Because I don't have enough blogs. But seriously, this blog will be for some other things I do that are not necessarily related to individual movies.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
December Update
So I complained to Amazon. They said they basically have nothing to do with the way the app lists movies. I'm dubious, but hey--look what started showing up in lists on the Xbox app pretty shortly afterward...
Coincidence?
Anyway, we did nearly the same amount of minutes in November that we did in October. It's crazy...but I'm not complaining. We DID manage to stay in the top 100 for quite some time. Won't know about the bonus for a few weeks though. I can't remember exactly how long it took them to notify us last time, but it seems like it was the end of November that we found out that we were one of the top movies in October.
Toward the end of November the numbers started dying off, and they continue to drop, but I've still left it up for free because there's still okay money coming in, and I'm trying to recoup the budget.
By the end of this weekend we will have passed five million minutes on Terrortory 2. That means I'll have gotten about half my budget back. Not great.
Still not sure how long I'll leave it up for free, or whether I'm even going to bother doing a DVD or a blu ray. (I still haven't sold enough of the Terrortory 1 dvds to break even on them)
ONE good note I got this week--one of the douchebags on Youtube who had uploaded the movie? I had it taken down. He actually sent me an email to ask me to remove the copyright strike against him. He's "very sorry" he did it.
hahahahahahahahahahahahafuckyourfacehahahahahahahahaha
---------------
Let's talk a bit about how bleak our situation as micro-budget and no-budget filmmakers is. We all know in our hearts that we're not doing this for money. The younger you are, the easier that is to swallow.
Less so as you get older, and you get a family, and your friends who used to help you out now have families, and don't have the time or the interest in helping you out any more.
But I still talk to young filmmakers who get the idea that if they can just get distribution then they think they'll make their money back.
I want to tell those filmmakers here and now:
YOU.
WILL.
NOT.
And I'll re-iterate: It's easy to get distribution. It's easy to get distribution even if your movie sucks. (see: Fear of Clowns) The most important things you need in order to get distribution are a great poster and a great trailer. PERIOD.
But what's not easy is getting distribution that pays.
Want a big example? Take The Barn.
This was a micro-budget flick that was originally crowd-funded for around $20K. Trending-wise, they hit a home run. This thing got tons of press everywhere, lots of positive word of mouth, and a distributor. The trailer was so-so, but the poster is great and tells you everything you need to know about the movie.
They got a distributor and the movie got out there all over. I'd bet money that your movie isn't going to do anywhere near as well as theirs did.
Point is, they're readying to do the sequel. And they're having to crowd-fund it.
See where I'm going here? One of the most successful micro-budget indie horror flicks of the past two years, and they haven't made enough money to be able to pay for the sequel.
(now I'm sure they've made a little money, and they'd probably launch a crowd-funding thing anyway just to help build an audience and get pre-engagement, but considering how much they're crowd-funding this time--$40K, which they got already--I'd bet they didn't make much money on the first flick.
And again--this was a home run as far as indie horror goes. Positive reviews, tons of press, tons of word of mouth, and finally a distributor.
What's your point, Kangas?
My point is, there's always a lot of overly-positive stuff about pursuing your dream of being an indie-filmmaker, and I have a lot of rah-rah friends who preach positivity above all else. That's very cool, but I think it does a disservice to most people who haven't done any research into what it actually takes.
I'm saying there is NO reason to become an indie filmmaker except that you can't NOT make films. If doing it makes you happy, knowing that you're not going to make money on it, then by all means get out there and do it.
I think I'm slowly getting to a point where it's not making me happy any more, and THAT makes me even more unhappy. I still want to create stories--that's always been my thing, as I only became a director so I could see my scripts acted out. But at this point it seems to make more sense to just go write novels and scripts.
They cost nothing to write other than time, and I really haven't spent any time trying to get scripts optioned now that I actually have scripts that might be worth optioning. (I tried early on when I first started writing scripts, but they were all pretty terrible, and got rejected--justifiably so)
Anyway, if you'd like to help out some other indie filmmakers, here are some links to friends' crowd-funding that you can check out--if the project looks interesting to you and/or you see a perk that catches your eye, throw them some dollars. If I put the link below, then they're legit and will get the movie done, as well as come through on the perks promised.
I'll update it as I see more on my friends' timelines.
Chris LaMartina's WNUF sequel: https://www.gofundme.com/wnuf-halloween-sequel
(you should go read all of the posts on FB that he's dropped lately--if you wanna be an indie filmmaker, it'll help you see what's in store)
John Ward's Axemas: http://www.screamtimefilms.com/
(this is a link to actually buy the flick, not a crowd-funding thing)
Devil's Night: Volumes of Blood 3 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/devil-s-knight-volumes-of-blood-3-campaign?#/
Thursday, November 15, 2018
The Weirdness Continues
Check that out...as of the 12th, we were #10 in Horror and #72 out of EVERYTHING included in Amazon Prime Video. TV included.
As of today, we've sort of waffled between #10 and #15, and we're hanging around #76 overall.
I'm trying to figure out ways to keep the momentum going...and honestly, just being up that high helps in itself because when people search for movies they tend to only scroll down a page or two before making a decision.
Oddly, when I search on the Amazon Prime app through my Xbox on the "Horror Genre", which only lists the top 100 movies...we don't show up. The other movies from distributors show up, but not ours. Feels a bit like Amazon is probably getting paid to put ONLY the distributors stuff on that list, as Terrortory 2 has never shown up that I can see. (you can find it if you punch it into the search engine, but that's not all that helpful)
Don't know. I've still got my fingers crossed we stay in that top 100 for all of November...
Thursday, November 8, 2018
So this is weird...
So we ended October with a disappointing 2.1 million minutes. Definitely not enough to get the bonus.
That used to translate to about $5K, which would still have been disappointing but not as disappointing as the $2100 I get for it now.
I was out of town the first couple of days of November--my plan was to take down the free as soon as it starts dying--that way it will still be on the top 100 list, and perhaps we'll get some people paying to rent it.
But since Amazon takes a few days to update, I won't be able to see that stuff right away.
I got back on November 3rd and checked the stats and a VERY weird thing is happening.
On the first film, November 1st was the kiss of death. The movie died FAST. Everybody getting into the Thanksgiving/Xmas spirit, I guess.
But the first 3 days of November for Terrortory 2 are better than ANY 3 consecutive days in October. Then I get the next couple of days, and it's going UP.
Just when I think I sort of have the whole thing figured out, it surprises me. And now tonight I check our rankings, and we're actually the #15 top horror movie on Amazon, period. We're #106 of ANYTHING on Amazon Videos, TV included.
So I guess I'm going to leave it up for a while longer. Heck, maybe there's a very-outside chance we could get the bonus in November if this keeps up. I have no idea what's generating the interest now, this late, but I'm not complaining...
Monday, October 22, 2018
Disappointing Stats. Disappointing Actors.
So I've been watching the stats on Amazon, and they're pretty mediocre. It's updating slow, but here's how it's going:
On the first film, we broke a million minutes in 12 days. (most of my other movies broke a million between 15-20 days in)
Terrortory 2, as of day 19, hasn't broken a million yet. (it's close) Considering this movie cost more, has more awareness, and has a better trailer, this news SUCKS.
We are still in the top 100 horror movies, but we're not budging off of page 6 or 7.
As I mentioned, if we don't hit the bonus, I lose money. It's that simple. Amazon's new pay scheme basically pays you $1k for a million minutes. They used to pay $2500 for the same amount.
We're not getting the volume of reviews we got on the first one, which is strange. We're not getting many bad reviews, which is just flat out weird. They're starting to smash us on imdb, so where's the haters on Amazon?
To top it all off--and this just fucking STAGGERS me--there are actors/actresses/creators involved in the production of this film who have not MENTIONED the movie on their timeline(or anywhere I can see). But they're sharing youtube videos they're in, and headshots, and other shit nowhere near as impressive as being involved in a feature film.
I don't get it. I honestly don't get it.
Then I have over 800 "friends" on Facebook. I've basically pleaded for them to leave us a review. I've done it a couple of times, and explained how important it is. Some of them have done it, and those people are aces in my book. They want me to return the favor, I'm there.
But the rest of them? The people who just Thumbs Up the post, and move on? Well, let's just say I'm starting to pare down my friends list. And those actors? Well, I won't be working with them again, or passing their name to any filmmaker who asks me to recommend an actor/actress.
What's all this mean? Well, I'm pretty much out of Terrortory. I won't be doing the wraparound on part three(which was the original thought, while the other guys handled everything else). Heck, won't be doing anything else on Terrortory as far as I can tell.
I may even be done with making movies. There are easier ways to lose money. Easier ways that don't take years off my life. Shit, I could have taken the money and gambled it away in one night. I'd feel just as bad as I do now, but wouldn't have wasted all that time.
The bottom line to all this is this: Amazon is no longer viable as a distribution strategy unless you can make your film for under 1K. At that point, maybe you can make your money back plus some. I just don't know how you make something worthwhile for that kind of money.
I'm going to wait and see how the final 2 weeks of October are before I figure what I'm going to do. At this point I'm not really inclined to try an aggregator with the money I've made back. Do I really want to toss more money into the black pit?
I think I need a vacation more than I need to roll that die.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
The ONLY place to legally watch Terrortory 2 is on Amazon Prime. PERIOD.
Okay, just to make this clear as some people have hit us up with messages like "I saw it was on (fill in the blank)--watched it on there. Congrats!"
Well, you may not have known it, but you just stole the movie from us. There is NO other legal place to watch our movie other than Amazon. Yes, that app on your TV that makes it look like you can freely stream movies including ones STILL in the theater? That's illegal. There's a reason it's being sued.
The pirates have been out in full force, pirating our movie all over, and anyone who says this doesn't hurt our bottom line is an idiot. (one site had already streamed it over 3000 times before I got them to take it down)
Anyway, the film is doing pretty well, but not as well as I would have hoped. We don't have that many reviews, which is one of the major indicators for Amazon on how well your movie is engaging viewers.
If you've seen Terrortory 2 and haven't reviewed it, how about go do that? It helps us out in a HUGE way. Hell, even negative reviews help us move up the charts. (so yes, negative reviews are actually better than no reviews)
We got as high as 40 on the top Amazon horror films, out of at least 4000 so that's cool. But we've been stuck in the top 100, not going any higher at the moment. The first film got as high as number six, I believe, on the chart, so I'm hoping we start rising again.
Spread the word, especially if you're in the cast/crew. One thing I'm noticing--and I noticed it on the first also--is that actors appear to be clueless about spreading the word.
They'll spread headshots or youtube videos they're in where they're doing something pedantic, but a movie they're in? No mention. It's rather infuriating, honestly. You're in a feature film that anyone can now see--and in some cases you're on the actual movie poster--and you're not interested in spreading the word?
Then they ask for footage for their reel...well, you can imagine I'm not in a hurry to do them any favors at that point.
And the chance I'll work with them again is zero point zero.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Two Days Into The Release of Terrortory 2
Let's see what's going on.
You can see a clip from the movie plus an exclusive pic here:
https://www.horrortalk.com/news/go-back-to-the-terrortory-next-month.html
You can see the final trailer plus an exclusive pic here:
https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/280608/pumpkins-clowns-and-monsters-oh-my-the-final-terrortory-2-trailer-is-here/
(and expect Dread to premiere an exclusive clip also)
More news and exclusive pics here:
https://www.horror-fix.com/terrortory-2-premieres-free-amazon-prime-october-1st-exclusive-images/
Pics from the premiere of Terrortory 2 here:
https://aminoapps.com/c/horror/page/blog/terrortory-ii-free-on-amazon-prime-october-1st/2vwF_NurnJ7GValXRLMQ816KnY2mqnx
You can see a review of the movie here(but don't read it if you haven't seen the movie first):
http://smashortrashindiefilmmaking.com/at-the-movies/terrortory-2-2018/
A bunch of stuff here, including pics:
http://promotehorror.com/2018/09/24/terrortory-2/
More exclusive pics!
http://gingernutsofhorror.com/news/terrortory-2-now-on-amazon-prime
You can get the Terrortory SOUNDTRACK from Terence Jones here:
https://terencejonesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/terrortory-ost
More as I spot 'em.
-------------
I just saw that we're ALREADY in the top 40 horror movies streaming on Amazon. I had looked earlier in the day and we weren't even top 500. (that's when I stopped scrolling)
That's WAY better than the first Terrortory. I just took a look back on the first one's numbers, and we'd done about 7000 minutes on day 1 and around 10,000 on day 2. We should destroy those numbers, I'm guessing.
But we gotta keep pushing, because as I've said to friends--if we don't hit the Amazon bonus, we're going to lose money. Even if we hit the bonus we might lose money depending on how much it is.
So I'm going to keep pushing it. I was going to run a contest to give out shit to anyone who reviewed the flick, but it appears Amazon frowns on that BIG TIME. I'm not sure why--I'm don't get why incentivizing reviews is a big deal.
People are, in general, lazy. I'm counting myself in there. But people are not in most cases inclined to leave reviews. So why is it bad to try to give them a little extra push to leave a review? I wouldn't even be saying it had to be a positive review. ANY review would be entered into a drawing for some props from the movie.
I'll keep thinking it over.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Terrortory 2 NOW STREAMING FOR FREE on Amazon Prime!
It's been a while, I know. The struggle to get this film complete, and then premiere it...along with all the other things in life taking up time means the blog gets pushed to the back.
But the day has finally arrived. You can go here to add the movie to your watchlist and then view it!
http://bit.ly/amazonhorrors
If you watch it, can you do us a HUGE favor and leave a short review for it? Amazon uses the volume of reviews to gauge interest, and it increases our visibility on the site.
I hope you enjoy it, because in the end we do this in the hopes that people will enjoy it. Personally I've had some great times watching movies--they took me out of my misery a few times, giving me two hours or so of relief from whatever was bothering me. They transported me to a place I never would have been without them, to things I could never have imagined.
I'm just trying to give the same experience to others.
Thanks for checking it out.
--Kevin
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
The final trailer for Terrortory 2
The final trailer just dropped for Terrortory 2, and you can see it here:
https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/280608/pumpkins-clowns-and-monsters-oh-my-the-final-terrortory-2-trailer-is-here/
I'm pretty happy with it. I'd actually tried a variation of that cricket-rhythm piece in the first movie's trailer, but never got it working right. Something here about lulling the viewer into the same rhythmic shots as the crickets get louder and with more reverb, and smashing that shot of the Midnight Clown screaming...it just worked.
A lot of editing is just trying new things to see what works and what doesn't.
As far as the movie...I'm starting to sweat BIG TIME. If I had all of the music done and ready to lay in, there would be a TON to do. But I don't have all the music yet.
It's coming in, but man, am I feeling the time crunch.
-----
After the premiere, my plans go into fifth gear. I'll have one more poster(I think), and will be sending out stills to as many web sites as want to help promote the movie. I'll send three clips from the movie to some of the bigger web sites.
I should have a table at the local con in Hunt Valley, like I usually do.
I'm just hoping all the work I have to do won't interfere with Halloween--I hate missing out on all the fun because I'm too busy.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Terrortory 2 -- ALMOST HERE -- The Premiere And Stuff
So above I have two screencaps from the "Pumpkin Trail" segment in the film. It's the first full segment that was finished, score and all. You can hear a piece from the score at our Facebook page at this link:
https://www.facebook.com/terrortoryfilm/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
It's by Bob Battle, a super talented composer who did three segments in the first Terrortory: Siren, The Prowler and The Drone Collector. He'll be doing three segments in this one also, but I won't spoil anything with details.
On that page above you can also hear some of the orchestral score for the main sequence of the film. Terence Jones, who did the main sequence on the first Terrortory. He's doing the main sequence plus one other sequence. He's got some amazing stuff in what he's given me so far--the main title sequence and lead out are great, and there's a scene at a campfire that gets better the more I listen to it(and it was pretty great when I first heard it).
All this means that I'm confident enough that I'll have this thing finished in the next couple of weeks so I can premiere it August 30th at the Landmark in Baltimore. We premiered Garden of Hedon there, and it's a nice area with a great bar across the street for the afterparty.
There's some things we're still working on--the very end of the film has...a pretty challenging digital effect that I've been working on for literally six months. I can't get it perfect, and probably won't ever. I need ILM level to get the shot I want, and I'm not ILM. Hell, I'm not even the guys on Sharknado.
So I'll keep working. My brother is working on another digital effect in Cinema 4D that we're hoping will be a cool capper on one story--it's not something that was in the script, but I thought it would be a cool addition to the story.
Anyway, I know it's been a long time since I posted here. Things have been hectic.
When I have details on how to get tickets I'll post them here and on Facebook. Also, have you seen the teaser?
UPDATE: GET TICKETS HERE!
https://www.landmarktheatres.com/baltimore/harbor-east/private-screenings
https://www.youtube.com/embed/O8bFmIueHjk
Cuz I have the trailer done, but I'm not gonna post it until that gets to 1000 views. That's not so much, right? Share share share, right?
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Terrortory 2 Update, Plus Stuff
I know, been a while, right? It's almost like I've been busy. So here's a couple of bts pics from Terrortory 2.
Josh and Alex in the "Mad Gathering" segment. People should pay attention to this segment, because there's more than meets the eye here.
Two funny things about this shot: One, how fat I am here. Clearly I was putting on the weight, and I'm now down 20 pounds from there. Second, we barely used my steadicam rig at all--it's very time consuming when you want to change a lens, because it throws off the balance on the rig and you have to reset the whole thing. We don't have that kind of time on these shoots.
A little spoiler alert here--yes, the Midnight Clown AND Smiling Jack--together in one segment. The pic above shows you how much post-work goes into making Jack's head look hollow. I did a quick pass on the pic just to show you sort of what I have to do to EVERY FRAME of the movie that Jack is in. (remove the eye holes(on both side of the pumpkin "nose") and hollow out the head.
Anyway, the big stop on Terrortory 2 right now is the weather. We have one segment left to shoot, but because it features an actress being completely naked outside, covered in blood at night...well, under 50 degree weather isn't going to work.
I keep looking at every weekend of April, and have to keep pushing it. And every time I push it, I lose an actor or a crew member who can't work on a weekend. It's pretty frustrating.
This segment has been cursed. I've NEVER encountered as many problems on ANY shoot I've ever done like I have on this segment.
But I am nothing if not stubborn. We've got some great actors who are all committed to the new dates, so weather-permitting, we're shooting it soon. Hell, even if the weather doesn't cooperate, I may shoot it anyway at this point.
-----
I've started getting music from Terry, the composer to the main storyline. He'll also do the Mad Gathering segment, but so far he's sent about the first 8 minutes of music and it's great. It's very nice to not have to micromanage everything, and he seems to have a great grasp on what I was looking for.
One of the highlights of making a movie is when you get music to lay over your film. It never quite FEELS like a movie until the music starts going on. All of a sudden things start clicking, and a lot of the second-guessing of myself goes away.
I also talked to Ben, the other composer who will do more synth-based scores for the other segments. He's excited to start working. I sent him the Pumpkin Trail, and I'm as equally excited to hear some new stuff from him.
Lastly, I secured the end-credit song. Contract signed, money paid. The group is insanely talented, and I love a number of their songs so I was psyched when they said yes to me. (but I stayed silent until the contract was signed) More on them after the movie comes out.
-------
On the Amazon front, their new pay schedule started, but here's the rub: They are showing NO earnings estimates on any of the Prime movies now. They haven't since March 1st. I just this week finally sent them a message to find out what's up, when are they going to start showing what we're making, and this was their reply:
Thank you for contacting Prime Video Direct. I understand you would like more information on when Prime royalties will begin displaying in the Earnings Report again. Your Earnings report will display Prime royalties again in June (or sooner).
I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. In the meantime, exporting the Performance Metrics report will allow you to calculate the earnings for March, April and May's Prime streaming events. We issue payments approximately 90 days after the end of the month in which the revenue event occurred.
This means that earnings for March will be paid in June. By the time the payment is issued, the Earnings report will display Prime earnings so that you can reconcile your payments properly.
For more details regarding Royalties and Reports, check our Help pages: - Royalties: https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=202037410 - Reports: https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=G201973680 If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us back.
So technically you can figure out what they owe you by adding up all your minutes, dividing by 60, and then multiplying by .06
But it's not as easy as they make it seem. The spreadsheet they send you every month is organized for the bi-polar. For me, there's 7 movies, there's a different line for each country for each movie(so you can see what you earned in pounds, in yen, etc), then a different line for the movie if someone PAID for it rather than just stream it for free.
It's all just thrown in randomly. Like, if all of Garden of Hedon's were together you might be able to figure it out, but it's like--screw it, I'll show you.
Obviously I blurred some numbers. But this should give you an idea.
I did look into Distribber and a couple of other options, but I'm not sure it's worth the amount of work and money I'd have to dump into it to get it all moving, and I'd DEFINITELY not be able to put the movie on Amazon in October if I did it. (I'd have to let it run through a lot of the other options before putting it on there).
So I think we're just going to do it the same way as the first and see what happens. We got a LOT of views on the first Terrortory, so I've gotta hope we can do at least that again. My entire month of September and October is going to be spent promoting the film.
Josh and Alex in the "Mad Gathering" segment. People should pay attention to this segment, because there's more than meets the eye here.
Two funny things about this shot: One, how fat I am here. Clearly I was putting on the weight, and I'm now down 20 pounds from there. Second, we barely used my steadicam rig at all--it's very time consuming when you want to change a lens, because it throws off the balance on the rig and you have to reset the whole thing. We don't have that kind of time on these shoots.
A little spoiler alert here--yes, the Midnight Clown AND Smiling Jack--together in one segment. The pic above shows you how much post-work goes into making Jack's head look hollow. I did a quick pass on the pic just to show you sort of what I have to do to EVERY FRAME of the movie that Jack is in. (remove the eye holes(on both side of the pumpkin "nose") and hollow out the head.
Anyway, the big stop on Terrortory 2 right now is the weather. We have one segment left to shoot, but because it features an actress being completely naked outside, covered in blood at night...well, under 50 degree weather isn't going to work.
I keep looking at every weekend of April, and have to keep pushing it. And every time I push it, I lose an actor or a crew member who can't work on a weekend. It's pretty frustrating.
This segment has been cursed. I've NEVER encountered as many problems on ANY shoot I've ever done like I have on this segment.
But I am nothing if not stubborn. We've got some great actors who are all committed to the new dates, so weather-permitting, we're shooting it soon. Hell, even if the weather doesn't cooperate, I may shoot it anyway at this point.
-----
I've started getting music from Terry, the composer to the main storyline. He'll also do the Mad Gathering segment, but so far he's sent about the first 8 minutes of music and it's great. It's very nice to not have to micromanage everything, and he seems to have a great grasp on what I was looking for.
One of the highlights of making a movie is when you get music to lay over your film. It never quite FEELS like a movie until the music starts going on. All of a sudden things start clicking, and a lot of the second-guessing of myself goes away.
I also talked to Ben, the other composer who will do more synth-based scores for the other segments. He's excited to start working. I sent him the Pumpkin Trail, and I'm as equally excited to hear some new stuff from him.
Lastly, I secured the end-credit song. Contract signed, money paid. The group is insanely talented, and I love a number of their songs so I was psyched when they said yes to me. (but I stayed silent until the contract was signed) More on them after the movie comes out.
-------
On the Amazon front, their new pay schedule started, but here's the rub: They are showing NO earnings estimates on any of the Prime movies now. They haven't since March 1st. I just this week finally sent them a message to find out what's up, when are they going to start showing what we're making, and this was their reply:
Thank you for contacting Prime Video Direct. I understand you would like more information on when Prime royalties will begin displaying in the Earnings Report again. Your Earnings report will display Prime royalties again in June (or sooner).
I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. In the meantime, exporting the Performance Metrics report will allow you to calculate the earnings for March, April and May's Prime streaming events. We issue payments approximately 90 days after the end of the month in which the revenue event occurred.
This means that earnings for March will be paid in June. By the time the payment is issued, the Earnings report will display Prime earnings so that you can reconcile your payments properly.
For more details regarding Royalties and Reports, check our Help pages: - Royalties: https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=202037410 - Reports: https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=G201973680 If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us back.
So technically you can figure out what they owe you by adding up all your minutes, dividing by 60, and then multiplying by .06
But it's not as easy as they make it seem. The spreadsheet they send you every month is organized for the bi-polar. For me, there's 7 movies, there's a different line for each country for each movie(so you can see what you earned in pounds, in yen, etc), then a different line for the movie if someone PAID for it rather than just stream it for free.
It's all just thrown in randomly. Like, if all of Garden of Hedon's were together you might be able to figure it out, but it's like--screw it, I'll show you.
Obviously I blurred some numbers. But this should give you an idea.
I did look into Distribber and a couple of other options, but I'm not sure it's worth the amount of work and money I'd have to dump into it to get it all moving, and I'd DEFINITELY not be able to put the movie on Amazon in October if I did it. (I'd have to let it run through a lot of the other options before putting it on there).
So I think we're just going to do it the same way as the first and see what happens. We got a LOT of views on the first Terrortory, so I've gotta hope we can do at least that again. My entire month of September and October is going to be spent promoting the film.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Amazon Video New Payment Plan: It's Worse Than You Thought
If you didn't read my post when I first heard the news, go read that first:
https://indyfilmmakeradvs.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-amazon-shoe-just-dropped.html
For some reason I had it in my mind that if your video reached the insane 5,000,000 hours streamed to get back to the $.15/hour payscale, that would mean Amazon would pay you $.15/hour for ALL 5,000,000 hours.
It appears that it's not that way. That they will pay you the lesser rates up until 5,000,000 and then start paying you the $.15/hour for any time after that many.
It's insane.
But it gets worse...
They're also going to RESET YOUR STATS every January 1st. So if you thought that hey, maybe you'll get to the next pay tier later--say, September...then you're only getting the better pay for 3 months before your stats go back to zero.
It's crazy. It really feels like Amazon was getting too many submissions and this is their attempt to slow down the submissions.
As if that'll work...I mean, Youtube is free and millions of people put their shit up on there.
-----------
On how our flicks are doing...the past two months were the strongest since last January. Mostly on the back of Garden of Hedon and the Making Of . The Making Of Bounty has certainly seen an uptick which correlated with Bounty's views going up too, but nowhere near what GOH is.
Shame to watch that money get cut by 60% from now on, but I guess it's because Amazon needs to pay all those taxes they payed last year.
https://www.seattlepi.com/business/tech/article/Amazon-paid-no-US-income-taxes-for-2017-12713961.php
https://indyfilmmakeradvs.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-amazon-shoe-just-dropped.html
For some reason I had it in my mind that if your video reached the insane 5,000,000 hours streamed to get back to the $.15/hour payscale, that would mean Amazon would pay you $.15/hour for ALL 5,000,000 hours.
It appears that it's not that way. That they will pay you the lesser rates up until 5,000,000 and then start paying you the $.15/hour for any time after that many.
It's insane.
But it gets worse...
They're also going to RESET YOUR STATS every January 1st. So if you thought that hey, maybe you'll get to the next pay tier later--say, September...then you're only getting the better pay for 3 months before your stats go back to zero.
It's crazy. It really feels like Amazon was getting too many submissions and this is their attempt to slow down the submissions.
As if that'll work...I mean, Youtube is free and millions of people put their shit up on there.
-----------
On how our flicks are doing...the past two months were the strongest since last January. Mostly on the back of Garden of Hedon and the Making Of . The Making Of Bounty has certainly seen an uptick which correlated with Bounty's views going up too, but nowhere near what GOH is.
Shame to watch that money get cut by 60% from now on, but I guess it's because Amazon needs to pay all those taxes they payed last year.
https://www.seattlepi.com/business/tech/article/Amazon-paid-no-US-income-taxes-for-2017-12713961.php
Thursday, February 1, 2018
Abandoned Asylum, The Re-Visit
Went back today with both brothers this time. We hit some of the buildings we hadn't been in before, including the church. Also found an underground entrance to somewhere, but didn't have time to check it out. Maybe next trip.
It was funny going into the church--there was two people already there shooting video. They asked if we could wait five minutes, so we did.
We heard the one guy doing some sort of monologue to God, so after we went in we asked him what they were shooting. The guy said he was doing a spoken-word poem for his church.
The funny part was, they walked out to the alcove as they were leaving--out of our sight--and then we hear a spray paint can being shaken--then the sound of them spraying.
What kind of church guy graffiti's a place? (I mean, it's not like it's out of place with how much is already there, but still...made us all laugh)
It was funny going into the church--there was two people already there shooting video. They asked if we could wait five minutes, so we did.
We heard the one guy doing some sort of monologue to God, so after we went in we asked him what they were shooting. The guy said he was doing a spoken-word poem for his church.
The funny part was, they walked out to the alcove as they were leaving--out of our sight--and then we hear a spray paint can being shaken--then the sound of them spraying.
What kind of church guy graffiti's a place? (I mean, it's not like it's out of place with how much is already there, but still...made us all laugh)
Monday, January 29, 2018
The Amazon Shoe Just Dropped
You can't say I didn't warn you to get your movies up there as soon as possible.
Amazon today announced an overhaul on their payout that will absolutely destroy our ability to make any significant money on movies. Personally it probably means I'm going to lose money on Terrortory 2 unless I seek out other venues, and the problem with that is that many of those venues don't want your film if it's already playing on Amazon.
Amazon used to pay a measly $.15 per hour of your movie streamed, but it could add up to okay money if you keep your budgets very low.
Now, unless you stream over 6,000,000 minutes then you will be paid a pauper's $.06 per hour for your film. Roughly a 60% cut to their rates.
If you can stream over 6,000,000 minutes then you get a dime per hour.
If you can stream 30,000,000--that's 30 million minutes--then you can get back up to the $.15 per hour.
All of my movies combined from when I put them up nearly two years ago wouldn't add up to that.
So do we have any other options? As far as I can see, no. There is no other way to get your movie out there as easily and with the accounting transparency that Amazon has. Distributors will demand a lot of things that will cost you more money(QC--quality control--can bury you in thousands of dollars of additional debt)--and they probably won't offer you an advance.
Which means you probably won't see any money.
The only other thing I'd now consider is an aggregator who could submit to places like Hulu, Netflix and Itunes, but that costs upfront money for EACH place you submit to, and doesn't guarantee you placement on the venue. Also, even if you're accepted to, say, Netflix...you don't know what they're going to offer you, and you now have to pass their quality control standards.
Wish I had better news, believe me.
You can read the full text of their new terms here:
https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=G202037410&ref_=avd_sup_G202037410
Amazon today announced an overhaul on their payout that will absolutely destroy our ability to make any significant money on movies. Personally it probably means I'm going to lose money on Terrortory 2 unless I seek out other venues, and the problem with that is that many of those venues don't want your film if it's already playing on Amazon.
Amazon used to pay a measly $.15 per hour of your movie streamed, but it could add up to okay money if you keep your budgets very low.
Now, unless you stream over 6,000,000 minutes then you will be paid a pauper's $.06 per hour for your film. Roughly a 60% cut to their rates.
If you can stream over 6,000,000 minutes then you get a dime per hour.
If you can stream 30,000,000--that's 30 million minutes--then you can get back up to the $.15 per hour.
All of my movies combined from when I put them up nearly two years ago wouldn't add up to that.
So do we have any other options? As far as I can see, no. There is no other way to get your movie out there as easily and with the accounting transparency that Amazon has. Distributors will demand a lot of things that will cost you more money(QC--quality control--can bury you in thousands of dollars of additional debt)--and they probably won't offer you an advance.
Which means you probably won't see any money.
The only other thing I'd now consider is an aggregator who could submit to places like Hulu, Netflix and Itunes, but that costs upfront money for EACH place you submit to, and doesn't guarantee you placement on the venue. Also, even if you're accepted to, say, Netflix...you don't know what they're going to offer you, and you now have to pass their quality control standards.
Wish I had better news, believe me.
You can read the full text of their new terms here:
https://videocentral.amazon.com/home/help?topicId=G202037410&ref_=avd_sup_G202037410
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
The Making Of Bounty -- Now on Amazon Prime
My continued attempts at Amazon Prime world domination continue -- I put the scene study "Naked Cannibalism" in front of the Making Of, and exported the whole thing out. The Naked Cannibalism is just a 10 minute segment going into the detail of the motel scene.
It has a LOT of nudity. Hence, putting it at the front. The Making of GOH formula. If it's not broke, don't fix it, right?
I even went ahead and made a cheesy poster by taking one of my stills and putting a really poorly-photoshopped bikini on it. I'm pretty sure Savannah has never worn a bathing suit in her life.
Hopefully I can get some eyes on this, which will lead to more eyes on Bounty.
I mean, it has Tom Proctor in it, so how can it be the least-watched flick in my oeuvre? Guy's the coolest guy in the universe.
Friday, January 19, 2018
The Making Of Garden of Hedon--it's big, folks.
There's a sight I haven't seen for a while. One of my movies in the top 100 horror chart...and it's a Making Of!
The numbers keep going up on it, and pulling the actual movie "Garden of Hedon" up with them.
I can tell you that it's cemented the plan to put the "Making Of Bounty" up there in order to get more eyes on that movie, which is my least-seen film on Amazon(which is weird, cuz it stars the legendary Tom Proctor!).
I'll put an eye-catching(read: BEWBS) poster for it, and hopefully start getting some people to check that movie out. I'm fiercely proud of that movie, and especially what we were able to accomplish on the smallest budget I've ever worked with(before Terrortory).
But don't believe the internet about "Bounty". There are no zombies in it. Trust me.
https://books.google.com/books?id=52NyBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA344&lpg=PA344&dq=bounty+zombie+kevin+kangas&source=bl&ots=qCj6f_8wj2&sig=P1WKzXsXqHrppBXYjUaP1BGTL1Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6zq-4g-TYAhUESq0KHSNuDGUQ6AEIWTAM#v=onepage&q=bounty%20zombie%20kevin%20kangas&f=false
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Updates. Amazon Prime. Terrortory 2. Garden of Hedon.
Don't have imdbpro? Well, the above is what a page of it looks like. Well, specifically MY page. As you can see, how exciting! I'm the 84,787th most popular person in/out of Hollywood, which is up like 173,000 spots from where I was last week.
What does all this have to do with anything?
Well, if you saw my last post then you know the Making Of Garden of Hedon went live about a month ago on Amazon Prime. I put it AND the Making of the first Fear of Clowns on there. I think they both have some entertaining parts, but obviously GOH has the boobs so I figured it would do better.
It has, and not just because Amazon's metrics screwed up on the FOC making of, claiming that ZERO minutes were watched the first month it was up. I knew that wasn't true. Eventually they got back to me and said it was a glitch in the system, but they did have the numbers and would update them.
Eventually they did, but sure makes it hard to trust them, right?
Anyway, the Making of GOH started climbing a few weeks ago. Did good numbers in the UK, like three times as much as the U.S., but then the U.S. started climbing.
In the past week, it's doing more than all my other movies combined and is steadily climbing up the page popularity list.
Obviously, putting it up was a way to get some more minutes per month in the metrics, but my secondary plan was to hope that if they stumbled on the Making Of, then maybe they'd be interested enough to check out the actual movie "Garden of Hedon".
I'm happy to say THAT'S working out too, as GOH has been logging 5-10 times the traffic it was doing over the past couple of months.
And that picture up there shows that it's pretty high on the movie meter--it usually hovers been 20,000 and 35,000 on the meter, but right now it's at 11,000. That's pretty high, so people are definitely checking it out.
I guess the question to be asked is this: What can filmmakers take from this? That putting a Making Of on Amazon can help lead people to your movies?
I wish I could say that's a definitive yes, but the reason I put TWO Making Ofs up at the same time was to test it. Putting up one tells you nothing. Put up two...you can compare.
And the Making of Fear of Clowns has done VERY little. Which leads me to believe if you have some sexy chicks to put on the cover of your Making Of, they will for sure be more of a draw than a shirtless clown.
So I'd say if your Making Of poster has sex appeal, by all means put it up and perhaps it will draw people to it AND your movie.
-----------
Man, I'm DYING to show you this poster. It's so freaking cool.
I sort of put Terrortory 2 on the back burner as I finished other things. We're still working on some of the effects, but since I'm leaning more and more to releasing in October, I have plenty of time to finish it. I can take a serious breather and go back to it with fresh eyes.
Here's a throwback pic to the first Terrortory's Midnight Clown segment--and one of these characters will have an appearance in the sequel! Which one will it be?
What does all this have to do with anything?
Well, if you saw my last post then you know the Making Of Garden of Hedon went live about a month ago on Amazon Prime. I put it AND the Making of the first Fear of Clowns on there. I think they both have some entertaining parts, but obviously GOH has the boobs so I figured it would do better.
It has, and not just because Amazon's metrics screwed up on the FOC making of, claiming that ZERO minutes were watched the first month it was up. I knew that wasn't true. Eventually they got back to me and said it was a glitch in the system, but they did have the numbers and would update them.
Eventually they did, but sure makes it hard to trust them, right?
Anyway, the Making of GOH started climbing a few weeks ago. Did good numbers in the UK, like three times as much as the U.S., but then the U.S. started climbing.
In the past week, it's doing more than all my other movies combined and is steadily climbing up the page popularity list.
Obviously, putting it up was a way to get some more minutes per month in the metrics, but my secondary plan was to hope that if they stumbled on the Making Of, then maybe they'd be interested enough to check out the actual movie "Garden of Hedon".
I'm happy to say THAT'S working out too, as GOH has been logging 5-10 times the traffic it was doing over the past couple of months.
And that picture up there shows that it's pretty high on the movie meter--it usually hovers been 20,000 and 35,000 on the meter, but right now it's at 11,000. That's pretty high, so people are definitely checking it out.
I guess the question to be asked is this: What can filmmakers take from this? That putting a Making Of on Amazon can help lead people to your movies?
I wish I could say that's a definitive yes, but the reason I put TWO Making Ofs up at the same time was to test it. Putting up one tells you nothing. Put up two...you can compare.
And the Making of Fear of Clowns has done VERY little. Which leads me to believe if you have some sexy chicks to put on the cover of your Making Of, they will for sure be more of a draw than a shirtless clown.
So I'd say if your Making Of poster has sex appeal, by all means put it up and perhaps it will draw people to it AND your movie.
-----------
Man, I'm DYING to show you this poster. It's so freaking cool.
I sort of put Terrortory 2 on the back burner as I finished other things. We're still working on some of the effects, but since I'm leaning more and more to releasing in October, I have plenty of time to finish it. I can take a serious breather and go back to it with fresh eyes.
Here's a throwback pic to the first Terrortory's Midnight Clown segment--and one of these characters will have an appearance in the sequel! Which one will it be?
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