Hurray for the Internet!

I'm finding it hard to keep up with my blog at the moment, because every time I sit down to my computer I keep getting bowled over! I'm talking about the response for the 140 fan page on facebook! This day last week 140 had 123 fans. I think it had been at that for a few weeks. I decided it was time to do something about that so I emailed links to the filmmakers, asking them to ask their friends. Today, 6 days after I sent that request out, the 140 fan page has 1,152 fans!

It was quite something watching it shoot up to 300 and 400 in a day. When it got over 800 by Wednesday I thought, first: Whoa! and then - why not try for 1000 by Friday - and so we did. So thanks to everyone who are spreading the word.

It's an interesting process, making and marketing a movie online. I watched Julie & Julia last night, enjoyable film, but it was interesting to watch the journey of a new blogger, I mean before blogging even took off to the extent that it did. Internet-wise 2003 seems like age ago. I suppose it is in terms of how far technology has come. So much has changed. I can't imagine quite being able to do what I'm doing now back then... Maybe. I didn't own a computer until 2003 - with limited internet access. It wasn't until 2004 I had full use of the internet. How it changed my life! I remember when all this was farmland! Now look where I am, 140 certainly wouldn't exist without out it. I don't think I'd have a lot of the friends and connections I have now and I'm sure a lot of the opportunities I've had would not have happened.

However I do sometimes feel chained to the thing with this whole other online existence! It does become tiring, I do occasionally suffer online fatigue and suddenly feel like my head is about to fall off or pop. I know I'm over doing it when my online world start invading my dreams, when I start to dream tweet, or update my facebook dream status. In those moments I need to get out, leave, no matter what I'm in the middle on. Take a walk. See the world. Have a coffee in a cafe and remember what it's like to write with a pen on paper.

But the thing is, as I explained to a friend who wasn't quite down with acquiring fans before they've seen the film, I have no other avenue to market my work, at least not this piece. Being an independent filmmaker, one who struggles alone and is unemployed and broke, it is nearly impossible to get my films out to the world. Unfortunately I can't afford to promote my films, I can't afford festival entry fees, many of which are just crazy! Entry fees are anything from $15 all the way to $100, usually around the $50 mark though. At the moment even buying envelopes, blank DVDs and postage is out of my reach! The best I can hope to do is ask my friends to help spread the word, get people interested and get them wanting to see it.

But thankfully, with the internet and the likes of twitter and facebook, there are ways of doing that. In the way digital technology put the art of cinema into the hands of the poor, the internet has done the same for getting those films out, letting the world know they exist and enticing an audience to watch it. It's an amazing thing. I feel lucky to live in this age. Even as I finish writing this I've noticed 140 has gone up 7 fans to 1159!

Hurray for the Internet!