Premiere Failure

The worst thing that could have happened during last Friday’s premiere did happen.

I have been pushing this film for months. During all that time I refrained from exposing it to the cast and crew due to an understanding that first impressions mean everything. From what I gathered online, you should treat the premiere of your films as if they are an actual blockbuster event. You want to generate hype, raise awareness, and create excitement. I spent 2 long days working on the trailer. Much to my dismay, I spent another full day putting together a series recap for new viewers who want to get rapidly caught up.

As the premiere event approached, I began to post links online in hopes to have a live audience and stellar viewpoint (20-30 for me is stellar lol). I succeeded. And then the film started playing –

But let me point out one last thing. Experience has taught me that once a video is fully edited, I must upload it in private and watch the entire thing, beginning to end, on multiple devices. This helps to realize audio, story, and visual issues. I had already done this, and uploaded the video one week earlier.

So the premiere starts – I became confused, then panicked, then infuriated. The video premiered in 720p. I exported it a 2160 4k hd. For those who are unaware, this means the resolution – aka quality – was about a quarter of what it was supposed to be. For the cast and families viewing, they were exposed to rinky dink audio and the visual quality of a 1996 vhs tape.

I immediately pulled the links and was about to pull the video. When the premiere finished, however, it became available in 1080p. I figured out then that the video had not begun processing the HD version until after it had already been played through.

The damage was done, however. The great first impression was a let down. I emailed the actors and recommended they check out the video again after it had processed appropriately. I returned to promoting it the rest of the weekend and was able to bring the view total up. I have entered it into several festivals and have already been accepted by two.

Anyways, just wanted to share this horror story. If anybody out there intends to premiere a video on youtube, please make certain you upload it as private initially, allow it to fully process in high definition, and then set the premiere date. Otherwise you will suffer the same humiliation as I.

If you are interested in the actual video, feel free to view below.