Hey guys,

I tried uploading my feature to YouTube but was told it was deleted because it was longer than 10 minutes. When did that happen?

I'm on Vimeo but you can't upload larger than 500 MB a month and my film, even at 600 x 338 frame size and good resolution, is almost 850 MB. And I can't justify paying $60 a year for more space.

Veoh, I don't know anything about.

Any other places I can upload it that are nice, popular, and legit?

Thanks,

Heath

YouTube has always had a 10 minute limit.
You can always compress your movie more before uploading so it goes to Vimeo.

We're going to try uploading it directly into my website. If that fails, I'm trying:

ExposureRoom - Providing Exposure & Opportunity for Talent (http://www.exposureroom.com)

or just going back to MobileMe (http://www.mobileme.com)

Thanks!!

heath

I see 9:04 up on Exposureroom. 1hr26mim in length. I checked out some of the trailers a few months ago, and thought it was going to DVD. I'm being a little nosy, but did you manage to make $ off this venture? I thought it looked good and funny, worth a price of admission, and will check out the full movie later today. -BT

Hi Bill,

Thanks for that. I haven't made money simply because the DVD isn't out yet. Two theater showings had us basically breaking even or losing a little bit of money. I would like to maybe do some small screenings at colleges and small theaters around Florida and try to sell the DVD.

Heath

I've been putting my stuff on openfilm.com.

I haven't done this myself yet, but I believe that you can apply to YouTube to have the limit lifted for your particular uploads.

Just something I have heard from others.

Andrew

Hey, Heath, I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but, usually one only puts their features or shorts online in their entirety, with free access to anyone, if they're not trying to distribute any other way or all other distribution options have been exhausted (or so I've heard). Conventional wisdom is that having stuff online can disqualify you from many film festivals and other distribution outlets. Just looking out for you.

Josh,

I've already been in a couple of film festivals and I'm getting ready to self-distribute the movie. For me, this was the best way to get the film out to the world. We'll see if my little experiment works or not.

I'm going to be taking down the movie soon, along with the "webisodes" at MySpace.

Heath

Cool. Good luck then.

Josh,

I was partially inspired by Radiohead's release model back in October 2007 with In Rainbows. I won't be putting it up for a "you choose the price," but I was hoping to get some eyeballs on it.

Heath

NO, I gotcha. I just wanted to make sure you weren't unintentionally screwing yourself. I have most of mine (shorts that is) online, but the last one and the one I'm currently working on aren't/won't be 'til I've given up on everything else.

On the one hand it kinda kills me that I can't just put up a link and tell anyone "GO WATCH MY NEW FILM!" But on the other hand know realistically only a handful of people would even if I did so. So I'm really not missing out. Bass doesn't go viral, unfortunately. Not my films anyway. Heh.

Mine don't, either. I did post up 9:04 AM as a webisode series on MySpace and some of them got incredible views (for me at least). I might keep up the first 4 "webisodes" and take down the rest.

I'll be ganking 904 the feature off Exposure Room and 9.04 AM (http://www.904am.com) in a few days.

I'm sure your stuff will go viral soon enough!

heath

I wish. I don't know what the secret is to making your video get 3 million hits in two weeks, short of spamming message boards or something similarly sleazy (which, according to the craigslist film forum at least, is not well looked upon anyway).

Also, my last "short" was 23 minutes. Not generally acknowledged to be a good online length for viewing, being that most folks won't even sit through something that's even seven minutes.

As a guy who used to help run a local event at a major film festival, anything over 12-15 minutes usually doesn't get in. The programmers have to think, "Should I accept a 23 minute short and have a good-sized crowd show up, or two 12 minute shorts and possibly have two good-sized crowds show up?"

Heath

Yeah, so I've heard. I unfortunately did not consider that while I was writing, filming, or editing it. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn've made it shorter. As it was, I already chopped ten minutes off it to get it DOWN to 23 minutes.

Josh,

I have at least 3 maybe 4 shorts from the last 13-14 years that are over 20 minutes.

I also have two under-3-minute shorts that were in a bunch of fests, while the longer ones either never got into a fest or one of them did.

Heath

Well I'm making a vow to keep it under 15 unless it's a pilot or something from here on out. My upcoming one should be 12-15, maybe less. Hard to tell right now.


The 23 minute "November Rain" of short films has been entered into around 50 fests, got into 13, won "best of" awards at 3 thus far. There a few I haven't heard back from yet, and a few more I will probably enter, but I'm also looking into sales agents/short film distributors, and when all of them reject me, I guess I'll throw it up online.

Heath, this maybe a little late now, so sorry about that.

If you want to post something on YouTube that requires more then the 10:43 min. mark, (that's the exact length allowed) apply for 'partnership' as a film/new media production company. When accepted you can request an unlimited running time and if you get it, you can also generate some revenue through the Google AdSense program. Also, all YouTube 'director' accounts that were signed up before 2007 have no limit on running time but are capped at 2,000 megs. or so. YouTube is now actively looking for independent filmmakers with product to upload, if they like your stuff they will promote it. For what it's worth, a few features have done quite well in regards to views and exposure. Either way, good luck with your project.

Thanks for the advice, Jipsi!

I took down 9:04 AM as a feature (at Exposure Room and 9.04 AM (http://www.904am.com)) and "webisodes" (at YouTube and Vimeo) to focus on the DVD. I think it did well considering it's 87 minutes long.

More details when I get close to the DVD release; not sure about Blu-ray, but I may do it.

Thanks very much for all your support!

Heath

If anything I think a free screening online will help Heath with future films. It's helping to build a good reputation online, and people will eventually take notice.

Thanks, Matthew. It's incredibly risky, but a lot of fun, and the idea was kind of inspired by AIR doing free online listening parties for their last (and incidently current) album, and even Radiohead putting In Rainbows up.

I'd say maybe 200 people saw 9:04 AM at fests and theater screenings, total. Online, between the feature (400+ at Exposure Room, not sure yet how many at 904am.com), and literally tens of thousands on some of the "webisodes" I created by cutting the movie into 3-5 minute bits (on YouTube, MySpace, etc.), I think we did a much better job then trying to find money to hit more fests (unless we're rejected) or theater rentals, plus promos.

We'll see what happens when I put the DVD out there.

Thanks again to everyone!

Heath

I mean ... you have to consider though ... those albums were successful I'm sure because they had massive exposure and marketing behind them. I would take that into consideration.

Your film is grassroots and absolutely no exposure (well, you do now, but you started with none), you have no marketing behind you ... so you should be really pushing the marketing. I would try getting in touch with online film journals to set up interviews. You need more press on this. Possibly use prweb.com for an online press release.

If you want views, you need exposure either through search engines or some other outlet. You mentioned myspace being very good to you ... it's not surprising since its a huge network. How about facebook and twitter?

Used both of those, too. Trust me, marketing is next. Once the DVD is ready, I have some cool plans. I think the best filmmakers are those that can sell themselves and their movies.

(And I know AIR and Radiohead had big PR and are big acts, but what they did is perfect for us, the indies.)

Heath

What about getting Vimeo Plus? I believe for $60/year you can upload 5GB/week.

What about getting Vimeo Plus? I believe for $60/year you can upload 5GB/week.

And much, much better quality.

Depending on the license you want to use, you could upload it to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org).

I wish vimeo had a $30 option that let you upload say 2.5gb a week. Or at least an introductory price for a few months before stepping up to full price. 500 megs is not enough and right now $60USD is stretching my already overstretched budget. lol I don't have enough use yet for the full service. WIll in a few months though.

Oh well, I'll probably cough up that cash soon.

ExposureRoom - Providing Exposure & Opportunity for Talent (http://www.exposureroom.com) is terrific and free!

Heath

Seriously Denny,

$60 is too much for your budget? And you're messing around with video?

How do you afford tapes or even food for that matter? (I'm not going to even think of asking how you got a camera.)

It's the cheapness of your mindset that tells you that you can't afford $1.15 per week. The $60 pricing they have is a no-brainer for the value that is offered.

Andrew
(who still uses the free version and does well working within the 500Mb weekly limit)

Seriously Denny,

$60 is too much for your budget? And you're messing around with video?

How do you afford tapes or even food for that matter? (I'm not going to even think of asking how you got a camera.)

It's the cheapness of your mindset that tells you that you can't afford $1.15 per week. The $60 pricing they have is a no-brainer for the value that is offered.

Andrew
(who still uses the free version and does well working within the 500Mb weekly limit)

Simple. When you are already over budget on initial purchases for a start up business. It then becomes a "Do I really need this right now" mentality. :)

We now pause a moment for a standard industry joke:

Q: Why do you video guys keep on doing more work?

A: So we can go and buy more gear.

:-P

Andrew

We now pause a moment for a standard industry joke:

Q: Why do you video guys keep on doing more work?

A: So we can go and buy more gear.

:-P

Andrew

That reminds me. I have a square foot of storage place that needs filling... Time for some more gear.