Stand-Out Shorts

by Russell Evans

  Table 29.1 Social networking sites

  Networking Site What It’s Good For

  www.flock Use it to bring together the most notable networking sites, including Flickr and Twitter, plus your blog, and for bringing together your preferred RSS feeds and posts from your friends.

  www.twitter Great for keeping your tight circle of supporters and crew in touch with your movie as you make it. Send everyone regular updates and you smooth relations with those involved. Small messages like this help keep everyone in the loop.

  www.deviantart.com Vibrant site going since 2000,bringing together visual artists and filmmakers; it’s a good base if you are into video art, super 8 and weird stuff. No peer-to-peer elements. USA focused.

  www.studentfilms. com USA site for film students, also big in India. Create a profile, upload your movie, get tutorials.

  www.linkedin.com This site works like Facebook but is mainly for business users. Use this if you want to create a more up-market, professional profile for your movie, or to link up with investors.

  www.tv.oneworld. net A global site raising the green and social change agenda. Good for political or campaigning movies, or Michael Moore-style rants.

  www.quarterlife.com In a converged art world, where you make movies, take photos and write songs, this site brings it all together and helps you create our own community.

  www.ryze.com Primarily for business, this aims to network members face to face. Free to join.

  www.taltopia.com Mainly designed for actors and crew, you can post on this site to find cast or collaborators. Almost entirely US-based.

  www.student.com General networking site for students - mostly in the USA and India.

  www.productionhub.com Business to business site,for the guys with budgets. Use it for real paying jobs or when you need to recruit from the professional end of the industry.

  www.indiewire.com USA-based community for highly active independent filmmakers and crew.

  www.creativecow.net One of the oldest and most established communities for media people. A good vibe to it and it’s got some of the best tutorials on every aspect of making a movie. Plug into it.

  www.filmmaker.com News and events, plus limited advice, focused on Los Angeles.

  www.postforum.com The only place you need for peer-to-peer (P2P) advice on editing, effects and everything post-production.

  www.reelshowint.com Film school and film students site, sharing videos, news and competitions.

  www.xixax.com Help site, centered on forums and P2P, and fairly active.

  www.commonfilm.org Small but neat idea - to share ideas, footage, storyboards, anything you’ve got. It’s like open source software - just upload and see what other people make out of your stuff.

  www.indietalk.com P2P site for help, advice and tips.

  www.indiefilmla.com Los Angeles-based filmmaker community, useful for getting the skinny on how it works in the city.

  www.talentcircle.org Small, UK-based P2P site, excellent for film students and no-budget makers.

  www.shootingpeople.org Big P2P and resource site for the UK, also with a few bulletins in the US. Long-established and easy to use, but it charges for immediate bulletins; free members have a three-day delay in receiving them.

  FIGURE 29.1 www.postforum.com is a great one-stop editing advice centre. Post all your problems here for quick responses.

  FIGURE 29.2 www.deviantart.com brings together artists and filmmakers to show and share their work.

  DOS AND DON’TS: ETIQUETTE iN ONLINE COMMUNITIES

  Whether you join or set up a community online, there are many ways to ensure you become popular and avoid virtual gaffes.

  Look out for users who are not what they seem. Corporate PR teams scour the web looking for ways to get their ads into community sites. If you don’t like these hijackings, report the film as an abuse.

  If a community is open access, avoid uploading films which seem out of place against the rest of the clip list. If it’s not your party, don’t crash it.

  FIGURE 29.3 www.creativecow.net has been supporting filmmakers since the 1990s, with tutorials, forums and reviews.

  Always get permission from friends before you upload a video that shows their image. Also anything with children needs the permission of parents or carers.

  If you create a group, invite members individually, rather than via a group email. They are more likely to join if it seems like a select invitation.

  Use non-copyright material wherever possible. The age of free-use video is fast coming to an end. Stick to out-of-copyright footage such as that found at www.archive.org.

  Comment is free – always add comments and ratings to the films you watch. The thrill of seeing thousands of hits for your latest film is a real morale boost.

  Experts’ Tips

  Lee Philips, director, London

  “For me [social networking sites] have proved invaluable for recruiting supporting artists, and gaining public support for projects. I set up a MYSPACE for my last film, and gained seventeen thousand friends. That kind of publicity would never usually be possible with a micro budget.”

  R. Gesualdo, film director, Miami, Florida

  “Because of where I live at the present moment, these sites are another tool for filmmakers. Here we don’t have a big film scene like say New York or Los Angeles so those sites help a lot, from looking for talent to putting together your crew, getting equipment through people, and finally to showing your finished work.”

  Benjamin Rutkowski, film student, USA

  “Last year I competed in the Insomnia Film Fesitival – a 24-hour film competition sponsored by Apple. Thanks to sites like www.studentfilms.com, YOUTUBE, Facebook, Digg and Metacafe, our team won the grand prize which was decided by the number of votes and the quality of the votes. Many of our votes were absolutely recruited from those sites.”

  Derek Flagge, filmmaker, Florida, USA

  “I use YouTube, www.studentfilms.com and even blog sites to get my shorts seen. Social networking is very important to me because that’s how you make or break your career. You have to get out to an audience and sometimes it takes a long time.”

  * * *

  Chapter | Thirty

  Create Your Own Web Series

  OVERVIEW

  Why stop at one video? If you’ve got a great idea, create a series and build a bigger audience.

  FIGURE 30.1 Aaron Yorkin’s Chad Vader series of videos has built up an audience that any network show would settle for.

  Many people now watch TV online, or via streaming players (like the BBC’S iPlayer or ABC’S www.abc.go.com) or as segments on YouTube. TVs have widgets which enable them to hook up to the web, letting you watch what you want when you want it. And anyway TV schedules just don’t fit with everyone’s lifestyles.

  Cue webisodes, or “’sodes”: short videos that link together just like regular TV serials. We may not watch TV so much but we still want to follow long-running storylines, with snappy dialogue, realistic sets and strong acting, and you never have to miss it because it sits online waiting for you to tune in when it suits you. As a result, webisodes get a big audience, and build up loyal followings.

  The best webisodes don’t quite conform to the stereotypes you see on most TV shows. To get big viewing figures, TV has to stick to the conventional ways that most people look, talk, and what they wear, staying with an urban or suburban setting. Prime time mostly avoids minorities, youth groups and special interest communities and – as any TV producer will testify – network bosses quickly drop shows they don’t understand.

  Webisodes fill the gap left by mainstream TV, and give it to you when you want it. And there are some groundbreaking ’sodes out there to rival the bigger-budget serials on TV – like the award-winning The West Side (www.thewestside.tv).

  FIGURE 30.2 Award-winning webisode The West Side, made on a small budget at nights and weekends.

  The rewards can be good, especially if you get a name for yourself as
the maker of that hit webisode series. A lot of other people have the same idea, but not many have your drive and steady doggedness. With enough commitment you can build up a loyal audience who watch each episode and spread the word to friends.

  Your target audience depends on the series you make, but you need to identify who you think would love your show. Describe the perfect viewer, how old they are, what they wear, what they drink, the music they like and so on. This imaginary person becomes Viewer One: the person you hope to attract to the show.

  MAKING A WEBISODE

  You might not need as much time for each webisode as a usual five-minute short film demands. After a few webisodes you get good at working more quickly, your characters fit their roles more and can talk more convincingly, and you need less rehearsal time.

  Some webisodes take less than a couple of hours to shoot, and about the same to edit, but the more high profile ones, such as Kwoon (www.webisodes.org/items/Kwoon “the misadventures of five kung fu students in Silicon Valley”) spend time on one-liners, visual gags, and each setup is lit and recorded with care.

  Others are more improvised, such as the literary road trip Catching Salinger. This 2009 series was a weekly update on an avowedly fruitless search for the reclusive author of cult novel The Catcher in the Rye (www.catchingsalinger. wordpress.com).

  Or try Dead Patrol (www.quietearth.us), a seek-and-destroy mission in postapocalypse America where zombies outnumber the living.

  But also take time to develop the network of your audience. Facebook, or other network sites, create ways to spread the word.

  Your series needs you to think about it night and day, constantly moving it forward. You ditch what doesn’t work and add new ideas, never quite satisfied with the shows. But once you find your groove, and feel totally at home with what you have created, it can run and run. If you have reliable characters who are closely acting themselves, then you have the potential for a self-sustaining series that just keeps getting better. The key to this success is spending time evolving the show, and working closely with your actors. Expect the first eight or ten to be testing grounds for the way you eventually want it to be.

  Start here:

  You’ll need to create ideas that are different, and not clichéd.

  Make sure you are comfortable working to regular schedules, with script meetings, rehearsals and shooting sessions planned in advance.

  FIGURE 30.3 Cerealized is a long-running online series based on three friends who share an apartment.

  Start working with networking sites and other ways of viral marketing to create a buzz around the series.

  Since this series is designed wholly for the web, look at Chapter 27, Web Your Movie.

  Take your overall plans from the genre chapter that suits your movie in Section 5, making sure that it fits into a series of quick, mini-films in sequence.

  You need a regular, dependable space. It can be your apartment (as in Cerialized) or garage, but it has to be easily accessible and not subject to sudden changes.

  Legally, you’ll need to make sure the series is covered on all angles, so get permission forms from location owners; release forms from actors, crew and anyone else in the series. Get music clearance forms signed (avoid the hassle by using unsigned local bands or copyrightfree music online, though ready-made muzak like that can be a little cheesy).

  Get the rights to your characters and story lodged and copyrighted. Email a copy of the script or other documents to yourself or to a lawyer, to prove that you had this idea when you said you did.

  Aim for straightforward narrative continuity editing. Check out Chapter 21, Editing Methods: Narrative Continuity.

  FIGURE 30.4 Kwoon has built up a loyal following with off-the-wall storylines and strong production values.

  Experts’ Tips

  Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo, maker of The West Side, Los Angeles On webisodes:

  “With The West Side we set out to try to create something that held up to the standards by which motion pictures are traditionally judged – suspension of disbelief, narrative continuity, quality performances and craft, emotional involvement of the viewer – and while I don’t claim we succeeded on all of these levels, the interesting thing we’ve found in the process is that very few people in the industry judge internet video on any of these established metrics. Instead, they’re concerned with number of page views, partnership deals signed, press exposure, ancillary opportunities, time spent on the site… it’s a very Silicon Valley way of looking at things, as if everyone’s trying to be the next Facebook. But we weren’t trying to go viral with The West Side; we just wanted to create something of quality that would draw a quality audience, and we approached the project as filmmakers, not entrepreneurs. If we’ve learned anything in the year since, it’s that we’re going to need to fill both roles if we want to get anything made going forward.”

  On schedules for making a webisode series:

  “We were both employed full-time at MTV (myself as a graphic designer, Zack [Lieberman] as a producer), so we had only nights and weekends to work on The West Side. Additionally, because all the actors were unpaid, we knew we couldn’t press too hard in terms of hours worked to try to hurry episodes out the door; we’d burn out ourselves or our actors early in the series.

  “In terms of actual hours spent on each episode, we could’ve gotten them done fairly quickly had we been without day jobs. But essentially our process was to write the entire script first – which took roughly eight months – and from there the challenge was to scout locations and schedule the actors based on their availability.”

  “In general it took us a few months to complete each episode. In the end the series did open doors to the film industry proper, so in that sense it served its purpose as a ‘alling-card’type of project, even if we weren’t able to finish it as we would’ve liked.”

  * * *

  Chapter | Thirty-One

  Your Online Publicity Kit

  OVERVIEW

  All movies are created equal. But when it comes to getting hits for yours, you need an advantage as you spread the word and help it find its audience.

  FIGURE 31.1 Sports movies get a high hit-rate on video sharing sites. (Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, © Polar-Media, Image# 4095378)

  PUBLICITY FOR YOUR SHORT FILM

  You made your movie, and despite all the faults you spotted it’s a gem you are proud of. But, like a meal you took time over to cook, it isn’t complete until it has been served up and found its audience. Every film has its own unique audience – the people who connect with it, who see the world your way. Just like there are infinite combinations of people in crowds, so there are infinite combinations of audiences – and there is one out there waiting to see your film. They don’t know it yet but they are in the queue, ready to take their seat. Your trick is to track them down and tell them about what you did.

  But hurry, you have one to two years after you finish the film to get it out there – after that its shelf life ends.

  You need to do three things:

  1. To have stuff ready for people who are interested in your movie. This is practical – you need a collection of images and documents ready to email out to people who liked your movie, or who are interested in selling/showing it. See below for how to create a press kit.

  2. To be smart about how to spread the word about your movie on the web. The web is a viral medium. Money isn’t enough to get your film known – it’s what you do and where you place it that gets you seen widely. Use social networking sites (see Chapter 29), video sharing sites and local or national filmmaker bulletins to spread the word that you have made this great movie. And use filmmaker communities (see Chapter 29 Social Networking). People like rating movies – ask your email group or bulletin-board to click to your movie and rate it for you.

  3. To know what your aims are. Decide what success means to you. What do you want? Is it, for instance, to get 100 million hits on YouTube, or to get 1000 hits by people who real
ly understand your movie, or do you just want to raise your general profile and help get other jobs?

  CREATE YOUR OWN PUBLICITY KIT

  Use this chapter alongside Chapter 28, Your Web Plan and Chapter 26, Create a YouTube Hit.

  FORM A COMPANY

  Create a production company for your movies. Think of a name, create a logo, even make a quick Flash animation for the opening credits of your movie. Make headed writing paper, banners for your emails, and a postal address. JJ Abrams (Star Trek, Cloverfield) called his own production company Bad Robot, while Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) set up Troublemaker Studios to cover all his work.

  SET UP A WEBSITE

  Create a website for your company and a linked or subsite for each movie. Many filmmakers start a blog way back in preproduction. Include movie synopsis, cast and crew background, production stills, clips and background notes about how it was made. Enable some way for people to contact you without delay. If an opportunity comes up you need to be able to act on it immediately. Add your press pack (see below) to the site as a PDF, but make sure the images are accessible in a high-res format – at least 300dpi. Avoid excessive intros or other elements that slow the site.