Research, not really my cup of tea

Have you guys heard about social media marketing? I don't think I was really aware it until a few monthes ago. When it happened to me, well I sure it has happened to me many more times before but I just wasn't aware, and it's probably happened to you many times as well. So, it goes like this, you're online, messing around facebook and you see a friend of your's has shared an article or a trailer to a new movie and you click on it to check it out. You like it or not, you've just experienced social media marketing. I find it very fascanating...and a great way to get the word out about your product, your blog, or like us our movie, Clombies.

It seems simple enough, you post up interesting things and someone likes what they see and thinks "hey I think my friend Bill would really like this" or they just think "everyone I know should hear about this." And away it goes, right? Well, for those that use the web for more then just email and Facebook, they probably would have a pretty easy time getting their message out there...for me, not so much. I love the web, but I really don't spend that much time on it. At least not much surfing.

So, when we started working on our distribution plan we went to an expert in the field. She's great, if you need any enlightment on distribution you should pick up her book "Guide to Independent film distribution" by Stacey Parks, it's a very honest and straight forward look at film distribution for Indie filmmakers. Anyway, after she looked over our film and our plan, she told us that traditional distribution would work but that we should really consider the new hydrid distribution strategy. We didn't really know what she was talking about. So, she explained that we should still plan for a traditional distribution plan, do the film circuit and try to find a distributor that way, but also we could do our own distiribution along the way online. But we didn't need to wait for the film to be finished, actually that could slow things down if we waited until the film was finished. The thing is we want to find our audience now and hopefully they will be excited to go on this journey with us.

Well, it sounded awesome to me...I don't think I thought it was going to be easy, by any stretch of the imagination but I don't think I realized that in reality the web is a very big place.

So, I've signed us up for a few sites that can help drive traffic back to our website, blog, and in the future our Fan page on Facebook for Clombies. But just like with any marketing stragegy, you have to have a plan. And when it comes to a plan you have to do research - so research as I said before really isn't my cup of tea, but because this whole idea of actually reaching beyond Austin, Texas...reaching beyond the US, to be able to reach people in Australia for example is just amazing to me. So, research will be done and I will make it through. Because how much fun will it be see someone clear on the otherside of this planet asking to see our film, and if we're lucky and do a great job at this social media marketing, they may be demanding it at their local theaters. Now what could any Indie filmmaker want more then to have an audience demanding to see their film.

MY Productions New Project

Hey All,

Sorry it's been so long since I've been over here, but we've been busy working on our newest project, Clombies. It's our first feature film. We're finally stepping out of the shorts world, thanks to BSW, and heading into the wonderful world of longer shooting schedules and larger cast and crew. Let's see, the film is a comedy/horror, more comedy then horror, but don't get me wrong there is horror to be had and good fun gore. Later down the line we'll reveal more of the story. Actually, a synopsis will be found in a repost of a blog from our website, so just check out the blogs for 2009.

So, why do I say repost, well we have a blog attached to our new website, but it's very different from blogger, which has been hard to get use to. I love using blogger. So, while we work out which blog to use I'll be double posting on the website and here. This way you won't miss out on any exciting news about us and the new project. Also, it means that I'll be reposting several blogs that were written earlier this year. So, please take a look at them all - luckily they were all written in this year so it isn't years and years ago. Thanks for checking in on us every once in a while and just so you know, keep coming back. I am back and I will be posting. Please also go check out our new re-designed website. It's pretty cool.

See you soon.

Long time, how about an update?

It's been a long time, right? I know it's been a while but I'm happy to say that what's been keeping me away is our fund raising efforts on our new feature Clombies. If you don't know about Clombies, it's a comedy horror that I wrote about two year ago and have been rewriting up until this summer. Though it's a comedy horror and very commerial it holds on tightly to the indie spirit which makes it different from the traditional Hollywood films. And I just have to put it out there that I just love the lead character in this film.

Anyway, as I stated before we're currently raising funds for this film.

Please excuse this very quick plead for help and cash:
If you know anyone who is looking for a unique and fun investment opportunity send them our way, donations are greatly appreciated and if you really want to get involved contact me and we'll let you know what you can do...okay, here ends the sells pitch.

How about a quick synopsis?

Clombies is the story of an average guy who returns to his hometown to profuse his undying love for his high school crush. But he quickly gets derailed when he discovers an unexplained and unusual epidemic happening in town, it leads him to team up with a rag-tag band of offbeat characters to save the town before the chaos spreads and in the end helps him discover who he truly is.

The film is more of a comedy than a straight horror but there will be lots of tense moment, good scares, truly bloody moments and some funny gore. I'm very excited to get this on film but even more so to start finding our audience. So, keep you're eyes peeled for our fan pages on myspace and facebook, they should be up by December. And if anyone has suggestions of other places on the web to draw attention to our film, please tell me or even better yet go ahead and do it yourself and start talking up the film, direct people to our fan pages and to MY Productions website and/or to our blog, which I promise is going to be much more active.

On that note, I will take my leave and promise to speak with you all very soon.