Homeward Bound PSA

For 2021 I produced a 1 minute PSA I made for Homeward Bound:

https://vimeo.com/568665533

Here is a link to the longer documentary "Invisible" I also produced for Homeward Bound, from which we pulled the PSA footage: https://vimeo.com/538876421

Housing is Healthcare Documentary

I recently produced a short documentary for an amazingly wonderful non-profit: Homeward Bound.  They work to permanently end homelessness.  Homeward Bound does such important work, especially now with the Covid-19 pandemic raging across our country.  How can you stay healthy and escape the crowds of people, if you don't have a home to go to?  If you do get sick, how can you recover, if you don't have a safe place to rest and heal?  You can watch this informative and hopeful look at a group of people dedicated to solving these problems.

My Toxic Backyard for Sale

My Toxic Backyard is available for sale on the webpage and at Amazon.  

Rent it on Amazon!

You can buy DVDs directly on the webpage. Click "purchase" and it will take you to the official store here: https://www.createspace.com/433956  If you'd rather go through Amazon here's a link for DVDs: http://amzn.com/B00UGJCPYE. You can get free shipping with orders over $35.  

If you haven't read about how I messed up my first project with Createspace you can go back and see why there's a separate page and project that I manage for VOD (Video on Demand.)  That link is here: www.amazon.com/dp/B00U7UVE1W


UPDATE: After about 14 weeks, the VOD option is now live on Amazon.  I was bringing a retired project back out of retirement and was told it should take about 2 weeks.  I think this long wait was a fluke.  The staff was very helpful every time I reminded them that I was still waiting.  My main takeaway is, make sure your project is live and available on Amazon well before you want to announce it.

Traditional distribution

This used to be the only way to go, but now with alternative distribution you have choices to make.  Traditional distribution has both advantages and disadvantages and a lot of how you choose to proceed will depend on the kind of deal you’re offered.  Going with traditional distribution may not be the best way to get your movie seen and sold...

But it never hurts to try.  The advantage with traditional distribution is that established distribution companies have experience and will market your film and get it seen places that you might not have thought of.  The downside is they take a huge cut out of the profits to do this and many times the filmmaker hardly sees a dime.  Another downside is that there are many small distribution houses that will take your film and sometimes your money and do nothing with it.  You have to do your research and be really careful who you trust.  One good rule of thumb is don’t give them any money up front.  Look at their library of other work and see if your film is a good fit there.  And ask what their marketing strategy is for your film and how they plan to sell it and reach audiences.

You might be able to use multiple distributors for different markets.  There’s domestic (US) and foreign sales and you might strike one deal with one distributor and have a different deal for a different region with another. You can find distributors online through web searches.  The search method I've used is to find a film similar to mine, see who the distributor is and look up the contact info and just cold call.  You'll stand a better chance of getting through to someone if you have a sales agent.  They can be expensive though and your film will probably be one of many in their roster, but they have connections that you don't.

If you can't afford a sales agent and want to have a better chance of making a connection with a few, well researched distributors you might consider a trip to a film market.  The Cannes Film Market (Le Marché du film) is the largest market in the world and The American Film Market (AFM) is the largest in America.  You'll want to set up multiple meetings well in advance and do lots of prep work on who you want to meet, your pitch and your business card.  Attending a market is an expensive endeavor and you definitely want to do your homework ahead of time.

For My Toxic Backyard, I’ve been approached by a few acquisitions people.  These are the people that look for new films to add to their company’s inventory.  You’ll find them at film festivals and film markets and when you win awards, they’ll start to find you.  I’ve sent screeners to them, and I even followed up to see if they’d had a chance to see my film but it never went anywhere. 

Being a documentary with educational value, my next step will be to approach companies that distribute educational copies to college and university libraries.  Media copies are much more expensive than personal copies (like what you would buy or rent at home) because with media copies you get licensing to have screenings in classrooms full of kids and it can be checked out and seen over and over without additional fees.  Media copies can run anywhere from $100 to $500.  And since it’s a completely different kind of licensing and audience, it won’t interfere with distribution for home use.  Next I'll talk about self-distribution.

Scheduling Releases

With multiple ways for people to view your movie, you can make it available only one way at a time and maximize your revenue and announcement process.  I’m planning more than one release.  First, there were film festivals, then a limited theatrical release, then broadcast.  After that comes the opportunity for people to purchase the film on a DVD and finally it will be available as VOD (video on demand, both rental and download.)  

The reason I’m doing it that way is, I’ll be able to do more than one release announcement blasted on social media and I’ll make more through DVD sales than VOD so I’d rather most people that are interested purchase a DVD.  Making that the only option for a while, will get impatient people to do just that.  I don't want to miss out on sales though, so shortly after the DVD release will be VOD so that the documentary is widely available to as many potential audience members as possible.

Make sure you have a plan for how you want to release your movie, before you get to that point.  You don't want to miss out on a chance to have your movie in a film festival because you released it online too early.  And you don't want people buying a copy at home before you do a theatrical release, if you want to go that route.  Timing is important.  Make the most of it.

Broadcast

Because I had a documentary film, it made sense to broadcast it over the air for free on TV (I should say free for anyone to view, not free for me to play it.  Buying air time was actually pretty expensive.)  This might not make sense for most projects, but I’ll tell you why I did it.

First and foremost, I wanted to make sure that everyone in the area had an opportunity to see the documentary without having to purchase a copy.  I think it's important information for people to have no matter where they live, but most especially in Western North Carolina where the documentary was shot.  Having it broadcast also made it eligible for awards like the Emmys and I wanted to have a chance to enter it.  I should hear if it's nominated in May.  Keep your fingers crossed.

In order to have it broadcast, it had to be closed captioned.  There are multiple ways to close caption a film both in how you create the captioning and how you deliver the film with captioning.  I used Adobe Premiere to caption and I ended up needed 2 types of files for delivery.  For broadcast I had to embed the closed captioning in a quicktime file.  Later for selling on Amazon I had to create a separate file called a scenarist closed caption or .scc file.

After having done the work myself, I now know that I'll probably hire someone next time.  It's not that expensive to have a company do it for you and it's so worth the money.  Captioning was long and extremely tedious, but I'm glad for the experience and for gaining a better understanding of how it all works.

I had some difficulty finding a local station that would air my movie because it's a point of view documentary.  Here's a link to a previous post with more on that. 

Warning the follow is boring technical information.  Only Read this if you want more info on captioning in Adobe Premiere CC:

1. You can import a file into premiere or do it from scratch.  I made mine from scratch.  Right click in your project window and choose "new item - closed caption" (bottom right of the project window.) The default is CEA-608 and CC1.

2. You won't be able to see any captions until you go to the upper right corner menu in your program and source monitors and click on "closed caption display - enable."  But that alone isn't enough. You must make sure you are enabling CEA-608 (the default on the monitor was CEA-607 for me. You won't see the captions unless the type you are making matches what you've set to display!)

3. To edit your captions go to the "window" menu and click on "captions" to see the window you'll need to edit in.  Click on the add a new item in the bottom of the project window and choose "captions." (make sure you have selected the caption file in your timeline to see it in the captions window.)

4. Hit the plus button to add a caption and start typing.  You can see the in and out in the timeline, but to change the in and out you have to adjust the time code in the project window.  Text doesn't wrap, so you have to do a hard return at the end of each line.

Those are the basics.  If you have an specific questions leave a comment. Hope that saves you a little frustration in your captioning endeavors.

Marketing

You have to spend money to make money right?  Sadly, that’s true especially if you see your time as having a monetary value (and you should.)  If you’re like me, you’re working a day job to pay the bills and making your movies on the side with the dream that you’ll be able to one day leave all that 9 to 5 madness behind and just make movies for a living.  But until that day comes, remember that just because it’s called free time, that doesn’t mean it comes without a price.

So where should you spend the precious little money you have for this venture into independent film marketing?  Well you can start with a solid poster and trailer.  Those are your main selling points.  People will look at those two things and decide in an instant whether or not they want to spend their time and hopefully some of their cash watching your movie.

Then there’s your website.  That’s a showcase piece as well.  You might hire someone to make yours and optimize it’s performance.  I thought about that, but I ended up going with wix.  I tinkered around with the design for a while before I decided to spend any money and I like the ease with which I can update and change things.  There are other similar sites, squarespace comes to mind, Weebly, maybe you’re a Word press person.  There are lots of options.

Getting reviews and press about your movie is extremely helpful.  I'll talk about doing a theatrical release in the next post and how you can get movie reviews, but in the mean time get to working on a press kit, you'll need that.  You can google articles on how to make a good press kit for your film, but briefly you'll need: contact info, a short, medium and long synopsis, bios for your cast and crew, photos, and you might want to include a director's statement.

You’re not likely to make the nightly news with your big DVD release, but after you’ve gotten the accredited critics to review your film, you might find some smaller online places that will give you a fresh review just before your online release.  You’ll probably want to do a google search for these wonderful, lovers of movies who are willing to take the time to not just watch your work, but also write about it.  I got a review from Rough Cinema.  In the past I’ve had reviews from Film Threat, they charge a small fee, but honestly I’m surprised anyone will do that kind of work for free.

Mail Chimp is a real thing, it’s not just something you hear about on podcasts.  It’s pretty awesome too.  You can have multiple lists of people and send out customized “campaigns” which are just a way to mass email people on your list.  Hopefully lots of people have signed up to get these, which means they’ve expressed an interest in what you’re doing and won’t see these email updates as spam.  It’s free up to a point.  There’s no reason not to start using it.  I think if you get to the point where you have so many subscribers that you have to pay a fee, it’ll be well worth the money.  They do automation, but you have to pay for that too.  So if you don’t mind doing everything manually, it’s a great way to reach your target audience.  Want to subscribe to my email list?  Click here. See how easy that is? 

Traditionally feature films would spend as much on P&A (Prints and Advertising) as the budget of their film.  Make a million dollar film, spend a million to market it.  But if you don't have a million laying around, here's a range you might be able to work in from very low to very high:

Marketing Budget Breakdown

Poster design: $300 to $2,000
Website hosting and design: $120 on a DIY platform to $4,000 for pro design and SEO
Trailer: $100 canned music and you cut it to $15,000 for a trailer house to do it all
Business Cards: $20 for small batch free template to $2,000 for a custom design
Social Media Guru: $0 and just your time, if you do it to $25-$50 per hour
Advertising: $1 on google ad words to infinity
Publicist: $3,000 to $10,000 per month (usually with a 3 month minimum)

Emmy Nominations

My Toxic Backyard has been nominated for 4 Southeast Regional Emmys!  They are:

Best Documentary: Katie Damien, Jaime Byrd, Michael Klatt, Bob Peck
Best Cinematography: (Non-news Photography) Katie Damien
Best Editing: Jaime Byrd, Katie Damien
Best Audio Post: Bob Peck, Jaime Byrd, Katie Damien

It's such an honor to be nominated, not once, but 4 times!  Emmys are given out once a year for the best work in broadcast television.  The awards are in the beginning of June and Michael and his girlfriend and I are all going.  Wish us luck!

UPDATE: Unfortunately we did not take home any Emmys this year.  It is really an honor to be nominated though, because just getting nominated means that your work is held in high esteem by industry professionals.  The night was really fun and we had a good time anyway.  It's always fun to get dressed up.  I had a stylist do my hair and it's my favorite hairdo ever!

My Toxic Backyard on TV

My Toxic Backyard finally had it's broadcast debut.  It aired on the local CW channel here in Asheville at 5:30am on a Sunday morning (because that's what I could afford.) I ended up buying air time to have it broadcast and with Diamond Brand as an associated sponsor that really helped defray some of the cost.

I submitted My Toxic Backyard back in July to our local PBS channel, but they turned it down.  They sent a letter telling me how much they liked the documentary and that they thought I was a talented filmmaker, but because it was a "point-of-view documentary," they said they did not "have a place in [their] schedule to broadcast point-of-view programs." They went on to say, "for complex issues, like the topic you tackle in your film, we look for a more balanced representation." I can see where they're coming from.  I could have argued that both the EPA and CTS refused to comment on the record, or grant an interview, or even release a statement to me, but I decided to let it go. 

I also tried to buy air time on another station before I went with the CW, but was turned down by that station for pretty much the same reason as PBS.  They bring up an interesting point about documentaries that I've discussed at length with many filmmakers: does a good documentary have to present both sides of an issue or story?  My answer is not necessarily.  While there is always a desire to represent events and people truthfully, sometimes (like in my case) you can't always get all sides.

If all you had to do to make a documentary is make a non-fiction film, one could argue that a gas station owner who has video surveillance is making documentaries.  Certainly it's possible to make a documentary from surveillance footage, but I don't think anyone would call the footage on its own a documentary.  There must be some selection of shots, some choices on what is presented and once that happens, no matter how objective the author of that content is, you are presenting a version of reality. You are manipulating events. 

I think the key is to acknowledge that you are altering information to create a compelling story while also working to present that information as truthfully as possible.  If you are able to present different perspectives in your documentary, I do think that can make the piece stronger, but I also don’t think a documentary should be abandoned simply because you weren’t able to present multiple viewpoints.

Katie

Radio Interview for WRLN Arts Radio

While on the Southern Circuit I was interviewed at a public radio station in South Florida: https://soundcloud.com/katiedamien/arts-radio-interview-with-katie-damien

Katie

My Toxic Backyard Wins Best Documentary Film at Greenpoint Film Festival

My Toxic Backyard just won the highest honor a film can win at a film festival: Best Documentary Feature!  I'm so excited!  What an honor!

http://greenpointfilmfestival.org/

Jaime Byrd (second from the left) speaking on a panel at the Greenpoint Film Festival

A news article about the festival

News article continuted

Winner Best Filmmaker in WNC!!!

Thank you to everyone who voted for me as best filmmaker for 2014 in the Mountain Express Best of and also My Toxic Backyard for best film of the year!  Wow! I'm so happy for the attention this brings to the community living around the CTS site and long fight they have had for safe drinking water. I'm so honored!

Katie

http://bestofwnc.com/category/arts-entertainment/locally-made-film/
http://bestofwnc.com/category/arts-entertainment/local-filmmaker/

My Toxic Backyard in Southern Circuit

So excited to have My Toxic Backyard accepted to the Southern Circuit film screening tour. http://www.southarts.org/touring-arts/southern-circuit/  This documentary is 1 of only 18 films that made it in!!!  I'll be traveling across 5 states to host screenings at different universities and art collectives.

My Toxic Backyard has it's Theatrical Release

 
A special limited theatrical release of My Toxic Backyard.  The poster is up at the Fine Arts Theater in downtown Asheville and check out the markee! Available to see on the big screen for 1 full week! May 8-15th at 7pm.  Get out and see it while you can.

World Premiere of My Toxic Backyard

My Toxic Backyard had its first screening at the Thin Line Film Festival in Denton, Texas and I was able to attend.  This was my first time in Texas.  Denton is about 30 minutes North of Dallas.  Sadly I didn’t meet any real cowboys on my short visit. I had been expecting to see horses, holsters and hats everywhere.  The cowboy hats I did see a lot of, but Texans are not all cowboys.  In Denton everyone happen to be friendly and welcoming.  The land is flat and scrubby, but the sky is huge.  I know the sky seems like the kind of thing that should be the same everywhere you go, but it’s not.  In Texas the sky is just bigger.

There was a great line up for documentary films at Thin Line.  The festival covered room, board and transportation while there.  The staff was fantastic.  They were on call 24 hours a day!  The greenroom was stocked with food and drinks and was a great place to network with other filmmakers and VIP festival goers.  I met some great people there.  The town square is really cute and full of musicians.  I think over half the population is in a band.  My screening was at the Campus theater, which was a wonderful historic theater in the middle of town.  This was my first time attending this wonderful documentary film festival and I tip my hat to the festival organizers for putting on such a great festival.

Press: Watered Down

BY DOROTHY FOLTZ-GRAY, Bold Life Magazine

Katie Damien surveys the Superfund site, that is the subject of her documentary, My Toxic Backyard, from across the street. Photo by Rimas Zailskas

Five years ago, filmmaker Katie Damien searched for a home to buy in South Asheville off Mills Gap Road. "Prices were so much lower than in other places in Asheville," says Damien, a five-time Southeast Regional Emmy winner. "But my friend said, 'Don't buy there. There's something wrong: People are getting cancer.' I stopped looking, but I couldn't stop thinking about the people living there. It haunted me."
The haunting resulted in Damien's first feature-length film, My Toxic Backyard, an hour-long documentary about the South Asheville Superfund site leaking toxic chemicals into the ground water surrounding the area.

CTS Corporation, a global manufacturer of electronic components, purchased the site in 1959, closing it in 1986. But the Environmental Protection Agency did not name it a Superfund site until 2012. The Superfund was established in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) into law. The law enables the EPA to clean up hazardous waste sites.

The EPA first assessed the Asheville site in 1985, finding no evidence of contamination. In 1991, CTS itself notified the state of contamination, but EPA again signed off on the site. Residents believe that 74 cases of cancer have occurred with a mile of the site. And residents' complaints have kept EPA returning, each time finding more evidence of toxins in the ground water.

Damien's film focuses on several affected families: Aaron Penland, who opens the film by pointing to family members, victims of cancer appearing in a family movie, "a death video," he says; Tate MacQueen who moved his family into a tiny apartment to get them away from the water; and Shannon Mead whose constant illness forced her to miss the first seven years of her first child's life.

As the film proceeds, Damien highlights community meetings with EPA officials who appear puzzled by the residents' anger. She alternates such scenes with alarming pictures of toddlers running in sprinklers or drinking from icy water glasses.

Damien toiled on the film for five years, completing it in December 2013. "I thought it was going to be a one-year project," says Damien. "But I was shooting, editing, and doing the research and audio by myself."
For the final year, she was joined by others, including the film's editor, Jamie Byrd, also a filmmaker. "I was so tired, and I had collected so many interviews and so much information," says Damien. "Jamie breathed new life into the project. I was trying to pack in information, but she is more about heart and telling people's stories."

Damien invested more than $10,000 of her own to buy equipment she needed. And she raised $5,000 through Kickstarter, an organization that allows supporters to pledge money for creative work in return for small rewards such as a free ticket to a screening.

Now, she's busy submitting the film to festivals, accepted so far by The Thin Line Festival in Denton, Texas. And she's sending copies to state legislators who are deciding whether to loan Asheville the money to connect affected families to city water.
Damien wants the film to stir up questions about what's happening in our own back yards. "I feel like the society is so concerned about the economy, saying 'We'll deal with the environment once the economy comes back,'" she says. "But the longer we wait, the worse the environment will get."

Damien doesn't begrudge the money she's spent on the film: "Everyone contributed more than they were paid," she says. Besides, she didn't get into filmmaking to make money but to fuel her early passion. "I started when I was 12, making plays with my sister and cousins. And then my uncle gave me a movie camera. My first film was so bad I erased it, but I had so much fun. I thought, 'This is what I will do for the rest of my life.'"

After high school, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida native headed to the University of Central Florida, a place where film students can direct their own projects. Her first documentary — a film about Florida cowboys, Cowmen — won third prize at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. "I knew the cowboys probably wouldn't be around long, and I thought I should tell their story," she says.

Later, for five years, she worked in broadcasting on cruise ships, traveling the world. Then she followed her parents to Asheville, taking a job at WLOS, where she is Creative Services Producer.

Her next film is a comedy, One Hell of an Angel. "It's about an angel and demon forced to work together to help a washed-up rock star write a song to save the world," she says.
The theme's not surprising: For Damien, teamwork — and perseverance — are key to good filmmaking: "Asheville's great for independent filmmakers. People here open their doors. Still, it can be daunting and frustrating. So many films never get finished. You have to make an investment in yourself and trust your own work. And the end goal is to do the story justice."

My Toxic Backyard
Coming to Asheville
this spring
www.mytoxicbackyard.com

Holding the Hope (short documentary)

A while back I made a short documentary for Homeward Bound of Asheville.  They help put homeless people into permanent housing.  I've always loved their mission and think it makes a lot of sense.  Don't worry, it's not sad.  It's actually kind of uplifting.  You can watch the video here:

http://youtu.be/A5MMYWZW048

And this is Homeward Bound's website: www.hbofa.org

Katie

Kickstarter Success!

We did it! I really was loosing hope in the end, but I got my Christmas wish and funding for my documentary was successful! The campaign was 104% funded by 85 people! Everyone who pledged played a part in making this happen. I’m so grateful to my friends and family who helped and also to the complete strangers who contributed. Now I’m able to move forward and get this documentary finished. It’s back to the grindstone. My goal is to have this documentary finished by this summer in time for some big film festival deadlines. Thank you everyone!

Katie

Would you like to buy a documentary?

I have always hated asking people for money. Ever since I was a Girl Scout peddling my cookies to neighbors and friends, I knew any job with the word “sales” in it would not be in my future. “Would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies? You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. They’re kind of expensive. That’s okay, I’ll just go.” That was my sales pitch going door to door.

I hated it, even when it was a product I believed in. I believed in Thin Mints. I ate many a box growing up…probably because I couldn’t sell any, my parents took pity on me and bought a bunch. I never liked pressuring people to buy something. And yet I find myself very much in “sales.” Every time I try to book a gig, I’m selling my services. Doing freelance work you’re always having to market your talents, convince potential customers that you have something the other guys don’t, you pretty much have to sell yourself.

So here I am, trying to sell something. Something I believe in. And this time it’s not cookies and it’s not me. It’s a project. A documentary about clean drinking water and a community in Asheville, which at this very moment, is fighting for that very thing. I’m selling their story, their suffering, and a peek into the system we have set up to take care of problems like toxic waste leaking into people wells and coming out their faucets.

After putting everything that I have and everything that I am into the project for almost two years, I’ve realized that it’s too big for me. I need to hire some help. So I’m doing this fundraiser that is dangerously close to failing and almost equally as close to succeeding. I’m $2000 away from the funding I need to finish it. Maybe that’s too much to ask in times like these. Maybe it’s too much for a town where jobs are hard to find and people don’t have money to play with anymore. Would you like to buy a documentary? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s kind of expensive…That’s okay, I’ll just go.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Here's a Clip from the Documentary

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Only 4 days to go. I'm burnt out on trying to get the word out about this kickstarter campaign. I only have a few hours in the day to devote to this project and I need help. I need all of you to google environmental groups, bloggers and other communities with superfund sites that might be interested in seeing this movie. Send them an email, give them this link, tell them to contact me. Whatever you can do, even if it's just one community leader, one environmental group, one other person that you contact on an individual level, it will be a great help.

Thank you,
Katie