Joke and Biagio

Caged on MTV – Behind the Scenes of Episode 1

Joke — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:52:45 +0000

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT — Episode 1 MTV Caged Details Dead Ahead!

Launching a New Show

Pilots or “episode ones” are always the hardest to produce.

You have to get through so much background information and exposition that it’s hard to move the story forward.

Even as an avid TV watcher, I will not judge new shows on first episodes, because they truly are the most scrutinized, the densest, and the hardest to produce.

A show should find its rhythm by episode three (at the latest) and so I usually either skip the first two, or stick it out with a new series until then.

Caged Episode One

That said, we are very proud of this first episode of MTVs Caged. We feel lucky to have discovered Minden and all the terrific kids in it. With so much solid material to choose from, we were able to get a lot of story into our first episode, keep things moving, and still have the exposition viewers need to understand the characters and world of Caged.

We were also lucky enough to have a network in MTV that allowed us to take our time fleshing out these characters.

If there is one thing we would do without, it’s the first 2 minutes – a voice-over driven opening that sets up the show’s premise.

It was a necessary evil. Our show moves at a slower pace, and together with the network we wanted to make sure our audience understood the premise quickly so they could watch the scenes that follow in the context of what mixed martial arts means to these kids.

We thought Wes and Red did a great job reading the voice over, but we’re happy that in subsequent episodes we do not have voice-overs and don’t rely on scripted “set up” to launch our story telling. (Again, a tribute to our execs at MTV.)

Meet the Kids on Caged

As for the rest of episode one, it’s an introduction to great characters.

Daniel

The way he opened up to us about Hannah, his girlfriend who passed away in a car accident, and the daily pull that loss still has on him, was stunning.

One of my favorite scenes of all time is the training moment in the garage with Daniel and Dane (Hannah’s brother) which we use as the exposition for the Hannah story line.

I also love how Daniel says he doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but rather under 10 sleeves. It’s such a guy thing.

Wes

Wes has sayings that will keep you going for days. “It’s hotter than a nanny goat in a pepper patch.” Can’t tell you how many times we’ve quoted it around the office and at home.

What I love about Wes is he is as real as they come (just look at this tweet … pretty much says it all.)

And he’s smart. Wicked smart. Never underestimate Wes. When you think he’s sitting there drinking, he’s thinking. I can’t wait for you to see the journey Wes goes on over this season.

He is as brutal and in-your-face as he is introspective and contemplative.

Red

Red’s line that tells me everything I need to know about her comes when, with Jaxon on her lap, she advises that people should get their career in order before having babies.

I can attest to how much she loves that kid more than life itself, and yet she is strong and honest enough to say that if she could have had Jaxon a few years later, it would have been better.

That takes tremendous courage and insight and I love her for it.

Her relationship with Wes over the course of the season should be studied in psychology classes everywhere as it is, at its core, such a great example of male-female expectations in relationships.

She’s gotten her nickname for a reason, and it’s not just the color of her hair. Getting her fiery personality in line with her goals is going to be an engaging struggle to watch.

Danger

Danger cracks me up every time I see the dinner conversation with his sister Bri (another favorite character you’ll get to know this season.)

I don’t think I’ve seen a grown man blush more at the sound of the word “nipple.” Seeing him at the gym scene you can tell he has the talent to be a great fighter (and he looks amazing!) and yet hearing his insecurity makes you want to hug the kid and take care of him.

More Great Characters to Come

We met so many terrific kids while we were in Minden, Louisiana, and you’ll get to know more of them, too, over the course of season one of Caged.

The insights they share can give us insights into ourselves.

I know I’ve learned a lot from watching our Caged cast take on life.

I hope you share the journey with us.

Caged, Mondays at 10/9c on MTV.

Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

Catch Caged Mondays 10pm/9 central on MTV.

MTV Caged: Sneak Peek of Episode One Tonight Cage fighter Wesley Branch featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List Caged: January 5th, 2012 We’re on a plane to Shreveport,...
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Making Caged for MTV: In The Beginning Our new show Caged officially premieres tonight at 10pm, 9 central on MTV. We’ve blogged about how the show idea...

Making Caged for MTV: In The Beginning

Joke — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:58:01 +0000

Our new show Caged officially premieres tonight at 10pm, 9 central on MTV.

We’ve blogged about how the show idea was brought to us and the process of getting the greenlight, and if you haven’t already, you can read all about the Caged cast and their backstories over at MTV, but for this post I’ll try and tell the story of how these wonderful people snuck inside my heart and have made a home there.

The Job

As a tv producer, my job is to think story, character, style. How do I engage the audience and tell each story the way it is meant to be told?

I remember googling Minden and Shreveport Louisiana. We were going out there to research Caged, find real people to follow, and we knew our pick-up of a pilot shoot was dependent on whether or not there were interesting young men and women to follow.

I love research and was getting as prepared as I could in the time we had. Experience has taught us that for this kind of show, we have to immerse ourselves into this new world and get to know every inch of it. As someone who loves travel and new experiences, I was so excited to take that plunge.

Hot Stuff

We arrived in Louisiana, where we were met by a heat I haven’t felt anywhere else. It wasn’t just hot (temperatures get to 115 degrees) it was the humidity that hit me first. When you walk outside, you walk into a wall of wetness and after just a few minutes it starts to feel like there is a heavy wet blanket on top of you. It feels oppressive in a way. They say things move slow in the south, that they have their own rhythm, but with that climate, how could you not?

But, since I’m one of those people who is always cold, I was excited to experience this Louisiana weather.

We ate at some real local joints, tried the region’s specialities, and one my all-time favs was a little BBQ joint in Minden that has since closed. I’ll always remember the proprietor threatening in jest to spank Biagio on the behind with a paddle if he didn’t finish his plate of food.

Of course I was excited to see Cracker Barrel and Sonic, two staples we don’t get in the LA area. (You should have seen how excited our office got when a Chik-fil-a opened up and we discovered a Buffallo Wild Wings nearby.)

But of course, the reason we love the show and why we hope you will love it too, is the people of Northwest Louisiana. Without any cameras, we met with these young men and women at their homes, we met them out for dinner, we went with them to their parties, talked till all hours in the morning and got to know them.

The hospitality with which we were welcomed was humbling. The wide-eyed excitement was energetic. The naiveté about our process refreshing. We were guests in a different world and it was inspiring.

Connecting

With each meeting our cast opened up more. We learned about Hannah in our third meeting with Daniel (an amazing story, stay tuned.)

Matt aka “Danger” started sharing some of his insecurities after a couple of meetings.

Wes & Red were as unfiltered then as they are now.

After every meeting we would talk amongst ourselves (Biagio, myself and our team of producers) and try to connect the dots, share what we each picked up at different points in the party/dinner.

We realized there were so many layers to this story and that MMA fighting was definitely just a back drop. An important backdrop that tied everything together, but one that was overshadowed by the stories of these amazing kids we were meeting.

Some struggles were common (college is not a guarantee or even expected choice for any of the twenty-somethings we met.)

They each have their own personal obstacles as well, from dealing with ADD, the loss of a loved one, teen pregnancy, expectations from family…the list goes on.

A Woman’s Perspective

As the only girl on the team at that time, it was hard to ignore these boys were good-looking, and the 15 year old in me was very charmed. I’ll always remember the first time Dane walked into the room. We had met Daniel, Danger, Wes, John-Wesley and a slew of other good looking guys and then Dane walked in. Biagio and I looked at each other and wondered if there was something in the drinking water. And to this day I think Red is one of the most beautiful girls we’ve ever put on film.

As TV producers finding real, honest characters is priority number one. Finding young adults who could express themselves and happen to be good looking at the same time was hitting the trifecta.

MTV Comes to Minden

When MTV flew into town and we introduced them to our potential cast, it couldn’t have gone better. We asked the cast to be open and honest, and they were. We knew in our heart and gut that these were kids in a forgotten part of the country, finding their own way without much guidance, but doing it with grace and determination. They succeed and fail on a daily basis, but they continuously grow as people. And that growth is the story we can all relate to or learn from.

Saying Goodbye

When we left Minden/Shreveport that first time, after only a week, I hated saying goodbye. We didn’t yet know whether MTV would send us back for a pilot or a series, and I felt I was leaving this story unfinished. I was saying goodbye to new friends. I told my parents that week that I left a piece of my heart there and they’ve had it ever since.

I hope Caged succeeds in letting you share our experience of meeting these amazing kids and getting to know them, and that maybe…just maybe…you’ll find yourself as invested in them as we are.

They are human and they make mistakes, they’ve made choices I probably wouldn’t have made, but their hearts are in the right place and they, just like all of us, are trying to find their place in the world.

My favorite moments in the bay are where I recognize myself or Biagio in one of the characters. Where I can see our cast is a micro reflection of the macro struggles we all deal with in life and in our relationships, and I can’t wait to share them with you in the weeks to come.

Caged premieres tonight at 10pm, 9 central on MTV.

Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

Catch Caged Mondays 10pm/9 central on MTV.

MTV Caged: Sneak Peek of Episode One Tonight Cage fighter Wesley Branch featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List Caged: January 5th, 2012 We’re on a plane to Shreveport,...
Caged on MTV – Behind the Scenes of Episode 1 WARNING: SPOILER ALERT — Episode 1 MTV Caged Details Dead Ahead! Launching a New Show Pilots or “episode ones” are...
MTV Caged Trailer: Official Preview Trailer for Caged on MTV Trailer for Caged on MTV MTVs Caged is our new TV show, and as you know from previous posts, this...

Sports Illustrated Compares CAGED to Friday Night Lights

Biagio — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:36:08 +0000

Sometimes, when you cry yourself to sleep, it’s because you’re happy.

From Sports Illustrated:

The wide variety of compelling backstories have to overlap in a town that makes Friday Night Lights’ fictional Dillon look big…None of the shows characters are perfect protagonists…They’re all real characters that can be easily related to…Caged definitely doesn’t follow the obviously stale recipe of The Ultimate Fighter….While The Ultimate Fighter searches for the next Forrest Griffin, Caged gives you a real-life Tim Riggins.

Remember what we said in this post? Sometimes talking crazy and dreaming big works out okay.

Read the full review at Sports Illustrated.

Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

Catch Caged Mondays 10pm/9 central on MTV.

MTV Caged: Sneak Peek of Episode One Tonight Cage fighter Wesley Branch featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List Caged: January 5th, 2012 We’re on a plane to Shreveport,...
Caged on MTV – Behind the Scenes of Episode 1 WARNING: SPOILER ALERT — Episode 1 MTV Caged Details Dead Ahead! Launching a New Show Pilots or “episode ones” are...
MTV Caged Trailer: Official Preview Trailer for Caged on MTV Trailer for Caged on MTV MTVs Caged is our new TV show, and as you know from previous posts, this...

Tae Kwon Do Champ Sabrina Schmeck Speaks Out About Caged on MTV

Biagio — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:52:42 +0000

As you know if you hang around this blog, several years of working to bring our new doc series Caged to MTV is about to kick off in a big way. Caged officially premieres this Monday night, Januaray 9th at 10pm, 9 central.

MTVs Caged is set in the world of mixed-martial arts, following the lives, loves, and struggles of the young men and women in and around the fight world.

Once the Caged trailer hit, we were excited to learn that Sabrina Schmeck, Tae Kwon Do Champ and blogger had picked up on the show, and had some strong opinions about it.

Sabrina, who can be found on twitter @RYUapparel kindly allowed us to reprint some of her email correspondence here:

From Sabrina Schmeck

I saw a promo video for CAGED about two weeks ago and was really impressed.

As a pig-tailed and bratty four year old, I began developing a love for mixed martial arts when my dad would rent old Pride/etc fights on VHS and we’d watch them all weekend.

At the risk of sounding heinously corny, it was love at first strike.

Martial arts, mixed martial arts and combat athletics are truly my passion, and to see a thoughtful and well-made documentary television show on a major media channel that shows the ins and outs of martial arts/fighting/etc — that’s honestly just mind-blowing and wonderful to me.

I am so very pleased that this sport is hitting the mainstream in a big way — as so many talented athletes have sacrificed so much to even scrape by simply to do something that they love and feel called toward.

Thank you so much for really fighting to get CAGED on air (pun intended) — the airing of this documentary series could have serious implications for the world of mixed martial arts, in a good way.

There is a side — a human struggle — that so many don’t understand or get to see — and I think this show will be an excellent way to really expose mainstream audiences to the struggles and sacrifices that these athletes and their loved ones undergo in the pursuit of excellence/success.

Honored…

…to receive such an email, and hope this season of Caged really delivers for Sabrina, and you, too! Catch the full first episode of CAGED tonight at midnight on MTV after the Jersey Shore premiere, and then when it officially launches, Monday, January 9th at 10pm 9central on MTV.

Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

Catch Caged Mondays 10pm/9 central on MTV.

MTV Caged Trailer: Official Preview Trailer for Caged on MTV Trailer for Caged on MTV MTVs Caged is our new TV show, and as you know from previous posts, this...
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MTV’s Caged: Our New Series on MTV Caged on MTV is our new TV series. We're very proud of it....

MTV Caged: Sneak Peek of Episode One Tonight

Joke — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:14:15 +0000

Cage fighter Wesley Branch featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List

Caged: January 5th, 2012

We’re on a plane to Shreveport, Louisiana. Tonight we get to share a few of the upcoming episodes of MTVs Caged with our main cast members and tomorrow we will throw a private screening/party for them, their friends and the community that welcomed us.

It’s a privilege and an honor – thanks MTV – that we get to do this.

Can’t wait to hear their reactions.
Can’t wait to see their faces.
Can’t wait to give them this moment.

See Episode One of Caged Tonight

TONIGHT is the sneak peek of our show after the JERSEY SHORE premiere. 12 midnight EST/PST, 11pm CST on MTV.

Tomorrow…

…their lives will not be what they are today.

Tonight they’re our kids. Tomorrow they are your TV stars. Treat them well, world, they deserve it.

Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

Catch Caged Mondays 10pm/9 central on MTV.

Tae Kwon Do Champ Sabrina Schmeck Speaks Out About Caged on MTV As you know if you hang around this blog, several years of working to bring our new doc series Caged...
Caged on MTV – Behind the Scenes of Episode 1 WARNING: SPOILER ALERT — Episode 1 MTV Caged Details Dead Ahead! Launching a New Show Pilots or “episode ones” are...
MTV Caged Trailer: Official Preview Trailer for Caged on MTV Trailer for Caged on MTV MTVs Caged is our new TV show, and as you know from previous posts, this...

MTV Caged Trailer: Official Preview Trailer for Caged on MTV

Biagio — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:53:40 +0000

Trailer for Caged on MTV

MTVs Caged is our new TV show, and as you know from previous posts, this one is truly close to our hearts. As executive producers, co-creators, and hands-on creatives we feel this is our finest work to date.

Have a look and see why the kids on CAGED have won our hearts:

(embedded from MTV, so please give it a second to load.)

MTV Shows

Be sure to follow our official Joke and Biagio CAGED Twitter feed for live tweets during episodes and behind-the-scenes scoop: @JNB_MTV_Caged

Catch Caged Mondays 10pm/9 central on MTV.

MTVs Caged: Official Joke and Biagio Twitter Feed… Caged on MTV is our new TV show, an unscripted series following amateur mixed-martial arts fighters in small town Louisiana....
MTV Caged: Sneak Peek of Episode One Tonight Cage fighter Wesley Branch featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List Caged: January 5th, 2012 We’re on a plane to Shreveport,...
Tae Kwon Do Champ Sabrina Schmeck Speaks Out About Caged on MTV As you know if you hang around this blog, several years of working to bring our new doc series Caged...

MTVs Caged: Official Joke and Biagio Twitter Feed…

Biagio — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:59:34 +0000

Caged on MTV is our new TV show, an unscripted series following amateur mixed-martial arts fighters in small town Louisiana.

The show is very close to our hearts (as you can read in Joke’s very personal journal entry about Caged, and we believe it to be the finest TV we’ve made to date.

We Love Twitter

You know we love Twitter (afer all, we oversee a bunch of accounts: @JNBIndie for indie film news, @JNBDocs for documentary tweets, @JNBCrowdfund for crowdfunding tips and tricks, and of course, our main twitter account, @JokeAndBiagio.)

Why so many? We don’t want to blast people with tweets they don’t care about, so we try to keep our Twitter streams specific and helpful.

Inside MTVs CAGED on Twitter

We have SO much to say about our new show (here’s the official MTV page) that we decided to start a separate Twitter account for it, so those of you who want to get inside scoop, behind the scenes comments, and live-tweets during the episodes can follow along, and those of you who don’t want quite so much Caged news will only see occasional tweets about it on our standard twitter account.

You can follow all the action here: @JNB_MTV_Caged

Hope to be tweeting with you soon!

Caged premieres Monday, January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV. Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

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MTVs Caged: May I never Forget This Feeling by Joke Fincioen

Biagio — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:58:26 +0000

Biagio: Today, Variety broke the news that our new show CAGED will premiere on January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV.

We love this show. We feel it’s the very best television we’ve ever made.

Joke, my wife and business partner, shared this journal entry with me, and I was so moved I asked her if I could share it with you. After thinking about it for a while, she gave me the go ahead.

Far more than “just another TV show” for the two of us, CAGED represents everything we ever hoped to accomplish in unscripted television.

I hope her words will touch you as they did me.

Joke’s Journal Entry

May I never forget this feeling. May I never lose this moment.

As a storyteller, one of the biggest challenges I encounter on each journey is the one of letting go, of letting that story find a life of its own out in the world.

I’ve not had the privilege of raising a child, but I guess what I feel at those moments is in its own tiny way similar to when parents send their children off to college and find themselves hoping they’ve done their job well enough.

But today everything is still pure with this story. Right now is the moment I live for, the moment when the pieces come together and the sum is greater than its parts.

For two years now my husband and I have nurtured this story called Caged.

It’s been a team effort getting it sold, shot and assembled, yet in some ways it’s all mine, or rather I’m its. From the moment I met the incredible people who live this story every day, they claimed a piece of my heart. It’s theirs. It’s like a little ember, always glowing, and when I pay it some attention it grows and warms my entire heart and soul.

I know I’m blessed, lucky, fortunate–whatever you want to call it–I know this is special.

We’ve had passion for all the stories we’ve told over the years, but this one is different, this one locked me in from the word go, and it is as if it is driving me more than I’m driving it.

So I want to make sure I remember right now. This moment of pride, this moment of completeness, this moment of purity.

Before the critics judge, which they will carefully or quickly, before the audiences decide our fate, which they will with their thumbs on the remote, and before the people at the heart of this story become public figures, which some will do with grace while others stumble.

Before this story takes flight and finds a life of its own, at this moment, it’s still mine.

At this moment, I can protect it, treasure it and love it as it’s supposed to be.

No matter what happens, whether it becomes a hit or ends up being another great story you never saw, may I never forget this feeling, may I never lose this moment.

Joke Fincioen
11/29/11

Caged premieres Monday, January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV. Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

MTVs Caged: Official Joke and Biagio Twitter Feed… Caged on MTV is our new TV show, an unscripted series following amateur mixed-martial arts fighters in small town Louisiana....
MTV Caged Trailer: Official Preview Trailer for Caged on MTV Trailer for Caged on MTV MTVs Caged is our new TV show, and as you know from previous posts, this...
MTV Caged: Sneak Peek of Episode One Tonight Cage fighter Wesley Branch featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List Caged: January 5th, 2012 We’re on a plane to Shreveport,...

Featured Kickstarter Project: Bloodsworth from Gregory Bayne

Biagio — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:54:09 +0000

We’re knee deep in post-production duties on our new show MTV’s CAGED, but had to take a quick moment to share a terrific Kickstarter project we recently backed from Gregory Bayne.

It’s called Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man and chronicles the story of the first person on death row cleared by DNA evidence. Here’s some video from the campaign:

We proudly pledged our support, and hope you will help Gregory out as well. He’s a great documentarian (learn more at his site This Lovely Machine) and with your help he’ll reach his $25,000 goal by December 5th…just a few days away!

Pledge your support and spread the word at the Bloodsworth Kickstarter page.

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Steal This Editing Secret to Edit Film and Video Like a Pro

Biagio — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:18:34 +0000

Editing: The Dark Art

For some, editing film and video comes easy, naturally, as if the editing gods possess their mouse clicks and control their keyboard shortcuts to magically whittle hundreds of hours of footage down into mere minutes of genius.

Then, there’s the rest of us.

You might already be a great editor. Yes? Then you should be soooo happy for you.

If not, maybe you have a best friend or romantic counterpart who is an editing genius and will gladly toil for hours on your passion project or pitch tape idea.

Or, maybe you’re flush with cash and can spend $100 to $300 an hour on a great editor who will polish your project to a sheen.

None of those things true for you?

Then you’ll be editing your project yourself. Daunting, given this simple truth:

Most People Edit Lousy Tapes

And by lousy, we mean most people who attempt to edit their own projects fail miserably.

All caffeined-up, they hop into iMovie, start hacking and stitching scenes together, use cornball transitions, even cornier music, then add graphics that look like they didn’t quite make the cut on the local cable access channel.

Please don’t use stock templates like the one above (Skyline Open.HD from Final Cut Pro) for your titles and graphics in anything you ever make. Your tape will look like dozens of others.

Worse, it will feel cheap, generic, and fail the Hollywood sniff test.

And by the way, if you’re going to use a scene transition other than a straight cut, please have a damn good reason to do so.

Do you honestly think James Cameron ever said, “You know, this scene could really use a checkerboard wipe…”

You will never make these mistakes. In fact, you’re about to become a better editor than more than 90% of your competition by following this…

Super Secret Editing Trick

It’s not a hard trick, in fact, this trick is based on something you did in pre-school.

Ahh, kindergarten. Tracing pictures while kids pronounced my name “Bingo” or “Bozo”–good times.

Remember tracing? When you’d put a piece of thin paper on top of a picture you wanted to draw and then trace it?

Same principle here:

Find a perfect example of the kind of piece you’re editing, and copy it, frame for frame — but replace their footage, music, and graphics with your own.

In other words, use the great video you’ve found as an exact template for your project.

Kind of like using those awful templates everyone else is using in iMovie, except your template will be of a much higher caliber.

Unlike those goofy packages aimed more at corporate videos than indie filmmakers, these “template videos” you’ve chosen by hand will make your pitch tape feel like a real, Hollywood-worthy project.

Isn’t that stealing?

Nope.

Here’s why: by the time you finish, your project will look nothing like the one that inspired you. In fact, you’ll find you can’t make a “perfect” copy of your template video while editing your unique idea no matter how hard you try to force it.

Your music will have a different timing. Your footage will call for longer or shorter cuts. Plus, you’ll come up with new ideas for your edit along the way that will morph your piece into something totally different.

The great thing is that those new choices you make will come from an educated place — knowledge you’ve earned by studying, dissecting, and mimicking a great reference video.

What you’re really doing here is learning the editing language that works for the kind of piece you’re creating.

Example: Movie Trailer

Cutting a movie trailer for your indie horror film? You could do a lot worse than mimicking this trailer from The Exorcism of Emily Rose:

Count the number of frames between cuts. How long do the different shots last for? Are some longer than others? Why?

Notice how sound effects and overall sound design play a huge role?

Transitions? Simple cuts, dissolves, and some fades to black or to white.

And how about the trailer’s graphics? Other than the subtle black rays, the title cards are basically a black serif font similar to Times New Roman on a white background.

When you think about it, most movie trailer graphics and title cards are actually pretty simple, right?

A movie trailer text card is much more likely to look like this:

Than this:

Why do people insist graphics like the red and green mess above feel cinematic? About 10 million filmmakers on Youtube seem to think so.

Yet this is exactly the kind of over-the-top, silly graphic we see again and again in tapes that get pitched to us (most often with great pride!)

Example: Reality TV Pitch

Getting ready to pitch us your reality TV idea or documentary series? No idea how to make a tape to sell your show?

Start by figuring out what television network might buy your show. (You ARE doing your homework and watching shows on television, right?) For instance, is your idea something that might feel like Pawn Stars on History Channel?

Then…what about choosing a reference video like this series teaser for Pawn Stars on History Channel:

Even if your editing skills are at the hobbyist level, there’s not much in the above tape you couldn’t pull off yourself as long as you take your time and make sure you get it right.

Look at how pacing, music, and voice over give the viewer an understanding of what the characters who run the Pawn Shop are like, how they’re related to each other, and the kind of drama you might expect to see from week to week.

How are sound effects used? Why are there “whooshes” on certain camera moves?

Is the person talking always the person you see on screen?

What’s the mix of footage? (There’s scenes, interview bites, and even some stylized b-roll and hero shots edited together in there, right?)

As for graphics, other than the 3d Pawn Stars logo (which the tape doesn’t need to prove this is going to be a fun show) the graphics are minimal.

So, let’s say you happened to find a family that hunts Alligators in the south and want to edit a tape about them to try to sell to History channel. Just start sliding your family of gator hunters footage in to the Pawn Stars framework. Use different, appropriate music, and you’ll be off to a great start.

Make an Editing Swipe File

Copywriters do this ALL THE TIME.

A “swipe file” in copywriting terms is a collection of articles and headlines marketing mavericks look to for inspiration.

(For more on this and al things copywriting, go live with Brian Clark at Copyblogger for a good, long time. Copyblogger may be our favorite blog ever.)

Same principle applies to your editing. Before you snuggle up to your Final Cut Pro bay to make your new TV show pitch, movie trailer, action scene, romantic comedy or entire documentary, put together your editing swipe file. Collect ten, twenty, thirty examples of edited trailers, scenes, or videos you’d like your project to feel like.

Then pick just one and mimic it exactly.

Some Crusty Old Hollywood Advice

A crusty old producer once told us that another crusty old filmmaker had passed on this advice, which he supposedly heard from a really, really crusty marketing man years and years ago:

If you’re gonna steal, steal from the best.

So go find the very best example of what you’re trying to accomplish on YouTube, mimic it, and then improve on it.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think? Gonna build your own editing swipe file? Too offended by the idea to even try? Have your own editing tricks to share? Lay it on us in the comments below.

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Confession: Why Have We Been In Hiding?

Biagio — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:48:48 +0000

Miss You!

Twitter. Facebook. Google+.

We love connecting with you.

But sometimes…we drop off the map.

Lately, we’ve disappeared into the black hole that is full time Hollywood, and you haven’t heard from us (except those of you getting our newsletter. We’ve been seeing you a lot!)

Know that even when we’re away, we’re thinking of you.

We’re forever committed to helping you live your showbiz dreams, whatever they may be. Nothing gives us greater pride than helping launch a new career.

Hopefully, you’re next.

Where have we been hiding?

Airplanes, edit bays, screenings of Dying to do Letterman, the sets of our current TV shows and pilots…and meeting many of you!

In other words, in filmmaker heaven.

Meeting You

Many of you have filled out our submission form and sent in reality TV show and documentary series pitches. How are the ideas? So far, every one of them has been pitched passionately, and that makes us happy.

Making film & TV is not for people without passion.

We’re responding as fast as we can, but have many more to get to.

Sent us an idea and haven’t heard from us yet? Hang in there…we will get back to you.

Those of you already getting our newsletter know we’ve been sharing all of our tips and secrets on making pitch tapes to sell your shows. Hope you’re enjoying them!

Not on the newsletter? What are you waiting for? Sign up now:

Dying to do Letterman

So many of you were a huge part of our successful Kickstarter campaign, and we can’t wait to get you all your goodies.

(For those that missed the campaign, we’ve also been very quietly running an IndieGoGo page where you can still pledge, get your copy of the movie, and some other goodies unique to the new IndieGoGo campaign.)

In addition to playing three festivals this month, winning Best Documentary Film at Clint Eastwood’s famed Carmel Film and Art Festival Friday night, and appearing on Carson Daly and Gayle King, and in numerous press articles, we have some exciting info coming soon about our official release date.

We’ll then announce when we’re allowed to send out your copy of the movie and other Kickstarter rewards.

Commercial Kings

Coming off of Commercial Kings was incredibly rewarding. Rhett and Link are great guys. Besides, what film geeks (like us) wouldn’t want to make a TV show about the filmmaking process? Season 1 is finally wrapped.

Fingers crossed for season 2.

Caged

Wow.

Sometimes, you just get lucky.

Our new show. Caged on MTV.

Wow. (Yeah, that was a double “wow.”)

Just want you to know…it’s some of the greatest real-life story we’ve ever had the privilege of capturing.

Well into our six month shoot in Minden, Louisiana.

Can’t wait for you to see it in 2012.

It’s going to be awesome.

Hope to Connect with You Soon

Even when we’re swamped, we love to keep in touch with you. If you like our blog, get our newsletter.

And reply to those newsletters we send. Seriously. Even if we can’t respond right away, know that we’re reading all your emails, and will write back when we can.

Hit us up on Twitter and Facebook, too.

What can we do for you? Burning question about the business? Blog post you’d like to see? Resource you think we should know about? Leave us a comment below!

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Filmmaking Success: Do You Have This Secret Weapon?

Biagio — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:29:28 +0000

What’s it take to make it in Hollywood?

A question we get nine times a day.

Turns out, the answer may lie in a post from Zen Master, psychotherapist, and Karate black-belt Mary Jaksch.

There is DEFINITELY Something About Mary…

We discovered Mary when we joined the A-List Blogger Club (yes, that’s a rare affiliate link we’re proudly promoting…check it out.)

She’s a firecracker of a woman, and if we had half her energy we’d own Hollywood by now.

While we were exploring her blog Goodlife Zen (one of many fueled by her writing) we found a mysterious post on developing a crucial ability you better have if you want to succeed in Hollywood.

What is it?

The ability to be productive.

Every Business is a Numbers Game

Think about it: sales men knock on a lot of doors to sell a vacuum cleaner.

Hollywood is no different. You have to pitch a lot of great projects to get just one of them off the ground (and yes, they ALL have to be great. Pitch a lousy project and you won’t be invited back for a second round.)

Planing to sell your one big idea to Hollywood and get rich?

It’s time for a new plan.

Only by consistently pitching high quality projects in great numbers can you begin to hope for Hollywood success.

In short, you have to be…

Productive Like a Ninja

Check out Mary’s post Zen and the Art of Ninja Productivity to find out:

how to stop self-doubts from killing your productivity
why everyone procrastinates – and why that’s okay
what an elastic wristband has to do with all of it

You’ll then be far more productive and ready to pitch a TV show to the two of us.

That’s right…pitch us a TV show. Get the newsletter to find out how:

What do you think? Did you like Mary’s post as much as we did? What are your Ninja productivity secrets? Let us know in the comments.

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We Want to Make a TV Show with You

Biagio — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:32:02 +0000

Our agents said “you’re crazy.”

Friends said, “don’t do it.”

The lawyer said, “I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you must…”

Well, We Must…

When we wanted to break in to Hollywood, no one would take our calls. We had:

great video pitches
unique ideas
the determination to succeed

It wasn’t enough. We still needed to convince production companies to meet with us and consider teaming up.

For most aspiring filmmakers and TV producers today, that’s still the case. People won’t take your calls.

Starting Now, We’re Taking Your Calls

We’ve decided to try an experiment.

If you have:

A terrific idea for a documentary series or reality TV show
Some preliminary video shot featuring interesting characters or proving unique access to an exciting world
A succinct write-up describing the show…

We will make ourselves available to hear your pitch.

Depending on your level of experience and skill set, and if we think we can help you sell the series, we will team up with you to try to produce your show.

You’ll get:

A producer credit
Paid to do real work on the show
Or paid a small finders fee per episode if you are unable to work on the show.

The Catch?

There’s a few catches, but we think you’ll find them perfectly acceptable…we did, because we went through the same things when we broke in.

You have to have a great write-up and at least some kind of tape before we can begin a conversation. An idea alone is NOT enough.
You have to sign a submission agreement
You have to be aware that we’re already developing many, many projects and may have something similar in development already.

Finally, you have to join our brand new mailing list. We’ll be sending you:

Tips, tricks, and ideas on building your career in both film and TV — useful whether or not you want to pitch to us
Immediate news about the kinds of shows we’re looking for at any given time…so you’ll instantly know if we catch wind of a network looking for a certain kind of character or show.

Much more to come on this topic. Hope we get to work together soon!

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Billy Club from Producer Rex Sikes

Biagio — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:30:05 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

So far we’ve given back some free motion graphics a tip on getting more FB likes for your own Kickstarter projects, and this post with the best blog posts we found, helping us earn $20,000 in just 48 hours, a benefit screening for Team Lucy, some behind the scenes drama as we decided to change our Kickstarter video, and our piece Facebook Ads for Filmmakers.

Today, we want to give back with some specific support for another Kickstarter project the community should know about.

Billy Club

It’s pitched as:

“a psychological thriller following in the footsteps of Halloween, Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre…”

What’s not to love?

Produced by Rex Sikes

Produced by internet film radio sensation Rex Sikes (be sure to catch his show Thursday) the kickstater video features a fun group of guys with a great sense of humor…and a “bloody good” ending.

As of this writing, they are only a few hundred dollars away, so help them get there if you an.

Learn more at the Billy Club kickstarter page.

Are We Crazy?

Some people have said it’s just plain dumb to spotlight another Kickstarter campaign while we’re in the middle of our own.

But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to indie production, we’re all in this together.

When Rex and the Billy Club gang succeeds (and we believe he will) it’s a win for indies everywhere.

Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Streamin’ Garage By now, you’ve heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here....
Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Down and Dangerous from Zak Forsman By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...
Easily Promote Your Kickstarter Project in the Real World with Redirects By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...

Betting On Doc from Julie Keck, Jessica King, & Chris Grimes

Biagio — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:20:39 +0000

Twitter faves Julie Keck and Jessica King have teamed up with Chris Grimes of 5414 Productions on ‘A Second Knock At The Door‘ which premieres August 26 at the 2011 Vegas Cine Fest.

The trailer for the doc is compelling and emotional, highlighting the centuries-old issue of “friendly fire.” From the filmmakers:

‘Friendly fire’ is defined as “the discharge of a weapon which results in death or injury among fellow soldiers or allies.” It’s accepted as an unavoidable consequence by most in military circles but can lead to great heartbreak for families of the fallen, especially when the truth about their loved ones’ deaths is obscured by the very institutions their sons/daughters/fathers/mothers/husbands/wives gave their lives for.

Beautiful work Chirs, Julie, and Jessica!

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Kickstarter Success: Tips and Tricks to Launch Your Kickstarter Campaign

Biagio — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:50:47 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Your Kickstarter Campaign

We wanted to collect all the tips, tricks, and resources we’ve put together for you over the first two-thirds of our Kickstarter campaign into one easy to access page.

(We were able to raise over $20,000 in the first 48 hours, broke our goal in just five days and five hours, and are still raising money for our Indie Oscar® Campaign as we speak.)

We’ll add to these over time. Hope these Kickstarter tips and tricks help you raise thousands of dollars for your passion project.

More Facebook Likes and Tweets on Your Campaign

We believe this little tip helped us get 1,810 likes on our Kickstarter campaign…and growing.

Easily Promote Your Kickstarter Project in the Real World

What happens when you want to tell people outside of cyberspace to visit your Kickstarter campaign? Are you really going to give them a link that looks like this:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jokeandbiagio/dying-to-do-letterman-kickstarter-for-an-oscar-and

Try spelling that out for someone! Use this tip to make it far easier to raise money in the real world:

Easily promote your Kickstarter Project in the Real World with Redirects.

Facebook Ads for Filmmakers

Here are the real numbers, facts and figures, dollars and cents, on how our Facebook ads for Filmmakers experiment went.

Better Video Updates

Check out this super-duper top secret tip to make your web videos of any kind shine: How to Fake a Multi-Cam Shoot with Just One Camera.

14 Blog Posts That Helped Us Launch Our Kickstarter Campaign

Raising $20,000 in just 48 hours still has us in shock. How’d we do it? Well, listening to what the good people who wrote these blog posts had to say really helped.

Blog posts that helped us launch our Kickstarter campaign.

Free Graphics for Your Kickstarter Campaign

We made some Kickstarter graphics, along with downloadable Photoshop files, After Effects files, and a tutorial. Here’s the video, and you can download all the supprting files on this post from our Dying to do Letterman Kickstarter campaign.

Supporting files available here.

How to Raise More than Your Kickstarter Goal

Stop raising money once you hit your goal? Of course not!

Right now, we’re 130% funded with two weeks to go, and we believe that’s because we took the time to explain to our audience why we were still raising money. Three reasons we changed our Kickstarter video.

Good Luck!

Hope these resources help you achieve great success on your own Kickstarter campaign. More questions, comments, or resouces we should know about?

Laughing for a Good Cause

Biagio — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:16:34 +0000

A few weeks ago we told you about the wonderful message we received from Team Lucy, a cause put together by a family whose daughter is suffering from Leukemia.

We’re proud to let you know today we’re putting up a benefit screening of Dying to do Letterman, with all proceeds going to Team Lucy.

We hope we can continue to give back with the movie, and that Steve’s story can inspire a few people along the way.

Thanks to all of you who have been supporting us…we plan to keep paying it forward.

Best,

Joke and Biagio

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Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Down and Dangerous from Zak Forsman By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...

How to Get a Book Deal for Your Movie…

Biagio — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:31:16 +0000

The Story of How it Happened for Us

We know exactly how the book deal came about…but first, let’s back up a step…

Big News

Dying to do Letterman has received a book deal. Steve Mazan, subject of the documentary, is the author, and it will be available in October from HCI, Inc — the original publishers of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.

Trailer for the Book

One of the first things we had to do was create a video for the book (look for an upcoming post about the process of shooting it on the Sony NEX-5.)

Luckily, we were able to pull from both the movie itself, our festival screenings, and past videos for inspiration:

Inspirational Storytelling

Many of you have seen or met Steve…so you know what a great storyteller he is, and of course, you already know what an inspirational life he’s lead.

The book is a re-telling of his five year journey to live his Letterman dream, and goes into detail about how he turned bad news into great success, and how it affected his life, relationships, family, and dream to perform on Letterman.

Great Publisher

We’re so proud that “Dying to do Letterman — Turning Someday into Today” is being published by HCI, Inc. — the original publishers of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. Clearly, they know an inspirational story when the see it — and we’re so happy they’ve tapped Steve to write his book.

Also true: the book editor was so inspired after reading the first draft, she quit her job to chase her own dream! (Not just a joke in the video!)

Clearly, Steve’s writing has great effect on people.

How it Happened…

We believe the book deal is a direct result of word of mouth, generated by social media. And by social…we mean “social.” You know by now we (the two of us, Steve, his wife Denise, and our friends) haven’t been shy about telling everyone we know about Steve’s story and the movie.

And we do mean everyone.

Email blasts, tweets, Facebook posts…hopefully not to the point of being obnoxious, but certainly at the high end of “persistence.”

Someone who knew Steve happened to be doing stand-up comedy at an event where the owner of HCI Books, Inc. was speaking. Having heard (on several occasions) about Steve’s story, he decided to tell the man.

Now we have a book deal.

How to Get the Book?

Pre-orders are available right now at BN.com and Amazon.com.

If you’d like an autographed first edition of the book, swing by the announcement on our Kickstarter page where we have a package that includes

an autographed book (personalized to you by Steve)
a DVD of the movie
a tee-shirt
CD of all the jokes Steve sent to Letterman while trying to get on the show
and an “I’m Dying To…” button hand written by Steve.

You can get yours here.

BTW, if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out our Indie Oscar® Campaign. Thanks!

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Karen Everett Knows How To Improve Your Documentary

Biagio — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 20:08:25 +0000

Karen Everett keeps a fascinating site called New Doc Editing. At first glance you might think it’s just a promotional site to sell her (highly rated) services, but that would be a huge mistake.

Tons of Free Tips

Karen has dedicated herself to the study of story-telling in documentaries, and puts out tons of great, free, useful information week after week in her newsletter (I read every issue) much of which is also on Karen’s blog. Recent topics include:

How to Conduct Documentary Interviews
Cut Your Documentary Until it Bleeds
Leveraging the ‘Big Bash’ Climax

While she does offer many interesting paid courses on documentary structure — both live classes and downloadable videos — Karen Everett does what any great teacher should: she gives away valuable information to those who are just discovering New Doc Editing.

Terrific Resource

When brainstorming for every new show and project we undertake, we have our “go to” list of references to help us consider our potential story structure from every possible angle. Karen’s work has become a valuable reference right up there with that of Robert McKee, Christopher Vogler, and Blake Edwards.

Thinking of making a documentary?

Be sure to check out Karen’s site, New Doc Editing.

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Easily Promote Your Kickstarter Project in the Real World with Redirects

Biagio — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:43:07 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Today, we want to give back a super-secret tip to help you campaign in “the real world” and not just cyberspace.

Ugly Links!

When you’re tweeting or Facebooking your kickstarter link, it’s easy to copy this strange-looking code from Kickstarter and share it:

http://kck.st/r7rDZP

Try telling your friends to go there.

“Yeah, you want to hit HTTP colon forward slash forward slash K-C-K dot S-T forward slash R-7-R-D-Z-P. Did you get that?”

Time to Re-Direct!

Much easier to say:

“Just go to DyingToDoLetterman.com forward slash FUND.”

Try it, see what happens:
http://www.dyingtodoletterman.com/fund

How’d We Do That?

You can google and find all kinds of ways to set up simple re-directs of web pages. Since we’re on wordpress, we used the Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin.

Couldn’t be simpler:

Create your page called “fund”
Check “Make re-direct active”
Check “Add rel=\”nofollow\”
Enter your FULL Kickstarter link (not the short link) in the box the plugin adds.
Select 302 Temporary for Type of Redirect. Done!

Promote It Everywhere!

Now we’ll be handing out flyers at all of our screenings that say:

Visit http://www.DyingToDoLetterman.com/fund Easy real world promotion of your Kickstarter Campaign!

Added Bonus…

It’s a redirect. You can change the link it points to at any time. So by promoting this link everywhere, when your campagin is over, you can just point the page to a new funding page. IndieGoGo, GoFundMe, PayPal, whatever. If people try the link long after your campaign is over, they can still fund you. Cool, right?

Hope your found this helpful…

Please help us by pledging to our Indie Oscar® Campaign, and sharing this link with all your friends:

http://www.DyingToDoLetterman.com/fund

Thanks!
Joke and Biagio

Kickstarter Success: Tips and Tricks to Launch Your Kickstarter Campaign By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...
Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Billy Club from Producer Rex Sikes By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...
Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Down and Dangerous from Zak Forsman By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...

Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Down and Dangerous from Zak Forsman

Biagio — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:33:24 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Today, we want to give back with some specific support for another Kickstarter project the community should know about.

Down and Dangerous

“A smuggler bleeds like anyone else. He just gets more chances to prove it.”
–awesome line from Down and Dangerous kickstarter video.

Zak Forsman is making a very personal movie about his dad–who was a COCAINE SMUGGLER! Seriously. That’s one way to get our attention!

Kudos, Zak, for being honest about the subject matter and embracing it instead of hiding from it.

A fellow Raiders of the Lost Ark fan, Zak explains that his dad…

“…explained to me at a young age what a director was. He sat me down in front of classics like Casablanca and Beau Geste and shortly thereafter he and my mother put a videocamera in my hands. Flash forward many years later, my father has since passed, but his influence is as strong as ever. Maybe stronger.”

As for his dad’s line of work, Zak says…

“My dad had a brief career in the cocaine trade as an independent smuggler. And what made him unique were the creative methods he used to pull off a dozen scams from South America that were so ingenious that the person carrying the load always had an out – they could walk away free and clear if the cocaine was discovered at Customs. He was uniquely principled for this line of work and always put people first. While Down and Dangerous is not an adaptation, it’s his adventures and life lessons that serve as the spirit and creative spark behind this new movie.”

Zak Used Our Free Graphics

Zak also took advantage of the free graphics we gave away from our kickstarter campaign (still active — please pledge if you haven’t.)

You can see them used in the video below for Zak’s Kickstarter campaign:

You can watch a whole tutorial and download the free graphics files Zak uses in the video here.

Are We Crazy?

Some people have said it’s just plain dumb to spotlight another Kickstarter campaign while we’re in the middle of our own.

But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to indie production, we’re all in this together.

When Zak succeeds (and we believe he will) it’s a win for indies everywhere.

So have a look at the campaign for Down and Dangerous, and support Zak Forsman — a true indie.

Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Billy Club from Producer Rex Sikes By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...
Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Streamin’ Garage By now, you’ve heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here....
Easily Promote Your Kickstarter Project in the Real World with Redirects By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more...

Facebook Ads For Filmmakers

Biagio — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:31:37 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

So far we’ve given back some free motion graphics a tip on getting more FB likes for your own Kickstarter projects, and this post with the best blog posts we found, helping us earn $20,000 in just 48 hours, a benefit screening for Team Lucy, and some behind the scenes drama as we decided to change our Kickstarter video.

Facebook Ads For Filmmakers

Today, we wanted to share an experiment we tried using Facebook ads to help promote our Kickstarter campaign.

How’s it working? Will we use it again? Should you consider Facebook Ads?

Why Facebook Ads?

We decided to try Facebook Ads because it was so easy to reach out to our target audience.

Also, with Facebook Ads you can pay per click, not just per impression.

So we figured that even if many people never clicked on the ad, Steve’s face would be burning a hole somewhere in their subconscious.

Using this targeting criteria:

Facebook users who…

live in the United States
are age 25 and older
like documentaries, documentary, independent films or indie films

This ad targets 196,900 potential Facebook users.

Bidding for Clicks

Facebook gives you a suggested amount you should bid for clicks (they also state that you’ll likely pay less than what you bid, which turned out to be true for us.)

We went with the lowest suggested bid, which we presume means that if we’re competing with someone for ad space in a similar category, they’ll get the space instead of us if they’ve bid more.

We ended up bidding $1.42 per click, but the average we’ve been charged per click is $1.27.

Daily Budget

You set a budget for how much you’d like to spend so you don’t suddenly owe Facebook thousands of dollars.

We chose $10 per day beginning the first week of our Kickstarter campaign.

Results?

Here’s where we’re at after 26 days of running the ad:

Unique Individuals Reached: 32,835
Number of impressions: 370,397
Number of Clicks: 60
Amount Spent: $76.05

We don’t have a way to know if those who’ve clicked have actually contributed to the campaign (if we were sending them to our website we could use Google analytics to figure out how many clicks turned into sales.)

That said, popping up Steve’s face over 370,000 times to over 30,000 people for around $75 seems pretty reasonable to us.

Granted, not everyone sees those ads (Joke keeps her browser small so she doesn’t have to look at Facebook ads, for instance.)

But as indie marketing goes, we’ve spent more on flyers that are hitting less targeted audiences than these Facebook ads.

Will We Use Facebook Ads Again?

Yes.

We’re looking at targeting specific cities and geographic locations through Facebook ads to sell tickets when we start touring Dying to do Letterman theatrically.

We’ll also try ads again when we start selling DVDs of the movie from our site, and can track how many clicks lead to actual sales.

(Shameless Plug: you can get your special collector’s edition of Dying to do Letterman with tons of extras when you pledge $50 or more to our Kickstarter Campaign.)

Should You Try Facebook Ads?

We’d recommend giving it a shot, especially if you have a very niche audience.

We could certainly target our ad to an even tighter group of people (say, folks who are fans of documentaries about comedy, or to people who like movies about inspirational cancer survivors) and will likely experiment with more targeted ads over time.

What’s Your Experience?

Experimented with Facebook ads or some other targeted platform? What’s your experience been?

Let us know in the comments below!

And…if you haven’t already, please pledge to our indie Oscar® campaign.

As little as one dollar will get you a comedy mp3, and $50 and above includes a personalized I’M DYING TO button hand-written by Steve, plus a copy of the special edition DVD with tons of extras.

You can pledge here.

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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3 Reasons We Changed Our Kickstarter Video

Biagio — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:53:10 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

A Risky Move

Today, we’re going to let you in why we made what may be our riskiest move to date: we changed our Kickstarter video.

Success?

We still have 39 days left in our Kickstarter campaign, and so far we’re at $46,415.

Thanks to many of you, we reached the bare-minimum goal we needed to get through DocuWeeks™ ($37,000) in just 5 days and 5 hours. We were stunned, and grateful beyond words.

The Dream…

has always been to far surpass our Kickstarter goal, and to use this campaign as a new way to distribute an independent film.

How?

You probably know we’re big fans of Jon Reiss and his book Think Outside the Box Office (check out video number 2 here.)

In his book, Jon breaks down how to distribute a movie yourself, in theaters across the USA, for around $100,000.

That amount from Jon’s book is what we’re shooting for.

So Why Change Our Video?

Clearly, the original video has done well.

We’re already about $10,000 over our initial goal, and people everywhere are connecting with Steve and his message that “It’s never too late to chase your dreams.”

But to truly chase the six figure dream, we had some big issues we felt needed addressing.

People Thought Our Campaign Was Over

Many, many people sent emails asking if they should still give, or asking why they should give if we’d reached our goal.

And those were just the people we heard from.

Even though our initial video illustrated our hope to far surpass our Kickstarter goal and bring Steve and the movie to theaters everywhere, that message was not landing with people.

We had to re-emphasize that point.
The Stakes Have Changed

Our initial video focused on the immediate stakes: if we don’t make $37,000, we get nothing, and no rewards go out (Kickstarter is an all or nothing platform.)

Since we’re a good distance past our goal, the video no longer works.

We felt we needed to focus on the next step in Steve’s dream: bringing the movie to theaters everywhere.

You Have to Ask for What You Want

Our old video focused on $37,000.

It was time to offer people a better explanation of why we hoped to raise $100,000 in our main video…and more important than that, ask for it, loud and clear.

You can’t expect to get what you need if you never ask.

A Big Update, Not a Brand New Video

The original video is full of material that comes directly from our hearts, and we had no intention of losing those moments.

So we shot an “update” that we added to the front of the video with Steve answering the big question (“Is it over?”), kept the important information about Dying to do Letterman for people who are new to the project, and focused less on DocuWeeks™ and more on Steve’s dream to play in theaters everywhere.

Will it Work?

Head on over, have a look, and let us know what you think. 39 days to go… please help us get there.

If you haven’t already, please pledge to our project. As little as one dollar will get you a comedy mp3, and $50 and above includes a personalized I’M DYING TO button hand-written by Steve, and a copy of the special edition DVD with tons of extras.

You can pledge here.

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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Laughter: Truly the Best Medicine?

Biagio — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:14:40 +0000

Many of you have written in to ask about Steve’s health.

In today’s update, Steve and Biagio talk about Dying to do Letterman and the role humor plays in Steve’s every day life.

Has it kept him healthy? In good spirits?

Steve comes clean about living with cancer.

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Prove Dreams Matter Today We Launched the Dying to do Letterman Web Site Please come visit, watch the video, and leave your email....

How To Fake a Multi-Cam Shoot with Just One Camera

Biagio — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Sound impossible? Make one camera look like 3…or 5? Well, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing for our web videos…

Backing up a step, by now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out. And we can occasionally tweet relentlessly (thanks for sticking with us!)

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Free Stuff For You!

So far we’ve given back some free motion graphics a tip on getting more FB likes for your own Kickstarter projects, and this post with the best blog posts we found, helping us earn over $40,000 in our very first week.

Today, we want to give you a SUPER SNEAKY SECRET…

How To Fake a Multi-Cam Shoot with Just One Camera

This will work for just about any web video you want, and add instant production value to your work.

Get the free final cut pro file at this link.

And of course…

…if you haven’t already, please pledge to our project. As little as one dollar will get you a comedy mp3, and $50 and above includes a personalized I’M DYING TO button hand-written by Steve, and a copy of the special edition DVD with tons of extras.

You can pledge here.

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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A Strong Woman Bares Her Soul for a Documentary

Biagio — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 18:31:17 +0000

In part one of this video, Denise discusses what it’s like to be viewed as the “strong woman” in Dying to do Letterman…and reveals her true emotions about living life in front of the cameras for five years.

Part 2, available to anyone who’s backed our indie Oscar® campaign, can be seen here. It, Denise discusses the alternative healing Steve’s been trying to treat his cancer, and tells a tale of Sumo Wrestlers!

Part 2 for Backers Only

Not a backer? No worries, just visit this link and click “Back This Project.”

For as little as $1 you can join our indie Oscar® campaign and help us bring Steve’s story to the world, all while getting a gift from us for every pledge.

Thanks!

Joke and Biagio

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Life, Death, Laughter, and Filmmaking

Biagio — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:03:25 +0000

What’s it like to make a movie about your friend? What was Steve’s attitude during filming? Do you know the shocking joke he made that caused the two of us to laugh and cry hysterically?

Check out this video:

Life, Death, Laughter, and Friendship Part 1

Part 2 is available to anyone who’s pledged at least $1 to our indie Oscar® Campaign.

Click Here to Help Us Chase the Oscar®, see the rest of this video, and get other great gifts from us.

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Today’s Adopted Kickstarter Project: Streamin’ Garage

Biagio — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:27:22 +0000

By now, you’ve heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Today, we want to give back with some specific support for another Kickstarter project the community should know about.

Streamin’ Garage

Brain-child of the gifted, enthusiastic, and enterprising Mike Rotman, home-spun web TV network Streamin’ Garage is run — literally — out of Mike’s garage.

From this no-frills studio, Mike has managed to launch a slew of independent web television that rivals content produced for ten times as much in both production and entertainment value.

Just have a look at Stupid for Movies or Stripped Down Live to get an idea of what Streamin’ Garage pulls off for no money week after week.

In his recent cover-story in Videography magazine Mike said, “”We are leading the charge to be the new network model. You can do this yourself, literally from your garage.”

Still Indie, Still Needs Funding

Like most great indie work out there today, Mike’s been funding all of this himself. And, like another filmmaking duo you know, Mike has turned to Kickstarter to keep Streamin’ Garage alive.

Are We Crazy?

Some people have said it’s just plain dumb to spotlight another Kickstarter campaign while we’re in the middle of our own.

But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to indie production, we’re all in this together.

When Mike succeeds (and he will) it’s not just a win for Streamin’ Garage, but for indies everywhere.

So have a look at the Streamin’ Garage kickstarter campaign, and join us in supporting Mike Rotman — a true indie.

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Taking Your Questions LIVE Today — Here’s How

Biagio — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:03:21 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out. And we can occasionally tweet relentlessly (thanks for sticking with us!)

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Today, we want to give you whatever you want.

Face Time

While we’re not Hollywood moguls, we have managed to earn a living for ourselves working in film and TV.

We’re still a young and growing company, but we do have some info on working in showbiz that might be useful to you.

So tonight, at 9pm EST, 6pm PST we are going to go live, for an hour, and will take any questions you have about anything.

You heard it right…anything.

Selling shows? Running a company? Being married and working together? Raising $40,000 in one week? Whatever YOU want to know.

How To See It and Ask Questions?

We’ve been running tests all week on different free platforms (many of you have popped in to give us help/advice) and we’ve decided for tonight to go with Justin.TV

From what we could tell, the pop-up advertising was less annoying than that on Ustream, and the video seemed to come across pretty clear.

Like all services, you’ll have to go through a relatively painless sign-in process to use the chat functions (Sheri Candler, not one to hide her opinions, said it was pretty easy, so that gave us a lot of confidence!) Seems to take less than a minute.

Just head to our sparkling new Justin.TV channel sometime before 6pm PST, 9pm EST and make sure you’re signed in. Or just come by anytime during the hour and check it out.

Not An Advertisement For The Kickstarter Campaign

Lest you think this is going to turn into a PBS style telethon (and we may do that some other time) that’s not what tonight is about. It’s not about us — it’s about YOU.

This is our thanks for all your amazing support. So come on by and let us do what we can to make your path in showbiz easier.

Best,

Joke and Biagio

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Today’s Give Back: Benefit Screening for Team Lucy!

Biagio — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:49:20 +0000

Still Amazed

As you all know, last night we blew by our $37,000 goal after just 5 days and 5 hours.

Just before that incredible moment, we’d posted an update featuring a video sent in by Team Lucy.

What’s Team Lucy

Started by Shawna Weber for her spunky daughter Lucy, the team is put together to provide support for Lucy’s battle against leukemia.

Lucy’s also very clear on her own special dream — she wants to meet one of the Beatles! Anyone know Paul or Ringo? Put out the word.

Disclaimer!!!!

Before we make this announcement, let us be very clear: Kickstarter has a “no charity” rule, which states that Kickstarter itself cannot be used to raise funds for charity.

We respect that rule, and want you to know that every dollar raised on Kickstarter will be used exactly as we express in our video — to put Steve’s story in more theaters across the country. Something we hope you’ll continue to fund.

That’s why we want to state as plainly as possible (so we don’t break Kickstarter’s rules and jeopardize the amazing campaign you’ve launched for us) that we are doing the following with our own money.

Benefit Screening for Team Lucy!

To celebrate the amazing gift you’ve all given us, we are donating a free screening of Dying to do Letterman to Team Lucy! All proceeds will go to Lucy and her family to help with medical bills, necessities, or hopefully even some fun toys or gifts for Lucy.

More Details to Come

Biagio’s sister Gina has just started working on details and we’ll have more to come soon.

Thank You For Supporting Us

We hope to do as much good as possible.

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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Kickstarter Success: Tears, Cheers, and $37,000

Biagio — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:21:30 +0000

On July 7, 2011, Seven Eleven was giving away free Slurpees. And you were giving us cause to celebrate.

After just 5 days and 5 hours, we surpassed our Kickstarter goal of $37,000.

With nearly two months left in the campaign, we hope to raise much, much more and use every penny to tour Steve’s story across the entire country.

But that’s for another day. For the moment, we are just grateful. To you.

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Our Giveback to You: Facetime!

Biagio — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:52:10 +0000

Today, we have something special for you…

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire everyone out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Today, we want to give you whatever you want.

Face Time

Look, we’re not Steve Spielberg or Mark Burnett, but we have managed to earn a living for ourselves working in film and TV.

Clearly, we’re still a young and growing company, but we do have some info on working in showbiz that might be useful to you.

So Thursday night, at 9pm EST, 6pm PST we are going to go live, for an hour, and will take any questions you have about anything.

You heard it right…anything.

Selling shows? Running a company? Being married and working together? Whatever YOU want to know.

Open to Suggestion

We’re still figuring out the best way to do it. Thinking of using UStream but we’re open to other ideas too.

Let us know if you have ideas on live-streaming in the comments, and we look forward to giving you some FaceTime!

Best,
Joke and Biagio

PS While we’re off to a great start, we need your help to bring this home.

You can pledge here.

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14 Blog Posts That Helped Us Launch Our Kickstarter Campaign

Biagio — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:52:35 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can tire your friends and family out.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

So far we’ve given back some free motion graphics and a tip on getting more FB likes for your own Kickstarter projects.

Today, we may be giving you $20,000.

Today’s Give-Back

Well, as you’ve seen, we raised over $20,000 in 48 hours! And now we’re up to 61% of our goal.

So we thought we’d share the blog posts we studied along the way that gave us such a great start. We read and re-read these posts, and it seems that the advice is worth at least five figures.

SheriCandler.com

Sheri Candler is a wealth of knowledge of all things Indie film marketing and distributing. Her whole site is awesome, but be sure to check out these two posts:

Top 5 Ways to Fail at Crowdfunding

Insights from a Crowd-Funding Campaign: Between Us

Kickstarter’s Blog

Kickstarter itself has some very useful blog posts. Here’s a few we paid particular attention to:

How an Indie Musician made 19k in 10 Hours Using Twitter

Selling the Project

The Importance of Video

Lessons from a Floundering Kickstarter Project

Success Story: Jens Pulver | Driven

Vanadia.com

10 Tips for Kickstarter Success

Rooftopfilms.com

10 Crowd-Funding Tips from Kickstarter Filmmakers

JustinKownacki.com

10 Tips for Funding a Kickstarter Project

Justin also recently launched the new site CrowdFunding Help.

John August’s Blog

Raising Movie Funds on Kickstarter

Great post, also where we discovered this one in the comments:
Chip Street

Crowdfunding — Think Like a Marketer and Increase Conversions

Ted Hope / indieWIRE

This amazing series on Ted Hope’s indieWIRE blog from Jennifer Fox, who raised six figures for her movie:

How’s it all Going?

Well, we’re proud to have had a terrific launch, and now there’s a post from Chip Street that dissects our campaign:

Will A Great Kickstarter Campaign Take This Doc To The Oscars?

Not There Yet

While we’re off to a great start, we need your help to bring this home.

You can pledge here.

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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Kickstarter Tip: Get More Facebook Likes and Tweets on Your Page

Biagio — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:44:49 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

Our Campaign to Give Back to You

Let’s face it…we all know that sometimes Kickstarter campaigns can get a little…well, annoying. Give, give, give, me, me, me…you know how it goes.

Since we don’t believe in asking without giving, we’re working to provide something of real value every day we bug you to join our effort to fund our Academy Award® campaign.

Today’s Give-Back

We tried an experiment that seems to be working. In our Kickstarter thumbnail, we added green arrows that say “Like it” “Tweet It” and “Embed It”:

To see how it looks on the page, click here.

I think that sometimes people get a little blind to the “like” button, and so this may be what’s helped us to get 723 likes in just two days.

Earlier, a few people emailed who’d never been to Kickstarter before and said they weren’t sure how to pledge. Rather than adding this to the FAQ way at the bottom of the page, we added it to the thumbnail, and since then we’ve had no more questions about how to pledge:

To see how it looks on the page, click here.

Want the Original Photoshop File?

You got it. While this was down and dirty, and you may want to make something much nicer, we’ve posted the photoshop file along with more free graphics on this page. Enjoy!

Go here to get the photoshop file. It’s marked **Just Added** at the bottom of the page.

And of course, if you haven’t already, please pledge to our project. As little as one dollar will get you a comedy mp3, and $50 and above includes a personalized I’M DYING TO button hand-written by Steve, and a copy of the special edition DVD with tons of extras.

You can pledge here.

Best,
Joke and Biagio

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Living a Kickstarter Dream Come True. Will You Join Our Oscar® Campaign?

Biagio — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:08:37 +0000

When you wake up and realize you’ve raised close to 50% of your Kickstarter goal in less than 48 hours, it’s time to take swift action! Will you join us in making a statement to the world that Dying to do Letterman belongs in theaters? Thank you.

Please pledge now.

Much love,
Joke and Biagio

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Making $11,000 in 18 Hours on Kickstarter Made Biagio Cry

Biagio — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:59:12 +0000

By now, you’ve all heard about our Kickstarter for an Oscar® campaign, and if you haven’t, you can learn more here.

We launched yesterday at 2:13 pm. Less than 24 hours later we’ve already raised over 30% of our goal (currently we up to $11,975 in pledges.)

Here’s our thoughts:

Please swing by and pledge what you can at our Kickstarter page. Even $1 gets you a reward you’ll love, and you can even get a special edition of Dying to do Letterman.

Thanks,
Joke and Biagio

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Joke and Biagio wil Compete for an Academy Award® with Dying to do Letterman

Biagio — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:16:11 +0000

It’s official. DocuWeeks, one of the world’s most prestigious documentary programs, has invited our self-funded, indie-documentary Dying to do Letterman to compete for an Academy Award®.

You can see this year’s line up here: amazing movies we’re proud to be playing along side.

We Need Your Help

Though we’re part of the amazing program, chasing an Oscar® is not easy, and as such, we’ve decided to ask for your help to bring Steve’s amazing story to the world.

Kickstarter

If you’ve never heard of Kickstarter, this video will tell you most of what you need to know:

And this link will tell you the rest.

We Plan to Give to YOU…

…in a big way. Because Kickstarter campaigns can sometimes be…well…a little “me centric” we’ve decided to try to give something back to you as many days as we possibly can.

That beings tomorrow with something I spent about seven hours making, and I hope will be useful to many of you.

In the meantime…

Check out part 1 of our first video from today. We talk about DocuWeeks, qualifying for an Academy Award®, and look really hot and sweaty (reason revealed in part 2.)

Part two is available here

Anyone who pledges at least $1 to the campaign will be able to see part two of this video and all the behind-the-scenes and update videos we create “for backers only” over the next 59 days.

Can’t Do It Without You

Trying to mount an indie Oscar® campaign and put a movie in theaters yourself is daunting. Thanks for taking a look, and we promise to bring you something great every time this campaign turns too “me centric.”

Love,
Joke and Biagio

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Chad Gervich Will Make You Rich, Famous, and Successful in Scripted Television

Biagio — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:24:27 +0000

How’s that for an endorsement?

Now, you might be wondering, “Who the heck is Chad Gervich?” Seeing as, on his own site, Chad asks “Who the hell is Chad?” it seems like a fair question.

Truth be told, Chad is probably the most knowledgable person on the planet about the inner-workings of television, as proven by his best selling book Small Screen, Big Picture.

(That’s NOT an affiliate link, by the way, just our stamp of approval.)

It’s likely the best book on the market about working in TV.

Are we biased?

Maybe. We do fill most of an entire chapter in his book. Chad is also directly responsible for our first show-running gig (a story for another day.)

A Prolific Blogger

If you want to work in TV, you should just buy Chad’s Book. But if you’re not ready to spend the best $10.85 you possibly can on understanding the business of TV, follow Chad on Twitter, then check out these great blog posts Chad’s been generous enough to share with all of us:

Chad’s a Great Teacher, Too

Not just saying that…Chad is a really funny guy, and attending his classes feels like you’re watching a stand-up comedy routine at the Improv, yet somehow still learning. Find out more about his upcoming engagements by following him on Twitter and by checking out this page at Chad’s site.

And of course, if you’re not already doing it, follow us on Twitter, too, and consider getting our Newsletter.

Chad Wrote a Book! Chad Gervich, the man who bamboozled Warren Littlefield into thinking we deserved a career is once again out fooling everybody...
Our New Scripted Project: Rooker Biagio tries to direct actor Michael Rooker--as if that's possible!...
Free Film Festival Secrets Just a quick post to tell you about an incredible free resource we stumbled upon recently. It’s the site of...

Featured IndieGoGo Project: Film Threat Magazine

Biagio — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:26:59 +0000

Support the Return of Film Threat Magazine

We’ve been buried making our new show Commercial Kings, and as such are very sad we only noticed this IndieGoGo project from Mark Bell of Filmthreat today.

There’s not much time left (about 39 hours) so we’ll keep this short:

We just gave Mark $25. You should give what you can.

Here’s why:

Mark has helped so many of us over the years…it’s time to give back.

Thanks to Sheri Candler for making us aware of this campaign.

Whiz! Bam! Pow! Our Featured IndieGoGo Project Whiz!Bam!Pow! Transmedia's blowing up!...
Featured Blog: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity If you’re a filmmaker and you’re not regularly visiting the Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity blog, you are missing out....
Featured Kickstarter Project: TILT We’re starting a new feature here at the blog called “Featured Kickstarter Project.” Kickstarter offers a way for independent filmmakers...

Commercial Kings on IFC Premieres Tonight

Biagio — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:15:59 +0000

Tonight

At 10pm, 9 central, on IFC, Joke and Biagio proudly present Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link:

Stay Tuned For More

We’ll be bringing you all the Commercial Kings behind-the-scenes “top secret” tales, personal iphone pics from set, and more. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or to like us on Facebook to keep up with all the Commercial Kings goodies coming your way.

Commercial Kings Presidential Car Wash The Presidential Car Wash commercial from Commercial Kings is a rap video like no other. Check it ou....
Commercial Kings on Front Page of Funny or Die At the time of this posting, we’re proud to say that the Presidential Car Wash commercial from our new show...
Commerical Kings of Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal Our new TV show Commercial Kings on IFC premieres tomorrow night at 10pm, 9 central, and the reviews have started...

Commerical Kings of Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal

Biagio — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:42:51 +0000

Our new TV show Commercial Kings on IFC premieres tomorrow night at 10pm, 9 central, and the reviews have started to roll in!

The Boston Globe

…says:

Rhett and Link are great to watch because they throw themselves into the products they’re going to make commercials for; they aren’t figuring out demographics and borrowing from hip culture to fashion their approaches. They’re going on feeling, enthusiasm, artistic instinct, humor, irony, and skill.

And concludes:

At the end of the episode, when we see the results, it’s hard to believe more accurate and more affectionate commercials could have been made for these two companies

Check out the full article at the Boston Globe.

The Wall Street Journal

…says:
You won’t fast forward through the commercials on this show. Full story at The Wall Street Journal.

Stay Tuned For More

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Featured Blog: Dave Charest’s ‘Wicked Smaht’ Tips for Indie Artists

Biagio — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:20:12 +0000

We love Dave Charest and his blog. In his own words:

“My goal here is to inspire indie artists to make ‘wicked smaht’ (yes, I’m originally from Massachusetts) changes to their marketing for better results. And I do so by making marketing simple and fun.”

Every Artist Needs to Market Themselves

Whether you’re making films, painting, designing websites, or writing a novel, in today’s world you better know how to tap into your inner sales guru when the initial stage of creation ends.

Dave’s blog is a smorgasbord of terrific advice to help you do just that. A few of Dave’s great posts:

How to Get More Facebook Likes For Your Facebook Page (The Easy Way) For those who, just like us, only recently learned the power of tagging on Facebook.

How To Get More People to Show Up (Without Buggin’ The Crap Out Of Them) Brilliant tips on using email to promote your event without being annoying.

Do You Have A Brand? Better have one! Read this post to shape yours.

The Language of Twitter Great for Twitter newbies and even for those who know their way around Tweet Street.

10 Ways to Breathe Life into a Dying Kickstarter Campaign May need this one ourselves pretty soon…

Be sure to follow Dave on Twitter, and if you’re not already doing it, follow us too.

And of course, he’s got a great facebook fan page. We’re taking his advice on working on our own fanpage as well.

Featured Blog: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity If you’re a filmmaker and you’re not regularly visiting the Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity blog, you are missing out....
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Featured Blog: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity

Biagio — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:01:24 +0000

If you’re a filmmaker and you’re not regularly visiting the Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity blog, you are missing out.

How to Market Your Film Right Now

Sheri is an expert at identifying and explaining new trends, tips, and techniques to help you market your independent film.

Whether talking film distribution, social media marketing, Facebook for filmmakers, or any one of a handful of other topics important to indies, Sheri offers straight-forward, honest advice that doesn’t tip-toe around the issues (we especially appreciated and agreed with a recent point she made stating that sometimes art is too personal to reach an audience and make money.)

You Will Learn from Sheri’s Blog

We’ve read a lot on the topic of promoting independent projects lately as we are out with our own documentary Dying to do Letterman…and we still learn something new every time we visit Sheri’s blog.

Sheri is Social!

You can find Sheri on Facebook and she’s also active on twitter as @SheriCandler. Be sure to follow her, and if you’re not already doing it, follow us, too! @JokeAndBiagio.

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Commercial Kings on Front Page of Funny or Die

Biagio — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:59:08 +0000

At the time of this posting, we’re proud to say that the Presidential Car Wash commercial from our new show Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link is now on the front page of Funny or Die.

Congrats to Rhett and Link!

More Coming Soon

We’ll be blogging and tweeting all the Commercial Kings behind-the-scenes “top secret” tales, personal iphone pics from set, and more. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or to like us on Facebook to keep up with all the goodies coming your way. And don’t miss the premiere of Commercial Kings June 24th at 10/9c on IFC.

Commercial Kings Presidential Car Wash The Presidential Car Wash commercial from Commercial Kings is a rap video like no other. Check it ou....
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Do the Late Show or Die Trying

Biagio — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:20:44 +0000

Our passion project documentary, Dying to do Letterman, currently playing in Chicago at the Just For Laughs comedy festival, made the front page of The Daily Herald today.

You can read the article Do Late Show or Die Trying at The Daily Herald site.

If you or someone you know is in Chicago, check out this post to get tickets and see our movie about about Steve Mazan’s dream to appear on the David Letterman stage.

Prove Dreams Matter Today We Launched the Dying to do Letterman Web Site Please come visit, watch the video, and leave your email....
Steve Mazan Lead Story on Yahoo! Thank you all for supporting Steve...you took him to the top of Yahoo!...
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Commercial Kings Presidential Car Wash

Biagio — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:20:33 +0000

On our new show Commercial Kings for IFC is just 9 days away…and today, we have a special treat for you:

Presidential Car Wash

Stay Tuned For More

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Commerical Kings of Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal Our new TV show Commercial Kings on IFC premieres tomorrow night at 10pm, 9 central, and the reviews have started...

Kitty Cat Crazy on Commercial Kings

Biagio — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:08:50 +0000

Commercial Kings on IFC launches in just 13 days, and we couldn’t be more excited about the attention it’s been getting. From the Rhett and Link centerfold in Entertainment Weekly, to the above billboard in New York City, word about the show is getting out quick. Just ask…

The Huffington Post

Media giant Huffington Post picked up on the reveal for an upcoming episode of Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link. You can see the Huffington Post article here.

This commercial was actually designed for cats…not people. The idea being that if cats were intrigued, people would follow. Initial reports claim it’s working:

Stay Tuned For More

We’ll be bringing you the behind-the-scenes of how Rhett and Link brainstormed and made this cat commercial after the epidosde airs. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or to like us on Facebook to keep up with all the goodies coming your way.

Commercial Kings on IFC Premieres Tonight Tonight At 10pm, 9 central, on IFC, Joke and Biagio proudly present Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link: Stay Tuned...
Commercial Kings on Front Page of Funny or Die At the time of this posting, we’re proud to say that the Presidential Car Wash commercial from our new show...
Sneak Peek of Commercial Kings Local Commercial On our new show Commercial Kings, the hysterical Youtube Sensations Rhett and Link travel the country, making local commercials for...

Commerical Kings on IFC: Rhett and Link Will Make You Famous

Biagio — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 04:07:51 +0000

Rhett and Link got their own centerfold in this week’s Entertainment Weekly

Just 14 days away from the world premiere of our new show Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link on IFC.

Making Local Commercials Global

The show follows YouTube sensations (and all-round great guys) Rhett and Link as they take the art of local commercials to all new heights.

Of course, trying to convince every-day business owners to do the kinds of over-the-top, often ridiculous things that can achieve YouTube glory is not ever easy.

We think the hysterical adventures (and misadventures) of Rhett and Link will appeal to everyone, while those of you into the filmmaking side of things will get a kick out of the making-of aspect of the show.

The two of us sure had fun making it!

Do You Speak Cat?

Here’s a sneak peek at the reveal of one of this season’s commercials, made for a woman who can both speak “Cat” and communicate with them telepathically. She runs a Holiday Hotel for cats that needs a business boost:

Taking out the Trash

You might’ve seen this one already…if so, it’s worth a second look.

Heavy Hill has his own trash pick-up service…and he’s as big a character as you could hope for. Enjoy!

Stay Tuned For More

Announcing Our New TV Show: Commercial Kings with Rhett and Link Catch our new show this summer on the fabulous “always on, slightly off” IFC. Commercial Kings with YouTube sensations Rhett...
Commerical Kings of Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal Our new TV show Commercial Kings on IFC premieres tomorrow night at 10pm, 9 central, and the reviews have started...
Sneak Peek of Commercial Kings Local Commercial On our new show Commercial Kings, the hysterical Youtube Sensations Rhett and Link travel the country, making local commercials for...

Featured Kickstarter Project: Mother’s Red Dress

Biagio — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:13:42 +0000

One of our Twitter faves, producer John Paul Rice is working hard to make the social-issue feature film “Mother’s Red Dress.”

Heavy Issues

The film tackles tough subject matter like abuse, domestic violence and mental illness. No, it’s not the most commercial subject matter out there…and that’s why sites like Kickstarter exist…to help make movies that might not get funded otherwise.

Made under John’s No Restrictions Entertainment Banner, and written and directed by Edward Michael Bravo, the filmmakers are taking a risk with this material. Good for them.

We’re one of many backers on the project (We pledged $10.) You can become a backer at the Kickstarter Site.

Be sure to follow John Paul Rice on Twitter. And if you’re not already…follow us too! @JokeAndBiagio.

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Featured Kickstarter Project: How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song Independent writer/director Gary King seems like one of nicest, most daring filmmakers we’ve never met–though we hope to change that...

Student Makes Hilarious Abstinence PSA

Biagio — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:51:13 +0000

One of the great things about touring the festival circuit right now with our film Dying to do Letterman is meeting other filmmakers and great people all over the country.

Last week at the Lighthouse International Film Festival I was asked to sit in and comment on a series of short-films made by high school students.

16 year old sophomore Garrett Scheliga made the audience roar by sandwiching some otherwise dry statistics about teen sexual activity between a hilarious visual sketch.

Feel free to leave Garrett a message below if you like his work.

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