Guerrilla Filmmaking

THE POWER OF THE AGGREGATOR. Exclusive Mini Interview with Erick Opeka, Senior Marketing Manager of New Video

Erick Opeka is full of spirit when he talks about his company.  You can see how he breathes passion for his work, which in this industry is becoming more rare everyday.

New Video has been around for seventeen years.  They were one of the first video aggregators on iTunes back in 2005. They are very savvy with their marketing, and by just listening to the interview you'll notice how they care about filmmakers.

I've been trying to get a few films on iTunes since January this year, and it's been virtually impossible.  Two months ago they recommend that I contact New Video... Do you want to know why? Just listen to the interview.

Learn more about New Video's plan for the rest of the year here.

IFP FILM WEEK COVERING: Connect with your Audience. Exclusive Interview with Charles Choi & Tom Hicks, Founders of caachi.com

Charles Choi and Tom Hicks are entrepreneurs with a background in computer engineering, radio and theater.

About a little more than a year ago they launched caachi.com a place that allows independent filmmakers to sell their undistributed films to a wider audience.

Now, what makes caachi different from any other online distributor?, something called the Vidget, a video widget that allows, pretty much everybody to become a sales agent for any good film.

Let's face it, for years we had been watching short films for free on youtube, after some of those films you totally feel that you would be willing to pay something because the film was really good, right?, in the other hand there's a lot of horrible pieces, you feel they owe you money for the waste of time. Now with the Vidget you can avoid those terrible films, you just see which films your friends are supporting, you know your friends' taste, so if they are displaying the Vidget of any particular film is because that film is interesting! you can even ask them if is worth to buy... so you buy it, you loved it and you display the Vidget of that film too. You become part of that filmmaker's audience while you see something that make you happy, everybody wins! Plain and simple, is digital word of mouth or another form of viral marketing. Do you want to know how the Vidget would save independent filmmaking?

In this interview we talked about the future, and the future is to cut the middle man (The Big Distributors) and take the wheel of your success getting directly to your audience, well, caachi is a great way to start building that audience.

The Mini Interview

IFP FILM WEEK COVERING: The Digital Numbers Revealed. Exclusive Interview with Joe Swanberg, Filmmaker.

Joe has 27 years old and five feature films done! All of them for less than $25,000, and listen carefully, is not $25,000 each one, but all of them.

The first two films were seen in the Festival Circuit and they got distribution on DVD, the last three had their run in the festival as well and were picked up for theatrical release, the trailer that precede this entry is from Nights and Weekends, his most recent film that co-directed with a frequent collaborator and one of the favorites actors in the guerrilla film community Greta Gerwig, the movie will be premiered by IFC in NYC on October 10th.

Joe is a clever guy, you can see it right away. He's what I call a right eye user, a person with the ability to see life in a different dimension through a constant viewfinder. That's how, I think,  he's being able to produce that massive amount of material in three years. Did I mention he also have a couple of web series around?

He talks to you and me, not as a target in a conglomerated of marketing strategy, but to you and me. His films are totally natural, you almost feel like you're hanging out with the characters. Which is a warm experience.

In this Mini Interview, he shares the unshearable. True numbers about how much money you can make as a guerrilla filmmaker through Digital Distribution today.

The Mini Interview

Fore more information about Joe you can visit his website.

IFP FILM WEEK COVERING: Independent Filmmaking it's alive and kicking. Exclusive Interview with Eugene Hernandez, Editor in Chief of IndieWIRE

Eugene transpires independent films, it's just under his skin. In the last month he's being traveling a lot, as usual I guess. I don't know if you think like me, but a plane it's the perfect environment to think about virtually everything or about nothing, well I can tell you Eugene's thoughts had been about independent filmmaking, the guy was just in the top of all my question without any hesitation.

This is a Mini Interview so I don't want to spoil it but he talked about the next Guerrilla Film to watch: Medicine for Melancholy by Barry Jenkins. Told us how technology it's a part of the new changes but creativity is still the key, and as a closure he shared with us how he doesn't believe in mainstream media when they say Independent  filmmaking is dying, he just live every day (in film festivals, meeting with filmmakers, in indie film conferences thorough indieWIRE) the truth,  indie films always are going to be there.

The Mini Interview