Christopher M. Rutledge: Screenwriter, author and director in Los Angeles, California.

Thanks Karen "Kay" Ross!! I'll work on that soon

Thank you for sharing. I did that with my music video on my project page.

Oh yes -- for sure! Being a DIY filmmaker is much more empowering than chasing after gatekeepers. And you have a better chance of being seen when you have something great to show.

Congratulations Chris, that's amazing! Your with looks really interesting, would love to connect.

Congratulations, Chris! That’s awesome! Have you thought about joining the Writers’ Room? There are so many great things that happen in there from pitching exec’s, practice pitch tank, script coverage, learning about the business and craft and so much more! If you’d like to try it out for a free month, please email Jason Mirch (j.mirch@stage32.com), the Director of Script Services!

Congrats! The Stage32 community has been helpful to all of us. It’s the least bias area I’ve encountered on the internet. Only giving critiques and no scams. Best of luck on your end.

Hey, Christopher M. Rutledge! Great to see you again! WOW, congratulations on your successes with your pitch sessions - that's fantastic! Were they projects based on your novels, or different projects? I'd love for you to share any advice you have with fellow screenwriters in the Screenwriting Lounge: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting

Also, I really dig your website - simple, clean, but effective. Great work! I may snag Asclepius for my weekend reading as I'm quite interested in complementary therapies.

Keep at it, and keep us posted! We definitely want to hear that success story!

Hey Karen "Kay" Ross! I'll be glad to share this advice to the Screenwriting Lounge.

Yes, the pitched scripts were based on my novels, one of which is ASCLEPIUS, so great reading choice for the weekend :). Enjoy!

Aggregators have mostly all gone bankrupt in the last 18 months, and their business model is one which pretty much removes all revenue for you from the stream as well as charging for their service up front. You can place your product on Amazon yourself - it's just a bit tedious to follow their technical rules on captions/subtitles/links etc. but there is literally no reason to pay an aggregator for that. If you had any kind of series, I would be interested in looking at it at ondemand.global but we don't do shorts for streaming. However, we ARE creating a film market which is cost-free to producers, so you might be interested in keeping in touch with me as that gets up and running over the next month or so.

Thanks Shadow! It's my understanding that aggregators can also design and advise on digital distribution and marketing strategies. I've read that (yes) I can upload my own content to Amazon but the films can be lost in the shuffle with so many titles if their is no marketing strategy. Which is something I admittedly have no experience with for films. What's been your experience with film marketing? I'll check out your site also

Christopher M. Rutledge Well as far as Amazon is concerned, the hard truth is that the reason they take literally any content is because it brings traffic to them which they can switch to their preferred properties. They use indie content as another piece of bait, in other words (it's worse than that, actually, but that's another discussion). Remember the first principle of internet marketing: if you are NOT paying for the product, you ARE the product. Further, Amazon sells its keywords to the highest bidder, so standard things like SEO is almost pointless on your Amazon presence. In my opinion, your marketing effort should focus on reaching audience generally, outside of Amazon (or whatever platforms you are on) and growing fans and audience specifically for your product. That means creating your own email contact lists, etc. and marketing directly to YOUR audience - being careful not to lose your audience to Amazon. Use Amazon only as a delivery system but be sure to connect with audience BEFORE they go to Amazon. Because being on Amazon not only doesn't mean anyone at all will see your product - their strategies are designed to flip those audience who do, and make sure you cannot aggregate that audience yourself. (... they prohibit links to your website or anywhere off Amazon site for instance, in you production or on you Amazon page)

Hey Christopher, this is Karen from the Stage 32 team. I just wanted to let you know I moved your post from Filmmaking / Directing to Your Stage, as it fits much better there. Let me know if you have any questions, and all the best to you!

Hey, Christopher M. Rutledge! I'm giving feedback on Fridays as part of a #FilmmakerFriday thing I'm trying! If you'd like to participate, scroll through Your Stage (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/promotion) and give feedback to at least three other videos that have posted! Then, copy and paste this info for them to join.

Wow, what a powerful image! Especially the colorful flames on a b&w depiction with the American flag facemasks. The song sounds like it's just slowed down, right? It was interesting at first, but the long it plays, the less I like it. Maybe you could start it at a more normal pace and then slow it down? Also, with a full minute, I really want to see some inserts of the individual faces so I can get to know them - maybe even a name and brief bio to go with them? Keep up the great work!

Thanks for sharing! I hope the feedback is helpful, and I look forward to seeing your notes on others' posts, too!

No problem!! Thanks Karen "Kay" Ross