects on a low-budget film. For example, I’m a filmmaker, much more of a storyteller and writer/director type, but I’m going to visual effects college starting in February to learn the Hollywood techniques using big-budget tolls and resources for basically learning how to work in a studio right out of the program. All of that knowledge is mainly universal, in concept form, so it’ll be easy to go home and on my much lower budget machine figure out how to do what I’d learned that day in classes on my own stuff. Not only will I have the capability to shoot, edit and finish a film all with my own equipment, I’ll have deep, professional-level post-production visual effects background and know-how for my projects as well. It’s an incredibly useful “double-major,” as it were, to have in this day and age where digital is becoming so much cheaper, easier and more accessible to the average Joe.
The saddest things to me, really, is the fact not that the sets get torn down at the end of every movie, but oftentimes they just get thrown away, all the pieces and equipment and stuff that’s not going to get used by the crew anymore, since the film’s done, often just gets thrown away. That’s like taking half the budget and flushing it down the toilet! It’s incredible! If I ever made a big-budget movie I’d at least sell as much as possible, if not to make back the money then to at least know that the stuff wasn’t just going to waste. It’d be a wonderful way to make back the money that was used in the making of the film, and since ebay’s here, we can pretty much sell anything we have to anybody around the world. If you’ve got something like a candlestick that was in a movie selling for 5 bucks, somebody would take it. The huge wastefulness of Hollywood is just one more thing about the industry today that bugs the crap out of me. It’s so illogical, so immoral and irrational that I don’t understand how they continue to get away with it, especially with the climate, social, economical and other crises we have in the world right now. That money, if for some incredible reason the production company decided they didn’t want it, could be used for charities, could be used to help someone else make a movie, could be sent somewhere and put to good use. Actors don’t need to get paid millions of dollars, that’s ridiculous. Actors in low-budget movies are often just as good and don’t even get paid a quarter that much, and they’re probably plenty happy with their jobs. If you could cut the salaries in a film’s production in half, use it all either for other stuff for the project just to sell the idea better (make it more believable) or even just cut the budget in half that way, there would be a lot of money to go around for other things, not to mention a ton of talk about the film cutting costs way, way down and still coming out great. Because who ever heard of a film that’s super cheap making it into the Hollywood distribution circuit? Oh wait… Rodriguez did it and it made his career. Oh, right. So why doesn’t anybody else? I would love to see someone take a real, full budget for a big-time Hollywood movie, rework it and get it as cheap as it could go without sacrificing the quality of the project, and see what the ending difference would be. I think it would be an incredible eye-opener into the wastefulness of Hollywood, the talent and creativity that needs to be in movies (yes, even in the business aspects of them, like fund-raising), and the fact that you can make something great from nothing and still be OK by the end. I think it would be a wonderful realization, if somebody would actually do it.
Link: http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue17/FundRai1.html
Oct 29 07
Self Distribution
It’s been quite a while since my last post and I apologize, things have gotten quite busy around here from school and work to doing my best to keep up with some smaller-scale films coming out in the video store I work at now (I will briefly recommend The Insatiable, Still Life, The Postcard Bandit, Stephanie Daley and The Big Bad Swim as good ones to start with). I was told for my English independent study to find some articles on the school library’s site related to film and read and react to them. However, since I wasn’t allowed access to the articles themselves for some reason, I turned to the next best thing – Microfilmmaker Magazine’s articles. These are usually great articles filled with useful tips from people who typically use a budget of next-to-nothing for their films, and the write of this article just happens to have been on the crew for Still Life, a low-budget indie film I watched just the other night.
This article caught my eye a long time ago and has been taking up browser tab space for a while, as do lots of things I catch interest in and save for later. This morning I sat down and read through it, though, and am very glad I did. I’ve been trying to get into the film festival circuit with my short feature LATENT(CY). It’s for rent at the local video store now, but I wanted an even wider audience. I’ve sent it in to a festival and have been looking into even more, and if you know about Withoutabox then you’ll know it’s pretty easy to find festivals that will accept your project. This article addresses not only the often misguided optimism of low-budget filmmakers when they enter festivals but the solution to such a problem: self-distribution. There was one recommendation that was to order in bulk copies of your own film, authored with labels and cover art and packaged nicely and the whole thing being very professional, in order to sell yourself through a website or booth or whatever. That’s handy, but it’s expensive, and right now, I can’t do expensive. The next suggestion was to find a website like IndieFlix or CustomFlix that will help sell your DVDs at little cost to you, and both of you gets cuts of the revenue from the product. These sound like much more solid options, since I’m not losing any money I currently have, I’m only gaining, and my films can be listen on Amazon.com. The only catch here is promotion and advertising. Of course, when you’re on a nothing-budget, you don’t have an advertising or marketing department and you don’t have any sales reps laying around wanting work. However, you do have the internet, word of mouth and film festivals. Festivals get a wide audience; being listed on Amazon and big distributors like that give that audience easy access to your film; and finally, being partnered with a company like IndieFlix or CustomFlix (though not contractually – you’re completely free to pursue other distribution deals) provides easy actual distribution of your film to your wide audience acquired through festivals. It’s a great start-up guide for self-distribution, and even for those who’ve been having trouble getting their projects out there for a while, I’d recommend reading it.
It made me think a bit about the “new” technology of the internet and the ease of getting a name and a work out in the world for people to see. Everything’s just so easily accessible now that it seems we’re over-cluttering the net and sites like YouTube with stuff that’s really not important. Chick fights and nasty sports crashes get old real fast, and yet they’re probably the most widely watched videos online. I was thinking about the ease of distribution and how simple it seems now, especially after finding these sites and ones like OurStage, to get a film out to the public. The clutter of video on the web now prevents us from being able to sell our films, from effectively using the technology we have at our disposal for any and every use possible.
All in all, this was a very useful and interesting article about a guy who’s been around the loop for a while and found some ways to get around the problems often faced with trying to get a name out in the world. He’s got a nice sense of humor and even though he points himself out as cynical or a “Simon Cowell of the group,” he has a very valid point. You can’t depend on film festivals to get your name out, and you really can’t depend on those like Cannes or Sundance who once hosted Indie flicks and now invite Hollywood and huge-budget films to show at their venues to get your name out there either. Optimism isn’t bad, is his point, it’s the placement and use of it that can be the downfall of an indie filmmaker. Get out there and do your homework, make your product sell, and use the resources available, but be careful and active about it. Best of luck.
Link: http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue18/selfdist.html