GenCon 2012 – Day 1 Events (News) | MicroFilmmaker Magazine

Posted by Julie Stratton on Aug 21, 2012 | 2 comments

GenCon 2012 Day 1 Events

GenCon Indy

GenCon’s tag line is, “The Best Four Days in Gaming”. They have earned every right to that tagline. GenCon celebrated its 45th convention this year and has plans to keep going another 45 and more. I’m here for three of the four days and I am having incredible fun time gaming, seeing great films, learning new techniques and tips, and meeting people.

I started bright and early with the Introduction to LARPing panel. LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) is part game and part acting. Players are given a character with goals. They then spend the game time interacting with other characters as they explore the story and try to reach their goals. Kevin MacGregor, Shari MacGregor and Gregory Nagler (not present) with Figments of Your Imagination took us on a tour of LARPing. From Bopper LARPs (where people use foam swords to fight each other) to plot-driven LARPS (games that have a definite story, plot and objective), they did a wonderful job of helping newcomers understand what LARPing is and how this form of game can enhance and advance a storyworld.

Kevin MacGregor and Shari MacGregor with Figments of Your Imagination

Next stop was, the Film Distribution and Promotion Panel. There were a number of filmmakers, producers and media producers on the panel. They shared tips, stories and ideas. You could definitely see a difference in opinion based on the models and methods they shared. A few items discussed included:

If you have a product you want to get “out there” decide on your niche, your demographics and target those populations, move away from trying a mass distribution method.
Small releases with a targeted audience (say 10,000 vs more than 100,000) can keep a project doable and have a higher ROI (return on investment)
Some of the panel suggested distribution is becoming your marketing, rather than keeping the two separate. You are no longer selling units, you are working to create your fan base, which leads to connecting with your audience.
Ben Dobyns with Zombie Orpheus Entertainment (ZOE) described briefly the model ZOE is developing; what he called an “anti-distribution” method. The goal is to have people support your idea/property with the intent to make more films from that support. At the end of each film or project, he “bakes in” a Call to Action to help rally for the next project. He mentioned this was a “Dandelion Method”; you sprinkle out the seeds (release your film to your fans and audience base for very little rather than setting up traditional distribution streams) and they will take root and build your audience and set them to help support the next venture. Your film becomes the marketing piece to encourage engagement with fans.
Whatever you do often takes substantial time and support as you build to a sustainable level of fans/audience.
Watch your rights. Be careful what rights you have to what forms of media and platforms. Think ahead if you might want to create a multimedia property.
Get an entertainment lawyer.
You need networking. Attending cons such as GenCon becomes important not just for building a fan base and community in front of the camera, but building your future distribution and filmmaking connections for behind the camera.
Watch your social media outlets when developing these communication pathways. Do not neglect your audience. It is worse to have a social media account and then never use it or use it just spam your audience than it is to skip that form of connection.
Create a culture with your fans. Interact and build that community. Buyers will look at how you engaged fans, your community and interaction when looking to potentially purchase or enter into a deal with you.
Rule of thumb, budget at least 25% of your film for marketing and related activity. This does not include the minimum $2000 you should put aside to hire a good publicist.
Did we mention focus on building your fan base and connections to your audience.

After a bit of a break and gawking at the crowds (many in costume), I attended the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment / Dead Gentlemen’s Productions panel. The panel included actors from ZOE’s main film series, “The Gamers”, the writer and co-director and the producer and co-director. You could see the great chemistry between cast and crew as they shared stories from filming, talked about the new film they are working on, “The Gamers 3: Hands of Fate” and general chatting.

ZOE Panel: "The Gamers: Hands of Fate" cast and crew

Their latest film in production (The Gamers 3) is a great example of ZOE’s production and distribution model. They are crowdfunding the film to keep the film in the “hands” of the fans as they raise funds for production (check out the KickStarter campaign). They also are using GenCon as the backdrop to the movie. They are filming a number of scenes from the movie at the con, incorporating as many fans as possible into the process, using GenCon events and also linking to other game publishers and book writers to include a rich set of recognizable elements in their film. They are not making a film for the fans, they are making a film with the fans. This concept ties into their model of fan created, creator distributed model. You can take a look at that model, and I will be talking with ZOE in the future about their distribution model and their films.

GenCon attendees off to gaming event

I did attend a ZOE event later in the day. The first hour they hosted a live, improv “RPG Game” played by the characters in their “The Gamers” films. As the cast sat on stage playing the game, they would stop at key points and have the audience participate. They even had the audience on stage playing some of the extra characters. It was fun, fast and the audience enjoyed the show. Then, they did something even crazier, and in my opinion, very smart.

They needed to shoot the last scenes of their current film, which takes place at a gaming convention. The audience became the audience in the film. We got to see them shoot the movie (8 pages in one hour, it was a crazy shooting pace, but they did it, which goes to show how good their film crew and team is as they were able to complete all shots needed in the hour). Here’s why I say it was smart, everyone in that audience (there were over 200 of us in there), will now want to see that movie, will go to social media to tell others about it and are now invested in this upcoming film. In addition, we all paid at least $12.00 (some more for VIP participation) to see the improv game the first hour and then to be part of the second hour of filming. So look at what ZOE received. They had a ready-made audience without having to try and rope people in for the shoot. They even had sent out information before GenCon to have fans come dressed as the fake groups in the film. Meaning, no costumes were needed to try and make the audience look authentic, we already were set. They filmed the live improv hour and will sell the DVD as well as anything related. AND, because people paid, they could use that revenue to pay for the room we were in or pay for the cameras, or any other expense; you see why I call ZOE smart…

Alright, I am off to watch one of the live concerts that fill the hallways and then heading to the gaming hall, which is open 24/7 and find a few pickup games. See you at Day 2.