Projects 2013 > Orion: Behind the Mask > Journal
Since March 2013 when my film The Great Hip Hop Hoax had it's world premiere at SXSW I have been on and off, on the road - taking my film to festivals, talking about the process, giving insights behind the scenes and meeting audiences. I have a growing collection of images like the one below taken in Dublin at Stranger Than Fiction, where the film opened the festival. I joked to the audience when I took this that I'm collecting these for when I'm an old lady and I can remember that a film I made sold out a cinema. I'm only half joking - it's an amazing feeling and I don't ever want to take it for granted.
Dublin Stranger than Fiction - The Audience
It's also incredibly discombobulating. Promoting a film and feeling "in public" is very odd. I would class myself and many other documentary makers I've met as introverts that adapt to extrovert situations - perhaps we are ambiverts. The power for me in making films is being able to "shout" a quiet idea through distribution and audience connection. Red carpets etc are a very odd part of that equation.
Ghent Film Festival - Red Carpet
While I was in Ghent for the film festival The Great Hip Hop Hoax broadcast on BBC2 (Scotland only) at 9.00pm 11 October and then became one of 3 new Storyville films to premiere on the BBC Iplayer.
My phone went crazy with social media notifications so I knew it was being watched - Here are the social media maps around the broadcast of the film
The twitter mentions increase after the broadcast on the 11th but also as the iPlayer premiere takes off.
The availability of the film on iplayer meant that there was a lot of recommendations. The film spread via word of mouth - backed up by featuring prominently on the iplayer and Radio 1, 1xtra and BBC 6 music adverts for the film.
Discussion of the film on Reddit.
6300 shares encounting.
At one point we were the 9th most watched thing on iPlayer, beating even The Great British Bake Off. At the time of writing, before a national broadcast on BBC4, the iplayer had been shared over 6300 times and we peaked at no.35 in the itunes chart for film rentals. I believe that most of this is due to momentum - a national release in cinemas, backed up by 4 star national reviews and press meant that there has been a peripheral awareness of the story even if people haven't seen it. The availability on iPlayer for a limited time for free meant that it has travelled by word of mouth, backed up by some heavy hitting twitter accounts - Itunes, IPlayer, BBC6 Music and many individuals.
I collected some of the tweets from the first day into a storify for the BBC here >
As with all these things there have been the good, the bad and the downright ugly - the best thing for me has been individuals that have watched the film, liked it and then discovered they also liked my last film SOUND IT OUT. "You have a fan for life". The worst (and they are rare) are character assassination disguised as film review. 1* takes downs of me as a terrible human being for daring to make a film and putting it out there. Anyone can like, love or be indifferent to my films, that is part of the game and I totally accept that but I am learning to develop a thick skin when it comes to things being very personal. I have to say in those situations there is a delicious shadenfruede in watching the failed crowdfunding videos of these bitter "critics".
One of the questions I have had more than any at screenings is "what is your next film?" This is where Orion comes in. I hope to learn from the audience engagement on Hip Hop Hoax, it's been incredibly rewarding to watch the audience while thinking, what parts of this would I hope to replicate on Orion. Could it be replicated? How can this expereince be translated into a lasting and vaulable experience? How will a national broadcast combined with the iPlayer experiment affect ratings, does it matter?
The Great Hip Hop Hoax broadcasts on BBC4 October 23rd 10pm
Posted by Jeanie Finlay