EPTOn July 1st, Meta: The Culture of IPL will become available online. For the Month of July, the film will be available for free here. An HD, DRM-free version of the film is available here with bonus content. You pay what you want for this package.
On October 8th, 2011, IGN Entertainment held the IGN Pro League at Caesar's Palace in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 272 pro-gamers from over a dozen countries competed for a prize pool of $100,000 in games like Starcraft II and League of Legends.. Thousands of fans attended the event with nearly 300,000 people watching world-wide over online streams, a record for the event. The event was put together in a matter of days with the help of volunteers who often go unrecognized. 'Meta: The Culture of IPL' celebrates those people while taking a look at how a video game can spawn a meta-culture that spans human barriers.
The documentary focuses not on the players, but rather the fans and volunteers who make a large gaming competition possible.
What critics have said:
"...this simply isn’t just about a bunch of nerds freaking out over their favorite games."
-ESFI World
"...a time capsule to show future generations how spectacular this era was."
-Rogue Cinema
"...fascinating and engrossing..."
-Cinema Crazed
The release marks the final steps in a very long journey in filmmaking. It stands as one of my first big projects and has pushed me in ways I never thought possible in the medium. It is something I'm extremely proud of and not only celebrates my vision as a filmmaker, but also that of a gamer.
In October of last year, the film played at IPL5 and got a good response. Since then, I've been wondering how to get my film out to a larger audience. Sites like Netflix and iTunes require aggregators for films to be made available on these platforms. An aggregator works as a middle man between you and the platform. Simply put, it is a very expensive process that usually requires a large upfront investment. So since October, the topic focused not on how to get on Netflix or iTunes, but rather how could I release my film to a wide audience while still being able to raise funds for my next film.
Transparency and open communication are some of the most important things to me as a consumer. I believe in producing something of good quality rather than imposing DRM to stop piracy. It is important to me to make money, but much more important to produce work that is of great quality. If my film is bad and people feel that they shouldn't pay for it, then that is a problem with my work, not a problem of the people downloading my film. It is this thought process that sits in the back of my mind when working on anything.
With a short film, people are much more wary of a purchase. So I decided to do something new. I decided to release my film online for free where anyone can see it for a limited time. I'd promote this free link and tell people to check out my film. If it is of good quality and they want to see more from me, then my audience can download a DRM-free HD copy with bonus content. That money will directly go towards the budget of my next film, which is somewhere between $3000-5000.
It is a risk free investment. Rather than crowd-funding on promises, I provide people with something with the knowledge of furthering my career. “But what makes this different than a simple business plan?” That question popped up more times in my head than any other. The answer was fairly simple. Allow people to pay what they want. For a minimum of 1 dollar, they can support me and get something that they will want to watch. Anything more is a donation that will go towards supporting my artistic endeavors.
That brought me to Gumroad, a platform that enables this sort of business model. Users can pay what they want and receive a .zip file in return. It's exactly the thing that I was looking for.
So ultimately, I felt like this was the best way to reach an audience while still being able to support my work. I'm excited that this journey is nearing an end. It's been a long one and I've always hoped that my film may be able to get out to an audience. I love Starcraft and did the project with the knowledge that anything I put into the documentary may not ever get recouped.
So the best I can hope for is that you will sit down and donate 20 minutes of your time to watching my film. Thanks so much for even giving me the time of day.
You can follow the updates for the film on Twitter @BoxRobots
