AWAKENING: A Candid Look At the Last Few Weeks

Most Hollywood people probably aren't as candid and honest as I am about things.  I prefer to just be open about as much as possible.  I believe other people learn from my successes/mistakes and in turn relationships build. 

First off, let's be honest, AWAKENING has received around 2,200 hits on youtube to date.  The responses, though, have been great.  A ton of people have responded that they were impressed.  One of the local newspapers ran a really large story about the project with some pages in the entertainment section that were mostly full of very large pictures from the set.  Local people responded by coming up to me in public and thanking me for posting it online for them to see.  People were surprised that we were able to pull it off.

Last night the turnout for the AWAKENING Release/Networking Party was meager.  With all the chatter about coming to the party, very few came to the party that weren't part of the cast.  Many of the cast had already been committed to other obligations and couldn't attend. -That happens.  This party was for the cast/crew, I'm not upset that some weren't able to attend.

When I evaluated who attended and why I found that no one attended because of the newspaper stories.  Even though people talked about it, they didn't show up.  No one came from the radio interview I did that broadcasted 3 days straight.  Of the people who were personally invited (we passed out over 100 invite business cards), only 1 family attended.

What would I have done differently?  Just have a room that fits only 50, or dependent on the production, just don't do one at all.  I wanted to make sure I had enough room for all the people who had been involved (40 cast/crew) and for their guests.  That's why we made a point to have seating for 100+.  We then decided that we would open it up to the public.  At the end, I don't think the public responds well to this kind of event, even though it was a one-of-a-kind event for this area of Michigan.

There were other factors that played a part in the smaller than expected response.  The recession has kept a lot of people from wanting to get out and do things.  The tragedy in Japan has people glued to their TV screens (which makes perfect sense) and Governor Snyder's proposal to kill the tax incentive has created a lot of nervousness and negative feelings in the film community and about film production in general.  (to reiterate where I stand:  My productions have  never directly benefited from the tax incentive.)

There's something great that did develop out of the AWAKENING Release/Networking Party.  I was able to meet others on a more personable side.  When we did AWAKENING, I was just the commander-in-chief of the production.  It basically was, "do this", "do that", "cut", etc.  I didn't have time to really get to know anyone.  But I did perceive, by the way individuals held themselves, what different people were like.  So I made some much better connections with cast/crew people from AWAKENING, and met others who were interested in The House.  There was some great conversations. 

But to reiterate, this party would have been a much better experience had we gone with a smaller atmosphere.  It may have also help to bring people into conversations more.  The lack of numbers also had an influence on my enthusiasm/focus when speaking.

AWAKENING's response on the internet.   I think what has bugged me the most has been the hit counts on youtube.   It's not so much the hit counts themselves, but who the hit counts are.  When I look into "insights", I can find out who is watching it and where they found it.  Of the hits on youtube, almost exactly half come form a site called irove.com.  It's this site where this guy trolls through youtube to find odd and different video clips and posts them on his site.  I don't know much more about the site.  With Facebook it was about 300 hits, the Detroit craigslists (we posted the link with the ad we posted about cast/crew for our next project so people could see my most recent work) 284, and then it dwindles down.  With twitter.com it was just 92 hits.  (In 2009 I had over 3,000 people watch a clip of AMNESIA in a couple weeks with just a few posts per day.)

Basically, with my invites to people I know, with the people in the cast/crew who posted about it on the internet, there was only 300 views.  With the newspaper's sending people to our site to watch it, that number was low too.  I'm having a much harder time to be able to figure out the real number here and wonder if in fact some how the views from our site don't count for some reason.  If so, then our numbers may have been much higher.

My main point is that after all the promotion, my careful planning, it had very little effect on getting people to watch and share it.  The important emphasis is the word "share it".  If people really love it they share it.  It's the natural human thing to do.

The natural artist thing to do is respond with, "WOW, I must really suck!".  But, let's be more objective about this.  When I look at demographics, that's when I start to become concerned with the real problem with AWAKENING.  It shows that 67% of the people who have watched AWAKENING were males. Of the male population that watched it, over half are between the age of 44-64.  Completely the wrong population of people to watch AWAKENING.

Now, I do think that I'm ahead of the curve on this micro-pilot medium.  People keep calling it a short or a trailer.  That's because they are just relating it to something they are familiar with.

One of the side comments I'm going to make is that I beleive that social media, like we thought it was 2-3 years ago, isn't what it is today.  First off, Twitter has become a massive amount of link feeding.  People either autotweet links or their blogs, facebook pages, etc are feeding links (people are busy doing other stuff than chatting on twitter like they did back in 2008), and with Facebook a large amount of the people on there aren't "really" on Facebook.  They're on a Zenga game like Farmville and it feeds into Facebook, giving the impression that people are on when they really aren't.  The fact is people don't really want to talk to "everyone" for months, years on end.  The average person just wants a few close friends.  I had already been noticing this trend away from SM about a year ago.

Had AWAKENING been released in November 2008, it might have gone viral just by tweeting about it.  It may have gone viral on Facebook in 2009.  But now... less likely.  On those sites things are much more gradual.

My biggest concern is the issue of audience desire.  Do people really want to see the next thing I make?  I had mentioned before about finally creating the UTOPILAND micro-pilot that I had shelved.  I beleive I can find enough VFX artists to help me make it, but even if I found all the money to do it, would anyone really want to see it?  That's why I am seriously considering doing a crowdfunding campaign. I want to know whether this concept really has the demand to even make it into a micro-pilot, or if it would just be "shouting into the wind".

With the UTOPILAND micro-pilot I wouldn't publicize it with the local media outlets.  I probably would even hold off on much of any mention on Facebook, Twitter, emails.  My main focus would be sites like motiongrapher.com and Spyfilms, etc.  If they loved it, then would write a post about it.

With THE HOUSE, things are different because there is a much more in-depth plan with it because it's a feature film.  We would do a micro-pilot and other character "scenes" that would be posted a long time before the release, to build the demand.

Basically, with micro-pilots, the key is to just constantly make more.  The more you make, the higher chance that one of them gains enough attention with the right demographics, to make a real impact.

My Econimic Stimulus Plan for Indie Films

El Mariachi Meets Star Wars???

by: John W. Bosley

Why is indie filmmaking dying? Why is it that there are more festivals, more content, yet less successful new filmmakers? I have a simple answer: We're not bringing enough to the show.

There is better equipment, but independent filmmakers aren't making better films... They are just making more of them. Imagine a tourist attraction like Six Flags or Disney World. Instead of a bracelet to ride every ride, you have to pay for each one. Tons of people, when the economy is great, are coming to enjoy the rides and every ride is making money... But, when times are tough and if you have to pay for each one, then people are pickier... some of the smaller rides won't make any money.

The definition for independent film is a film done independently of Hollywood money, which can be a little fuzzy... George Clooney can make a film from his own bank account (made by working as an actor on Hollywood films) and it is called an indie film just as much as some kid scrapping together his tax refund to shoot something in his backyard.

What made indie filmmaking different was the so-called "digital revolution?" Cameras became more affordable, people were able to shoot more and risk less. What happened wasn't better content, just more of it.

So how do we change it? Anyone who follows me on Twitter and has read my bio knows that I don't describe myself as an "independent filmmaker," but instead a "revolutionary." This is my reasoning: Indie films have a reputation of being either "small personal films" or "cheap B movies." I hate to be so honestly blunt about it, but I will be. My concern is the audience's expectations. Most expect all independently produced films to look alike. With all the new technology available, "the sky is the limit" and yet we still see the same material.

If you have a great "small personal film" that you believe needs to be made, than please go ahead a make it. Just don't do what many filmmakers I've met via Twitter and elsewhere have done. If you want to make something that looks more like a blockbuster film, don't settle for making a "small personal film" just because you don't think an indie filmmaker can accomplish a blockbuster. --Just do it!

Back to what is killing indies: we can't compete with high concept film ideas with our small concept ideas. It's plain and simple. If an average audience member has only one movie that they can watch, the majority will choose the high concept film over the small personal film. Simple statistics.

It used to be that if you had a celeb in your film, you would attract a larger audience. Both Variety and LA Times have reported that it isn't that way any longer. The only thing drawing people is a really great idea... and I would add also something that looks "hard to make." Since anyone can pick up a DV or HD camera for a few thousand... why should they pay to watch something they "think" they can make?

When I was a kid we were told that books were like visiting another world. I will watch a TV show that looks like my regular life, but I won't pay top dollar at a theater for a film about a regular life. I want LARGER than life.

My point is that you need to make your film feel larger than life. You don't have to change the premis, just give it a grander feel. But that would be too difficult, right? I thought so too... than I decided to "push the envelope" with AMNESIA and realized that when I was done production I could have "pushed it" even more. Trying the impossible, isn't as impossible as you might think. The truth is, my greatest lesson from my project was that "we are only restricted by the limits of our imagination."

A great example of going big was the movie Snow White. In today's terms it wouldn't count for much, but in the 1920's it was unimaginable for someone to make a animated full length feature film. However, Disney figured out that by doing "keyframing" he could make something that large without having to hire all pro animators. [The concept of "Keyframing" came from Snow White. He would have the pro animators draw the "key frames" while having the apprentices do the frames that would be less noticeable within the scene.] By doing this he cut down his budget and created a piece of history.... he just found a way.

What we need right now is El Mariachi meets Star Wars: a low budget film with an grand high concept idea. [El Mariachi was Robert Rodriguez's 7k film that caught Hollywood's attention.] If that happened it would catch everyone's attention.

How can we call it a "digital revolution" if nothing much really changed?

(If you still want to pursue a "small personal film" then I would recommend building a fan base by connecting on sites like Fans of Film or rebfest.com)