Moving Forward

If you’ve been keeping up with my Facebook or Twitter feeds, you know, unfortunately, that we didn’t make it into the finals of the Dockers contest. If you’re reading it here for the first time then, yeah, I’m disappointed too. I put a lot of work and money into that contest and I know you guys voted your little hearts out to get me into the semifinals, but those are the breaks.  Sometimes you win the battles and sometimes you don’t; but don’t believe for a minute that we’ve lost the war.

I’m reminded of something I heard several years ago regarding the film business: Expect to get 100 no’s for every yes.  If one isn’t able to deal with that, then they shouldn’t be in this business.

Like any good story the protagonist must overcome obstacle after obstacle, some of them seeming insurmountable, before reaching his or her final goal. This is just another obstacle in our story. The quest to reunite the cast of The Invisible Man lives on!

I have no regrets about the entering the contest.  I really don’t.  It was a wonderful (albeit exhausting) and much needed learning experience for me and I was able to show that, yes indeed, I can pull together a production.  There is only so much one can learn from books and classes.  One really needs to just get out there and do it.  As a result, I have footage that I can use for other purposes.  Yep, it won’t go to waste.  For example, I can re-cut it and use it to create a crowdfunding video.  Crowdfunding, in fact, is most likely the next step that I’m going to be taking in the future to raise the seed money I need to get this project off the ground.  I don’t have much of a choice.  I’m personally tapped out.  It’ll take me years to pay back that bank loan I took out to fund the video.

But first I need to finish the story.  It’s been sitting idle for far too long and my screenwriter has been infinitely patient with me as I dealt with reprecussions from my auto accident, holding the Name the Movie Characters Contest, my computer dying, and then entering the Dockers contest.  Now I really need to focus on getting the story done because no story…no movie. 

There is one advantage, however, to letting the story sit for so long and that is that I’ve had a long time to think about it.  There’s a bit of screenwriting advice that I heard once and that is that after you’ve written the first draft, put the story away for a month or two or six and then come back to it because, although it may seem perfect when you finished that first draft, you’ll really see its flaws after you’ve been away from it for a while.  I can really see the wisdom in that advice because I see flaws now that I didn’t see previously.  Scenes that I was absolutely in love with will have to go because they really don’t serve the story and its theme.  That’s hard, but it has to be done.

Before I tackle the treatment, however, I need to get the story bible done.  Getting the characters fleshed out, the pseudoscience in place, and the back story done are a vital foundation for the story.  It’s absolutely needed in order to keep everything consistent.

I promised you pictures and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of our video and I haven’t forgotten.  I just need to still get the pictures and footage.  I, also, wanted to wait until you actually got to see the video, which is now posted on Facebook and on the home page of this website.

So go watch it and tell me what you think.  If you like it great, but if not, tell me why.  I do appreciate constructive criticism.  How can I learn and grow as a filmmaker without it?!

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!