When is _Lost_Tribes_ going to be Available?

[Vespasian]

Hey Matt when did you first start selling Lost Tribes, and how many have you sold so far?

Thank you

[Matt Pacini]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Vespasian:
Hey Matt when did you first start selling Lost Tribes, and how many have you sold so far?

Thank you</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmmm, I guess something like a year and a half now?
I've sold probably like 100 copies.
I'm nowhere even close to making my $25,000 budget back, but it's nice to make the $10.00 or so I get per tape every now & then.

Matt

[seekaee]

I don't want to start another Mac vs. PC flame war like last year?but [img]wink.gif[/img]

Don't know what kind of PC you were running back then Jerome( sounds like Windows 95 to me) But PC's now a days are pretty dam good and-hardware wise-blow Mac's away; especially when it comes to Price.

As for software, you can pretty much run the same things the Mac has: Premiere, Avid Xxpress, Boris Red, Maya, After Effects,ect.Also Xp professional is by far Microsoft's best OS to date.They did a really good Job with this one.

However, I gotta say if I were to buy a Mac, it would be just to run Final Cut Pro, which hands down is fantastic and from what from I'm hearing, FCP4 is going to be nothing less then
revolutionary.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 21, 2002 09:37 PM: Message edited by: seekaee ]</font>

[Matt Pacini]

Jerome, I answered your email the day I saw it.
So if you didn't get it, I'm sorry.
No, Juk is NOT right about me!
Jeez!
Anyway, thanks for the offer to subtitle my film, but I can't afford it, and I'm frankly done throwing money at this movie.
I'm on to bigger, better projects.

Matt

[Jerome Cain]

My time must be wrong time and now I am full Mac which is fine although i do not mind PC today because of cheap hardware that i can assembly if i have time... Jerome

[Jerome Cain]

Matt! I sent you an email and do not get any respond since two weeks guess your disorder to reply or,... Guess, Juk, from sweden is right about you? I am looked forward to get respond from you about subtitle? I do make subtitle to make hearing happy so can you make subtitle to make me and my world of deaf happy? Thanks for IF you reply soon! Jerome, deaf filmmaker

[Jerome Cain]

I do not get any which sorry is cool... I can add subtitle for you if you want to or Mind if i buy one of your movie and add subtitle for myself and fix somehow for deaf people to buy? Let me know... Many Thanks!!! Jerome, deaf filmmaker

[Vespasian]

A year and a half ago MATT?? Damn that sucks where you trying to make your $25,000 budget back? Did you advertise well? How many copies did you make?

[Matt Pacini]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Vespasian:
A year and a half ago MATT?? Damn that sucks where you trying to make your $25,000 budget back? Did you advertise well? How many copies did you make?</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Advertise where?
Advertising for a film is outrageously expensive!
You have to be really well financed to advertise a film, to make anything like my investment bakc from a film.
Really difficult. It's best to try to get a distributor, and let them pay for it!

This is why I'm always giving out what sounds like very pessimistic advice, and people either ignore me, or jump all over me like I'm some idiot;
It's REALLY difficult and expensive to make even a micro budget film, and everyone (including me) thinks their first film is going to be a masterpiece, and win them fame and fortune, and it hardly ever works that way.
That's why I tell people to shoot a short first, shoot with a QUIET camera if you're going to record dialog, get financing, real actors, etc.
It's damn hard to make even a marginally watchable movie, and it's even harder to make your money back!

Matt Pacini

[tfunch24]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Matt Pacini:

This is why I'm always giving out what sounds like very pessimistic advice, and people either ignore me, or jump all over me like I'm some idiot;
</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

[snip]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Matt Pacini:

That's why I tell people to shoot a short first, shoot with a QUIET camera if you're going to record dialog, get financing, real actors, etc.
It's damn hard to make even a marginally watchable movie, and it's even harder to make your money back!
</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I might add that their first short should be silent because the ins and outs of synching dialog are much more difficult than they initially appear to be.

My first "film" (though for some reason I feel that people will discount it as not being a real film when I describe it here, hence the quotation marks) was a nine-minute short featuring marching band competitions. The thing was shot silent with music added roughly in synch later. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but it isn't bad, either.

My biggest problems with it were:

1. Barely enough light for exposure (I shot with K40 at night with only metal halide stadium lights for illumination.) At best the camera would stop down to 2.8; most of the time the aperture was wide open.

2. Because of the low F-stop settings, most of the film is in soft-focus, which looks downright ugly at times.

I paid for this out of my pocket and I've never figured the expenses. Here's a rough estimate:

14 rolls of K40 (w/o PK-59 processing): $10.83/cartridge--$151.62 total

Processing (Dwayne's): $8.16/Cartridge (Tax included)--$114.24*

Tickets for Marching Band Competitions: Average price: $6/competition. I attended seven comps: $42.

Rough Total: $307.86.

This budget does not include gas money, sales tax and shipping for the film that I purchased, or the costs of purchasing/developing two test carts that I initially shot back in September. I can't sell this film and I'm not going to see a penny back. I'm not complaining. I bring that up because invariably somebody's going to suggest that I try and sell the film.**

So, for those of you who have done similar shorts, how did your costs compare to mine?

Tom

*Before somebody screams "WHY DON'T YOU STOP PENNY-PINCHING AND BUY K40 W/PROCESSING FROM KODAK," let it be known that I shot with carts of K40 purchased in the Spring that were not sold with processing included. I AM NOT going to buy additional carts of K40 when I already have several in deep freeze, waiting to be used, unless I absolutely need them.

**The reason I can't sell the film is because I would need permission from the school district. If I secured permission and sold the film, at best I would recoup my costs but I probably would not make huge profits. I can't put the film online for the same reason. The school district allows filming (and videotaping) but only for your own personal use.

&lt;font color="#a62a2a" size="1"&gt;[ December 28, 2002 10:18 AM: Message edited by: tfunch24 ]&lt;/font&gt;

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 28, 2002 10:25 AM: Message edited by: tfunch24 ]</font>