When Christopher Johnson started working on a five-part series on The Frugal Gourmet, an influential PBS cooking show hosted by Jeff Smith, it seemed like an easy sell for doc series-hungry streamer. But it wasn’t to be, and so Chris Johnson has turned to self-distribution for his thorough look at rise and fall of the popular 90’s icon.
Despite the ambitious nature of the project, Chris was largely a “one man band,” handling audio, shooting, producing, directing, and editing the project titled I Bid You Peace: The Rise and Fall of The Frugal Gourmet. Recently, he created a feature-length version of the project, also available from his website.
In this podcast, Chris tells us about the challenges of self-distribution, and the surprising chorus of online commenters providing less-than-helpful advice on distribution and subject matter of the project.