AVOID THE MIDDLE GROUND!
So the lesson here with Birdemic on some BBC news site 0_0 Is to AVOID THE MIDDLE GROUND.... either make something amazingly WIN or SO FAIL ITS UNBELIEVABLE AND AWESOME ^ ^ I downloaded and watched Birdemic after I posted weeks ago... and the thing I found interesting is that simple scenes... like one where a guy is seated by a waitress was so awkward and bad I lol'd watching 10 times in a row... NOW in a normal film that scene would just be whisked by and wouldn't be memorable at all...YET in Birdemic even simple scenes are entertaining because they are so awkward ^ ^ I'm sure it will have tons of "midnight movie" success...
Birdemic director with Lynch in SAN JOSE in 2007
I was at Park City with WATS at Sundance at the same time 0_0
My friend went and got my book signed for me ^ ^
So if your making your own film you want to be "successful" with... whatever that means to you.... I say either go all out, take huge chances and make it amazingly good AND if you MISS with those chances it will probably end up amazingly BAD like Birdemic.... either way people will NEVER forget about it and talk about it and share it with others... WHICH is the BIG CHALLENGE today... TO BE REMEMBERED... I've seen tons and TONS of like "Well done" indy films... ones where the makers knew what they were doing... and did everything "right" technically and USUALLY creatively which ends up as a film that is MEDIOCRE... and if you don't have a studio behind it pumping $$$$$ into the P&A no one will notice and it will fade faster than you can imagine...
So like other "indie" filmmakers may laugh at the Birdemic d00d... but he apparently found an audience and more people are probably talking about his film right now than all those "well done" mediocre indie films combined...
REMEMBER the audience that is NOT other "indie" filmmakers which is like %99.999999 of the audience DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT....
- what camera you shot it on
- what you edited it with
- what lenses you used
- who your DP was and what TV he usually works on
- what inspired you to make it
- what scene was like inspired by some other scene in some other film
- your ethnic background or the "interesting" stories about how the film was made
- what film school you went to and who your instructors were
- what film festivals in played in (well in the US people know Sundance and thats it)
- How low your budget was and how hard it was to make the film with so little money
- How HARD it was to make an "indie" film
- What you think "as a director"
So if your going to survive in the new world of filmmaking remember that you serve the AUDIENCE not your PEERS! And in this new world your competing with one man army MONSTERS like me ^ ^
BUT this new world is BIG ENOUGH for all of us so thats why I'm trying my best to share what I think I've figured out so far... I survived so far on my will alone... So with HSM you'll see my new plans in action... then we'll all see if I know what I'm doing or not ^ ^
Here's something I learned about the audience after WATS... at first when people asked me "What is it about" I went on about the styles of animation and this complex shit and MOST people would just keep smiling but I knew I had lost them... after a trial by fire I learned... so then when they asked me what it was about I said " I don't think you should watch it... its some fucked up stuff I dont know what I was thinking when I made it?!?" AND that GOT THEM....
BUT thats like the hardest thing... you've spent A LONG TIME working INSIDE this film....its HARD TO GET OUT AND SEE IT FROM THE OUTSIDE where EVERYONE ELSE IS..... but you must DO THIS... if you want to know how to best promote it... when your inside as a filmmaker... You talk about lenses and software and inspiration and all this shit PEOPLE don't care about... so you need to shake out of it and go OUTSIDE and say REALLY WTF IS THIS THING?! be honest with yourself.... be clever and figure out NOT THE BEST WAY TO RELATE EXACTLY WHAT IT IS to people BUT THE BEST WAY TO GET THEM INTERESTED WITHOUT TELLING STRAIGHT UP LIES.... this is something that took me a LONG time to learn with the things I made...Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.