Yesterday brought us the news that the man, the legend, Bill Murray gatecrashed a stag do (or bachelor party if you prefer), luckily for y'all we are currently running a meme competition and on occasion the director, James DeMarco, chucks a meme online. So we have a tumblr, an instagram, a Facebook (obvs), a twitter, we're on IMBb and of course we have this website and blog as well as Youtube and Vimeo - that's a lot of social media. We've been on some of these sites since 2011 - but what I've learned is unless you have loads of money you're not going to top search. Any search. Take IMDb, if you go to IMDb.com - the home page and key in the stagg do, like all predictive search it starts searching for matches, naturally at t-h-e s-t-a-g - it thinks it has a match with "The Stag" - the Irish stag do film starring Moriarty from Sherlock - that's fair enough… But keep typing so you've typed in the stagg do - and it STILL fucking suggests The Stag, which incidentally will be called the Bachelor Party in the US. That's just bullshit and shows categorically that new media is just like old media and money talks. The good news is that I've been doing LOADS of search engine optimisation and so stag do (1 g) film premiere in Google brings up 3 entries for us on page one of Google! People must also be clicking on IMDb and searching for us - because we have risen over 30,000 places in their rankings in the last month. The O2 Academy Newcastle listing is really helping with Google rank too - so it's cool. This blog isn't really a whinge it's more a warning to other filmmakers and small business owners what you are up against when it comes to relying on the Internet for your marketing. You REALLY need some good old fashioned media behind you… Get into your local paper, get on the telly, bung up some posters - get out and meet your audience and customers… AND make it easy for them to buy from you. PS ★★ WORLD PREMIERE ★★ at O2 Academy Newcastle 26/06. Get your tickets NOW - Tel: 0844 4772000
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Well the press releases have gone out, the cast and crew have been invited and the cat is pretty much out of the bag. So here goes *FANFARE* We are thrilled to announce that we will be hosting the WORLD PREMIERE of The Stagg Do at the o2 Academy on Westgate Road in Newcastle, on June 26th, 2014. Doors open at 7pm Tickets will go on pre-sale (to o2 customers) from the Academy itself at the end of this week. And they will go on general sale on May 19th 2014. Available from us or via the o2 Academy Box Office (Tel: 0844 477 2000). As it's the World Premiere there will of course be an aftershow featuring live music. So get your tickets early and join us for this exciting event. We'd love to see as many of you there as is possible - it'll be a fab night and we really can't wait to share this film with you all. Thanks James and Zahra xxx PS: MAKE SURE YOU TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS TOO! As I put on Facebook the other day, I'm soooo close to have some AMAZING news to share with y'all, it makes me want to wee with excitement! But at the same time - this cursed film of ours has a funny way of biting you in the arse when you least expect it… so I'll stay schtum until the paperwork is signed! In the meantime, as Steve Miller (and Seal) would say, time keeps on slipping/ into the future and the day of our release keeps getting closer and closer and closer. We have a press release just about ready to go (we'll probably share it here first - coz we're like that) and everything will be revealed there (or should that be here?). Anyway - enough - I'm even confusing myself now. Over the weekend, we were supposed to be having our cast and crew screening - but as ever - events conspired against us (I really must've been a git in my past life!) and so instead we decided to start some real world marketing and PR. My mate Steve Wraith runs the Number 9 Bar at The Cosmic Ballroom (no not fake Shearers) every home match day and he kindly gave us the opportunity to leaflet the crowd before the Cardiff game. He also said that rather than just leafleting we'd be better doing a wee talk on the microphone before the host, Joe Allon, interviewed the main attraction ex-Newcastle United striker Malcolm MacDonald! Pob and I nominated (ganged up on) James and made him do the little talk… You can see him in the photo above with Joe Allon and Supermac - he did okay, but he and I really need to work on our public speaking - lots of ums and erms - and let's face it, I bottled it! As soon as James left the stage we had to jump in the car and fly up to The Parks Sports Centre in North Shields, where the 3rd Annual Screen-Con event was taking place. We actually got there in time, but they were running late, which gave us the opportunity to have a wander around the exhibition space and see what was going on. I got to meet David Warner (who is a completely legendary actor) and to say I was star-struck doesn't come close. James got to have his photo taken outside the TARDIS from Doctor Who and with KITT from Knightrider. Meanwhile Pob got to fulfil a lifelong dream by punching a Dalek. Anyway after surveying the room and handing out a few leaflets we decided to "pull" our scheduled Q and A - as the crowd was about as un-Stagg Do as you could imagine. Vicki, one of the organisers, had told me that it was a family event - but even so, I was unprepared for quite how many young children were there… And somehow promoting our tale of titties, beer and drugs felt horribly inappropriate. I mean a stag do is generally not exactly suitable content for a 10 year old. I'm many things but a corrupter of young children isn't one of them! So all in all it was a mixed bag - we got to soft launch in front of some Newcastle United fans and legends and then we got to bottle doing a Q and A in front of some lovely sci-fi fans. And Pob got to punch a Dalek. This promotional lark is hard work, man! We're hurtling towards the finish line, of course there are still a few things that need to be completed before we get there - a few shots need tweaking in the grade and we still have the sound mis to go, but the sound edit is 90% there. I've spent the last ten days looking at potential venues for the WORLD PREMIERE (woooo) and the cast and crew screening - as ever these things take forever and I'm still awaiting final confirmation - but things are looking good. Talking of looking good (what a fricken' segue - I should be on the telly, me) James and I spent yesterday looking at and making decisions on Stagg Do merchandise! You know T-shirts, mugs, keyrings and such like… I'll be putting up a store on here in the next couple of weeks and you can all start preordering your "merch" as the cool kids say. In many ways that's what this particular post is about - what sort of merchandise would you guys like to buy - if any? DVDs, CDs and T-shirts are a definite - but what else would float your boat? Fancy emailing us? Or just bunging an answer in the comments below? Also if you know anybody who might be interested in sponsoring our release or advertising with us then please send them our way. And finally if you a spare quid or two that you can sling into our Paypal account we'd be most grateful. Memes, memes, memesAnd finally - check out our meme contest - the entries are currently here and our our tumblr. Why not visit a meme generator and knock some up for us? You can submit them on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr or if social media doesn't appeal, you can email them to us. There will be EXCLUSIVE prizes and discounts for the winners, including a pair of tickets* to our WORLD PREMIERE this summer. Memes are also a great way for us to spread the word about the film and to help us bring people to the website - so feel free to share any you like along with a link, to us here, on any platform that you use. I think I'll be setting up a Pinterest and Instagram account soon - so any pointers you might have will be appreciated. And one last thing - would you be interested in signing up to our newsletter for exclusive updates and offers? *WORLD PREMIERE will be in North East England - transport not included
Waay back in 2009 we had an idea for a Geordie comedy called Pissheads, for a whole host of reasons namely "no fuckin money" it didn't happen. Fast forward to 2011 and we shot The Stagg Do which is a loose prequel to Pissheads in that it's set in the Pissheads universe with overlapping characters. Hey who said you can't dream big just coz you're squished at the bottom of the barrel? Fast forward to now, and it's just about ready for release. This summer in fact - wooo! This brings us nicely to Mr Pinkman, above. You see when you make a film for very little money (and we're talking circa £10grand not £100,000+ here) and you're planning on self-releasing… which we always were - even Pissheads back in 2009, then you need to find a way to connect with your potential audience. That's where the internet has been a godsend for independent filmmakers. It's what gives us an opportunity to compete for your eyeballs with bigger films. We can't afford ads on buses or on Sky Sports News. We are relying on you. Our fans and our supporters to spread the word for us. If you want to see this film, if you think you'll like it and you think your mates will like it - then spread the word. Tell people, tweet people - especially celebs, tag your mates on Facebook. Anything that'll help us get enough people to see this film to enable to prove there is an audience for this kind of stuff and to help us get Pissheads made too. So that's what the memes are about, that's what the Facebook and Twitter feeds are about, that's why i've been blogging (off and on TBF) for 3 years - to spread the word of this little Geordie film. To connect us with our potential audience and to get seen. If you would like to join in "like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, make some memes online and generally SHOUT to everyone you know - so that when we finally hit our release time enough people see the film to make us make a dint in the calendar. And if you know anybody who'd be interested in sponsorship opportunities tell them to contact us - and if you have a spare couple of quid that you can sling our way in advance of the release they you can donate via PayPal here. Thanks for reading and hopefully y'all will love the fillum. At the end of the day - that's what it's about - you, the audience.
Thanks x You can never do enough pre-production. It doesn't matter what type of show you're working on, it could be a short film, a corporate gig, a music video, whatever. You never get to do enough planning. This is pretty much a given in the film industry and with the Stagg Do this was also true, but it was no surprise. I was informed of this from the very beginning, the first meeting I had with James it was made perfectly clear that this was a labour of love on a shoestring budget. Fine by me, everything I've worked on to date has lacked the money to get all the toys and support one would love to have on a project. You have to make the best with what you have, and I've always been a firm believer that it doesn't matter what format you are shooting on, it's HOW you shoot and WHAT you are shooting that counts. What stood out the most about this project was the enthusiasm and sheer ballsiness of the producer and director. It was never going to be an "easy" shoot. Not by a long shot, but damned if they were going to let that stop them. When people care that much about a project you cannot help but be swept up into it with them. I had nerves, just as any first time feature DoP would have, but confidence that what I had done up until now had made me ready for what lay ahead. Every shoot has it's challenges, like choosing a path on a climbing wall. What we had in front of us this time though, was a mountain! And fuck me if we didn't conquer it. Other blogs have talked about the struggles and frustrations we faced on our 8 days in the summer of 2011. Other people more eloquent and, dare I say it, tactful than me have covered the dramas behind the scenes so I'm not going to go into that at all here. My own personal experience with this film was fulfilling and positive, no matter the trials we faced. It didn't matter how cold and wet it got, it didn't matter how far off the schedule things went, we knuckled down and did the work in front of us. Tempers fray, when you are spending that much time with people you hardly know, under the cosh of the elements and when things don't go according to plan, people are going to snap. You deal with it, you move on. The only place I have really revelled in stress of any kind is on a film set. It drives you, it makes you grit your teeth and say "fuck it, let's do this" all the more, and that is exactly what we did. All of us. Did we make mistakes? Sure for a lot of us this was our first feature. Did we get behind on schedule at times? Absolutely, but when the chips were down we rallied back. In the end we were a team, we started as a team and we finished as a team, even though there were subs along the way. Regardless of all of that I'm proud of what we did. Proud that we took the gamble, looked at the odds and went all in. It's balls like that that gets films made. I have a lot of respect for the people I worked with on The Stagg Do. The choices that were made in bringing this film to fruition were extremely brave, from the casting of non-actors in the main roles and shooting in woods night with minimal lighting, to having a profoundly deaf production/ camera assistant. I got the opportunity to work directly with some great new people and some who I've always wanted to work with. I got the chance to support two of the most passionate filmmakers I know and help them make the film they wanted to. I'm proud to say I was the director of photography on The Stagg Do. by Richy Reay
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