Self Helpless

Support for Tilt

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:16:00 +0000

Please support our friends from Tilt. They are incredibly close to reaching their goal. If you ever downloaded Self Helpless for free then show some love by kicking a dollar or two towards some great people who are working their asses off to make their first feature film.

A Peek Behind The Genius

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:33:00 +0000

Yes, this is an actual pre-production note. I found it today amongst a stack of shot lists, script drafts, and storyboards drawn on post it notes.

Victory!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:12:00 +0000

Success!! I want to thank everyone who has helped with the bittorrent/widget release of Self Helpless. Thanks to your support our little movie has been viewed and downloaded OVER 60,000 TIMES IN ONLY ONE MONTH!!!! We have been receiving emails from people around the world who have become fans of the movie. Check out this awesome message from a fan in the UK:

"As for my support, thanks for making something worth supporting. I totally love finding free services/media/etc. out there, and i probably spend more of my money on them than the pricey mainstream stuff (and proudly so). Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of bullshit out there, but you guys made an incredibly well thought up, funny movie, and put it together perfectly. Especially wanted to credit the production quality for an indie film. Top stuff. "

Badass!!

Our hope with Self Helpless was to get the movie seen by as many people as possible, and you have made this a reality. Thank you.

We need your help to continue to move Self Helpless forward. If you have streamed or downloaded Self Helpless, please consider picking up a DVD, t-shirt, mug, or ashtray from our store. If you are short on cash we have a digital download of the ad-free director's cut available for under $10. All of our merchandise was designed in house, and made in the USA. To thank our fans for their support, we have created a thank you page where you can pick up a discounted DVD or digital download. Anything you can afford makes a huge difference.

Instead of paying off our mountainous credit card bills, we are going to reinvest any money we make from merchandise sales into advertising the film. This is our best chance to bring Self Helples to a wider audience. Fuck the credit card companies anyway.

Thank you all for your support. You are the reason we are still fighting to find the Don Rodrigo!!

Discounted merchandise here: www.selfhelplessmovie.com/thankyou

Self Helpless on East Village Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:46:00 +0000

The East Coast tour continues. Cassidy will be making an appearance on the Baller's Eve show on East Village Radio this evening. Baller's Eve has been representing Southern hip hop in NYC for the last 7 years. They have become a staple of NYC hip hop radio. Be sure to check the show out online for FREE.

More news from the Devin The Dude tour to come soon.

Self Helpless and Devin The Dude: NYC and Boston Shindigs

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:36:00 +0000

We are hitting the road with Devin The Dude for two of his East Coast tour stops. We are throwing Self Helpless after parties for Devin's NYC and Boston shows. DJ John Candy will be on the turntables, and we will be projecting your favorite scenes from Self Helpless. Great music, a great movie, and Devin The Dude. Should be a blast.

Devin puts on a GREAT show, and he will have his entire Coughee Brothaz crew with him. A ticket to the show gets you into the after party for FREE and gets you $5 off a Self Helpless DVD.

Come out and party with us. Indie music and indie film unite like Voltron.

-NYC-

Thursday, 5/20, The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn

Tickets

Facebook page

-Boston-

Friday, 5/21, The Paradise, Comm Ave, Boston

Tickets

Facebook page

Download Self Helpless For FREE - the widget campaign begins

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:01:00 +0000

After 2 years of busting our asses and sequestered like hermits, I am proud to announce the official release of Self Helpless. BLAOW!!!!

I am also happy to announce that we are giving Self Helpless to you for FREE. All we ask is that you take a hit, and then pass it on. Isn't that how we all find out about the best stuff anyway? Just click on the joint below and you'll be able to get the movie without paying a dime. Our only request is that you share the movie with your friends.

Bittorrent / Widget Campaign - what the fuck?

That thingy with the joint and the video is a widget. Widgets are basically little posters that you can put on your Facebook wall or post in your blog, except they can do cool stuff like play videos or give you a free movie. They are kind of like a joint: Little, easy to share and pass around, and the best ones ones have some good shit in them.

We are basing our distribution around a bittorrent release (see here) combined with a widget campaign. If you aren't familiar with widget posting (I know, it sounds severiously nerdy), don't worry. It couldn't be easier. Just follow the instructions and you will have the option to share the widget on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, or anything else that you use to communicate with people. Hopefully your friends will see the widget on your page, they will check out Self Helpless, and the cycle will continue.

We created a discount program to thank people for passing Self Helpless on. Anyone who posts our widget can pick up the Extended Director's Cut DVD for only $12, or the Director's Cut Digital Download for only $4.20. All you have to do is email a link to where you posted our widget to passiton@selfhelplessmovie.com. We will send you a link to the page where you can get your discounts.

Why give our movie away for free?

Take a look at your DVD collection. How many of those movies did you buy because you saw the movie and you liked it? Why would anyone buy something that they haven't had a chance to check out first? Big studios spend a lot of money trying to convince people to buy their movies. Our revolutionary idea is: make a really good, original movie, and then let people decide if they like it. We aren't exactly shaking the pillars of capitalism here, but it works for us.

Open a bottle of cheap tequila, roll a couple doobies, invite a few friends over, and enjoy some independent comedy on us.

PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE MOVIE AND PASS IT ON - WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!

Widget Notes:

Blogger - If you just want to blast the widget off in one article, then copy the html code and drop it in to the html tab of one of your posts. If you want to install our widget as a feature in your sidebar, then just click the B tab.

Twitter - The twitter option is weakter. You might as well just tweet a link to www.selfhelplessmovie.com/passiton

Wordpress - Wordpress doesn't get down with our widget service at the moment. Bummer. If you want to post about Self Helpless you can post the image below. It will link to this page where people can get the movie for free: http://www.selfhelplessmovie.com/passiton/

Self Helpless on VEEHD.COM

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:47:00 +0000

I want to send a big shout out to the folks at VEEHD.COM. They posted Self Helpless front and center on their site. VEEHD is tight. They have over 100,000 dedicated members. They are very professional, and they love to support good independent producers. I am surprised that there isn't more talk about sites like VEEHD and NinjaVideo in the indie film circles. Streaming sites like these have dedicated audiences of folks who really like movies. We have gotten a ton of emails from people who saw Self Helpless on VEEHD and loved it. Check out some of the cool stuff they have on their site, and feel free to pass it on.

Thanks VEEHD!

Adios 4/20 Release

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:44:00 +0000

So, we sort of semi-pseudo leaked that we might be releasing the movie on 4/20. As much as we wanted to have something fresh to pass around on the day of passing freshness around, our supplier ran dry. Fear not! We are working hard to get some good, potent product together. We will roll something up and pass it your way very soon. And as always, the first hit will be free.

Until then, you can check out Self Helpless on Ninjavideo and Mininova. Both sites kick ass, and have shown us a ton of support.

More soon.

Ninja Video Is The SHIIIIT

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:54:00 +0000

If you haven't already gotten down with NinjaVideo, you better get on your shit because it's one of the dopest video sites on the interweb. They have a wide selection of the highest quality streamed tv and movies, sweet daily line-ups, a huge-ass forum, and extra secret awesome benefits for contributing members. NinjaVideo is a fucking Mecca.

Ninja's been on our list of must-visit sites for a while now, so we sent Self Helpless their way to tell them about our free distribution movement. When we woke up this morning we saw that they had posted our flick on the main site. Fuck yeah! NV is all about supporting quality shit, and we are pumped to be featured front and center. Check out their site, you are pretty much guaranteed to find something that you didn't know was out there.

Much thanks for the support!

Self Helpless is Available On Bittorrent [updated links]

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:41:00 +0000

[Administrators - if you would be willing to feature the Self Helpless torrent or set it up for free leach, we would be very grateful. Hit us with an email at info@selfhelplessmovie.com and we will happily promote your site. Thank you.]

Self Helpless is officially available on bittorrent. First things first, here is where you can find the torrent:

(the seed on mininova is the strongest right now)

You can get the torrent-version directly from megaupload.com. If you download it, please seed:

Megaupload link - AVI

Megaupload link - MPEG4

We are doing our best to keep the torrent seeded. Please feel free to upload it to your favorite tracker or private site. Seed, comment, and pass it on. Enjoy!

We want as many people as possible to download the movie. Get it, smoke a joint, do a couple shots of tequila, and watch it with your friends. If you laugh, please tell someone else about it, blast it off on facebook, and join our email list. Our official store will be online in the next day or two. We will update the blog once it is up.

We are not asking for donations. There are much more important causes that you should donate to. We have worked hard our whole lives and we just don't feel right about begging for money. If you don't have enough cash to buy something from our store, we understand. We are right there with you. Just tell a friend about Self Helpless and sign up for our email list so you can come see us when we bring live comedy to your town.

To all the evil pirates out there we would like to say, thank you! Thank you for taking the time to download and watch our film. We hope it made you laugh. Thank you for giving up some space in your ratio, and for seeding the film for everyone else.

Official Bit Torrent Release: Friday 4/16

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:03:00 +0000

We are proud to announce that Self Helpless will be released for free on bittorrent on Friday, April 16th 2010. The film will be available as a free and legal download exclusively on bittorrent for 4 days. After this 4 day bittorrent-only release we will not make any effort to remove the film. It is yours, enjoy. We had planned to release Self Helpless for a 7 day bittorrent-only run, but we ran into some technical issues over the last few days. The DVD release will begin on 4/20.

The name of the torrent file is Self Helpless_(2010)_xvid_avi.avi - it should be available on a number of public trackers. Please feel free to upload Self Helpless to any trackers or private sites. We will also be uploading an MOV version, as well as several larger full HD versions for the real cinephiles.

We want as many people as possible to download Self Helpless. We will update the blog and twitter with a list of sites that have the torrent.

If you are new to the whole Self Helpless bittorrent movement, here are two blog posts that will bring you up to speed.

1) Who's On First

2) Torrent-Only Release FAQ

This is the future of content distribution. Downloaders are not opposed to artists profiting from their craft, they just want a chance to check stuff out before buying. You get to test drive a car. You try on clothes before you buy them. You can even mess with your iPod for 30 days and then bring it back to Best Buy. Why, then, does hollywood insist that people spend their hard earned money before ever getting a chance to see if they like a movie? We see downloading as capitalism at its best.

Our model is simple. We have made a great, unique, hilarious film. Self Helpless appeals directly to people in our age group who enjoy clever, low brow, character driven comedies. So we want people to see the damned movie. If they decide that they like Self Helpless, then they can buy an extended Director's Cut DVD or a dope-ass original t-shirt. This works for us because our movie is solid. This scares Hollywood because studios make big money by scamming people into paying to see the same formulaic, cliche movies. No one is going to buy a t-shirt for "Wanted" because it was a piece of dog-shit.

If you make quality content that people can identify with and get behind, then they will support it. Bittorrent is the greatest thing to happen to filmmakers, and they are missing the boat.

We are not accepting donations. We are healthy, intelligent young men, and there are far better causes to which you could donate. If you do want to support the film we have a bunch of original movie merchandise for sale at all different price levels. If you are as short on cash as we are, then just join our email list. That way you will be able to come see us when we bring our particular brand of screening / live comedy / giant tequila-soaked party to your town.

Big studios are spending millions trying to combat, sue, and lock up downloaders. They should be spending that money making innovative movies. Fuck that. We ride with the downloaders. You are our people. We made Self Helpless for you.

We Want You To Be Cool

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 22:50:00 +0000

I know we usually reserve this blog for posts about Self Helpless, but I wanted to drop a little cool on errbody for a second. While we were at SXSW we took time off from throwing Self Helpless condoms at people to put together the EOW Entertainment x Living Proof Magazine project. We interviewed 9 of the freshest musicians, filmmakers, animators, and DJs at the festival. You may already be familiar with one or two of these folks, but I guarantee you will discover some new dopeness. All of these people are on the come up and are making the art that we will be looking at and listening to in the future.

If you want to stay up on shit in the future - Living Proof Magazine comes highly recommended. You can find the small-format print version wherever you go to blow your tax return on fly gear. That thing is ghosty, it'll just be on the shelf at Supreme next to some super-double-extra-exclusive kicks, or there might be a copy next to the mixer at Fat Beats. You never know. But you can always catch up on the heat at www.livingproofmag.com. The digital version of the mag is available for download, and the blog is updated on the reg with mint photography, painting, graffiti, graphic design, mixtapes, all that good stuff.

Here are the links to the articles in no particular order:

1) Bad Rabbits - My favorite new band.

2) Harry Chaskin - Animator, and true-school stop motion aficionado.

3) Homeboy Sandman - One of the most talented MCs coming out of NYC.

4) Sol Friedman - His animated short, Junko's Shamisan is just badass.

5) Jon Reiss - O.G. filmmaker is still on the cutting edge. One of our mentors.

6) Travis Senger - I just can't love White Lines and The Fever: The Death of DJ Junebug any more.

7) Peter Ahern - Peter's short was like Calvin and Hobbes meets Ren and Stimpy. Sweet.

8) Johanne St-Marie - Just watch the fucking video and you will realize why she rules.

9) DJ Neil Armstrong - Mixtape legend, Jay-Z's tour DJ, and my favorite DJ of all time.

You are now cooler than all of your friends. You're welcome.

Christy Dena Will Help You Be More Successful

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:41:00 +0000

I consider myself to be a pretty cutting edge dude. I pay attention to the interwebs and the FaceTubes and such. I know the buzzwords. Everybody is always talking about "transmedia". I read a few blogs about transmedia and I got sick of people telling me I needed to make an iPhone app for my movie. That kind of talk doesn't really hold water for me. I live on my dad's couch. I will be lucky if I can sell enough weed to afford to create our DVDs. There is no room for transmedia strategizing in my meager budget, or my massive to-do list. Or so I thought. After we were lucky enough to participate the in the Slamdance Filmmaker Summit, we got in contact with Christy Dena. Procuring Christy's services was one of the most positive moves we have made with Self Helpless.

I was expecting that Christy would skim through a few minutes of Self Helpless, and hit us with a few emails suggesting that we invest in an app designer and a better Facebook page and that would be the end of it. I was wrong.

Between flights around the world to deal with her major clients who pay her way more than I could afford, Christy found time to screen Self Helpless. In fact, she watched it twice. I find it difficult to verbalize how shocking this is. We have to fight tooth and nail to get people to watch our movie once, and most of those folks have nothing better to do. Not only did Christy give Self Helpless a thorough going through, she got it. She knew all the characters' names, their motivations, and their personalities. She read every blog post, comment, and tweet that we have spewed forth upon the web over the last year. She did her goddamned homework. And then she sent us her consultation: a 14 page PDF with a fully developed report on our film's transmedia possibilities, including a giant "brain map" flow chart diagram thingy outlining all of her different ideas and how they could relate to our release timeline.

Blown away would be an understatement. Christy treated our little indie film as if we were a major corporation. Here's why Christy's transmedia ideas were invaluable to us:

1 - We never would have come up with them. Again, we are pretty far from being stuck in any old school models. I would say we are forward thinking. Christy is better. She is really on some next level shit.

2 - Her ideas felt like they came from us. They were rude, a little shocking, and very funny. They reflected a thorough understanding of our film, our style, and the brand that we are building.

3 - The total cost of implementing Christy's ideas = $0.00. She designed her entire consultation with the understanding that our crew is quite capable with regards to media creation, and fairly destitute in the realm of budget. Her ideas make use of our best strengths, and account for our greatest weaknesses.

My only regret is that we did not get in touch with Christy as soon as we finished the script. Now that I have seen what Christy is capable of, I have realized how much more we could have done with Self Helples if we had gotten her involved sooner. If you are looking into making or releasing a film, company, or any other project that involves connecting with an audience or customer base, do yourself a favor and contact Christy.

You can get in touch with Christy Dena at her site: www.universecreation101.com

Where We At

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:35:00 +0000

I smell hideous. I smell like couch sleeping and coffee-farts. Gross. I haven't seen a female (youporn.com aside) all week. I am currently chained to the computer, editing video to the point of mania. Our backlog of projects has gotten nearly unmanageable. Here is what we are slogging through right now:

Self Helpless release - I know it has been a while since you all came out and saw Self Helpless at your local (porn) theater. Well we are finally ready to release the film on bittorrent and DVD. It took us about 3 months to get the final cut of the movie finished, and get the DVD mastered. We have put some cool extras into the DVD including some exclusive Devin the Dude concert footage and the requisite deleted scenes. The bittorrent version of Self Helpless will be coming out one week before the DVD. This extra version of the film will take a couple of days to put together, but hopefully a lot of people will see it. If things work out we just might be throwing a little shindig to celebrate the DVD release. Keep an eye on the ole Twitter and Facebook over the next few weeks.

Devin the Dude's "What I Be On" Video - Yeah, we have jumped hard into the music video game. We were out in Houston for 5 days at the beginning of February shooting a lovely video for Devin's new album (dropping on 4/20). We are in the process of editing this masterpiece, and it should be released in the next few weeks.

Soul Khan's "SMD" Video - We shot this classic boom bap style video, along with a doc short about Fat Beats NYC, in January. The video should be done by the end of this month. The whole Brown Bag All Stars crew came out and represented for the video. Soul Khan put in 12 straight hours of work despite a 102 degree fever. Nuff said.

Professor David Veslocki - On the same NYC trip we shot a video for guitar virtuoso David Veslocki. It is definitely a departure from our usual fair (guns, cocaine, milk-farts and titties), but it was time to expand our horizons. Veslocki plays guitar like The Drake smokes weed, very fucking well. He blessed our score with a few lovely compositions so it was cool to return the flavor.

The Pilot - We are shopping a super double extra secret pilot (read: emailing the 3 people we know in Hollywood 5 or 6 times a day, which accomplishes very little since they all work in bars). If we run out of beer before the pilot sells then we will probably just shoot it ourselves out of boredom.

To everyone that has carried the Self Helpless flag o' this many months, we thank you. We won't let you down. You will actually be able to buy, download, and watch the movie very soon. And we will have more cool stuff to follow shortly thereafter. Thanks for all the support, you are all on the guest list.

You, literally, sound like a moron.

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:50:00 +0000

I know we usually stick to DIY film distribution ranting and tales of questionable girls we have hooked with at Self Helpless screenings, but I felt the need to address an important issue in today's society for a moment: the rampant incorrect use of the word "literally".

In the hands of millions of strong sixes wearing Ugg boots and black American Apparel yoga pants and dudes with pet names for their abs, this once venerably direct adverb has become nothing more than a contorted synonym for "very".

Some standard misuses of "literally":

- "Oh my god, I literally killed my boyfriend last night." No, you buffoon, you would be in jail if you had literally killed your boyfriend. I believe you meant to say the opposite, that you had figuratively killed your boyfriend, probably by emptying his wallet and sucking off some college hockey player you met in a Chilli's parking lot.

- "It was, literally, like, 4:30 when I called her." There is no way for it to be figuratively 4:30. This is a time, not a fucking metaphor. You do not use literally here because the statement is literal as is. This is redundant and ignorant.

Literally is used, in it's most dynamic form, when it is clarifying the literal implications of a statement which might otherwise easily be mistaken for a metaphorical reference. An example of this type of correct use:

- "He passed to me with three seconds left on the clock and I, literally, dropped the ball. I was so angry." Get it? "Drop the ball" is an oft used metaphor for failing to take care of business in the clutch. In this case the subject did this in both the literal and figurative senses.

Next time you hear some empty headed goon or functionally retarded Britney-clone spewing something like "Oh my god, I literally love cucumbers," be sure to ask them to detail exactly how they consummate this love.

The Sensation of Sight and The Power of Local

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:26:00 +0000

At our (one and only) festival appearance, we were lucky enough to score some face time with a pretty cool indie distributor. When I mentioned the hometown success we had been having with Self Helpless (sold out theaters, print articles, and a TV appearance) he pretty much laughed in my face. "Success anywhere outside of LA or NY is meaningless, and probably detrimental," was his basic message. While that may be true for films that are shopping to distributors for a theatrical release (old school), it is certainly not the case for those of us who are releasing our own films (true school). I was happy to discover a very concrete example of local success leading to major recognition for a film called The Sensation of Sight.

The Sensation of Sight is a truly independent film that was shot next door to us in New Hampshire. You can check out their excellent website here. The film's executive producer, Buzz McLaughlin, has been writing an illuminating series of blog posts about the film's distribution adventures. His most recent post detailed how his team was able to translate successful theatrical runs in indie theaters in New Hampshire to national recognition and an eventual distribution deal.

I won't recycle the entire blog post, but one piece of information was particularly interesting. After The Sensation of Sight sold out their opening weekend in New Hampshire, the theater reported their sales for that weekend to a number of national media services. Because of this, Variety listed the film at #4 in national per-screening box office gross for that weekend. This put The Sensation of Sight in front of a lot of people's eyes. I was completely unaware of this sales reporting system. Had we understood this aspect of the game, we might have been able to leverage this national reporting system to generate some press when Self Helpless sold out the Brattle theater in Boston, and the Roxy in Burlington, VT.

Check out The Sensation of Sight, and never underestimate the power of local, even if you live in a place where cows outnumber people!

How to exxxttteeeeeeend our film's life?

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:11:00 +0000

Jon Reiss recently addressed an interesting topic on his blog. Jon's post was a response to an article by Brian Newman which you can see here. Basically, they are talking about rethinking the "life" of a film. Generally films put a ton of time, money, and energy into pre-release PR. The goal is to build as much buzz as possible so as to maximize the exposure of their release. After the release, that's it. The movie is out there and people buy it, watch it, download it, whatever. While Jon feels that pre-release PR is very important because this is what puts a film on the media map, he and Brian also suggest that filmmakers consider putting more into the post-release life of their films.

This rings true with us. A lot of people have given us the old line "You only get one release, that is your biggest chance for sales, don't take it lightly". The "release" is just a date. It is (in the case of Self Helpless, and lots of other micro-budget films) nothing more than the first day you can buy or download our movie. This idea of the release date as some sacred and pivotal moment seems to be a hold over from the old distributor-based distribution days. So what are some concrete actions that filmmakers can take to continue to grow their audience after they release their film?

The main idea that we have for post-release PR for Self Helpless is a demand based tour. A lot of filmmakers seem to be touring their movie in order to build an audience before their release. This didn't appeal to us. With no press, or stars, or giant youtube following, we found that it was incredibly difficult to manufacture an audience once we got away from our home zone. We still think that a screening tour would be a great way to build audiences and get a shit-ton of tail. We are going to use "demand it" to set up a post-release tour. If we can build an audience with our torrent release, then hopefully those folks will want to see Self Helpless in a theater and meet the assholes who made it.

What are some other ways that filmmakers can continue to build their audience after releasing their film? Are there things that we can do that don't cost a ton of money? Everyone would like to release an app and an online game and a graphic novel, but that just aint in the cards for us. We would love anyone's suggestions.

If you are interested in connecting with some folks who are pondering answers to similar indy distribution question, try searching #infdist on twitter.

Where We Been At

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:29:00 +0000

Since we momentarily disappeared from the interwebs, I thought I owed it to y'all to give a quick update on where we are at with Self Helpless. Over the holidays all four of us have been keeping it very "indie filmmaker" status. Adam, PK, and myself are living with our parents and working at bars and restaurants in our home towns. Pluses: no rent means we can work on the credit card bills from producing Self Helpless Minuses: there are no girls in Perkinsville, VT, and living with your dad is the definition of lame. Drick (much like his character "The Drake") is a pothead blue collar worker sponging off his successful girlfriend. Life imitates art. Embracing the lameness is allowing us to (just barely) keep our heads above water, and fund all the release expenses.

Things are moving along with the release. We are making a final, more streamlined cut of the movie based on the feedback we got during our mini theatrical tour. We should be finishing that final cut, as well as all of the DVD extras and mastering by the end of January. That will allow us to send a disc out for replication a the beginning of February. That process, in my experience, usually takes a few weeks from start to finish. That should set us up to release the torrent version of the film in early March, and the retail version one week later.

While we are working on preparing all of the media for our release, we are simultaneously working on the PR side of things. I would love to get screeners out to a few people in the upcoming release. A little bit of indie press could go a long way towards getting folks to check out SH when it is released.

Now that the holidays are over we will be back in touch, and hustling to get Self Helpless released as soon as possible.

How to Run a Better Screening - and probably get laid

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:07:00 +0000

As a lead-in to our release, we have screened Self Helpless at a few spots around the East Coast. Sometimes we had to rent the theaters, sometimes we just split ticket sales. The reception for Self Helpless was unbelievable, and we definitely learned a lot about screening our film.

We had previously thought that once you made a good movie, and got an audience to show up, the job was done. Just put in the DVD and crack a beer right? Wrong. The way your film is presented can have a huge effect on the way the audience perceives it. There are many different factors that contribute subtly to people’s experience at your screening. The farther your film falls from mainstream studio pictures, the more these concepts apply. If you have just completed a film, and screening it for the public in some form is part of your plans for the future, then you might be able to learn from our mistakes. Here are some key rules that we have learned from being out in the trenches:

Know Your Equipment - Learn to work a projector, lots of theaters are more accustomed to screening film reels. You may need to dust off their projector and help set it up. Do a sound and picture check before the show. Know your test points: the darkest, brightest, quietest, and loudest points in the film. If you can tweak the theater’s settings to work for those scenes, then you should be good.

Come Prepared – Bring multiple screeners in multiple formats. Even if a theater says they can screen your Blu-ray, sometimes their machine breaks down. Make sure that you have tested each screener at home, and not just on your computer.

Watch Your Money – Some people will try to fuck you, and some will just plain make mistakes. If you are renting a theater, make sure you get an agreement in writing stating that all ticket sales go to you. Have a trusted friend sell tickets, and have another one check them at the door to the theater. If the theater will not let you handle the ticket sales yourself, make sure you keep a head count. Also, get a photo of the whole crowd if you can. Bring your own posters in and help put them up in a good location. Don’t just drop them off and trust that they will get put up.

Dress Professionally – Any public speaking instructor that the most important factors in you presentation being a success are your posture and your dress. I wear a suit to all of our screenings. I do this because I take my business seriously, and it helps me get laid. If you dress like a worthless, bumper sticker activist college student then that is how people will view your film.

Introduce Your Film – Better yet, have someone who is good at public speaking introduce it for you. This is your chance to give people a tiny bit of context. Be subtle. Don’t ask forgiveness for how low budget your film is. Just thank people for coming, describe your film in no more than one sentence, and let everyone that the cast or crew will be doing a Q&A in the theater after the film.

Stay Out of the Theater – Do not sit next to your friends and tell them about how you shot each scene. Your presence diminishes the separation from reality that you have worked so hard to create. If you want to be in the theater to see people’s reaction, sneak in after the movie has started and sit in the back. Usually we just head to the nearest dive bar and stumble back for Q&A.

Learn From Your Screening – And realize what you can’t learn from it. Every audience is a little different. Often we would talk about cutting a joke that didn’t get a lot of laughs, and then it would kill the next night. What you can get is a good sense of was the general energy level in the theater is. We were able to pinpoint the sections of Self Helpless where a little of the wind got sucked out of the theater. That showed us which sections we needed to tighten up.

Coordinate the Lights and Sound For Q&A – Try to work with the projectionist on this. If they are too busy, then have someone from your team up in the booth to flip the switches. It is simple, but crucial. As soon as the rolling credits start we bring the lights up just a bit (so you can still see the credits), and we lower the music a ton. We have found that if we forget either of these details then the audience becomes confused and people stand up because they think the show is over.

Start Your Own Q&A – If you just stand in the front of the theater and ask if there are any questions, you will often hear crickets. A better strategy is to start with a statement. Talk about the process of making the movie, tell a funny anecdote, or even ask the audience a question. Anything that will get the conversation between you and the audience going. Once you get things rolling, keep them rolling. Don’t think that you are holding people up. Those folks paid good money to see your film, give them as much as you can.

Microphones – A mic (or in our case 4 mics) is crucial for both your introduction and your Q&A. Find out beforehand if the theater has a mic setup. Often they will have plugs but no mics, or not enough of them. Learn how to set up a few mics and a mixer and bring your own. Q&A is a lot more professional if you aren’t just screaming at the crowd.

Email and What’s Next – Be sure to bring some clipboards and pens so you can pass them around and get everyone’s email address. Also, make sure you have a great answer for “What are you going to do next?”. You are guaranteed to get this question.

Throw an After Party – You don’t need to rent out a fancy club. Even if it is nothing more than telling everyone where the crew will be going for a beer after the show, this can be a great way to interact with your fans (read: get laid). Just make sure that the venue is within a 4 minute walk from the theater, your attendance drops off exponentially after that.

Screening your baby in a theater can be a ton of fun, and it can even make you a little money. This is certainly your best chance to get some action. After a year straight of sleeping on floors, eating PB&Js, and maxing out your credits card, you deserve a rock star night! I hope these suggestions are helpful. Let me know when and where your film is screening. I promise to bring at least 5 people.

Comment-Worthy Comment

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:44:00 +0000

Awesome comment from ZenFilms on our torrent-only release strategy. Thanks so much for taking the time to give us your suggestions. I have already put some of them into effect. When someone takes the time to put together such a well crafted response I feel that I should do the same. I copied some of your comments where it would help people to understand my answer. Much thanks for all the input and support, it is really great when other filmmakers show love. Check out the Zen crew on Twitter: @ZenFilms.

1. Torrent-only: You are correct that we would most likely make more money if we abandoned the torrent-only part of our release model. We are willing to take in less income in the long term if it means that more people will see Self Helpless in the short term. Our goal is to get the most people we possibly can to download Self Helpless during that one week window. We really believe that when those folks see the movie, they will love it and they will tell people about it. This is how I hear about a lot of music and movies. Then I usually head straight to iTunes or Netflix because I don’t want to bother with torrents. I get nervous about viruses, and I like to make sure I have the highest quality version of that song or movie. For people like me, the movie will be available from those familiar retail locations.

The Self Helpless torrent will be a tool in itself. The torrent will have links to all of our sites, as well as our store and trailer. The idea of including two short advertisements (10 seconds each) in the torrent release appeals to me. These ads would be designed so that they did not detract from viewing the movie. Most likely they would just be clips from one of Devin the Dude’s shows, or from a SOJA video. They would not appear until at least 20 minutes into the film (I agree, ads before the movie would suck).

This may end up being out greatest contribution to a viable torrent-based distribution model for the future. Downloaders are not opposed to filmmakers making money from their craft. They just want to watch the movie for free, right now. If we can make a torrent version of Self Helpless that people will enjoy watching, even with 2 short ads included, then this will be a big step in the right direction for infinite distribution. If people love the movie, they can get the ad free version on DVD.

2. Merchandise: I agree with everything you said here. We are trying to get our merch store together, but this takes a lot of time what with all of us working crappy full time jobs. We aren’t expecting to get rich selling merchandise. We are hoping to make enough money to keep paying our expenses, making more DVDs and possibly touring the film in the future.

“Your PR spin seems to focus on the fact that the movie is free... but you could run into some problems: if your movie is full of fart gags and guns, the movie intelligencia are going to be snooty and unlikely to want to be associated with it. It's all very well being pioneering but it has to be "on message" to get the support of their cozy love-in”

Our PR spin is focused on the fact that we have made a great movie and we know that the torrent community is the future of media distribution. We are fully committed to offending the “movie intelligentsia”. If we get 100% on the tomato meter then the world has come crashing down.

The beauty of bringing our film directly to the fans through our torrent release is that we don’t have to spend 3 years groveling to film festivals and major film critics to get our movie to its audience. We can just bypass all of those old-school gatekeepers and give the movie to our target audience. If they like it, they will pass it on.

“read up on how to write a press release - it'll make the difference”

We wouldn’t do it any other way. Before we sent out our press release we researched the proper format and ran a draft past a few local journalists to make sure that were coming real professional like. We also heard this message from the dudes who made 10 MPH. Their blog is essential reading.

“I would advocate a donation button because I think you'll find you have people who want to support you but it's not their kind of movie. I could possibly be in this category... I like guns and Mexicans but not farts.”

We just don’t get down with the whole donation idea. That’s cool if it works for other people, it’s just not for us. We are going to offer some very cheap merchandise (like shot glasses and posters) in case someone wants to show us a little love, but not quite at the $15 DVD level. If someone downloads the movie for free and can’t find anything that they would like to buy from our store, then hopefully they will just tell a few people about Self Helpless and we will call it even.

“Screenings before release? Pre-orders? Kind of contradicts your earlier goals... just be mindful it doesn't mess up your direct to torrent concept.”

Wait, I thought you said not to do the torrent concept? ; ) Actually this stuff fits in pretty well with what we are trying to do. We did a handful of screenings to get the film seen and improve it based on audience response, and to make some cash and get laid.

Pre orders are great. Since they will obviously just be friends and family, they will at least help us fund the DVD replication order. Obviously the pre-order DVDs won’t get sent out until after the torrent-only run.

What the fuck is a Blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:11:00 +0000

Sorry to our RSS fans for reposting all the articles today. We cherish all 17 of you and had no intention of spammifying you. I had to repost in order to allow comments on a bunch of articles that I had forgotten to do that with. Apologies. Please feel free to use the newly enabled comments section to voice your hatred. New post on advice for screening in theaters coming soon. You all rule, thank you for taking interest in our work. We promise to keep working fucking balls out hard as hell.

Our Search for D.I.Y. Knowledge (w/links)

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:42:00 +0000

Has anyone else ever wanted to figure out how the hell to self distribute their film? It is funny to think of the days when we were googling "no budget comedy" in the hopes of finding someone else out there who we could talk to and learn from. There were plenty of eureka moments when one blog post or youtube video would completely change the way we were looking at distribution. Sound familiar?

Our torrent-only model is explicitly NOT the new great distribution model. It is a model that fits our movie in a lot of important ways. Once we actually put it into action, we hope to serve as an interesting case study for the indie community (read: real indie, like PB&J, sleeping on floors because all of the couches are full indie). I try to put as many of our ideas out there as I can, because I can remember when I would have killed to read about someone else's distribution model.

The other night I was geeking out on twitter (as usual) when I stumbled on a twitter conversation. A bunch of people that we have connected with in the indie community were discussing how to increase audiences for independent film. I believe you can still check out the "conversation" if you search for #infdist on twitter. This was the first time a lot of my fellow filmmakers got to hear about our torrent-only release model. It was cool to see everyone's reaction. It was particularly dope to get a lot of support from Jon Reiss. Jon is an experienced director who has been spearheading the new indie distribution movement. His book, Think Outside the Box Office, is required reading for anyone who is at any stage of creating an indie film. He even reposted some of our material on his blog. We studied a lot of stuff from guys like Jon Reiss, Chris Gore, Ted Hope, and a bunch of other people who have embraced the power of the D.I.Y. film movement. This research was the foundation of our distribution strategy.

We entered the indie film world just as a lot of the new ideas on D.I.Y. were being formally articulated. One of the best things that we did during the post production process was to cash in our social lives, dump our Chilean pseudo-girlfriends, and spend 4 cold months reading shit on the interwebs. This period of miserably monastic study allowed us to bypass the standard new indie filmmaker trap: fall in love with own film, blow meager P&A budget on unrealistic festival submissions, confront the reality of not getting a "deal", begin to learn about D.I.Y. distribution. We owe a ton to the folks in the indie community who have been willing to write blogs and books, speak on panels, and upload podcasts. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge that was available to us, we were able to move full force into D.I.Y. distribution as soon as Self Helpless was done. Hopefully everyone can learn from our experiences in the upcoming months. Thanks to everyone for the support. We got nothin' but love fo ya.

Pioneers, Oh Pioneers

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:16:00 +0000

Ted Hope is a very well know film producer (American Splendor, 21 Grams, Adventureland and about 60 other features). He is also a leader in the new media approach to indie filmmaking. This guy shoots 50 setups in a day, then gets home and writes a 1,500 word blog post, and blasts off on Twitter for an hour. His latest blog post really caught my eye as it relates directly to a lot of the inspirations behind Self Helpless. You should take a look at Ted's Blog here. I am re-posting my response below so that Self Helpless fans can have a look at it.

My response:

Wow, I can't believe someone is finally talking about this! This was a huge part of the motivation for creating Self Helpless. We are four guys in our twenties who are equally at home watching "Kisses" or "Lovely By Surprise" and "Caddyshack". And there are TONS of people like us out there. We have often discussed our dissatisfaction with indie films insistence on making heavy, emotional, esoteric films that are so steeped in art that they are rendered inaccessible. Films like that can be great, but there needs to be more diversity out there.

Self Helpless is definitely a low-brow comedy. It is full of guns and drugs and mexicans and farting. But there is also some really original stuff in there. The plot is absurdly twisted as are most of the characters. And, the movie feels completely indie! It has excessively long flashbacks, homegrown animation, and plenty of classically comical motifs.

I am not just trying to plug my movie. I really feel that there is room for people to start making more indie films that will appeal to a young audience. It is clear that internet basted, tech-reliant distribution is the future of indie. Young people are the most interweb-savvy customers out there. They are willing to go through twitter, and itunes, and blogger, and dig… just to follow, find, and support something they think is cool. “Trailer Park Boys, “Always Sunny”, “Flight of the Conchords”, the networks have it figured out, now we need to play catch up.

We have based our entire release model for Self Helpless on our faith in the young indie audience. We are running a seven day bittorrent-only release. We WANT people to download the movie because we know they will support it. This is how you access the young indie audience: young filmmakers make great films directed at their peers, they provide the fans free access to the films, and they create quality merchandise that people will want to buy (instead of begging for donations).

Who's on first?

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Everyone likes to be able to claim to be the "first" to do something. Self Helpless is clearly not the first film to release a legal bittorrent; so what exactly are we the "first" to do?

I guess, technically, until someone else uses our model we are the "only" rather than the "first". Self Helpless is the only feature length comedy ever to employ a specialized promotional campaign surrounding a BitTorrent-only release. We are approaching our release in a way that has never been done. I want to be clear here, I am not hating on anyone else's release model. I am just trying to explain how ours is unique. I also encourage anyone who has an excess of time to hate on our model.

1) We are running a 7 day bittorrent-only release. Most movies that release a torrent try to have their movie on sale simultaneously. Their hope is that torrent downloads will drive DVD sales. We are going with a torrent-only run for a number of reasons. First, we feel that downloaders are the new taste makers. If your movie becomes popular within the torrent community this will translate to a wider audience. Hollywood films are often pre-screened for critics and important industry types. We are pre-screening Self Helpless for downloaders because they are our most important potential fans. Second, we want as many downloads as possible. Most films release on a pay to watch platform first so that the only way people can see the movie is by paying for it. We want as many people as possible to download Self Helpless, so that is the platform that people will have to access it on if they want to see the movie as soon as possible. Third, we have a point to prove. Lots of movies have dipped their toes in the torrent pool. They release torrents as a last ditch option, they use it to drive DVD sales, or as a publicity stunt. When you go with a torrent-only release, you are all in. If Self Helpless can become successful using a completely torrent based release, then this will demonstrate the validity of the torrent community as a major marketing force (if you aren't aware of this already then you have some catching up to do).

2) We are not asking anyone to donate anything. We do not feel comfortable begging people to give us money. We have made a movie that people are going to love. We believe that they will love it enough to want to buy a DVD or a t-shirt. And we will make sure that we create some sweet merch that will actually be worth buying. I didn't buy a Fade to Black on DVD because I thought I need to support Jay-Z financially, he is a fucking billionaire. I bought it because I love that movie and I want to be able to watch it on my TV, whenever I want, with all the special features.

3) The torrent release is our first choice. Even as we were writing the script, we discussed free playing an important role in the distribution of Self Helpless. We are downloaders, and we made this movie for downloaders. We skipped the whole cycle of "waste tons of money and energy on a film festival run, realize there are no more distribution deals out there, write lots of blog posts about how the industry is fucked up, resort to giving away the movie, cry often and heavily". Bittorrent is an amazing technology that allows us to get our movie seen by millions of people who just happen to be our exact target audience. As an entrepreneur, it would be nothing short of absurd not to consider a torrent release as an incredible opportunity. There is something completely different in the spirit of our release. This is not a last ditch effort. This is what we have always wanted to do with Self Helpless.

4) We are mounting a full on PR campaign to promote the release of our torrent. We are not just assuming that if we put the movie up on the ol' interwebs, it will suddenly grow wings and fly away. Studios spend money to create press and drive sales. We are spending money (and time) creating press to drive downloads. Studios spend money to stop downloaders. We are spending money (and time) trying to get as many people as possible to download Self Helpless.

5) We are not a documentary. Although there have certainly been other narrative features released on bittorrent, it is worth noting how differently they fair. From my limited experience, I can say that documentary filmmaking is extraordinarily tough. One advantage that you have if you have done your job well is cause-based support. If you do a film about climate change, or gang violence, or hunger you will get some support for your effort to expose a socially important issue. If you make a comedy about drugs, guns, mexicans, and milk-farts, you have to rely solely on the quality of your product. If Self Helpless doesn't make people laugh, they are not going to cut us any slack because they believe in our cause. This makes our model a heavy commitment. We are giving Self Helpless away and we are counting on the belief that people will love it.

We know that our torrent-only release model is a bit of a gamble. We are betting all our chips that Self Helpless is so original, and quirky, and over the top funny that we will be able to build a big enough fan base to cover our budget. Maybe it is risky, but there is nothing we would rather bet on than the quality of our movie.

Ramblings

noreply@blogger.com (Self Helpless) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Just sent this in an email (which may or may not make me clinically fucked), then realized it might make a good blog. I think it pretty much sums up where I am at:

"...My first feature film, Self Helpless, is done. I am broke. It is cold on the East Coast. All I want is the opportunity to work really goddamned hard. I am a great producer, I produced the shit out of Self Helpless for under $10K. I am currently applying for $9 an hour jobs, HOPING I can land a gig at UNO's. But it's all good, because my movie kicks ass. It is going to become a cult hit. It is gross, and subtle, and hilarious. And we have an insane, awesome, revolutionary distribution strategy. And, on top of all that, I am not a child soldier in Africa, or a rice farmer in Eastern China. So I try to remember that I am pretty lucky..."

I am unemployed, homeless, no girlfriend, no sundance, no SXSW, no distributor, NO MONEY AT ALL FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE

or

I have made a GREAT movie which everyone loves, i have dreamed up a GREAT distribution strategy, I know where my next meal is coming from, I am the most resourceful, motivated, semi-insane motherfucker I know.

I guess it just depends how I look at it.