Just a little over 2 months after wrapping principal photography, my team and I are proud to announce the premiere of Queen Hussy Episode 1: Puss N Boots (yesterday @ 9am). The amount of talent and hard work contributed to this project has been phenomenal. Favor upon favor upon favor from folks I personally look forward to paying on future work.
My man Anthony Artis always says, “I may work for no pay, but I never work for free“, with the belief that there is always something to be gained in experience and/or relationships. I hope that our collaborators thus far can say the same. As you read this, I don’t know what the exact view count will be, but I can tell you what it needs to reach: 50,000 VIEWS!
I mentioned in Issue I that I’ve labeled our quest “mining for views”. Rather than the hundreds of thousands of dollars required for my feature film Premium (mostly raised over a 4 month period in 2005), this time around we want to “raise” 50,000 views ASAP. As I said from the beginning, readers of this series will be given an insider’s look as to how and why we’re doing what we do, so let’s go ahead and get this popping!
WHY A SUNDAY PREMIERE?
There’s always a “best” time to do anything, especially on social networks. Research shows that email blasts receive the highest click-through on Sunday mornings. Any email blast you receive Monday – Friday falls into the glorious work queue and is automatically secondary in importance (if not lower). On Saturday, most folks are running the errands they couldn’t get to during the week. By the time Sunday rolls around, you may be hungover from Saturday night’s mischief, but you’ve got more freedom in your schedule to dive into your inbox and engage with what YOU want. I get several newsletters on Sunday mornings and sit up in bed with my iPad, reading/watching content of interest that is well executed and entertaining. We’re trying to take advantage of this with our Queen Hussy premiere in hopes that it’ll propel viewership into the first week of release as we expand awareness and strive for those 50,000 views.
It’s a big climb, but it wouldn’t be worth it if we shot for 500 or 5,000 views. You gotta go H.A.M.!
WHY THE 50,000 VIEWS?
When Hannelore Williams created Queen Hussy and dug into her pockets to fund it, we agreed that there should be a strategy for success in every possible direction. It was impossible to shoot the entire season during our first Los Angeles trip, so she created a pilot package consisting of 3 episodes. Our goal is to deliver not only a proof of concept, but a proof of audience to future partners and potential funding sources. Once we reach 50K views, and only then, we will release Episode 2 (which has a few snippets in the end credits of the Puss N Boots episode). We’ll employ a new view threshold for Episode 2 that will trigger the release of Episode 3.
By the time we’ve released all 3 episodes (which will only have happened because of YOU!), we’ll be able to return the favor and finish the first season due to our optimized position for fundraising moving forward.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
If you like what you see in Episode 1 below, all you have to do is spread the word to your friends, family, acquaintances, and enemies! I’ve even prepped the text so you don’t have to think about the wording too much, just cut and paste if you like:
Twitter
Don’t miss @petechatmon’s webseries debut #QueenHussy & join the 50,000 VIEW challenge! http://ht.ly/6KRje PLS RT! (VIDEO)
Facebook
Don’t miss Pete Chatmon’s webseries debut with Queen Hussy! Join the 50,000 VIEW challenge! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmvOs6XpdjE
(If you’re a friend and/or fan, please type @Pete Chatmon and/or @Queen Hussy and select the name so it posts on our pages too when you post to Facebook)
Press Platforms
If you know any press outlets that might be right for Queen Hussy coverage, please let me know! You just might be helping to make a blogger or writer’s life easier by guiding them to content their audience wants to know more about. These Chronicles are exclusive to Shadow and Act, but we’re providing a myriad of access points for those who are interested. Hit me on Twitter, Facebook or leave a comment below and we’ll connect. Our cast and crew are available for interviews or whatever is needed!
SHOUT OUTS
I wanted to personally thank all the folks that have showed us love. From cast and crew, to friends and fam, to filmmaking family like Issa Rae, Al Thompson, Ava Duvernay, and Matthew Cherry, to the folks I see popping up in my twitter RT feed like @tahirtweets, @cybeldp, @FilmTVDiversity, @bohochickprod, @dubyasquared, @VHarris01, @Don_Con, @InArtTV, @CollectiveDS, @FilmFatale_NYC, @MyishiaCB, @AuthorNYSE, @truechandra, @kmotoyoung, @scheffee, @ivypayne, @tati_xoxo, @jazzygirlrockin, @keith_davis,@lak7 and many more! — THANK YOU.
I’d also like to thank Olu Gittens and the Atlanta Post for doing coverage on us before we even finished Day 2 of the shoot.
Lastly, and again, I’ve gotta thank Shadow and Act for allowing me to share. No goal is reached without the collective support of a community and I’m proud to be a part of a movement so strong…and so important…with people as cool as y’all are.
This Wednesday, 10/5 @ 9pm EST, I invite you to tune in to my Double Down Film Show podcast for an interview with Hannelore Williams and Queen Hussy’s, Nicole Sylvester. They’ve got more great information to share about how to get from script to screen!
http://double7images.com/episode-75-above-the-line-wthe-queen-hussy-webseries-team-wed-105-9pm-est
Don’t hesitate to hit this column up with questions, comments, etc!
Onward,
Pete Chatmon
President + CEO
Double7Images.com
twitter.com/petechatmon
facebook.com/petechatmon
And if you missed it yesterday, here’s Episode 1: Puss N Boots
