I\u2019m going to let you in on a secret.\u00a0 This blog is only a ploy to get you to look at the rest of my web site.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s not really a secret.<\/p>\n
You see, I created Dr. Film<\/em> as a TV show a couple of years ago, and the web site has been up for ages.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t get anyone to look at the site.\u00a0 No one wanted to look at my demos, either.<\/p>\n There will be another screening of the complete show on August 4, 2011, at Garfield Park in Indianapolis.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the link if you\u2019d like to attend.<\/a> \u00a0It\u2019s free. \u00a0If you don’t know about the complete show, then read on, Macduff.<\/p>\n The reason this is \u201cthe big push\u201d is that I\u2019ve only now figured out a decent marketing campaign, and the show is now going to a number of venues.\u00a0 I spent more time figuring out a marketing campaign than I did making the show.\u00a0 There is new art, an upgraded web page, and I\u2019ve got a publicist on board.\u00a0 I hope this will put us over the top.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot of work for a show about old movies.<\/p>\n You see, I love old films, and it bothers me that so few people watch them anymore.\u00a0 It\u2019s my feeling that most people are uninitiated and just don\u2019t understand what they\u2019re seeing.\u00a0 I think that some people are a little put off by the hosts on the major channels.\u00a0 They treat film as high art (which it is), but we sometimes miss the raggedy fun of a strange old film we\u2019ve never seen.<\/p>\n After all, Citizen Kane <\/em>is great art, but how many times can you watch it?\u00a0 And in my experience, there is so much stuff that is sitting out there unseen and unpreserved that it saddens me to see the same old warhorses trotted out for the \u201cold movie show.\u201d\u00a0 Theater owners and TV stations think that if it isn\u2019t a title you know, then you won\u2019t watch.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve got some experience in this.\u00a0 I\u2019ve taught film history and appreciation, and people seem to like my classes.\u00a0 I also remember the old days of TV, with the rough-edged local host doing a movie.\u00a0 I thought that if I could combine the come-what-may atmosphere of the old days, no suits, no slickness, and weave in a little real history, we might have a good show.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what Dr. Film <\/em>is.\u00a0 Or what it will be.<\/p>\n The show is designed to highlight unusual films that you don\u2019t see on television much.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely got a \u201cwhat the heck is that<\/em>\u201d factor built into it.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping to catch some errant channel flipper on his way past the classic film channel.\u00a0 I hope he stays long enough to see what we\u2019re showing.<\/p>\n Yes, I did make a complete pilot that\u2019s broadcast-ready at 96 minutes.\u00a0 I\u2019ve taken some heat for not posting it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not on iTunes or YouTube either.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Because it took so much time and effort to make the episode that I can\u2019t afford another one.\u00a0 If I give this one away, then the networks look at the show as \u201ccontaminated\u201d by having been out there in the \u201cfree\u201d world.<\/p>\n Trust me, in an ideal world I\u2019d love to do this for free.\u00a0 The stats are painful, though.\u00a0 Three full days of shooting, many, hours of rewriting, days of film transfer work and re-transfer work.\u00a0 Then the ultimate: I had to add titles, artwork and composite the show.\u00a0 It took me a solid month to do it.\u00a0 I admit that Episode 2 would take less time, but it\u2019s still a lot of work.\u00a0 I can\u2019t spend this kind of time on a show unless I can get money back out of it.<\/p>\n The good news is that I\u2019ve got the whole thing down to a staff of 3 people, and I\u2019m the one who does most of the work.\u00a0 That means that I can crank out episodes for a pretty inexpensive price compared to what other places have to charge.\u00a0 Sometimes being a film geek and <\/em>an engineer has its benefits.<\/p>\n I hope you\u2019ve seen enough of the site to be excited about the show.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019re excited about the blog.\u00a0 I\u2019m the worst person in the world on marketing, but I know one thing.\u00a0 I call it the marketing triangle.\u00a0 I need three people to do effective marketing.\u00a0 If I tell you that my restaurant is great, you won\u2019t believe me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a stake in it, and you\u2019ll raise your eyebrow and walk away.\u00a0 It\u2019s human nature.\u00a0 But if a buddy of yours tells you that my restaurant is great, you\u2019ll give it a chance.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t just tell people that Dr. Film <\/em>would be a cool show, and that this is an interesting site.\u00a0 You have to tell a friend.\u00a0 Hopefully, your friends will tell friends too.<\/p>\n What else can you do?\u00a0 Well, if you have a friend with money who might like to sponsor the show, then let him know about it.\u00a0 If you know any potential network or cable outlet that might like to pick up the show, then let me know.\u00a0 Please don\u2019t pester people, but a polite, \u201cHey, this is good,\u201d is always welcome.<\/p>\n Would you like to have a free commando screening of the pilot episode?\u00a0 That\u2019s great, and I can help arrange it.\u00a0 I realize that people want to see the show, and that\u2019s fine.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t go making copies of it for public consumption.\u00a0 Terry Gilliam got Brazil <\/em>released on word of mouth.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping that Dr. Film <\/em>might get the same reception.<\/p>\n I know it\u2019s crazy.\u00a0 I\u2019m told that often.\u00a0 But one of my blog posts recently went viral in Europe.\u00a0 I got about 20 pingbacks in an hour.\u00a0 I never thought that would happen.\u00a0 Maybe this can happen too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m going to let you in on a secret.\u00a0 This blog is only a ploy to get you to look at the rest of my web site.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s not really a secret. You see, I created Dr. Film as a TV show a couple of years ago, and the web site has been up … Continue reading “The Big Push”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,207],"tags":[25,26],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-background-on-the-blog","category-film","tag-dr-film","tag-showing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}