Thing is, I don't like being the doom and gloom guy. I wanna have some good news on occasion; I can't help it that things aren't turning out that way.
On the Amazon front, not much has changed. I pulled a couple of my movies from free play. They don't make it easy.
Easy would be simply unchecking the Free on Prime tab and clicking DONE, and they change that.
However, they make you republish the entire title and they recheck it all. Why is that a problem, you say?
Because Amazon keeps changing their policies. At one time, you could put CAPS words in your title. Like, the word TERRORTORY is capitalized in the description. Well, I tried to change its status but they responded--two days after I tried to republish without it being free--to tell me that NO CAPS.
Other movies that have been on there for years now need actual GERMAN subtitles, or they won't go through in Germany. Shit like that.
The odd thing is that I don't seem to be losing much money with this new policy of theirs. I'm not sure why. I can't even figure the new policy out, because they TOLD US in print that our movies would ranked--in a way we can see--on whether we'd get penalized or rewarded depending on how popular it was on Amazon.
I have seen no such thing. I've looked.
So I dunno. I have no suggestions on how to proceed if you want to put your movie on Amazon. Perhaps that's their purpose--they don't want you to be able to make informed decisions.
Clearly if your movie has a very small budget but a good trailer and poster, you CAN make money. How much is a crap shoot.
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On the personal front, I'm still writing something I may try to shoot in October or November for the tiny amount of $2K. (and maybe I'll kickstart another $2K to finish it)
But if you know me, you know it's not gonna be a talky thing. I plan on doing the same crazy shit, plus some. Can I do it? I don't know.
Right now I feel old and tired. Most of my friends are like "Come on, man, you can do it!" I appreciate the sentiment and their encouragement, but I wanna say "Get back to me when you've spent literally 20 years chasing a dream, and pretty much have nothing to show for it."
And sure, I've got seven feature films to show for it. However, I also have bills, a family, no vacations, a small house and no savings.
That's why I tell wannabe filmmakers to be cautious. There was a saying I'd heard that I used to tell myself was good advice: "Those who have something to fall back on, inevitably do."
Well I lived my life on that, and at the beginning it DID seem like it would work. Then the internet hit and it all went away.
So by all means when you're young, go for it. But perhaps keep SOME other job in your back pocket. Some back-up plan, because the road ahead is hard, and getting harder.
Maybe find yourself a rich wife. That would work.
