Help me decide...

All due respect to everyone, but Barry you assume people don't 'love' "Tangled Web" based on the fact that not many people have seen it. And yet most of the people who have seen it and talked to me about it have enjoyed -- yes, some even 'loved' -- the movie. So it seems to me the real issue is how to encourage more people to watch the movie.

Suppose I -- or you -- made a movie people would LOVE. If no one knew it was out there, then even though people would LOVE it if they saw it, the movie won't get seen. Yes, word of mouth will help a lot, but even that can only do so much.

My point is, people can't LOVE something if they don't know it's out there. Even if they do know it's out there, they may not KNOW they would love it until they actually take the plunge and watch it. And getting people to TAKE that plunge is what we're ALL trying to do, isn't it?

So what I'm trying to accomplish here is to find a better way to get people to (1) know that 'Tangled Web' is out there, (2) get intrigued enough by it to take a chance and watch the movie, and then (3) to rate and review the movie and tell all their friends how much they enjoyed it.

These are exactly the same 3 things we ALL will have to accomplish on any movie we make.

So really, that's all I'm asking here now. How do I make the promo materials more appealing? And how do I drive eyeballs to the Amazon page for the movie?

If I make the promo materials as effective as they can be, and if I find a way to drive the eyeballs to the trailer and the Amazon page, and still get no sales or rentals, then okay -- I'll admit defeat. But I've had too many people tell me "that was a really good movie!" Not friends just trying to be kind. Many of them I never even met personally. Too many to just give up and walk away. It may not be a blockbuster hit, and that's fine. But I can't believe it's not good enough to make a lousy 1000 bucks.

Here's an example. I mentioned earlier that the original post that started this whole thread, I also posted on my Facebook page. I actually got several sales of the movie from doing that -- sales to people I'd never met or had much, if any, previous conversation with. One of them was a guy named Michael Lawhorn. I have his permission to use his name and quote what he had to say about the movie. The following are quotes from a Facebook chat I had with him after he received and watched "Tangled Web":

"By the way, I watched it and Loved it!"

"No, the ending was a wonderful surprise."

"It was riveting! , truly"

"It was truly a surprise! It kept my attention, and that's rare, with this ADD, lol"

I don't think I'd ever had any communication with Michael before I posted that on Facebook. His first contact with me was a post on that thread that read:

"Filming for money is never a good idea, believe me!"

I would learn later that Michael had been a filmmaker, but has been out of the business for awhile. I responded to that message, and his reply was:

"I understand that, David, I wanna see it, how can I?"

Michael's sister then posted (a bit later) on the thread and said, "Michael, I have already seen it, and it's really good!"

Michael's response was, "Okay, I want one." He paid me via PayPal and I mailed him a DVD.

My point in going through all of that was to illustrate that the above positive reviews came from a person who was not in any way a particular friend of mine -- I'd never met him or spoken to him, to my knowledge. He had no reason to flatter me. He wasn't looking for anything from me. So I have no reason to think he was not completely sincere in his comments.

People who have no reason to lie have told me they enjoyed the movie very much.

That's what I'm trying to say.

I believe if I can get MORE people to watch the movie, a great many -- if not most -- others will also enjoy it.

Whether or not anyone here is a fan really isn't the point. No movie appeals to everyone. Certainly not 'Tangled Web'. But please guys -- regardless of whether or not you personally think the movie is good, please just help me figure out how to get the word out to folks that it exists and where they can find it. "Tangled Web" will then find its audience or it won't. (But I believe it will.)
 
Barry_Green said:
This is (apparently) a case of a filmmaker uploading a little short film to YouTube, and it went viral.
Click to expand...

The key word here is 'apparently'. The fact is, this wasn't just some short film made by some obscure filmmaker that just happened to go viral in 3 days. This is a commercial advertisement made for, and paid for by, Wren Studio clothing. You will find their clothing in Neiman Marcus and Barneys, among other places. So I have a feeling that more than a little money went into promoting and marketing this 'viral' video.

Which is great! But it's an apples-and-oranges comparison.
 
I completely agree that the poster needs to be totally redesigned. I have someone working on that as we speak -- a woman who is a graphic artist.

I have edited the description to what I think is a better form. It may still need some tweaking.

I can build a website, but I'm not sure how a website is better than a Facebook page. Either one will have to have eyeballs driven to it somehow. I can get the Facebook page in front of a lot of people without spending a dime. How would I do the same with a website?

I'm considering cutting a new trailer.

I don't agree that the audio is all wrong for the concept, but even if it was, there is nothing I can do about that now. ADR is not an option, and there's only so much you can do with graphic equalization.

I've asked people who have seen the movie to write and submit reviews on the IMDB page. Many of them tell me that they have done so, but the reviews have not, as yet, appeared on the page. I don't know what may be causing the delay, but that appears to be beyond my control. Hopefully those reviews will appear soon. And hopefully they are positive and will make others want to see the movie.

I've reduced the purchase price of the movie on Amazon from $12.99 to $9.99. Further, if anyone orders a DVD of the movie directly from me, they will get it for $4.99.

I would reduce the rental price on Amazon as well, but Amazon tells me that they set the rental price and I have no say in it. I am currently working on options to allow online rental of the movie for 99 cents.

If people read the synopsis, see the new poster and watch the new trailer, I hope they will be intrigued enough to spend 99 cents to watch the movie online, or $4.99 to buy the DVD.

So the only question now is -- How do I spread the word as far and wide as possible with extremely limited funds? How do I get those eyeballs to the new poster, the synopsis and the new trailer? How do I get them to the Facebook page or the Amazon page or even a website?
 
Tell you what....so folks here can get a complete understanding of the storyline and its potential audience, I'm going to make 'Tangled Web' available to watch for FREE through this weekend.

If you want to watch 'Tangled Web', then PM me and I will send you a link to the movie online and the password to view it.

The password will be changed Sunday night.

This is not for the purpose of telling me what's wrong with the movie or whether anyone will like or dislike it. It's done now. The purpose now is to help me find the best way to represent the movie to its target audience. Some of the things that have been suggested for the synopsis are things I can't actually use, but I can't explain why without giving away some serious spoilers. Hopefully by watching the movie, it will help folks tailor suggestions with a better understanding of what can and can't be revealed.

So if you want to see the movie, hit me up! :-)
 
Barry_Green said:
Sigh. Had no idea about wren clothing... thought this was the real deal. Never mind!
Click to expand...

In all fairness to the point you were trying to make, I do know there have been videos posted on YouTube that have legitimately gone viral. The one that most often comes to mind is this one -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk

It did very well for the guy who made it. But true success stories like that are pretty rare, I think. And they have to do something amazing, like the showcasing of all of the scifi special effects in this one -- amazing that the whole film was shot in a weekend on a budget of $300. Of course, it's the special effects that make it amazing, and those effects took something like half a year and access to some pretty expensive software to achieve. Even so, this is the kind of thing people will email to their friends and say, "You HAVE to watch this!"

Very few feature-length drama movies are going to have snippets that would inspire that kind of grassroots viral-ness on YouTube. I wish mine did have something that would inspire that kind of mass excitement. I really do.
 
Michael Lawhorn's sister, Jan Bingman, just sent me a copy of the review she posted moments ago on the IMDB page. Here it is:


Not your usual character and well worth watching. This film was superbly acted. The plot kept me guessing until the very end.

Concerning the modern use of the internet, it's a situation that many of us can identify with. If you enjoy online video chatting, then you will enjoy this movie.

I would suggest that anyone that wants to support independent film making should definitely watch this movie. The characters are people that a person can identify with as well. I felt happiness, sadness, rage, paranoia, relief, excitement, intrigue...it spans almost all emotions.

The most interesting development of this film is that you just don't have a clue about what is really going on.

I hope my review has helped someone to understand that this film is far from ordinary and well worth a watch.
 
Barry_Green said:
Sigh. Had no idea about wren clothing... thought this was the real deal. Never mind!
Click to expand...
Not to get too off topic, but that video always said it was from Wren clothing (for some Vogue magazine thing) and it legitimately went viral just from all the people involved plugging it. A lot of people either didn't see the title or didn't get that it was a commercial product and they were the ones who made it more than it was, and then felt betrayed.
Also, the whole thing cost $1300 to make since all the people were friends of the people who work at Wren.
Anyway…the video was a good idea and a good example of the importance of concept.
 
Regarding an earlier comment saying the sound is bad on 'Tangled Web'......this is interesting. I just got my first negative feedback about the movie. The guy just didn't like it. Fair enough. He had some good insights. But one thing he said kinda stood out -- "I have to say the production sound recording quality on your film was very good."

Because of something else he had said, I double-checked to make sure he didn't mean 'NOT very good.' He didn't. :-)
 
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