wormholes in communication
I've gotten some calls, emails and posts in the last couple weeks saying wow... what a glamorus life you have! Well yes, and no. Yes, I've gotten to do some globe trotting and have had a blast but it's also a lot of grinding through phone calls, trying to pay bills and juggle schedules, projects and budgets.
One example of the disconnect is the emails I get on a regular basis saying "Hi I'm ( fill in the blank ) and I love your movie! I'm a consultant, retreat owner, store owner, or person with an unatural amount of friends and wanted to let you know that I've been loaning your movie out to everyone I know and am even having twenty people over for my retreat, party or general get together where I sell things to people. Isn't that great! I'm giving you exposure!" The best is when I get people assuming I'm going to send them DVD's for free because they're going to show Scrapped to a bunch of people, thus giving me exposure. As much as I am flattered that people like the movie, I still need to pay it off. :0) By all means feel free to get the word out and I'm very happy you're sharing the love but the kind of exposure where the one $15 movie is ammortized out over the two dozen people who end up seeing it is working out to be about 63 cents a piece for box office reciepts. I'll be passing the Scrapped debt on to my as yet unborn children... It's just the nature of the business but I thought I'd use that as an example of how this Rock n Roll lifestyle looks from the other side of the fence.
On one hand you've got the global connection thing. I added a nifty little map on the right of the page to track hits to the blog a few days ago so it looks like in the last five days people have checked in from South Korea, Australia, The Philippines, New Zealand, Egypt, Norway, The UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Argentina, seven cities in Canada and all over the US. On the other hand I'm trying to pitch projects and get funding all day today and am having a hard time connecting with people that live an hour from my house. It's a small world but that doesn't mean it still doesn't take half a dozen calls to get a hold of someone - as some of you who are trying to get a hold of me know...
posted by wes @ 6:50 PM
7 Comments:
Hey- wes - what is up with the cat in your photos? - LOL!!!
aw, poor wes.... haha
your photos always make me laugh really hard. your facial expressions are priceless.
good luck with everything.
well hopefully some of the people I have talked about the movie with have gone to the main site and bought it. I'm sure this will bring you ongoing exposure and hopefully be paid off before your child is too far in school : )
What? No free ride? Geez, why have I been hanging around here all this time? Sheesh!
Kidding of course, wish I could think of something to say that would really cheer you up other than my four friends bought their own copies...at the premiere...
Well - as a viewer who just watched the movie tonight for the first time, I can tell you that it all has to do with the fact that you didn't put any guns in it. Anyone ever told you that? :/
Communications are wierd these days. You can link up with people around the world easily enough - but there's no way you'd bother putting the people in your OWN town on your LinkedIn connections.
Send an e-mail - get ignored. Phone someone - get ignored. Throw a brick through their front window with a note taped to it? Well, you can guess the rest.
Keep on trying. One of those contacts will be a home run - and it won't be the one you think it is either.
And if nothing comes through - ROAD TRIP!
- Cam (from one of those Canadian cities)
Yikes! Did I drop the shame bomnb or something?
I was just trying to make a contrast between what a glamorus life of power and riches might look like from the inside.... pretty much like everybody elses. :0)
The cat in the photo is one of my wife's pair that I picked up for her maybe six years ago. She named them Sid and Nancy and so far Nancy hasn't been murdered. Turns out I'm allergic to cats and they can sense this because they like to climb in my face when I'm on the phone. I think it's something about me sitting there still talking calmly with nothing to give attention to in their eyes. I've grown into liking cats... It's always different when they're your own.
As for the mass screenings in home theaters: I was just having a moment of turmoil based on current events. There's a big difference between hanging out with your friends and watching a DVD and using it as a sales tool to push your product every time you have an event. I'm an idiot because I had actually suggested that to some people who were thinking about it. I'm a hypocrite!
I just have had some bizzarre interactions from a company who didn't want to be in the movie, let me show them in it, wasn't sure about having any God stuff or faithbooking in it, let me sell a boat load of DVD's at one of their events then built a big campaign around faithbooking, used a domain name I gave them as a ministry tool to launch a sub section of their company site to make money, had a hard time returning my phone calls and emails and then decided they can't figure out how we might be able to work together.
When I constantly get emails from field workers of this company saying how great the DVD is and how much it's helped their business while the company says they wish they could find a way for us to work together but it's just not happening... well. I'm a fool if I keep promoting that company when so many other businesses have been so much more gracious. Whew! Hmm, I guess I have some issues huh? :0)
That's what I meant about selling a disk for $15 and then having it be shown to a couple dozen people - to make money or promote a business. That just all came out sideways since I touched on the topic in the context of the glamorus life. The business world is rough, wear a cup.
On a different note, have you guys checked out Cam's blog in the reply's here?
LOVE the cat photo!
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