my first viral meaty red feature

[Michael Ragen]

Last February a Friend and I entered the Grindhouse Trailer Contest just for fun. We spent a couple weeks in preproduction then shot for one and a half days and edited for another two to get it done in time. The music was written and recorded in a week and a half. The only money we spent was for coffee for the actors and a couple props.

A few months later we decided we were going to develop it into a feature. Originally the plan was to shoot super low budget this Summer with my HVX200, but that idea got scrapped. The story is beginning to take on a life of its own and is becoming something much different than the exploition movie we orginally envisioned.

Right now our goal is to spread the name as much as possible among the free viral markets of the internet. Instead of shooting the feature with the HVX we are holding off as long as we need (maybe next year) to begin shooting with the Red.

The new plan involves shooting a series of shorts (one to five minutes) with the HVX to be distributed on Youtube and through a HD podcast subscription. The shorts will be everything from cooking shows to small stories involving characters from the feature to a karaoke video for the theme song. Through the podcast the shorts will be named as part of the movie, but on Youtube they will not be, the name only being revealed at the end of the short but not in the title (they will be tagged based on the actual content of the short). We will use guest writers, directors, and dp's on many of the shorts.

Right now the web address just links to the movie's Myspace page, but eventually it will lead the website complete with production blog, videos, music, and cooking recipes.

The reason I'm posting this is I am curious what the Reduser community thinks about this sort of approach for hyping indie projects. Are we missing something in our approach? We have no intention of competing with the bigshots this way and would be happy with festival play and a straight to dvd, hd-dvd, or blue-ray release.

If you are interested in seeing the very beginning of the viral attack, you can go here: www.wifeavore.com

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

 

[OwenR]

And the end of the day think creatively on the marketing but dont forget the story needs to be there in the first place..........

 

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

Story is overrated. If you're shooting in 4K you really don't need that anymore.






hehe, j/k.

 

[PaulClements]

I think viral marketting is more and more common place for any production these days. I don't think Hollywood is tapping into it as well as they might but certainly a start has been made. At the moment the setup of things like Youtube lean very much towards the indie market for progressing such campaigns. By the time youtube starts seeking revenue by including ads infront of the clips I think we'll see a lot more activity coming from the studios.

As a promotional exercise for your feature I think you're going about it the right way Deadmike. I'll try to check out the website from time to time and lend a thought or two if I should have one. Keep us uptodate of any events.

Good luck.

Paul