I don’t post many commercials, but if I had to constrain such posts to things I love, whiskey commercials would be on my list. If I raised the bar higher, and made it only include those that I admire, I would not have many logs to put on the fire. Charles Bukowski carried me forward with his prose those years I was aged 22 -25. I wouldn’t normally recommend advice from a drunkard, but he was a great one. Live true.
“Live True” Dewar’s White Label [English] from &Rosàs on Vimeo.
By Rahul Gandotra
A few days ago I shared a sampler that allowed people to watch my film for free with a dear friend. Just to make sure the sampler worked and she could put it on her website, I followed up and got this response from her:
“I got everything and it works. I was just not sure that this [your film] is what you actually want to be giving away for free.” I paused and asked myself, “Yes, why the hell are you doing this?” – momentarily ignoring all the months of research I had done.
I replied, “Long story. For now, just share the sampler and let people see the film for free”. This post is about that “long story”.
My film “The Road Home” is about a boy who escapes from his boarding school in the Himalayas to get back to his parents in England. As you might imagine, I poured my sweat and soul into making it. And given I didn’t want this film to be seen only by friends and family, I worked equally hard submitting the film to festivals and trumpeting from the rooftops of Facebook about each screening.
But I was left with a sour taste in mouth after my festival run. Why? Because I got invited to some festivals where I saw 30 people in a 500-seat theatre watching my film. All the while I’d continue to get Facebook messages and emails asking, “Hey when can I watch your film?” I’d reply, “Well it was playing in your city on this date.” And the common refrain I would hear is, “Why didn’t you email me?”
By Jacob Kornbluth
My first documentary, INEQUALITY FOR ALL, opens theatrically on September 27th in the top 25 markets. This is an extraordinary release for a doc, and I couldn’t be any more proud of the film.
As I go from film fest to film fest, people ask me all the time – when did you get the idea for the film? The strange but true answer is this: I got the idea for the film when I gave up on the film industry.
By Annelise Larson
If you are online and want yourself, your brand or your work to be found, then you need to worry about SEO. Search engine optimization or SEO is a jargony, awkward term, but it is really just about making your online content and presence findable.
Search, Search, Everywhere Search
While there is much that has changed about the Internet over the years, one of the things that has remained consistent is that people search. It is how we deal with the information overload and find our way through the overwhelming amount of content online. The latest studies show that search remains the second most popular online activity. The 2012 PEW Internet Project Survey showed that “91% of online adults use search engines to find information on the web, including 59% of those who do so on any given day.” And the great thing about search is that is crosses all demographics. Everyone searches.
It is also important to note that Google is not the only search engine in town; any site with a search box is a search engine, from Facebook to YouTube to blogs like this. Search really is everywhere and offers content creators like filmmakers an amazing opportunity.
The Red Balloon
I was meaning to build more Simple Fixes. I have posted some here already. Imagine how fast and far we could travel, if we all just generated a Simple Fix a month. Or even a year. Our progress would be astounding.
Here our filmmaker world people generally desire first and foremost to get funding for their film. You’d think there would be a single place you could turn to and find all the sources gathered or at least many of them. I don’t know of such a place.
So I built one.
Jon Kilick and I have a fair amount in common — but we also seem to see the state of the world, or at least our film culture and industry, in a very different way.
We both also recognize — and encourage others to recognize — some really important things about the film world, namely that this is a great time to be a creator. We have
