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
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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?#/
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