Medical Malpractice

Media consolidation is reducing the breadth and depth of the information Americans receive about the important issues that confront us as a nation. Hard facts, in depth analysis, and first person accounts about serious matters like the Iraq War, torture, war profiteering, electronic vote tampering, health insurance cost increases, medical errors & malpractice and a host of other important issues are driven off the mainstream news by things like the ascension of a new pope or the funeral of a statesmen.

Political activists, through years of research, are often better informed than the average citizen about one or more issues, and they are often much better informed than the average reporter. The question is, how can political activists package their data in a format that most American's are willing and able to accept? The answer is by creating independent films that communicate the compelling facts.

Creating a documentary used to be something undertaken only by the media elite. Buying and developing film, using three cameras at a time, cutting and pasting film strips to create the finished product ensured that the vast majority of documentaries were created by well funded professionals. All that has changed.

A political activist needs just a few tools in order to begin creating and selling documentaries nationally.
>
Here's how:

Acquire a digital video camera for $300-$600. A mini DV camera is probably best since it uses small one hour tapes that don't cost much. You can pay more for an HD (high definition) "prosumer" camera, but buy what you can afford. While you are at the video store, pick up a good clip-on microphone. You will find getting good sound key to creating a great documentary.

Acquire a new MACINTOSH computer with 500-750 GB of storage for $1500-$2400. I say this as a person who teaches people how to use PCs day in and day out. New Macintosh computers come with the software required to make films. The free iMOVIE software makes loading the images captured on your DV tapes as easy as plugging your camera into the computer and clicking capture. You can load multiple tapes, cut and paste segments, add sound & music tracks, and burn DVDs. Doing all that on a PC takes longer and costs more for the same quality. Learning to use the software and hardware on a PC takes longer too.

Set up an account for your DVD at http://www.CustomFlix.com for $50-$75. CustomFlix is a subsidiary of Amazon. After you set up an account, fill in the blanks about your DVD (including the price), upload some 300 DPI images using their templates to define the cover and face of the DVD. Ship them your DVD. In about three weeks it will be for sale. Note that you never have to spend $2000 to imprint a bunch of your DVDs as used to be the case. CustomFlix does DVD-on-Demand, which means they produce the DVDs when they are ordered. If you order your own DVDs you get them at the base production price (about $7), and the price goes down if you order many copies. If you set the retail price at $14.95 you'll make $4-$7 when someone buys one.

If you don't want to make your DVD available on Amazon, check out http://www.Mixonic.com and http://www.Lulu.com who do DVD-on-demand as well and have no setup fee at all.

Promote your DVD by telling people about it at events. You may even want to buy a bunch to sell. Let other activists purchase your DVD at a discount. Customflix makes this pretty easy. You just give them a discount code.

Reach a national audience try keyword advertising through http://www.google.com/ads. Note that I've found ads that cost $0.05-$0.25 per click-through do better than those that cost more.

Post excerpts from your DVD on http://www.Revver.com, http://www.YouTube.com and video.google.com. Its free and its a great way to get exposure for your work. Creating Google ads that point at your video on these sites is a great way to get the word out about your issue, and perhaps sell a few DVDs to people who want to know more. Just make sure your video clips show your web address.

Make sure you get releases for anyone you put on film. You can find the form anywhere on the internet. You should also ask people you interview if its OK to use them in your documentary while the camera is running. Make sure you tell them the documentary will be available on Amazon so they know it will be commercially available. Putting someone on film without having their permission is likely to get you sued.

Will you make a million dollars making documentaries?

Probably not. I know folks (www.conceptionmedia.net) who went to Fallujah just days after the US stopped bombing it and had interviews with the inhabitants returning to the ruins. Mainstream media is very unlikely to pick up your documentary no matter how good it is. Keep that in mind while making it and budget accordingly. Not everyone will enjoy Michael Moore's (Fahrenheit 9/11) or Robert Greenwald's (Iraq for Sale) success.

On the other hand, its very likely that a political activist who is actually politically active will have no problem breaking even on most their projects. Perhaps more important, a tidal wave of documentaries that address the issues people care about is the best remedy for our nation's extremely consolidated media.