That's Right, I'm Talking About Lady Gaga's Video... And Why You Should Care

How many of you have seen the long version of Lady Gaga's music video for "Telephone"? You know, the ten minute version? I'll find it on Youtube and embed it below, in case you haven't. I have to say, I like the video. It has a grindhouse feel to it, plus a lot of skin and there's a lot of weird shit going on in it. I've watched it a few times, so it's safe to say that it keeps my attention. I know it's not horror, so why am I bringing it up? Well, because this site is as much about the indie horror industry as it is about indie horror... Actually, I'd say it's more so about the indie horror industry, but whatever. Anyhow, what's interesting about the video is that it's really just a short film. In fact, a lot of the short films that I see are shorter than this video. Now, this video, as of two days ago, has over 28 Million views on Youtube, been watched on MTV.com nearly 500,000 times and shared on Facebook and tweeted directly from the pop star's site some 150,000 times. That, my friends, is a lot of views... not only that, she got paid to make the video. No, not like because she's Lady Gaga and her label paid her, but through advertising. Watch the video, there's around ten different advertisers in it. From Miracle Whip to Virgin Mobile to the dating site, PlentyofFish.com. You think they're happy with the how the video has caught on? You're damn straight. So, she's made a shit load of money from all the advertisers, the short film has been watched millions of times and it didn't need TV, a cable company, a theater or a DVD player to do it... it was simply uploaded. And everyone involved is happier than a pig in shit. So, what can we take away from this?

Check out this article on Adage called "Why Long-Form Ads Are the Wave of the Future". It starts out by using this Lady Gaga example, but it gets into other 'long-form ads' and has links to some other examples, which are worth checking out. By the way, that's what they're calling this, a long-form ad, and let's not get too crazy here, it's really just a short film with advertising. Some of these long-form ads originate from the marketer/advertiser level, but some of them come from artists who attract advertisers to get involved. So, how would you get advertisers? Easy, well... easy to explain - get an audience. I'll be honest, if you can get an audience, you can get advertisers. Trust me, I work in advertising. So, are you putting this together yet? Short films, which have always been seen as the stuff of film schools and the little brother to feature films, have come in to their own AND could end up opening a lot of doors for a lot of filmmakers.

Okay, so most of our short horror films aren't going to get millions of views and turn into the next viral hit. However, as long as advertisers, big stars and big products get involved with short films... sorry, long-form ads, the market for short films will continue to develop and grow. Personally, I think the writing's on the wall, short films are going to explode - audiences are into them, the web is perfect for distributing them, advertisers are getting involved with them... How, when and where they explode, I have no idea, but I know it's going to be a good place to be. So, start coming up with your ten minute film ideas and figure out how to wrangle an audience. Until then, check out the Lady Gaga video...

What You Can Learn From The Films Coming Out This Week

It's another well deserved Friday and I can not WAIT to get my drink on tonight... or later today... or maybe right after I post this. By the way, I couldn't think of a good picture that's related to anything I wrote about, so I posted this screenshot from "Hostel II". Came across it, liked it. Anyhow... I'll tell you what, I don't know what it is, but I seem to have just been working on lots of different projects lately. A few of which I'm sure I'll be telling you about in the near future... it's exciting and hopefully it all pays off, but it's been leaving me with just small windows of time to work on the site... but I'm dedicated to it. I just finished up a few major things this week, so next week should be a little easier on me. Anyhow, there's two big releases, neither of which are horror related, hitting the theaters this weekend, which are "Fast and Furious" and "Adventureland" and I have absolutely no intention of seeing either of them. However, as with everything in life, there's interesting things about both of them that you can learn from...

"Fast & Furious" is really "The Fast & the Furious 4", obviously... and it's an interquel that's set between the second and third movies. I believe this actually came to fruition after Vin Diesel directed a 20 minute prequel in the Dominican Republic last summer. Either that or... that 20 minute short is the prequel to this. I'm not sure and, quite frankly, I don't care. I saw the first one and none of the others... There's a couple of cool things that they did on this film, though, which you could do. The first thing that's cool is that they went out and got a bunch of sponsors for the film, including Kuhmo Tires, NOS and Odessie.com to supplement their budget. I think that's genius and I think a lot of filmmakers should be trying to get sponsors. Why not? If people want to give you money to mention their products in your film, take it. The other thing that interests me is, why is this franchise still around? Seriously, what makes it relevant at all? The answer? I think it's because it's basically a 90 minute video game... and what you can take away from that is, remember your audience and cater to them. It's basic fundamentals - figure out your audience, figure out what your audience wants, then give it to them. Sounds basic, but people tend to forget that. After those two things, it looks fairly forgettable.

"Adventureland" is also interesting, but only because they've been marketing this film online for close to a year already. They put up a teaser site, then had an online game, then Myspace, twitter, Facebook, flickr, the whole deal. I'm interested in seeing if it pays off, as it doesn't really seem like they did a lot of traditional marketing and advertising. I haven't seen many ads for it, I don't see too many posters, I mean, there's not much out there at all. However, I know about it. Much like "Fast and Furious", maybe they know their audience? Maybe they know that they exist online and that's how they're going to reach them. We'll see... once again, know your audience.

Lastly, there's an indie (by Hollywood standards) film coming out today called "Alien Trespass". I got a bit excited when I read the title, but it turns out that it's a comedy with Eric McCormack set in 1957 about an alien attack. Anyhow, I went over to their site and I have to say, it's a pretty good site. It doesn't do anything too crazy, no games or things like that, but it's a really good website that tells you all you need to know. If you're putting together a site for your film, go check it out and get some ideas - link.

There's only one festival related thing that I wanted to talk about and that's the 2nd Creative World Awards Screenplay Contest. It's LA based and gives you direct access to top level producers, agents and development execs. It's ranked in the top 5 on the Moviebyte's list, "Most Significant Contests to Enter". Also, they're affiliated with a lot of the horror companies, such as Lionsgate/Mandate International, Icon Films & Entertainment, Relativity Media and various others... further, they have separate genre divisions, so you don't have to be grouped in with all the fluff scripts. I tend to be very apprehensive about screenplay competitions, but if you're a fledgling screenwriter, you do need to enter them. It's a great way to get coverage and to get your stuff out there. You don't just enter any of them, though... you need to pick the good ones and this is one of them. Here's a link to their site, go check it out.

That's it. Have a good weekend, see you next week...

Mountain Dew funds Indie Film

I came across this article today and wanted to write up a quick post on it... I still hope to have something for Film Fest Friday up later today.

I was talking about product placement and getting financing from marketing budgets in a post a little while ago and here's an actual example. Check out this article from 'Advertising Age' or 'Adage', as they call it - they're pretty much the go-to site when it comes to advertising, marketing and media. The cool thing about the article is that it's from the perspective of the marketer, which is, in this case, Mountain Dew, who's financing an indie skater film called, "Deathbowl to Downtown". So, you'll be able to see what a brand would expect to get out of financing or just getting involved with your film.

Now for the rant/explanation part of my post: Product placement, sponsorship and outright advertising has been the business model in TV forever, as in... literally, forever. Basically, they give you content for free in exchange for making you watch ads, which they get paid for. However, with DVR's, VOD, time-shifting, etc... the TV market's become fragmented, eye balls are wandering and people aren't paying attention to ads, so advertisers are looking elsewhere. Further, the lines between TV and film are starting to blur... it's not so much a market where that's a TV program and I watch it on CBS on Thursday's at 9PM or that's a film that I go to the theater to watch it. The new market is, that's content, I don't care where it came from, and I'm watching it on TV, I'm watching it in a theater or even on my phone. So, with blurring lines and a fragmented marketing place, you're going to see more and more advertisers just trying to get involved with content, wherever it originates from. In fact, you're going to see advertisers trying to get everywhere - if you run a festival, it should be easy to get sponsors these days, but I digress...

So, as an indie filmmaker, this means a few things for you. One, (and most importantly) you should never just think of traditional distribution methods anymore. What you're making isn't as much a film as it is content... and people need to be able to view that content any way they want. Two, and the point of this post, remember that marketers and advertisers are yet another potential source for financing. You've got the talent and ability to make a product that people will watch, regardless of whether it's 500 people or 500,000 people... and there's a marketer out there who would pay to get his brand in front of those people.

The next post will be on some horror film festival... I'm trying to figure out which one to talk about.