Category: Do-It-Yourself

I’ve come to realize that I don’t hate advertising so much as have an allergic reaction to a high-hype-to-low-content ratio: like when the inner ear is imbalanced, when marketing TALKS LOUD and SAYS NOTHING NEW it induces what I call hype nausea. So promoting my books was initially a challenge for me. But since I wrote my first DIY Book Promo article five years ago, I’ve brought public attention to three more novels and now quite enjoy it. Here’s some of the things I think about when I craft a promotional campaign.
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I first noticed the Red Panda, his hands outstretched hypnotically, on a street poster in my neighbourhood. “Adventure! has a new address… decoderringtheatre.com” the poster announced. I checked it out and spent the next few days listening to the adventures of Canada’s Greatest Superhero (and his sidekick, the Flying Squirrel) on my MP3 player as I walked around town. More homage than spoof, I thoroughly enjoyed these additions to a genre most assume is long dead, and emailed Gregg Taylor to tell him so. A couple of emails later, he’d graciously agreed to “give the nickel tour” of how to make radio drama, from the high-tech of podcasting to the lo-tech of vegetable-based sound effects.

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So my pal Sean is the creator of the TTC Subway Rider Efficiency Guide: a small booklet that helps you plan which car on the subway to get on so that when you get off, you’ll be at the exit stairwell. He got a lot of media attention for this fascinating and obsessive project and he’s very generously offered to share all the things he learned during the process of media outreach which (true to his nature) he extensively catalogued as he went along.

While media outreach is only one part of promoting a project, it’s one that a lot of people find intimidating. He’s broken down a lot of the key things in a very approachable way. Check it out and feel free to add your own tips or questions in the comments.

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I’ve received five grants in the past eight years. Amounting to about $50,000, they’ve allowed me to take some time to work in different mediums and build community resources instead of focussing solely on making money through publishing books. The grant system isn’t perfect, but overall I am a big believer in it — I wrote an article a few months back on free money.

A lot of people have asked me about this over the years, and while I don’t think there’s any trick to grant writing, I do think there’re certain strategies that have helped me.
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by Nicholas Johnson

Making a movie where each scene is the perfect length and contributes to the piece as a whole, leaving echoes of images that stay in the brain like aroma, is a colossal pain in the ass. I tried to make that movie once, and it was not only painful for myself but for my friends as well. I had a pool of about eight friends whom I begged mercilessly each week, trying to get at least three of them to show up to film. I thrust liquor at them to keep them patient while I futzed with my camera to assure perfect shots. Inevitably problems would arise: a wind would kick up and wobble the camera on its spindly tripod, a cloud would pass over and change the tone of the daylight, or I would fuck up the pan. I duplicated shots just to be safe, I took a thousand close-ups in case I needed them during editing, and few of the actors escaped without injury — in one case a knee injury requiring medical treatment, the result of quite unnecessary horseplay. (more…)

by siue

I’m not going to be writing from a professional’s point of view. Most of the time I couldn’t be bothered to go about things the “right” way and am more concerned with time management and the outcome than doing something that will make me a “master” of my “craft”. I like to do animation because it’s fun, it’s a cheap way of getting what’s in my mind onto film, and I seem to be halfway decent at it. Maybe you’re wondering why you should do animation and not live action? Well, here’s two reasons — money and control! Sure you could get your friends to act for free — but will they give you want you want? Also what about special effects, costumes, sets, make-up, lighting etc., etc… Working a miniature scale is not only incredibly cheap — you can hand craft characters, movement and things exactly the way you want.

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by Stacey DeWolfe

One day in early January, while reading a selection from the autobiography of famous porn star Harry Reems, I had an epiphany. Back in the seventies, Harry and his buddies were making these feature length films that they would shoot in one day on Super 8. They didn’t have much of a script, but they had the one thing that everyone was interested in…tons of sex. They called them one day wonders.

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by Jim Munroe

Having only written two feature-length screenplays with a partner, I’m not willing to pretend a general expertise in the area. As such, this article’s subheads are not What-You-Need but rather What-I-Found-Helpful-To-Have.

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by Jonathan Culp

First of all, there’s no such thing as a free movie. Every film costs either money or free time or probably both, and hence rests on the exploitation of some form of privilege — even if it’s somebody else’s privilege. So nyaah nyaah, bourgeois artistes…there, phew, that’s over with. Now on to the fun part: you CAN make movies cheap and easy. Here’s some examples of scrounged, found or otherwise desperation-induced filmmaking methods. (more…)

After a certain amount of obscuring time, most writers that have written a novel allow themselves to be convinced by the people who say they’ve done a semi-mystical thing. After all, who doesn’t want to be a semi-mystic? And with a shrug, they give in to the pressure and accept the adulation as if it’s deserved.

So before I cave in, I’m going to lay down how I went about it. It’s a process which has as much slog as sublimity, as much mundanity as marvellousness. If you are frightened of being irreparably influenced by my method, read no further — that’s my only disclaimer, the rest will be unabashed opinionatin’. (more…)