The trials and tribulations of social networking.

A few months ago I really felt like this was all beyond me. How do you maintain an audience when the main thing you are trying to do is sell an idea? It's not even a finished product yet so how are you supposed to get people interested in hearing about a film thats yet to be made. This is a particularly daunting prospect in the early stages of the edit when it feels like their isn't really much to say and quite frankly who gives a s%£*. 

I'm not going to lie to you, setting it up and understanding how it all works was fairly painful, and does take a couple of days but once you have got past the...'what the hell am i going to say' and 'who is going to be interested' it starts to make sense. Since i've been on Twitter i've realised that, aside from building an audience for your film, their is plethora of people tweeting info that is pretty essential to anyone out there trying to do this on their own. Personally I find it a much easier way of digesting all the info that's out there for filmmakers because lets face it, most of us working on unfunded projects are working day and night to make the best film we can and the less time spent actually having to go and find all that information the better. Here are some essential follows for independent film...

For making

@ShootingPeople

@FansOfFilm

@Raindance_Fest

For watching

@BabelgumFilm

@BabelgumFilm

Because they are just cool

@weareopencinema

There are definitely mistakes to be made, for example, its a wonderful thing to be able to hook your social networking sites and film platforms together but beware of clicking those buttons. I managed to post our short to my facebook profile about 6 times in the space of 2 minuets without realising and then had to ring my friend to get her to tell me how to delete on the iphone (i'm new to that too). Already conscious that I might be spamming you all with my plees to join, vote and support I was mortified, but it was definitely a lesson learned. Twitter has a good way of telling you that you are being tedious, your followers simply unfollow you, particularly i've found if you tweet too much information in one go. 

Follow us as we wrestle to find balance between being interesting and engaging to our audience while trying desperately not to scare people off with mindless self promotion...

If you can’t pay them, feed them!

The other day during a displaced morning of editing at Curzon Soho bar my editor and I fell into hysterics. This is a frequent occurrence when we both become delirious with moustache fatigue but this time it was something different. The cause of the hysterics was not simply the loud slurping noises we made as we tucked in to the home made soup that I’d sneaked in, but the fact that I had served it in what was readily available: a plastic cup and a straw. 

It reminded me of a great podcast from Shooting People where Amy Sewell, director of Mad Hot Ballroom says 'If you can’t pay them, feed 'em well...don’t just feed them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.'

find it here along with some other great podcasts from Shooting People...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/shooting-people-podcasts/id284960739

Well, I'm not sure if soup counts as feeding them well but I'm persevering; for tonight’s edit I’ve gone all out with bowls and spoons!

It’s been a while...

...since our last blog from Alaska the home of the 2009 World Beard and Moustache Championships. I arrivied back in June amongst a sea of tapes and minus my wonderful partner in crime Helen who I left behind in Canada.

Below is an extract from a blog I actually wrote in November but never got round to publishing, probably for lack of confidence. I hope it is of use to some of you no budget filmakers out there and better still I hope my future musings might steer you back from the brink of going mildly insane, I nearly did...

This picture was sent to me by a friend, It's what my screen is doing most days.

'Friends; they are invaluable. Not only do they provide emotional support, audience to endless Facebook messages, votes, tweets and enthusiasm when you ask them to a screening of your film they have already seen a million times, they can also be integral to the making of your film. I went to Sheffield DocFest for the first time this year where I partook in Digital Bootcamp, a fantastic workshop run by Shooting People. It was here, after listening Jenny and Mark from Future Artists speak on the subject, that I realised what a wealth of talent I have amongst my friends. Better still, I realised a lot of them are in the same position as me; at the early stage in their prospective careers and trying to carve out a name for themselves.'

Well, no sooner had I jumped off my train from Sheffield than I was enlisting my friends who were delighted to help and better still, excited at the prospect of being part of something outside of their day jobs. As a result of this amazingly talented group of people and a lot of hard work we are about to launch a trailer, a website, some fantastic artwork and a marketing campaign.

'Team Tash' is in full swing! ...watch this space

keep up with @Tashalaska on Twitter

Our Tashalaskan Adventure draws to a close...

...so its time to pack away our cameras and get started on the hard bit.

With 18 categories, 3 contributors, a very English Chinaman, a beard in the shape of an Alaskan snow shoe, a recipie for nut milk, a bear hunt and a definite love hate relationship with Sarah Palin (not to mention a multitude of fantastic moustaches to fight our way through) we've got our work cut out this summer.
Below is a final collection of photographs from our extraordinary trip into a world of ice, mountains and crazy facial hair.


The end of the competition and probably one of the most exhausting days of our lives. Here we are, still grafting, out on the streets interviewing passers by.
As far as I'm aware Helen, that trophy for 2nd place in the Freestyle moustache category does not belong to you?


My very poor attempt at a beard. I wore it like this for the rest of the day.


Our very own David makes it to the front page of the Anchorage Daily news.


This was a 10ft bear we found hanging out in the luggage department of the Alaskan equivilent of Debenhams.


On our way to see a Glacier...











So that kind of concludes it for now folks but in the mean time you can keep up with Tashtastic on the Facebook Group or on our website at www.tashtastic.com

Keep and eye out for the Tashtastic (the short) on the BBC big Screen at Glastonbury Festival this year.

Thanks for your support!

(see below for more photos of the competition)

Today's the day the beardy men have their picnic.

If you go down to the woods today be sure of a big surprise...

...or just a lot of hairy men.



Crow Creek Mining Village.



The Dr and Breman panning for Gold.





Tess panning for her airfare home...













Still smiling until the very end...

The Big Day

It's the morning of the competition and the big day is ahead of us.

A day of excitement.
A day of tension.
A day to celebrate all things beardy... and moustache-y.



Keith gets up close and personal with his tash minutes before showtime.





And the day kicks off with style...





A frenzy of excitement takes over the Imperial moustache winners









A beard without a moustache freaked us out at first...



...but we soon warmed to the new Alaskan Whaler category.





It really is the taking part that counts...



... however not sure this guy in the middle knew quite what he was up against.



Tess giving Ted some last minute styling tips.





Ted wins 1st place in the Fu Manchu style.





















Jack Passion accepting his award...



...in his usual flamboyant style.





David winning first place in the freestyle with his amazing beard woven into the shape of an Alaskan snow shoe.



Ted sizing up the competition for a place in the grand finale of facial hair.





The lovely David Traver is announced over all champion in the world.