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:
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, October 19, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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
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
Friday, September 4, 2009
Fans Take Ink to the Next Level
By Jamin
After four packed screenings in Los Angeles, Ink is finally getting a full run at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood.
It's been six months since premiering Ink at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and though we've been having a lot of successes, Ink has taken a path I never could have predicted. A lot of filmmakers have asked us about our strategy with the film and why we've made some of the decisions we have with the release of Ink. Here is a description of our experience and an explanation of why we're doing what we're doing.
A lot has happened in the past couple years and especially the past couple months in the indie film world. We're going through the worst economic times of our lives, the independent film model has imploded, independent distributors and theaters are collapsing, several of the distributors who are surviving are ripping off filmmakers, piracy is growing, and the media world is rapidly changing in ways no one can predict due to the web. One can look at the situation and either decide that the sky is falling or acknowledge that maybe the current shift is the beginning of something completely new and awesome. Depending on the day, we've believed both.
The line for Ink outside the Laemmle Sunset 5 for the August 27th, 10:00pm screening. Photo taken by a fan in line and posted on Twitter.
Like a lot of filmmakers, we finished Ink with the dream of a theatrical distribution deal and a substantial advance from a distributor. Though after our experience with our first feature film, 11:59, we decided we would do things differently. Instead of playing film festivals for a year in order to find distribution, we would premiere the film at the first big festival that would have us and move immediately into distribution even if it was self-distribution. We would not wait for things to happen, we would make them happen. Little did we know that we would be finishing the film just in time to watch the indie film market dwindle and retreat in a failing economy.
Santa Barbara International Film Festival contacted us before the movie was even finished. We sent them a copy and they accepted it. We rushed to finish the final touches on the film, notified every distributor in LA and premiered. After a glowing review from Ain't It Cool News, buzz began, however no offers came for distribution at the festival. Not a shock. Again, we weren't going to wait for distributors to find us, we were going to make a ruckus. So we came right back to Denver (our home town) and opened Ink ourselves. In the meantime agencies had seen the film and we signed with United Talent Agency. We were hopeful they would find a distributor for us, but we weren't going to hold back on our own efforts. We were learning at this moment just how bad the indie film world was sinking. The chances of any sort of good offer were getting grim.
Ink played 8 very strong weeks in Denver and an additional 8 weeks in other Colorado towns. The goal was to prove to distributors that the film had an audience. It did that, but still no good offers. It was becoming apparent that if we wanted an audience to find the film, we would have to take it to them ourselves.
Fans of Ink outside Cinema Village in New York City. Pericles Lewnes, second from right, drove four hours from Annapolis to see the film.
To be clear, it's not that we weren't getting offers, it's that offers and opportunities were all coming without advances, no money up front. In this industry money up front is the only money you will ever see. It doesn't matter if back end money is in the contract, you will never get paid. So signing a deal for Ink with no advance would essentially be giving the rights away for free and burn our investors. In addition, there would be no guarantee the distributor would even release the film. Happens all the time.
We decided to take the film out theatrically ourselves. The easiest path would have been to go straight to Blu-Ray and DVD, but we wanted as many people as possible to have the opportunity to see Ink on the big screen and we wanted to make sure we campaigned for the film for several months before the home video release. A theatrical release is still the best promotion for a film so we decided to continue taking Ink out theatrically ourselves to every city we could.
Fan appreciation night in Denver at the Starz FilmCenter, April 18th, 2009.
We booked screenings in LA, New York, Portland, Seattle, Annapolis, and many coming up including Chicago and a return to Denver. Mind you, this has not been easy. Kiowa has spent a better part of the past several months on the phone pleading with theaters and bookers to let us in. We're competing with huge distribution companies for the same slots. For every success there's been 20 failures, for every good day there's been three bad. It's an excruciating process with few rewards, but thus far, we've prevailed.
Once getting booked in a theater, the challenge revolves around promoting each city and screening... oh, and with no advertising budget. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, this blog, and our email list have been our whole campaign. Obscurity is the evil we're constantly battling. In an environment of mass promoting and media noise we're fighting to push Ink through to the other side, to an untouchable place where people will always be able to hear about it and find it. In Los Angeles most of our principal cast has been doing the same thing. They spend hours every day pushing the film further and further to it's own protected space so as not to get buried due to the lack of a big budget distributor and marketing campaign. It's a Herculaneum effort from just a few people.
The incredible evening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on June 10th, 2009 with the whole gang. We have truly all become family.
But in all this pushing, one thing has surprised us more than any other. Since the very first screening in Santa Barbara we've had this growing underground army of fans that is relentless in spreading the word. I've never experienced anything like it, but it's overwhelming on a daily basis. It's this base that has given the film the buzz and ultimately any success it's had. We've been working for three years, are absolutely exhausted and have run out of resources, time, and stamina, but now our fans have begun carrying us. And this is why, looking at our situation, we're happy to be at the place we are. Had we taken a traditional route, we would have walked away from the film and let someone else handle it, giving the film an uncertain future. In the new and changing world where Trent Reznor is self-releasing his albums, David Lynch is self-distributing his films, and anyone with a computer and a web connection can start writing and find readers, we're so happy that we can connect with our audience directly.
So now we have reached early September and we're about to go into our first theatrical run of Ink in LA. We've been playing theater by theater for the past six months personally promoting each and every screening while simultaneously preparing the Blu-Ray, DVD and download release in a way where we keep all of our rights. Our goal now is to see Ink through and make certain anyone in the world can see it within the next couple of months. From there, we'll let the fans decide where it will go.
Ink will be playing at Laemmle Sunset 5 beginning September 11th.
After four packed screenings in Los Angeles, Ink is finally getting a full run at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood.
It's been six months since premiering Ink at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and though we've been having a lot of successes, Ink has taken a path I never could have predicted. A lot of filmmakers have asked us about our strategy with the film and why we've made some of the decisions we have with the release of Ink. Here is a description of our experience and an explanation of why we're doing what we're doing.
A lot has happened in the past couple years and especially the past couple months in the indie film world. We're going through the worst economic times of our lives, the independent film model has imploded, independent distributors and theaters are collapsing, several of the distributors who are surviving are ripping off filmmakers, piracy is growing, and the media world is rapidly changing in ways no one can predict due to the web. One can look at the situation and either decide that the sky is falling or acknowledge that maybe the current shift is the beginning of something completely new and awesome. Depending on the day, we've believed both.
The line for Ink outside the Laemmle Sunset 5 for the August 27th, 10:00pm screening. Photo taken by a fan in line and posted on Twitter.
Like a lot of filmmakers, we finished Ink with the dream of a theatrical distribution deal and a substantial advance from a distributor. Though after our experience with our first feature film, 11:59, we decided we would do things differently. Instead of playing film festivals for a year in order to find distribution, we would premiere the film at the first big festival that would have us and move immediately into distribution even if it was self-distribution. We would not wait for things to happen, we would make them happen. Little did we know that we would be finishing the film just in time to watch the indie film market dwindle and retreat in a failing economy.
Santa Barbara International Film Festival contacted us before the movie was even finished. We sent them a copy and they accepted it. We rushed to finish the final touches on the film, notified every distributor in LA and premiered. After a glowing review from Ain't It Cool News, buzz began, however no offers came for distribution at the festival. Not a shock. Again, we weren't going to wait for distributors to find us, we were going to make a ruckus. So we came right back to Denver (our home town) and opened Ink ourselves. In the meantime agencies had seen the film and we signed with United Talent Agency. We were hopeful they would find a distributor for us, but we weren't going to hold back on our own efforts. We were learning at this moment just how bad the indie film world was sinking. The chances of any sort of good offer were getting grim.
Ink played 8 very strong weeks in Denver and an additional 8 weeks in other Colorado towns. The goal was to prove to distributors that the film had an audience. It did that, but still no good offers. It was becoming apparent that if we wanted an audience to find the film, we would have to take it to them ourselves.
Fans of Ink outside Cinema Village in New York City. Pericles Lewnes, second from right, drove four hours from Annapolis to see the film.
To be clear, it's not that we weren't getting offers, it's that offers and opportunities were all coming without advances, no money up front. In this industry money up front is the only money you will ever see. It doesn't matter if back end money is in the contract, you will never get paid. So signing a deal for Ink with no advance would essentially be giving the rights away for free and burn our investors. In addition, there would be no guarantee the distributor would even release the film. Happens all the time.
We decided to take the film out theatrically ourselves. The easiest path would have been to go straight to Blu-Ray and DVD, but we wanted as many people as possible to have the opportunity to see Ink on the big screen and we wanted to make sure we campaigned for the film for several months before the home video release. A theatrical release is still the best promotion for a film so we decided to continue taking Ink out theatrically ourselves to every city we could.
Fan appreciation night in Denver at the Starz FilmCenter, April 18th, 2009.
We booked screenings in LA, New York, Portland, Seattle, Annapolis, and many coming up including Chicago and a return to Denver. Mind you, this has not been easy. Kiowa has spent a better part of the past several months on the phone pleading with theaters and bookers to let us in. We're competing with huge distribution companies for the same slots. For every success there's been 20 failures, for every good day there's been three bad. It's an excruciating process with few rewards, but thus far, we've prevailed.
Once getting booked in a theater, the challenge revolves around promoting each city and screening... oh, and with no advertising budget. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, this blog, and our email list have been our whole campaign. Obscurity is the evil we're constantly battling. In an environment of mass promoting and media noise we're fighting to push Ink through to the other side, to an untouchable place where people will always be able to hear about it and find it. In Los Angeles most of our principal cast has been doing the same thing. They spend hours every day pushing the film further and further to it's own protected space so as not to get buried due to the lack of a big budget distributor and marketing campaign. It's a Herculaneum effort from just a few people.
The incredible evening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on June 10th, 2009 with the whole gang. We have truly all become family.
But in all this pushing, one thing has surprised us more than any other. Since the very first screening in Santa Barbara we've had this growing underground army of fans that is relentless in spreading the word. I've never experienced anything like it, but it's overwhelming on a daily basis. It's this base that has given the film the buzz and ultimately any success it's had. We've been working for three years, are absolutely exhausted and have run out of resources, time, and stamina, but now our fans have begun carrying us. And this is why, looking at our situation, we're happy to be at the place we are. Had we taken a traditional route, we would have walked away from the film and let someone else handle it, giving the film an uncertain future. In the new and changing world where Trent Reznor is self-releasing his albums, David Lynch is self-distributing his films, and anyone with a computer and a web connection can start writing and find readers, we're so happy that we can connect with our audience directly.
So now we have reached early September and we're about to go into our first theatrical run of Ink in LA. We've been playing theater by theater for the past six months personally promoting each and every screening while simultaneously preparing the Blu-Ray, DVD and download release in a way where we keep all of our rights. Our goal now is to see Ink through and make certain anyone in the world can see it within the next couple of months. From there, we'll let the fans decide where it will go.
Ink will be playing at Laemmle Sunset 5 beginning September 11th.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Last Night
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