BMORE HACKS- The Movie & The Network

Greetings everyone!

Please forgive me for the length of this message, however there is much to share.

First, let me apologize for my lack of communication during my West Coast and Texas, digital hermit years. I would ask that none of you take the lack of communication personal.

I have spent weeks, months, and years as a recluse writing, editing, and coding. But I know it's now time for me to share my research and development with those who may be interested.

It's truly a joy and a pleasure to now be in contact with so many people who have invested time, money, expertise, and talent into the BMORE HACKS movie, DVD, and website. It's really exciting to see everyone network on the website.

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For those of you who have asked or are curious about how I built the website, here are a few details.
1. I registered the domain at http://www.godaddy.com for about $9. Don't be oversold by the many services they try to upsell to you.
2. I set-up an account at http://www.socialgo.com , a free social network service company.
3. I customized graphics using a free photoshop compatible program http://www.gimp.org
4. I created a promotional widget using http://www.sproutbuilder.com
5. I created a digital shop offering digital good, pay-per-view, and merchandising, using http://www.thebizmo.com
6. I created a ticket sales page with http://www.eventbrite.com
7. We are going to utilize the DVD on demand services of http://www.kunaki.com
8. The http://www.e-junkie.com shopping cart.
9. And the http://www.paypal.com payment services

So in other words, this whole distribution and sales campaign was kicked off for less than $20, plus a good amount of time!

I am sharing these details because there are people who may think that all of this work was completed with an infusion of cash from some outside company. When in fact this project remains just as grassroots and indie/self financed as it was when we started nearly 13 years ago. 

Time and a dedicated team of supporters has been the greatest asset that I/we have had  to resurrect and complete this script, movie, DVD, soundtrack, and website.

I know that the odds are super slim of ever recouping the $40K cash invested by family, friends,  and supporters or settled the additional $35K in debt associated with the film.

Let me give you one example of this debt. To date the BMORE HACKS film has had three editors, in addition to my own editing. To complete the final cut and DVD, Los Angeles editor Ryan Molina, has clocked over 520 hours of work during 46 intense days of post production during the past two months.

My own post production and admin time mirror these hours. And the time invested by both of the other two editors, Matt Gottshalk and Andrew Fraser equal or surpass these numbers. Yet none of these men have received payment for their services.

I watched many friends lose their films and books to bad deals, which I learned well during distribution deals for my own DV Handbook and Paper Chasers DVD.

Given the downturn in DVD sales, tightened cable TV budgets, and shady practices of so many distributors, there are even less dollars for an indie Urban drama with no Hollywood actors, rappers, shoot outs, or sex scenes.

However, I believe that there is an audience for this film. Indie film fans, as well as thousands of past and present  residents of Baltimore, who identify with the movie in a highly personal manner.

Today my goals for the movie and website are to:
1. Provide a nice, professionally packaged DVD and digital download for sale to viewers.
2. To provide a profile page for every crew and cast member to promote themselves.
3. Provide a vehicle to showcase the talents of  other Baltimore artists, past and present.
4. Provide an interesting historical documentation of Baltimore in the mid-90s.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the Baltimore/World Premiere Screening, Weds. Dec. 10th, 7pm, at the Patterson/Creative Alliance.

Each cast and crew person will receive 1 ticket and 3 DVDs (hopefully keep 1 and sell or give away 2).

I will have 12 tickets on reserve for youth and community members recommended by the cast and crew. Please have people RSVP on the site.

The venue only holds 200 people and we need to sell 120 tickets and some DVDs to cover the screening, travel, and DVD costs. I have rescheduled the Sat. Dec. 13th workshop until February, so we can focus on the screening and DVD release.

Please encourage people to buy tickets online at:
http://bmorehacks.eventbrite.com

Also, we are in the last couple of days of editing on the BMORE HACKS DVD. I appreciate feedback from everyone who has already provided corrections and updates to the credits page.

If you have not, please visit the page and post your credit addition or corrections. http://bmorehacks.com/members/profile/1/blog-view/the-bmore-hacks-credits_1.html

If you have any suggestions or corrections, please post in the comments, email, or message me. See you next week. Thank you again for your support!

Sincerely,
Maxie Dayrron Collier
512-498-9999 x70
support (at) urbanartsclub.com