Hiring a Cosplay model

Hello all.  Got a lot a plans in the wake to further promote Reclamation.  Back in October, at PacCon Spokane, met a cool model by the name of Spaceydoll who I thought could be a great model for the character Layna.  She had the height (5'10"), a decent build, but most of all, she actually "looked" like she could kick some ass.  So I decided to ask her if she'd be willing to be a model for me on our next conventions, and this is what we got......

Stay tuned.....

Reclamation: Issue 2 - in the works

Thank you for hanging in there as I work on the next installment of Reclamation.  I've learned a lot over the past 2 years and think you'll be glad you waited. More to come.

New action star to watch - Mareese Crump

We got a new Black martial artists on the map. Just watched "The Protector 2" (Tom Yum Goong 2). Keep your eye on him...This dude's the truth....should check him out if you haven't already. 

Mareese Crump

Mulciber is complete, and looks better than ever. Enjoy!

Mulciber is Beelzebub's second in command.

He is the architect and engineer of the city known as Pandemonium.

 He is highly intelligent and is expert at strategy and warfare. He built and designed Satan's Grand Palace.

The next generation of Action-Horror that’s not vampires, werewolves, or zombies. Reclamation opens up the vast world of hellish creatures

Romeal Watson, writer of the Hell-Tale story, Reclamation, tries to offer a different approach to the usual vampire, werewolf, and zombie genres.  Based out of Spokane, Washington, Watson originally created this story as a 131-page screenplay, but in an attempt to create a following, decided to convert portions of the screenplay into several comic book volumes.  Watson started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $3,500 create the next volume of his visual screenplay.

Watson says, “For the past 15 years, the movie industry has been saturated with the vampires, werewolves, and zombies genre’s; and while the Walking Dead and True Blood series continues to do well in the land of TV, I think it’s time to show our audience something else in the world of features.”

Reclamation is a dark supernatural tale of an ancient war between an elite clan of demon hunters and a ferocious demon legion. Set in a bleak metropolis, the story follows Ray Hughes, a struggling accountant, who becomes enthralled into this mystical underworld when he learns of the untimely death of his father.  Through a series of trails, Ray not only learns of his father’s involvement with this elite clan of demon hunters, but of the oncoming demon apocalypse set to hail upon mankind.  As Hell approaches, Ray must discover his own hidden secrets and stand with the band of hunters against Baal, the legendary prince of Hell.

Watson’s story brings out a whole world of hellish creatures; all of which have their own unique strengths and weakness, as well as a vast culture to explore.  Watson says, “why stop with such a mediocre creature such as vampires, when you can open the door to so many badass creatures, ones that put our popular characters to shame.”

Reclamation: The Visual Screenplay Vol. #2 is now available on Kickstarter, and will end October 28^th.  You can also follow Reclamation at www.wats-onproductions.com.

Should big production companies consider pre-production marketing assessment?

In this summer's series of flops, it seems like quite the gamble for a $80-$250 million dollar movie to not let their marketing demographic offer "some kind" of a feedback in it's pre-production stages. What I'm suggesting, is, "hey, if you're going to put out that $80-250 million dollar movie, maybe we can pre-assess some probabilities first, to see if $50-$150 million is more appropriate.  Maybe we can wait 4 years when the market is back up for another vampire movie.

All Summer 2013 Flops (all internally produced FYI):
Lone Ranger = Lost $141 million  (2nd highest flop in history)
R.I.P.D = Lost $129 million, other Dark Horse Projects got dropped. (4th highest flop)
White House Down = Lost $87 million  (15th highest flop)
Turbo = Lost $69 Million  (39th highest)

End result:
$426 Million in Losses (in a 3 month period), several projects dropped, less upcoming artist able to sell their (probably better) idea, less movies for you to enjoy....get where this is going?

I think with these challenges in our wake, it might be appropriate to at least exercise the thought of whether production companies should consider pitching their treatments to its audience first; just like writers have to round up at the crack of dawn for 10 hours to pitch to them. Hot or Not, but for big budget movie treatments, (not trailers, by then it's too late). Doing this will provide an open channel, so people like you and me can help provide research that justifies the probability of that $250 million movie actually recouping it's funds.

HOW DO WE DO THIS?
While this would be like a focus group, by no means would it be to that extreme:

-Mainly for movies with proposed budgets of $80 Million or more.
-Bigger sample size, before movie previews if possible
-Everyone (relative to age restrictions) can participate
-Only shorts, treatments, pitches, with visual aids, no features (money already spent)
-It's only "one" question, with optional 60-character explanation(only if ranked 2 or below)

Question: Would you pay to see it? (scale 1-5)  

Instead of showing random trivia before movie previews, theaters can offer 1-minute pitches (or shorts) for production companies interested in gathering information from their audience.  Then we vote using an access code.  We vote online from either a smart phone, home computer, a kiosk located at the theater, or even on gaming consoles.  IMDB could have this feature available as well.

After the pitch, the initial survey question would start by asking, "would you pay to see this movie?"  Based on a scale of 1-5.

1 = Definitely not
2 = Not interested right now
3 = Maybe
4 = Look interesting,
5 = Absolutely would see it

If someone rates a 2 or below, they can offer a 60-character comment about why they're not interested.

Consolidating the 60 characters would be easy.  In research studies you can do what's called "coding" where you track keywords and phrases (for example: the phrase "tired of vampires" showed up 100,000 times.) You can even track the demographic, so you know age groups and gender. From that you can create "themes", and decide the probability of your movie being able to recouping expenses from that target audience. It's better than what we have now, a $150 million dollar blind-fire.

This system isn't saying that treatments with bad ratings get canned.  This is saying, based on your audience, this is the percentage of "interest".  Marketers know how to appropriate timing and a budgeting for stuff like that, so money is not being wasted. If a company chooses to proceed, that's their right, but here are some marketing considerations you can used to get the best bang for your buck.


CONCLUSION:
The intention is not about changing a story to fit a mass audience. This is a marketing strategy to assess probability your audience's interest. Almost like Kickstarter, but no money. This is about General mood of market based on your presentation. Gauging your market with respect to timing and your budget (primarily budgets over $80 million).

Would you risk spending $80 million on a vampire movie, if your treatment rating came back at 2.0 (from your respective audience), and feedback flagged "tired of seeing vampires" 150,000 times? You might consider doing it for $50 million, or wait 5 years when the market is hot again.

If it's not book adaptations, (which can look to book sales to gauge the probability of audience participation), how can production companies know what their audience is willing to pay for? All they have are past market sales, which only gives a narrow representation of what "this story" is able to do. This could be copyright hell, but there apparently needs to be some indicators put out there.

Thoughts?

Response to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' foretelling the death of studios, movie tickets costing $150, and the flourishing of indiefilms.

You can read the article here, and share what you think.

The implosion is correct, although I would quicker say bankrupt, because nobody is paying $150 a ticket when they can download.  The indiefilms will save Hollywood, just like Blackploitations did in the 70's (it's true).  With all the people turned down by production companies, they are just rounding up their friends, and doing it anyway.

The #1 reason Hollywood is in trouble is because they are disconnected from the people, and are flat out scared to collaborate with new writers who can deliver fresh ideas, but may need a little help with structure.  Help them to bring it out, don't shut the door on them.   The movies they select out of the pile only follow worn-out trends. I don't want to see any more vampires for 10 years.

And what in the world did they do to the zombies in World War Z?  This had better be good.

Rather than revitalizing that relationship they'd rather suck on the book-to-movie tit, who already has a following.  Problem with that is, "books are geared for reading and imagining".   When will that well run dry?  When will the true fans of the franchise get tired of their books being massacred by film?  Also, what does that say about the movie industry, when they can't produce their own stories from within?  We're now on Alien 6, Terminator 5,  Indiana Jones 5, Underworld 5, Fast and Furious 6

As a writer, I'm now told that I need to write a graphic novel, or comic book, or short animation and build a fan base before they'll look at me.  I'm 100% sure my story will light you up, but they are scared of it.  And guess what, there is a long line of artist that have great stories.  So the problem isn't the lack of material, the problem is their inability to filter that material and bring it in.

With Fox Searchlight getting sued, you can bet they are tightening up even more on any mentoring possibilities.  Internships dropped by 400.  Most industry pros started off as interns, fetching cables, light bulbs etc.

That's what our movie legends did.

But, they DO have to get a handle on these films being leaked to other countries with few pirating laws.  Ironic because, Americans are broke (and deeply critical on movies), so they deeply rely on foreign market to boost sales, but those markets can totally steal and share with little repercussion.  I almost feel like it's sabotage, the ease that they are able to do it.