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Sunday, February 19, 2012

To Self-Distribute or try the Traditional way?

Mood: Doubting the System

A couple days ago friend mentioned how relaxed I must be now. Now that we're in the final weeks of post production,  my mind is free to worry about the other half of filmmaking... The audience. Who are they? How to get to them? Do I start screening or do I enter festivals and wait?

This time around I have different goals. I'm not waiting for a distributor to tell us the film is good. This film is great. I want the festivals to promote the film and build an audience. Maybe win some prize money :)
From what I have been reading and watching online, most people make very little from distributors. I think that if I keep promotion costs down, we can screen and distribute this thing ourselves.

In the past we put ourselves in a hole to rent a space to show the film. This film was shot in a location that can host private screenings to our most loyal fans. Who wouldn't want to watch a horror movie in the location that the film was shot in. Besides that, people  have passed away in the location and it may actually be haunted (don't tell my cast). Also wouldn't it be better to go to festivals and have a way for the people we meet to actually buy the film? "Yeah you can buy it here".

I have to see what the festivals that we want require but I'm so leaning towards online distribution of DVDs and file downloads. What do you think? If you  have a thought I'd love to hear it.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Shift gears and slow it down.

Mood: Mentally Spongy

Every step so  far has left me with more work and many more questions.  Today's step has brought clarity of thought.
I bring the latest copy of the movie over to Melvin's. We start going over the music and Melvin gets quiet. Now if you know anything about him you know he is never quiet. He asks me why I am thinking of so many different musical themes. We realize from coming out of editing and doing special FX I see the film as many segments. That doesn't work for the score. The music has to bring to images together as one. Not further fracture the film. So at this point I say "Take everything I said and throw it out. That is if you even took it in". We laugh, smoke a cigar and then he tells me the plan he had before I even showed up. Well the soundtrack is on it's way and this film will be done before the spring has sprung!

Two hours with someone who knows what their doing saves months of problems. I love having a Melvin!