What I Learned This Year

No matter what obstacles life throws in front of you, it’s important to keep persevering.  This past year has been an incredibly frustrating and stressful year for me.  My auto accident back in February kept me sidelined most of the year and I was unable to make any real progress on the film project.  Then my cat got sick and died.  When I finally got back to the project and decided to hold the NAME THE MOVIE CHARACTERS CONTEST, it took far longer than I anticipated to get the contest started due to circumstances out of my control.  I look back on the year and wonder what the heck I accomplished and it, unfortunately, wasn’t much.  This year has really tested my patience.  But I learned that I can get through those tough times and keep going.  I’m as determined as ever to get our wonderful cast together again and I look forward to actually making progress in the new year!

It’s important to start audience building as early as possible.  This past summer I attended a Jon Reiss workshop, sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society, entitled Think Outside the Box Office.  This workshop was named after Jon’s book of the same name.  While I had always thought that it’s important to build an audience early, Jon’s workshop was the first time I had ever heard anyone else say it.  Jon advocates starting to think about the distributing and marketing of one’s film from as early as inception.  A vital part of this is reaching out and growing the audience. 

It may seem counterintuitive to start at inception, especially when, traditionally, most filmmakers wait until after they finish the film to think about distribution and marketing.  But it really makes a lot of sense if you think about it.  Independent filmmakers don’t have the huge marketing budgets that the studios have to reach their audience, so anything indies can do reach and build an audience as early as possible will only help down the road when it comes time to market and distribute the film. 

Many of you have followed me from The Invisible Man Online website over here to Shoom Zone.  If there is anyone who wants to see our beloved cast together again, I know it will be I-Man fans!  So far, a small group averaging about 1,000 readers a month visit this site; and so many of you have been openly supportive and encouraging.  I can’t thank you enough for hanging in here after all this time.  But I, also, can’t assume that all of the audience of 10 million people around the world who watched I-Man will easily find out about this project or even be interested in it.  I’ve got my work cut out for me to reach all those fans and to even try to extend the audience to the general sci-fi/superhero audience.  I need to prove to investors and distributors that there is a big enough audience to justify the cost of making this movie.  But I can’t do it alone.  I’ll need your help to spread the word about this project.  In the future, I’ll be expounding more about ways you can help, but for now please check out the How Fans Can Help page for some ideas you can do that are absolutely free.  I recently updated it with new ways you can help out. 

Interviewing is a great way to learn about subjects.  I’ve already done one interview for the United Filmmakers Association and will be starting an interview series in the near future on distribution companies for them.  Prepping for the interviews is forcing me to start learning about the distribution process (a good thing) and then getting my questions answered means learning about the distribution companies.  It’s a fantastic education!

I already have my first interview lined up.  I’m just waiting to resolve some computer issues right now which are preventing me from downloading video.  Yes, I said video.  I recently bought myself a little Flip video camera which will allow me to shoot the interview.  So look forward to seeing more video in the future!  Now I need to learn to edit!

Don’t compromise on quality.  I’m a huge admirer of Pixar and was privileged to be able to visit the studio this past summer.  So what is it about this studio that makes them so successful?  I think the answer is in this quote I recently found:

“There is a crucial rule: no compromises. No compromises on quality – regardless of production constraints, cost constraints, or a deadline. If you get a better idea, and this means that you have to start again from scratch, then that’s what you have to do.” — John Lasseter, Pixar

A good thing to keep in mind as I develop this project!

Character #5 (Judging Period)

The Submission Period for Character #5 has now come to a close. I’ve closed the comments on the thread so no further names will be accepted. We again beat the number of submissions we had for our previous character with a humongous 174 submissions for this round! There was some serious competition going on here!

For the next week the judges will deliberate and choose our favorites. The finalists will be notified by email that one or more of their entries made it into the final round. If you don’t receive an email from me, your entry was not chosen. I will post the names on the Blog next Monday where everyone will get a chance to vote for their favorite!

Character #3 (Results)

The voting has now come to a close for Character #3.  I’m pleased to announce that the name that got the most votes for this character is Sebastian Grey!

Congratulations go to the winner, Cheryl Johnson, for getting the most votes!  Cheryl not only named this character, but her own name will appear in the movie credits!

Character #4 (Voting Period)

Now starts the Voting Period for Character #4!  The Judges discussed the pros and cons of each name and then voted on them. Names were chosen by majority rule, which meant that a minimum of three votes were needed to move the names to the Voting Round.  In this round one name received four votes and the other two names received three votes.  Two of the names were submitted by the same finalist.  One of the names was submitted twice by two different people, but the rules say that the first person to submit a name gets the credit.  Congratulations to the two finalists who made it to this round!

Now the naming of this character rests with all of you. It’s out of the Judges’ hands. It’s your decision.  Please take a minute to vote and show your support.

Some reminders:

  • Be sure you are logged on to this Blog.
  • Each person gets only one vote, including the contestants who entered the contest and the finalists.
  • Enter your vote in the comments section (below) of this Blog post.
  • You have one week to enter your vote. The comments will be closed Monday, January 3, 2011, at 6:00 p.m. PT.
  • This is a popularity contest. The most popular name wins! So finalists are free to campaign if they wish.

Here are the finalists’ character names.  Please vote for one of them!

Arthur
Henry
Lester

Character #2 (Final Results)

Last week we were left hanging as to the winning name for Shannon’s character.  It was a tie between Tara and Madeleine.  This meant that the judges had to break the tie and make the final decision.  The judges voted and it was unanimous.  The winning name is the name the character already had…Tara!

This means that we will not be naming a winning contestant for this round.  But the contest isn’t over!  We still have two more characters that do not yet have names!

“Should’ve Been Romeo” in Post Production

I’ve been so busy with getting the NAME THE MOVIE CHARACTERS CONTEST under way that I really haven’t been telling you much about another cool project in the works. That project is Paul Ben-Victor’s Should’ve Been RomeoShould’ve Been Romeo wrapped shooting a few months ago, which means that it is now in post-production.  According to IMDb, it is scheduled to be released on April 7, 2011!

Originally, I thought that Eddie Jones was going to be in this movie because he participated in the reading but, unfortunately, his name does not appear in the credits.  However, there is another I-Man alum whose name does appear in the credits and that is Vincent Ventresca!  He plays the role of Actor #1.

Check out the second from the last name on this cast list.

Look at the third row of cast photos.  Doesn’t the seventh picture from the left look familiar?

More Should’ve Been Romeo news coming in the future!

Character #2 (Results)

The voting has now come to a close for Character #2 and we have a two-way tie!  The two names with the most votes were Tara and Madeleine

This means that the judges will have to break the tie.  We’ll take the next week to discuss and vote on which one we like best.  Then, on Monday, December 27, 2010, at 6:00 p.m. PT, I’ll post the winning name here on the blog. 

 There are only two more names left, so join in on the fun!

Character #4 (Judging Period)

The Submission Period for Character #4 has now come to a close.  I’ve closed the comments on the thread so no further names will be accepted.  We again beat the number of submissions we had for our previous character with a whopping 119 submissions for this round! I am blown away!

For the next week the judges will deliberate and choose our favorites.  The finalists will be notified by email that one or more of their entries made it into the final round.  If you don’t receive an email from me, your entry was not chosen.  But there is one more character to be named, so please keep trying!  I will post the names on the Blog next Monday where everyone will get a chance to vote for their favorite!