Web 2.0 is the road-map to make it all happen.

What is Web 2.0?  It’s hard to say.  I linked the Wikipedia definition above which you should read, and although I can be pretty stupid at times, Web 2.0 almost seems to defy a cogent analysis.  It is described in the article as the “come back” version of the web after the bubble of mass destruction of 2001.

My favorite part of the Wiki explanation is the little “Discussion Box” which says,  “It has been suggested that Web 1.0 be merged into this article or section.”

OK.

So basically Web 2.0 is really only a name for the evolution of the Web that has taken place since the bubble. What has really changed is the technology. Anyone — everyone really–can make a movie and promote them-self on the web and good golly gosh! It almost seems as everyone has!

For indy filmmakers, there are great resources which I will plug at the end of this screed to help us along in our quest for relevance.  I read them to death, picking and choosing bits of wisdom and good advice, discarding others, taking note of the time wasting  bitchboy debates that crop up on some comment threads and trying to be careful about getting into one myself.

But there is so much to absorb and so little time.  But after giving it some thought,  I wondered if I could approach Web 2.0 differently to make it easier on myself —  less of a problem solve and more of a project to create.

I have decided to look at Web 2.0 and the marketing of LOOP as an artist and the Internet as an huge multi-media installation.  Apparently, and I grant you this is arguable, I am an artist and it made sense for me to look at the Internet through my own prism – whatever I perceive it to be.  Therefore, I can apply myself in a non-rigid way, instead of relentlessly pushing LOOP,  I can allow it to evolve slowly over time, creating a diffused vapor of promotion as opposed to a thick fog of hype.

I started this 15 days ago with the first stage of LOOP promotion.  I outlined it to a degree in my last blog, The Three legged Puppy in the Well but to give you the short version, I uploaded the full 86 minute feature at full screen high quality as an MPEG4 to a private server and offered  free downloads for two weeks.  The account I pay a small fee for allows the file to remain there for 14 days and because of it’s size, about 20 downloads.  I have enough bandwidth to give twenty movies away per month, but I can only use two weeks of storage for a given month.

THE FACTS:

I sent out 23 requests and got 18 responses, those 18 people got a “form letter” reply (Which identified itself as a “form”)  which they had to reply to in order to have the link sent back to them.  12 people replied for the link and 9 people actually downloaded the file.  I have heard from three people. One reviewed LOOP in Sweden, a director from Spain (Who I sincerely respect) sent me an short ”attaboy” email and another director I admire from Greece,  had the file corrupt and stop halfway through the movie. I am sending him a DVD, because he said he really wants to finish it.

So has this first attempt been successful? I don’t know. The initial lack of response gave me the title of this blog, but giving away almost 50% of what I was offering doesn’t really seem that bad.  But I tried to figure out why some people just “let free go.”  I guess one thing is for sure, there is certainly a glut of entertainment out there from Homebrew to Hollywood, there is a lot to see and sort through.  This is what the Internet has done, created limitless choices for entertainment and disappointment.

The Net has changed everything.

In the past I have given away many LOOP screeners on DVD that have never been watched and now I am offering downloads that are ignored. It sort of mystifies me, but in the last dozen or so years, everything haschanged hasn’t it?  Our emails lack punctuation and capitalization, their tempo and concision can often send the wrong “vibe.” We use phones to send texts, and computers to speak, our Tweets are limited to 140 characters and force us to be clever imbeciles to communicate ( C U L8R )  and the sheer volume of messages when aggregated can cause you to miss something, or put it away for l8r until it recedes into the evanescence of our personal digital dementia to be lost forever.  Phone calls become bothersome and intimidating because it takes us out of our little domes of privacy and partial anonymity.

I have been starting to rate friends in regard to email habits and what my perception of their workload is.  I don’t want to be a pain, but I do want to communicate.  Some friends, ignore long emails and respond only to short staccato bursts, others will ignore or selectively answer an email, leaving me in a void wondering this or that.

And of course, I am no better.

But this is the time I am destined to live in, and I must adapt or decline.

So, I will continue my project.  If you would like to participate and download LOOP for free follow me on Twitter and send me an @ regarding this blog, my user name is loopmovie and we’ll “friend up,” and then you can DM me a personal email address.  Or, if you are a sane person who does not have a Twitter account, send an email to loopthemovie(at)yah00(dot)com.  The next twenty downloads will be available in mid-April.  I would like to get some feedback in return, but it’s not required. I will not give away or sell your email, the only email list you will be on will be mine and you may certainly opt out of that at any time. This is NOT automated and you will only be dealing with me. There are no “catches.”  For your own sake DO NOT POST YOUR EMAIL HERE!

It’s Free.

I will be posting viewer reactions shortly… when I get some.

Have a nice day!

Great Indy/DIY Filmmaking Resources:  TrulyFreeFilm From Here To Awesome Hammer To Nail Theatrical Mapping Project Workbook Project

LOOP, which is my pet project, was never meant to be a big movie - it has always been a very personal project.  My goal for the movie was just to share it with a small audience of likeminded people. I always said that I wasn’t sure if LOOP was going to be “good” in the classic sense, but I did think it would be interesting.

When we began circulating LOOP on the festival circuit, my expectations were modest.  But last year, we submitted it to 16 well-chosen film festivals and we were only invited to one: the Great Lakes Independent Film Festival.  I could not figure out why LOOP wasn’t ”catching on” — especially in the “independent” and underground film festivals.   But it was encouraging at least that in 2008 LOOP won “Best Narrative Feature” at the Great Lakes Film Festival.   In addition, LOOP won a special jury prize at the Flyway Film Festival in Pepin, Wisconsin.   We also screened at the 2008 Marché du Film at Cannes, thanks to our Visual Effects Artist, Courtney Hoskins who personally escorted LOOP to France and who built this website for us.

Our sense of rejection from the other festivals was palpable, but I was used to it, to a degree. After all, I am the director of REDNECK ZOMBIES, and despite its popularity, a lot of people dislike it and have told me so in song, verse, and six-hundred-word essays at Amazon.  But REDNECK ZOMBIES’ fanbase far exceeds its detractors — you see, the fans actually “get it.”

I couldn’t help but feel that LOOP was just set aside by many festivals because they couldn’t rise to the challenge of how to program a hybrid experimental/narrative film with ideas.  Sure, it’s a low-budget, homebrewed movie, but it’s different - it stands out in a market full of traditional narratives and feel-good plots.  LOOP says something; it makes people think.   

In my darker moments I began to think of LOOP as a three-legged puppy born on a farm with too many animals.  You know what happens to three-legged puppies – some farmers just toss them into a well and forget about them.  Why put the energy into taking care of a three-legged puppy when there are plenty of healthy animals on the farm?

By LOOP was my movie, and I knew that there was an audience out there that would appreciate it.  I started brainstorming how to get the movie to people outside of the film festival circuit,  which is when I ran headlong into the  Truly Free Film blog started by Ted Hope, a friend and former colleague.

The Truly Free Film blog gave me access to a wealth of ideas and concepts. I came to the realization that while I was net savvy, I was still trapped in the “old skool” model of movie marketing, propped up by the traditional film festivals and markets.  So I began to explore the concept of grass roots marketing - a simple model that’s been around forever, but which is picking up momentum with the advent of new technologies.  Suddenly it seemed that that the puppy yelping at the bottom of the well could be saved.   Someone would hear it and tell another person, and hopefully this would continue until there was a small group standing around the well.   Collectively, they might drag it out of the well and find a use for the poor creature.

My marketing plan has three stages. First, I have been selectively giving LOOP out for free.  Yep, free.  Haven’t you heard?  Free is the new money.

Now this is not as easy as it sounds.  I created a limited file share account and compressed the movie to an high quality Mp4. Working within the limitations of the host server, I uploaded the entire feature. My plan was to email some people that I thought might want to see it and tell them it was available — for free.  If they responded I would then send them an email with movie and technical information. If they replied to that, then I would send them the link.

No catch, only one hoop to jump through.

I sent out about 25 queries and got about a dozen responses back. Those who responded were sent an informational email stating the size of the file, the nature of the movie, the server’s time limit, and a request that if they download the movie, they respect its copyright and not pass it on or post it without my permission.

So far, there have been 9 downloads on the file, which will erase itself by March 24th.  It’s up to the people emailed invites to retrieve the file. I am not going to be a pest about it.  After all, it is a harsh movie and people who know me expect things a little lighter.

I am now back to square one, experiencing the same sense of isolation I felt when LOOP began traveling the festival circuit.  So far, I have heard from a couple of viewers.  LOOP scored a startling review from Sweden, but one viewer from Greece had trouble with the file when it stopped playing halfway through.  Just now a friend from Spain sent me a message with a thumbs up.

But there were others — friends who have been out of touch, internet pals and acquaintances I have made since finishing LOOP.   Although I told them that they had all of the time in the world to watch it, many of them promised they would watch it over the weekend and get right back to me.

So here I am – waiting — wondering if those friends watched the movie and if they are still excited about it.  I have no expectations, and I know that LOOP is an intense little movie that doesn’t make you feel good.  Most people either love it or hate it.  Either way, they often don’t know what to say after watching it, or how to articulate the experience. 

It’s just like having a three-legged puppy run up to you at the dog park.  At first you are shocked.  Should you pet it? Will it bite you? Should you shoo it away? Is it going to fall over?

Can you really love it?

Eventually, it’s just going to run off and gambol and stumble around the dog park, blissfully unaware that it’s the odd one, but forever being pointed out for its uniqueness.  People will wonder how it ever survived in the first place.

Sooner or later, it is accepted and its tough start is forgotten. The lovable oddity gets a smile and a stroke here and there.

So this is stage 1 of 3 in the marketing of my little indy homebrew.

I am going to try to document my twisted campaign here on the LOOP website.

I am hoping this plan works because I have met a few three-legged dogs and despite the initial shock of meeting them — they can run.

Sometimes, they run very fast.

This is Juno owned by Rick & Diana Rick Vaicius of Pepin, Wisconsin

LOOP will screen with two prestigious award winning films.:

“Standing on a Whale,” the award winning short by artist Jorge Arrieta

and “Marta’s Sex Tape” by hyper-talented director Anthony Rivero Stabley

Winner - “Best” Foreign Film - Miami Underground Film Festival

Winner - Underground Spirit Award - Minneapolis Underground Film Festival
————————————–—————————————-—————————————
LOOP is proud to be selected for the Fly Film Festival and proud to be shown with these fine fine films.

LOOP screened this year at the 2008 Cannes Marche du Film, Won the Best Visual Effects Award as a work in progress at the 2008 FAIF International Film Festival and won the award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2008 Great Lakes Filn Festival.

LOOP director Pericles Lewnes will be at Flyway for the opening night on Friday and for all screening blocks up to the LOOP screening on Saturday night.

If you are live near the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Eau Claire or Chipewa Falls area, you are CLOSE! So come on out for a weekend of thirty-two cutting edge, thought provoking films you cannot see at the multiplex!

Hope to see you!

For the entire List of Selections please go to the http://www.flywayfilmfestival.org/  -  Tickets are on sale NOW!

As long as I had control…

Many people count sheep to clear the mind and relax themselves before falling asleep at night. When I was younger, I would imagine myself climbing an immense ladder to a diving platform high in the sky.  Sometimes I would fall asleep during the climb, but my goal was to reach the platform and just let myself fall forward.

There never was any geography to speak of, just a space that would exist in my mind. Giant patches of blue sky or hues of my favorite color of the day. I would be buffeted by a warm upward breeze as I headed toward the whatever - not floating like a leaf or feather, but decending at a comfortable rate with no horizon in sight and no fear of landing.

This created in me a serenity that put me to bed each night.

However as I’ve grown older, I have had trouble sleeping and I read when I go to bed. The stack of books beneath my nightstand includes fiction, non-fiction, historical accounts, memoirs and two issues of Street Pizza Comix.

Recently I was reading the memoir of a CIA operative who was secretly skydiving into foriegn lands. The book was fascinating and full of incredible stories and derring-do.

But what I really want to talk about at this point is the part of the book that has to do with skydiving.

It explained that once a jumper leaves an aircraft that gravity will immediately begin to pull him down until he reaches what is called terminal velocity. As you fall, the gravity causes you to accelerate, to fall faster and faster toward the ground. In fact, your speed increases by 32 feet per second for each second you are falling. However, you are also being affected by aerodynamic drag, which is the friction of air against your body as you free fall. This slows your body’s rate of descent and begins to slow the acceleration.  Eventually these two forces, gravity and aerodynamic drag, become balanced and your body stops accelerating and this is where you reach terminal velocity. (This takes about twelve seconds) Now all this means that you have stopped accelerating. You are still descending at about 120 m.p.h. but it is at this point where I assume you could regain your presence of mind and begin to look around and assess you surroundings.

But you are still moving at 120 m.p.h.

While reading about this exercise in physics I began to think about LOOP. Making a no-budget independent movie and trying to promote it with little means — especially one like LOOP, which has been described as a “very provocative, politically bold, very challenging yet intensely compelling and visually stunning” work— has been like skydiving for me.

For instance, LOOP recently screened at Cannes. This was an idea put forth by LOOP’s superstar Visual Effects Designer, 3D Modeler/Animator/Compositor Courtney Hoskins.

Now all you have to do is read back a few blogs on the LOOP MySpace page to see what I was thinking as LOOP had it’s international premiere. (If you missed it)  and Courtney posted her experiences as LOOP’s sole promoter at the festival on her blog THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR which covers the ten days of her side of the Cannes Odyssey.  

But the backstory is that after Courtney suggested securing a Cannes screening, I immediately discussed it with my wife Lisa, who is LOOP’s producer and she thought it was a great idea.

We decided to do it…

We jumped out of the plane and gravity took over.

Of course the decision was made only several days in advance of hard deadlines. Lisa jumped on registration and screening room availability as I worked with Courtney to give LOOP a Cannes “gloss” coat. (Again, her suggestion.) This involved Courtney and her magic rotoscoping  talents  for the first 18 minutes which again I will ask you to reference in the previous blogs.

Being Leos, Courtney and I have a tendency toward creative ambition and Courtney laid out a more expansive visual idea in succinct detail in an email. Her ideas seemed brilliant to me.

It was going to be a lot of work, BUT IT WAS JUST WHAT LOOP NEEDED! I gave my blessing and she started putting her back into into the temporal visuals of the the movie using intense motion graphics programs like Combustion and Adobe After Effects. I began to think about promotional materials and shipping details because Courtney would also be LOOP’s official representative. She needed flyers, posters, toys and bracelets to give out to people to create the necessary buzz to make people aware of the screening. At the same time Lisa worked on ways to pay for everything. Of course, the dollar weakened and the Euro climbed, belts tightened and gas prices skyrocketed.

Meanwhile, in the midwest, Erin, LOOP MySpace pal and homegrrl of Jen Tonon, got a screener of LOOP, loved it, and layed it on Andy Prisbylla, who just finished an article on my mentor Lloyd Kaufman of Troma on the FilmThreat magazine website. Andy contacted me and wanted to freelance an interview which he wanted to pitch to different publications. At the same time my job starts kicking in to overdrive.

ALL I could think about was the screening, and there were so many details to attend to. Professionally and personally I was on “autopilot.” My cell phone messages stacked up, my emails were moved to a “respond soon” folder. I had frenetic contact with Courtney as she immersed herself into creating the detailed visuals trapped in her mind’s eye.  I felt like Captain Willard in the beginning of “Apocolypse Now.”

“When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.”

Everything was a blur, friends were neglected, calls were not returned.

We (Team LOOP) had no control – we were accelerating…

With just days to go. Mark Quigley, the LOOP poster artist, remade and resized the poster art which was sent to the printer. I start promoting and blogging about Cannes. People were excited and responding.

My interview with Andy went well and he thought FilmThreat might be interested and post the interview on their site which would be HUGE, since FilmThreat is the original voice of independent filmmaking. 

Courtney left for France with all of the promotional material reaching her in Colorado at the very last minute. Contact with her became spotty as her internet access was limited. She “worked” the festival by constantly promoting– handing out flyers and trinkets with the screening time stamped on them. The screening went off as planned was successful. There was (and there still is) more buzz.

Screeners are now being requested and screening inquiries are being made as well as new contacts.

Courtney has returned.

Terminal Velocity…

The force of gravity and drag have equalized. Now here we are in freefall and I am looking around at the landscape below. The blur I spoke of earlier racks to crystal clarity and begin to see what I had missed.

A close friend’s father died. Bills need to be paid. There were a lot of calls to return and emails to respond to. My dogs Achilles and Ripley wanted to play.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan authored a new book called “What Happened,” which seems to be written out of shocked disillusionment. A real reflection of the national mindset. The same mindset that LOOP addresses in it’s own narrative. 

Interesting…

Everything was moving so fast. It was exhilarating and fun, but now as this state of terminal velocity coninues there is little time to relax.

LOOP still has some work to be done before the screeners to buyers, festivals, critics, programmers and friends can be sent off.

It’s tough to wrap my mind around it. Despite the stress of trying to get the word out on LOOP, and the movie’s timely story, it is a surreal experience wrestling with it’s presence. Yes the movie was well received by many, but my self doubt as an artist and my general cynicism always has me questioning the validity of my efforts and actions as so much reality is happening around me.

LOOP is a reflection of that reality and I think it’s a story from the gut that needs to be told.

But who am I to tell this story? I am certainly not a bombastic Think Tank Wonk pontificating on some Sunday morning news wrap.

I’m just this guy. What am I doing?

I just need to stay here, for a moment to sort my thoughts.

But there is no here, is there?

I am still moving.

120 m.p.h.

This calm is an illusion and my former place of serenity is now a metaphor for the existential conundrum  I often find myself in.

But that’s really what LOOP is about. The happy place becoming sad–the comfortable becoming uncomfortable

The Film Threat article by Andy P has posted:

IN THE “LOOP” WITH PERICLES LEWNES

and I think it’s great. I am amazed that LOOP is in Film Threat.

I feel very proud and I am very grateful to Andy P and Erin for taking notice. There is definitely a good response from the interview.

The screeners will go out when Courtney and I finally get our heads together this week and until then, I have friends to console, emails to respond to, and calls to return. 

And I have to remember to open my chute.

Take Care,
Pericles

Her name is Courtney Hoskins. She is a filmmaker from Boulder Colorado and the Visual Effects Artist on LOOP.

She is the 1 friend on LOOP’s page, supplanting David Lynch, which should tell you how much respect I have for her.

I met Courtney during the forgetable On The Lot “reality” contest that stunk up televisions a while ago. She made an exceptional short called “Snowbird” .  I really liked it and gave her a positive mini-review and a high rating.

That was it. I pretty much thought that was the beginning and end of my creative interactions with her.

The Fates had other plans though. I was still shooting LOOP as well as editing it and I knew I needed some very specific and high end visual effects for a particular scene.

There was this kick ass 3D short that was in the competition it was live action with CGI (Computer Generated Images) that some guy in Hollywood made and entered in the contest. I gave the guy a five star glowing review and he was very complimentary about my entry, which was an experimental short made from some LOOP footage.

I really loved this guys work and I was definitely networking, so in the spirit of low-budget guerrilla filmmaking I asked him if he could help me with some visual effects I needed for my feature.

He never even bothered to respond. It was a blow off, and thats cool, you have to expect the blow off. As an Indie filmmaker with little budget, asking is BIG. Always ASK - but expect the blow off.

I later spoke to this guy and asked him about it. He told me that he must have overlooked the email. After all, he said, he has been very busy… and he probably was, but by this time it didn’t matter.

Why?

Because as I looked through the profiles of my OTL friends to see what they were about and what they were up to, I noticed that Courtney - also known as Seadot - listed After Effects, Combustion and Maya 3D in her profile as software she uses.

This info was neatly tucked between her Kung Fu experience and her Mensa credentials. I ventured to her website and was thoroughly impressed with her abstract photographic art, her experimental filmmaking that went along with her narrative filmmaking and this sense of creative energy that emanated from the images and words on her web page that she of course made herself.

So I dropped her an email and asked her if she could help me.

That was 500+ emails ago. We have never spoken in person or on the phone and utilizing snail mail and file transfer she has created the scene that everyone talks about after seeing LOOP.

Now, I could tell you all about this scene, and I will at some point. But basically I gave her a concept, footage that was rough, gritty and difficult to work with and she returned a scene that so exceeded my expectations, I literally thought that I was dreaming. There was no fighting, or creative tension, it was exactly what I wanted, but better, rendered with such skill that I just couldn’t stop watching it. It really was that good. I took it to my composer Adrian Bond and he created a sound design that made the scene beyond compelling.

What really made me feel good was that when I sent my final rough cut to Courtney, she really liked it, and was proud of it. She did a few other visual favors for me (Again I would rather you see them) and I have to say that I don’t know what I would have done without her.

She had been to Cannes a couple of times (I think she screened there) before and she suggested that we get ourselves a screening in the Marche du Film during the festival. This was difficult for me and my wife Lisa (LOOP’s producer) to consider. LOOP is a small movie with big ideas, it is a challenging movie and has been very difficult for festivals to program. LOOP is a very intense experience for some. Courtney said it was at the Marche du Film that Blair Witch got attention and that in her opinion LOOP deserved some attention.

She told me that since she was going, she would rep the movie for us and if I sent her the movie, she would do a Cannes “gloss” for me - sort of a digital “spa treatment.” Once she got the movie, she got an idea. She wrote me a long email laying out some visual concepts that in my opinion worked in LOOPs atmosphere of elastic reality. It was a fantastic idea. Her didactic email was very thorough and confident. It would be a lot of work for her to pull off, but she said she was up to it… unless I felt uncomfortable… I didn’t, I sent here an email response that said, “Go.”

She ran with it. She “gets” LOOP, and she “gets” me and she has created a digital production design that not only enhances the sharp visual edge of LOOP,but in my opinion takes LOOP to another level. LOOP’s plot, structure and story remain untouched, but the mind bending visual intensity is now officially “off the hook.”

So now the LOOP screening master is somehwere over the ocean, hand-carried by “Seadot” - The Geek Goddess, aka Courtney Hoskins. I will keep updating you on my feelings as LOOP approaches its May 22nd screening, but Courtney is doing it RIGHT! She will be reporting her Cannes experience in real time at:

http://www.quartzfilms.com/blog/

Go see for yourself. Leave a supportive comment (You will get your own MONSTER avatar) and lets see what happens with LOOP during the Cannes Film Festival at the Marche du Film. I will keep you up to date in bulletins when Courtney posts her blog, but I can asure you that the Geek Goddess will have adventures that will be worth reading. She’s a Leo, just like me and also like me… she’s kind of crazy.