Posting and Promoting your Indie Film on Current.com

To be clear, it has been my sincere intention to help create an independent film production presence at Current.com. I am an independent filmmaker myself and after completing my second feature film, LOOP, I set off to promote it, only to find out that during the twenty years that have passed since my first feature film – REDNECK ZOMBIES -- the independent film scene has changed immensely and is now in the midst of a paradigm shift, which is changing and affecting all media. I was lost for a while, but after finding that there were others like me (but much younger and smarter) at places like the Truly Free Film blog -- I dove in.

Now I am tempted to break off on a tangent here, but I will stay on point.

I was able to sell the idea of the Indie Film Channel to the good people at Current TV and became the curator for the page.

Current.com is the website of Current TV.

(From Wikipedia) Current TV is an Emmy award-winning independent media company led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt.

Current has both a Cable/Satellite Channel as well as a very active website, which covers everything from news to video games. The community is one of the best around, being intelligent, engaging and opinionated.

My Indie Film Channel is the progeny of the Current Movies Channel which is proudly sponsored by the rottentomatoes.com, and features The Rotten Tomatoes Show featuring hosts Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox.

OK enough background...

I am looking for two types of people:

1. Independent Filmmakers who want to promote their projects.


2. The Independent Film Lover who wants stay in touch with the latest and greatest and add their voice to ongoing conversation regarding Indie Film.
   

What is the best way to do this?

Go to Current.com and register as a user - it is free. This allows you complete access to the entire site and you can post and comment on items in ANY category. But independent filmmakers should post movies and articles telling all things cool and hip about your Indie Film.

Do you have a Trailer? Post it.
Is there an interesting article about your movie? Post it.
Did your Indie Film get a good review? Post it.

You can also post your trailer/short at Current which displays your work at a very high quality. Here are two pieces of mine that I have uploaded to current, FREEDOM PLAZA and FIGHTER. One is a short, the other a documentary promo. Please note the comments and the number of views. You DO NOT have to upload your video (or use any video at all) you may embed from another service such as YouTube or blip.tv, or you may upload a production still.

Once you promotion is up you may edit the main content info (For instance to add new screenings and awards and information) and link to it. Of course you can also add links to your project's web page and you can then use it as a target page to link from elsewhere, such as Twitter. You can also make connections with other users on the site.

You may also add additional links in the post's reply section which allows you above average graphics tools. Since Current's interface is ideal for (and in fact set up for) aggregating information, you can easily aggregate your project's entire web presence there. Everything is editable and of course you could easily delete your entire profile if need be.

If your project gets a lot of interest, it will be featured in the top four of the Indie Page.

I am interested in seeing anything independently produced, shorts, music video, documentary, experimental and features. (I love no-budget and 'Homebrew') I would also love to see video and stories on Indie Filmmaking -- "War Stories" and "How To's." I also want to hear about other net based Indie Film communities and the latest poop on video gear. You must read the Current Community Guidelines and The Terms of Use and agree to them when you register.

THIS IS IMPORTANT! - USE YOUR TAGS! When posting a project, you have an option to add tags. Make sure to use Indie Film as a tag so it will show up on my channel. Other tags should include movies, genre, and any other thing appropriate. I will work hard to promote your project individually and the channel as a whole.

If you are an Indie Movie Fan, you can just browse without registering, or you can register to comment on posts and create connections with filmmakers and other users. I really want Indie Movie Fans to register and comment. If you truly love Indie Film, you can support it in a big way at Current while seeing and communicating with the filmmakers themselves.

The main objective is to have fun, promote your project, support others and keep independent film going. There are emerging voices that need to be heard.

At this point, Current TV does not show narrative films or music video on their cable network channel. Maybe that will change...

I want to make absolutely clear that I am not an employee of current. I do not get paid per "click" or registration. I am not in line for employment at Current. I am doing this on a volunteer basis. I suggested this channel to Current and they have been kind enough to present me with the opportunity to give Independent Film another outlet.

Please follow this blog. If you have any questions, email me [periclesmd7[at]gmaildotcom] , post them here in the comments or contact me on TWITTER. My Twitter User is loopmovie
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Current has just added added nine other great channels to their website. They have a blog on all of them HERE.

Freedom Plaza Gets A Screening - A 'Truly Free Film' Story

In my first blog, The LOOP Reality here at Pericles Shrugged I lightly touched on my burnout of promoting my feature length independent movie LOOP. Since LOOP was completed at the very end of 2007, I have been working hard to promote it. It's been a tough go. When I started promoting LOOP, I was already exhausted from making it. It almost seemed that I was spending more money just to get the chance have a festival consider the movie than I did to actually make it. As this year came to an end I put LOOP on the back burner as my job became more demanding and precious and other real world issues began to consume my time. But still, it's all I though about.

But then after discovering and following the Truly Free Film blog and watching the speech that inspired the creation of the blog, and especially after watching and listening to the three parts of the DIY Dinner NYC video, I began to think about my approach. My promotion had been split down the middle. I'm 50% old skool and 50% techno-geek (and I am almost 50 years old). I knew about the potential of viral video and the exposure it could bring, but I was not going in that direction. Furthermore, I learned that I didn't necessarily need to for my video to be all "LOOPcentric" to promote LOOP. New ideas began to form and I began to think of the body of work I have accumulated over the years. I decided to post Freedom Plaza on the net for all to see and I wrote a short blog about it.

I was feeling a bit tentative about it for some reason, but also excited by the experiment of it all. Would it matter?

In October LOOP screened at the 1st annual Flyway Film Festival in Pepin, Wisconsin. The festival director and curator of films at the Lake Pepin Art and Design Center, Rick Vaicius who is on my email blast list and after alerting me to the fact that my blast had a bad link in it wrote this after viewing Freedom Plaza:

How can I get this saved to my hard drive. I'd like to show this to our audience on Saturday prior to our screening of David Modgilani's film "Crawford".

-Rick

OK. It's lucky. The timing was right. But... wow. Freedom Plaza is a short kinetic movie that is based on a true personal encounter of mine. People respond to it well, but it has been hard to get it seen. But after one day - 3 days ago from this post - Freedom Plaza will be screened before a buzzworthy independent documentary that I want to see.

This is GREAT!

So I started the mental gymnastics of DVD burning and shipping and Fedex and...

But wait a minute.

He asked about downloading.

I knew that there are ways to download Flash movies, but there would be a substantial quality loss and then it occurred to me. I use a file transfer system to collaborate, trade artwork and Electronic Press Kits over the internet. It is called Yousendit. For free anyone can send up to 100 mbs, but I bought a low cost subscription at $9.95 a month which allowed me a 2gb file size. I checked the file size of the uncompressed DV of Freedom Plaza. At four and half minutes Freedom Plaza was 1gb!

I wrote back to Rick and asked to give it a try. He was game. That evening, using YouSendIt, I began to "push" Freedom Plaza from my computer to the YousendIt server. I think the entire movie and a promotional still took about three hours from my consumer DSL connection. After the file fully uploaded, the service sent a message to Rick, since I specified him as the primary recipient, telling him that the file was ready for download. Rick, who lives in an idyllic but somewhat remote part of Wisconsin (which has an admittedly slow internet connection) downloaded the clip in six hours.

The next day Rick sent:

Hey Peri-FP just finished downloading.

It plays fine and looks and sounds great! Thanks! I'll let you know how it is received this weekend. - Rick

MUSIC TO MY EARS!!!

So this Saturday at 8pm CST, Freedom Plaza will screen at the Lake Pepin Art and Design Center before the acclaimed documentary "Crawford," and, I'll get feedback!

HOW COOL IS THAT?

Also, unless I delete it, Freedom Plaza will stay at that link for 14 day or 500 downloads. Would you like to download it to check it out and see the quality for yourself? Give loopmovie a tweet on Twitter and I will send you the link.

So, I just have to give more props to Truly Free Film. It has certainly re-energized me and the information and resources there have already produced results.

I have barely scratched the surface.

Simultaneously, Rick on his own had posted some kind words about LOOP in the Flyway Film Festival Facebook Group. I was working on a blog about that, but then this happened. I will post what he had to say shortly.

Take care, have hope.

Freedom Plaza

Based on a true story. While strolling down a Washington DC street toward Freedom Plaza, an Iraqi news correspondent confides a shocking secret to her colleague, an American news cameraman.

Freedom Plaza was an Official Selection in the 2007 Palm Springs International Festival of Shorts.
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I made this 5 minute short after becoming acquainted with an Iraqi news reporter in Washington DC over the period of about a year. After this conversation I immediately sat down and wrote it all down as the words and emotions were fresh. This is almost the exact dialog we had while walking down the street together that afternoon.

I was just trying to capture that moment in time, the concept that even though it was so relevant it was only one of a thousand conversations on a Washington DC street, coming out of nowhere into earshot and then disappearing, like it never happened with noone the wiser. Also, the redundant question about the leg was much worse in reality.

What I really learned is that even though I pay strict attention to current events and I feel that I am on top of those events, they always kept their distance. The harsh truth and reality of war was right next to me, my friend, and I didn't know. This delicate, petite woman was tougher and stronger than I ever could be.

I was inspired to post the short after reading blog entries at Truly Free Film.