Category: Education

An Annual Tradition

As most of you know by now, The Platinum PIAs Awards held ceremonies annually for 10 consecutive years (2010 – 2019) in New York City. The event was both in-person as well as online. The PIAs had the mission “To recognize businesses, non-profits and individuals like you who are making a difference in your communities.” It was a family friendly neighborhood event, that became a tradition for in-person regulars. We had great turnouts and it truly was fun for all ages. My daughter, who was a toddler back when the first show was launched, has told me many times that she misses going to the PIAs each year which had been a highlight in her experience of growing up.

Much Needed Help for Businesses, Non-profits and the Self Employed

Even though the PIAs doors have closed, we are excited to carry on a variation of its mission in the form of a new organization that, because of COVID restraints, functions entirely online and is called “USA Make a Difference.” This organization has the mission “To make a difference by helping you to make a difference (whether you are a business, non-profit or individual).”

What Action Steps are Taken by “USA Make a Difference”?

USA Make a Difference manifests its mission in the form of (1) our free weekly email newsletter, (2) our informational digital goods such as our in-house written eBooks (not available anywhere else) and (3) online services including blog creation, email marketing and internet campaign management.

Blog Publicity for the 3 Divisions of “USA Make a Difference”

All three of the faucets of “USA Make a Difference” are documented on an ongoing basis by our Blog Coalition which is a community network that, as of this writing, consists of nearly 60 blogs, some of which have been in existence since around the time of the first edition of the Platinum PIAs Awards in 2010.

NYC Create supports the Platinum PIAs vision of using the arts to make a difference in your community. Community change through the arts has long been a building block of the Platinum PIAs toolkit and the new organization known as NYC Create follows that lead. NYC Create focuses in on helping artists of all kinds – musicians, writers, filmmakers etc. – to promote themselves, build their audience and ultimately monetize their art. NYC Create was created as a response to the way that the new tax law has negatively impacted small arts organizations, especially those that depend on middle income people for donations. NYC Create was developed to empower artists to survive despite the way that the arts in America are currently under attack. In their new course series, Art Gush (a partner with NYC Create) explores Guerilla Entrepreneurship as a way that artists can fight back. The most recent step in this process that Art Gush has examined (as reflected in the NYC Create blog) is that of “Proof of Concept” as seen on “Shark Tank.” This is the phase of business development for artisticpreneurs in which they prove that their creative business concept works. For more information on this rung of the ladder please read the latest NYC Create blog entry.

A key concept for the 2018 Platinum Pias is going to be “Artist Entrepreneur.” Many of the nominees will fall into that category. And lucky for you there’s an Artist Entrepreneur article here you may be interested in. It’s quite brief but does make some good points about being a Starving Artist versus Artist Entrepreneur.

As someone who speaks to college classes on occasion, I inevitably get asked about movie funding. Why? Probably because it is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire funds for movies or other creative projects, therefore new approaches are needed.

One of the reasons that it is becoming more difficult to get funding for films is because for small independent motion pictures, unless they are using alternative online distribution, are not as easily getting viable distribution deals. In other words, if an investor invests in a for-profit movie venture, she or he is not usually going to make a profit, let alone get her or his money back.

A possible solution is to go nonprofit rather than for-profit. This means that rather than getting investors for your movie, you are getting donors. But how do you get donors? They key is to have a film that addresses some important public issue therefore there is an interest in getting the word out.

The strategy then is a three part process as seen in this article.

The new “Thrillumentary” info video has been removed because it is now going to make its world premiere at the Platinum Pias Community Awards Show for Artists on March 20th, 2017 at DCTV in New York City.

But if you still want to hear music by the “Thrillumentary” International Band you might want to check out the new Lights Camera Read donations video. All the music in the video was created by the “Thrillumentary” International Band.

And of course if you are interested in getting tickets to the Platinum Pias, please sign up for the NYC Make a Difference newsletter. When the time comes, tickets will be available exclusively to newsletter subscribers.

We asked Filmmaker, Educator and Artist Advocate Yianni Stamas how he plans to distribute the film “Thrillumentary” that he is working on.

This is his response:

If you are making a film with our Art Gush Method of Digital Filmmaking as seen on the Art Gush website, chances are you have the intention to distribute your movie to an audience.

But what is the new distribution path for a film like “Thrillumentary?” Answer: digital film distribution on VOD (Video On Demand). Entities include iTunes, Hulu, Amazon, VuDu, Netflix, Cable VOD and so forth.

It’s easy to get on several of these platforms with a film like “Thrillumentary,” which is a good thing. Why? Because with some of them, every time a person views your film – you get paid. The downside though, is getting viewers there in the first place, ready to buy.

It’s been said that a consumer needs to see up to 12 “impressions” about your movie before they are going to watch a film like “Thrillumentary.” Big Hollywood companies accomplish this goal with extremely large marketing budgets that used to be called P&A (Prints and Advertising).

But how does the small independent filmmaker do it? How does she or he get folks to want to rent online her or his flick?

The answer is digital marketing, which may include, but does not rely on solely, social media. To build visibility for your picture you need to have it all over Google and other search engines. This can be accomplished in part by submitting your film for reviews, networking with blogs/vlogs and doing as much online press as possible.

Thanks Yianni Stamas for your insights!