Presentation slides from "Let's Really Get Into It: How We Made a Little Money Making Art We Care a Lot About," by Brian Bieber and Brienne Maner. Originally presented live at the 2022 South Dakota Arts Conference on Friday, May 20, in Rapid City, South Dakota.

1. Let’s Really Get Into It:
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How We Made a Little Money
Making Art We Care a Lot About:
A case study in DIY documentary filmmaking,
DIY marketing, and DIY lots of other things:
What really went on behind the scenes of
I Really Get Into It: The Underage Architects
of Sioux Falls Punk

2. Brienne Maner
Executive Producer,
I Really Get Into It
Executive Director,
Startup Sioux Falls
Brian Bieber
Director,
I Really Get Into It
Professional copywriter
Amateur filmmaker
Who we are

3. ❖To Talk About Our Movie
We independently produced and released a feature
length documentary.
Why we’re here ❖To Tell You How We Made Money Doing It
It was very labor-intensive, but could be a viable model
for other artists.
❖To Reduce the Stigma Around Money Talk
Talking about money is uncomfortable, but artists
should do it more often.

4. I Really Get Into It:
The Underage Architects
of Sioux Falls Punk
An independently produced feature documentary about the
early years of the Sioux Falls all ages DIY punk scene.

5. Normalize talking about money

6. Why don’t we talk about money?
It’s embarrassing.
“What if I make less than them?”
“What if I make more than them?”

7. Why don’t we talk about money?
We’re competitive.
“If they make more, I’ll make less.”

8. Who benefits from us not
talking about money?
People with money!
Our employers.
Our patrons.
Even other artists.

9. Remember:
Your work has real value, and you
deserve compensation.
Talk about money.

10. Let’s Talk About Our Money

11. $5,000 (approx.)
Production Costs
❖Gear
Camera $300
Lights $150
Audio $200
❖Travel
Lodging
Gas
Airfare
Meals
❖Collaborators
Promotional Art Direction $500
Original Animation $500
Camera & Art Direction $500
$2,000
SD Arts Council Project Grant
$3,000
Out of pocket (over 1.5 years)

12. $15,500 (approx.)
Gross Profits
$12,750 online
physical merch
$900 retail
physical merch
$350 digital rentals
$1,500 screenings
virtual & in-person
❖Merch
DVDs
VHS
Audio Cassettes
Zines
Postcards
Stickers
Posters
Pins
Buttons
❖Screenings
Sound Unseen
Minneapolis
State Theater
Sioux Falls
The Cave Collective
Rapid City

13. Giving
Sound Unseen
2020 Virtual Screening
$600
Children’s Inn
State Theater
2021 Theatrical
Premiere
$800
The Transformation
Project
The Cave Collective
2021 Screening
$75 (in kind)
The Cave Collective

14. New Kitchen!
Net Earnings
(and some for our savings account)

15. Distribution

16. My big plan
(circa early March 2020)
Rent a small theater and host
a public screening myself
Revenue Goal: $1,200

17. Our big pivot
(circa late March 2020)
DVD home release
Revenue Goal: ???

18. The Importance of
❖Focus Interest
Establishes a defined window of
interest in your project.
Creates urgency.
❖Cash Flow
❖Bundling
Pre-orders
Opens breathing room between
project completion and delivery.
Creates opportunities to pair
your primary product and
others related to it.

19. Merch
DVDs
VHS
Audio Cassettes
Zines
Postcards
Stickers
Posters
Pins
Buttons

20. ❖DVD Basic
DVD
$18
Pre-order Packages
❖DVD Deluxe ❖DVD Deluxe Plus ❖DVD Supreme
Deluxe Plus
DVD
Making-of zine
Postcard set
$30
DVD
Making-of zine
Postcard set
Acrylic lapel pin
Soundtrack cassette
$50
DVD
Making-of zine
Postcard set
Acrylic lapel pin
Soundtrack cassette
VHS
Watch Party
$75

21. Pricing

22. FUGAZI

23. ❖ 100% Independent
Owned their music.
No record contracts.
Distributed on own label.
❖ $6 Tickets
❖ Global Success
❖ $10 Records
FUGAZI
Worldwide fame.
Outsold many major
label contemporaries.
Wouldn’t allow venues to
charge more than $6 per
ticket.
No merch.
The only thing they sold
was their music.

24. Brian’s Proposed Price List
DVDs: $10
Everything else: >$5

25. You are not FUGAZI.
This is not 1990.

26. Psychographics
FUGAZI
Working- to middle-class.
Teenage.
Unemployed or part-time
employed.
Little disposable income.
primary audience
I Really Get Into It
Middle- to upper middle-class.
Middle-age.
Full-time employed.
Disposable income.
Nostalgic.
primary audience

27. Do Your Market Research

28. ❖DVD
Cost:
$650 per 500 discs
Sells for:
$18 per disc
Product Pricing
❖VHS ❖Soundtrack ❖Zine
Cost:
$200 per 25 tapes
Sold for:
$35 per tape
Cost:
$350 per 100 tapes
Sold for:
$10 per tape
Cost:
$200 per 230 zines
Sells for:
$7 per tape

29. ❖Postcards
Cost:
$33 per 250 postcards
x3 designs
Sell for:
$5 per pack of 3
Product Pricing
❖Buttons ❖Stickers
Cost:
$65 for button
machine & supplies
for 1,000 buttons
Sell for:
$1 per button
Cost:
$30 per 100 stickers
(approximate)
Sell for:
$1 per sticker
when I don’t give them away

30. ❖Posters
Cost:
$60 per 100 posters
Sell for:
$5 per poster
Product Pricing
❖Acrylic Pins
Cost:
$50 per 100 pins
Sell for:
$10 per pin
❖Beer
Cost:
$0 (for us)
Sold for:
None of our business

31. Remember:
Your work is probably worth a lot
more than you think.
Have your audience set your prices.

32. Promotion

33. The original
ireallygetintoit.com

34. Pre-order Launch
“Coming Soon!!!”
“Coming Nov. 21”
❖ Most people had no idea it
was coming
❖ Everyone knew exactly how
long they’d have to wait for it

35. Pre-Pre-order Prep
❖ Heads up to stakeholders
Email
Text
DMs
Use your network
❖ Give them what they need to
help you
Links to product
Social posts
Sharable images

36. ❖2,200
site visitors
❖119
orders
Week 1
Pre-order stats
❖5.4%
conversion rate
❖$5,320
sales revenue
First 36 Hours
$4,265
(1/3 all time gross revenue)
The pre-order worked for us.
❖$44.70
average spend
per customer

37. Remember:
Don’t tell people what you’re going to do.
Tell them what you’ve done.

38. Social Media

39. How we talk about ourselves on the internet

40. Remember:
People like supporting the artist as much
as the art. Put a face to your work.
On social channels, images always
outperform text-only posts.

41. Traditional PR

42. ❖Press Release
Draft a release for every major
stage of the project’s lifespan
Press Release to
Sales Pipeline
❖Press Coverage
Speak in sound bites when
possible
❖Social Post
Share a link or a photo of the
press coverage with relevant
links to the product or tickets
❖Sales
In the first few weeks of the
campaign, each social post
would garner 2-3 sales
(How it worked for us)
1. 2.
3. 4.

43. Traditional PR
❖ No Business
Magazine
Issue 1: Power Colors
Spring 2020
❖ SiouxFalls.Business
Pre-order Launch feature
October 26, 2020
❖ Keloland News
Eye on Keloland
October 30, 2020
❖ Backlot 605 Podcast
Interview
November 5, 2020
❖ Argus Leader
Business Journal
November 30, 2020
❖ AP News
Sound Unseen
December 5, 2020
❖ Tiger Meat
South Dakota Music Zine
Spring 2021
❖ 605 Magazine
“Meet the Creative”
June 2021
❖ Argus Leader
Front Page
June 2, 2021
❖ Argus Leader
“Sioux Falls Brewsletter"
June 16, 2021
❖ SDPB Radio
“In the Moment” w/
Lori Walsh
June 21, 2021
❖ Forum News Service
June 27, 2021
❖ SDPB Radio
“SDPB News”
July 15, 2021
❖ Keloland News
Eye on Keloland
August 22, 2021
❖ Film Threat
Review (8.5/10)
October 28, 2021

44. Festivals & Screenings

45. Festivals

46. Screenings
❖ Sound Unseen
Online feature
December 4, 2020
Minneapolis, MN
❖ Sioux Falls State
Theatre
June 24-27, 2021
Sioux Falls, SD
❖ Seattle Film Festival
Official Selection
July 2, 2021
Seattle, WA
❖ The Cave Collective
July 16, 2021
Rapid City, SD
❖ South Dakota Film
Festival
Official Selection
September 16, 2021
Aberdeen, SD
❖ SiouxperCon Film
Festival
Official Selection
October 2, 2021
Sioux Falls, SD
❖ Dakota Independent
Film Festival
Best Feature Documentary
October 9-10, 2021
Sioux Falls, SD
❖ L.A. Punk Film
Festival
Best U.S. Feature
Documentary
October 9-11, 2021
Los Angeles, CA
❖ Decibels Music Film
Festival
Official Selection
October 28-November 7, 2021
San Francisco, CA
❖ Sound Unseen
Official Selection
November 11, 2021
Minneapolis, MN

47. S i o u x F a l l s
State Theatre
Premiere
June 24-27, 2021 | Sioux Falls

48. ❖ Door Deal
60/40 door split
$4/ticket net ($800 total)
State got 100% concessions
We got 100% merch table
❖ Sponsorship
❖ Q&A
❖ Promotion
Live Q&A with Brienne,
Brian & Terry Taylor after
June 24 premiere
screening
Andy Howes of Howes
Oil and FUEL promotions
sponsored the event at
$500, which paid for the
poster design and
production costs
Special poster designed
by Marc Wagner
Special beer brewed by
Look’s Beer Co.
C
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IRGIT poster .pdf 1 6/7/2021 1:32:46 PM
State
Theatre
Premiere

49. Sound Unseen
2021
November 11, 2021 | Minneapolis

50. ❖ Screening
Sold out screening at the
Trylon Cinema, followed
by a live Q&A with Brian
❖ After Party
Concert at The Hook & Ladder
after the screening
All Sioux Falls or Sioux Falls-
connected bands
Sound
Unseen

51. Where is it now?

52. Where is it now?
❖ Vimeo OnDemand
50 minutes of bonus footage
$6 rental
$12 purchase
$350 in sales since December
❖ Online Store
DVDs and merch still
available
About $50/month in sales

53. Where is it not?
Streaming Services
❖Reduced Control
❖HD but 4K
❖Not great visibility

54. Remember: Don’t give away more than you have to.

55. Stay in touch
GhostsAndHorses@gmail.com
Thank you.
GhostsAndHorses.com
LetsReallyGetIntoIt.carrd.co