Friday, June 29, 2007

Bootstrap Film Subgroup Meeting

The Film Subgroup met for the first time this Tuesday and it consists of Bootstrappers working on various projects in film from Documentary to Narrative. Some of the participants are working in preproduction and raising funds, while others are in post production, finding ways to complete their films and searching for creative ways to distribute their films.

We discussed several of the current traditional ways that films are funded and distributed and then we also talked about some of the newer companies that are distributing product through the internet.

What the #$*! Bleep Do We Know? is an example of a film that has a built-in audience or a group that is very bought in to the content of the film. The filmmakers went to the target audience and asked them for funds for production and accomplished their task with great success. If your film has a strong message with people that support that cause, then they might be a great resource for funding.

There are several streams of income available on the web for short films. Break, Superdeluxe and several other similar sites pay for content that get a certain number of hits. OnNetworks is paying for content for several web tv shows.

We talked about an idea for marketing films and projects that could help the whole community by creating a website or maybe a web channel where independents from Austin could post clips about their projects and give updates about what is going on with the film instead of having individual sites.

The barriers that the group identified were:
  1. Raising funds for production
  2. Finding ways to market the film once it is complete and have it be unique and stick out in a market that is filled with content.
  3. Distribution
Areas that the group would like to gain more information:
  1. Viral Marketing
  2. Four Walling and the local theater outlets
  3. Budgeting with independent distribution or self distribution
  4. Web design and creating the best quality files for the web

Allen from the Art Subgroup was able to identify the similar barriers that filmmakers and artists are up against. He invites us all to check out the Art Subgroup meeting on this coming Monday.

No comments: