Blog 009 - Codes Dealt

A new year means new projects... or the same series with new additions. With "Codes Abided" and "Codes Commanded" in the books, we had to do at least one more for the "Codes Collection." We introduced the characters in "Codes Abided," we then saw where the aloof and mysterious Tommy comes from in "Commanded", and now we're looking at young Freddy's time just before "Codes Abided" takes place in "Codes Dealt." 

We will be releasing the trailer within the next day or two, and the film this weekend (05/12/2018) 

For now, here are a few before and after stills from Sean Mccane and his color. The short film was shot on a Red Scarlett in 4.5k WS with Rokinon glass (mainly 24 and 35mm) in one location at The Cooler in Alpharetta Ga.

Blog 005 - Posters and Post Marketing

Sometimes we might complain about the Atlanta indie community. We are apart of it and we are embedded in it. There are so many issues with the community that need to be changed. Here's one... admittedly it's understandable that it's lower on the budget totem pole, but it is still a very important issue... 

The marketing material we've been seeing filmmakers put online is awful.

All too often do I see "posters" for indie flicks that have terrible design, typical and 100% displeasing font choices, and no real originality involved in the design what so ever.  Why is it that we (the ATL film community) don't care about how our films are first perceived?

(You specifically might not be doing this, but i'm still going to use the pronoun 'you' from now on.)

You do realize that the poster to your film, the Facebook image you post, the banner you create are all what the viewer first sees before they watch, or most likely don't watch, your film right?
How do you expect someone to want to watch your film when the design of your poster isn't inviting at all? Your marketing material needs to drive your potential audience into clicking play and taking the time out of their day to watch your film. 

Here's a few things to think about when creating marketing material:

1. Most likely, you don't have a "star" in your film, meaning the draw you're looking for isn't going to be coming from the actors name. So why are you so determined that the actor is the dominant piece of your poster when it has nothing to do with story? 
   
   STORY should be driving your every move. Yes, even in the images you put on your poster, they need to be story motivated. So if you want to put five of your actors huge faces on the poster, have a story driven reason for that decision.
    
2. Don't use Papyrus or Comic Sans... or most any other basic fonts for that matter. 
    
3. Not every actor has to have their name on the poster. Think about design rather than politics. Again, you probably don't have Liam Neeson in your film... so no one cares.
    
4. Chances are that you know the material you're looking at is bad. Chances are you just don't care and you're more excited about showing people that you did a thing... Here's an idea. Don't put out the subject if you know it's bad! If you're not sure, review a certain newer poster about an eight legged arachnid coming home... cough....
    
5. Lastly, and as always, try to budget a designer who knows what they're doing or connect with a student or new designer and work out some sort of trade. 

All of these ideas are subjective of course, but they're still good concepts to keep in mind when dealing with marketing material.  

Blog 001 - Welcome!

Welcome to W² Media, a post production house in Atlanta Ga specializing in editing, sound design and mixing, coloring, and score composing. 

W² Media was Founded by me (Walker Whited), lead editor, in 2016 after graduating from Georgia State University. I quickly drafted in the expertise of Sean Mccane who specializes in Sound Design and mixing after attending school for sound engineering at the Art Institute. Sean's second specialization and study is coloring.

Together we have finalized feature films such as "The Run Saga: Breathe," short films such as "The American Dream," "Justifying Existence," and "Codes Abided." 

On our extraordinary team we also have Tyler Kitchens, a fantastic composer who has worked along side us on many commercial works as well as "Codes Abided."

Through these blog posts we hope to inform you on our current work, insightful knowledge we may impart, as well as release completed works to you. If you wish to follow along with our posts visit here weekly for something new and send us your email by signing up on the email list below!

Thanks and we look forward to growing along with you,

Walker Whited (WW)
Founder, Lead Editor