Our latest project is ready to finish up: The Front Man has now launched on Kickstarter!
How do couples decide whether or not to have a baby? In this excerpt from THE FRONT MAN, Jim & Christie lay out it all out in a conversation that anyone who has considered parenthood can relate to.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
As I take my Kickstarter campaign out into the world, I have encountered what may be a fairly common sentiment among filmmakers regarding crowdfunding. It’s paraphrased here:
“Hey your Kickstarter looks great! Here’s the problem: I get asked so often to join crowd-funding campaigns that I have made it a policy not to back any. But I wish you the best of luck with your project!”
Here is my open response to that response:
I understand that point of view completely! In fact that was my policy exactly for the longest time.
Until of course, I started my own Kickstarter campaign...
Now, I have a new appreciation for what a nervy, risky undertaking crowdfunding is. Not only is the life of the project at stake, but so is one’s self-esteem. As filmmaker Allison Bergsays, "It's like losing a popularity contest every day." The “ask” is so difficult – who wants to hassle family, friends and colleagues for money? And then what message does it send if the campaign ultimately fails? I have great respect for anyone who makes a serious effort. So I have dropped my rule and now evaluate crowdfunding requests I receive on their individual merits.
This is reinforced by the buzz at IFP Film Week a few days agothat crowdfunding for independents may have a limited window of effectiveness. Big players like Sony Pictures Classics and Disney are sniffing around crowdfunding as a potential tool to supplement their mega-marketing campaigns. Maybe there’s room for everyone. Or maybe independents will get crowded out of crowdfunding, as the whole world applies your policy to all but the loudest campaigns. It won’t be the first time artists get squeezed from the space we pioneered. So, I will embrace the moment while it lasts.
In the meantime, crowdfunding is rapidly becoming essential for independents. Not only is it the only funding option for many projects, but gatekeepers may soon be expecting it as the first step of a distribution strategy. They will be looking at the success of the campaign and the dollar figures, but also the number of backers. These will be used to evaluate the filmmaker’s social capital and the viability of his or her project. There may come a time when every independent film needs to start with a crowdfunding campaign.
As filmmakers, we may want to support the health of independent film generally by applying an alternative rule of thumb that increases backer numbers: Back every crowdfunding request with at least a single dollar.
So I encourage you to reconsider your policy and start your first crowdfunding campaign sooner rather than later.
What is your personal policy regarding requests to support crowdfunding? Are we approaching a point of saturation where filmmakers will start to withdraw from the funding process? Or will the necessity to create our own campaigns encourage us to back others more consistently?
Our latest project is ready to finish up: The Front Man has now launched on Kickstarter!
After 17 years performing in the same basement venue, and learning that one of his employees has toured Japan with his band, Jim seeks out two celebrity musicians in his own hometown to find out their secrets of success.
"Look Your Customers in the Eye" is an article by Paul Devlin, published in Filmmaker Magazine.
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Independent filmmaker Brian Paul is a man who lives his films. In that spirit, he has taken DIY film distribution to a whole new level. Street level, that is.
For the past two years, Paul has made a comfortable living by selling his hybrid fi lm Cure for the Crash…The Art of Train Hoppin’ directly from art market street stalls in New Orleans. His unique distribution strategy has proved remarkably successful. Paul claims to have sold thousands of DVDs of Cure for the Crash by personally engaging more than 100,000 people face-to-face.
“When I was a teenager in West Philly,” Paul explains, “I used to work in a pawn shop, where I learned how to help people make a decision.” Later, his aggressiveness evolved into charm as Paul took a job selling art at high-end galleries on Royal Street in New Orleans. Paul went on to use these sales skills to move DVDs of Cure for the Crash from his Vespa at historic Jackson Square in the Big Easy while simultaneously pushing hard with mailings and email blasts to attract a distribution deal.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Thanks to all of you, dear backers, we exceeded the funding goal for The Front Man!
Kickstarter has turned out to be a truly energizing experience and your generous support has been exhilarating.
Now it's our turn to come through for you. We've already started working on putting together your rewards - Jim is picking out the 45RPM records, we're planning the Record Room night and deciding how Outrageous those Outtakes can be.
And of course, we'll be working on finishing The Front Man right away. I have already hired some very experienced, objective eyes to help me fine tune the cut. After that a Fair Use lawyer will make sure all the outside footage and music conforms to Best Practices in Fair Use. That will allow us to lock picture and move on to the online, color correction and audio sweetening.
We'll let you know when we finish up the movie. Keep an eye out for a survey from Kickstarter, so we can get the info we need to send out the special pre-release DVD of The Front Man as well as the other rewards.
And then we'll look forward to announcing the premiere! Very exciting!
Posted by Paul Devlin:
SlamNation producer Thom Poole shot this footage of Jessica Care Moore recording her album. These moments capture the beginnings of performance poetry branching out and “spoken word” becoming more recognizable as a commercial art form by the mainstream.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Two Freestyling legends go head-to-head, in the most important hip hop battle of last century!
The Making of Freestyle (continued)
The premiere of Freestyle in Park City was fantastic! Sundance and Slamdance were in full swing, we rented a house, and the entire team joined us – some from early stages of the movie, whom I hadn’t met yet, including Kevin’s sister, Executive Producer Tiara White. Lots of supporters joined us and the freestyler Wordsworth, came along as well and it was fun to get to know him. I was exhausted from the all-nighters getting ready, but it was still a great party and a packed house for the premiere. The audience LOVED the movie! De La Soul was playing during the festival and Henry managed negotiate a deal with a hip hop clothing sponsor to make that show the Freestyle After Party! Fantastic! Wordsworth performed with them, a great mix of generations. Such a fun time.
Check out Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme
Buy the DVD
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Funky Clown Town was a short, humorous moment in SlamNation. The low scores and look of disappointment said it all. However, that moment catapulted this poem into cult celebrity in the slam poetry community. Everyone wanted more of Funky Clown Town. Here it is, in all its glory.
Check out this post about Funky Clown Town by Big Poppa E!
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Happy Birthday, Almighty Bob!
This piece was a birthday present for my dear friend Robert Wagner 20 years ago. Now I'm re-gifting it to him. Rob was the singer for The Blasés, a band that was hugely popular in New Jersey in the '80s and '90s. This piece features some great tracks from Rob's solo work.
We went on a hike up Shrine Pass outside of Vail, Colorado, along with my mom, Nancy Devlin, and my girlfriend at the time, Shannon Stanczak. Of course, I brought a video camera and of course, Rob starting riffing.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Team Austin performs one of their many group pieces in this outtake from SlamNation.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
2013 has been a great year for CBS Sports and I was able to show that off by editing this Image Promo for the department. I worked on this with Producer Pete Radovich and Associate Director Gareth Hughes.
The key to these pieces is to keep the energy high and make it as exciting as possible. The big challenge is how to tell the story of three epic events in only 30 seconds. Of course, we had the luxury of fantastic shots to work with. Once you've got the basic layout, the process becomes all about shaving and shifting frames. Changes of fractions of a second can have a surprisingly big impact.
Also, this kind of project requires approval at the highest level. That means many revisions. I think we went through 25 versions of this piece. This is the first version that aired. But we still went back to drawing board a couple times after that to make even more changes before it was finalized.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Form and content merge seamlessly in this jazz poem about Miles Davis by the master, DJ Renegade.
It was excerpted briefly in the opening montage of SlamNation. Now you can feel the whole piece.
Posted by Paul Devlin:
This scene from my movie Power Tripis when the real drama kicks in. You don't really get how important electricity is until you don't have it. And it was a revelation for people unfamiliar with how high the stakes are, to learn that cutting off people's electricity can lead to rioting. Here's where it starts...
The Front Man World Premiere will be at the Cinequest Film Festival in San José, CA! Showings are March 7th, 9th & 13! Tickets available now!
Posted by Paul Devlin:
I love this energetic alternative history from activist and poet Ngoma Hill. Since it wasn’t crucial to the story, I knew it was going to be an outtake of SlamNation but I edited it carefully anyway, just because it’s such a fun piece and happened to have so many varied angles.
Ngoma continues to be dynamic performer and it’s always a pleasure to run across him when I’m out and about in the poetry scene in NYC.
Hot off the presses! Brooklyn Trailer House did a fantastic job making the trailer for The Front Man. Check it out!
Posted by Paul Devlin:
More than 13 years ago, I started shooting my buddy Jim Wood, just for laughs. Now, after the many dark moments of despair and high moments of transcendence that all filmmakers experience, The Front Man has finally come to life. The World Premiere at Cinequest was spectacular! I have never had such an overwhelmingly positive audience response to any of my movies.
We're so impressed with Cinequest and the people of San José for their genuinely enthusiastic support for independent filmmakers. It was the perfect launch for The Front Man!
Posted by Paul Devlin:
D-Word is the online community for documentary professionals. I joined in the beginning about 15 years ago and it has been remarkable to watch filmmaker Doug Block's vision emerge as an indispensable resource for documentary filmmakers. Basically D-Word gathers all the wisdom and experience of the world-wide documentary community in one place.
Now we're in the midst of a campaign to upgrade and thrive for the next 15 years. I made this little video in support during breaks at my day job covering March Madness for CBS. If you're a documentary professional or interested in documentary filmmakers, give D-Word a look!
The Front Man East Coast Premiere at the Florida Film Festival in Maitland, FL! Showings are April 5th & 8th! Tickets available now!
Our East Coast Premiere screening of The Front Man down at the Florida Film Festival was amazing! The film was well received with lots of laughter! Thank you so much to everyone for your support!
Next up... the LA Comedy Fest on April 24th followed by the Newport Beach Film Festival on April 25th and 30th!!
See here for a full list of upcoming screenings!
