Today June 3rd is National Running Day

To Celebrate check out

SPIRIT OF THE MARATHON at http://www.marathonmovie.com/store.html

and

LONG GREEN LINE at http://www.neoflix.com/store/LGL83/

THE $200,000 ULTIMATE
FILMMAKER COMPETITION
Los Angeles, California - USA
Finalists Announced: December 2009

In the Spotlight this week is THE $200,000 ULTIMATE FILMMAKER COMPETITION (UFC), a dynamic filmmaking competition offering one visionary filmmaker a six-figure production grant and distribution deal.

Sponsored by Canon, Final Cut Pro, NEOFLIX, MovieMaker Magazine, Final Draft, and Filmmakers Alliance, UFC is looking for undiscovered filmmakers with talent, determination, vision, and a passion for filmmaking as a way of life. A full screenplay is not needed at the time of entry; to apply, only a one-page synopsis, 250 word “Why I Am a Filmmaker” essay, and a filmmaker resume are required.

The First Place winner receives at minimum a $200,000 USD cash production grant along with an additional $300,000 in resources to turn their proposal into a script and then into a film. The winning filmmaker will also receive a Canon HD camera, production software, and development and production guidance. And it doesn’t stop there; the film will be heavily promoted, will premiere at a major film festival, and will be distributed on multiple platforms simultaneously - theatrically, on cable, and on the net - for maximum international exposure.
UPCOMING DEADLINE
June 19, 2009 - Regular (Final) Deadline
Upgraded projects save $15 off this deadline

MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
All submitters receive a one-year subscription to MovieMaker Magazine, constructive feedback and mentorship at every phase of the selection process, plus a year’s membership in the global Filmmakers Alliance when it launches. Semi-Finalists receive production software from Adobe, Final Draft, and Final Cut Pro, plus online promotion, and finalists will also receive additional mentorship by top industry professionals, a full suite of filmmaking software, and will be flown to Los Angeles for in-person interviews.

We read in a study that the larger sites like Paypal (eBay), Google,
and Amazon, engender a greater level of trust from consumers.  (That’s
common sense.)  So Brian and I decided to implement different shopping
options on Neoflix so you may offer them to your buyers.  We already
offer Paypal, and we have implement Amazon check-out.  We are studying
Google check out at current, but not yet implemented it.

The shopping cart will work the same way until the payment page, where
they will be taken to an Amazon page to log-in to their Amazon
account.  Since Amazon saves their credit card information on their
system, there will be no credit card number entries–the buyer just
select the credit card to use in this transaction.  You may go to the
test store (www.neoflix.com/store/tes77) add a product, and see the
Amazon option below the regular and Paypal options.   To activate
Payment by Amazon:

[a] Log into your Neoflix account, go to to “My Store”.  Click on the
orange “Payment Options” button.  Check the box that says: “Accept
Payments from Amazon Accounts”.

The purpose for this feature is that you may restrict access to
products with special pricing or other restrictions to only the
individuals you provide the link and an optional password.  For
example, affiliated organizations, family, friends, cast and crew, or
VIPs.  Placing products in the “Private” category will “hide” the
product from your main store and make it only accessible via the
custom link. You can add a password to further protect this item from
the public, or leave the field blank, so that no password is required.
Put this link in your browser’s URL to see how it works
(http://www.neoflix.com/cart/TES77/TES77-Edu).  The password is:
password)

a. The assignment of the password (if you desire to assign one to the
product) is done on the Neoflix administration side, so please advise
your CSR if you intend to create a hidden product.
b. In your store, click on the orange “Categories” button to select
“Private/Hidden” category.
c. Do the normal “Add Product” process, and wait for Neoflix to assign
the item code and load the password (if any)
d. Once assigned, you can test the feature by going to the product
listing in your admin console, find the new private product, and click
on the “Custom Cart Link” button which pops open a new window with an
URL string.  That’s the string you provide to the perspective buyer.

This feature enables you to recommend products in the checkout
process.  For example, if someone purchases a DVD, the cart can
display one additional page to recommend buying a soundtrack before
the check-out process is initiated.  To see this in action, please go
to the Neoflix demo store at www.neoflix.com/store/tes77.

To enable this functionality for your store, please log-in and click
to the “Marketing” page. Select the orange “Upsell” button.
a. The Activation check box enables the feature.
b. The first option is “Suggest Product - Specific Product” which will
suggest the same product in your store regardless of what they order.
c. The second option is “Suggest Product - Assigned” which allows you
to assign a particular product to another product. For example, if
someone buys a T-shirt, you can recommend they look at a hat; if they
purchase a DVD, recommend they look at soundtrack.

The largest film festival in the US, the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), opened yesterday with a gala featuring a showing of “In the Loop” and will continue through June 14^th.  This year’s anticipated SIFF movie highlights are “Nurse. Fighter. Boy”- the story of a young boy who finds inspiration from a boxer who has seen better days and brings him new love for his hardworking mother, “The Cove”- covering Japan’s dolphin trade, “Shrink”-  a Psychiatrist to the neurotic stars of Hollywood that needs a little bit of help himself and “Spring Breakdown”- geeky girls played by comedians Parker Posey, Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch go on the spring break trip they missed the first time around. Tickets are available, so if you are in the Seattle area make sure you stop by.  For ticketing information go to www.siff.net.
Don’t forget the Toronto International Film Festival submission deadline is coming up May 30^th- only next week!  To submit your film, go to http://www.torontointernationalfilmfestival.ca.  

Go here:  http://www.barcoding.com/upc/

to turn: “892391001007″ into a jpg image file to insert into your artwork.

For symbiology , select “UPC-A” for most US retailers.

We glad to be a sponsor of Filmmaker’s Alliance’s event.

Community Message starts here:

It starts with an idea…

Then, becomes a script…

Then, becomes a film…

Then, becomes a premiere…

Then, becomes….a LIFE!

 GET YOUR FILM PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED with this dynamic, all-inclusive filmmaking competition that will launch and/or establish your life as a filmmaker.

 The winning entrant will have their feature film produced and distributed and will receive a minimum $200,000 cash grant along with resources for a total value of more than $500,000.  And it doesn’t stop there.  The film will be distributed on multiple platforms simultaneously – theatrical, cable and online - for maximum global exposure.

• No full script necessary to submit
• Open to participants around the world (submissions must be in English)
• Must be minimum 18 years old

 Early Bird Submission Deadline: May 19, 2009 Fee: $50

 Regular Submission Deadline: June 19, 2009 Fee: $75

 (submission fees include 1 year  MovieMaker Magazine subscription and 1 year membership to Filmmakers Alliance Online)

 Go to: http://www.ultimatefilmmakercompetition.com for more details

(Note to reader: The downside of running two companies during a recession is that you get twice as many fires to put-out.  That has been the modus operandi for us since last fall.  There hasn’t been any extra time to contribute to this blog, and things were getting stale.  Two months ago, I asked our people to posts articles from the January newsletter to this blog.  It was a lesson in “beware what you ask for”.  There were several posts, mostly for the benefits of our clients, and probably made not much sense to the general public.  Those have since been removed, and we’ll do our best to blog open topics–recession or not.)

How has the recession affected DIY?  The most obvious change is decreased sales.  While the official government marker placed the recession start date began in December 2007, Neoflix clients in general did not see any adverse effect to sales during 2008.  In fact, the whole year, including the fourth quarter, was very strong despite the slate of poor news coming from Wall Street and the financial sector.  Then came January and February 2009; sales fell off a cliff.  The sales numbers per client, as well as the aggregate, were dismal.  There were some speculation that home video purchases may increase as people shifted discretionary spending from watching movies at the theater to watching movies at home.  Actually, movie rentals went way up (see Netflix’s FY results) and the numbers for ticket sales at the movie box office remained surprisingly strong (at least the blockbusters).  From our sales data, a discretionary shift–if there was any–did not benefit our indie films whether they were docs or not.  In March the numbers began to improve, but are still lower than what we projected at the end of 2008.  My guess is that we will see it bounce back after summer.  There are still some clients doing well, but those are the ones actively doing outreach.

Over the next a couple months, we’ll be able to track if the consumer sentiment improves as Magic Rock is launching a direct-to-consumer website at www.indierush.com (note: the website is still work in process as of today 10apr09).  We’re doing a test with an affiliate marketing company; the goal is to see 20 indie films + 300,000 hits = how many sales.  I’ll blog the results in a couple months…stay tuned.