Self Helpless is Available On Bittorrent [updated links]

[Administrators - if you would be willing to feature the Self Helpless torrent or set it up for free leach, we would be very grateful. Hit us with an email at info@selfhelplessmovie.com and we will happily promote your site. Thank you.]

Self Helpless is officially available on bittorrent. First things first, here is where you can find the torrent:

(the seed on mininova is the strongest right now)

Mininova - AVI

Mininova - MPEG4

kickasstorrents.com

yourbittorrent.com

Isohunt

monova

torrindex.com

You can get the torrent-version directly from megaupload.com. If you download it, please seed:

Megaupload link - AVI

Megaupload link - MPEG4

We are doing our best to keep the torrent seeded. Please feel free to upload it to your favorite tracker or private site. Seed, comment, and pass it on. Enjoy!

We want as many people as possible to download the movie. Get it, smoke a joint, do a couple shots of tequila, and watch it with your friends. If you laugh, please tell someone else about it, blast it off on facebook, and join our email list. Our official store will be online in the next day or two. We will update the blog once it is up.

We are not asking for donations. There are much more important causes that you should donate to. We have worked hard our whole lives and we just don't feel right about begging for money. If you don't have enough cash to buy something from our store, we understand. We are right there with you. Just tell a friend about Self Helpless and sign up for our email list so you can come see us when we bring live comedy to your town.

To all the evil pirates out there we would like to say, thank you! Thank you for taking the time to download and watch our film. We hope it made you laugh. Thank you for giving up some space in your ratio, and for seeding the film for everyone else.

Official Bit Torrent Release: Friday 4/16

We are proud to announce that Self Helpless will be released for free on bittorrent on Friday, April 16th 2010. The film will be available as a free and legal download exclusively on bittorrent for 4 days. After this 4 day bittorrent-only release we will not make any effort to remove the film. It is yours, enjoy. We had planned to release Self Helpless for a 7 day bittorrent-only run, but we ran into some technical issues over the last few days. The DVD release will begin on 4/20.

The name of the torrent file is Self Helpless_(2010)_xvid_avi.avi - it should be available on a number of public trackers. Please feel free to upload Self Helpless to any trackers or private sites. We will also be uploading an MOV version, as well as several larger full HD versions for the real cinephiles.

We want as many people as possible to download Self Helpless. We will update the blog and twitter with a list of sites that have the torrent.

If you are new to the whole Self Helpless bittorrent movement, here are two blog posts that will bring you up to speed.

1) Who's On First

2) Torrent-Only Release FAQ

This is the future of content distribution. Downloaders are not opposed to artists profiting from their craft, they just want a chance to check stuff out before buying. You get to test drive a car. You try on clothes before you buy them. You can even mess with your iPod for 30 days and then bring it back to Best Buy. Why, then, does hollywood insist that people spend their hard earned money before ever getting a chance to see if they like a movie? We see downloading as capitalism at its best.

Our model is simple. We have made a great, unique, hilarious film. Self Helpless appeals directly to people in our age group who enjoy clever, low brow, character driven comedies. So we want people to see the damned movie. If they decide that they like Self Helpless, then they can buy an extended Director's Cut DVD or a dope-ass original t-shirt. This works for us because our movie is solid. This scares Hollywood because studios make big money by scamming people into paying to see the same formulaic, cliche movies. No one is going to buy a t-shirt for "Wanted" because it was a piece of dog-shit.

If you make quality content that people can identify with and get behind, then they will support it. Bittorrent is the greatest thing to happen to filmmakers, and they are missing the boat.

We are not accepting donations. We are healthy, intelligent young men, and there are far better causes to which you could donate. If you do want to support the film we have a bunch of original movie merchandise for sale at all different price levels. If you are as short on cash as we are, then just join our email list. That way you will be able to come see us when we bring our particular brand of screening / live comedy / giant tequila-soaked party to your town.

Big studios are spending millions trying to combat, sue, and lock up downloaders. They should be spending that money making innovative movies. Fuck that. We ride with the downloaders. You are our people. We made Self Helpless for you.

Why isn't the movie done?

Ok, here is the complex answer to this oft-repeated question. Firstly, I acknowledge that we have been saying "in a month" for about four months. The further we get into this movie, the greater potential we discover that it has. This, in turn, leads to more work to reach that potential.

Filming took place from August to December of '08.

Rough editing all the scenes was completed around February of '09.

Final editing, animation, and music composition is finally close to being finished right now.

What remains is the main audio mixdown. Basically this is the process of looking at every single sound clip (dialogue, sound effects, background audio, songs) and seeing what needs to be done to make it sound as good as possible. Some things are too loud, too quiet, too sharp, blown out. Some need special effects to make them sound like phone calls and such. As you can guess, this is an exhausing process. First Adam and I spend between 2 and 5 hours (depending on the scene) setting all the clips in our audio editing program. Then Drick spends another 2 or 3 hours actually doing the mixing. This is a serious time investment, but it is essential to the quality of the viewing experience.

The computer goes to Drick's house in a couple days. He will probably be mixing for 2 weeks or so. Drick has vowed that, in the name of productivity, he will enforce a "no dope smoking until after mixing" policy for himself. A new leaf is being turned over.

During these 2 weeks of mixdown PK, Ski, and I will be working on: titles, a rough trailer, web promo materials, film festival stuff.

I'll hit you guys with an update on the film festival scene soon.