The Movie - Update

After glancing through my most recent posts it occurred to me to write something about the progress we're making with he film. Some of our twitter followers have also inquired into our progress, so here's an update.

SCRIPT
After overcoming our selection dilemma with a script writer we've received the first 40 pages back - which I have to say were outstanding. I got them by email late one night, around midnight as I was just powering down my PC for the night. Curiosity got the better of me and so I decided to print them off ready to read through over breakfast! I glanced at the first page and before I knew it, 80 pages later (it was that good I had to read it again!) I was excited and also reassured - knowing we made the right choice with this writer.

2-MIN PROMO
We've developed a 2-min promotional video incorporating footage I shot myself and other material to give investors both a feel for what the film's about and also the story. It's awesome! The reaction to this has ranged from excitement to disbelief and without fail all have been extremely positive. We've shown it to investors, producers, and a range of other key contacts in the film and finance space. It's proved to be a winning ingredient to get people's attention right away to the fact that we are serious and second of all own a great story.

MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Our organic on-line marketing campaign has started. We have in the region of 2500 followers on twitter, most of which we hope have an interest in this genre film. We plan to ramp this effort up in the next few months so that we can hit our goal of 30,000 followers by Christmas. Ambitious I know but I think it's achievable. If we can achieve this while still in development, we are confident when the time comes to negotiating distribution deals we'll have over 200,000 eyeballs on the film - each one we hope will be interested enough to go see the film (and take a friend)! Not a bad box office target don't you think?

FUNDING
Our search for film funding is ticking along nicely given the development stage of our film. We are actively speaking to and meeting investors on a weekly basis, all of which are now eagerly anticipating the script. We floated the idea of raising some 'seed' or development finance to shape up our proposal but in the end opted against doing so at this stage. We feel we are able to cash flow the development phase ourselves.

So all in all we are making progress and advancing toward our December milestone at a steady pace.

Networking - Getting Your Foot In The Door

For some people networking is something that they'd rather avoid for others they can't get enough of it. For me I enjoy it and it is a fundamental business activity. It can however be easy to waste your own and other people's time without a clear strategy. It is only through my networking that I have ended up with the capacity to put together some key creative talent and some principal investors to get this film off the ground.

So let's examine my strategy;

Mindset is key when it comes to networking - I am focused, transparent and always willing to ask for what I want and without exception always thinking about how I can be useful to those that I meet. Those I'd say are key attributes of any effective networker.

As I think about this I need to differentiate between the kind of networking one might do at a conference or event say, and the activity of meeting a contact either through a referral or 'cold call'. Let's start with the former. Picture the scene, you are walking into a big hotel lobby or conference location as you attend the latest Film Financing Conference and you hear the distant rumble of conversation as the doors swing open to reveal 250 people busy chatting away to each other - do you go left, right, straight on, over to the bar or coffee station or rotate 180 degrees and leave without speaking to anyone? So what should you do?

• Clear Puropse - Whenever I attend any event I always have a clear purpose in mind and if possible a clear idea of who I want to meet at said event. I say if possible because it's not always possible to get hold of a delegate list in advance.
• Start With the End in Mind - I'll set myself three very specifc goals and focus my energy and attention on achieveing those at the same time being open and flexible to other opportunites and conversations that might come my way.
• Be Curious - When meeting and talking to others I advocate the Colombo (Peter Falk) school of curiosity and inquire into other's interests and ambitions before talking about myself. I find this approach allows me to gather so much more information about others.
• Contact Details at the Ready - I always go armed with business cards but am selective when handing them out.
• Follow Up - I always follow up no matter who I speak to and try and contribute some value in my follow up emails or calls.

My strategy is no different to a speculative meeting. I prepare thoroughly largely because I want to maximises the usefulness of the meeting for me and the other person. Because let's face it, one could easy waste a huge amount of time meeting people and not move closer to one's goals, dreams and aspirations.

Finally always remember to stay in touch with all your contacts; some you'll find touching base once a month will be enough, others once a quarter and others maybe twice a year.

Copyrighting Your Film

If you were wondering whether at all in these early posts we intend to reveal the plot, main characters and any clever twist then you'll be disappointed. And therein lies one of our first dilemma - how much do we reveal about our ideas before we have a first draft of a script?

You see on the one hand we have our desire to blog about the making of the film, warts and all and on the other we are concerned about sharing what we believe to be a unique story and film, lest we become the innocent victims of unscrupulous screenwriters! First of all I'm not suggesting that the thousands of readers we get reading our blog are unscrupulous nor screenwriters for that matter. Nor am I suggesting screenwriters are an unscrupulous bunch. I am simply concerned about the possibility of our idea appearing on the side of a London bus as the next feature premiering in the capital. Could happen right?

We have spent many hours deliberating over this single issue and I have started to wonder whether we are slightly paranoid and a little delusional. But then I don't suppose we are the first to ponder this and we certainly won't be the last. So how do other independent film-makers approach this dilemma? There didn't seem to be many film-makers that we looking to blog about their films during the embryonic stages. (Probably too busy with more important stuff) So I thought about the issue in its broadest sense. How can a film-maker share their ideas with others for whatever reason and at the same time sleep at night safe in the knowledge that their IP is protected? It also got me thinking about all the feature films out there that perhaps were once allegedly the idea of someone else.

Copyrighting

When you copyright something you claim ownership of that intangible asset in much the same way the deeds to your house give claim of ownership to that tangible asset. Copyright arises automatically on the creation of the material and is conditional upon the material being original; being recorded in a permanent form; originates from the author; and involves a substantial amount of independent skill and labour by the creator. What is meant by substantial skill is open to interpretation. Copyright in the film industry is slightly more complex than other industries due to the many different aspects of a film meaning therefore there are numerous contributors to a film and no one single creator of a film. Copyright in film can exisit in the following;

>Artistic
>Dramatic
>Literary
>Musical
>Film
>Sound recordings
>Broadcasts
>Performance
>Published editions

For a film, the period for copyright extends to 70 years after the death of the last to die of the writer, director, producer or composer.

Protecting Your Work

Copyright occurs automatically when a script is created but proving it was written before another similar work can sometimes be difficult. You can email or post the script back to yourself to show the date it was created or alternatively there are a number of script registration services available. To show others, in the most simple way, that you have copyright in a work, you can add a © to the work along with your name and the date. You may also choose to register your copyright with a copyright registration service such as the UK Copyright Service or The Script Factory has a registration service. Another useful service that allows you to register your work is http://www.digiprove.co.uk/index.aspx

Films Allegedly Plagiarised

Surprisingly there was quite a lot of data available on the information superhighway that related to films that have allegedly been plagiarised, the first one that sprang to mind was the DA-Vinci code where it was claimed that Dan Brown, the author of the bestselling thriller The Da Vinci Code was accused of stealing the plot of his novel. Two authors claimed breach of copyright on the grounds that the "architecture" of their book 'The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail which was written over 20 years ago was plagiarised in Dan Brown's successful thriller.

Check this site out for more claims of plagiarism.http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-amistad-plagiarist.html

Diamond Diver's Dilemma

To conclude I think at this stage we'd be foolish to divulge our ideas, concepts, characters, plots until our script is complete and we are in discussions with our investors. Our aim is reach this stage by late autumn. So expect a lot more then.

Lesson No.5# Cover your ass and keep your cards close to your vest until you've got a polished script.