Hi Eoghan,
Well when we started we did a shot of advertising and decided after to build slowly, trying to focus our efforts , getting things screened in the Film Festival and trying as much as possible to make personal contacts . When you blast out flyers or posters a lot of the time people don’t fully know what the forum is about , join then might never look again ( generally if they don’t get a call from Speilberg in a week ,some people don’t bother ) as well as that it tends to be left on the doorstep of the core people to do the advertising, and time becomes an issue ( we have asked a few times for people interested in giving out flyers , and then not had a huge response.) And flyers, posters and the lot costs money. Not griping really just explaining why we haven’t actively advertised and sought increased membership. although word of mouth has served well in the past year , as membership has doubled
That said now is a good time to actively go and recruit , and with the formation of the club it could be a particular item to look at and go after, raising the profile more. Given the projects we have coming to fruition at the moment it will be a whole area that will be getting Focus anyway.
As to the first thing you said , that’s always been the way of it , and always will be the way of it , It’s an independent Production Company , that just so happens to be structured and managed as a club.
Picture a possible scenario : – it’s 2010 an egomotion member has written a great script , which has been developed by the club , a pilot trailer shot by the club , and a deal signed off by the club with Sony pictures and the Feature shot as a joint Sony /egomotion production Done in Ireland , pro crew and egomotion members working in the departments and it’s a box office smash that feeds so much money into the club we buy a plot of land after and build a studio .
Now I know I’m dreaming , but you have to aim high , and it isn’t an impossible scenario. Hard Work , good Fun , commitment and great projects are the way to go , and even if the above scenarion doesn’t happen there’s a whole pile of in between that can happen if we put this together. Stuff that otherwise wouldn’t happen.