Out of Control

A couple years ago, some acquaintances of ours made a movie and prior to its release, a terrible trailer was posted on YouTube. And I do mean terrible. It even had the time code running in the corner of the screen! Yikes! Jim n' I couldn't understand why the filmmakers would ever put something like that out to the public. It made no sense.

Ah yes.... but now the shoe is on the other foot! As you might expect, when you make a film, you slowly relinquish any and all control. It's a part of the process that we fully expected... and yet, I don't think we were completely ready for. Up until now, I've avoided talking about these headaches in my blog. After all, when you're unhappy about something, the last thing you want is people surfing for your shit. Actually, up until only a couple weeks ago I had been reassuring Jim that no one is googling our film except him. I don't even bother googling it! But apparently I had underestimated folks' interest. Who knew? So, I decided that I might as well come clean and address the dirt we've been disenchanted with. Or in other words, all the crap that's out of our control.

So, a few months back we discovered that almost as soon as you complete your movie, random sites will start popping up, offering free downloads of your film. If you ever come across any of these questionable sites, don't bother wasting your energy. After too much time n' effort, you'll only end up with some cheesy movie about hunting swamp monsters (which are actually alligators). Of course, Jim was compelled to double-check and make sure it wasn't our film available for download, even though we knew it couldn't be. Just like I had to check when I found a site advertising nude photos of Jim (as a result of his name being on IMDB, I guess?) Hot dang! I don't even own any nude photos of Jim! Ha!

Anyway, like I was saying, we knew that for someone to have a copy, they would've had to steal it from the small handful of those of us who do - and we're expected to guard our copies with our lives! For goodness sake, one day on set I had a copy of Jim's dailies in my jacket (dailies are all the footage shot on the previous day), and I must've accidentally dropped them when jumping over a large puddle. When I realized that the discs were missing and began retracing my steps, it caused a HUGE panic among les producers and other crew members. Now, if everyone got so worked up over the potential leak of a couple scenes, can you imagine the drama if someone had stolen a copy of the completed film and uploaded it online?! (Not to say stuff like that doesn't happen. I think someone uploaded a bootleg copy of Wolverine last year, which obviously has a slighter larger audience demand than our wee film.)

Another nuisance has been the terrible sales trailers that are thrown together and uploaded onto YouTube. And no, I'm not only talking about the one that recently surfaced on FB. (Although there was a reason I didn't post it on FB myself two months ago...) In fact, there was a MUCH worse version uploaded before editing ended, that our sales reps were using when pitching DE at a festival in Berlin. In that version, there was over four minutes of raw footage, as several scenes played out spoiling key twists n' turns. And not only was that version low quality and poorly cut together, but it also included some kind of crazy jungle music in the background. WTF?! Jungle music? Seriously... WTF?!

Fortunately, after much pestering, Jim had it removed from YouTube. Thank gawd! However, he hasn't had any success having this latest one removed, even though he has asked three times. The raw, non colour-treated footage makes our film look even more low budget than it already is. And like anything in life, you always want to put your best foot forward. This would never have happened if we had the final say. (Although the good news is there's now a more professional trailer in the making...) Y'see, much like our acquaintances' film, neither of these trailers were ever intended for public consumption, and yet the sales folk uploaded them onto a public forum like YouTube anyway...

Speaking of not intended for public consumption, another thorn in our side was when we learned that somehow a film critic had snuck in and watched an unfinished cut of our film that was only intended as a teaser for international sales agents. (Sales are often made before a movie is done. For instance, we had sales with Movie Central and the Movie Network before we even began shooting.) It was not the harsh review that pissed everyone off, (after all, not every movie is meant for every one - you just can't let stuff like that get to you), but the fact that the movie was still being edited when it was reviewed! Only sales agents - who understood that the film was still a work in progress - should've been allowed in that room. No one is sure how the critic got in. It was pretty unprofessional. But again, 'tis beyond our control...

And finally, you should see the posters that our UK sales team are proposing. Yeesh.. Right now we are fighting against a muddled version of the current template that Jim n' our producers had originally created (as seen on FB and our website). Yet, there's nothing we can do if they choose to go with their own messy design. Even though we can always propose suggestions, it's the distributers and sales agents who have the final say. We may have written and directed DE, but we do not own the movie.

Anyhow, while such annoyances are frustrating, I'm not losing any sleep over 'em. I'm sure the best and worst is yet to come, and I hold my arms wide for both the opportunities and lessons they will bring. Because ultimately, at the end of the day, it's not the trailers or posters that will matter - it'll be how our little film speaks for itself. And even then, it will have already served its purpose - to be a foot in the door so we can hopefully experience all these highs n' lows again and again.