Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 88

On Filmmaking

Today I talk with Jeff about the actual filmmaking—casting and shooting Jeff’s web series, Camp Abercorn. Jeff talks about his first day directing (“I’m a learn-by-doing kind of guy”) and how he and his partners are working up to a full-on eight-week $500K shoot. To me, this is what being an artist in 2014 is
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Why, #4

One of the outcomes that has always surprised the hell out of me about my own work is that, until I did it, I had no idea I was going to do it. Do you know what I mean? I wrote Book X and looked at it and said, “Where in the world did that
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Acting “As If”

I had dinner with a friend the other night who makes a fine living investing in Silicon Valley start-ups. It’s his passion to follow online innovation, so I threw out a hypothetical to him:
“Say you had to set up a website/blog/online store today…how would you do it?”
And then, as I often do, I started to
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Intent

“What is the intent of Camp Abercorn?” In today’s conversation, Jeff speaks from the heart about his painful separation for the Scouts after 16 years because of the organization’s prohibition of gay adult leaders. (You can be a gay Scout but not a gay Scoutmaster.) Jeff talks about how much he learned from scouting and
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Why, #3

In many ways this blog is me talking to myself. What makes the thing work, if indeed it does, is that there are a lot of people like me and they are dealing with the same issues I’m dealing with. So talking to myself in this public forum is, in its way, a meditation for
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Theme

“I’m a learn-by-doing kind of guy.” In today’s conversation, Jeff tells me how he plunged in to writing Camp Abercorn with his partners Matt and Meg. We talk about the theme of the series—”coming out,” in the sense of sexual identity but also in the larger sphere to self-discovery and self-actualization. Jeff talks about his
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Why You Need to Know About Crowdfunding

Want to wage a successful outreach campaign for the launch of your new book or album or film or restaurant or _________ (fill in the blank)?
Mimic successful crowdfunding campaigns.
While you might not be raising funds via Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you’ll need to employ the same steps as those driving crowdfunding campaigns on these sites.
Getting Ready
This
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Crowdfunding Pt. 2

The big question for any creative project, whether it’s a novel, a film, whatever: How do you get the word out?
Today Jeff explains to me how Indiegogo works as a marketing platform as well as a crowdfunding platform, and how he and his team use YouTube to draw further attention. And Jeff starts to
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Crowdfunding Pt. 1

In today’s conversation with Jeff Simon, Jeff explains how he and his partners put together their new web series, Camp Abercorn; where the series will run; what it’ll cost; and how the team is trying to raise the money. Jeff and I talk about Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Jeff explains how crowdfunding works and opens
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Why, #2

We were talking last week about the purpose of this blog, both from my point of view in writing it and from the POV of those who read it. What are we doing here? What is this collective enterprise about?
I cited a phrase from Pericles’ Funeral Oration in which he praised his fellow citizens of
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