hello. my name is mike ambs.

ftomfilm:

Last week I had posted an update on what I’ve been keeping busy with in preparation for Film Week at IFP, Mike Hedge left a comment on that post asking a lot of good questions, and I wanted to reply to them here. I’ll just run down the list:

so what does the 500 word version say?

It just so happens I updated the synopsis tonight - upgrading it from a short synopsis to a full-fledged 500 word synopsis, which talks a bit more opening about the story. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on it! 

what does your bio say?

I’m not sure where to post my longer-bio yet. I like it, like I mentioned before, it’s my first real bio, but I still feel awkward posting it publicly. It’s nothing too exciting, just a standard artist bio - not that I prefer the word artist, I try to never use that word, it just makes me uncomfortable. I’m getting side-tracked. It just says I was born in Jackson, MI, and when I got my first camera, and what I spend my time working on. But!, it still mentions blue whales. 

why do you need $60,000?

Back in June, when I mentioned certain aspects of IFP proved to be one hell of a wake-up call, I specifically was thinking about the wake-up call in necessary-funding needed to get this film finished: $25k for sound, $10k of which is for foley work, the film needs a tremendous amount of foley design; $7k in lawyer things… things like E&O insurance (which stands for errors and omissions), etc; ?-$30k for music rights… if we’re lucky. Keeping my fingers crossed that the two songs I’m especially attached to aren’t unaffordable; a bit of money set aside for color correction, which I’m hoping I can get Olivier to do - I’d need to cover his travel expenses and time.

The $60k doesn’t include marketing - we were strongly, strongly, strongly encouraged to set aside $40k for marketing, but right now… I just don’t know how to go about factoring that into everything I’m struggling to raise. 

glad you figured out the smooth cam thing!!!

It sadly didn’t fix everything! Frustrating! But, for the time being, I sent the film to our mentor with a note about the smoothcam bug - as for the files I needed to send to IFP for Film Week: I had to export, without any smoothcam filters, as finished ProRes files, then bring those into FCPX, let it analyze everything, chop-up the shots that needed stabilization and apply FCPX filters one-by-one… it was a mess.

At least everything will look nice when we have our meetings with studios in September. 

so you got the film exported and to your mentor?

Yes, we did - I’m excited to hear his notes! From what I’ve seen of his work, he tells very beautiful and strange stories… which I like. 

why would ftom be difficult to get money for?

I guess I really don’t know why… I suppose I feel that way because its not a social issue film, it doesn’t address any cultural or political messages that typically A) draw people’s attention, and B) find funding through grants. It’s much more of an emotional journey, and well, selling a film about feelings is just… people who have seen the film say they really love it, they say it’s beautiful and told in a very risky way… but they also warn me that it’s not the easiest film to get financial support for. 

[Your] film from what I’ve seen is awesome! and would be great for all people that enjoy bike riding and travel.

Thank you! I hope you’re right! 

you have yet to release some kind of trailer. something more than the awesome teasers you have released.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. I have a good outline of what I feel would be an appropriate and hopefully engaging trailer; even after all the recent re-writing that was done for IFP, I still feel the trailer would hold its own that way it’s written now. So, that might be something I start to work on. At the moment, I’m caught in financial-limbo, once September comes around I’m hoping that won’t still be the case, and I can move forward confidently - I wouldn’t want to release a trailer too soon. 

you have an olympic athlete who can also promote the film. maybe look at what Hunter and Mike are doing. they got Salsa cycles behind the screenings and the promotion of their new film.

That was part of our homework actually - Jon Reiss mentioned Mike and Hunter; I think, if I’m remembering right, he even mentioned that he helped them structure a marketing and distribution plan - I hope I’m remembering that correctly, if not, never-mind what I said.

He helped us start a list of possible organizations we could work with, and gave us a real roadmap on who our core-audience is, who our general-audience is, etc. Erica helped me think of a few companies that we could reach out to - I’m just waiting till a few other things are in place before I start reaching out to them. Well, maybe “waiting” is the wrong word, I’m better planning what to say, how I can work with them, what I can offer, what I hope to accomplish… things like that. 

keep rockin Mike!

Thank you, Hedge!