Streaming Indy

Where is the next "Golden Voice"

2011-07-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

Many of us stood in awe at the power of the network and how it changed one man's life in a matter of hours.
There is a basic trend to see for the one looking.
American Idol started with an idea that many of us bought into: Performers are gathered to view in a place we can all see them than the people vote to pick the best one.
Very simple right?
We all want to make a difference in some way, no matter how small.
Even when it is just a vote.'Americans go into the polls and vote for laws and politicians who claim to represent their agendas.
Which I will not get into here, but it is the point of making a difference or the appearance of making a difference/ having a say in the way things are.

When a person or organization gets the attention of the world for even an instant they are circled by those trying to capitalize on the attention of the masses in order to control the economy or to merely get a portion of that traffic to buy their product.
This is just like advertisers on prime time popular television shows.
The more viewers proven to watch the show the more valuable the ad space is.
People want to watch and listen to various entertainment for free but need to see how this advertisement pays so they don't have to.

One should know that the average is that an individual has to see a brand several times before it even registers what it is, let alone making a decision to buy.

A movie trailer has to be seen at least three times before the average person will decide if they want to see it.
Then there is the the demographic and relate-ability to the subject of the film to the viewer based on the propaganda of the advertizement.
Corruption and greed has plagued all forms of entertainment from the beginning.
For example:
In music it is the company that owns the label, that owns the chart, that tells the world through the magazines that it also owns to promote the acts that it has the most potential to gain from what is the best and hottest new music which is not really the truth.

For the benefit of keeping this objective I again will not mention names.

But (and here is the good news) this is changing through the web and the independent approach for direct distribution.
Get the attention of enough people with a good product, promotion or performance and it will go viral.
This is the new dream, the new lottery.
Getting attention most directly makes the demand.
Out of the hundreds of millions of users on various networks only a few million views will get enough attention to change the world of an individual project or act.
But how can we find those things worthy of that attention in the infinity of content out there?
It is all in the network. We trust those that we relate with and go look at the things our friends post and that is where the social network will never go away.
That is why Google is now going to try to compete with Facebook and there are hundreds of thousands of social networks available to join, Even I have a few...for various reasons.
If we know this and take some responsibility for promoting those things we know are worthy and or important we find that it is very hard to get attention.
Just keep liking what you like. The world will find those important things in time.
Publicity stunts don't really work.
Real work does.

Educating musicians in marketing on the web

2011-06-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

We started a show some months ago designed to help musicians get noticed, which will in turn get them some CD and download sales and make it more possible for them to keep making music.

The reality of today's market is that it is moving more and more into an online interaction with consumers.

The music industry has shown us this trend quite clearly with the release of Radiohead's album "given away" or stated that you can download it and pay what you feel it is worth.

Many of us are familiar with the reverse squeeze which is where you give so much that the recipient feels the need to give back to the website that gave so much.

This is the age where communication is key and information is the greatest commodity.

Educating the groups and performers on how to market themselves is a large part of what is needed but to make it work we need to promote this show we created.

An Indiegogo campaign is now launched and we need real networkers to get involved.

You are more valuable than you even realize.

If we can get enough attention to this project we can really make a difference in a lot of lives in a new way.

Take a look at the campaign here and see what we are doing.

Music U-Night Indiegogo link

We need your help to push through and more funding to make this work and the campaign is just the way to show the power of networking.

Thank you for your support and if you the reader have any need for video production we would be glad to help.

Entertainment is a good investment in a down economy.

2010-03-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Now let's take this thinking into the investors and people working on
their portfolio.
Some are balking at putting their money into anything that doesn't seem to have a long tail solid foundation and so
are buying real estate and bullion, things that seem like a safe
investment, primarily because they don't trust the economy.
Let's face it it is a bear market and everything is a little shaky.
The important thing is to be patient with your choices and especially be
patient with your investigation and think outside the box.
The rule of thumb is that if your grandmother knows about a great investment deal
then it's probably too late to really capitalize on it.
Thinking outside the box when you are investing will get you places that the
masses never go because they are listening to all the "experts" which
are usually regurgitating what they were trained to say and peddling
whatever investments pay them the most to sell.
Understanding that the economy is already only so much blue sky in the first place makes
one aware of the precarious situation of investment.
Are coins and gold a good investment? Yes of course they are, because when the economy
slips as it is sure to do again then tangible assets are still going to
hold their value.
However if you want to make money from your assets you have to take risks, which is where many run into trouble or worse.
"The wrong thing to do is nothing." is a good place to start any strategy.
An investment is based on consideration of two things and it always boils
down to this so you may have heard this before and if you haven't then
you need to do a lot more research.
Rate of return
Return on investment
These are the only things that investors want to know really.
You can hype all you want and tell how your widget is going to change the way people live forever but the real investor doesn't care
they are putting their beans into the pot that shows them clearly what
these two factors will be.
This is actually part of the problem with originality in entertainment today in the US especially as I discussed
in "Hollywood and the Economy of the Calculated Sequel" an earlier blog
posted here.
one problem is that filmmakers don't know how to relate to investors and can't think in terms that are attractive to investors and so don't get backing for real original production concepts.
These are scary for investors because they can't do like a Realtor and check
comparable investments "in the neighborhood".
How can you track something like Avatar which there has never been really anything made like it
and explain it to an investor.
The truth is that this film was made and released into a bear market a down economy and yet made more money than "Titanic" (though it cost more to make) which was released into a very strong economy or a bull market in '97.
The truth is people want to have an escape from the daily grind even more when things are down
than when things are going great.
It makes sense when you look at it that way, the average person my not be able to spend $4,000 on a real
vacation but $10.00 for a movie and a genuine escape for a few hours fits into even the tightest budget.
Now let's take this thinking into investment and consider the current market.
A few thousand dollars can go a very long way with the digital age and frugal filmmaking
processes.
A new Red camera or an SLR camera that shoots in true HD can be rented or purchased for a small fraction of the cost just a few years ago so the real cost is in talent and man hours (or woman hours)
for the crew locations and editing and or CG graphics.
In New Mexico many locations are available for free from the state and the incentives
for investors are considerable.
One of the problems is that a production company has to borrow almost 2 million just to get the loan
from the state (interest free). Most filmmakers here don't relate to
that kind of money so will never get it.
The 25% rebate is like an insurance policy for the smart production that sees it as a means to
make stable payments on the initial loan until such time as profit can
be gleaned from the production.
These are all factors that not only need to be considered but developed into a proposal for the investor to
understand clearly before writing a check.
Then the distribution process needs to be addressed. It takes around 10 million to get a
proper marketing campaign into today's market through television and
internet advertising. The need to reach a person in the world three to
five times before they even recognize that there is a film,what the name
is and when it will be available. Basically "branding" the film is the
goal and it is expensive. So before the distributor is going to put that
kind of energy into a film they need to know that all the necessities
are covered so are usually working with known filmmakers as a safer
investment knowing in a sense what to expect in return.
Anyone with a hundred bucks can be an investor these days with websites like
www.indiegogo.com and actually help fund some original content.
There is the distribution problem to overcome and so it pays to research the filmmaker's plan to get a return on the investment and there are some very innovative plans to be considered on
those sites.
Be not afraid of the unknown. Don't invest what you can't afford to lose.
Think outside the box and you could be a part of something significant like so many films that came from nowhere like; "Pan's Labyrinth" for example.
Someone had to back that film before any frames were shot.
Some considerable profit was earned and new movie deals were made as a result with the director for Hellboy 2.
There are many examples and the project you get involved in could be one of them.

Back in the saddle with a new drive to make things happen.

2009-09-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

I said in one of my earlier blogs that Life is what happens when you are trying to get things done.
Well I have just been encountering that inevitable series of distractions that only indicates to me that I am doing something important.
Every time I have tried to do something significant I get the whammy.
So you have it.
I am going to write a lot of the recent events into a script eventually.
Who knows? I may have a new "World according to Garp" on my hands Though the plane hasn't crashed into the house(yet)I hope I have the camera running when it does.

Now I have a script finished and the real desire to shoot something new, something different and exciting. Though I may have to take other steps first. Namely making several short films to establish this new world I created.
I know that others will get into it once I show them what I found when looking deep into the shadows of my imagination.
Perhaps it will reveal something in yours too.

Still working for all of us

2009-03-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

I want to thank everyone for your continued support. Showing loyalty and willingness to follow me over here These two sites will be merged when I shift us all over to streamingindy.com
I have been working a lot lately on logistics and behind the scenes web development for the distribution model that will make what I am talking about on the seminar video a reality.
I keep running into obstacles which tells me I am definitely doing the right thing. Real distribution for the idependent that puts them in control and reduces the chance of losing all revenues through bad distribution contracts.
As of this writing I am developing a script to shoot as a feature following the mainstream template to a point of names and faces that are recognizable to the general public with the sole intention to distribute online through the network.
I have a budget established around 400K for production and marketing.
This as you can imagine is a difficult number to come up with for an unknown business model but that is exactly what I am doing.
So just to keep you up to date. We need something that is ready to distribute and of course I am a filmmaker. That is what iI want to do., make films.
And so I shall.
I have the player almost ready for distribution but found some issues with censorship from the host company trying to force their agenda through the business and have been trying to work that out.
Otherwise we can't have any nudity language gore or violence in a feature.
I mean seriously, that is just not reasonable If I was James cameron I couldn't load Titanic under those restrictions.
So obviously, I am still fighting under the radar and just want you to know that I am still working for all of us.

Rob Ellis
Streaming Indy
Founder

They tell me I'm crazy

2009-02-21T21:31:00.000-08:00

There are no experts in this field. No one is talking this language and my business friends are telling me I'm crazy for sharing this video.

Find more videos like this on Streaming Indy

Will you make art or gas?

2009-01-21T18:26:00.001-08:00

I've been working on a web system for almost a year now to help filmmakers get paid for their efforts even with a short film.

There is a way but when I try to explain it most people look at me cross eyed with a false ego based knowing that tells me I'm talking to a sheep. Bleet, bleet.

They all want the theatrical release for their $5000 budget film. and can't see that that will never happen.
The film world doesn't want your film.
Sorry to break it to you but you've been duped. Just like thinking if you go to college you'll make more money, then you go to work for someone that owns a company that never went to college. Yeah that system is well advertised too.

I am almost ready to throw in the towel and just do it for myself like everyone else does, almost.
But that wouldn't fit with my ethics. Which to me is doing what is the greatest good for the most.
Even if it leaves me out.
I've been at this for some time now, almost a year and have been running into the same attitude from people everywhere. They can't see into the future beyond their own ego and wallet.

I don't care what they do anymore. I know my conscience is clean, and my ethics are what drive me for the vision I am going for.
Still it does bother me to see all the people I try to help so easily led astray.
People with short films excited to be getting a free screening when they could be making money from their art.

The film industry here is full of ego driven people with no real vision. little support for art. Lots of critics.

I don't think very much of critics. If you want to criticize a film, make sure you can show a film YOU MADE that was better and give examples of what you did in your masterpiece, and let me see it.

Or shut up. Your opinion is only so much gas wasted in the atmosphere.

Go make something and stop criticizing.

Art is alive and free and moving to the one who experiences it.

Cowards make copies of past successes. An artist has the tenacity to go against the grain and do something great.

Make art or make gas, eventually we will all smell the difference.

Visionaries often see the wonderous panorama alone.

2009-01-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

I have been blogging and doing more blogging about the trends I see moving to the online distribution of film on the internet for some time. When I sit with someone who thinks they are an authority and they haven't got a clue what I am talking about, I just smile and think to myself, you should have listened to me when you had the chance.
I don't need permission to do anything I want to do and regardless of what the self appointed experts think we are going to make this an effective business model that will be pioneering a way to profitable entertainment for the independent.
I know that if enough people get involved in the fund raising and production parts of creating a project then they will have a vested interest in helping promote the film to all their friends and we will be successful.
I have been working extra hard lately to push past the opinions of others. I know they haven't done the research that I have done and come to the projections I have so don't think less of them just am aware that I am operating from different data.
Many people would love to be involved in the film industry, but don't think they have the means, be it capital to invest or experience on the set or as a writer.
But we are going to change all that and give the fans an opportunity to be involved at whatever level they want to be or can afford.
I have a new business plan under development that outlines how a cashless investment of one hundred dollars can add up to enough guarantee notes to get funding for a feature film in New Mexico.
There are some great programs here that give a filmmaker an opportunity to shoot on a budget that he may not have been able to anywhere else.
State loans and refunds for expenditures in the state are a few of the things that make this the time and the place to shoot.
Couple that with the online distribution model I have outlined elsewhere and the collaboration of hundreds if not thousands of people and you have something that has never occurred before.
A panacea of opportunity for the filmmaker that can see the opportunity and seize it.
So I still shout from the rooftops and am looked at like the local crazy.
Now I have nearly completed a feature script for production and I have other friends with scripts ready to shoot.
We are almost there.
Waht we need now is attention and the right exposure to the ideas we are ready to shoot.
I created the collaborative to give people the opportunity to see first hand what I see as the future of entertainment. Where everyone has an opinion and even as a minor investor or group member can have a say in the final product.
What do you want to see on the screen?
Let's do that.

View my page on Sta.rtUp.Biz - The Small Business Social Network

Battle for focus

2009-01-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

I'm fighting the seemingly never ending battle to stay focused.
The Holidays and the new year come and go with all their drama and new challenges but the unfinished work remains so until I finish it. There are so many reasons to get distracted.
Life has a way of demanding your attention when you need to focus most.
It's as if the universe wants to challenge your commitment as soon as you determine that you will stay the course.
But I will tell you this; even if it takes a little longer to complete what I started in the productions I am working on, and the distribution model that the world of independent film is waiting for.
I will stay the course.
Though there are others that would take from me and try to make me submit to a lower calling than what is outlined here. I will stay the course.
This is an unstoppable idea and it's time has come. I will prove it and you can help.
Units and microunits for the next feature film will be offered soon.
This means you can get involved in the production of a film and have a viable part in making it a reality. Right here.
We will be putting a paypal button on here for the collection from investors with a full breakdown of the treatment and distribution model as well as the production budget and profit return for each unit and microunit investment. You can participate in the distribution of the film and track right here what is happening with the project.
This will be the atart of a new method of indy filmmaking.
Where as a community we can make it happen. It takes a whole village to raise a child. It will take a whole community to create a film we can all be proud of.

Stay tuned here for more details.

A basic template for the future of streaming movies

2008-10-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

There are several sites out there that you can watch free to the viewer streaming video content. They are quite successful in getting sponsorship with that media because the quality is good enough to get people to watch the videos available. Usually they are familiar with them from other sources and advertising.

What I am proposing here is duplicate the already proven methods of driving traffic to a streaming movie or video site, but add to it the social network aspect, because we are talking about working with indy filmmakers.

Let me paint a picture for you.

Say you want to watch a movie, or some short films and you get onto the forum. You'll see some of the titles that are creating a buzz, in whatever format that may be, bloggers talking about a film, articles written about a production or just the name of a filmmaker you know that you want to catch up on. You would in that case click on their profile see the productions they are currently working on, their blogs talking about the films they made in the past and movies or short films they liked, with links to the videos being discussed, right there in the meta data of the text. You could then click on the link and the viewer pops up and starts playing the film or short you were looking for, also right there in the player there will be links back to where you linked from as well as the profile or info page for the filmmaker or production team that created the film.

This is a small part of the web 2.0 experience that I think ultimately people will be looking for, a direct link to comment or email the filmmaker, view their other content and support any projects they may be trying to fund if you should so desire. All in one nice neat little easy to use site with very few distractions and banner ads to clutter things up.

Of course there is the financing aspect that I will get into at another time but it would suffice to say that logically if the viewer got to watch for free the quality of the player was the very best on the web, (I hear cinematographers sigh when I mention 720p streaming with no buffer) and the filmmaker gets paid a majority of the net profit, that this would be a winning proposition all the way around.

The real trick is the involvement of the viewers to blog about streaming movies they liked and create a viewer or reader base with rss feeds and Google clicks that should share in the profits to some degree as well. Anyone with a blog could have a link directly to the film they are recommending and get a "pay-per-click" income stream from the movies promoted on their blog.

Of course I think it would be important for everyone to be able to use the free system to link to their other content on other sites, like if a film is only available on Create Space, Veoh, Miro or Amazon, even a pay-per-view link to the filmmakers own website, there should be no criticism or bias, to linking directly and seamlessly to those.

This is what we are in the process of building and your involvement in the foundation is needed and wanted. You will see the links to the Streaming Indy social network around this and other sites. Go ahead, get involved now when it matters. No one will salute the 10000th member but the 100th that is still a celebration and a comrade won. Help us form web 2.0 for the indy filmmaker if you like what you are reading here and if you don't then tell us about it and make a contribution there that is what it was designed for.
Stay tuned and we'll see you there.

Hollywood and the economy of the calculated sequel

2008-10-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a shortage of original thought in the industry of film and from what I am hearing from the audience members they are getting tired of the bigger explosion and faster paced action selling the show.
What about art? Why isn't that being really cultivated in the market?
Well it's a lot like the recent bailout of the stock market. The choices were made clear and what should have been done wasn't.
I will clarify this. One politician stood up in the forum and said that if the government was going to try to bail out the economy it should give the $700,000,000.00 distributed to the citizens of America instead of to the very people responsible for the debacle in the first place. (that is paraphrased of course or I would have named and quoted)
But he was right. Look at what the money distributed to the people would have done:

For each citizen that would have been about $300,000.00 as a economic boost from the government.
What would the majority of American's do with the money?
Spend it of course. They would pay off debts and buy new cars, electronics and all the things that they buy now and some would even invest in the stock market.

Honestly who cares what the stock market does if they don't have money on the line?

But the people we elected to make decisions with that kind of money, our tax dollars, decided to give it to the failures that got everyone scared in the first place.

I personally think that is stupid. They don't trust their own constituents.
I think it would have made this a much better country to live in over the next five years and before the money is spent they should put it to a vote.
This is supposed to be a representative democracy. The problem I see is the the elect are representing the wrong people.

And so it is with Hollywood. Instead of letting the artist have free reign in the creation of the cinematic piece, the industry is controlled by the non creative financial types and decisions are based for distribution on what a film just like x or y has boxed in the past. The sure thing, or as close as they can get.

Very much like Paul Zane Pilsner talked about in his book, "The Next Trillion". Predominately about the wellness industry. He talked about the drug companies being a for profit group making decisions for research and development based on not what the world needs, but on the profit generated in the outcome of the research. He gave the example of a comparison of the profit between a one pill cure for cancer and a maintenance drug that the patient (customer) would take for the rest of their life.
The decision is obvious. The greater profit is in the maintenance drug of course.

Therin lies the problem with a capitalistic approach to decisions of this nature.

Don't get me wrong I'm up for profit just like every red blooded American, but where do you draw the line between sanity and profit margins?

Art and politics, The carving of the future by the desire for the almighty buck.

Alright Indy filmmakers, It's time to get in the stream.

2008-10-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

Working for you and still rocking the streaming media. We are calling for submissions and are pushing the new model for Indy filmmakers to get noticed.

Let's take a look at some of the data that makes this trend viable to catch:
In an earlier blog I was writing I stated that Netflix was missing the boat on the members, then when they made a grand announcement that they were getting involved in indy film they were all too quick to drop the "red Carpet program like a hot rock. What is it about indy film that is so reprehensible?
I've seen some pretty good films out there in the circuit. But there is a lot of work that is not so good mixed in.
The problem is no-one wants to sort it out. I think I may have a solution.
Here is a quote from an earlier blog I wrote back in April.

One of the popular interests of our particular group is the contest for helping Netflix with a more effective solution for recommending new films to users. The currently employed offered are nearly all about some program or mathematical algorithms.
My personal viewpoint is that they are missing their most valuable assets; The members.

But first lets follow some of the most obvious trends to support this, let's take a look at what the public wants:

If one looks at the trend of the social element being part of all the major online players for content on the web.

We see Youtube growing even now after reaching an average of 52 million visits a month.
Myspace is actually on a trend to outdo the mighty Google for traffic, along with Facebook and more social membership programs are popping up daily.

Looking at this topic from a sociologist's standpoint one could surmise that; people are moving farther apart, and want to more than ever belong to something, to fit somewhere, associate with something, be heard and respected by their peers.
Thus the increase in online social activity.

Next we look at the content available, Youtube and blip.tv, as well as Google and the others have dominated the market creating something called user generated content really getting the audience involved.

They put the most popular videos om the front page giving the users that are most effective at getting attention even more popularity and status within the group. Now

Youtube is opening profit sharing opportunities with this new breed of social filmmaker, and growing even more because of it.

This is the online viewing audience, and they are looking for more content.

I say give the public a chance to do this with Indy shorts and feature films,in a Wiki way. Wiki has redefined mans view of fellow man in a way and in general we want to have our line in the page if we know for sure, we're helping.

I think there is a social network solution to the Netflix contest issue give this new social filmmaker a place in the system. Here's a possible scenario:

Netflix Social Solution

The real essence of the system has to be the focus on the social system, bloggers, video bloggers, and podcasters compete to be reviewers or critics and the social network picks the ones they want to listen to.
This way bloggers and this new breed of social filmmakers become critics (and of course have their paid Netflix membership) to watch and review the films thus becoming potentially professional movie critics,(and who doesn't want that job?)
The critic after watching the film, leaves a review that covers quality, genre', acting, and/or story contents(but not giving away the plot surprises)and recommended list of similar movies with each review.(Herein lies the secret to effective film association.)
The social network then comes in and comments on the reviews, the reviewer getting a large number on positive comments (and rating stars)should be paid by the content provider with a standard to be set by the provider, (rating and popularity, number of completed views, etc.)
In this way the public knows how the system works and the potential of getting paid to blog is integrated, thereby embracing all the current trends of the web.

Honestly, I predict that the solution ultimately derived from this contest will look similar to what I have outlined here.
But I'm also willing to put my money where my mouth is, I can create the website and run the beta test through a service I recently discovered and would call it www.streamingindy.com

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