How Not to Promote Your Movie

Like any movie maker, it is important to me to have people see, and hopefully enjoy, my movies. How do I get people to watch my movies?

I find it very difficult to promote my movies. Partly it is because I don't feel comfortable promoting myself, and partly that I just don't know how. I've read many blogs and articles, but I still haven't found something that works for me.

They say that the best way to promote your work is to produce high quality and unique movies. Even if you do, it is still hard to get people to watch. Another twist to keep in mind is that, no matter how good your work, not everyone will like your work, so you need to reach the people who will like your work.

There are many "tricks" that people use to attract interest, and it is easy to be tempted to use them.

Search Engine Optimization

It seems like you find people who push SEO everywhere. This can be done in a positive way, since there will always be people who want to find what you have on offer. All too often though, it can be just a bunch of tricks to get people to visit your site.

Time and again I've visited sites that seem to promise something that interests me, only to find it isn't what I wanted. I get quite annoyed when that happens. I often see people in comment sections expressing their anger at this kind of thing. I must admit I used a similar approach with my movie Who Shot the President.

Another problem with this approach is that it is self defeating in the long run. For long term success as a movie maker you need to develop a fan base. When you turn people off you've lost them forever.

Get More Followers

Many people believe that you need to build up the number of people who follow you on Twitter and other websites. You can even buy followers. Even when they don't buy followers,  some people resort to various tricks to get others to follow them. One that particularly annoys me who follow me, then when I follow back, they thank me and then un-follow me.

It was my practice to follow people who followed me, but I now doubt that this is a wise approach. I follow far too many people to really follow what they post, so why follow them. On the other side, what is the value of followers who never see your posts? When I checked this morning I had 1,543 followers on Twitter. I doubt that even a tenth of them have ever noticed any of my posts.

One good follower who supports you is better than a 100 that never even see your posts.

Face Book Pages

Face Book pages are supposed to be a good way to keep in touch with follows. With recent changes to Face Book, that has become more difficult. Even before the changes, if someone didn't click on your posts on their feed, Face Book would not put them on their feed anymore.

Once you're no longer on people's feeds, it is very hard to get back on. Many people are angry at Face Book for this change. I wouldn't say I was angry, but I am disappointed that people who said they want to know what I'm up to are cut off so easily. On the other hand, is there anything I can do to get people to interact with my page more, so they continue to get my posts?

Rules to Follow

I have started to adopt some rules that I think will work for me.

Don't Annoy People - Do not do anything that would annoy me if someone did it to me.

Don't Look for Followers, Look for A Follower - Build up your followers one at a time. It is the quality of follower that you need to focus on, not the quantity.

Don't Lash Out at Criticism - A nasty response can drive people away. A more constructive response can draw people in. This has been a challenge for me.

I am sure that there are many more that will help me, and fit in with my approach to life.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

My Goals for 2014

A couple of weeks ago I looked back at what I did in 2013. In this post, I will talk about what I want to get done in 2014. Some projects never seem to end. I would like to hear what projects you think I should focus on.

Felix

My first priority this year will be to rewrite Felix, my Lovecraft inspired science fiction story. I finished a first draft of Felix early in 2013. Since then, I focussed on The Barrier. Even so, I thought about Felix from time to time.

I've come up with some ideas about how to develop it further. Some sections I think I will just toss out and rewrite from scratch. The dialogue needs work. One thought I had was to use Xtranormal/State to work with the dialogue. I found that it was a big help when I wrote The Barrier.

The Barrier

I had some vague idea that I might remake The Barrier as a live action movie sometime in the future. I wanted to leave it as it is for a while and cogitate on the feedback I would get.

I haven't had a lot of feedback so far, and it is hard to fully absorb the feedback I did get quickly. Nonetheless, I am left with the sense that the movie has potential, although maybe not enough to justify the cost of a full-blown movie.

The feedback I had from transportation planners was positive, but mixed results from other people. It may be that my market may be limited to transportation planners. I want to get some more feedback from people outside the transportation field.

Right now my thought is to make some major changes to the animated version of the movie, and make that the final version. There is an issue with the legal status of Xtranormal, so I would need to redo the whole movie with a different system if I did major changes. Maybe I can do some improvements with less drastic changes

Some of the ideas I had:

• redo the character voices with real actors,
• add music to the sound track (although I have no idea what might work), and
• change the order of the scenes

I am inclined to do some experiments with real voices and different types of music.

Replace Xtranormal

I found Xtranormal to be a useful tool, and I am disappointed that it is no longer available. I want to find something to replace it. There are several options I want to look into: http://plotagon.com, http://www.moviestorm.co.uk/, http://stateplus2.hackernewbies.com/, and http://www.reallusion.com/products.aspx. I might be able to find some other ones to look at too.

My Most Difficult Case

This has become a permanent feature of my to-do list. I would like to get this project behind me. I'm not even sure just what I still have left to do. I hope I can keep it to some minor fix-ups.

Bright Freedom

I have a first draft of this story, but it has been a year and a half since I last worked on it. From time to time I have ideas to add to this story. I converted it from a movie script to a novelette. Now, after my experience with The Barrier, I wonder if I should make it into a movie again. Like with Felix, I think I could use something like Xtranormal to help me rewrite the dialogue.

Before I take it too much further, I really should get some one to read it and get a better sense of how people react to it. I need to do more research to ensure that it comes across as realistic. With the other projects I have in mind, I don't expect that I will get far with Bright Freedom this year.

Creative Experiments

I think I need to put aside some time to experiment with writing and movie making ideas. I didn't do much of that in 2013 because I was so focussed on The Barrier.

I did a little experiment last week. I just finished reading Will Murray's Writing in Bronze about Doc Savage. It inspired me to come up with my own Doc Savage story.

I tried to write a Doc Savage story once before; back between high school and university. I think I only got a couple of pages done before I gave up. I did use the book title later: The Smiling Corpse. I think I still have it sitting in a box in my basement.

I got about two pages done on this new idea, which I call The 89th Key. Unlike the last time, I did work on an outline. I think that my failure last time was because I didn't develop and outline.

There are some Doc Savage fan fiction sites, so I could find people to read it when it is done. I'm not sure I want to do any more work on the story now. Maybe later I will get re-inspired. I read a lot of Doc Savage in High School, but I haven't read much lately, so I am not as familiar with the style now.

I think trying little projects like this will help me be more creative in my major projects.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Internal and External Conflicts in "The Barrier"

In the past people often told me that there was no conflict in my stories. I found it hard to understand why they said that, because I did have conflict. It took me a long time to realize that most of the conflict in my stories was internal to the characters and these inner conflicts did not come across in my writing.

I didn't know how I could bring out these internal conflicts in my stories, so I decided to shift more to interpersonal conflict in my stories. I felt it would be easier for me to depict interpersonal conflict. Although, I was reluctant to do that because I felt that internal conflict was more important.

Over the last few weeks I have tried to absorb the feedback I have had on my last movie: "The Barrier". I started to see that interpersonal conflict can be used as a metaphor for internal conflict. in the barrier. I'm sure I had been aware of that from other people's work, but had not thought of it for my own work. It seems pretty obvious now.

When I developed the movie, I thought of the characters Arthur Macdonald, Brandon Baker and Dennis Kennedy as different aspects of myself. The conflicts between them, and with some of the other characters, reflect my own internal conflicts.

I can see places in the story where I have used this concept, although I didn't realize it at the time. There is one point where Arthur argues with Dennis in a scene and in the next scene Arthur tells Ling that he actually agreed with Dennis. I know that I had the same kind of argument internally many times in my career.

Over the next few months I will decide what I should do with "The Barrier". I think I can use this insight to develop the story further. Certainly it should allow me to work more depth into the interactions between these characters.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

A Look Back at 2013

It is the time of year to look back at My Goals for 2013 and see just how I did.

Some Days . . .

I had this film ready in time and it was shown in the Hundred Dollar Film Festival. Personal responsibilities kept me from attending the screening. I had some positive feedback on it.

I posted the film on YouTube (http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/somedays/)and got a reasonable number of views. Not a huge number, but generally positive. It did quite well on audience retention, although, at 40 seconds, you'd expect that.

My Most Difficult Case

I didn't do anything on this project this year. I have no excuse.

Xtranormal Movie (The Barrier)

I wanted to do another movie with Xtranormal, and I was far more successful than I had expected. I completed The Barrier (http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-barrier/) in late November and posted it on YouTube. At 85 minutes, it was by far the longest movie I had ever done. The Barrier allowed me to draw on my experience as a transportation planner to give the story a realistic background.

Unfortunately, Xtranormal shut down their program, so I can't do anything with it anymore. I found that Xtranormal was very valuable writing tool, because it allowed me to hear and see what I was writing as I wrote. I'd like to use it just for that alone.

Stories

I finished off the first draft of Felix, a science fiction story, early in the year. I wrote up some notes for changes to it.

I worked on this year was Heat Wave, another science fiction story. I made good progress on it, but then I got bogged down and couldn't work on it. Some of the issues were too personal for me to deal with at the time. I put it on hold and worked on The Barrier instead. I'm not sure if I want to go back to this project.

I wrote up ideas for changes to Bright Freedom, although I didn't do any real work on it. I wanted to combine and rewrite my two transportation planning stories, The Gladstone Barrier, and The Glencoe Project, into a longer story. I used them to do my movie rather than writing a longer story from them.

Work Habits

I wanted to be more productive with my time this year. I wasn't completely successful with that, but the changes I did make helped me bring The Barrier to completion.

In next week's blog post I will lay out my goals for 2014.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

"Felix" and "The Barrier"

I started to get back to my story "Felix" this week, although I am still involved with "The Barrier". Just before Christmas may not be that good a time to start a new project.

"Felix"

I wrote a first version of "Felix" a year ago. It is a science fiction tale that I based on a H. P. Lovecraft story. I changed the setting to Mars. I left it since then because I find it easier to rewrite if I can distance myself from the story.

I reread the story this week. It was different than I remember. For one thing, I had planned to have parts of the story told in flashback. In the version I did, I had done it in chronological order. I forgot I had done that. Lovecraft himself recommended that if you want to tell a story in non chronological order, that you start with it in chronological order, then rearrange it later.

I've come up with some ideas to revise the story. I know I need to develop the characters more, but I haven't given that much thought yet.

"The Barrier"

I had some more good feed back this week. No bad feed back. My plan was to leave the project for at least several months before I do anything more on it. I didn't think that there was much I could do unless I redid the movie from scratch. However, as I contemplate the comments I've had, I can see how I can do some improvements with out a complete redo.

Someone suggested that I add music. That could help, but I find it hard to imagine what kind of music would be appropriate. The suggestion was that I could use it to set the mood of each scene. I may set aside some time to review the options.

Another person suggested that I redo the voices with real actors in place of the computer generated voices. I think that can be done. I may try doing one character in one scene to see how it goes.

Initially I had some comments that questioned the validity of some of transportation planning details. That doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

On to My Next Project

I am done with "The Barrier" for now. I still plan to promote it and cogitate on the feedback I get, but I want to move onto another creative project. I decided a while ago that my next project would be "Felix", a science fiction story I started over a year ago.

"The Barrier"

I am tempted to revise "The Barrier" based on ideas inspired by the feedback I have so far. However, I think it is better to leave it for now and come back to it later. There are very few changes I can make to the movie with out a major effort. The program I used to create it, Xtranormal Desktop, is no longer available. I would need to either shoot live action, or redo the movie with a different program.

If you haven't watched it yet, you can find it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-LOUNSEKac

"Felix"

I went through several drafts of "Felix" between October 2012 and January 2013. It has been almost a year since I last read it, so I think I can approach it with fresh eyes. In the interim I have had some ideas that I would like to incorporate into the story.

I think the main thrust of my rewrite is to build up the characters more. While the story is primarily plot driven, I think the characters need to be more fully developed so it will appeal to readers.

As an aside; I read someplace that in a short story the characters support the plot, while in a novel, the plot supports the characters. What I have now is kind of in between those two extremes. I guess that means the plot and characters need to support each other.

The last version of the story ran to just over 8,000 words. I suspect that with the changes I have in mind it will end up at over 10,000 words.

I have a sense that something important is missing from the story. I really don't know what it is.  Hopefully I can get a better handle on what that might be when I rewrite it. The first step though, is to read it over again; several times.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

"The Barrier" Criticism Considered

A few years ago, I saw an interview with the Smother's brothers. Tommy talked about some musicians who would practice for years before they went on stage. He felt that was wrong. He said that you really don't learn how to perform in public unless you perform in public. The audience will tell you what is working and what isn't. On your own, you'll focus on the wrong things.

When I posted "The Barrier", I knew that it wasn't a final version. But, if I didn't show it to anyone, and in particular people that didn't know me, I would lose out on some important lessons.

I've had a range of responses to "The Barrier" so far, from very positive to very negative. I am pleased that most of the responses have been positive. Even some people who had criticism did have positive things to say.

I was disappointed when people didn't like the movie, but you can't expect everyone to like what you do. If only one person in 1,000 like your work, that is still 7,000,000 people.

It is tempting to get snarky with some commenters, but that isn't a good way to build support for my movie. Not only will it put them off, but other people who see the posts will be discouraged as well. I used to say I wish my word processer had a diplomacy checker.

I knew that my movie had some problems, but I've been surprised that people pick up on things I hadn't expected, and don't seem bothered by what I thought were the "real" problems. A lot more people were put off by the animation and computer generated voices than I expected. In part I think that was because, in my mind, I imagined the film with live action and live actors. On the other hand, some people really liked the animation.

Another comment I got was that it didn't seem like very much was at stake. Strictly speaking, the stakes are quite high, but that isn't made explicit until the very end. I can see that as a problem from a pure story telling perspective. However, it has to be that way to express a specific  idea, which is one of the main reasons I want to tell the story. I'll need to think about how I might address that.

I still want to hear more about what people think of the movie. Please take the time to watch it and tell me what you think. If you already have, please encourage other people to watch it as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-LOUNSEKac

If you have any suggestions about where I can find people who might enjoy the movie, I would like to hear that too.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog