Yeah, so I've heard. I unfortunately did not consider that while I was writing, filming, or editing it. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn've made it shorter. As it was, I already chopped ten minutes off it to get it DOWN to 23 minutes.

Josh,

I have at least 3 maybe 4 shorts from the last 13-14 years that are over 20 minutes.

I also have two under-3-minute shorts that were in a bunch of fests, while the longer ones either never got into a fest or one of them did.

Heath

Well I'm making a vow to keep it under 15 unless it's a pilot or something from here on out. My upcoming one should be 12-15, maybe less. Hard to tell right now.


The 23 minute "November Rain" of short films has been entered into around 50 fests, got into 13, won "best of" awards at 3 thus far. There a few I haven't heard back from yet, and a few more I will probably enter, but I'm also looking into sales agents/short film distributors, and when all of them reject me, I guess I'll throw it up online.

Heath, this maybe a little late now, so sorry about that.

If you want to post something on YouTube that requires more then the 10:43 min. mark, (that's the exact length allowed) apply for 'partnership' as a film/new media production company. When accepted you can request an unlimited running time and if you get it, you can also generate some revenue through the Google AdSense program. Also, all YouTube 'director' accounts that were signed up before 2007 have no limit on running time but are capped at 2,000 megs. or so. YouTube is now actively looking for independent filmmakers with product to upload, if they like your stuff they will promote it. For what it's worth, a few features have done quite well in regards to views and exposure. Either way, good luck with your project.

Thanks for the advice, Jipsi!

I took down 9:04 AM as a feature (at Exposure Room and 9.04 AM) and "webisodes" (at YouTube and Vimeo) to focus on the DVD. I think it did well considering it's 87 minutes long.

More details when I get close to the DVD release; not sure about Blu-ray, but I may do it.

Thanks very much for all your support!

Heath

If anything I think a free screening online will help Heath with future films. It's helping to build a good reputation online, and people will eventually take notice.

Thanks, Matthew. It's incredibly risky, but a lot of fun, and the idea was kind of inspired by AIR doing free online listening parties for their last (and incidently current) album, and even Radiohead putting In Rainbows up.

I'd say maybe 200 people saw 9:04 AM at fests and theater screenings, total. Online, between the feature (400+ at Exposure Room, not sure yet how many at 904am.com), and literally tens of thousands on some of the "webisodes" I created by cutting the movie into 3-5 minute bits (on YouTube, MySpace, etc.), I think we did a much better job then trying to find money to hit more fests (unless we're rejected) or theater rentals, plus promos.

We'll see what happens when I put the DVD out there.

Thanks again to everyone!

Heath

I mean ... you have to consider though ... those albums were successful I'm sure because they had massive exposure and marketing behind them. I would take that into consideration.

Your film is grassroots and absolutely no exposure (well, you do now, but you started with none), you have no marketing behind you ... so you should be really pushing the marketing. I would try getting in touch with online film journals to set up interviews. You need more press on this. Possibly use prweb.com for an online press release.

If you want views, you need exposure either through search engines or some other outlet. You mentioned myspace being very good to you ... it's not surprising since its a huge network. How about facebook and twitter?

Used both of those, too. Trust me, marketing is next. Once the DVD is ready, I have some cool plans. I think the best filmmakers are those that can sell themselves and their movies.

(And I know AIR and Radiohead had big PR and are big acts, but what they did is perfect for us, the indies.)

Heath

What about getting Vimeo Plus? I believe for $60/year you can upload 5GB/week.

And much, much better quality.

Depending on the license you want to use, you could upload it to the Internet Archive.

I wish vimeo had a $30 option that let you upload say 2.5gb a week. Or at least an introductory price for a few months before stepping up to full price. 500 megs is not enough and right now $60USD is stretching my already overstretched budget. lol I don't have enough use yet for the full service. WIll in a few months though.

Oh well, I'll probably cough up that cash soon.

ExposureRoom - Providing Exposure & Opportunity for Talent is terrific and free!

Heath

Seriously Denny,

$60 is too much for your budget? And you're messing around with video?

How do you afford tapes or even food for that matter? (I'm not going to even think of asking how you got a camera.)

It's the cheapness of your mindset that tells you that you can't afford $1.15 per week. The $60 pricing they have is a no-brainer for the value that is offered.

Andrew
(who still uses the free version and does well working within the 500Mb weekly limit)