OxRock Productions

How to Raise Money for a Short Film (a new approach)

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:23:00 +0000

It's almost impossible to raise money for a short film without having to beg for it.

For "Wayfarers", Jonathan Knapp (Producer) and I are trying something very new: it's a system I'm calling "Comm Pledge".

Traditionally, to get money, you have to offer something. In TV and radio, ad money flows in exchange for eyeballs. The size of an audience determines the cost of advertisement.

With a short film, what can you offer? Most short films don't have movie stars attached, and they're one-off productions, so there's no way to predict a short's audience. I'll amend that: there's an easy way to predict a short's audience: it's almost always tiny.

At first, Jonathan and I took that as gospel truth, and we looked elsewhere. Perhaps nonprofits would support the film for its education-centric message? I spoke with some folks at a few nonprofits, and the refrain was always the same: there's no money! Of course, underneath that is a more basic problem: what would the money buy? We're back to the audience problem.

I was at a Chanukah party in Long Beach when a friend suggested I re-examine the radio/TV model, with an eye towards the opportunities that the internet might provide. Within a few hours, I had the seed of the Comm Pledge System in mind.

Here's how it works: We are looking for pledges from organizations and people who have a broad digital reach. We're not looking for money, but for a pledge to send one email, to post one facebook status update, or to send one tweet with a hyperlink to "Wayfarers" when it becomes available online. When an organization makes this pledge, they're also giving us a measure of our potential audience. If one organization has a thousand-person email list, and another a 10,000-person list, and the next an 89,000 person list, we now have some important data: when our film is ready, a link will be sent out to 100,000 people. Now, we can develop a viewership forecast.

With a viewership forecast, we can approach corporate sponsors with a tangible, quantifiable offer: Fund the film, and your "sponsored by" title card will have an audience. In some cases, we may even be able to break down the audience by rough demographics: If 25% of the addresses come from, say, indie film organizations, we know 25% of the potential audience is interested in indie films. This provides additional value to the sponsor, especially if the sponsor is interested in reaching a particular demographic.

This is an as-yet un-tested approach, but it's much better than begging friends and family to toss a few bucks in to the latest crowdsourcing website.

We're also offering a "special thanks" credit (and possibly other perks) to our communications pledgers, so if you'd like to participate, please fill out this form:

THE WAYFARERS COMMUNICATIONS PLEDGE

-Arnon Z. Shorr

New Projects in the Works...

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 20:08:00 +0000

New Project 1: "Wayfarers" A short film by Arnon Z. Shorr, in active development at OxRock Productions. A post-apocalyptic Exodus narrative.

New Project 2: "Sex.Sound.Silence" A feature-length drama about a girl pursuing her dream of becoming a successful electronica DJ. A BrokenLine Production, directed by Ari Davis, produced by Arnon Z. Shorr in association with OxRock Productions, LLC

Update on "A Modest Suggestion"

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:04:00 +0000

With post-production well behind us, OxRock Productions, LLC is working hard to set up a DVD release of "A Modest Suggestion" for August of this year. The release, through Amazon's Createspace.com, will coincide with a grassroots campaign to raise awareness about the film, and about its controversial means of delivering an important message.

OxRock competing to "Get it Made"

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:45:00 +0000

Did you know that "Blood and Stone: A Legend of the Golem" was made (in part) to explore a concept for a feature film?

"In the Image of Man" is a feature-length screenplay that tells the expanded story of the Golem that we encounter briefly in "Blood and Stone".

OxRock is currently competing on www.openfilm.com for $250,000 to develop the film. In order to be considered, "Blood and Stone" must have a high 'star rating' by the end of this month.

Here's where you come in: Go to the website, create a free account, and give "Blood and Stone" five stars. You can only rate the film once, so make it count!

http://www.openfilm.com/videos/blood_and_stone_a_legend_of_the_golem/

Then, share the film with your friends. Share it with everybody! Ask them all (ask nicely!) to create an account and rate the film five stars. Ask them to share the film with their friends, too.

With your help, we'll reach the next round of this competition, where we'll have an opportunity to prove the feature's merits (and not just our ability to mobilize fans). But for now, let's MOBILIZE!

"A Modest Suggestion"

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:15:00 +0000

BREAKING NEWS: OxRock Productions, LLC and Mark Jaffee Pictures, LLC are teaming up to produce "A Modest Suggestion", a feature-length satirical comedy about anti-Semitism. Details to come...

OxRock in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:50:00 +0000

Here are a few things to look forward to as 2010 begins:

- 'Just the Ticket' is almost completed. The short will be submitted to festivals in the first quarter of 2009
- A new feature project is being developed for production before 2011.
- The website continues to be redesigned.
- "OxRock Video Services", an industrial division, is being formed.

OxRock in the news!

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:11:00 +0000

OxRock's "The Audition" made it in to the blurb about NEMPAC's film festival on boston.com! Not only is our film mentioned, but a production still from the set is the event's associated image! Hooray!

Here's what it looks like

"Just the Ticket" cast announced

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Congrats to Claire Bowerman and Ron Bush on landing the roles of "Sara" and "Jake" in the new OxRock domestic comedy, "Just the Ticket" We're gearing up for a November First shoot. Want to get involved? Email shorr (at) oxrockproductions (dot) com

Casting Update for "Just the Ticket"

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Apologies to OxRock email list members -- I try to get this out to you first, but the list isn't working today. I'll try to keep everyone up-to-date via twitter, facebook, etc.

Here's the casting info:
Casting male and female leads for a short comedy, “Just the Ticket”, to be shot in or near Baltimore, MD.

SARA, 30s, pretty, strong-willed and practical
And her husband, JAKE, 30s, handsome, playful, a dreamer.

These are unpaid roles. Production date is 11/1/09. Projected completion, January 2010.
Credit and Copy provided.

Please send headshot and resume to shorr[at]aol[dot]com by 11/17/09 for consideration.

Next OxRock Short: "Just the Ticket"

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:10:00 +0000

"Just the Ticket"
Written and Produced by Israel Orange
Produced and Directed by Arnon Z. Shorr

OxRock's next short comedy will hopefully go in to production on November 1, 2009, in or near Baltimore, MD.

Casting for two lead roles will be announced today, and production positions will be filled over the course of the week.

If you would like to get involved, please send an email to shorr{at}aol{dot}com.

Baker Artist Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:46:00 +0000

Vote for Arnon Shorr at the Baker Artist Awards -- featuring two OxRock films shot in Baltimore!

OxRock "Screening Room" Update

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:03:00 +0000

Check out the screening room on the OxRock website! There isn't much there yet, but it's growing. We're experimenting with an embedded youtube player for now, but considering other options as well. Please leave feedback here if you like (or dislike) what you see.

"Blood and Stone" to premiere at RIFF

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Our latest short, "Blood and Stone: A Legend of the Golem" will premiere at the Rappahannock Independent Film Festival in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on Thursday, August 27, 2009.

This is OxRock's second appearance at Rappahannock, after last year's screening of "Widow's Meal".

Since the OxRock website is still under construction, you can find more information on "Blood and Stone" on IMDB

Restructuring the OxRock Website

noreply@blogger.com (Arnon Z. Shorr) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:30:00 +0000

In the process of restructuring the OxRock Website, I am trying to use blogger as a news update service. We'll see how well this works!