Okay - It IS New Media Tuesday...

From John August's blog:

Quoting Patrick Goldstein from the LA Times, Stern notes:

“The real problem with the indie business isn’t quality, but discipline. We have a generation of filmmakers who feel entitled to make personal films… and a generation of executives who’ve been willing to essentially use specialty films as a loss-leader to launch their division or win awards. If people in the indie world want to start making money again, they have to start treating their investment like a truly precious natural resource, not like Monopoly money. Discipline is not antithetical to art.”

And later:

Every filmmaker would like her movie to break out of its niche and gain wider exposure and acceptance. But Stern’s point is apt: figure out your base, and develop a marketing plan that succeeds even if it never goes beyond that. If this sounds more like planning a small business than planning a movie, that’s sort of the point.

I wouldn’t make another indie the way I did The Nines. I’d figure out how I was going to make money before figuring out how to get money.

Amen. Pass the sacra-mental wine, please.

Get Stuff Done...Now.

Swiped this from John August who found it here.

You want to write? Then start typing. But first, listen:

The Sound of Young America

You Need Some Kindle-ing to Start a Fire

Many of you have been reading John August's posts lately about his short story, "The Variant" that was released by John via several online download portals including Amazon's Kindle.

It's an important step forward, just like Whedon's DR. HORRIBLE was for video and reinforces several precepts we hold near and dear here at Pulp 2.0:

1. You can do it yourself.

2. Branding is important. John says he wouldn't have been as successful if he hadn't had a rep as the screenwriter of (insert Tim Burton or McG movie here).

3. More and more opportunities are happening every day that allow you to make money with your creative content - stories, books, comics, video, audio, merchandise...

4. This is where the industry(s) is (are) transitioning.

But also - let's talk about what this means as it relates to the future forms of media. There's a lot of cool nuggets buried underneath this release...

Note how John released a short story online and people bought it. Not a book or a magazine, but a byte-sized chunk of content. If one were to look back at the music industry you could see this falls right in line with what people are consuming via the web - singles. It's one of the things that has made Itunes so successful as a business model.

For the longest time people were saying the short story market was dead...I think perhaps its resurrection is all-digital.

"Magazines" will simply be areas on the web where similarly themed stories will be stored. People will pay for stories they like based on the logline and a preview and the reputation of the writer/artist (I'm definitely including comics in this scenario, gang) and the tastemaker editors and publishers.

But most importantly there's a revitalized market for self-contained short stories where there was a bloated print corpse in the traditional markets.

This isn't new, I and several others have written for Astonishing Adventures. Other publishers have original genre fiction online...

But right now, based on the numbers that August has and where the bulk of the money comes from, it looks like the economics of it are beginning to catch up to our vision.

Thoughts in the comments, please.

Stuff Hanging around my Desk...

Comics folk:

How come I can go to my local Mexican grocery / liquor / cigar store and pick up two - yes, two - 48 page adult digest comics (Pistolero #'s 124 and 127) in a plastic bag for $1.30, and you guys want to charge me $3.99 for 22 pages of story?

(I will scan the covers for you guys to marvel at)

On the other hand, I just read Mark Waid's The Incredibles comic from Boom. It will be on my "buy list."

Farscape fans are clamoring for more Farscape comics. Good. It's a good comic direct from the source.

I have an interview coming up with the guys who did something really pulpy cool.


Movie Folk:

John August is discussing D2DVD movies.

Read Screenplays by David S. Cohen. Quick read. Great read. This is the book for everyone who's ever asked, "How did that get made?" If you want to be in the business then you need to read this book.

I'm going to have to start a "Low Budget Movie Production Consulting Service" if things keep going the way they are...been answering questions/emails from a variety of sources. I can see why people are discussing it though. There isn't any money around with which to make movies. We're all going to have to learn to do more with less and do it better.

I am finishing the 1st draft of script this weekend. 95 pages +/- of pulp.