I was just interviewed by Virginia Prescoot of WordOfMouthRadio.org for New Hampshire Public Radio. Check out their website and download the podcast, unless you happen to be out campaigning in that state today, in which case tune in.
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Category: Truly Free Film
We are on the verge of a new film culture and infrastructure.
Word of mouth is the key thing in generating want-to-see and future revenues for your film. You want to shape that conversation as much as you can.
It once was that film critics truly helped shape these discussions, but most have them now have been fired and lost their platforms. Even before that, many had shifted to a simplistic way of reviewing, reducing things to a yay or nay and a synopsis. But whom is doing this now? There certainly is a galaxy of film bloggers out there. And they are a lot easier to reach than their prior generation of film critics.
If you got your film into a major film festival, I am sure the blogosphere will want to hear from you. But why not go that extra step and get them a DVD in advance. It’s hard to see more than 25 films at Sundance and since there is five times that amount there, why not make sure that they see yours in advance?
Today’s post brought to you by Jon Reiss:
I thought I’d offer a few more comments about having a filmmaker website. In fact it is crazy not to have a website during production or pre production these days as a way to start building your audience.
The king of using the web is Lance Weiller – definitely check out his Filmmaker Magazine article “Lessons in DIY” from Winter 2007.
But one quick tip – you don’t need to spend a lot of money designing a complex static website with lots of information about your film. I recommend using a blog as your main page. It is much easier to set up and is easier to keep current and dynamic. For Bomb It nearly all the traffic is to our blog – very rarely do people check out the other static pages on the site. With a blog format – most likely using WordPress – you can create all the information pages you need such as “About the Film” “About the Filmmakers” and have these in a box on the right or left. (we have Press and Screenings links at the top of ours)
I am slowly turning www.jonreiss.com/blog which is what you are reading into a main page for my site. It is much easier to update all of your information using “pages” in a blog than to have a web-designer have to rewrite your information using html.
Feel free to check out the difference in:
www.bombit-themovie.com
www.bombit-themovie.com/blog
Another good example of a blog as main page, and a site you should check out anyway is www.lanceweiler.com
– Jon Reiss
Corporate Sponsorship of a film, in any way, is a tricky thing. A viewer who becomes aware of multiple agendas in a film, generally is no longer going to be “with” the film. They become suspect. But sponsorship is not the same as turning your art into a commercial. There are many methods and many benefits to consider when considering corporate sponsorship (I will try to cover the negative side in another post in the future).
Perhaps the most important consideration regarding sponsorship is does the brand have a natural fit with your film (I know some will argue that the amount of money is the most important thing, but still). If the film and sponsorship is not aligned, it will read to the public as a crass money grab (which maybe it is) and they will approach the film from a feeling of distrust.
Brands have their own audience. Corporations maintain their own data on their “audience”. This is what you want most from the alliance: audience sourcing. In considering sponsorship, ask them what they will do to reach out to their audience. This may very well be a much longer term relationship with many phases to it, but it’s hard to leap into such an arrangement. As people like to say about investors and other supporters: “you have to get them pregnant first”. It’s surprising that such a caveman philosophy dominates in so many areas, but you get the logic. I prefer the “one step at a time” way of thinking myself.
You do need to keep the long term forever in mind though in working with a sponsor. You want them there with you ever step of the way, hopefully deepening their commitment with your combined success. Work the relationship. Give them new opportunities.
What do you want from the sponsorship from the get go though? Well, beyond building for the long haul, you want to do something that has immediate impact. Generally people think that is a big blow out party. Personally, I am not a fan of this approach, particularly at Sundance. They don’t have much impact as they are over a few hours after they start. Further at many festivals, you are competing with many parties. And all parties get unruly; they just aren’t a good experience and they don’t leave much of a memory.
I am a big fan of dinners for fifty close friends. This approach only works if your publicist can get you high end journalists to attend. But who doesn’t like a nice meal? The question is though how would this benefit the sponsor. Depending on your film and your sponsor,they may very much like the one on one interaction with your stars and team. They might want to offer this to their top level execs, as Sundance has become a bit of a corporate getaway, another perk in their arsenal. This approach can certainly extend beyond dinners: skiing with the stars, one on one sit downs, presentation of the movie at different branch offices.
Publicity materials are a relatively high cost item that you will need to have every step of the way. Will your sponsor pay for the cost of posters and postcards, t-shirts and hats? What can you offer them in return? Is it such a big deal to have their corporate logo on the poster? Is that too much to give away for such an investment?
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Precisely: The Conversation
Scott Kirsner has blogged about the the highlights of The Conversation last weekend, which I had the pleasure of participating in.
film is just one component of a story that you start telling before your first festival showing… and continue to build on and embroider even after you’ve released the DVD and digital download. The “movie release date” becomes just one milestone in this conversation between you and your audience. Some people who participate in the conversation may never actually buy a ticket or a download… while others may become so engaged that they buy everything you offer, and help market your movie to everyone they know.
Bill Cunningham riffs on that further at Pulp 2.0:
This is two things:
1) utilizing the power of the internet to be different media all at once.
2) This is branding. Intellectual property building.
Filmmakers and novelists and other creatives need to figure this out now. Their book, comic, movie, animation, music, radio drama, is only the beginning. A book isn’t just between the covers. A movie isn’t just onscreen.
Don’t think small. Think about how you can add to your creation. How you can translate it. How it can have further value – both to you and your audience
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Film Festival Plan A:Postcards
(Today’s post courtesy of director Jon Reiss)
Create a piece of striking key art.
Easier said than done. This can be expensive (starting at $5,000 – $10,000 and up) – but it does not have to be. Chances are you have a few friends that are good at graphic design – ask them. If not – try a post on Craig’s List and/or Mandy.com. Since you are in a festival – you have the ability to say that their work will get a lot of exposure. Also you might consider outsourcing your graphic design. For Bomb It we had a Uruguayan group do some of our key art for Tribeca. Try to get the designer to give you a variety of comps to choose from.
Get the key art sized for a 4×6 postcard as well as at full film poster. Its way too expensive to offset your film poster now. But you can get single printouts from most digital printers for about $50-$60 each and you only need one or two.
For the postcard, have your key art on the front and have film, contact and screening information on the back. Printing postcards are very inexpensive now. You can get 4000 for $100 at NextDayFlyers.com (and 1000 postcards for $39.95). For super low budget create one postcard with your general contact and film information on the back and leave room for putting stickers for your show times. BUT since postcards are so cheap now – I really recommend printing your screening time on the back of the postcard. It can take a bit of time to print and stick the stickers on the back of the postcards and you are very busy. A compromise is to print your first festival screenings on the back (esp since this is often your most important screening) and to use the rest for other fests putting the label over your first set of screenings.
Don’t forget business cards – I recommend putting your film title treatment on the front with your films website so that people remember why they have your card. Again these can be printed very inexpensively – 1000 for around $10-$20.
In a couple of weeks I will start putting downloadable PDF samples of Key Art on my website www.jonreiss.com
When I first started going to Sundance, it was just a bunch of filmmakers and a bunch of filmlovers. Filmmakers had no entourage. No one told them what to do or what they thought was right; instead they shared information and secrets. But that was then.
For the last ten years, it has seemed that filmmakers arrived at major festivals with a horde in tow: lawyers, agents, managers, producer’s reps, foreign sales agents, and publicists. The list actually goes on from there. But that was then.
These days, recognizing that a sale is very unlikely, how much do you really need? There’s definitely another few posts worth of material in that question, but I can tell you that the one I think is critical is the publicist. After all, it is all about getting the word out about your film.
The traditional media still holds the most weight (okay, that’s debatable), and any a publicist worth their salt will know how to reach them. More importantly, the publicist will know what these critics and journalists look like, and will be able to find out what they thought of the film immediately. Their opinion matters as it influences everyone: buyers, festival programmers, independent bookers, and other journalists.
The publicists also know the distributors and as long as you want to keep Plan D (sell your film) alive, that is invaluable as the publicists can help facilitate meetings with the buyers.
A publicist will help you draft your press notes in advance of the festival and arrange key interviews. Sometimes they can even help find a corporate sponsor for a party (more on that later). The publicist will collect all of the press you receive, and survey the journalists on their response. They will collect all this material so you can share it with everyone you reach out to later.
How do you find your publicist? Well these days they often find you if you get into Sundance or a major festival. The key filmmaking community organizations like IFP and Film Independent can also help direct you. Maybe I can put together a list and post it here (I will get back to you on that).
