Shy Filmmaker? Walk It Off, Sugar Britches!

If you've been following Down and Dirty Dv at all, you already know that I am a HUGE proponent and practitioner of self-promotion. It's saddens me greatly that the concept is so misunderstood (even villainized) by so many of my filmmaker and artistic friends.

It actually saddened me to the point that I developed a whole seminar just to teach filmmakers, musicians, writers and artists of the art and craft of self-promotion. I am presenting that very seminar- Self Promotion for Creative Hustlers, for only the second time ever at this weekend's inaugural Urban Media Festival in Austin Texas.

And before the seminar even, we devoted an entire special episode of The Double Down Film Show to the subject of Shameless Self-Promotion.

I just came across a great little article by Rain Dance's Elliot Grove entitled The Film Industry's 5 Self-Promotion Myths that explains the whole issue simply and elegantly:

1. The James Cameron Myth:
   "Self promotion will make me look arrogant."
2. The Princess Myth:
   "If I'm good enough, people will hear about it."
3. The Mates Myth:
   "Others should talk about my accomplishments, not me."
4. The Martyr Myth:
   "People don't understand what I am trying to do"
5. The Head in the Sand Myth:
   "I couldn't talk up my career if a gun was at my head"

Click HERE to read the full article

If you want my specific tips and details on free and low-cost tools and tactics that you can use to build your "brand" (yes you have a brand) and get your projects noticed then you need to get ya butt down to Austin, TX this weekend to the Urban Media Festival where I will be breaking down the shameless art line-by-line and revealing the exact strategies and tools I used to parlay myself from filmmaking obscurity to a best-selling author, guerrilla film guru and sought-after speaker.

If you're shy, time to walk it off Sugar Britches! Filmmakers and artists simply can't afford to be shy. If you bust your ass to make it and no one sees it, what's the point?

(*Bull Horn Photo by looking4poetry)

DIY Blair Witch Forest...

I don't think I've shown enough love to the DIY horror filmmakers out there on this blog (although I did post a really cool and simple Spooky DIY Bullet Hole tutorial some time ago).

So for all the truly "$0" budget backyard filmmaking crowd, I'm gonna share this cool little tip from MagicalDimension.Com for creating a spooky forest atmosphere without an expensive soundstage or camping out for days in a real forest. They have several more filmmaking recipes on their website.

TUTORIAL:
Make a Spooky Forest...Indoors.

WIZDOM: Will Smith's Attitude

I won't lie, many years ago I used to hate on Will Smith. (Surely, I'm not the only one that originally dismissed the bubblegum rap of Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff as the corny work of two flash-in-the-pan rap hacks, am I?)

If you asked me to bet which of the rappers on the scene 20 years ago would end up being the most successful, well-balanced, savvy and end up commanding the highest paycheck of the bunch... I would have never put my money on Will Smith.

Fortunately, Will Smith always bet on himself and never believed a word that any hater uttered against him (least of all some skinny pimple-faced junior high school nerd). He never believed it was impossible to transcend his shortcomings and rise above people's low expectations of him.

How did Will do it? Like any successful person, he started with his MINDSET. Here's a great sampling of clips from throughout Will's career that show the consistency in his wisdom and attitude towards life. Listen and learn...

*Thanks to Down and Dirty DV fan, Veronica "V-Chip" Hines, for originally posting this clip on FB.