The Pigman Murders, The Interview

    I have been looking forward to getting back to my series of post on the subject of found footage film making. Although some of you guys have suggest that one post that id dedicated to the subject of found footage is one too many. I would respond to that in two ways. First I have gotten more views and more feedback on this subject than any one before it.  Secondly this is a growing genre in the digital film making world. It is here to say. The film makers out there on the front lines are aware of the problems with the genre and are actively correcting them. What most of us are looking for in the end is a great story that is well told and that can be done in any genre, including found footage. I guess it is time for the interview.

Q) This interview is with Stephen Patrick Kenny, the film maker behind the film The Pigman Murders. I suppose the most obvious question is what is the plot of The Pigman Murders?

It tells the story of 7 friends, Lead by Irish stars Mark Hutchinson (Curse of the Banshee) & Tom Ward (Love/Hate), who head to the beautiful wilderness of Connemara, Co. Galway for a weekend break to celebrate the first year anniversary of a close friend. First night on Diamond Hill Mountain they come across a beaten and bloodied male looking for help as he warns them that two masked men attacked him and took his girlfriend, some of the group head into the wooded area in search as others return to their cars which have disappeared. With no houses for miles and no transport they must walk themselves back but are not alone and now find themselves fighting for their life...........


Q) I can see by your Youtube channel that you have used short films to work your way up to a feature. Would you recommend this path to others or do you believe a feature film is a totally different learning experience?

Yes I did many shorts and I would certainly recommend them as a stepping stone for any film-maker. Jumping into a feature is a huge step so with working on shorts you get to experience all stress it begins and prepares you for your first feature.

Q) Many digital film makers believe that shooting a found footage movie is easier than shooting a standard narrative film. The myth of handing the actors a camera or two, dump them in the woods and a week later you got the Blair Witch Project.  That is not how it happens is it?

A) Making a feature is never easy rather found footage to studio production - same amount of works goes into them from prep to shooting to post production.

Q) With each film maker that I interview on the subject there is a different answer to the rehearsal question.  Some directors like to spend weeks with their cast rehearsing every scene until it almost becomes something that resembles choreography when the cameras roll. Then other film makers like to be surprised as they shoot. What approach did you take when shooting this film?  Also would you do it that way again?

A) I do love rehearsing with actors of course before any production, but on this one we went for it raw to give the found footage a real feel and I think it worked.

Q) There is the other part of found footage film making. The writing. The nature of a found footage movie seems to demand that the film maker not provide a fleshed out narrative screenplay except if you are doing something like Cloverfield which has to have set points at which special effects are included. Did you write a script of general scenes or a full script with dialogue included?

A) I had some basic script work done for this one but it was more of ideas and the actors were brave enough to improv some tough scenes. I really wanted to keep this real as too many found footage films out there scripted and just does not work for me.



Q) What kind of camera or cameras did you select for this project?

We used a Sony and Nikon DSLR for this one.

Q) Watching the trailer I can see that you did some night time shooting. A tough situation when shooting a standard narrative film, but found footage does not allow you the freedom to light scenes as you would like to. How did you tackle the problem of low light?

A) Yes shooting at nighttime can be a tough one but again we wanted the real feel to this film so we shot it like you see it on the trailer DARKNESS which adds to the intensity I wanted for it.

Q) The oldest saying in film making is Lights Camera Action. They did not mention sound because films back then were silent. Now every film makers has to understand the importance of sound and how poor sound can sink a project. When shooting found footage you are giving the camera and the job of recording sound into the hands of the actors more often than any of us would like. How much thought went into sound before the production began?  Did you have to make adjustments while shooting?

A) Sound is a very important for any feature and we usually use mic and boom but again with this one we wanted the real feel to it so I let the audio come thru the mic on the camera and we did have another mic close to the actors and that was about it! We were delighted with a result and with the added effects from our sound post team.

Q) Some directors have a core cast of actors that they like to return to again and again. Hitchcock did it with his leading actors and actresses. Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino do this as well. While others take the audition approach to picking a cast. How did you go about finding you cast?

A) Yes of course have some actors I love working with and have done so and will do so on future projects but I do love looking thru showreels trying to spot some new talent.

Q) You decided to do a found footage film. How do you feel about the state of this genre and do you believe that it has room to expand?

A) Most found footage films these days are not real and are boring and it really has ruined the name of them, but with The Pigman Murders you very much feel like you are there with the cast and it is very much real. I am not sure will I ever go down this road again but I did very much enjoy it!

Q) What is going to be the next project?
A) My next one is another feature called Captive which is  a chilling story of 12 strangers who are being held against their will as each of them must go along with the rules if they are to get the cure for a killer virus which infects them all.

Q) Any advice for the first time film maker?

A) Just go out and shoot rather you have £50 to £5000 get it finished and never take NO for an answer. The best way to learn film-making is by doing it! You will make many mistakes, get stressed and much more but when you complete the project you will never feel as good!

Again I would like to thank Kenny for agreeing to do this interview. As an added bonus I thought that I would include one of his short films.

I hope you enjoy it.




Okay that will be it for today. The next post will be about a few crowdfunding campaigns that have caught my interest. I hope to get an interview about one of them that was shoot in Japan. If you have enjoyed your time here take a moment to like this site on stumbleupon and leave a cool comment there.

Found Footage Summer Trailers

 
This summer looks to be the biggest yet for the found footage genre. Both the larger budget type that will make it to theaters and a few that will end up in the VOD world.

The more I learn about these movies the more hope that I have for their future. Film makers are adapting and growing the genre in interesting new ways. The formula for these types of films is being abandoned and something that has been referred to the Footage film is creeping into the genre. In a footage film, footage is recorder, but those doing the recording do not have to die in the end. They can survive, they can go one and they can even become the ones who publish the footage to the world.

 Also digital film makers are looking to devices like the iphone and the gopro to capture their footage.

 Let’s have a look at the first found footage film that I am going to be showing you. This a horror film titled As Above, So Below.


 

 The next trailer is for the horror film Afflicted.



  Now we move on to a mega summer release and since it stars children I am sure that it will not even up being a found footage film. Hollywood does not allow you to take out any little monster under the age of twelve or so, that was the reason why The Devil’s Backbone was shot in Europe. Most of you have seen the Trailer for Earth to Echo.





   The last trailer for today is a little horror movie from Europe. I hope to get an interview with the director during the next week or so. The trailer is for The Pigman Murders.


 


  

 That will be it for today. Please take a moment to stumble this site on Stumbleupon and to share it.


  

Digital film making, Free Editing Programs

Free Editing Programs

I received a reminder that I have not done any post on my favorite subject, Free Stuff, in a long while so this one is dedicated to getting it done in a world class way for free.

We are all aware of the high end digital video editing software programs out there. Some of which with all of the ad ons can cost over a thousand dollars. There is a trade off for every digital film maker. Every dollar you send for software and camera equipment and the next most powerful new computer to hit the market is less dollars that you will be able to put onto the screen. I am not saying that you can make a great feature film without spending a money, but you should only do it when absolutely necessary and then you are allowed to cry for at least an hour afterwards. I just spend a few hundred dollars on a used computer on ebay to handle the editing on my upcoming project and even though I am budgeted for this and the external and drives that will need to be purchased as well I hated spending the money. I needed to make myself feel better so I decided to offset this purchase with free editing software.

 Let me disclose first that I am not a fan of CGI so I do not place the ability to do it as a big reason to select a software film making solution. Face it that if CGI is top two on your list of needs then you are going to be spending some money to get that done well.

 I have narrowed the choices down to two. One has been used on major motion pictures for over a decade and the other is relatively new. The best thing about these choices is that you can download and try them both. First up is one that has been around fore a long time and has been used on dozens of Hollywood feature films. The name of the software is Lightworks.


  Next up is Blender. You will see a basic tutorial followed by a short film producted by the company behind this software.
 




  



 
  

 This concludes the tutorials for today. I am going to get back to the found footage series shortly. I have a trailer for two a found footage films that I think looks promising. The first is a film from Ti West. The trailer for The Sacrament.

  

   Next up is the trailer for Lucky Bastard.

  

 That will be it for today. Please take a moment to share this post with a friend and to add me to your google plus. Good luck with your film making.

Digital Filmmaking, Black Magic Time?

Digital Filmmaking, Black Magic Time?

During the last two years a great many cameras have been introduced. Part of being any kind of technician is choosing the right tool for the right job. No two of us see the world in exactly the same way so no two of use will look upon a film shoot the same way. This takes us to the choice of cameras. The type of camera that you pick for your digital feature film shoot will largely reflect how you wish the world you are going to be creating to be seen. For others of us it comes down to what will test and challenge our skills as an artist. Anyone can shoot quality footage with a Red, but only a few of us could pull it off with a Sanyo pocket camcorder or a naked smartphone.

Today’s post is not about what camera is best for your needs. It is instead going to be about one of the newer cameras to become part of the debate. At the end of this post I am going to include a overview video about the camera that was done by the legendary Phillip Bloom. The video will be the longest that I have posted here, but it flies by for those of us who cannot get enough of this type of information.

First up I would like to show you a side by side video that compares the Black Magic camera with one of the best Canon Dslr cameras.

  

 Next I would like to look at two short films that were shoot using this camera. I believe the best test of any camera is to see how it actually performs in action. After all this is about digital film making and not recording shots of trees and flowers.
  

 This next video is the reason why I hang out at Vimeo so much.

   
Love Squirts from Adam R Brown • YellowLinePics on Vimeo.

 

 During the next year there is going to be new devices added to the argument and I must say that the most important thing to keep in mind is that being a film maker is about the things you do before you start filming. Pre production is where your movie will make it or fail. You must have a quality script or nothing else you do will matter. If you do not have the most experience cast then it will be up to you to rehearse them and to nurse them when necessary through scene after scene. Film making is fun, but it is also hard work. To quote a indie film maker that I have become a fan of, Oklahoma Ward, if you are not willing to work eighteen  hours a day you are not going to make it, you are just not going to make it.
 

 That will be it for today. This has been a great year for me as a blogger and as a writer in general, but it has kept me from doing much actual work on a project of my own. I have been doing a lot of script editing for friends. Also I am hitting the five month mark on the pre production of my first feature where I will wear the big three hats of writer, director and producer. Until this process I never understood why it would sometimes take a year and a half to shoot a film. I would love to be able to shoot a film in ten days, maybe the next one.

Take a moment to share this post with a friend and keep believing in your project. Work towards it each day. You are a film maker. Sometimes film making is not about going out and getting the hot new camera. Sometimes film making is about spending days learning about insurance and location permits. Sometimes being a film maker finds you in a room surrounded by beautiful people all looking to you for their next or first job in front of the camera. Enjoy the ride guys. When it is good it is good like one of those happy ending Twillight Zone episodes where you are Charles Bronson and you get to start the human race all over again with a twenty five year old Elizabeth Montgomery at your side.

 

Notes and A Look Ahead

I promised that I would revisit The Crowd funding campaign for Revenge Of The Devil Bat once more. They are in te last few hours of their campaign. If you have not checked it out please do so by visiting here. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1586906037/revenge-of-the-devil-bat

Next I would like to preview what is to come in the month of August for this Blog. I am working on doing an interview with a Film Maker who shoot a feature using a Canon HV40. We are also going to be looking at distribution. There are more and more models to follow than ever before. Unless you are making a short or a fan film distribution is something you should be thinking about the moment that your shooting script is done.

You have to become the number one promoter of your product. The good news about this is that marketing is a learned skill. You are not a born marketer. There are steps that you can learn and master over time.
    

 I would like you to take some time today for a little exercise. I want you to look at the film that you wish to shoot and define the Genre. Then I want you to research and define the audience. Do not fool yourself into thinking that your film is for all the known world. You have not shoot a low budget version of Titanic.
    

 Lastly I would like you to look at the venues that will help you to market your work. Most of them are free. Facebook, Vimeo, Youtube, Blogger and Twitter. If you want to be a digital film maker then you are going to have to learn the promotion and marketing end of the business and over the next few post we are going to get into that. Thank you for visiting and please take a moment to stumble us on stumbleupon, add us to your google plus and to share a post.
 
   

Fan Films, Joker Rising Interview

  Fan Film, Joker Rising Interview

I promised that I would try to get an interview with the maker of a fan film and
Alek Gearhart the writer/ director of the fan film Joker Rising has agreed to answer a few
questions about his film. Before the interview begins I would again like to remind you guys
that Alek is running two crowd funding campaigns for this movie. One at Indiegogo and the other at Kickstarter. So please take a moment to visit kickstarter at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/834459535/joker-origins-film-dc-batman-universe and or the indiegogo campaign at http://igg.me/p/399595

In the world of crowd funding every dollar counts and as little as a dollar can make you part of a special project. If indie film makers do not support each other then we will always be at the mercy of the big studios. If you can not donate money, then share a campaign through what
ever social media that you use. Stumble it, post it on your google plus, use twitter. Telling a few
friends about a crowd funding campaign can help more sometimes than making a donation yourself. You never know. Okay, lets get to the interview.


Thank you for your time Alek. This will be basic question and answer style.

Most of the fan films from the Batman universe seem to be based upon
Batman or Darkwing with an occasional Cat Woman short thrown in, but you
decided to go back to the beginning with the Joker. Was this a choice because he has
been over looked or because he is the character that you are most interested in?

-The idea for this Joker film came from looking at the sadness that seemed to be in the Joker's eyes, especially in Heath Ledger's version. Like there was something horrible that happened to him to make him go the way he did. In this we are elaborating on that. Another idea that inspired this was the idea that he might not have been funny in the first place but was driven to it somehow. Also you hit the nail on the head. The Joker has been overlooked as a lead character and even in The Killing Joke we don't really get to know much about him. Every villain should have his day.


You also decided to included the very popular character of Harley Quin in the film.
How big a part does this character play in the film?


-She is very much the glue of the story. The both of them are societies outcasts so really they only have each other. She is a prostitute in this working for a pimp named "Riddles". She is easily the most important supporting character in the film. Another important character not seen in the teaser is Black Mask who also provides a very important piece to the puzzle of the Joker's origins.

There are the comic books, the graphic novels, the movies and the animated series to
look to draw from. When writing the script did you use them as a guideline or is this
going to be something new?

-No, I drew mostly from other films and books like Drive, The Departed, Blood Meridian and Shame. This is from a criminal's point of view so we want it to really feel like you are in the underbelly of Gotham.


Since the reader of this blog are interested in the film making process let’s talk about the
making of the movie.


The first question that comes up from other film makers is what kind of camera did you
use on the trailer and will you be using it to shoot the feature?


-We used a Sony Nex 100 UK for the trailer and will use it for the film as well. Great for anything at night and looks a bit more like film.

The sound is great, what did you use to record it?


-The sound is recorded with the mic that came with the camera. No boom was used for that teaser. The only alteration was that a high pass filter was added in final cut.


I have read comments about your cast and how great they are. One of the hardest parts of indie film making is finding actors who can handle the basics yet alone lift your production to another level. How did you find your cast?

-The cast was really a pleasant surprise. My partner on this project, Manuel Eduardo Ramirez and I had a one day casting call and almost immediatly great talent started to come in. Katie Young, who plays Harley, blew us away as soon as she walked in. At the end of the day tho we didn't think we we're going to find a guy who could pull off Joker and him before he turns into the Joker but right at the end Dylan Hobbs walked in and stole the show. A few other actors have come aboard later who we knew or heard about through friends. Ski Carr will play Black Mask, Dominic Marsell will play Riddles and Manuel Ramirez, who is also the guy who got gunned down in the street in the teaser will play Killer Croc or just Croc in this. God was looking out for us.

 
Last film making question before we get to crowd funding. Who inspires you? For me
it is Takashi Miike who does every kind of movie under the sun and does them well.
Who is it that you hope to be compared to or mentioned in the same breath with someday?


I am inspired by filmmakers like Terrance Malick, Chuan Lu (for City of Life and Death a film that everyone should watch), Steven Spielberg, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Alfonso Cuaron. Mainly Terrance Malick. Also inspired greatly by the 2004-2009 show Battlestar Galactica for taking something that is usually campy and grounding it in reality.


You are crowdfunding on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Do you have links to these campaigns?


-We are doing both at the moment.
Indie go go is
http://igg.me/p/399595
Kickstarter
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/834459535/joker-origins-film-dc-batman-universe

Are you determined to make this film whether you reach your goals or not?

-
The film will be made, it will just be a bit harder without help. But once it is done regardless of how we got there it will be something to behold.


When is production going to start and how many days do you plan to shoot?

- We start in June and plan on going for 2 weeks.

Any final words?

-We hope that this movie will usher in a new era of fan films and even comic book films that will surpass just action or sci-fi and enter into the realm of character pieces and hard dramas like the Place Beyond the Pines and Crash.

Canon HV20 Feature Film, Part 2

Canon Hv20 Feature Film, Part 2

Ready for round two of our interview with the Director of the movie Throwback?

I Forgot to mention that the interview is being conducted with digital filmmaker Travis Bain. You can find his website at http://www.travisbain.com.au/ You can find the fan page for the film Throwback at http://www.facebook.com/throwbackmovie

Most film makers never get enough of technique answers. Robert Rodriguez teaches that even if you are creative you have to learn to be technical if you want to be a modern film maker and it is in that area that I wish to go into with the next few questions. Okay lets talk about editing. What type of computer did you use to edit?

Up until late 2011, I used an off-the-shelf Dell Dimension PC for all my post-production work. It was great for Mini DV editing, but cutting HD on it was sluggish and it crashed a lot. Then, in December 2011, I got hit with a very bad virus which forced me to nuke my entire OS. Rather than reinstall everything on my ageing PC, I decided to upgrade, so I built my own new PC from scratch. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate with 8GB of RAM, a GTX570 GPU, a Core i7-2600k CPU and a solid state system drive plus a 1TB hard drive which Throwback's 40 hours of rushes are residing on. I can now edit HDV smoothly at full motion, with no stuttering or crashes, even with effects added.

What kind of software did you pick?

I use Adobe Premiere Pro. I've used Premiere since the late 1990s and see no reason to switch to a different NLE. It does everything I want it to do and I'm used to it and comfortable with it, so at this stage I have no desire to jump to Avid or FCP or any other NLE.Were you happy with the results?

Very happy. Now that I'm using a powerful enough PC, Premiere basically never crashes and I never have any glitches. It edits native HDV as easily as if it was Mini DV. The export options are also great and there are a lot of cool plugins available. Working on a PC instead of a Mac, you also have more codec options available. When I create intermediate files, I use the Lagarith lossless codec so there's no loss of quality whatsoever when you go through multiple generations. In fact, I usually export all my digital negatives as Lagarith .avi files before transcoding them to DVD or Blu-ray or whatever their final distribution format is going to be.

If you are considering an upgrade, to what software would it be?

My next computer will be even more powerful because I'll want it to be able to edit 4K down the track. I know my current PC can't edit 4K because I've tried and it just can't keep up with the frame rate. I'm not looking at jumping into 4K in the next two years at least, but it is something I'm looking at for the long term. I just want to wait for the technology to develop a bit more and for prices to come down. I love the look of the new Sony F55 camera with its global shutter, but it's way outside of my price range at the moment. But hopefully in a couple of years, you'll be able to pick up a decent quality prosumer 4K camera for a couple of grand. If someone brings out something similar to the low-cost JVC handheld one but with a larger sensor, I'm there.

I understand that you directed and edited your film yourself would you recommend that to other film makers?

Definitely. Having to edit footage you've shot yourself is a great way to learn what works and what doesn't, and it helps you shoot better material next time you go out in the field. Knowing what sort of coverage an editor needs to make a scene work is essential for any director, I think. I'm sure there are a lot of Hollywood editors out there who are handed great-looking footage by big-time directors and it just doesn't cut together, because the director has no real understanding of montage. It's great for directors to know how to work with actors or what lenses or lights to use, but without knowing how to "shoot for the edit", as Michael Bay termed it, it's all for naught. Going forward, I may not always edit my own films, but when you're on a low budget, you kind of have to to save money.

From the trailer it looks as if your movie is heavily dependent on standard special effects rather than computer generated effect. I think that the old school approach to visual effects looks better. So many film makers are grabbing what they believe to be as cool piece of software and adding a CGI creature into their film. In a Hollywood style blockbuster these creatures look good, but at the micro budget level they usually come out looking like characters from Wreck It Ralph. Nothing spoils a creature feature faster than a killer bear or T Rex from a playstation game. My favorite movie going experience of all time was when I got to see the US debut of The Descent at out local film festival. I got to see it in a packed theater that rocked from opening scene to last. The creatures in that film are all makeup and lighting with only a small amount of background CGI(the wall climbing scenes).  So the question is would you have gone CGI if your budget was larger?

No. Even if we'd had a huge budget, I wouldn't have wanted a CGI monster. I probably would've commissioned a kickass animatronic costume from Stan Winston Studio or Jim Henson's Creature Shop. I think CGI has been grossly overused in the past decade or so, and we're really seeing a backlash against it, as evidenced by the failures of "John Carter", "Battleship" and "Jack the Giant Slayer." I think the backlash may have started as far back as "The Phantom Menace." Like many, I mourn the lost arts of miniatures, matte paintings and practical effects. Granted, CGI is essential for some types of movies. I don't think Roland Emmerich's "2012" would have been quite as visually impressive if it had relied solely on practical FX. But when I see CGI gophers, scorpions and monkeys in the fourth Indiana Jones movie, I just want to shake my head. So no, I wouldn't have used a CGI monster in "Throwback." There's no substitute for a good old-fashioned man in a costume. If you film him the right way, with careful lighting and camera angles, you can get some great results. We've taken the "Jaws" approach for Throwback in that you only ever really get glimpses of the creature, you never see him full-on in broad daylight. I prefer this approach. It's scarier, because when you can't see the monster properly, your mind fills in the blanks. Even the creature's glowing red eyes in this movie were done practically, using special LED lights. I was determined to avoid CGI as much as possible. There is a little bit of digital FX work in the movie, but it's restricted to gun muzzle flashes and things like that, because we couldn't afford blank-firing guns and all the safety requirements and red tape that go with them. We've done all our gore shots practically, with prosthetics and fake blood. Moviegoers can tell the difference. Even if I get to work with bigger and bigger budgets, I think I'll keep insisting on doing FX practically, as "old-school" as possible. I have an idea for a pulp adventure story featuring a lost city and dinosaurs, and if I ever get to do it, I want to create the dinosaurs with stop-motion as a tribute to Ray Harryhausen and the animators he inspired like Phil Tippett. I know stop-motion is out of vogue (except for films for the younger crowd like "Paranorman" and "Frankenweenie"), but I'd rather do my dinosaurs with good stop-motion than lousy CGI. I think audiences would respond well to a revival of stop-motion for a retro fantasy adventure. Here's hoping "Throwback" is enough of a success that I can afford to commission Laika to do my dinos for me.

I'm glad you mentioned "The Descent." It's one of the best horror films I've seen in recent years and I'm a big fan of Neil Marshall's. He's clearly inspired by John Carpenter and "The Thing", which for my money is the best horror movie ever made. Marshall even uses the same font for his titles as Carpenter, which is a cool homage.

 The final part of this interview will focus on post and distribution. Please take a moment to stumble us on stumbleupon, bookmark this post and to share it with a friend. Final note for today. For those of you who only use Youtube could you check out Vimeo. The traffic is not as good as Youtube, but the video quality is great. Also if you post your work at Youtube there is no law that says that you can not use Vimeo as well. You will be reaching a larger audience if you use both. Part of being a successful digital filmmaker is to go out and find the audience. Finding the audience for your digital film is sometimes taking advantage of every possible chance to reach them.

Crowd Funding On Mars

Crowdfunding On Mars

Most of your know what crowd funding is. For those of you who do not it is basically raising money through donations from fans and followers by using sites such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter. These sites have helped thousands of independent artist and film makers to get funds to help with their projects. Some times it is for money to start a production and others it is to cover post productions and or distribution.

I question whether or not that it was indented for what has recently happened. The producers of the cancelled series Veronica Mars, in order to make a feature length film from the series, went on kickstarter with the goal of getting a full production budget of two million dollars. Yeah, can you hear doctor Evil saying “Two Million dollars”? Most are using these sites to get anywhere between a thousand dollars up to a high end of one hundred thousand dollars. In other words well with in the budget of the average low to micro budget digital film. They gave themselves a thirty day window to hit the two million dollar mark and within three days they are well over three and a half million dollars.

This could end up being something that benefits all of us in the micro budget world or it could be a disaster. It could benefit those who use the site by the simple fact that this massive event has gotten kickstarter and indiegogo like sites a great deal of attention and those who donated to the big project may be willing to donate to other projects in the future.

Then again it could mean the start of a flood of Hollywood types who do not need this venue, but look at it as a way of funding their over blown vanity projects. Well I am one of those people that believe there is no level to low for the Hollywood elite to sink to and I see this more as a negative than a positive.

You doubt that huh?

Have you watched the independent Spirit Awards lately? It use to be a venue where little films got recognition. Where film makers made their bones. Lately it is the place where Bruce Willis hangs out to pick up chicks and free drinks.

I doubt that any of us will be able to fight this trend once it gets rolling, but we can survive it.

How do we as digital film makers manage to use Crowd funding to our advantage?

Look first to how Veronica Mars managed to pull this off.

 It was a cancelled tv series with a loyal following. (If it was Babylon 5 or Andromeda or even Heroes, I would not have written this post.) The producers of the show used this following to get the word out and then to get the cash to pour in.
The loyal following is something that has to be considered. If you are going to do well with crowd funding then you are going to need either a great product with a great trailer in hand or you are going to need a loyal and focused fan base for the project you are looking to have funded. Not all of us can have two seasons of a network series to generate press for our future crowd funding project, but we can have a active web series to generate a loyal following. We could have a series of short projects behind us that have introduced us to the world. If your work is good people will talk about it. Fans of your work will want to support you in the future if your feature length project appeals to them.

I am not much for constantly being on facebook and twitter (social media) to grow my brand name. This is very time consuming and I have always believed that if you do great work others will do the social marketing for you. I have not decided about Google Plus yet. The circles that it provides could come in handy when you have a project or wish to start a conversation with those who follow you. It may be a great place to do some branding and I get a lot of information from followers on Google plus about their projects and in return I tend to write about them and or post them on one of my blogs.

If you have a blog it is good to reserve a page for crowdfunding notices. Not just for your own, but for others who you believe in. This can be a way of giving back to the digital film making community. I admit that I have not done this, but I am going to add a page to this blog for Crowdfunding announcements. If most of us who have Blogs and websites with a decent following did this we could create an atmosphere where it would be possible for someone like me or you to launch a campaign with a fresh new project that could pull a million dollars in donations. Some of the best film makers on earth are making web series and digital shorts with no budgets. They are out there and if given the chance they could and would make amazing features. Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan were low budget film makers who were given big breaks by the big studios. It would be great in the next great film maker was given a big break by a crowd of fans.

Please take a moment to share this post with someone. To stumble us on stumbleupon and to add me to your google plus. The next post will be part two of my interview with Travis Bain the maker of Throwback. I am a writer by nature which means that I fall into the category of being a creative type, so I have always loved learning from those who are technical in nature. Ask me about writing a script or working with actors or even the financing of a project and I am your guy, but the behind the camera aspects of film making and or editing and I am still a novice. I am learning as I go. Mr. Bain has given a great deal of insight into an area of film making where I am by no means an expert.


Okay that is it for today. See you guys soon.