The iPhone shot indie feature film "Blue Moon" is now (finally) available to rent or buy!
I say "finally" because it has been a fairly long road to distribution (roughly 2 years), but as of today 12/15/20 you can watch it on Vimeo On-Demand, Apple TV or Amazon Prime.
This is indeed great news.
I've been a fan of this movie ever since the filmmakers contacted me on Twitter back in late spring 2019. They sent me a link to a festival screener. The pitch of course was it was shot on an iPhone, and since I run a YouTube channel about iPhone filmmaking it was a natural fit.
I have to admit, I get lots of inquiries and films sent to me - many are good and many are, well, not (which is fine of course we all have to start somewhere). But, I was hesitant at first to watch it. However, after the first few minutes I knew this was going to be a good movie, regardless of what it was shot on.
I really liked the film and so I did a rather extensive interview with the cast & crew on my YouTube channel and my podcast. Below is that video from June 2019...
The film went on to successfully play numerous festivals around the globe, but as often happens with low budget indies - it didn't land any six-figure distribution deals. Actually it didn't land any deals at all. This is not uncommon though and as a matter of fact, it's actually the norm.
Most distributors today either want movies that have "movie stars" in them (or TV stars) and/or want high profile festival winners from Sundance, Toronto, SXSW, etc. (being a genre film like horror can help too). So this probably excludes 99% of all indie films made (there are LOTS of indies made today).
The good news is though you can easily self-distribute now on sites like Vimeo or Amazon Prime, etc. and Stef Harris (the director) considered these options, but ultimately decided he didn't want to be a distributor - he wants to concentrate on making films (I don't blame him!). So he waited and shopped the film and eventually landed with a boutique Canadian distributor that is now releasing the film.
I heard this news recently and was very happy for Stef and his cast & crew, so I decided to do a follow-up interview last week...
If you're an indie filmmaker this is a great story to learn from and take the lessons and advice into your own future productions, whether shooting on an iPhone or whatever camera you choose.
The main takeaway for me is... Don't wait to create.
Happy filmmaking!
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