Category: Truly Free Film

We are on the verge of a new film culture and infrastructure.

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Truly Free Film

Film Publicists List

I promised a list of whom to talk to to handle your publicity when your film gets into a major festival.  With a little help from some friends, here is that list.  You will have to dig up the phone numbers yourself.  Check out their websites first.

I would love some help in creating similar lists for Film Bookers, Collection Agents, Public Speaking Tour Agents, Trailer Makers, Poster Makers, Postcard Makers, Study Guide Creators, Film Website Designers, and all the like.  We have to get the information readily available.
Here’s the publicist list:

15minutes
(www.15minutes.com, 8436 W. Third Street, Suite 650, Los Angeles, CA 90048,
115 West 29th Street, Suite 810, New York, NY 10001)
Offices: New York, Los Angeles

42West
(www.42west.net, 11400 W. Olympic Blvd, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90064,
220 West 42nd Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10036)
Offices: New York, Los Angeles

Acme Public Relations
(1016 Pier Ave., Suite 2, Santa Monica, CA 90405)
Offices: Los Angeles

B|W|R.
(www.ogilvypr.com/en/bwr, 5700 Wilshire Blvd., #550, Los Angeles, CA 90036,
825 8th Avenue, #15, New York, NY 10019)
Offices: New York, Los Angeles

DAVID MADGAEL & ASSOCIATES, INC.
(www.tcdm-associates.com, 600 W. 9th St., Suite 704, Los Angeles, CA 90015)
Offices: Los Angeles

DISH COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
(www.dishcommunications.com, 10000 Riverside Drive, Suite 5, Toluca Lake, CA 91602)
Offices: Los Angeles

dominion3 PR
(www.dominion3.com, 6464 Sunset Blvd., Suite 740, Hollywood, CA 90028)
Offices: Los Angeles

Donna Daniels Public Relations
(20 W. 22nd St., Suite 1410, New York, NY 10010)
Offices: New York

Falco Ink.
(www.falcoink.com, 850 7th Avenue, #1005, New York, NY 10019)
Offices: New York

Fat Dot
(www.fatdot.net, 87 Bedford Street, Suite 1, New York, NY 10014)
Offices: New York

ID-PR
(www.id-pr.com, 8409 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069,
150 West 30th Street, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10001)
Offices: New York, Los Angeles

inclusive pr
(http://inclusivepr.com, 6646 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 205, Hollywood, CA 90028)
Offices: Los Angeles

Indie PR
(www.indie-pr.com, 4370 Tujunga Ave., #105, Studio City, CA 91604)
Offices: Los Angeles

International House of Publicity
(853 7th Ave., Suite. 3c, New York, NY 10019)
Offices: New York

Jeremy Walker + Associates, Inc.
(www.jeremywalker.com, 171 W. 80th St., #1, New York, NY 10024)
Offices: New York

mPRm Public Relations
(www.mprm.com, 5670 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2500, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
Offices: Los Angeles

Murphy PR
(www.murphypr.com, 333 Seventh Avenue, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10001)
Offices: New York

PMG
(www.platformgrp.com, 8265 Sunset Blvd., Suite 106, W. Hollywood, CA 90046,
1359 Broadway, Suite 732, New York, NY 10018)
Office: Los Angeles, New York

PMK/HBH
(www.pmkhbh.com, 700 San Vicente Blvd., Suite G 910, West Hollywood, CA 90069,
622 Third Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10017)
Offices: New York, Los Angeles

Rogers & Cowan
(www.rogersandcowan.com, Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, 7th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90069, 919 Third Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10022)
Offices: New York, Los Angeles, London, Beijing

Sophie Gluck & Associates
(124 West 79th St., New York, NY 10024)
Offices: New York

Susan Norget Film Promotion
(www.norget.com, 198 Sixth Avenue, Suite 1, New York, NY 10013)
Offices: New York

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Truly Free Film

New Revenue Models: #1 of ?

In Filmmaker Mag, Scott Macauley interviews Scott Kirshner about his new book “Inventing The Movies”.  In the interview, one thing caught my eye:

Another concept I really like is letting people quote sections from a movie, and that‘s something you can only do in digital form. For example, there‘s a great car chase in this movie, and I want to quote it on my blog. That‘s something that can be ad supported. And people can say, “Wow, this car chase is great, I‘d like to see the context around it,” and they can buy the whole movie. It‘s the same way that publishers are beginning to sell individual chapters of books. As a writer, I‘d rather someone buy one chapter of my book than none at all.

Whether it is in narratives or docs, we are all in need of a new sort of editor — one not to cut our features together, but one to take them apart so that audiences can more easily find how the film relates to them.  Points of access are not always at the beginning — and we have to not only accept that, but promote that.

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Truly Free Film

A Filmmaker Friendly Fest

What makes a film festival truly “filmmaker friendly”?  I want to explore this.  To kick it off, a filmmaker sent me this which he received from Joe Cultrera of the Salem Film Festival in Salem, Massachusetts:

FILMMAKERS FIRST:
I pushed to make this a filmmaker-friendly event. Here’s what we did last year and are sticking to:
#1) No entry fees (we are not looking to make money from our filmmakers).

#2) Each feature-length film will be sponsored by a Salem business and the filmmaker will receive those sponsorship dollars as a screening fee (last year this was $250). This created a real community feel to our 2008 event – allowing small businesses to be active and visible sponsors and giving filmmakers the rewards of that participation.

#3) Attending feature filmmakers will receive free accommodations in our attractive and historic downtown (we want as many filmmakers as possible to participate).

#4) The Audience Award Winner receives a run at CinemaSalem – including a share of the gate.

#5) Attending filmmakers will have a great time (free food and drink, passes to Salem museums and parties, good attendance, intelligent dialogue, great swag; new friends).

I think this is an excellent start and hopefully other festivals will follow  Joe’s lead.
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Truly Free Film

Live! from The New York Film Academy

On Oct 21st, I had the privilege of speaking at the NYFA on…. the current state of “indie film”!  If you’ve missed my soapbox tour, here’s your chance to get the latest installment.  This is part 1 of 3.  I will let you have the pleasure of going directly to YouTube for the next episodes.

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Truly Free Film

It’s An OPEN SOURCE Culture

You may have noticed a new addition to our Truly Free Film Heroes column.  You may have also noticed some guest posting as of late by filmmaker Jon Reiss.  These are not unrelated.  As a veteran of the DIY experience (or as Slava Rubin has dubbed it more accurately: DIWO “Do It With Others”), Jon has taken the next crucial step towards bringing forth a Truly Free Film Culture: sharing his experience and knowledge.  

We need to build a new infrastructure.  It will only come from all of our hard work and general openness.  Please follow Jon’s example, and share.
We are all going to make some mistakes, but we will learn much faster if we don’t keep these mistakes to ourself. We will all make some great discoveries, of places and people and tools and techniques, but we all benefit much faster if we don’t keep these successes to ourselves.
Take a minute.  Think about what you thinks works in DIY marketing; is it novel?  Please let us know.  Do you know of a theater that will book Truly Free Film?  Will your college pay to bring a filmmaker to lecture and show their film?  Do you know of a great TFFilm website?  Any advice on how to network true film lovers together?  You get the idea.  Please let us know what you know.  Join in.
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Truly Free Film

New TOOLS Column

Check out below on the right-hand column.  We’ve added a TOOLS column.  The Variety plug on Friday is something to try to live up to.

It’s a pretty good list to start off with, but we need your help to make it a great one.  Additionally please let us know what tools have worked well for you and what hasn’t.
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Truly Free Film

Film Festival Plan A: Having Film Festivals Help You

Another post courtesy of Jon Reiss:

Besides launching your film and helping to put it on the map there are a number of other known reasons for being in film festivals: potential for reviews and awards (which are still good ways to create notice for your film – especially if you blog about them on your website!); meeting other filmmakers from around the world, boosting your confidence in your filmmaking abilities, getting to travel to fun locales (hopefully at the festivals expense).

However as there are ways to actually monetize your film festival experience. Here are a few ways that we did it for Bomb It – after we got tired of showing our film for free at festivals. (Remember servicing all those fests can take time and money)

1. Some festivals – especially foreign festivals will pay. You just need to ask. These are not the top 10 or 20 fests. It is the next level of festivals. We have been paid from $300 – $1000 to screen the film in some festivals. (Few fests will fly you and pay you though)

2. If a festival can’t pay, perhaps they can provide something else. This is particularly true of foreign festivals again. If you don’t have a PAL copy and they require it. Often times they will do the dub. You can insist on having that dub given to you (they don’t need it after the festival right!). We obtained our first PAL version of Bomb It from a documentary festival in Lisbon that then went around on the circuit.

3. Think of other things that you might need for your distribution. Again – foreign festivals need to translate your film. Although we had already created a transcription for Bomb It – you can ask a foreign fest to do it – and also provide the translation. We have received Spanish, Portuguese and Russian translations of Bomb It that we will be using on our self produced multi-language, PAL, region free DVD. (more on this in another post in the future)

4. Some festivals are actually connected to theaters in their community – and sometimes the people running the festivals actually program those theaters. One of my first theatrical bookings came from Wilmington, N.C. when I told Dan Brawley of the Cucoloris that I would rather have a theatrical engagement in his theater as an alternative to being in the festival, and he wonderfully obliged.

Further – although it would have been better for me to go to the wonderfull True/False festival in Columbia, MO (I had teaching obligations), I asked Paul Sturz if he would book me into the Rag Tag as part of our theatrical run and he agreed.

For more about my self distribution experience with Bomb It – check out my article in Filmmaker Magazine this month. 

Jon Reiss
www.jonreiss.com
www.bombit-themovie.com
www.bombit-themovie.com/blog