January 24th, 2006

It's funny, a guy I didn't know very well back then sent me this picture he'd rigged up with Photoshop. 

That guy is Robert Long, whose web site is http://smashortrashindiefilmmaking.com/ but back then he was just a guy from California who was talking about moving out this way. (and he has)

January 24th, 2006

Got a pretty cool postcard the other day. It's a picture of(from right to left) me, Mark L. and Rick G. It was taken the night we finished the martini shot on FOC(the "martini" is the final shot of a movie)--we went out to Jillian's and they kicked us out, so we went over to TGI Friday's until they closed.

Anyway, we were NOT painted up. That was done courtesy of a guy named Rob via Photoshop. But it's so good my wife actually asked me when that was taken because she didn't remember me getting painted up.

Pretty cool, huh?

Quality Control(The QC)

Some people don't know what a QC is. It stands for Quality Control, and any real film contract will stipulate that your film must pass the QC--or you will pay to have it fixed until it does.

This is to ensure the quality of the master that the distributor will use to distribute the flick. Now, each lab is different.

I figured I'd use Fotokem for my QC since they developed and transferred the film for my first movie, "Hunting Humans", and they were the guys Lionsgate used.

Well, it just so happens that Fotokem is one of the tougher QC labs. They catch EVERYTHING. I mean, if you have a blip that only dogs can hear on your audio track, they will catch it. If your boom mic is in a shot for 1 frame(actually IMPOSSIBLE to see with the naked eye), they will catch it.

And with FOC...they did.

Here's the first 4 of 8 pages of problems with my master of "Fear of Clowns". So the curious can get a gander at what a QC actually looks like.

Eventually I sent it to another lab and paid $1100 to have them fix the major problems.

Did I mention the FOC2 Log is now up?

In case you missed it. The timeline between FOC1 and 2 overlaps a little, but FOC2 is mostly new stuff dealing only with FOC2.

Check it out below:

The FOC2 LOG

December 19, 2005

Just checked. The ad is still there if you'd like to take a look, even though they don't publish the mag anymore--which is a shame. It was a great marketing tool for filmmakers, even though that wasn't its intention.

It's page 4 if you'd like to see it.

Monday, December 19, 2005

New edition of VB Weekly came out today. Instead of the 2-page spread, they've got a 1 page ad for FOC in this week's--with the correct running time of 106 minutes.

For those who would like to see it, click here:

VB WEEKLY ONLINE EDITION

Click on the magazine and it will take you to the online edition where you can flip pages until you see the ad. Pretty handy format.

A Word About Netflix & Victory Multimedia

I'd like to take a moment to express my OPINION on something here. Everything I say below is my opinion regarding this event.

SO...

I submitted FOC2 myself to Netflix myself. I figured it's a no-brainer that they'd be interested because 1)The first film performed extremely well(a fact they can check for themselves) and 2) I've seen some of the ridiculous stuff they carry.

I mentioned in my letter that I could either provide them with whatever limited edition FOC2s I have left or, if they need more, I could print up a whole new batch that would be Netflix exclusive with never-before-seen stuff.

Three months later I get a letter from them. It's a form letter that says:
Thank you for your recent submission. We have received and reviewed your materials. Regretfully, we are passing on your submission.

However, If you are looking for distribution:

Victory Multimedia works with many independent film producers and small distributors.

If you wish to establish a distribution agreement with Victory Multimedia, please contact Randy Freeman at Victory Multimedia at your earliest convenience.

This is weird. An outright pass would be pretty weird, frankly, but passing me on to someone?

I don't contact anyone. I try to find some info on this Victory Multimedia. I find nothing other than one blog post that mentions in passing that Randy from Victory is "an a$$hole".

This is one of the reasons I'm doing this blog; the more people who spread this info, the better.

Two days later I get an email from a "David Solomon" of Victory Multimedia and he CCs Randy Freeman. Let me reiterate: I did not contact anyone, nor did I give permission to Netflix to pass my contact info on to anyone.

Included with David Solomon's email is a contract for distribution. That's right. Not a request for a screener. Not a basic agreement with terms. A full out contract for distribution.

Say what?

And in my opinion, this contract is one gigantic, piece of shit rip-off. Why? Let me tell you.

What it wants me to do is this: Sign the contract. They will then request I provide them with a certain number of units of my film. Yep. I have to get the discs printed and finished, and then ship them to Victory.

I can set the retail price. Super. Victory will give me 40% of the retail price for each unit. (a shitty split right there considering I'm doing ALL the upfront work)

THEN: I also have to pay them 10% upfront of what they order. This is to go toward "Program and Development Funds". So if they order $10,000(an arbitrary number for ease of use) worth of retail from you, they would pay you $4000(40%) minus $1000(10%)...you'd get $3000 for what you send them.


But there's more. Later, whatever they don't sell they ship back to you and you owe them whatever they gave you. So if they don't sell $4000 worth of product, you're getting that product back and you're going to be in debt, because the $1000 is gone either way.(got space to warehouse that stuff they sent back?)

And this is the company that Netflix not only recommended but seems to endorse by passing on my information(and perhaps screener) without my consent?

To me, it appears that Netflix has some sort of backdoor deal with Victory--they turn down flicks, wait until Victory picks them up, then they get them cheap from Victory. If the title doesn't rent well at Netflix, Netflix can have Victory ship back whatever they didn't open at the filmmaker's expense.

The fact that you can't find anything online about "Victory Multimedia" is suspicious enough. Real companies have real web sites.

Well, I'm hoping to spread some information about this deal, which in my opinion is a giant scam. I thought Netflix was a better company that that, but it appears that they are not.

December 15, 2005

Turns out the ads were wrong. They didn't cut the movie at all, or the Making Of.

December 15, 2005

Lions Gate Becomes Lionsgate

Yeah, so they changed their name. I've read the reasons, but it all sounds kinda goofy to me. Whatever. Doesn't really affect me.

But I was informed by someone who took a closer look at the ad that it says FOC is 88 minutes. I'm hoping this is a typo or mis-information.

The cut I delivered to them is 106 minutes. However, if you want to sign a deal with Lionsgate you sign away final cut right and title right. So if they want to cut your movie or change the title, they can legally.

I knew the title was safe: A rep told me over the phone how much they liked it and couldn't believe it hadn't been used before.

But the cut...I tried to make it as hard as possible for them to cut anything. There are some tricks in delivery you can do to make it difficult for them, but it's far from impossible for them to do it.

So now I'm wondering if they cut 18 minutes out of the film, and if so...what they hell they cut. Should be interesting to see. I know the ad was bought and paid for months ago, so it may just be they were taking a guess when they created the ad.

And for those interested in FOC2--check the message boards for the exclusive first look at the casting notice. It won't go out to Backstage or any of the other casting places until January.