This looks fun. I wish I was going to be in Berkley on Nov. 15th. The Haas Digital Media Conference.
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Month: October 2008
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Truly Free Film Heroes
I’ve moved the “Truly Free Film Heroes” sidebar over from my Let’s Make Better Films Blog to here at TFFilms and clarified it a bit in the process (although you don’t get to add a descriptive on Blogger’s “Links” gadget unfortunately). The Truly Free Film Heroes are the folks that I have found that are actively engaged in working to create a Truly Free Film Culture.
The potential is before us to expand beyond a film culture designed only to serve the widest possible audience. We can have something else other than a limited supply of mass market product. We can move away from a gate keeper culture economy. We no longer need to address only the audiences that are best served by the dominant apparatus.
The most critical work at the moment in terms of establishing this new culture is not the content itself but the infrastructure needed to support it. Great work is being done in this regard, but we all need to share what we learn; we have to open with it. A new model is being unearthed. The Truly Free Film Heroes are doing the groundwork that we all will benefit from. You need to support them.
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And What Makes It All Worse Is…
As freeing as the growth and utilization of new media is, the death of traditional media certainly hurts Art Film and The Specialized Film Market. When I read (online of course!) articles like David Carr’s “Mourning Old Media’s Decline”, I can feel that jolt of panic. It starts in my legs, and then spreads…
“The auto industry and the print industry have essentially the same problem,” said Clay Shirky, the author of “Here Comes Everybody.” “The older customers like the older products and the new customers like the new ones.”
The problem is that Art Film’s audience is predominately over 35. They are not generally online as much as others. They are not participating in the blogosphere. How is the audience going to get their information? How are we going to get them signed up? We need to make sure they are getting their RSS feeds of the great film lover websites like Hammer To Nail (okay, I confess to being a tad self serving on this) and Green Cine.
I think for every film fan over 35 that you get to subscribe to such a blog, you should get a gold star. Two gold stars if they are over 45. Three for 55! I don’t know the solution, but we have got to sign them up. What to do, what to do? We have to act fast…
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Film Festival Plan A: DVD sales
Your film screens and everyone loves it. They want their friends and family to see it too, but there are no more screenings left. Your audience loves your film, how are you going to mobilize them into action?
Festivals are a great place to sell DVDs of your film, but will the Festival let you? It’s probably a good idea to inquire in advance. Will you be able to set up a table outside the theater? Will you need to have a website in order to sell them? Will you need to have some one do the fulfillment? Figure this out before you show up.
People that buy your DVD at a festival are your core base and they want to help you out. Give them your card and ask them to email you. Get theirs and email them. Let them know that this is a special sort of DVD they bought; tell them that is a DVD for house party use. Let them know that if they can get a certain number of friends to come over (25? 50?), you will do an iChat with them live for an hour and discuss how you made the film. Let them know that you will get them more of these “House Party DVDs” for their House Party that they can sell on your behalf and keep a cut for themselves. Trust people; it will do more for you than the harm the few times you do get ripped off will hurt.
Major Festivals are great for media exposure, but they reach a really limited audience. Sundance is predominately film industry professionals and wannabes; what about the real ticket buying people? If someone hears about your film and they can’t attend the festival, how will they get to see it?
With your audience’s interest piqued, is it a good time to get your film online soon after the festival screening? What method will best serve your film: streaming, ad-supported, pay per download? There are many variations on this, but the point is you need to have it figured out before your screening if you are going to take advantage of it. And you need to have some way to let people know.
Some festivals, like Slamdance, are doing this directly themselves, and I think that’s a great idea.
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Word Of Mouth Radio
I was just interviewed by Virginia Prescoot of WordOfMouthRadio.org for New Hampshire Public Radio. Check out their website and download the podcast, unless you happen to be out campaigning in that state today, in which case tune in.
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Biden Is His Homeboy!
Since we rarely get real news or analysis on TV anyway, if you could elect The Bowl for President, we’d mandate that only fifth graders could be the TV reporters. It doesn’t get much better than this:
Hope The Younger however pointed out how important it is to know how it all works. He finds it interesting that a candidate can win the popular vote but still not be President, but mostly he likes how this site (click to link) shows the current election going. You can also use it to see how the elections went each year, state by state.
H2theY also sniffed out this site (LivingRoomCandidate) for The Bowl to let all of you see how commercials have been for the candidates each of the past elections. We find it fascinating!
