The idea of building a request tool for the film has been something I’ve wanted to do off and on for about two years - resources and especially time always pushed it back in priority; a lot has changed online in those two years, new tools exists for helping people build list, Google Forms as an example. The idea of requesting a film early is one that needs less explaining now that several larger films have successfully built request campaigns.  For the last few days, I’ve been thinking I would just use Google Forms to start building a request FToM list, it’s easy to set up; I see it used quite often with beta sites, etc… at first my fields were: name, zipcode, email; then I changed it to just: email and zipcode, but I was sad I would have such little information to work with, and I was also sad the action of requesting the film would go straight to a private spreadsheet and not somewhere else online, where others might also find the film interesting. So…  Then I started to think about changing the purpose of the Facebook Like button on FToM’s website, redesigning the area around it for requesting purposes; this would, with one simple click, give me a name, a location, age, etc, *and* it would also be a social action, letting others on Facebook know.  Now, the main distribution for the film will be online - that has always been the idea and it hasn’t changed, but, say I have an exceptional amount of likes or requests for the film in Ann Arbor, that might be enough to convince indie-friendly local theaters to screen the film for two nights.  Of course, not everyone has Facebook, and I would have a smaller area of the request section linked to a simple Google Form as a backup for people. But anyway, that’s something I’ve been thinking about. Thoughts?
Pop-upView Separately

The idea of building a request tool for the film has been something I’ve wanted to do off and on for about two years - resources and especially time always pushed it back in priority; a lot has changed online in those two years, new tools exists for helping people build list, Google Forms as an example. The idea of requesting a film early is one that needs less explaining now that several larger films have successfully built request campaigns. 

For the last few days, I’ve been thinking I would just use Google Forms to start building a request FToM list, it’s easy to set up; I see it used quite often with beta sites, etc… at first my fields were: name, zipcode, email; then I changed it to just: email and zipcode, but I was sad I would have such little information to work with, and I was also sad the action of requesting the film would go straight to a private spreadsheet and not somewhere else online, where others might also find the film interesting. So… 

Then I started to think about changing the purpose of the Facebook Like button on FToM’s website, redesigning the area around it for requesting purposes; this would, with one simple click, give me a name, a location, age, etc, *and* it would also be a social action, letting others on Facebook know. 

Now, the main distribution for the film will be online - that has always been the idea and it hasn’t changed, but, say I have an exceptional amount of likes or requests for the film in Ann Arbor, that might be enough to convince indie-friendly local theaters to screen the film for two nights. 

Of course, not everyone has Facebook, and I would have a smaller area of the request section linked to a simple Google Form as a backup for people. But anyway, that’s something I’ve been thinking about. Thoughts?

here’s to the new year

It’s Christmas today, and here in LA it’s warm’ish and raining. I have a lot of packing and cleaning-up to take care of before I get on a plane tonight and head to Michigan till the 6th. I don’t have much to write a post, but I wanted to take a second to say I hope everyone has an awesome holiday and new years.

I also thought I’d give a sneak peak at something we’re working hard on – not sure when it be ready to go live, we still have some kinks to work out. But we are pretty excited about it.

I’ll do my best to check in before too much time goes by on the blog. If anyone has any questions they’d like answered, or topics you’re curious about, let us know – progress on the film is always slow at the end of the year. So we could use a good conversation-starter. Here’s to the new year!