The Rise of the Film Club

By Kiowa

It's been an interesting couple of weeks digesting the bit-torrent news and releasing Ink via Netflix, Blockbuster and other places. Not sure what to do with all the information, we were lucky enough to take a detour to the East Coast for a screening. Even better than that, we are lucky enough to be here due to the kindness and generosity of two people who are probably now lifetime friends: Pericles and Lisa Lewnes.

The very best thing about this last year is the opportunity to tour around the country and meet people. We have managed to draw an incredible level of enthusiasm and support for the film at our screenings. One such special screening was New York - I knew that a man named Pericles drove eight hours round trip to see Ink and meet us. On the street after the screening we exchanged hugs and screeners (Peri is himself an accomplished filmmaker, credits include Redneck Zombies and LOOP) and he told me about his film club in Annapolis. He and his wife wanted to bring films that might not otherwise get seen to their hometown in a casual bar or restaurant setting and they were willing to put in the hard work to promote the screenings. I was sold.

Peri and Lisa first showed Ink in early August, which drew us a whole new crowd of Ink fans. He showed the film Woodpecker the following month and then decided to crank the film club up a notch. Peri called me about six weeks ago and excitedly told me that he attracted larger sponsors and a great venue for his next screening, which he wanted to be an encore presentation of Ink. Not only that, he had gathered up enough sponsors to fly us out and put us up. So here we are enjoying the beautiful and historic town of Annapolis and an incredible steak dinner at the Lewnes Steakhouse - owned by Peri's brother and our travel sponsor.



How did we get this lucky? Peri and Lisa are some of those rare humans that are incredibly generous with their time and resources. They happened to fall in love with Ink and have been tireless in their efforts to promote the film with whatever tools they have at their disposal. I believe the film club is going to rise up as the chief screening opportunity for indie filmmakers. One film a month, heavily promoted at a unique venue with food and drinks - what could be better? It centers the focus around one film at a time and if the filmmakers can attend for Q&A then it is officially an "event" that people will get out to be a part of.

High quality film festivals like Flyway Film Festival and film clubs like the Annapolis Pretentious Film Society put the focus back where it should be: on the films and filmmakers. We had the best festival experience of our life at Flyway thanks to Rick and Diana Vaicius making us feel incredibly welcome and not lost in the fray as you do at most festivals. Similarly, Peri and Lisa take the time to promote individual films and filmmakers and truly make the evening an event to remember. We are super excited to get to Monday night and connect with people at the Rams Head On Stage. If you are a filmmaker reading this, you need to get in touch with both Rick at Flyway and Peri of APFS - two fierce champions for truly independent films and filmmakers. Another description might entail wings, some sort of halo and an angelic glow... that's how they appear to me anyway. Storytellers? I think so.

Rick and Diana Vaicius with Jamin at Flyway last month.

Ink plays at the Rams Head On Stage on Monday, November 30th at 6:30pm. $8 in advance and $10 at the door.
Click here for tickets and we will see you there!

A 360 Degree View of Internet Piracy

By Kiowa

The last few days have felt like Jamin and I took a trip to an industrial-sized clothes dryer and jumped inside. Exciting, exhausting and potentially asphyxiating. All of this due to the news that Ink has been one of the most downloaded movies in the world since it hit all of the BitTorrent sites. Advocates from both sides of the table have come out swinging with their thoughts, and some sources have been suspiciously quiet. What do we make of all of this madness? Here are my thoughts, as they've been digested over a thread on Reddit.com and other places.

Here we are in the dryer... and damn if it isn't getting hot in here.

1. Amazing exposure? Heck yes.
No question here that Ink wouldn't be abuzz across many forums, blogs and film websites this week without the enormous boost to #16 on the IMDb MovieMeter due to the piracy.

2. Raking in the dough? Yes and no.
Our direct sales have quadrupled and a decent number of donations (still nothing comparable to 500,000 downloads) have poured into our website, which we are very thankful for. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if the direct sales are coming from those who downloaded or those who saw it on Netflix and want to own a copy. Still, if each person who downloaded the film would come and contribute $1, we could pay off this film and have a budget for the next one.

3. Still to early to tell the effects of this? Absolutely.
Nothing in the film world ultimately happens over night and it will take several months to a year to quantify all of this so it's entirely too early to take a solid stance either way, but I do think there's some value in getting the discussion going about piracy which is why I'm spending time on Reddit.com and writing this blog.

4. Is Hollywood oddly silent on this whole thing? Yes.
Not only can't we get any attention in the mainstream industry press, you would think that a tiny indie film with over 500,000 downloads in a week would demonstrate enough of an audience for a distributor to step on board. Distributors are looking for films that are easy to market and that have an audience. The downloads have proven, unequivocally, that Ink has a huge audience yet the crickets are still chirping on US distribution. My theory is this: distributors don't dare step up and validate the pirate community as an audience. They must keep their staunch stance against them, and to pick up Ink now would mean they're saying "wow, this really is an audience."

5. Why won't Hollywood recognize the pirate community as an audience? They don't pay.
So this is the real issue I'm grappling with. What is piracy all about? I've come up with three ideas: 1.) People want stuff for free, and/or 2.) People want instant and easy access, and/or 3.) People will only pay for what they like. Which one of these is true? I encourage anyone who has illegally downloaded a film to step up with your thoughts. The unfortunate truth in the music industry is that, for the most part, people just want things for free. Is this also true with movie downloads? How will it impact both in the long run?

6. If the download community wants to send a real message and be recognized as an audience, here's how:
* For those out there who download because you want easy access to something you can't otherwise get (i.e. you're outside the US and movies take forever to get to you, which we completely understand), then please do the download community a favor and track down the filmmakers and give them a few bucks.

* For those of you who only want to pay for what you like, please find a way to support your favorite artists as best you can. This will also send an extremely strong message to Hollywood to make better films and not just expect everyone to keep digesting a huge cafeteria of re-makes and franchise films.

* For those of you who expect things to be free, please consider how flawed that thinking is. Do you expect groceries, clothing and other commodities to be free? Making Ink is the single most difficult thing I've ever done and I can guarantee that every artist who crosses the finish line with a completed project feels the same. If the answer is truly that people expect things for free then the logical conclusion is that no one will take any financial risk in this industry and eventually there will be nothing to pirate. Talk about the law of diminishing returns.

This is a new era and no one knows which end is up right now. If instant file-sharing is truly the next step in film distribution, then there still needs to be a financial model in place that works. All anyone wants to do is to be able to move on and make another movie. That will be impossible if the world expects things for free. Or, all our movies will be paid for by huge corporate sponsors and littered with product placement - is that really a better alternative? Do we really want The Storytellers in Ink to be eating a Big Mac and swilling Coke after every fight? Probably not. I'm not claiming to know any answers here, I just want to put it up for discussion so please share your thoughts below and we'll continue to provide updates.


The coolest thing to come out of the piracy so far? This incredible illustration from a new fan who watched via download and spent 6 hours drawing this for us. Thank you Shane Lees.

Ink Jumps to #16 on IMDB

by Jamin

The last few days have been a rollercoaster as Ink was bit torrented just days ago and has now been downloaded over 400,000 times around the world. Simultaneously Ink became available in all major and minor video rental stores including Netflix, Netflix Instant, Blockbuster, Amazon, etc... Over the weekend Ink jumped from a position of 12,991 on IMDB to #16 and is thus currently ranked higher than most major Hollywood titles.

Who knew that the file sharing community has so much power? The exposure for our film has been unprecedented and we have spent no money on advertising. As far as I know, no studio in history has ever driven a film up out of obscurity so fast. Turns out the audience now really does have all the control.

Our reaction has been to encourage the file sharing. The ethical argument for and against file sharing is very complicated, however, if the file sharers have the filmmaker's blessing to pass it around, there is unquestionably no injustice done. The fact is we own all the rights to Ink and the file sharers absolutely have our blessing. It would be a lie and naive to say that it's not benefitting our film exponentially. We've made a link available for those fans that want to support us in our battle by making a donation and we have Blu-Rays, DVDs, and other merchandise available for the most serious fans. This is a 100% independent film with no studio, no distributor, and no big money so trust me when I say we need all the help we can get.

Kiowa and I had a long conversation about whether or not we would be slighting our paying fans by condoning the file sharing. We both agreed that wasn't the case. Most of the world never had an opportunity to see the film in theaters. Many of them likely would have had we had the resources to bring it to them. Our truly die hard fans who bought theater tickets and are buying the Blu-Ray, DVD, shirts, and posters have something physical to show for it. We have disks that are personally signed and materials that no one else can have via download. Ultimately we know who our most die hard supporters are because we met most of them personally or have been talking to them for months via email, Facebook, and Twitter. They're also the people who are donating money on our site when they don't have to, buying numerous disks for family and friends, and voting and commenting online everywhere, and they are the critics who campaigned for it with ferocity even though distributors weren't taking it out. No one else would have ever known about the film had these people not built the base.

There are audiences all over the world not yet able to see Ink in an inexpensive and quick way. File sharing is about the only instant option for them at the moment and we don't want limitations keeping them from seeing the movie. We've always said the international audience is just as important to us as the American audience. We're thrilled to hear that Ink is finding it's way all over Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, and on and on. Someone recently told us that it's blowing up in Lithuania of all places. People are subtitling it and re-posting it in numerous languages. Incredible.

In the meantime we're thrilled about the official Blu-Ray/DVD release today. Ink is truly everywhere and it's a dream come true for a few people that made a completely independent, unconventional, unique, and heartfelt film.

Thank you all again for helping us each day. Thank you for the loyalty and the passion. Here's a new trailer just for you:

Goodbye Gatekeepers, Hello Audience

By Kiowa

In the wake of the news that Ink has been ripped and downloaded 100,000 times in the past 48 hours across the bit torrent community, I feel inspired to share my thoughts on this "what does it mean?" news.

For the record, we do not condone piracy nor do we ever download any music, films or TV shows for free. Artists should be paid for their hard work. That said, it is possible that the exposure Ink has just gotten across free download sites has catapulted the film into an entirely new realm. Remember that Wolverine, a franchise film with a budget of $130 million, got leaked via bit torrent before its release and got 100,000 hits in 24 hours. Ink managed to do half that in downloads, and was number 1 on Pirate Bay yesterday with more hits than Paranormal Activity, Surrogates and Julie and Julia. Again, all of these films have had the help of the studio system's multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. Ink has had Jamin and myself, two laptops and an Army of fierce supporters grown out of our own hard-fought theatrical screenings - nothing more.


The packed house at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on June 10th, 2009.



The main point I want to make in this post is about gatekeepers vs. audience. Had we relied on what the gatekeepers were telling us about Ink, i.e. "we don't know how to market the film," to "it's too strange" to "it doesn't have any stars" to "this would never sell" to multiple festival rejections, we would have given up and thrown in the towel probably by February. Instead of going on the expert opinions, we decided to take the film directly to audiences and bypass all the gatekeepers and guess what? Success! For one gatekeeper saying "there is no way to market this film" we have had 10 audience members claim it is the best film of the year. I'm not being boastful (there are plenty of people who think the film is awful), but I believe that 100,000 downloads across torrent sites in 48 hours is proof positive that the gatekeepers are out of touch with audiences. The film community elite have brushed Ink off as nothing, all the while the audience is screaming for more.

The "Oshkosh 6" - this group of guys drove 8 hours round-trip to see Ink at the Flyway Film Festival on October 23rd, 2009. From left: me, Adam Meyer, Mark Mazur, Trent Hillborn, Joseph Dhein, Joey Meyer, James Lieske and Jamin.

So for all of you filmmakers out there frustrated by a constant stream of "No" and "Please submit your next film", gather round and hear this: cover your ears, close your eyes, take the plunge and support your film with the ferocity of a mother bear. Kindly say "thank you for your time" and move on to the people who matter most - your fans.

Ink is available on DVD and Blu-ray on our website.
Ink will be available at Netflix, iTunes and Blockbuster on November 10th!

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: TODAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 2009 IS A REMARKABLE DAY. INK HAS JUST JUMPED TO #16 ON THE IMDB MOVIE METEr, ABOVE HOLLYWOOD TITLES SAW IV, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE AND BREAKOUT INDIE HIT PRECIOUS. INK IS THE ONLY TOP 20 MOVIE WITH NO DISTRIBUTOR AND ROSE IN POPULARITY OVER 80,000% DUE TO THE PIRACY OVER THE LAST 3 DAYS.

The Ink Story on Film Courage

By Kiowa


We had the great pleasure of being on David Branin and Karen Worden's Film Courage show live last Sunday. Film Courage is quickly becoming a shining beacon of information for independent filmmakers wading through their projects, from financing to distribution. It was our second opportunity to be on the show and this time we discussed how we financed Ink, what our total budget was and how we're distributing the film while holding onto all of the rights.

This business is a challenging one, to say the least, so it is our goal to be as transparent as possible in the hopes of helping others. If you have a moment, please tune into the show archive:

LA Talk Radio's Film Courage Interview with Jamin and Kiowa Winans

You can listen to Film Courage live every Sunday at 11:00am Pacific time. David and Karen always have interesting guests from actors to producers to directors, all with unique stories and insight. Tune in every Sunday - we do!

INK on DVD and Blu-ray: Our Release Strategy in 5 Steps

By Kiowa

It has been a long few weeks, which makes me think of the long months and even years leading up to these last few weeks. We began this journey in September of 2006 by going on a location to scout to Crested Butte, CO where we filmed the dreamy Storyteller forest and now three years later we are about to release the entire movie on Blu-ray and DVD. You can pre-order both discs along with a t-shirt and poster on our website. All items will ship on October 30th. Ink will be on the shelf at every Blockbuster store in the country, in addition to being on Netflix instant and rental, iTunes, Amazon, and others on November 10th.

For any filmmakers or fans who are reading this blog, I would like to share a bit more about our release strategy for Ink and what we have learned over the years. This strategy came out of years of attending festivals and having extraordinarily bad luck with traditional distribution deals and incorporates the recognition that times have changed.

1. Premiere Your Film, then use Festivals as a Supplement

Gone are the days of the 3:00am deals for $5 million at Sundance. If you don't believe me, look up the last five years worth of films that premiered at Sundance and see if they sold and if they did, whether they were ever released successfully. Years ago a filmmaker's only choice was to lay out a festival strategy, open at the biggest festival then spend a year playing at smaller regional festivals then try to go after a distribution deal.

That takes over a year of time, thousands of dollars in submission fees, press materials and screening formats all to have someone else collect your box office dollars. We had played at enough festivals with Spin and 11:59 to know that even if you're playing in a number of places and winning awards, festivals alone do very little to change the profile for your film. With Ink we decided to take the first large festival that would have us, then set off and do our own theatrical release. This disqualified us from numerous future festivals, but that was a sacrifice we were willing to make. We've found there have still been several willing to screen it regardless of the public release.

2. Open Where you have a Fanbase

Jamin has been making movies in Colorado since he was about 10 years old, and started Double Edge Films here in 1998. It hasn't happened overnight, but over time he has managed to build a small fanbase and populate an email list. It doesn't hurt that we used a ton of actors locally in Ink and other films, so when we announced news of opening Ink in Denver we had a good base of people to contact with that news. This helped us play 8 weeks at the Denver Film Society's Starz FilmCenter, which we are very fortunate to have.

We started out on a strong base of maybe 500 people locally which was essential to building word-of-mouth in order to extend our two week run into eight solid weeks. With the "Made in Colorado" angle, we took the film to independently owned theaters in Fort Collins and Greeley, and played at each of those locations for four weeks. We were able to take those numbers and start emailing other independently owned art house cinemas (independently owned being the key - you can pretty much forget dealing with any chains). It was very difficult and I maybe got one response for every 20 emails that I sent out and that was just to request a screener. Once you send the screener, it's another email torture campaign to get them to watch the film and even then there's no guarantees. Persistence is key, however, and we have been able to get the film out to about 15 cities.

If you still can't get your film into any theaters consider public halls, living room screenings, and film clubs and showcases. All these are rapidly growing trends.

3. Use Your Theatrical Proceeds for More Screenings

Contrary to the festival strategy where you are out-of-pocket a few hundred dollars on every film festival, you may make some money on your theatrical screenings. Sure, it always takes money to make money and you need to promote your film with posters and postcards and get various screening formats made but you at least have the prospect of getting some of that money back. Though theatrical isn't a huge money maker (especially at the small indie level) it is still the best way to promote your film and a way to keep your fanbase excited, get press and set your film apart from the rest of the pack. Don't expect to get rich unless you have that magic wealthy uncle whose willing to pour $1 million into a huge marketing campaign, think of theatrical as a break-even scenario. After the theater deducts their percentage of the box office receipts, you may be left with just enough to pay for your marketing materials and get the film out to the next place.

This, in our experience, is still more effective than festivals from both a monetary standpoint and a fanbase standpoint. Festivals can seem exclusive and "off limits" to some people and you may get a screening time of 10:00 am on a Tuesday. What regular working person can attend at that time? If you can tour with your film, get your fanbase excited and show your film at a good evening time slot then the overall excitement and exposure increases tenfold.

4. Be available on your Networks: Email List, Facebook and Twitter

In this new world of "Do It With Others" (DIWO, as opposed to DIY) distribution, it is your job to establish and nurture social networks. Social media has come a long way over the years and is becoming an incredible tool for those of us without that magic wealthy uncle. Twitter, of all things, seems to be the most powerful tool. If you establish yourself as a specialist in a particular kind of Tweets then you will get followers tailored to your message. The filmmaker community on Twitter is extremely supportive and everyone is excited to promote each other's work and achievements. There has been so much news lately about the collapse of the independent film world and speculation about how it's all going to shake out and that information gets transferred daily over Twitter.

If you're a filmmaker and you're not on Twitter you're not only missing out on the opportunity to build your film into a brand, you're missing out on an incredible volume of interesting and useful news. If any of us are going to fight our way through the wreckage of the indie film world, we have to get together, share ideas and start bringing our content directly to each other and our audiences.

5. Keep the Excitement High and Get Your Film Out on DVD, Blu-ray and Download

We get emails or Facebook posts every day from people around the U.S. and around the world asking how they can see Ink. A typical distribution path would take 2 1/2 to 3 years from festival debut to get out around the world. Our festival debut to DVD/Blu-ray release is a mere 10 months. You have to capitalize on the excitement of your film when you have it and if we were to wait another year to go to DVD and Blu-ray then people's attention will be elsewhere and Ink will feel like old news. Premiering at Santa Barbara in late January then playing multiple theatrical runs and one-night screenings across the country for the next nine months has allowed us to introduce the film to crowds all over the country and get a decent amount of online buzz and press. After a while some of your Facebook fans and Twitter followers grow tired of the postings about screenings that are nowhere near them. The only way to truly get the film out to everyone is to release to DVD, Blu-ray and download.

In an earlier blog Jamin said that the battle we all fight is against obscurity, so the key is to get your film out across as many platforms as you can. We ended up going through a company that helped us get Ink out to Blockbuster shelves, out to Netflix and up on iTunes. Those are tough deals to make on your own, but vitally important to getting your film maximum exposure. Your film needs to be available at many different outlets to hit the Netflix-only film watchers, or the Blockbuster renters or the iTunes junkies. We made a store selling exclusive signed copies and a well-priced bundle on our website for Ink fans and will be fulfilling those orders out of Denver.

Will our big launch be a big success? That remains to be seen, but what we do know is that we're excited to be offering the film to everyone everywhere. We'll continue to nurture the release and connect with fans and filmmakers over Facebook and Twitter and will always be on the lookout for that next big platform or technology. In the meantime, we'll be enjoying some scratch-baked pie (pictures to follow, I'm sure) in Pepin, Wisconsin with some great fellow filmmakers at the Flyway Film Festival this weekend. Then we'll be back in Denver to re-open the film on October 30th.

Theatrical screenings will continue even after the DVD and Blu-ray are released. That may seem odd, but this is a new era of distribution and we're dedicated to keep showing Ink on the big screen and connecting with people at whatever venue will have us. It is, after all, the Ink Army that keeps us marching forward and we plan to keep waving that DIWO flag strong and proud.

Ink from Start to Finish on Video 20 Questions' Podcast

By Kiowa

Jamin and I are back in the basement (avoiding garlic and mirrors again) preparing for some very exciting announcements about the film. We got the opportunity to be on the Video 20 Questions podcast the other day and the real bonus was doing the interview via Skype with a man in Spain whilst we sat in our pajamas. He refers to them as "jim-jam's" in the interview, also known as "filmmaker casual." The upside to this business is that we can wear filmmaker casual most all the the time - the downside is that we can only afford filmmaker casual.


Kiowa Winans, Jamin Winans and Kirk Montgomery of Channel 9 News at the "Long Story Short" screening. No jim-jam's in this photo.

We discuss everything about the process of making Ink from raising funds to pre-production testing and preparation to the grueling 14 months of post-production and eventual DIWO distribution strategy.

Have a listen... filmmaker casual encouraged but not required.

Video 20 Questions Podcast