I WANT YOU! (That's not me in the pic though, sorry)
Recently I mentioned planning something pretty cool to preempt the release of "Of Shark and Man," for a very good reason. When the film is out, that doesn't mean you will be able to see it immediately, the first call for the film will be a premiere screening then the festival circuit, at which time I will also be looking to organise screenings around the UK whilst trying to secure the holy grail that is global distribution.
There will be a very small number of extremely limited edition DVDs and Blu-Rays available as a perk with the crowd-funding campaign for which I am toying with doing something pretty cool making them a bit of a collector's item and ultra personalised but as far as seeing the film as soon as it's out, you're gonna be looking at a screening or a perk from the crowd-funding campaign.
However...
I have been toying around with an idea to announce the film's arrival in an interesting way and to also involve you in the release and came up with this, I want a talented film-maker to put together a "Behind the Scenes," pre-release, featurette which will not only be released and heavily promoted online before the film gets its official release, you will also be invited to attend the premiere screening and not only that, your film will be on the DVD/Blu-Ray release as the main bonus feature.
The idea with this is to give a talented film-maker the platform to get their talent out to an established and rapidly growing audience and to also give them access to the warts and all story behind the making, and release, of this film. Not only will you have a retrospective look at how this all came together, taken from an interview with me and footage from the film provided, you will also be expected to follow elements of the story of the release and film them as they happen, test-screenings, promotional interviews (if we get them) etc. The idea is not for me to tell you what to do, but give you the basic idea of what I think would be cool and let you run with it, with full access to pretty much anything you want.
If you have a production company, this will be a *insert name* production in conjunction with Scarlet View Media. This would be ideal for a film-maker or group of film-makers looking for a project to help them get off the ground and get their work out to a large audience. This blog has attracted well over 150,000 unique hits since 2010, averaging now, about 5,500 per month, each trailer has done about 3000 views each in the first week of their release with new views from around the world every single day and of course, with this short film being the main driver of the promotion of the film's release, it will be seen by and hopefully shared, by various news and media outlets.
So who would be the ideal candidate?
Ideally you need an interest in this film and the story behind it, you'll have an inquisitive mind and want to know all the details and have a passion for storytelling. You'll have some experience ideally of both filming and editing and own your own camera (minimum DSLR,) sound recording equipment and Editing software and computer. You need to be self reliant and at least of the capability where I can simply hand filming and production over to you, at all points, I would be more than happy to help with advice if you need it but I also want you to feel ownership of what you are doing. A full driving license and transport is also a must.
The perfect candidate would already be producing their own videos and short films and have examples of work to hand, a positive attitude, friendly and enthusiastic nature and generally be a cool person to be around with a solid idea of what they want to achieve.
I'll make sure any travelling is kept to a minimum and make things as easy for you as possible, you'll get access to the footage you need from the film and of course, be able to use your film for your own portfolio. Outside of this, I also always look to work with talented, positive people with a good attitude on a repeat basis so with Scarlet View Media, it could mean future paid work as well.
As with everything I do, I don't want to make fluff, a sanitised yawn-fest designed to serve no other purpose than to be a vanity piece so if we shoot a test screening, we record the reactions regardless of whether people think it sucks or not, you might be interested to know the gory details of all the stuff which wasn't so fun and capture the ups and downs, basically what interests you about this whole journey, that's what I want you to capture.
Hopefully by now, the right kind of people have read this and thought, "yes, that sounds like a cool, fun project to get my teeth into," so you'll be wanting to get in touch and talk to me about it. You can do so by emailing me at david@officetoocean.com or by visiting the Scarlet View Media website and using the contact sheet there.
Please put "Behind The Scenes Film" as the title of your correspondence, I can't stress this enough, I get an awful lot of junk email and I don't want to delete yours by mistake because of an ambiguous title.
So, what are you waiting for? :)
