Back to Work 1/13
All that remains of my lost footage.
Yesterday was spent trying to fix my hard drive. I contacted the manufacturer, but was disappointed to learn they do not do repairs – though they are willing to replace it.
My only true option is to pay upwards of $500 to another agency. The scene that we’ve lost comes from last Thursday’s shoot. It won’t be all that hard to reshoot, so I think that is my best option. I’m just reluctant to reschedule everything.
One possible advantage of reshooting the scene is it gives me the option of rewriting a few bits of it. I also put in a good amount of thought toward how I could make the ending of Cheaters Prosper more thrilling, but all within the confines of my $0 budget.
Naturally, I researched how to get a web series financed. The advice sounded good on paper, but in my opinion it’s a bit ridiculous.
The author suggests a person write a treatment of the first full season, than contact companies who may stand to benefit from its success. Cheaters Prosper, for instance, is all about poker – I could contact a playing card company and see if they’d be interested in budgeting some of my production in exchange for using their cards in each episode.
After retaining an advertiser, the next step would be to find an investor. This step is much more tricky, as investors are going to put in ‘X’ amount of money in with the expectation they will eventually see ‘Y’ in return. One surefire way to interests investors would be to gather an ensemble of actors with giant online followings. The final step was to hire a lawyer and have them write up the contract.
Maybe it’s because I have no business savvy, but I just can’t imagine this plan working. I may also be pessimistic because I don’t have much of an internet presence myself (one commenter asked if an audience of 5K were enough to interest advertisers, and the response was that 50K was a minimal figure).
After my post yesterday, you can imagine how distraught I am feeling. I think if I make a reasonable list of goals for myself, it will make my plight much easier. For instance, if I aim to finish filming Cheaters Prosper by a realistic date, amass a certain number of Youtube views for it, and win specific indy film contests, I give myself a true ceiling to reach for.
I can already envision the measures I could take to achieve these goals. If we film 2 scenes per week, I could be done filming C.P. in about a month. If I post humorous sketches on Youtube daily, tweet about them and link to them here, I could build a Youtube following. And if I focus on the quality of Cheaters Prosper rather than the time it takes to complete it, the finished product will come out much better, giving me a better chance at succeeding in film festivals.
It is impossible to find your way through the sea if you do not know the place you are sailing to. But for every destination, there’s an infinite number of ways to get there – and Columbus was searching the Indies when he stumbled upon America.
Thomas M. Watt
