Iron Sky & Crowdsourcing

Iron Sky Poster

Iron Sky is the latest film from the team behind StarWreck (the Finnish amateur crowdsourced film released under creative commons and viewed over 8 million times before gaining a distribution deal with Universal). While some things have changed in the team’s approach - the most obvious being Iron Sky’s 6.5 million euro budget versus StarWreck’s 15,000 euros - director Timo Vuorensolo remains impassioned about the importance of creating an active community around film projects.

“Everything you do should involve creating community around the film. This isn’t just a marketing tool, it’s a way of life.” 

Art versus Commerce in Filmmaking

A question that is often asked here in Australia is “What is wrong with the Australian film industry,” as there is a huge disconnect between the size of total annual box office receipts of $1.1 billion (Australians are some of the greatest film consumers on a per capita basis) versus the measly 5% of this that is spent attending our own Australian films. While the Australian film industry has some unique quirks, the core question is equally valid if you consider the “indie” film industry. 

Diary Update

Hi everyone,

Want to apologise for having gone such a long time without post... have been flat out developing a multiplatform project, working on the business plan, and so on. Will fill you in with more details soon...

I've also begun looking into moving this blog to something more versatile like WordPress. Obviously my posts tend to be on the long side, more "article" than a typical blog, and Blogger is too limited in layout and options for it to be how I want it.

While I'm at it I need to rebrand the blog so its more accurate to what I'm writing about now. If you have any name ideas, I'd love to know. One name I'm tossing up is Digi Showbiz: the business of storytelling in the digital age. Whadaya think?

Stop, take a minute, write in the comments section "Yes" or "No". That's an order ;)

Something you might be interested in is a blog response I wrote over on Dennis Peters Blog about Marketing Strategy for Independent Filmmakers.

Importance of building your personal audience, with my thought being that you also need to be wary not to confuse your personal audience with your project audience, as they're not always the same.

What are your thoughts on the topic?

Promise I'll be back soon with a real post :)