Actress, writer, director, producer, political activist, choreographer, and independent film enthusiast Rosie Perez knows, it’s all about the money:
Most independent film makers and lovers would say that it’s not about making a profit but that is naive and pure independent snobbery. If your film is not marketed to the masses or even just to the independent film lovers’ community in a relevant way, the chances of making a substantial profit is not likely. If your film does not make a substantial return, your film will be considered a failure. If your film is considered a failure, just based on the box office and not on the content, the studio’s, distributors and future independent financial investors response will be that independent films do not work and will be hesitant to support other projects! This is a hard truth that “we” as independent film makers do not want to accept. Well, we can not afford to be blind any longer.
Marketing dollars for television ads, magazine and newspaper campaigns, movie trailers shown not only online but in theaters , press junkets, billboards or at least poster snipes are
vital. Even the “festival” route takes a lot of money after your submission is accepted – word of mouth just does not cut it anymore and if you do not think this is true you are fooling yourself. This is not a part of selling out, it is being business smart about getting your independent, artful and important film seen by as many as possible!
Independent film makers must be competitive and this can be done with out losing our souls. We can be market savvy producers with out selling out our product. We get on our high horse and say amongst ourselves that we do not care about the box office, we care about the content of our films, which we should and do, however, in the real cruel world we must care to an extent otherwise we will be left in the dust.
Much hard love to the Independent Film World,
ROSIE PEREZ
