schleppin' productions

That's pretty good for a movie that was shot by one person without a budget. Now I'm considering all the marketing techniques I can apply to my movie. THE RED QUEEN might just end up some record.
 
Marketing a movie nowadays is the costliest proposition of all. While the cost of digital production has gone down; selling a digital movie costs even more than selling a 35mm film. At least a 35mm can sell solely on the virtue that millions of theaters are desperate to show 35mm movies because they can't afford to install half a million dollar projectors.

So while it's cheaper to initiate a project in digital, it costs ten times more money to market it because the cinema owners that can afford the digital projectors are all running studio produced digital garbage (mostly animation and mindless action adventure movies for kids.)
 
D & G wrote: Vic, just curious, but what are you going for here ? Do you know your market ? What is your market ?
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First of all, let me thank you for commenting ... all the way from Canada too :) I went to Regiopolis College in Kingston Ontario and played basketball with the convicts a couple of times -- our high school championship team visited the penitentiary in Kingston :) It was scary; they stamped our hands so we'd be released after the game. I'd been sweating so much the stamp was almost all gone by the time we went back through the guard gate. LOL

Anyway, I'm going for an art film. I know I can sell this movie in Cannes, the AFM and the Berlinale for about $500,000. But since these markets are costing between $15k and $25k, I won't be able to, so I have to wait until I make this money selling DVDs and home video. Since all these sales via Amazon and the web are non-exclusive, I will still retain all the rights to sell the movie territory by territory.

Now I know no distributor will take this movie after I've marketed on a non-exclusive basis first, and that's why I will distribute the movie myself. I've been a distributor for over 20 years. I've been a filmmaker a lot longer than that :)

What makes this movie Felliniesque ?
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When dreams and reality are treated as one -- this is what I did ... and will continue to do with all my felliniesque movie. And I didn't use a script; I made things up as I went. I had a theme in my head and a rough script that I had pulled out of a screenplay that was submitted to me (I credit that writer btw). Fellini's 8 & 1/2 was about a director without a script. A great but long story. I'll put it in my next book on indie filmmaking :)
 
D & G wrote: "if someone gave me $10 million to make a film, I'd go get Brad Pitt for $9million and spend $1 million on production".
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I like Brad Pitt too, but this philosophy flies in the face of who I am as a filmmaker. It makes sense from a distribution point of view; but not from my indie filmmaker point of view.

A distribution once tried to ridicule me for making low budget movies. He said about me in front of one of my actor friends, "Vic wouldn't know what to do with $10 million dollars."

I said, "I would make 100 movies at $100,000 each, and I'd do them in one year by hiring 100 crews to shoot them. Then I'd go to the market with one hundred movies and make $100 million dollars."

He stopped smiling and gave me a disparaging look. He never talked to me again.
 
D & G wrote: Btw, dude, I don't get your signature line. A violin player is sorry that Fellini directs so take a bath ? :-) (maybe it's the translation)
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Fellini directs, filmman takes a bath.

Fellini's only film that made money was La Dolce Vita. He didn't die rich, but he lived the dream of being a filmmaker and an artist. I really consider him the greatest filmmaker in the world.

BTW, how do you get a profile picture to show up under your name. I can't do it. I only know how to put up a signature picture. ... I have to change this one. It's getting old ....
 
I'm going to have to watch that documentary if nothing else just to hear felliniesque music :)

Thanks for the advice on getting my profile picture up; I finally got it up there. Now I have to scan a new picture that's a bit sharper.

Regarding the $10 million ... I'd never say the same thing today. Nobody gives an artist $10 dollars. I never heard it happen. So realistically, I don't make movies with a lot of money and I usually end up making movies with my own money, which allows me to sleep at night.

I tried to rep some movies this year but I only found one filmmaker who was willing to put up $2,000 so I had to cancel out. I'm back to my original plan: to raise the money selling my no budget movies via the Internet and then going to the international markets with that money.

Once I get back on the road again (singing Willie Nelson's song), I will get back to low budget filmmaking and using name talent. By the way, my book on filmmaking: FILMMAKING A TO Z by Vic Alexander is on Amazon. That's where I write about filmmaking in general and distribution.

Thanks again for commenting.
 
digital has the immediacy but not the permanence of film

you can buy short ends now to shoot a full length feature film for less than the cost of a prosumer digital camera

visit my website and email me about that too

THE RED QUEEN is available on Amazon.com

Just enter The Red Queen by Vic Alexander in the Amazon search box and you can order my movie. Thanks for the support.
 
and if you decide to support my efforts as an indie filmmaker, I'll help you too -- there is the international markets or film consultations.
 
red_queen_felliniesque_musical_2.jpg

One other thing to remember if you're a young filmmaker, THE RED QUEEN is a compilation film and a creative documentary.

You will not only be entertained by this movie but you'll learn of a whole new way to experience what is real in life and what is a dream.

If you're an aspiring filmmaker, The RED QUEEN is a creative force that will not only entertain you but show you how to turn your dreams into reality.
 
One other thing to remember if you're a young filmmaker, THE RED QUEEN is a compilation film and a creative documentary.

You will not only be entertained by this movie but you'll learn of a whole new way to experience what is real in life and what is a dream.

If you're an aspiring filmmaker, The RED QUEEN is a creative force that will not only entertain you but show you how to turn your dreams into reality.
 
I was lucky in that I didn't have to pay a dime for my professional digital camera -- Sony Z1U with the Zeiss zoom lens. I can turn any 3 hours of experience into an 83 minute feature film plus one week of editing. But it has taken me 39 years to be able to do that, and I learned everything shooting film. That's where the discipline to make movies comes from.

As soon as I get a few bucks together I'll get back to shooting 35mm. As you can judge from the video posted, the overwhelming number of filmmakers shoot 35mm film.

Keep coming back to this thread as I get the movie out into distribution over the next few months.
 
If you're in North Carolina or close by come and see my movie in the film festival in Smithfield. I will let everyone know when it's being screened.
 
Also if you're a performer, come and see me about my next felliniesque movie. You never know, I might be looking for someone just like you. Take another look at my new movie THE RED QUEEN. It's on Amazon. Watch the trailer at http://www.felliniesque.com and click on something to read more about my MO :)
 
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