It is possible for your Film to break thru the clutter with a simple website & streaming Video? This newsletter contains affordable Guerilla Marketing tips to help your documentary project get exposure. By using these techniques you may find a distributor, sell some DVDs, engage in a discussion, or even help create social change...it's up to you.

Just a reminder class is filling up for our November 14- 17 DV Crash Documentary Workshop. It's a great class for people to quickly gain digital Video Skills while going thru the process of making a short documentary in San Francisco's North Beach District.

A cheap one page hosting site can run as little as ten bucks a month. You don't even need a lot of space or bandwidth if you use a video service like "HELLO WORLD" that "host" your video clips at their site, then provide very fast streaming clips when your viewer clicks on the link. I use "1 and 1.com", they have rates as low as Four dollars a month.

The future of streaming video is the topic of a future newsletter, but for the next six months or so, a good idea is to try 3rd party video hosting/serving companies that offer simple and cheap solutions. You can create an account at one of these places for as little as $40 a month for a good number of 4 minute clips. Upload it yourself from your DVD player or camera, or contact Andre James and he can set you up and load the clips for you.

Sad but true, the best way to create traffic at your site is by using Google Adwords. They can deliver your website to the top of the list of most search pages related to your documentary. Yes, it is a little like cheating, but you gotta pay for it, so they make it hurt...only a little bit.

It's the best kept secret on the internet and I am letting you in on it. It is simple to use and affordable. You set a daily budget for advertising on Google...once you ad has been seen or clicked on enough to drain that days budget, they take your ad off, and stop taking money from your account. That way you don't loose your house for a week of google advertising!

You create key words that have to do with the subject of your movie, then create a small ad with a headline and text. A question is always a good headline. It draws in the reader. I used Google Adwords and a similar service on Yahoo to build the audience for my recent documentary BLACK HAIR, about the Korean take-over of the Black Beauty Supply Business, and what African Americans are doing to get it back. The website is www.blackhairdv d.com and in just over 7 months we have had almost 17,000 visitors watch the video clip that streams the moment you open the home page.

A Chat room is a fun way to let your visitors express their feelings about your film and it's subject. A warning that the chat room is not for the thin skinned. You will get all sorts of comments, but on Bla ck Hair's Web Chat Room there is a great discussion of the issues.

It creates content that also gives people a reason to return or tell friends about the site. I believe this really helped BLACK HAIR become popular. In fact our chat room is now having interesting security issues, apparent attacks by a bot posting on in an attempt to damage the chat room. Love some help if anyone wants to look at the code. Things you can look forward to if your film has strong political content. Makes life a little more interesting....

The First day is devoted to in-studio lighting and hands-on camera training. Learn how to light the perfect interview, film with windows in the background, understand filters and Matte Boxes and more.

Day Two Begins with a lecture on the Five Elements of documentary in the Morning, Then the class works in pairs to film a documentary in San Francisco's North Beach section. There is also the option to shoot on your own. A full day shooting, interviewing, while the instructor takes the time to review your footage so you can improve on the same day.

Day Three and Four are dedicated to learning the essentials of Final Cut Pro, and learning how to construct the basic building blocks of a documentary. An Opening, Split Edits, Condensing the Interview, Cutaway rules, Pacing etc. All while learning with your own computer and Final Cut Software provided to each student in the class. ( Class Size is limited). There is an optional fifth day of editing available to students who want to attempt to finish their Documentary Film.

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Do you need to learn Final Cut Pro for Work or to cut down on the costs of an editor? This fast paced course will get you up and running with Final Cut Pro in Two Days. Including all the Basics, plus Color Correction, Zooming and panning thru still photos, Basic Documentary Filmmaking Editing and more. We will be raising the cost of this course to $350 next Year. No experience is needed for this Course, Every student is provided with their own computer during class time.