A PRESS RELEASE FOR THE THREE PEOPLE WHO READ THIS!After putting in 3 years of hard work, and putting out way too much of my own money, this movie is finally out for public consumption. It's on Amazon, Netflix, and even in Wal*Mart, which I'm told is the Mecca of dvd sales. Check it out. Pass it on. Write and tell me if you like it, or feel free to post a review online. If you don't, keep it to yourself.
10 comments:
Thought you should have a comment. Nice packaging. And a good movie, too. People who haven't seen it should buy it and watch it. Okay? Happy? Now here's my question: How is it possible that Amazon already has 18 used copies for sale? It's only been out for three days!
Thanks for the comment. Actually, of the 18 sites listed selling it, all but one are for new copies. As for the used one, that's a mystery, like most everything else in the world of indie movie sales.
Hi Ian,
Hey, just ordered my copy of "L.A. Blues" and I also ordered a second copy of "Hello, Lied The Agent". I never got to read the first copy as I loaned it to a friend who was in the hospital and never got it back. Anyway, good luck with the movie. You have my respect and admiration for being able to navigate anything good through the Hollywood shit machine.
Brian Scully
Brian--Thanks. Hope you enjoy the movie. Actually, I navigated this outside the normal Hollywood shit machine, which was fun. Then ran smack into the indie abattoir, which has been less fun. Need lots of press. If you happen to know a million people, please tell them this exists. Ian
I'm picking up the movie tomorrow. I can't wait to see it. When I was reading "Hello, Lied the Agent", there were times when I was laughing so hard my 2 year old would run to my wife telling her, "Daddy's crying."
When the movie I finally made it's way to amazon, I also noticed that there were a lot of used copies available. The movie had died an ignored death. No one really gave a fuck about it one way or the other. I knew for a fact we hadn't sold that many new copies and I couldn't figure where all these used ones were coming from. Come to find out, reporters and movie reviewers we had sent screeners to were selling them, the motherfuckers.
moviebuff707--
Thanks for getting the movie and book. Appreciate it. What movie did you do? Curious about someone else's experience in this world. Ian
Hey Ian,
The movie was titled SHORT SIDE OF NOTHING. You can look it up on imdb and amazon. If you were to google it, I think some reviews still show up.
I was finishing up grad school at Chapman University (a colossal waste of time and money) and working as a script reader for Beacon. I had this script I had been working on for a while, something that was designed to be made for no money, and since I was technically still a student I thought I could use the school’s equipment and insurance to make a feature instead of dicking around with a short. Without an agent, I spent the better part of a year trying in vein to raise some money. I finally decided to pull the trigger myself and make the movie with nothing more than a hope and prayer. Since the movie was supposed to be a “documentary”, the idea was that the lack of resources would actually work in our favor. After the movie was finished, the same people who said they liked the script but didn’t want to throw any money our way, now watched the movie and said they liked it but didn’t think they could market it. We were invited to show at the American Film Market but didn’t have enough cash to show on film (then a requirement of the market). We couldn’t seem to get the movie into any festivals and decided that our last resort would be to put the thing into some theaters ourselves and at the very least garner a few decent reviews and maybe prove to someone that there was an audience for it. The marketing budget was next to nothing, and quite frankly not enough people came to the show. I couldn’t even get my family to support the fucking thing, and we simply ran out of money to keep it going. The movie became one of few hundred made every year that go nowhere. We managed to get it into some video stores and sell some copies via amazon and our own website. There still might be a VOD deal through greencine and indieflix, but for the most part I’ve moved on to the next one.
I guess that’s the not so short version. I bought LA Blues, but have not had a chance to watch it. Now that the Suns have shit the bed with the Spurs I’ll be able to check it out tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it.
Take care,
Phil Garcia
Phil--My experience was somewhat similar. I spent two days at AFM courtesy of our foreign distributor and realized it's just a giant deli counter, selling movies by the pound instead of pastrami. But it provided a valuable insight into that business. It's just genre and names. Whether you play the game or not, you have to know your enemy and know how they think because they're not going to change. For us, the movie's out. Now, it's just a matter of getting a little promotion to raise awareness and hopefully a decent review somewhere. If I get at least a portion of the cash back, that's fine. I'll be smarter the next time. Or maybe just less stupid. Doing it yourself is fun, but as you know, risky. There are tons of indies made every year. Someone's getting the money from someone. Good luck. Ian
Donte--Thanks for checking it out. I'll try to post more often now that I know someone's reading. Ian
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