Reviews and Indie Film and Root Canals, Oh My!

The past few months have not been very productive. I have a better internet connection, for now, than I did. It's still not up to par like it should be. Some changes have come about causing delays, and I've made some decisions that hopefully will get me back to a more productive status and more regularly promoting indie film and filmmakers like I used to do.

I had planned to get a newer model laptop in May. As what seems to be the norm every time I try to get ahead so far this year I get kicked back. This month, actually two weeks as of this coming Friday, I've had a dead nerve crop up in a tooth. I have been able to stay the infection and the pain. An extraction of the tooth itself is not costly but the x-rays are and I can't afford that. And a root canal would be even more expensive, and the one time I had one done it went south six months later. Certainly my own treatment has worked, but for how long I don't know. I'm putting off getting the laptop, both because I've had to spend more these past two weeks to treat the tooth and am trying to set something aside in case I need to seek emergency treatment.

This year so far has completely wiped me out with what seems like an unfortunate surprise coming every month which has cost me, and how in the hell I made it through April with this month's expenses... well, I sort of didn't because I had to borrow from my neighbor to make it through.

I'm wanting to get a newer laptop because it will just make things easier. This one I'm using, as I've said in a previous article, has a busted screen and I'm using an external monitor with it. Having to keep it in a certain position to do his also requires having my head tilted down to use it. Not normally a problem but it did become such with the tooth problem as the position of my head increased the pain. I recently reviewed a film and it took me three hours or better to screencap it, having to step away from the computer ever now and then to ease up the pain.

As I said the tooth issue for now is resolved as best I can do and I need to focus more on how to be more productive. I have come to realize that my improvised method I used before is not working too well as I just got into a routine of trying to do everything I could, and when I hit a wall when my internet got interrupted, well there was no plan I was using and trying to get back to what I was doing has been like looking at a blank page and not knowing what to write.

For now I think after having written a few reviews again, I was afraid I had forgotten how, I need to plan a minimum of a review a week. This is less than I was doing before, but then I was trying to keep up a ridiculous goal for myself in how I review movies and just kept falling behind.

With a regular routine of reviews I think that will help to keep my mind more focused, certainly more than constantly trying to play catch-up with a queue that has gone from backlogged to one that could support several reviewers for months. Movies I need to get reviewed include Sarah's Room, Whatever It Takes, and The Misguided; all of which have been in limbo review-wise.

With regard to the indie film site I am going back on, for now, asking filmmakers to submit their own film listings. Without me completing already submitted listings and listing films for filmmakers, there is not really that much for a filmmaker to go on for an example of what to do, and the more listings there are on the site, the more valuable of a resource it is to filmmakers. Again, if you are a filmmaker, these listing are for you to be able to use them as presskits for reviews and the promotion of your films, and they cost nothing.

Listings do take a while. Even with submitted listings, as often the very important social links are not there, and that was my fault because of the template not having been mobile friendly, it can take an hour or better for me to complete the submission, per submission, having to search for those links on my own. If I have to create the listing on my own then it can take quite a bit longer depending on what kind of resources I have to start with, like stills, and having to search out information on various sites. 

Of course this stresses the importance of My Indie Film Advantage and the listings as anybody reviewing a film has to go through this same process if this information is not made available to them, and if their site is generating any income due to them keeping a steady flow of new reviews on it then they aren't going to go through with hunting it down because it's a waste of their time. It also stresses the importance of social media to those in indie film as it seems kind of contrary at the least to want to promote your film and yet people can't find you.

The film listings are the tip of the iceberg. Things are going to take a while. Magic doesn't happen online. A neighbor of mine had asked me to set up a website for him to promote products he sells. I set it up, but he thinks somehow his products are going to show up magically, even though I keep telling him he has to list his products and upload pictures to get them on the website. Websites don't build themselves, they have to be built.

One thing I'm going to do is put together a listing of filmmakers and actors which I can also divide geographically and I'll see if I can also work something in that includes by genre. Now this is a personal project that I'm hoping will allow me to better organize listings on the site. It's not an easy project as if you could well imagine what such a listing of Hollywood types alone would entail, then consider how many more indie film types there are than Hollywood types. That's something, among other things, that makes me want to smack self-proclaimed film critics in the head every time they snub an indie filmmaker with an attitude like they only review "real", to be read as "mainstream", movies when far less than 1% of movies made come out of Hollywood. Yes, far less than 1% doesn't sound very "real" to me.

Keeping things on a schedule, such as reviews, ideally will allow me to focus better and keep regular updates on the sites rather than always playing catch-up and falling behind. If I get ahead of what I have planned for a week then maybe I can add an extra review or film listing.

I also need to get back to the indie film promotions on social media. I've been thinking of creating a unique hashtag for some of these promotions. This is not an original idea, just more borrowing on something that has been used fairly regularly, but trying to make it more specifically ours to allow filmmakers to promote each other more efficiently, and therefore promote themselves in the process.

One of the first hashtags I'm wanting to create is for crowdfunding. An obvious obstacle to getting a film made is funding for it (like anybody needs to be told that). With the huge number of indie filmmakers out there, there ought to be a way to network to get each others' crowdfunding efforts spread farther. I want to come up with a simple hashtag that has not been used so that when others see it they will know, if they're paying attention, to retweet it. To make it successful I will have to promote it regularly to get others to recognize it, but with the idea that retweeting it for someone else is going to get theirs retweeted when they are seeking funding.

I am not "the source" for networking. Just someone seeking to find ways to network others. I will keep updates coming on this blog and on My Indie Film Advantage. And as always, if I have made sense, it is most likely purely by accident.

Starting A New Movie Review Blog and You're Invited

I have been lax on getting reviews published this month due in part to other projects I'm working on, and now I've apparently lost my mind in wanting to start another movie review blog?

Well I'll have you know I lost my mind long before this. Uhm, wait, that didn't sound right.

In all actuality I had started a blog to use as the grassroots indie film blog I've written about on this here blog. It's primary purpose was to help indie filmmakers reach out to reviewers by providing a directory of reviewers as well a screeners newsletter to be emailed to reviewers. Well a filmmaker and myself joined forces to combine our ideas into a single blog, and I had already come to the conclusion that the one Blogger blog I had set up was not going to be able to do what I wanted to do.

While we have been occupied with getting the joint venture blog up and running, I have an unused blog sitting there. Being I've already set it up as an indie film blog, why not turn it into a review blog and let others post their reviews there?

I think it is most ideal for those reviewers who use social media to post their reviews, whether because you don't want to bother with your own blog or because you've never used a blog before and the prospect seems daunting. Of course any reviewer is welcome to join the new blog. I'll update everyone with the blog address in about 2-3 weeks.

I'm rather informal in how I run things and especially don't like asking anyone to go out on a limb, jump through hoops or pick your comparison.

The new blog will not have a standardized ratings system. That means bring your own ratings system you've been using and are most comfortable using, or none at all if you don't use a ratings system. Though I did think of standardizing a ratings system, how someone reviews films in a personal choice and trying to make someone change the way they review I feel will cramp their style.

Obviously this may cause a little confusion on the part of a reader. I have set up a review ratings page where I will list every reviewer's ratings system, if they have one. I think most reviewers give an idea anyway what their rating means.

You're not on your own. If you are experiencing any difficulty in formatting your post, getting images in your posts, or especially getting them where you want them, ask me and I'll help.

You post for a while and decide you want to do this on your own blog? Super! If you need any help getting your own blog up and running I'll be happy to lend a hand, and I'll even link to you and post about it on my social media to help get you some traffic.

You haven't reviewed indie films before? Well, they're movies; I'm sure you've heard of those. I've seen films from 2 minutes long to... infinity and beyond! Well, long movies. With budgets from $100 to several hundred thousand. Most of the films that will apply to the goals of this blog will have been made under $100,000 as a budget. This is the grassroots level of independent films. Compared to Hollywood films this is not even the cost of a day's work, but you'll be amazed at what talent and determination can accomplish.

Don't know where to find them? That's why I'm here. Bring your own indie films to review or I'll be happy to put you in touch with filmmakers and provide screeners (a 'for review' copy of the film) for you to review.

If this interests you, contact me on my Twitter or Facebook page or you can email me.

How the Twitter Indie Film Podcast & Review Campaign Will Work

Naturally when I started the Twitter campaign to connect indie filmmakers, actors, and their films with reviewers and podcasters... ahs had a plan!

That was a dang lie! I've pretty much been improvising the whole way.

But from chaos comes order. Unfortunately also a definition of my usual daily routine; I have a tendency to jump in head first, then put together any pieces that survived the fracas and call it a plan.

So how does this campaign work?

I have gathered together filmmakers, actors and their films (Twitter accounts) into one list, and reviewers and podcasters interested in doing interviews and reviews into another list. Of course if I want more bloody chaos on my hands I would just combine both lists all at once and sit back and watch the show. But as entertaining, and admittedly demented, as that sounds, it's not very nice and in the end won't accomplish much. I know what it's like to have a backlog and be constantly adding to it, so I'm trying to avoid overwhelming either group with too much at once.

Obviously I didn't have this plan at first as I had no idea what the response would be. With the response as it is I had to develop some kind of plan and here it is:

Starting in a few days I will be posting tweets for each individual film, actor, or filmmaker on the list. I will be tagging reviewers/podcasters from the other list, four at a time for each individual tweet. Each tweet will be like a mini-presskit with some info, IMDb link, obviously a link to their Twitter account, and a poster, pics, etc. (The etc. is a way of saying "whatever else I think of at the moment")

#IndieFilmPolka

I will be using the hashtag #IndieFilmPolka for each tweet. This way if someone wants to check out other tweets they just need to click on the hashtag. This hashtag has not been used on Twitter, so unless somebody else suddenly starts using it only tweets in the campaign should be linked to it. I had thought of using PoCa, for podcast campaign, but it sounded like Polka and let's face it, that just more entertaining anyway.

I don't know how many tweets I'll do in a day. It requires some work putting them together, and I do want to spread them out. Each film, filmmaker, or actor will be tweeted to 4 reviewers/podcasters at a time, cycling through the list and tweeting a different film, filmmaker or actor to the next four reviewers/interviewers on the list, until either list has been extinguished, then I start over beginning with the next film, filmmaker or actor on the list to the next block of four reviewers/podcaster on their list. By the time I have finished every film, filmmaker and actor on the list will have been tweeted individually to everybody on the other list.

Gawd help me...what have I done? O.O

Hopefully nobody but me will be confused by this. ;)

Fletch

New Update on the Coming Grassroots Indie Blog

There is going to be a delay in getting the new blog up and running. I have a Blogger site I originally set up to use as the blog, but complications with some features are making it more optimal for me to look into using Wordpress or another service, and thus having to use a hosting service for the blog. This will delay it at least a month or two.

One of the new features I want to add to the blog is primarily what necessitates the delay. I am presently working on my current blog to put up a presskit and resource page for a specific indie film. This gave me the idea that having such a service on the new blog would be useful.

It's not so much that reviewers are lazy, though some most definitely are, but rather having a resource page with a poster image, screencaps, summaries, productions notes, credits, contacts and social media links for cast and crew would be useful to many reviewers. Some of this stuff is available on IMDb. some of it is available on Facebook, but in one handy location, unless you specifically have a website for your film or production company, it is more often not.

Often the most time consuming part of reviewing a film is writing the review and checking your information. Sure, a reviewer can be lazy and assume the actor named Tommie is a guy and playing the male character, but I'm pretty sure SHE doesn't appreciate that. Presskits, resource pages and especially social media links help reviewers to get things right in the first place, have images to use in their reviews, have social media contacts to tag in links to reviews, but most importantly removes hurdles making it easier and therefore more likely your film will get reviews and those reviews will lack misinformation (I said 'lack' not 'be free of').

So how does this feature create a delay?

As the blog grows, having resource pages can become cumbersome in setting them up. Ideally this can be fixed by allowing filmmakers to create their own resource pages rather than having me do it. However, Blogger only allows a certain number of users to be added to a blog, I believe it is 100, and depending on how successful the blog is that can be maxed out in only a few months or less. It would be much harder to fix such a situation on the premise of 'if it happens' than to assume it will happen and fix it in the first place. This means using a different blog system, and the more economical and user friendly option is to set up my own hosting rather than trying to use Wordpress's service which is simply bloated.

*A Note on Posters

Although it is not common, some grassroots filmmakers don't have posters for their films. I have been known to make a poster for a review in such cases, and occasionally where I just didn't like their poster. The reason I do this is unless I have an attention grabbing screencap to lead the review (the first image will be grabbed by social media for display) I want to have a poster image to grab a potential reader's attention.

I am not a graphic designer, and no I'm not offering a poster service. I just use an image editor and a bit of creativity is all. Outside of my main editor, PhotoImpact (shaddup, it rules) I have been having fun with a freeware editor, Toolwiz Pretty Photo, for simple posters and adding speech bubbles to photos I have been using to torture some of you with.

Like any other program, Pretty Photo does have some bugs to get used to. For one, the more fonts you have on your system, I have over 400, will cause it to lag when trying to change fonts. Using more than one font on an image will cause it to lag more, so don't assume the program has froze up, just be patient. It also has a maximum image height and/or width of 1024 pixels, pretty much rendering it most useful for web images. You can load any size image, but if it goes above 1024 pixels in either dimension it will resize down to 1024 pixels while keeping the aspect ratio intact. Depending on your screen resolution, the full image may not show while you are editing it. Use the zoom feature below the image to zoom out to show the full image as it has a tendency to crop the image incorrectly when you save it if you don't zoom out; took me a while to figure out why it was doing that.

Now that may sound like some work with those bugs, but compared to using my main image editor it is a piece of cake and makes it real easy to do a simple poster or add cartoon captions to photos; just try to find a simpler way to add speech bubbles, and that gives you full control over size, position and text. And don't overlook using shadow and bevel when adding a title to a poster image; the shadow, in any editor, makes the text stand out rather just looking flat.

Toxic Fletch

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You for Nov & Dec 2017

I have quite a few things on a checklist for the next few months. There is no hard and fast schedule, but I'm writing things down here both as a reminder for myself and to let the one or two of you who read this blog know what to expect.

Grassroots Indie Blog

I have already posted about this, but to reiterate it is going to primarily be a directory of movie reviewers who do indie film reviews. The main function is to connect filmmakers with reviewers. I hope to add other features as it grows, but I'm trying to stay focused on the directory so no promises beyond that. My main wrestling point is in how to organize the directory to make it more convenient to search.

An additional feature I am considering strongly for a later date is a screener newsletter to give indie filmmakers an additional option to reach out to reviewers. I regularly receive emails for screeners via promoters for various independent studios' films. Well a lot of grassroots filmmakers don't have that capability as money is tight enough. I hope to be able to offer a free service that uses an emailed newsletter telling reviewers what is new among indie films and where they can access screeners, and other resources (stills, posters, trailers) if available.

Thanksgiving Horror Movies

Well, at least that's the plan. Putting together an article again for GulfCoast.stream for the month of November, so obviously it's going to be about movies for Thanksgiving. We'll just see if I have enough horror movies to make an article or if I need to make it more generic.

Soon to be Reviewed

Antihuman - A spellbinding sci-fi horror film that knits Orphan Black with the Resident Evil franchise, premieres on VOD this October from Wild Eye Releasing.

A young woman returns to the secluded, abandoned psychological research facility where her deceased mother once worked. Accompanied by three friends, she discovers that the ghosts of the past have found their way to the present when the hospital's legacy of experimentation and madness tears away all known bounds of time, memory and space.

Anya Korzun, Danielle Arden, Andrew Jardine, Katie Keight, and Kathryn Goldsmith star in a film by Luke Gietzen and Mark Robins.

Antihuman is now available on VOD from Wild Eye Releasing.

Ballerina I'm Not - Written and directed by Francesca Zappitelli, the “exhilarating” (SportStop) and “inspirational” (EEDA) Ballerina I’m Not its way to VOD this October.

An underground, underdog story of the prolific journey that women take to follow their dreams and find their way in a male dominated fight industry, Ballerina I’m Not is now available on Amazon.

Ballerina I’m Not features a who’s who of the wrestling world including Stacy Keibler, Gail Kim,  Maria Kanellis and Francesca herself.

“A great film.. that will make you stand up and cheer”, Ballerina I’m Not is available on VOD from Amazon.

Blood Harvest - Writer-director George Clarke’s latest sweat-inducing scarefest comes to U.S shores this November. 

The award-winning Blood Harvest, out of Northern Ireland, premieres on Digital 11/21 from Wild Eye Releasing. 

Robert Render, Alan M. Crawford, Jean Paul Van Der Velde, Griffin Madill, Rachael Stewart and Matt McCreary star in a George Clarke film. 

A rural village is terrorized by an evil force that drains the blood from its victims. A discredited police detective, who believes the killings are the work of vampires, must team up with his former partner to uncover the truth.

Kepler's Dream - Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints, Powder), Kelly Lynch (“Mr.Mercedes”, Charlie’s Angels), and Holland Taylor (The Truman Show, “Two and-a-Half Men”) star in director Amy Glazer’s highly anticipated feature adaptation of the hit YA novel by Juliet Bell, in theaters and InDemand December 1st from Leomark Studios.

Eleven-year-old Ella (Isabella Blake-Thomas) is a city girl forced to spend the summer on the New Mexico ranch of her reclusive grandmother, Violet Von Stern (Holland Taylor), while Ella’s mom (Kelly Lynch) undergoes chemotherapy in another state. As she tries to cope with her grandmother’s strict rules and snooty friends, Ella longs for her mother and begs her estranged father for rescue. But Ella’s dad (Sean Patrick Flanery) has his own reasons to stay away from his childhood home. Meanwhile, Ella finds allies in fatherly ranch hand Miguel (Steven Michael Quezada) and his down-to-earth daughter, Rosie (Esperanza Fermin). But when a priceless book is stolen from Violet’s collection, Miguel is the key suspect, and Ella must find the real thief in order to save her friends. Emotional connections are reshaped, and a family that was lost finds its way. The music of Patrick Neil Doyle helps tell this unusual and heartwarming story.

Steven Michael Quezada (‘’Breaking Bad’’), Kelly Hu (X-Men 2), and Isabella Blake-Thomas (Once Upon a Time, Rise of the Guardians) co-star.

Kepler’s Dream in theaters across America and available on InDemand from December 1.

Skybound - The sky’s the limit for The Flash’s Rick Cosnett this November with Skybound, out November on VOD from SP Releasing!

Flight Plan meets Non-Stop in director Alex Tavakolis’ airborne sci-fi action-thriller that sees some of today’s hottest young stars battling more in the air than just turbulence! 

Five plane passengers are unable to land after a mysterious disaster happens on the ground, but they may be in worse danger than they thought when a stowaway is discovered on board carrying a dangerous secret.

Scarlett Byrne (the Harry Potter series), Gavin Stenhouse (“Black Mirror”) and Morten Suurballe (“The Killing”) co-star alongside Rick Cosnett (The Flash) in Skybound, repped by High Octane Pictures, out 11/7.

There will be some more films reviewed including indie short subjects but these are the ones on my definite list.

Toxic Fletch

Update on the Grassroots Indie Blog

A while ago I had proposed the idea of joining with others to start a grassroots indie film blog. Nothing was cemented at the time, just wanted to see what interest was there. Now right up front I am probably going to piss off a few people here, but I have had only a taste of what indie filmmakers already know: that trying to get the attention of movie reviewers apparently requires dynamite.

Focus has shifted on the idea of a grassroots indie film blog from trying to be a collective for reviewers to being a resource site for filmmakers. Being that movie reviewers vary widely from very responsive to review requests to complete film snobs who won't even respond to someone if it has nothing to do with a major Hollywood movie, my focus is with the former group of reviewers.

The main feature of the blog is going to be a list, directory if you will, of reviewers who are responsive and review independent films regardless who makes them or how low budget they are. Having seen some filmmakers, on social media, trying to get their films reviewed and helping out myself, it's frustrating trying to get someone's attention only to be ignored; a hundred times over.

A springboard for the list I am putting together has been actor Timothy J. Cox. He has been in a lot of indie films and knows how to promote the movies he's in. You can check out one of his films on IMDb and see anywhere from a dozen to over 50 external reviews listed for short films made on a budget of less than $5000 with actors and directors many of you have never heard of, and I'm including many movie reviewers in that 'you', as compared to some recognizable names making films on their own outside of Hollywood for a $100,000+ and having no more than a handful of external reviews.

Piggybacking on the work of Cox and some others I am putting together a list of reviewers. I am not going to publish the list until I have over a hundred reviewers on it, for the simple fact that having more reviewers available keeps them from being overloaded with review requests.

The main focus of the new blog is the reviewers list and also to eventually include other resources for grassroots indie filmmakers; those working with little or no budget and no resources for promoting their own work much outside of the internet and social media. I hope to eventually add reviews to the new blog, splitting those off from this blog as I'll use the new one for strictly grassroots indie films and this one for those that don't qualify as grassroots indie.

No, the definition, or boundaries, by what is and is not a grassroots indie film is still in the works. Comparing the film made by a recognizable actor or director for a few hundred thousand to the one made by a local filmmaker for $15,000 or less, mostly put on a credit card or borrowed, is an easy distinction. It's the dividing line of at what point one becomes the other that requires some delineation, and even that won't be written in stone so to speak.

Additionally I will be adding a new Twitter account to go with the new blog. One obvious purpose of the new Twitter account will be to have an account that focuses strictly on indie film. An additional purpose of the new account will be to have an account name that feels more comfortable to share a Tweet from than one called Sex and Blood Show. Yes, my original choice of a Twitter url for my profile page does not rank among my brightest ideas.

Toxic Fletch