"What will my mother think?"

Written: 3/8/13
             
              So, I am very excited about the end to the long standing incubation period for Down Poor Pictures. I receive angry (and friendly) emails from actors, producers, you name it... asking "when do we get to see Ringside Rosary!?" And I am not going to say anything else about Ringside except, it's time is near. (premiered Aug. 15th/ RingsideRosary.com)
              There are other things we have snuck in under the radar that we will be very excited to show the world. We are taking big chances. Much of our work is changing, for the better, because of the state of all our lives. Sam, Bailey, and everyone we work with are people living in the same economic times as all of you. We are all struggling to make ends meet and growing older while we do it. Many of us have taken on the idea that if we are going to try and make a living doing what we love in such a difficult financial time, then we might as well do it without holding back.
             With the support of our friends and the entire Down Poor family we have begun taking our art and business to a whole new level. Attacking projects we had always wanted to do, but dare not try, or thought could not try. We desperately want to attack every genre of film to avoid getting trapped into only one, but we are starting to have a style of our own. An edge or brass to our work that I am thrilled to watch grow and mold of it's own. Projects that take guts, innovative thought, and nerves of steal are starting to approach us. I am not sure what we are doing but I think we are doing it right. I know that the company has been discussing a lot about doing a few projects to make sure we maintain that balance I mentioned before. This means we will be diving into a few polar opposites from our other work. All of this is exactly what I have always wanted in my work; a constant challenge supplying me with a regular rush of nervous excitement.
              Will people hate our work? Will they love the stuff we loved making? Will the stuff we find to be our weakest become the most popular? What will my mother think? The company attitude has become, "you only live once, so fuck it." As a result, I find myself tormented by stress, loving my newest painting, un-able to get into a regular sleeping pattern, but content to sit up at night thinking about something we screened cut earlier that day... I of course have spent more time working at a desk than exercising and find myself struggling to get back to maintenance. I am thrilled that Sam has recently discussed a couple ideas with me about the company doing some nutty events. We both need to get out more.
             A great deal is changing all around us, it is nice to be part of the change rather than getting beaten by its hurricane winds.

~Jack

Self Distribution (Indy filmmakers)

Written: 2/3/13

    Online self publishing has gone through many different stages. From Createspace.com to Vimeos new "price your videos" option, it seems like something new is popping up everyday. There are several issues coming up with online distribution that seem to be holding it back from immediate popularity.


     For one thing, when you went to a Blockbuster Video (insert rental store of choice) you might not see any copies of what you wanted but you will see some interesting DVD covers that lead you to a rental you would have never otherwise appreciated. For me this was often just me searching through the VHS or DVD covers, reading the backs, and often renting a film for its bad description and excellent cover art. The artwork is lost now that it must fit as a thumbnail and otherwise serves no purpose.

    An extension of this, is that no one besides your immediate social network will ever hear about your film for online download. If they don't know you how will they hear about it? Once there was the hope of just getting on the shelf. The random viewer sees the cover and rents after giving the back a glance. Now you have to advertise and I bet you are thinking "raising the money to shoot this damn thing was hard enough..."

      Also, once you use a service like Netflix or Hulu, they box you into certain types of films. I recently spoke with James Suttles (NC local filmmaker) who joked "Now if you look at my Netflix all it offers me is Disney films because my kids have watched a few kids movies." (not exact quote) But his point is being made by few of the many people I have talked to in the past few weeks about online distribution. People, love all kinds of movies. I love comedies, action, drama, everything. Every genre has one film at least that I like. James was the first person to point out to me, that this automated service of suggestions is an entirely new block to filmmakers. This coupled with the huge flux in films being shot (thanks to digital) things seem harder than ever for first time film makers. Not easier.

       One site I recently read about call, IndieReign.com, has an interesting solution. They have created a game out of expanding the social networks who push the films. This is how it works, You upload your film. You share it with people who watch films on the website. Once they watch it, they share the film on their facebook, their indiereign account, wherever and receive credit for doing so. Once they earn enough credit on indiereign they can use that to watch more films. ALSO, they have designed it so that if you see the trailer for a film shared on facebook you can hit a buy or rent button in that window, still on facebook, and download the film without having to go to indiereign itself. This last fact alone had me very interested.

       A New Zealand based company, you can find out more about them HERE. And of course here, www.indiereign.com.

         So, this is one of the new ideas on how to mold this new media world together. Take the free online market and create a user friendly way of strolling through the vast market of independent AND big budget films.

         Where will it take us? I don't know but YOU should definitely take a moment to see the trailer to our new feature film Ringside Rosary. HERE. And keep an eye out for those hard to find great films, then email me so I can check it out. I'm sick of watching the Human Centipede (just kidding). When all is said and done I think a raise in new barriers, plus the flux in films being shot, makes for a balance as the pro's and cons' of our new digital age both rise. Basically: its just as hard as it always has been.... deal with it.

Other link on IndieReign.com :
http://2post.net/indiereign_the_new_home_of_independent_film-65420.html

~Jack