Monthly Archives: April 2012
Crowdfunding now legal!
Have crowd-funding laws for filmmakers finally caught up to the promise of the internet?
Well, up to $1,000,000 it has.
Up until now it has been generally illegal to crowdfund filmmaking because films are treated as an investment by the Securities Exchange Commission. So posting an ad on Craigslist was illegal because you were soliciting money for a risk venture (an security), filmmakers often didn’t know how to vet potential investors (taking whatever money they could from whomever made it available), and almost never realized that they were only allowed to solicit investment from a small pool of potential investors. You basically needed to register your security (your high risk film investment fund, which is what it was) with the SEC. But with the new JOBS Act, created to help loosen rules on small business funding, crowdfunding of films is now much easier and legal.
But what about Kickstarter, you ask?
Kickstarter crowdsourced through GIFTS. If you offered return (money) for the investment, it was not allowed.
These new rules on investment should really excite filmmakers!
http://filmmakeriq.com/2012/04/crowdfunding-rules-relaxed-raise-a-million-dollars-over-the-internet/
Scott
Tugg
I just read about an exciting new film technology that is very exciting – especially if you’re an indie film maker. Basically it’s grassroots movie distribution. Tugg enables consumers to electronically pull on their theatre owners’ shirt sleeves and tell them what movies they’d like to see. In tests this has allowed the theater owners to broaden their scope to match the interests of their local community.
For instance, Spencer Klein was surprised when a group of architecture students organized a sold-out Thursday night screening of The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, a new documentary about the decline of American cities.
“It showed that there are guests out there who want to see some of this content that is not accessible through normal channels and who will mobilize if given the opportunity,” said Robert Lenihan, president of programming for AMC Theatres.
Check out the full LA Times article here.
Seems there is no end to the exciting opportunities opening up because of digital distribution combined with social media. We are living in interesting times.
—Scott
Schlotzsky’s – Lotz Better
Schlotzsky’s posted the spot we art directed for them. Check it out and “Like it” on YouTube.
Andie redwine produced the Austin-based shoot. It was directed by Storme Wood in two-and-a-half days. The shooter was Jim Flores on the Sony F3, the music and audio was by Matt Cooper, and it was edited in Final Cut Pro by Lee Rothenflue at Cut to Black.
The male lead, Alan Blyton, was exceptional (especially his facial expressions and his “explosion” sound when the sprinkles explode all over the kitchen). Callie Flores, his perfect foil, is great as his deadpan, but excitable daughter. The three breakroom co-workers (Heather Wallis, Danny Bates, Richard Jones) play him nicely when they see his disgusting, soggy, burger. I hope you all notice the complexity in the turntable sandwiches shot. Just sayin’, that was the extra half-day.
All-in-all, a fun shoot that Schlotzsky’s is really happy with.
Reaching Out
It’s funny how your mind creates fears that are so unreal and tangential. I have never considered myself a sales person, but I’ve also not been afraid to connect with people. Well when starting Pinkhaus I was concerned about all the “sales” calls I was going to have to make and then going to see people to “ask for work”. What I’ve discovered is so enlightening – I don’t make any sales calls. Instead, I’m just reaching out to people I’ve known in the past and chat about really cool stuff, some of which is creative or work related. But it’s a subtext to the grander thing – a great relationship. And amazingly, work just happens. Jobs come out of interesting discussions, not sales pitches. I guess this is what they call Relationship Marketing. Now that I know, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Scott