This week, I’m unveiling some of the social media stuff I’ve been working on for my film, Transnationals. It seems a bit backwards that I have to start marketing a film before I’ve even made it, but I guess that’s how the world works today. I have to shut off my inner luddite and start websites, twitter and facebook pages, a kickstarter site, a trailer, a photo album and a whole cult of personality around a script and (let’s be real, here) myself! I’m not comfortable with that — at all!!

But I’m trudging along. Today, I launched Transnationals on Facebook. I’m on Twitter too, despite not having any followers. It’s Kickstarter tomorrow (link to follow) and any day now, you can go to www.transnationals-movie.com and the website will be up and about! There is something very unclean about this. It seems untoward and selfish to seek out all of this attention, yet this is the culture we’ve created. “He who screams the loudest is heard.” The web can be a cruel place for those not aggressive enough to preach their own gospel. That’s always been my problem, whether I’m launching a short film, a story, a blog or anything else I’ve worked on. I’m too afraid to ask for a pat on the back, and I squeeze my eyes shut, tense my muscles and wait for the storm to pass when I put my work out there (once and for all) for all of my friends. Then I’m back to hiding in my own little corner, working on the next thing, while I hope and pray that the world has forgotten all about me.

Except that I don’t want it to. I want them to come back. I want to produce more and more, so they don’t have to be told to come back.

Such is the artist’s paradox: we do our art for no one, but in order to keep doing it, we must appeal to someone – anyone, or even everyone. Even though we are all just social caterpillars.