mainstreetprod
Veteran
If you haven't produced a feature with the AF yet and wonder what one looks like, now is your chance. We are offering a one time viewing of "Flowers for Fannie" free at 7pm CST Saturday, January 26th. (Unofficially, the viewing window will be a bit wider but we wanted it to seem more like streaming. It's just a Youtube link that will be made public for a few hours).
Why are we doing it? Naturally we are hoping it will translate into some DVD sales, but primarily we just want to get the name of the movie out there and offering it for free is one way to do it. A press release goes nowhere without something interesting in it, and free is always interesting. The release we sent out is now found about 1200 places on the web (Google "new Christian movie targets seniors").
You read that right, we are targeting senior citizens. Why? Well, our demographic is actually Christian women 40+, but the movie is particularly suited for seniors and what better demographic to target than one that absolutely NO ONE is going after. When we first finished the screenplay, we sent it to a previous contact at Sony (knowing full well a low budget indy didn't have a shot but still wanting feedback). His response was, "No one wants to watch a movie about a crotchety old lady". That's true to some extent of a major portion of the population, but not necessarily true of our target demographic. Also, there are exceptions even in Hollywood, such as "Driving Miss Daisy", "Grumpy Old Men" and the animated feature "Up". And besides, in any good movie about a crusty old curmudgeon, the old codger softens up and is usually likeable by the end.
We've screened the movie now for over 500 people of all ages, some related to the actors in the film but many just curious folks from our community. We've been able to watch their response on Facebook as they share about it with friends, and it's been quite encouraging. I can't remember anyone talking about watching our last project twice, but many who saw this one and bought the DVD have watched it multiple times. That's a good sign.
So, if you want to see what the AF100 is capable of in the hands of someone not experienced enough to call themselves a DP (me), watch it. You'll see both incredible looking shots, average shots and a few that would not be there if there were an alternative. You'll hear what a movie sounds like with a reasonably good mic plugged straight into the camera in the hands of boom ops with limited experience ( and G2 wireless in wide shots) You'll see what a feature looks like with no more than 15-20 minutes spent setting up lighting (our average shoot day was under 6 hours). The good, the bad and the ugly- they are all there for you to see. No color correction except for white balance, and one day for night scene. It's encoded at a high data rate, even full screen, the Yotube version looks almost identical to what I see in the original footage, except for scenes here and there with lots of foliage, etc. that require a higher rate, and slightly diminished color.
The plot won't be too interesting to most DVX users - no exploding Zombie heads or chase scenes (well, maybe one- an arguing couple end up speeding through a cemetary when their GPS takes them there and they run over the star - but otherwise, not much action). But it's a good way to see what a crew averaging 3 can accomplish.
Why are we doing it? Naturally we are hoping it will translate into some DVD sales, but primarily we just want to get the name of the movie out there and offering it for free is one way to do it. A press release goes nowhere without something interesting in it, and free is always interesting. The release we sent out is now found about 1200 places on the web (Google "new Christian movie targets seniors").
You read that right, we are targeting senior citizens. Why? Well, our demographic is actually Christian women 40+, but the movie is particularly suited for seniors and what better demographic to target than one that absolutely NO ONE is going after. When we first finished the screenplay, we sent it to a previous contact at Sony (knowing full well a low budget indy didn't have a shot but still wanting feedback). His response was, "No one wants to watch a movie about a crotchety old lady". That's true to some extent of a major portion of the population, but not necessarily true of our target demographic. Also, there are exceptions even in Hollywood, such as "Driving Miss Daisy", "Grumpy Old Men" and the animated feature "Up". And besides, in any good movie about a crusty old curmudgeon, the old codger softens up and is usually likeable by the end.
We've screened the movie now for over 500 people of all ages, some related to the actors in the film but many just curious folks from our community. We've been able to watch their response on Facebook as they share about it with friends, and it's been quite encouraging. I can't remember anyone talking about watching our last project twice, but many who saw this one and bought the DVD have watched it multiple times. That's a good sign.
So, if you want to see what the AF100 is capable of in the hands of someone not experienced enough to call themselves a DP (me), watch it. You'll see both incredible looking shots, average shots and a few that would not be there if there were an alternative. You'll hear what a movie sounds like with a reasonably good mic plugged straight into the camera in the hands of boom ops with limited experience ( and G2 wireless in wide shots) You'll see what a feature looks like with no more than 15-20 minutes spent setting up lighting (our average shoot day was under 6 hours). The good, the bad and the ugly- they are all there for you to see. No color correction except for white balance, and one day for night scene. It's encoded at a high data rate, even full screen, the Yotube version looks almost identical to what I see in the original footage, except for scenes here and there with lots of foliage, etc. that require a higher rate, and slightly diminished color.
The plot won't be too interesting to most DVX users - no exploding Zombie heads or chase scenes (well, maybe one- an arguing couple end up speeding through a cemetary when their GPS takes them there and they run over the star - but otherwise, not much action). But it's a good way to see what a crew averaging 3 can accomplish.
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