Week 1: Reiss Questions Blog Post (Blakelock)

1.     The marketing and distribution budget for The Wizard’s Shadow is currently under review. We estimate not spending more than $3,000 total, to include digital distribution, banner ads, one-sheets, limited-run souvenir DVDs for cast and crew, and festival entry fees. We will self-finance and expect to have funding in place by July 2014.

2.     I have begun to engage my audience by word-of-mouth—several of my cast members are themselves working artists/entertainers/filmmakers and I hope to cross-promote their work and highlight their involvement in my film. As I move toward post-production and am now no longer living in Florida, I hope to build more of an online presence for my film, maintaining contact with people I met in Florida, reaching out to people in Dallas who might have an interest in my film, and reaching out online to potential viewers around the world.  In order to maintain viewer interest, it will be vital that I maintain contact with anyone I meet, and I will need to periodically provide status updates about the film. I plan to have content (edited sequences) available through Vimeo and the film’s website, as well as a newsletter or blog that covers my film as well as related topics and highlights participants’ involvement in related projects (i.e., magic shows, haunt conventions, etc.). As soon as I start editing, I plan to start loading sequences to Vimeo and the film’s website. I created a website for the film a couple years ago, prior to my first-year semester consult, but so much about the film has changed that it is time to completely overhaul that original website. I plan to work on the website and uploading sequences this semester while I put together a rough cut of the film, and I plan to continue to refine content on the website throughout the post-production and distribution process. I don’t yet know how much of a shelf life this film will have, so I’m hesitant to commit more than 2-3 years of part-time effort to distributing the film and reaching an audience.

3.     I am in charge of marketing and/or distribution for my project, and my responsibilities in this arena will be to create and maintain promotional and informational content pertaining to the film, maintain correspondence with participants and potential viewers, research festivals and communities that might be receptive to this film, research potential distribution avenues, and implement a distribution strategy. I will be focusing on researching and developing a marketing and distribution strategy this semester, but the majority of implementation (submitting to festivals, releasing the film digitally) will take place after at least a rough cut has been completed.

4.     Some non-traditional platforms or methods I could use to tell and/or promote my story would be to release it episodically online or to incorporate live performance into public screenings of the film. Releasing the film episodically online could allow me to create sequences that function as self-contained pieces or as part of a larger whole, but the challenge in either case would be to maintain viewer interest over time. I am not sure how to go about doing that but will be thinking about it more as the semester progresses. I am inclined to incorporate live performance into public screenings of the film—it is a documentary about a performer (a magician) and his circle of friends, and I think the material and subject would lend itself to being part of a live performance. I envision the film being projected either in whole or in sequences on a backdrop while magicians perform Harry’s tricks, perhaps, or maybe the film is projected on continuous loop in a room where the viewer is surrounded by Harry’s things? In the case of live performance screenings or installations, I would be using the novelty of the approach to lure in viewers and the film, while at times a background element, would hopefully be entertaining enough to encourage viewers to check out my future work. I am drawn to the live performance approach because it would allow me to collaborate with other artists to create an “experience” that could not be replicated at home. The live performance approach would not be the only way that I would disseminate the film, but it would be a way that would help the film gain notoriety.