Now that “One Hand Clapping” is trying to ‘wake up’ it is going to need to be fed to completely come alive.  And that means greenbacks.  Those little pieces of synthetic fibers, paper and ink we give so much value to in our world.  Too bad we just don’t have a gold mine somewhere we could dig up, and presto we’re on the way.  And isn’t it funny that paper money was first introduced centuries ago by the Chinese, as an alternative to coinage.  And don’t they have most of the money in the world, or carry most of the debt, or at least it seems like it.  Everything it seems we buy nowadays is from China, which of course has been going on for quite a while now.

Anyway, back to getting more funds for our next little film.  We recently had a finance meeting to map out our fundraising strategies.  A wakeup call realizing we are involved in a climbing marathon for sure.  Just in case most of you don’t know it there are two main types of investors, passive and active.  We had to decide what we wanted to do with the film, and which direction to go here.  Essentially, passive investors invest their funds, but are not involved in the company or its decision-making in the creation of the film.  Active investors, who usually invest larger amounts of money, are involved in the day-to-day decisions of the company.  That means more chefs in the kitchen.  A good idea?  In most cases, I would say no.  However, there can be some advantages to this situation.

Certainly, if an active investor has deep pockets, and also has a knowledge of the business, that could be a plus.  And since I do think you need several views of a situation to really know what you are looking at, that situation can be a real plus.  Just as long as it doesn’t become a long, drawn out committee-type affair in the decision-making processes.  You obviously have to weigh it all out here.

Now with passive investors, which on the surface does seem more palatable, it can actually get more complicated.  Here you are selling pieces in smaller increments, and thus need more of them.  Plus, since they are ‘passive’, as in they have no say in any of the company’s decisions at all, there are no worries as far as that goes.  However, when you are selling to passive investors that means you are selling a security.  And that involves the Federal Government via the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission), and the state governments where you plan to offer the securities package.  Confused yet?  It gets muddier.

For a small indie film company like ours it gets fairly limited how we can offer these securities.  We certainly won’t (and don’t) want to do a public offering, so it would be a private offering, usually under the Regulation D rules.  There are three different categories under this particular rule.  There are a number of strict rules you have to follow to be in compliance here.  One of them could be particularly difficult for us (and others in our situation).

Here it is:  Whenever you approach someone to sell them a security (unit or piece) of the film, you must have had a preexisting relationship with them.  Meaning you cannot advertise, or pitch to, or contact anyone you do not know about this.   If you do not know too many people, especially investor types, you are plain out of luck.  And if you do not follow this rule, you can get in major legal trouble with the SEC.  Now like I said, there are other rules, but this is one that can stop lots of filmmakers.  In fact, I have seen filmmakers ignore this, either out of ignorance or throwing caution to the wind.  I really don’t advise it.

The conclusion here.  Just putting the financial deal together can be very complicated.  And this is before you even try to go out and get the $$$$. Or maybe we could find other simpler ways to fund this project; Pre-sales? Crowd-funding? Loans? Begging? Rich Uncle Louie?

Or maybe someone out there has a gold mine that has a few shiny nuggets left to mine?  Or, maybe some of you are expecting pennies from heaven sometime in the near future?  Oh wait, we have to have a pre-existing relationship with you first before we can do anything like that.  Ha, okay, let’s fix that.  Anyone out there want to do lunch? …

JAD

Script.  The screenplay is pretty much ready to go, even though of course I continue to tweak it, because a script I write never actually seems to be ‘done’ to me.  In fact, just recently I had a completely different idea for the opening scene.  But I think what we may do is shoot both of them and see how the edit goes.  Of course, we have all heard about shooting multiple endings, but what about shooting multiple openings?  Well, we shall see, as I might be overruled if the budget can’t accommodate that.

Cast.  We have been throwing around casting ideas for several weeks now, and that is getting fairly tricky.  We have a large male cast, along with a couple female roles.  We need a late ‘70’s male, and three brothers aged 49, 45 and 40.  The female supporting roles include one in her late ‘40’s, another in her early 40’s, and a third in her early ‘30’s.  And in addition, we need an 8-year-old boy.  But to top it off, we need the three brothers at other ages in flashbacks, as young children and then as early teens, and the oldest male in his ‘30’s and 40’s.  That makes casting a complicated piece of work.  But we just see this as a great challenge to undertake, and so we need to get to it.

Finance.  This is always a very rough and tough mountain to climb, especially now with the current state of the economy.  And also, because the budget of this film will be more than twice that of our last one.  (the script is currently being broken down and budgeted, and then we will have a better idea of where we are)  That will put some serious pressure on us to find the right people who are willing to give up their hard-earned $$$ to fund not only a risky film project, but one with our film’s particular themes.  However, we feel they (You!) are out there somewhere.  The real trick will be finding them, communicating what we are trying to do, along with a little bit of romancing (sweetening the deal) along the way ;-)

Location.  Yes, we will be shooting this film in Texas, which means making several trips there to firm up our locations.  Locations are very important to me, because they serve the production design and thus the backdrop through which the story is told.  And story is what it’s all about in the end.  In fact, I will be heading to Austin, Texas to attend SXSW in March.  We will be checking out possible locations in small towns around Austin; Bastrop, Smithville, Taylor, Lockhart, etc., where we can still get some 1950’s and 1960’s looks for our multiple flashback scenes.  If anyone wants to connect up with me at SXSW, go here and message me – http://social.sxsw.com/users/52604

And finally, if anyone wants to contact me concerning our new project, you can find me here:

Linkedin — http://www.linkedin.com/in/jerryaldendeal

Facebook  — https://www.facebook.com/jerryaldendeal

Twitter — https://twitter.com/#!/JerryAldenDeal

JAD

So now add a little bit of serendipity and you have what recently happened to me.  A couple weeks ago I went to a presentation about online distribution.  I gathered a few nuggets that I hoped would help us with our online operations.  And of course, one of the topics passionately discussed was the growing problem of piracy.  I of course listened, but didn’t take it too seriously.  I figured the type of person who would like our film would be someone who wouldn’t do this to us.  Famous last words.

The very next morning, my web operations guy (and my brother) informed me that we in fact had been pirated and that our film was streaming on several sites.  A real mix of conflicting emotions flooded me.  One was definitely anxiety, like my pocket had just been picked.  And then he told me how he found out.  A person who had streamed it off one of these sites had the audacity to ask us for a key to the “Dreams Awake Portal.”  When he was told to put the code in from his DVD, he admitted where he had watched it.  Totally amazing.  That guy has some brass ones, I have to admit.

Anyway, we decided to go ahead and do the normal FBI and IPR reporting, and also contacted the hosting companies involved, all in relation to what we can do according to The Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  But realistically, completely stopping piracy is an impossible task.

So, back to the issue at hand.  Actually, there is a part of me than can relate to the opposite side of the piracy issue that I now find myself on.  For I too have always had a bit of an anarchist streak in me.  And also, I think this all taps into the same zeitgeist the “Occupy” movement tapped into as it has sweep everywhere these last few months.  The giant corporate structure that has engulfed the world the last several decades seems to be a lightning rod for this type of behavior.  In fact, these pirates may believe that these bigwigs are the real pirates, so they feel justified stealing from them.

Anyway, here is a message to those who choose to pirate our film.  Indie filmmakers like our team are not a part of that huge corporate structure.  Nor are we a part of the big studio system.  We shot our little film on a small budget, provided to us by a small number of people.  And also, the principals in our small company were a part of those small investors.  You diminish and devalue all the hard work, time, energy, effort and money that over 100 people put into this very demanding and stressful enterprise, and make us feel like what we have created has no value to you.  (How about showing us we are wrong?)

And please, do not make it harder for us to make our next little film.  I believe if you are the type of spiritually-principled person who would like our film, then pirating (theft) is not really a part of who you really are.  If that is so, and you just happened to have enjoyed a free version of our film (but yet do not have any access to all the wonderful extra material within the “Dreams Awake Portal” – http://dreamsawakeportal.com), then how about right now you do the positive thing and donate a few dollars to our new, exciting little film we currently have in development, “One Hand Clapping” (http://www.onehandclappingmovie.com)?  And also, we may just give you access to our “Dreams Awake Portal”.

Right below is a donate button where you can put in whatever amount you feel is appropriate for you.  And may all of you have a truly wonderful New Year!

JAD

Yes, I could go quite a ways back if I really want to get the root of my impetus for making this film.  And so I did.  Well, when I was only a few years old, I had my first series of out-of-body experiences (OOBE’s as they call them).  Of course, at the time I had no idea what had happened to me.  And I couldn’t really talk to anyone about it at that time.  For sure they would think I was crazy, and in fact I did actually think something was wrong with me.  So I kept my mouth quite shut.  Not even my parents knew about it.

Then in my teen years, I had another series of these experiences, which were incredibly vivid.  That got me thinking even more, and so I figured it was time to investigate what the hell was going on with me.  I also happened to tell some of my close friends about all this.  They told me I was nuts.  Go figure.  But then a funny thing happened.  A side effect of trying to figure out what was happening to me, was me beginning a kind of personal quest.  At the time I didn’t think of it as particularly ‘spiritual’ or religious in any sense, only as a truly serious need that I had to figure out.  Or else I wasn’t sure what was to become of me.

That led me to trying different systems in ‘inner inquiry’ as I left my teen years and toiled in college.  Eventually I learned to how to meditate in a way that was particularly suited to me.  And once I practiced that for awhile, and then continued it regularly over the years, I felt I had found a path that accessed my inner being and became a vehicle for all types on inner growth.  It felt like a Godsend and a true fountain of unlimited thirst quenching.

During the early part of that process I went on a trip (or maybe you could call it a pilgrimage?) to Mt. Shasta with a few of my friends.  How truly wonderful!  Certainly it was a life-altering set of experiences, and forever opened my eyes in more ways than I could ever successfully communicate in the English language.  Over the past four decades I have made several trips back to that mountain and learned many things that I could easily write a book (or two) about.  Yes, I have had several spiritual, mystical, metaphysical, whatever you want to call it, experiences on that very special mountain.  But I am essentially a private person, so I’m not going into any real detail about them right here and now (maybe if I do write a book?).

We eventually got a place near Mt. Shasta several years ago.  And one day while looking up at the mountain from the deck I marveled at how majestically beautiful she was at that moment.  And how cinematic.  And then I wondered why no one had ever shot a film up here.  Once that thought germinated, a story sparked and begin to flow out and then gushed all over.  And well, here we are.

Now of course, this is an abbreviated version of a fairly involved, complicated story and set of events.  And in the end, I always felt the film was actually my gift to the mountain for all she has done for me over all these years.  And right now, just thinking about how much I have gotten, fills and overflows my heart.  And yet, the gift of our little film seems so small in return, compared to her boundless gifts to me.  Hhhmmm … maybe it is getting near time to finally write that book?

Happy Holidays!
JAD

Our Holiday Special to You

http://dreamsawakemovie.com/dreamsawakeholidayspecial/

]]> http://dreamsawakemovie.com/2011/12/why-dreams-awake/feed/ 2 http://dreamsawakemovie.com/2011/11/story-world-afm/ http://dreamsawakemovie.com/2011/11/story-world-afm/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:01:11 +0000 Jerry http://dreamsawakemovie.com/?p=2038 I recently had the good fortune to attend a couple enlightening, multi-day events back to back early this month, one in San Francisco and the other in Los Angeles (actually Santa Monica).  And they both could not have been more different in their content, ambiance and attitude.

The first event was the Story World Conference + Expo, which billed itself as the ‘first major gathering of content creators, platform providers, and entertainment industry leaders dedicated to exploring new business models and working together across media boundaries.’  For the most part it was about the growing trend of ‘transmedia’ in the entertainment industry, and how creatives, technologists, and business people can take advantage of this mulit-platform form of storytelling.

And yes, I have talked about transmedia in the past, and yes, those of you who have experienced our ‘Dreams Awake Portal’ have gotten a piece of our transmedia.  It is something we are still growing, and something we also plan to institute in our next film project.

So we decided to see what others were doing in this field and headed up north to check it out.  The fun and amazing thing about all this is that most of the people operating this space are still trying it figure it out.  Meaning that the pioneering trails are still being blazed, and all the rules certainly are not set.

After three days there I think we came up with several new transmedia ideas we can work up for our future film projects.  Of course, this whole area of endeavor is still wide open, fresh and exciting, but I have to admit that to correctly run transmedia for any entertainment properties, it takes a number of dedicated people working awfully hard.  At least if you want to serve the demands of an engaged viewing audience.  And that is the challenge before us.

I think the thing that got me most excited about how all this works was the idea that transmedia could be actually used for positive change in the world.  I truly can see and believe that is possible.  That’s why going to the next event was so opposite and so disillusioning.

This second event we attended was the American Film Market (AFM), which was a much less friendly environment for creative types, for it is almost purely about the business of the film industry.  They say they are ‘premiere global marketplace where Hollywood’s decision-makers and trendsetters all gather under one roof.’  Also ‘where over 8,000 industry leaders from over 70 countries converge for eight days of deal-making, screenings, seminars, networking and parties.’  Whew, that’s a lot of happenings going on there.

Yes, overall this was much less enjoyable to attend.  However, it was worth our time to attend, if not at least to observe how business is done at this level.  Even though it attempts to tailor itself for indie filmmakers, it was really for larger production companies and studio types.

We did attend a number of seminars for finance, marketing, distribution and production, and we did learn a few things here and there that will serve us in the future.  But the philosophy of our company, Way To Go Media, doesn’t seem to quite fit what almost everyone was selling there.  I don’t know how many more vampire, werewolf, zombie, or super-hero movies I can take.  But that seemed to be mostly what was selling there.  Oh, there were a few other types of course, but l bet if I had pitched a film that had all of those elements I could have gotten financing right there on the spot.  These elements seemed to take the forefront, while story was only an afterthought (or so it seemed).  Too bad some of these people hadn’t attended the Story World Conference.  Totally amazing.

Anyway, I will take whatever positives I can from those experiences and move forward with where we want to go.  I think there is a ‘Way To Go’ from here to there.  And I look forward to the journey.  Trying to add more storytelling to our ‘transmedia’, and still be able to ‘sell’ you on what we’re trying to communicate, in a positive and uplifting way.

JAD

We are moving forward, albeit a bit slowly, on our next film project, “One Hand Clapping.”  As you can well imagine it takes quite a bit of time and energy (and of course $$$) to get a feature film project off the ground.

The story is basically about three grown brothers who come back to the small Texas town they grew up in, and try to resolve issues with their dying father.  Each one of them has grown apart from the family and created their own separate lives.  These four are the main characters, one of them being the protagonist and the other the antagonist.

In addition, there are two supporting women characters.  One is a wife of one of the brothers, and the other a former girlfriend.  There is also an 8-year-old boy who is a son of one of the brothers.  These seven characters form the ensemble cast.  There are also several flashbacks to the fifties and sixties, which includes the currently deceased mother of the three brothers.

On the surface this may seem like fairly typical family drama.  But that is only on the surface.  Clues began to surface that a major tragedy in the father’s early life has repercussions on the family that involves something in a past-life event.  And that even has a profound effect on their current state of affairs.  Is it possible to clear up a tragic past life event in a current life, in order that a family can move forward in a positive direction?  We shall see.

The final draft of the screenplay is pretty much done, although of course we will continue to make needed changes and adjustments.  For now, we need to put together a financing program, as well as get a cast interested and attached.  Our projected time to begin production is 3/15/13 in the Austin, TX area.  Since this is a bigger production than our first project, “Dreams Awake,” it will probably take more time to get the financing and cast together.

Anyway, we are definitely excited to get this moving!

More Info:

Website:          http://www.onehandclappingmovie.com/

Facebook:      https://www.facebook.com/OneHandClappingMovie

Twitter:           https://twitter.com/#!/OHCMovie

YouTube:       http://www.youtube.com/onehandclappingmovie

JAD

Below are the ideas or themes YOU have identified in “Dreams Awake.”  I’m not saying if I agree or disagree with them, only that this is what the film is about for you. Although I must add I think you got most of it pretty right on.  In addition, I will eventually follow up with what I was really attempting to communicate with this film, as I have been writing an involved, detailed paper on that for awhile now.  And then we can compare notes, to see how close you came and how well I even did in communicating what I was trying to communicate.  But all of that is for another day.

Anyway, here are those themes, as well as links to pages that go into them a bit.  Enjoy!

Discovering the inner practice of meditation:

http://dreamsawakemovie.com/meditation_for_you/

Healing the inner child:

http://dreamsawakemovie.com/inner_child/

The unique mysticism of Mt. Shasta:

http://dreamsawakemovie.com/shastamysticism/

The possibility of spiritual immortality:

http://dreamsawakemovie.com/spiritual_immortality/

The ancient creation mythology of the inner sound:

http://dreamsawakemovie.com/inner_sound/

JAD

First, because we’ve received so much praise about the soundtrack and requests to make it available, we figured it was about time to get it out to you.  At first we thought, how should we make this available, and for how much?  It didn’t take too long for us to decide we’d just make it available off our website as a download, and to let you have it for $0.  This economy has been rough on everyone, and we felt like just doing something for you.  Call it a pre-holiday present (wow, is it almost the end-of-the year holiday period already?!).

Anyway, so is here the soundtrack link on our website to get those musical pieces – http://dreamsawakemovie.com/DreamsAwakeSoundtrack.php.  Or a Facebook link if you prefer – https://www.facebook.com/DreamsAwakeMovie?sk=app_174927749225665.  There are 54 pieces here, so do enjoy!

Erin Gray signing poster

Second, we still have our autographed posters available, which I mentioned in a previous post.  We will be giving away six of them, beginning next year at the 1st of each month, Jan-Jun.  So sign up and possibly win a poster signed by Erin Gray, Gary Graham and Tim O’Connor, who played the three main characters in “Dreams Awake.”  Here is that poster link on our website – http://dreamsawakemovie.com/free-poster-giveaway/.  Or a Facebook link if you prefer – https://www.facebook.com/DreamsAwakeMovie?sk=app_14167664298.

I’m sure we will come up with more giveaways in the future.  So stay tuned!

JAD

Of course, hard core sales people don’t really seem to care about that, since they just want the sale.  And that is not what I am about.  I dream, I create, and then I send it out into the world.  Being a salesperson is not high on my list, but oftentimes we indie filmmakers are required to do just that, if we want to continue to be filmmakers.  And maybe even now more than ever.  Yet it does seem somewhat distasteful and seedy, but I certainly understand the pragmatism and necessity of that world.

However, in the process of doing all this it seems messages can get easily miscommunicated, misconstrued or mishandled.  And to add another level of this complicated process it seems these messages still need to travel through ‘the filters’ as I call it.  Or as some people say, ‘the gatekeepers.’  For filmmakers those gatekeepers are of course the distributors.  And yes, most of the larger industries have them.  People whose job it is to decide if a product (or service) is good enough for the people they (the distributors) have to sell to.  And there is certainly ample proven logic to the working efficiency of that paradigm

The problem becomes when the gatekeepers have too much control or power over an industry, resulting in decent, good, or even great products to never get to the people who may want or need them.  Indie filmmaking is a prime example of this, as ‘the people’ are discovering these little gems all the time.  And oftentimes it is the niche or affinity groups that relate to the thematic content of a film that help these types of indie films to get discovered.  And there is something in that process that I have discovered in the journey our film is currently on.  What happens when the affinity groups you thought your film could be most tied to just don’t accept you, or maybe don’t even quite ‘get’ you?

A different kind of revelation presents itself.  What if the people running these affinity groups are actually acting as gatekeepers themselves?  It was something I had never actually considered.

When I wrote the screenplay for ‘Dreams Awake’ I certainly wasn’t consciously thinking about what particular group of people I was writing this film for.  I just told the story, and it came out how it came out.  After we shot it, we had to take a hard look at who we thought this film was for, especially if we were going to be directly responsible for distributing it.  And that’s when we realized there were some large general audiences to consider, as well as some small niche audiences.

The two largest audiences we came up with were people interested in family films and films involving women leads and/or issues.  These were such large groups we didn’t feel we could begin to effectively market to them right off, so we honed it down to other audiences.

Other audience tiers involved people interested in alternative spirituality, new consciousness, or freethinker types.  These could still be construed as fairly large groups but at least it was easier to find them within certain affinity groups online.  Because our marketing efforts have for the most part involved using available online tools and resources.

Even so, if we honed our audience down even more we could say that people interested in meditation and inner child work could also be part of our niche groupings.

And finally, we figured if there was a fan base for any one of the major cast members in the film, or anyone with an affinity for Mt. Shasta, we should consider those also.  Even though these niches were certainly smaller than any of the rest.

But let’s go back to these affinity gatekeepers I was harping about, because I do now have an issue with some of them.  We began our marketing efforts by going after the alternative spirituality/new consciousness audience.  Some of that was directly one-to-one, with social media, email marketing and such.  Another part was contacting affinity groups that had followings of people, usually congregated in websites or other online spiritual communities.  What we found out and experienced was fairly astounding.  Most of them were not very positive about what we were doing, and actually seemed a bit afraid and intimidated by it.  They were very protective of their communities.  Which on one hand I understood, but on another seemed quite odd.  They basically were preventing their members, their people, an opportunity to be exposed to a different kind of so-called ‘spiritual’, ‘mystical’ or ‘metaphysical’ themed film.  They, in essence, had declared themselves the gatekeepers of their communities, but the locks they kept were very tight.  We even usually offered to sweeten the deal for them, such as discounts or extra stuff, etc., but it didn’t matter.  How curious this was.  Supposedly open, spiritual communities so closed and cloistered.  Wow, what a revelation.

Luckily, we found the one-to-one experiences much more positive.  By going directly to the people with our marketing efforts we have received many more positive results.  (See Previous Post #1 + Previous Post #2) Lots of these people do like our film.  And in fact, we have discovered that some of them belong to the same types of affinity groups we tried to work with.  Guess some of them really don’t know their own people.  Makes me wonder who actually makes these decisions in these groups.

Well, no matter.  We will continue to go down the most positive path finding ‘the people’ one by one who might be interested in our little film.  More power to The People!  And you gatekeepers, you just keep guarding those gates, keeping whatever you fear and don’t understand out.

Oh, and one more thing – Support Indie Filmmakers!

 JAD

I stopped in my tracks.  They nodded at me and proceeded to walk by me.  I quickly quizzed them, “Just curious, what movie are you talked about?” already knowing no other film had ever been shot up here.

They both said, practically in unison, “Dreams Awake.”  I was almost floored, but I caught my composure, and retorted, “Yeah, I think I heard about that, but I never saw it.  It was filmed up here, right?”

They both answered in the affirmative.  And then to keep playing along, I asked them about the film, as in should I consider watching it.

They both became very enthusiastic about it, suggesting if I was ‘into’ Mt. Shasta, especially the spiritual aspects of it, that they highly recommended it.  I smiled a bit, wondering if I should tell them who I was.  I decided I liked my anonymity just fine and didn’t want to spoil their more pure experience of the mountain by telling them who I was

They discussed the film with me a few more minutes, explaining certain aspects that had touched them.  I was impressed.  They also relayed that they were from the Bay area and were heading up to Portland.  They had never been to Mt. Shasta, but after watching the film decided they should check it out.  I told them that Shasta was certainly worth a visit and wished them well on their adventure.

I hurried down the mountain with a large grin and a full heart.  It was a magical moment that would only grow as I hit the parking lot.  Just as I opened my car door, another car drove down right by me with its windows open.  The music blaring from its stereo almost got my tear factory going.  The theme song from the film was playing!

First, I was mesmerized.  Second, I wondered how that person was playing that since it was not released on CD.  Of course, in this digital world there are plenty of ways to have done that.  So third, I didn’t worry about it at all.  I just enjoyed my drive down the mountain that day, smiling the whole way.  For I knew there were a few people enjoying the film, and then had found their way to a very magical mountain.  Wow…

JAD