All images © 2011 Mike Saenz.

http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?30,767183,767183#msg-767183


The gist of it: Music is free right now, whether you like it or not. So if you want to break in as an artist, make your record yourself and cut out the record company middlemen. Keep creative control and give it away to your public, but do so while building a community of fans. This community…is your real asset.

Some excerpts:

Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.

Collect people’s email info in exchange and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods…Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan…Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.

The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not…This is a fact…so…have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on – like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.

Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community.

Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost if any – Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

He’s right about the music industry, to be sure.

My question: How can we apply this model to indie film? The music industry is, after all, the canary in the coalmine for the movie industry.

The days of going out and seeing a mechanically reproduced work of art are numbered, it seems. Perhaps the trick is bundling films with a live performance? Something you can’t steal? Something that can’t be downloaded? Whatever the case, indie film needs to figure out how to adapt the post-digital revolution business model.

AUSTIN, Texas -

The Kick Butt Coffee :30 “Nunchuck” Spot, directed by Joy Gohring and Mike Saenz has been added to Action Figure’s Director’s Lab. This means that prospective clients of Action Figure can check out the “Directors” page, and click “Lab” and shout a collective, “Whoa, who did that Kick Butt spot?!”

‘Cause it kicks ass.

Check it out at http://www.actionfigure.com/index.php

Featuring talent Natalie Durkin and James Shieh.
Sound Design: Gentry Smith
Music: Chris Brady

Thanks to Arthur Kendrick and Rodd Simonsen for their hard work and to Master Tom Gorhing.

Featuring talent Natalie Durkin and James Shieh.
Sound Design: Gentry Smith
Music: Chris Brady

Thanks to Arthur Kendrick and Rodd Simonsen for their hard work and to Master Tom Gorhing for the use of Kick Butt Coffee’s 5775 Airport Blvd location.

Narrative Short. Written and Directed by Mike Saenz. Feat. Betsy Boyd, Lisanne Falk, Andrew Fried.

Michael Fimognari and Matthew Heckerling, Directors of Photography. Moe Moe Lwin and Amy Strong, Costumes and Art Dept. Christian Huennebeck, Editor. Scott Kramer, Sound Design. Cody Westheimer, Composer.

Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival, 2002.

Nadine struggles to entertain unexpected guests.

Here it is, right there with “Amadeus” and “Ran.” As it should be…
I <3 Austin. Thanks, I <3 Video!

Narrative Short. Written and Directed by Mike Saenz. Featuring Joy Gohring, Don Delaney.

A first semester USC short…shot on Super 8. A young woman gives her blind date a makeover.

USC School of Cinematic Arts. Documentary Short. Dir. Jill Aske and Mike Saenz.

Mike Saenz, Editor. Featuring Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Laura Ziskin, Jay Roach, George Lucas, Randall Kleiser, Caleb Deschanel, et al.