The BBC, Self Releasing and Perception

It's been a very strange, very long week.  On Monday I got an email from NFM saying they were going to plug the WORLD PREMIERE on their website. On Tuesday I was paying for a McDonald's at the drive up window when my phone rang, it was from a "blocked" number. Usually this would be ignored, but I was waiting for a call from someone whose phone system always shows as blocked.  So anyway, I answered the phone just as I was moving to the next window… hands free of course. And it turned out that it wasn't the call I'd been expecting, but rather it was someone from the BBC!  The conversation went like this:

"Hi, is now a bad time?"  

"Not exactly, I mean this second is bad [being handed my order] but in about 30 seconds it'll be fine."

Anyway eventually I managed to explain what was going on and we had a really good chat. The BBC reporter was calling because she wants to do a piece about The Stagg Do and the WORLD PREMIERE.
We chatted for quite some time about what the "story" would be and as ever a reporter's angle can be quite different from your own. One thing let to another and we started talking about distribution.  She initially couldn't understand why we were self releasing, ie why we don't have a distributor, it seems that the perception that the film must be shite and nobody wants to distribute it isn't just limited to film industry types…

But here's the thing, we have never sought a distributor for The Stagg Do. It was always intended that we'd self release it… There are blogs on this site and on the Pissheads one, talking about self distribution and how technology has made this a feasible concept.  In fact in 2004, we made a ton of short films and I originally talked about self distributing them. Pre-selling DVDs was the plan then we'd use the profits to make the actual films.  I guess in essence it was crowdfunding that I was talking about - but long before the term crowd funding had dropped into everyday parlance. People didn't have the bottle to sell and the idea fell flat on its face, but as Kickstarter and Indiegogo have proven, the idea is and was fundamentally sound. But sometimes you can be too far ahead of the game. 

This blog is not about how prescient I am, people were talking about this shit in the 1990s and I only thought of it in 2004, rather it's a blog about how we as filmmakers still need to change people's perceptions. Be proud of DIY or DIWO, don't be ashamed to self release. Stick with your plan, stick with your goal and give it a go. Because even now in 2014, we are still the pioneers… Just because we're early, it doesn't make us wrong.  Oh and ★★BUY TICKETS FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE★★