Skip to main content

Us indie film types need to release an indie bundle!

You've probably seen the wildly successful Humble Indie Bundle which bundles together a bunch of indie games in a suitE way...

Maybe you also saw the super successful Macheist Bundle which is a bunch of indie Mac software bundled together in a suitE way (Thanks to Krystian for pointing this out to me)

If your working on your own animated feature film, animated short film... and are looking to affiliate we should all get together and put them out all at once as a bundle! ^_^ We can co-promote online and offline etc

I've been talking to Screamerclauz about this.... we're looking at being finished around December 2013... What do you all think of that? As a creator and as a consumer? Ideas?

Comments

  1. I think it's a great idea.
    Maybe I will try to have something done by then :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you considering only feature films? will it be US only? Cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Any animated or really interesting unique films... Will be international of course ^ ^

      Delete
    2. I think it's a great idea! I'd be happy to bundle Fathoms in there...even though it's not feature length. I should be done by the deadline too! Do iiit

      Delete
  3. That's awesome, strength and prosperity in numbers!

    Counting the days already! Thinking of consumers I guess something that's worth considering with a Christmas launch is that around the Christmas period people are buying gifts for friends and family moreso over themselves. Might want to either market to this angle of buying the pack on behalf of someone else (and a physical gift is more enticing for this), or perhaps delaying a launch till just after Christmas when people are generally more in the frame of mind to buy things for themselves (boxing day sales and what have you).

    I'm going to buy whenever though :)

    In the unlikely event that I manage to finish my own in this timeframe, I'd love to drop it on the pile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You gave me the idea in the first place bruh ^_^ So I was thinking about your project as well ^_^ Goal could be to release something every Xmas maybe?

      Delete
    2. Make a yearly event of it, sounds cool.

      If I don't make 2013, 2014 seems doable!

      I was thinking of that central platform/hub the other day, I'll email or skype you about it when I get chance, I think you guys should have a 'Boing Boing' type site for all uberectors, aggregating all your sites, new releases and so on. Not tonight though cause I'm watching UFC :)

      Delete
    3. Sounds good! I'm a big MMA fan myself so of course I'm watching too as Anderson Silva is like the Bruce Lee of today ^ ^

      Delete
  4. sorry, but this is a bullshit idea.

    m.dot, you're surrounded by a bunch of 'yes' men. you're surrounded by people who will champion whatever you render.

    if you want to get to the next level, you need to reach people who don't give a fuck about you or your struggles or your philosophies. you need to reach people who will enjoy your films, no matter what the back-story is.

    i can't include myself among them because i'm a bigger m.dot.strange fan than i am a wats or hsm fan. that said, you already have the m.dot.strange fans. you've won them over. what you need now is a fanbase comprised of people who care about movies or dare i say, entertainment, irregardless of who created it.

    you need to make movies that the people who aren't privy to your blog or a-book or b-book can enjoy. not every reservoir dogs fan knows or cares that quentin tarantino made it. similarly, you have a large potential audience out there that doesn't care if it's an m.dot.strange film or not, unlike 99% of the people who visit your blog and comment on your posts.

    i wish you the best, but if you spend your entire career preaching to the choir, then you're not going to get much further than blogspot and films that sell for $2500 dollars.

    i've always considered "cult films" to be word-of-mouth films. you should strive to make a cult film. i believe, in today's internet-dominated world, that a cult film is essentially a meme-worthy film.

    maybe i'm full of shit. i haven't made a single film.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm open to all possibilities and ideas... I make the films that I make... I don't know how to strive to make a meme-worthy film... So if you could explain this further that would be suitE as I don't really understand what your saying...

      So from your perspective...its not how my films are presented/marketed...its the films themselves that are the problem? The thing holding me back? Or is it about the marketing?

      I'm not trying to make movies for any particular audience... I just make what I make you know? So then you think I should start making different types of films with a particular audience in mind?

      Delete
    2. I like Nanabozho's advice, it's refreshing to hear someone who isn't afraid to tell it like it is and not sugar coat what has to be said. As Uberectors, we're not uber-rich George Lucas's with a bunch of yes men sucking up to every stupid idea we come up with.

      That being said, I'll also just disclaimer that I've probably got no idea what I'm about to go on, seeing as I'm not exactly rolling in the scrilla from my own films:

      There's no way to predict what will become a viral hit or what will become the next big meme. The way the internet is, it's not possible to 'monetize' it if it does happen (aside from maybe getting youtube adsense from your video if you HAPPEN to make the next Nyan Cat video...) By the time the consumer/corporate structure cottons on to a viral idea, it's way too late ( for example: Rick Astley himself 'rickrolling' people in that parade...)

      Uberecting a film is a large commitment of time and effort and you're going to spend a lot of time in the world you've created. It better be something that you connect with at your core or you will hate it, it will fail, or be at best mediocre, and that is a sure way to NOT succeed, because people will be able to sniff that out.

      My point here is that you have to stand out. Everyone can download Blender and make a film on their computer. Only a handful of us do it now but eventually youtube will be full of as many Uberected feature films as there are Nyan Cat variations now. The big studio films will still exist, as long as there's a money paying audience for them, there are lots of other media forms competing for attention.

      The limiting commodity isn't money, or films, or media, or time, or talent, it's the attention of the audience; the only way to get that attention is to make something so fucking awesome that they *HAVE* to tell their friends about it; so in this way, M dot, the WATS and HSM fans here are your best tool for spreading the word. But to Nanabozho's point, you have to have something that will stand out, and the only way to do that is to create a film that is something that you would be an apeshit insane fanboy of if you hadn't created it yourself.

      Delete
    3. I can definitely see where Nanabozho is coming from. You have a core audience of hardcore fans who will buy your work because they dig what you do and the way they do it. However I don't see this kind of work being accepted by the regular guy on the street, simply because most people like crap and are happy with not being challenged. And as David said It's likely a waste of time trying to create a viral or meme element to your work as it's counter to most creative practices, however keep in mind the kind of virality of films such as Tetsuo *insane japanese drill penis* etc. I see it as more of a question of of how do you reach more people who will also be hardcore fans? Because when you reach a critical mass of hardcore fans, the work will spread by itself.

      So you've got to target the left of centre, weird, and perhaps creative kind of audience, but other people besides the fans you already have. I think this bundle idea is great. It takes a leaf out of the independent music scene's way of getting fans. You play a gig with other bands and hopefully something will click and you'll share fans. In saying that though, i don't see this really benefiting you unless you have HSM bundled with at least a couple of films which have fan bases of roughly the same size as yours or greater(but still of a similar enough style/theme to share fans). If you just bundle your film with smaller guys you won't necessarily be gaining many fans, but they will which is great for them. So send out some feelers to other filmmakers you like who's work fits with yours and who have a few fans already.

      You can do it!

      Delete
    4. You know, the worthwhile points these guys have made speak largely in favour to the indie bundle type system.

      I don't understand why they need to be mutually exclusive. Yeah you have you're fans who will buy whatever you render regardless, but the whole point of an indie bundle or macheist bundle is to reach the un-initiated, the un-informed audience, the ones who will be more willing to take the 'risk' of buying multiple films over one (they are more likely to climatise to at least one) - and more often than not discover something that they wouldn't have without. There's tons of apps and ebooks that I own from bundles, that I use daily, having never heard from them before, those bundles introduces apps to me that I perhaps didn't buy the bundle for, but was willing to try it having it been included. Those apps are great, but the bundle was the first chance I had to discover that.

      Something that worth pointing out with these bundles is that they are not launch titles, Braid and Super Meat Boy have been out for a while, they launched on the Xbox live arcade if you watch the Indie Gamer documentary (definitely a worthwhile watch btw), there's no reason whatsoever you can't all launch individually, then do a bundle after the grace period, and continue to sell individually throughout the bundles lifetime. It doesn't have to be all one plan negating the rest. The idea is to use systems like the bundle that work, not as exceptions cause there's bloody loads of them that follow in the same vein, for software games, ebooks, music there hasn't (as far as I've seen) been one for films as of yet, it may work, it may not - but damn, it's worth trying. Filmmakers unfortunately as of yet don't have a Steam or an Xbox live arcade to reach the indie audience that game developers can. Whether or not this is something that is needed first is another conversation.

      You have plenty of time between now and Christmas 2013 to think of new and tried and true methods to market your film, whether that's a bundle or not in the future is besides the point, the important thing is the principles behind them can be applied to any release, individual or otherwise. You need to try new avenues such as the Louie CK launch, NIN Launches, Macheist/Indie Bundle launches, find out what works and keep refining it.

      P.S. Dave, when's 'Origin' coming out, is it doing festivals at the moment?

      Delete
    5. "meme-worthy" is a poor choice of words. the idea i mean to convey is this: using your film's footage, you or others should be able to create memes, short clips, gifs and other media that spark people's interest and attract them to your film.

      as dave said, there's no way to predict what will become a viral hit, but you should aim to create films that can be chopped apart into short, palatable pieces of media that at least have a shot at going viral. i've seen a number of gifs on reddit/r/wtf that elicit big reactions. people ask "what the fuck is that? that's insane" and someone replies "it's a scene from a movie called so-and-so. you should check it out!"

      yesterday, i was hanging out with some dudes who were reciting vulgar, funny lines from the marky mark film "ted". afterwards, at least 3 people who hadn't even heard of the film said "i've gotta see that."

      the easiest products to market are the products that market/sell themselves. in other words, it's easier to convince someone to buy something that's genuinely golden than it is to convince them to buy a bag of shit. therefore, the content of your film dictates how easily you're able to market it. this is a slippery slope though because it may tempt you to compromise your vision.

      should you compromise? that's for you to decide.

      honestly, i think it would be easier to market a badassery feature film than it would be to market hsm or wats.

      Delete
    6. I'm still waiting to get rejected from all the festicals I paid scrilla to enter first before I release it online anywhere.

      Delete
    7. I disagree that any badassery feature film or series would do better than HSM. HSM at least has something that most people could relate to - it's actually uplifting - weird yet uplifting. Badassery is not not not uplifting, imo.

      I do agree that m dot should try to find an audience of *fans* not just other would be or actual filmmakers. The big time Hollywood films are not marketed to other filmmakers, they would make no money that way.

      Delete
    8. I think what Nanahozho is referring to in essence is accessibility. How accessible is it to the common viewer? Let's face it, the majority of people out there, are, well, kinda average. We're different in that we see the world in a very particular way, and we're trying to show our perception to everyone else. But that presents us with a powerful dilemma.

      Do we make our work accessible to the masses so that it is widely accepted? Or do we stick to our artistic and creative vision, and create it exactly the way we want to? There are pros and cons to both methods, I think for me the struggle has been to find the fine line. How do I say everything I want to say while still keeping it interesting for an average audience? To keep from going on forever, I'll cite the first Matrix as a great example of a movie that works in this way.

      On one hand, the average guy is like "I didn't really get it, but it was bad ass with the gun fights and kung fu!"

      On the other "This movie is a deep questioning of reality, and what we perceive as reality, and there are these religious references, and references to how death is a gateway, and..."

      All this stuff is freaking excellent though guys, I'm glad everyone can discuss this in a manner that's constructive to everybody.

      Delete
  5. so it would be something like one of those packs of 50 scifi movies, or horror or war or whatever, but the category would be for indi films?
    If so, that sounds cool. But you kinda need to find more indi's than just yourself and screamerclauz. Otherwise you got yourself a double feature.
    Which, as a consumer... still doesnt sound like a bad idea.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The idea is fantastic. Throughout history artists have used co-ops, guilds, group shows, all kinds of cooperative efforts to make a bigger splash together than usually possible alone.

    As a consumer, I feel it's a BIG win. I get a set of films from an artist I like and some of his friends whom I also may enjoy, all at once? Awesome.

    As an creator, I think it is good for several reasons. Having a deadline to meet (failing to meet it would not only disappoint fans but also fellow artists) is always a good thing. Most of us are pretty so-so on our self promotion skills after the exhaustion of finishing a work, so a group keeping promotional efforts on track and organized is a huge plus too. Also, there is something interesting for both creators and fans when works come in "waves"-- it is exciting and gives a feeling of a time and place, a "now".

    After all, isn't that what this is? A new wave of cinema. That's what I feel happening when I look at indie animation these days on the net.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also think that there should be a good deal of thought put into deciding what kind of films are included in a pack like this.

      Think of it as a torrent.

      If someone posts "100 movies, shorts, and tv commercials that you've never heard of!"... well that MIGHT be interesting, but it sounds like a chore to sort through. So either the title need to better communicate the value of these random pieces, or the pieces need to be a little less random.

      Even if the general specifications are vague, wouldn't it be a good idea to have some standards to help the films appear more uniform to the public. Are we talking about only feature length works? What is "feature length"? Animation only? Is Strawberry Shortcake meets my Little Pony in Candy Land an acceptable film? If not, why not? Questions like that.

      Delete
  7. Yeah that is a great idea...perhaps I could get the first ep of my short series I want to do done as well and join you for this venture!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm all for that. We need to stick together to help promote each other. If you can bring 100 people, I can bring 100 people and someone else can bring 100 more, then the numbers simply rise. just makes sense

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unrelated, but Valve just released Source Filmmaker open beta.
    This could be interesting.

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/1840/

    ReplyDelete
  10. I dont want to be a pest i know you have your own thangs goin on, but since you might be doing the music for my project (if you like it). i doubt id be able to make december if i did what i had planned. You know, finishing it, then letting you see it then possibly composing the musics or saying no then id have to do music for the whole movie right then.. So would it be cool if i sent you a link or whatever to each scene as i finish them so you could both check it out and maybe scratch up some sounds in your free time? Id really enjoy being a part of this.
    -Tim

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure Tim! Send me the finished bits when you have them!

      Delete
  11. Duude! Can I put one of my films into this? I already have a couple in mind.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What format should I render out of Cinema 4d with?

UPDATED 2_27_13!  RENDER USING EXR Lossy Zip16! Since I'm working on a new feature film that will generate over 1500 shots made up of image sequences I need to make sure I choose the right file format to render to lest my hard drives explode. What I need from my format is  at least 16bit, an alpha included and preferably small size. I rendered out a frame from my film tallied up all the file sizes here- their all different types of codecs listed from smallest file size to largest. The render includes an RGBA pass, Depth pass, and Material Luminance pass because thats what I always render out. 1.00mb 8bit-Photo Jpeg %100 1.27mb 8bit-PNG 4.65mb 16bit- EXR lossy ZIP16 5.75mb 8bit-PSD 6.23mb 16bit-EXR lossy PLZ 6.44mb 16bit-PNG 7.94mb 8bit-TIFF 8.50mb 16bit-EXR Lossy 24 9.05mb 16bit-EXR Lossy Run Length 14.6mb 8bit-TARGA 22.4mb 32bit-EXR ZIP16 24.6mb 32bit-EXR Zip1 25.6mb 32bit-EXR PLZ 29.3mb 16bit-TIFF 29.3mb 16bit-PSD 40.0mb 32bit-EXR Run Length 58.7mb 16

Aggregated feedZ

So I totally aggregated all meh rss feedZ...So in this one handy like feed thing you can get... -Meh blog posts -Meh EXCITING Facebook status updates (ex. "I'm so FACE") -Meh youtube videos -Meh Vimeo videos -Meh Blogtalk radio episodes - and much more (actually just like some other xml code that i don't understand) Just subscribe via this link and you can get all that for a low low price of...oh wait it's totally FREE ^ ^

So a guy is trying to take credit for my film...

TLDR- Scroll down to THE THIEVERY My name is Mike- I make films under the name "M dot Strange" and I have done so for the past 10+ years- this is my story as a filmmaker culminating in a recent event wherein a "filmmaker" tried to take credit for my life's work Here's my imdb page with my film credits  My web site Here's a reel with stuff from my original films in which I wrote/created/designed/animated etc everything that you see- I can and have performed all aspects of animated film production on my films- thats sort of how I made a name for myself- by being a one man animated film studio Here's a presentation from 2014 with me discussing the production of my last film My first animated feature film "We Are The Strange" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 Sundance archives link Article about the film Link to the film Film's site Because of the buzz that film generated I was given offers to sell the