New Stuff!

With all the excitement, I forgot to mention the new products!

Already moved some of these "I got my start in television" t-shirts - to television grips, no less! Also sold our first mug with this design.

Links, Links, Links!!!

Thank you, FilmStew! Your write up on Strikeset Brand Filmmaker Gear was picked up by Yahoo! Movies this week, a host of RSS's and I'm counting over twenty mentions (Though I gotta love the title they assigned me, "Would-be filmmaker Thomas J. Chavez". Dang. I did a Heinz commercial!

But props, props. You guys are my new favorite film news site. Right up there with Variety (Anne Thompson, can you see this? We're connected on LinkedIn! Give me a mention! I love you!) Aintitcool, Joblo and THR.

Now the keyword of the day is traffic, traffic, traffic...

Back from the Bay and sellin' stuff!

Just got back from San Francisco last weekend where I attended a seminar by the IIFF - good stuff, though I was a little dissapointed (I think many of the participants were) that the topics weren't a little more "film-focused" (The seminar was the "One Day MBA for Film Entreprenuers", after all). The seminar was given by a VC (Dr. Frank Greene, bio.) who had some good advice - and a lot of it really hit home - but the details as it came to motion picture projects were a bit slim. I'm really starting to think that film finance is an inexact (is that a word?) science.

anyway, despite a total of fifteen (yep, you heard me right) hours of delay and getting bumped from flights (thank you, United - friendly skies indeed. George Gershwin is rolling over in his grave!), I had a chance to check the site and lo! Sales! After a painfully slow roll out, we had our first sales! IMDB'd a couple of the buyers, and I'm pleased to say Strikeset Brand Filmmaker Gear will be sported this fall on the sets of some of cable's most popular programs! Thank you early adopters - you guys rock!

Stayed with a couple of old friends in Oakland - Bill Rowley produced my directing efforts "Low Flying Clouds" for Born in the Flood (I heard they just landed a deal) and "The Proposal", and his wife, Sara, was the art director on "Proposal". I couldn't help but enjoy the irony - I made a film about entreprenuers trying to pitch venture capitalists, and I was in Cali learning how to pitch...venture capitalists. (Michele tells me she now works for a VC firm - after playing a character who works for a VC firm in TP. Irony. It's hot. [ooh! New T-shirt]).

Oh, while I'm jabbering about VCs, props to my La-La land based homegirl Heidi Bramlet for her recent roll-out of the Idealab-funded Perfect Market (http://www.perfectmarket.com/). Check them out, some good Silicon Valley folks involved - archived search technology. Heidi's always been an adventurer at heart, she looooves this stuff. Great work, kids!

Also had a chance to run (literally) through Ikea and pick up some lamps, napkins and finger puppets. Hmm. I wonder if carrying a freakin' floor lamp onboard a cross-country flight might have been the reason TSA selected me for the new naked scanner? Geez we really need an Ikea in Colorado. Hey, anybody who wants to make a fortune, let me know, we'll work out the logistics and franchise that mofo. Coloradans will eat it up. Trust me, easy fifty million. Missed Trader Joes, nothing quite as fun a carrying $2.00 worth of wine 967 miles.

Sorry I missed La-La land (Los Angeles) this trip - missed the earthquake too. Hopefully I'll get back out there before AFM in November. Cris, Jackie, Henry, Heidi, Cris...all the rest - keep the faith!

Write up!

Wanna give a shout out to the folks over at Film Stew who gave us our first honest-to-god write-up! Check out the news on Filmmakergear here.

Cheeky. Awesome.

Also, loved the description of "Look Forward to a Bright New Past" - Set in 2018, against a global Apartheid scenario outlawing ethnicities of all kinds, it tells the story of a 17-year-old African-American track star willing to resort to desperate measures to fit in.

Saweet! Media coverage!

Da, da, da DAAA!

We're live!

Check out the Strikeset Brand Filmmaker Gear Website here!

Whew. Now I'm off to camping. (Old tradition - finish a project, go away for a couple of days. George Lucas' idea. No, I never met him, I just read about it...)

And the world sighs...

Lookin' for links-

As the rest of the layout comes together, I am considering what links to put where.

Just using other teeshirt sites as a guide, I have compiled a short list.

Also, looking at my intro blip, I don't even mention "film t-shirts". Hmm. Sounds like someone needs to review SEO...

Starting to get hits!

Our First Press Release!

Here it is! I'm not sure if it'll get picked up, but I think it's a cool release -and I got some help from a couple of studio PR guys I know (who shall remain nameless, out of respect)...

I'm still not crazy about the title, for someone who takes the greatest of pride in his title-writing abilities, this one is a bit bland, but I'll take suggestions!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Despite Obstacles, New Filmmakers Find Unique Ways to Keep Productions Stateside

Denver, CO, (7/10/2008): For many new filmmakers, the hardest part of making a movie is paying for it. Many rely on friends, family and grants to bring their visions to the screen. Denver-based filmmaker Thomas J. Chavez did the next best thing – he started a business.

Strikeset Brand Clothing was conceived of by Chavez as a way of funding his next film and shooting it here in the U.S. Strikeset makes T-shirts and other clothing with a humorous cinema theme. The profits will be used to pay the production and distribution costs for the film.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize what an important step these films can be for filmmakers,” says Chavez, “for a lot of us, it’s the first professional experience we get, and every penny we spend on production goes right back into the economy.” In addition to equipment rental, each film employs a virtual army of artists, actors, extras, designers, laborers, security personnel and coordinators who must be fed and housed. Set materials must be purchased from local suppliers, transportation arranged, actors clothed and tools purchased. It is estimated that for every $1.00 spent on film production, the local economy will see net income of $1.30[1].

“I just saw this as a way to help my cast and crew get their start, and bring a great film to the public.”

Chavez designed the entire line of shirts with his fellow filmmakers in mind. With shirts featuring such sayings as “I Dream in 1080p” and “Writer. Director. Barista.”, both film professionals and movie fans will find a sense of exclusivity in Strikeset shirts. “With the profits being used to put over eighty young filmmakers, artists and actors to work, I’m hoping this is something the film community as well as the public can embrace.”

Chavez is not alone in wanting to engage the community. The American film industry in 2005 was responsible for the employment of over 1.3 million Americans[2] and over $60.4 billion in output to the U.S. economy. The resulting $9.5 billion trade surplus is one of the few industries the U.S. can claim a surplus in. For many of those professionals, the entry point to this industry is through not-for-profit short films like Chavez’.

Though high labor and production costs represent a significant challenge to shooting in the U.S., many filmmakers are making a concerted effort to film American. Several state governments have also recognized the potential to the economy and have enacted legislation that provides tax incentives to entice films to shoot in their state. To Chavez, Strikeset represents another opportunity to keep the work stateside. “Starting off, you always work within a relatively small budget, but I am hopeful that with the success of this site, we can realize another chance to keep the work American, and continue to build an industry that has been a bright spot in recent times.”

Strikeset Brand Clothing features t-shirts and printed gifts with a cinema theme and can be found at http://www.filmmakergear.com/.

###

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Thomas J. Chavez
Director
sales@filmmakergear.com


[1] Moore School of Business, Division of Research. (2008). Evaluating the Economic Impact of Film Production Incentives in South Carolina. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina

[2] Bureau of Labor Statistics

Help for Tom?

I now have a domain!

I started the site with a simple, (but overly complicated) domain name of filmmakergear.com - nothing quite like a domain consisting of not one, not two but three individual terms (film, maker and gear). Ah, I'm flashing back to the dot-com daze...such wonderful stock options...

Well, after the G1 site went up for beta testing, I immediately hated it. It was black, had a boring logo and just looked bad. Probably when sitting in my orange-themed living room did I come up with the idea for the new Strikeset design. (It didn't hurt that I just happened to be taking a class called "Business Storytelling and Brand Development". So I started with the logo and kind of went from there.

When it came to a name, I was having less success. Obeying the rules of brand development, I wanted a name that was a proper noun, a word evocative of filmmaking, film sets and film makers, and something that demanded action - oh, and the domain had to be available - it seems that's always the stumbling block nowadays. Here were the open names:

Followshot Clothing

Zip Pan Clothing

Strikeset Clothing

Slowzoom Clothing

Matteshot Clothing

I did a little market research (I interviewed ten of my film school and pro cinema buddies) and Strikeset was the clear winner, followed closely by...filmmakergear. Slowzoom was another popular choice, but I don't like the word "slow" in there (though I like the dichotomy of the "slow" and the speed of the word "zoom"). Zip Pan became "Zippin'" when said too fast and would be hard for someone who heard the name (as opposed to reading it) to find online. Similar problems on "Matteshot", which is a cool film term, but sounds like "Matt's Hot!". Ditto for "Followshot" (Follows Hot!). Strikeset, on the other hand sounds fast - "Strikes it!". So with my two choices in hand, I did the next best thing to picking one, I kept the filmmakegear domain and added strikeset. One forwarding to another, and so the world turns.

The logo was a lot of fun to design too. Of course, the film can reels to the left are an obvious symbol for the cinema, and since I was going with a classic, aged look for this line, the old can-style 35mm reels were a better choice than say, a video camera. The font was downloded (I didn't build it), with a slight drop shadow and a twisted slash which is evocative of a film strip shooting off the reel. I gave the logotype a fading perspective and added the subtitle to the lower right to create the pleasing "panoramic rectangle" so favored by Graphic Designers these days.

I also added Google Analytics to the front page (since so much of this page is built with a script, I'm not sure if Google will index, but CPShop has a nice little tracking feature I can use to trend). I also threw on a down and dirty search function, but I am not pleased with it. I'll play with the Google search a bit and see if I can get that to work for me.

I also drafted a final "To-Do" list of little items I need to add or correct. Other than the sidebar and footer links, probably the hardest are to get the desctiptions and keywords working in CafePress and finish the thumbnail tables (and if anyone knows a way to dynamically generate those, shoot me an email, that would save me a few hours).

I have started to get hits on the filmmakergear site though we're still not live. I have dedicated all of Saturday to get this mofo off the ground and am hoping to get the first ads placed and the first press releases out by Monday. I'll tell you how that goes!

And the winner is...

I finnally have enough sales to declare a "bestseller". Oh happy day!

And the winner is - a tie!

"Writer, Director, Barista" and "Fix It In Post!" are both tied for the most sales so far - with "DollyGrip" a close second. Even with almost five years of t-shirt expertise behind me, I am still not sure about what people like. Maybe it's all the concerts and theatre work, but I prefer black shirts with white designs. They're stark, but the colorful shirts are taking off too.

I've also begun to notice an interesting trend, my "Fix It In Post!" design suddenly has a few imitators. Check this one out.

I'll give this guy credit, though, he has a cool design. Every night I work a few more hours on the beast - I'm still aiming for this weekend to get everything done, and go live. OOoooooh. Soon I get to actually begin writing a script!

Nearly Live!

Well, it's been more than three months in the making, but the Strikeset website is almost live! Thanks to Marty at CPShop for all the help! After getting the CafePress functionality integrated into the site, I had to deal with a testy little problem of awesome blue halos surrounding my PNGs in IE 5.5 and 6.0, and she's nearly ready...

My girlfriend was marvelling at the amount of code writing and design that went into what is, in actuality, a tertiary fundraising channel - I can't help but get over the fact that to make a 22 minute film, I have had to build a product line, website, learn PERL, write press releases...

More to come. I am estimating about 17 hours of labor left on this MoFo. The filmmaking t-shirt industry will never be the same!