Let’s Talk About The Streamys: FYC Part 2 – Consider Harder
When I first wrote yesterday’s post on the For Your Consdieration trend last night, I (naively) thought people would be excited and enthusiastic about the endeavor. The Mountain Man FYC campaign was inspired when I recieved a screener in the mail myself. I love getting screeners, and I had already been contemplating how to raise the profile of my cult show. During our work sessions, I spent so much time saying to Mangs, (the director and partner in all of this) that I was so excited to show everyone all the work that was put into our little package.
So yeah, I was a little bummed that people thought screeners were such a bad idea… Obviously, Casey is a person whose opinion I admire, and I recognized virtually almost every commenters name on both our posts. Everyone made strong points about the pros and cons of a FYC campaign, but I think this could all stand a little clarification.
The fact that I’m sending a DVD at all was problematic for people, but as Doug Spice of Coma, Period mentions in his comment, picture quality wasn’t really the point. Honestly, I was bummed at the prospect of putting our show on dvd. It’s only one small aspect of the Mountain Man experience. Without comments, repsonse videos, etc. our series does resemble a linear, old media experience. In that sense, the screener experience is a degredation of the online experience, and since I didn’t ever have a beef with the image or sound quality on our distribution outlets, DVD resolution honestly (and naively, apparently) didn’t even cross my mind. Because it wasn’t my point. The screener isn’t a substitute for the show, it’s an extension of it, and an introduction to it. This was the most fun way I could think of reminding people of what Mountain Man’s DIY-surreal-adventure aesthetic is all about.
So yes, I’m sending out DVD screeners… that the MM director and I assembled ourselves, in my living room, by hand, with very, very little money. There is hardly anything “Hollywood” about spray painting stencils on your front porch, or cluttering your dining room table hand stamping envelopes. I burnt every DVD on the same old computer I write this on now. Like David Nett, I assessed what I’m good at, and went with that. I’m good at building stuff. I’m even better at building stuff that is supposed to look like it was made by a lunatic survivalist. I don’t have coding skills, and we wanted to reach IAWTV members outside the LA area, so screeners seemed like the way to go. The FYC packet is going to be immersive. It’s designed to come from the world of Mountain Man. Anyone can replicate our campaign with a little time, imagination, and spray paint.
The Streamy’s offer the opportunity to raise the profile of a show, plain and simple, and I want more people to see mine. If you’ve come as far as we have, at a certain point you just have to weigh your options and put your chips on the table. I’m just trying my hardest to put my best foot forward. We all know it’s hard to get your show seen. Because there are a ton of great shows out there, and after all the time and love and effort we put into our show, I’d hate to look back on this year and feel like I didn’t do everything I could to make sure that people saw it.Whether you throw a party, send a FYC package, gift baskets, front page ads on Tubefilter and NewTeeVee, whatever, none of it will matter if your show isn’t good. These tactics aren’t changing people’s minds, they’re just cluing people in. I want to bring the tactility and ingenuity of our show into the real world, and remind the IAWTV of all the reasons to love my show.
Bravo! I completely agree with you and think that the DVD and the way in which you packaged it is really quite brilliant as you said it is coming from the world of Mountain Man! I doubt Mountain Man would think a DVD screener is antiquated.
I don’t think it matters how you promote your project as long as you are getting the word out. Frankly the slight controversy this has created just helped promote the show even more. So good for you for that=).
The idea that because you are a web show you should promote fully online is ludicrous. I still love getting mail from the post office, that isn’t an ad or a bill. So what a fun surprise to receive a DVD screener, most of the current awards still send them out (Academy, SAG, Independent Spirit etc). I think utilizing every outlet you can to get the word out is just smart business. I think traditional media needs web just as much as web needs traditional media. You are right everything should be an extension of whatever the original content platform was so I see nothing wrong with sending out a DVD screener and applaud you for taking the time and making the effort to do so.
Also, how do you know who to mail the screeners to? Secret source for the list? We were never able to find out.
Dude. Being a huge fan of the show and hearing they way you describe how you created your FYC packet just makes me want one real bad!
Bravo! :)
Well said. I am now very curious to see what YOUR screeners look like – sounds fun!
Personally, I don’t see any reason why a screener package is somehow incompatible with the Streamys any more than traditional media is incompatible with new media. Wasn’t it just two years ago that several studios started sending out “screeners” that consisted of a link and an access code to content on their FYC web site? Others sent cards with iTunes gift codes for their content. That’s new media, folks. If I can get enough eyeballs on my project to justify building a “care package” for select IAWTV members, then my apartment is going to turn into a sweatshop tomorrow. Like Tom said, new media isn’t just what you can stream to your laptop anymore, just like the movies aren’t just what you capture on cellulose.
I saw some of those comments on the original post and I thought they were ludicrous for the most part. You have a product that you worked very hard on and want to get as much attention and acclaim for it as possible. When people sit at their computers today they have the opportunity to watch thousands of movies, to listen to millions of songs on demand. You must do all you can to promote your work to tastemakers and like-minded individuals and rise above the fray. I think all the negative commenters were just jealous they didn’t have the ambition to make such a nice looking FYC package and get it out there. All this talk of “betraying the medium” is the worst kind of pretension and professional envy. Nice work and good luck!
I got your package today, Matt. Delightful and memorable (if a little bit disturbing!). I think it suits your show very well.
I also agree completely with the two comments above this.