Viral Marketing - On Meeting An Agent

Last week reading Ted Hope’s blog I came across a clever, funny, short animation, which included a web address. Clicking through to the webpage, I learned that the animation was promotion for a self published novel. I was impressed enough with what I saw on that website to purchase two copies (yes, 2!) as birthday gifts (am hoping I’ll be able to borrow at least one to read myself!).

So, today I’m doing something a little different: blogging about an author who used viral animation to promote his work.

"Ink" Ink A Deal With Their Fans

"Ink" is an indie feature film that gained traction last October after being ripped and downloaded by the bit torrent community 400,000 times in the first week, pushing it's popularity well past Hollywood giants released at the same time.

This wasn't an intentional strategy from the filmmakers, but they embraced the heightened awareness gained from it, and saw their DVD sales and rentals quadruple as a result. However, it was far from an "overnight" success.

Biracy evolution

Taking on board all the feedback and comments they've received, Biracy has redesigned their website, restructured information to make it easier to follow, and clarified several things. I'm really happy to see this project take form - the fact they are actively listening and responding to their audience proves they have the right attitude for this transocial media stuff :) 

The Third Age : Webseries

One could argue that a webseries is the form that makes best use of the internet: content is the right length for casual viewing, ongoing release dates create the ultimate "slow build" to gain a growing audience, episodes are easily forwarded on to social networks, producer's can test the popularity of their idea small scale before committing to full production, and if it proves successful online, it can be reformated into a DVD or feature length version for a more traditional release.

The Third Age is a webseries that has just wrapped up it's first season (13 episodes) with the second season due out later this year. 

Crowdfunding from Putty Hill to Berlin

Thanks to Ted Hope for bringing Matthew Porterfield's partly crowdfunded "Putty Hill" to my attention. This microbudget feature is screening at Berlin this week.

Worn out by the long development and funding process of the traditional film industry process, Matthew resorted to using an improvised script, mostly non-professional cast and crew, a free camera rental, $20,000, and 12 days to shoot his second feature film, Putty Hill.

Don't Call Back - Crowdfunding

"Don’t Call Back" is a microbudget feature being shot this week in London. The filmmakers managed to raise slightly more than their goal budget (of £20,000) via crowdfunding. Theirs is a pretty cut-down version of crowdfunding, but it met their goal, so that’s worth commendation.

American Prince Digital Distribution

Mid last year Tommy Pallotto (producer of Scanner Darkly) released his documentary “American Prince” online for free. He choose to distribute his film this way so that his documentary would be available to anyone anywhere in the world, rather than face the prospect of having his film die largely unseen, as so many cult films do.