Hollywood Has Their Numbers, And Soon We Will Too

And no, I'm not talking about bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in box office sales, then lounging at the country club, wondering what the poor are doing that day. That sure would be nice though...

Fetch my servant, I need my dinner jacket pressed

Say what you will about Hollywood and their marketing, but they do know how to reach their target audiences.  You don't see photos from a Hollywood "indie" (which is anything but, but that's another story) slapped on a Slurpee cup and you don't see a Transformers trailer before a romantic comedy.  The big studios focus on demographics that will be interested in certain movies and then focus their marketing on those people.

Now, as real independent productions we simply don't have the money to market on the scale Hollywood does, but the rise of social media has given us some powerful tools to help grow our movies' audiences. For example, with The Photon Effect we're on Facebook, twitter (@Thephotoneffect), imdb, this blog, and video clips on vimeo, youtube, and a tumblr account.  We know comic book, sci fi, and superhero flick fans may like our movie so we tag all our postings with those keywords so people will Stumbleupon our stuff.  Tomorrow's brief blog will be a link to a great filmmaking resource I recently discovered, so be sure to check back!

I'm sure more than sure some filmmakers out there might think "wait a minute, when I get my movie into Sundance/Tribeca/Toronto/Cannes a distributor rep will give me a fat check and take care of all that marketing stuff!"  I'm sure of this because I thought the same thing. Pump your brakes there bud.  One, with the sheer number of indie films being made the odds of getting in are lower and lower each year. Secondly, the only marketing those distributor reps are going to do will involve posting a thumbnail image of your one sheet on their webpage and MAYBE sending out screeners to sales reps.  THAT'S IT.  How do I know?  The distributor rep we were talking to told us that.  That was a real punch in the junk.  Reading stories from other filmmakers confirmed that this wasn't in isolated incident.

So don't wait until the movie is almost ready for distribution like we are. Get out there and get your audience now!

Write What You Know

*Inspiration for today’s blog comes from Daniel Fraizer of Comic Hero News*

After taking a screenwriting class with the world famous screenplay instructor Robert McKee (http://mckeestory.com/?page_id=27), Robert signed The Photon Effect writer Dan Poole’s textbook with “Write the truth”.  Once reading that, it may seem impossible to to conjure up a fictitious superhero using only your past experiences.  I mean, it’s not like a real life superhero with extraordinary powers hangs out in your neighborhood!  However, lessons can still be learned from that quote.

Is there any field of expertise in which you are knowledgeable of that could be harvested to create an original superhero/superhuman community?  What rules must be adhered to while working in that field?  What happens when those rules are broken?   Use those facts and consequences as a basis for your story instead of just some idea that sounds cool in your head.

For example, TPE director/writer Dan drew on his experience of climbing communications towers to develop the powers his protagonist would have. Couple that with dealings with shady business owners and real family struggle and you have a solid foundation to begin your creative process.

To sum it up, create characters and a plot based on what you know, and then have fun with all the little details.  If you don't know of a field in which superpowers could be developed from, start researching!  Get to the library or call on the power of Google to discover something new!

Comic Con International’s Influence on The Photon Effect

No hanging with Stan the Man this year :(

This year marks the first in several years that neither director Dan Poole or producer Doug Adams (who will be crafting most of the blogs, including this one) will be attending Comic Con International in San Diego.  Dan had a sweet gig as the PA announcer for Viz Media that unfortunately wasn’t renewed.  Good luck finding someone better on the mic!  It’s a shame since Comic Con has a lot to do with The Photon Effect evolving from an idea into a real moving picture show that will soon be out on the market.

For those not in the know, Dan has made a name for himself with some incredible fan films based on Marvel’s Spider-Man (which might still be on the web somewhere) and Wolverine (which definitely is http://youtu.be/c1YWJVK8X3g).  Back in 2004 he had the idea of making an Avengers fan film featuring Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America which he shared with folks in the biz at Comic Con, most notably G4′s Chris Gore.

While everyone loved the concept, the growing consensus was that Dan was too talented to spend time on another fan film, a stance on which I vehemently agreed.  There was no money in it and the big studios are doing everything they can to make sure indie filmmakers don’t go “tarnishing” their brand names.  Instead, it was advised he should try to make a movie with an all original story and characters that could be sold on the open market.  While Dan wanted to do it, how was he going to get the money to make this flick?  Well…….

These words likely carried more weight than intended

2004 was my first trip to Comic Con and I gotta say there was something in the air that was infectious.  No, I’m not talking about the rampant B.O. that’s lingering in those costumes after Day 1.  It was having all those creative people, the actors and filmmakers that make the films I love to see, in one place that flipped a switch in my mind.  I started to think “why can’t I join in on their reindeer games?”  But where do I begin and how should I go about this?

Long story short, I found out I had some equity in my home that turned out to be very close to the movie budget number Dan had calculated. I think it was that night I told Dan to get cracking on his script because we have a movie to make!

As you can tell from the date, this movie has been in the works for a looooong time.  We’ll discuss why in later blog posts.  Until then, thanks for stopping by and if any of you readers are out in San Diego this weekend, stay classy.