Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Washington DC Independent Film Festival

We are excited to announce Ghosts Don’t Exist's first film festival! GDE has been officially selected to the DC Independent Film Festival (http://www.dciff.org), a GREAT local festival and voted by Movie Maker Magazine as one the top festivals for independent filmmakers! As of today, we are scheduled to close the festival on March 14. However, their site says schedule is subject to change until Feb. 1, when they will announce the final schedule. Please spread the word, and get your tickets early!

As always, thank you for your support and we hope to see you at the DCIFF!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

It's Here!



The enhanced version of Ghost Capture for your iPhone is now available!

For just 99 cents, (with all sales going to help the film) you can get the eagerly-awaited full version of the popular app—which includes 20 brand new "ghosts" (30 total) to inhabit your photos!

If you've tried the original app, you know why it's been a hit. We've been getting some terrific stories from users, such as this one from "Cedar Park Tx":
"What makes this so cool is the ability to quickly punk someone. I took a picture of my wife on the stairs of our new home... In seconds I added a ghostly Victorian girl behind her. I suggested I send the photo to her girlfriend to show off our house. Within a minute she called wanting to know about the little girl in the photo and of course I played dumb. It TOTALLY freaked them out. It's being able to do slight of hand right in front of victims that makes this idea work. My only request is for a wider variety of ghosts, but by all means keep it simple like it is now. Great job guys!!"
We also get some that are funny in a darker sense, like this one from "Albert D":
"Ya, works too well. I deleted this app. I took a pic of a friend's dining room and placed the image of the little girl in the center and made her barely visible and sent it to my friend. He got so emotional. I deleted the pic from his computer and all settings, only to find out later he spent $100 on software to try to retrieve the photo from his computer. I felt so terribly guilty. To this day, I still feel bad inside."
Albert only gave us 1 star because of that experience, but hey—his story was priceless. :)

The most frequent request we receive is for "more ghosts." The new version contains plenty of that, with even more to come.

All future updates (and there are already some great ones in the works) will be completely free, as Ghost Capture continues to grow. Help support GDE by getting it now, and let us know what you think! Don't forget to check out the Gallery to see what users around the world have submitted, and submit your own creations!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Year, New Ghosts!





To kick off the n
ew year, Ghost Capture is launching a creepy new campaign to advertise the highly-anticipated enhanced version of its hit iPhone app, which allows users to create their own "paranormal" photos by inserting ghostly images into their own pictures—which they can adjust the size, positioning, and transparency of for surprisingly startling effects. They can then email the photos to friends, as well as upload to the official gallery at ghostsdontexist.com.

The new version will retail for 99 cents, and includes thirty ghosts to choose from (the original ten, plus twenty brand new ghouls!) Free future updates will continue to add to the spectral population, as well as categorizing images (males, females, shadow figures, orbs, faces, etc.). All earnings go towards supporting the film. The original version will remain available as a free app—Ghost Capture Lite.

The current edition has been a mainstay in the Top 20 Free Photography apps on iTunes for months now, going as high as #4 and topping the likes of Flickr and TwitPic! In fact, in Italy, it not only reached the #1 spot, but cracked the Top 10 of ALL free apps, regardless of genre!


The new ad campaign features some of the new "ghosts," and puts an even eerier spin on the concept by suggesting a "personal history" of sorts for each—alluding to how and when they entered the spirit world.

One of the characteristics that has helped
Ghost Capture stand out from the pack is the use of more subtle, psychologically disturbing imagery... rather than the expected cliches of vampires, demons, blood, and gore. Users responded overwhelmingly to the image of a small Victorian girl with no eyes, consistently ranking it as a freaky favorite. This idea of a "regular person" from long ago (who's just slightly... irregular...) materializing in a contemporary photo... it struck a chord. Crafting a fictional history only enhances that effect, allowing the user's imagination to run wild as they add these ghostly figures to their own photos.

That's right—we said fictional history. ;)

In reality, all of the images used are custom creations from model-released stock photos and vintage family albums. Not only did these folks not meet tragic, gruesome ends—most are actually alive and well. And posing for other stock photos. :)

The process of creating a new ghoul for
Ghost Capture often comes from unlikely images, which are usually anything but ominous.



Removing a few limbs, adding a ghostly pallor, and deadening the eyes of a photogenic little model... sometimes that's all it takes to create the mystique of a tragic 19th-century ghost—one your friends would be shocked to see materializing in the background of that New Year's Eve picture you just took! Gaaaah!!! :)

The enhanced version of Ghost Capture has a little something for everyone—including those who requested the more modern, distorted spectres one might find in a Japanese horror film, shadowy figures, faceless entities, and jilted decaying brides. The new app will be available early this year.