Here’s a video of where someone asks me what my inspiration was for Mr. Styles was…

To my joy, the film was fairly well received with the audience. There’s something about comedy that works for people. I find that there aren’t too many comedy short films, so it kind of works in my films favor, since it provides a good counter-balance among typically more serious shorts.

Panel Discussion for An Evening of Short FilmsIt was a wonderful feeling to hear people laugh where I hoped they would laugh.

It was striking to see an audience member laugh at a joke that I inserted into the screenplay two years earlier. I remember exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it. To know that the joke was never lost in the process somewhere in production or post-production is an unspeakable feeling!

Its nice to know that I’m not crazy! That other people think my jokes are funny, too!

For the first time, I was invited to speak on a panel. People were actually interested in my thought process. This is very flattering, as I made a promise to myself that I would not ever beg anyone for a stage. I feel like if I do that, then its me wanting the glory for myself and not the Lord making a way for me.

People asked me what my inspiration was for Ricky “Doughboy” Styles. Folks, if you hang around enough network marketing people long enough, you’ll be able to tell where a big chunk of my inspiration came from .

Although this was my first panel discussion on the movie, this is not my first time working with groups of people, and I try to make the most of these kinds of situations to have maximum benefit. Even though I was feeling kind of lazy, I passed out an email sign-up sheet and plugged the DVD. Note that even though I had DVDs available, the email signup sheet is FAR more important than DVD sales. The reason why is the email addresses allow you to create a long-term relationship with a limitless amount of people who know you directly, which allows you to not only market a product to them in the future but to also work with them in any number of ways unforeseen at the moment but no less necessary.

With that said, I even made a sale that night! One audience member loved the film so much, he just had to have it! FYI, as business owner, its critical to me that I give customers multiple ways to pay. Just because I’m one person doesn’t mean I can’t deal with credit cards. I actually do process credit cards on the go! I have a few ways of doing this, much has developed through trial-and-error, as well as watching local artists push their products.

For Sam, all I did was use his phone to pull up a webpage that I’ve got setup that links to my DVD in paypal. Boom. Quick transaction.

When people tell me they like the film, I generally like to find out why. This is typically because people have some sort of experience with network marketing that they already bring to the film. Not so with Sam! All he said was, “its funny man! I gotta get this and show my boys!”

That’s great! Get definitely get it. Definitely show your boys.

Sam and Byword making a DVD purchase over his phone

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1654737/

http://jewelboxing.com/blogarchive.php?note=000902.php

If enough people in your area are interested we can a screening going and going fast! And it doesn’t have to be in a theater. It can be in a dorm room, a coffee shop, a bookstore, a classroom, a backyard, a rooftop, a janitor’s closet-anywhere you can fit people, a screen and a dvd player. Vote on Open Indie and give me shout!

http://openindie.com/films/hopes-and-schemes

http://deandrevidale.com/2010/04/hopes-and-schemes-trailer-poster/