It’s almost the end of the year…have you monetized your filmmaking efforts yet? Yup, 2009 is almost here and I stand in wait — film festival, film festival, where are thou film festival?
I’m 0-for-4 with film festivals acceptance for Broken Hearts Club, but my spirit is not broken. On the line now are several equally important fests: Newport Beach Film Festival, Hollywood Black Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival. While these waiting periods are in process I’m spending equal time trying to monetize my previous films. Monetize how, you might ask. Well, I’m trying to make money, baby, mo-naay! There has to be some way that I can redeem myself and my efforts, by turning my experiences into something that transcends simple learning experiences.
I’m putting together a retail DVD of “The First Time” up for sale. I’ll include the full 5 1/2-minute film, a 7 minute behind-the-scenes video, a slide show, and interviews (I hope to include an interview with the composer, Rob Gokee as well). I’m coming at this from a guerrilla filmmaking perspective: how I obtained the location, the actors, came up with the script idea, got the score made, hired crew members, shot and lit the film all within a week’s time — from concept to picture lock. Below is the trailer for The First Time on YouTube. Hopefully it plays, it not you can visit the link on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEUys6lJ2E
I’m also considering making it a two-disc DVD set, by adding a copy of Sex, Shoes and Unicorns to the set. Here’s a slide show made from set pictures below. Feel free to let me know what you think.
