Vanessa and I sat in our car waiting for Little Star’s great pizza to be ready last night, rapidly scribbling notes from this awesome KQED radio show
Year: 2013
By Marc Schiller
Back in early May, I had the pleasure of attending “A2E: Artist To Entrepreneur” a fantastic lab organized by Ted Hope and the San Francisco Film Society. Over a three day period, a group of extremely talented filmmakers, technologists, marketing and distribution experts came together to explore new paradigms for film distribution.
On the first day of the lab, Ted and his team passed around a worksheet that all of the filmmakers were asked to complete. While filmmakers are often asked to submit information when applying for funding, few are compelled to explore their film from a marketing and distribution perspective as effectively and as thoroughly as the A2E worksheet demanded.
The Film Biz, and thus the culture it birthed, originally had no option but to be mass market. But we now have a tremendous opportunity of an alternative method and it is right before us, ripe for creating. Shall we do it? Or should we just sit on our ass and let this moment pass? Although most of culture is waking to this reality, those of us who opted to first and foremost create feature films are still leaning towards the latter.
Look at where we were however, and you might just be able to see where we need to go. Back in the olden days of yore, EVERYONE had to go to the movies for the infrastructure to be built. And they did. And it was. And it was pretty fantastic and widely loved. But….
By Jill Soloway (director of AFTERNOON DELIGHT)
1) We grew up playing dolls.
No one believes me, but honestly? Making a movie is closer to playing dolls than ANYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD. As children we sat on the floor, gave the dolls names, dressed them up in hot pants and pleather belts and gave voice to scenarios. And yes, we also smashed them together and made kissy sounds so they could make sweet, sweet, plastic love. I did that with Kathryn Hahn and Josh Radnor in my movie too!
2) We put on Thanksgiving
Women can make a space in their brain big enough to plan a seven-course dinner for thirty friends or a twenty-three day shoot for a crew of forty. Shopping list, shot list – they’re more or less the same thing.
Categories
Goodnight, World
I loved rock and roll from a young age. It was one of those things that helped me recognize that I differed from my contemporaries. If memory serves correctly it was the same day that The Peanuts movie “You Are A Good Man Charlie Brown” and “Woodstock: The Movie” came out. Although the former was more age appropriate, I saw the latter and managed to stay up just until Hendrix started playing. “Kung Fu Fighting” was the number one cafeteria junior high juke box smash when Springsteen’s “Born To Run” captured me away. I had cycled out all my classic rock for new wave by senior year in high school, but had yet to truly lock onto something until in college. It was another party in the kitchen when X’s “Johnny Hit And Run Pauline” punched out of the radio and blew my mind. I found much to love sonically over the next 5 years or so, but I probably saw X more than any band. Just seeing/hearing them here brings back that rush I felt back then, the one that clarified “yes, finally, there was a music made for me”. Know what I mean?
By Reid Rosefelt
I’ve been a film publicist for 35 years and have worked on hundreds of movies. Whether a film ended up grossing a hundred thousand or a hundred million, my approach has always been essentially the same.
1) Be Consistent With Positioning
The most important task for a marketer is to find a description of the film that accentuates its strengths, minimizes its weaknesses, and makes you want to see it. In the trade this is called “positioning.”
