HEART OF NEON is...
This project is powered by naivete, I have no illusions about that. Sometimes the only way to get things done is to have no idea what you’re doing, or just enough of an idea to push forward while being largely oblivious of the pitfalls ahead. I had some delightfully half-witted notions at the beginning of this project about how I would entice an experienced, connected film producer to get onboard the project to share the burden of post-production and promotion and finding a distributor, the latter two being massive holes in my filmmaking knowledge base. I’d entice these experienced, savvy people with my sheer industry and stick-to-itiveness.
What a maroon.
Over seven years later and I still haven’t found a producing partner. And while that is a real handicap for being able to move this project forward in a timely fashion, it has forced me to fill those knowledge gaps for myself to be able to move forward at all. I have high ambitions for the project, and so I need to become the kind of film producer who can achieve those ambitions.
For example: Creating promotional materials has been problematic. I only have one editor, and that’s me. At the outset I made a few teasers and trailers but that’s not enough, really, to paint a picture of what a movie actually is. That’s not usually an issue for a film at the beginning of the postproduction phase, butat that stage of HEART OF NEON I depended on the kindness of strangers to fund the project via Patreon and other donations. I had to justify myself. In the newsletter we’re talking about here I write about how I struck on a new approach for promotions…
December 13, 2020
Promoting this project has, for me, been on-the job-training this whole time. Marketing is not my forte, and I’m still learning to simplify the message and be more direct. These promo nuggets (I have altogether too much fun calling them "nuggets") are another step closer to succinctly showing people what this film is about. I’m passionate about this project. I believe there's a lot to be gained by bringing Jeff's story to a wider audience, and I’m enjoying sharing the filmmaking process as much as I can. I’m hoping these nuggets are communicating that. Let me know. Your feedback is always welcome : )
In retrospect these video nuggets were only partially successful, held back in large part by the inclusion of footage of me talking about the project in videos recorded for Patreon when I was using really subpar audio equipment (audio production has been another aspect of filmmaking that I’ve had learn as I went along… eesh), which just makes the whole enterprise come off as being a bit shoddy, if I’m honest.
But you learn from your mistakes and you move on. In the end I had to abandon making these short promos because they were taking up a lot of valuable time and creative energy to deliver every month, and they weren’t having the desired effect on drawing a new crowd. I vowed to stop making promos until I got to the end of the first completed draft of the film, and as such basically abandoned the HEART OF NEON Youtube channel until November of last year, well into the fourth draft nearly two years later.
I’ve tried lots of different ways to promote the film that didn’t require editing. I played one Jeff Minter game a day for a year livestreamed on Twitch.com, quite diligently when all is said and done. I enjoyed the heck out of the experience, and I was really able to appreciate the breadth of Jeff’s oeuvre as a result. But that also didn’t make a massive impact on my audience reach, so I claimed that time back to pour into the editing of the film itself.
More recently I found engaging with filmmaking organizations like Filmshop Brooklyn and more significantly the impact campaign organization Looky Looky Pictures have made me better able to pinpoint what I need to promote about the film, and the kinds of groups I should approach that might have a keener interest in the subject of my film. What started out as just shouting “Hey! Look at this!” into the digital void has evolved into creating partnerships with people and organizations that share my goals and ambitions. It’s been so much more rewarding. It makes me feel less crazy, too.
Don’t get me wrong. I still would LOVE a producing partner. But existing as I have without that kind of team player, I love who I have been able to become through the support and encouragement of some fantastically talented and intelligent people who share the goal of putting good movies out into the world.
Thank you all. xo