Tag: Guest Post

Can The Harvard Business School Find The Solution To The Indie Film Dilemma?

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date January 7, 2013
3 Comments on Can The Harvard Business School Find The Solution To The Indie Film Dilemma?

By Kavita Pullapilly

Going into their next feature film, BLUE POTATO, award-winning filmmakers (and past contributors to this blog with a great series of posts “The DIY Chronicles“) Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly wanted to answer a question that all independent filmmakers want to know: How can independent filmmakers and studios collaborate in a more profitable and cost-effective way to get quality films into the marketplace?

Working with a team from the Harvard Business School, Gaudet and Pullapilly created a strategy to minimize risk, increase audience reach and maximize profit potential for potential distributors for BLUE POTATO. Read about how they developed key strategies for marketing and distribution that makes their film attractive to studio buyers. And find out how they evaluated their film so that they could reduce their financial risk while still accomplishing their goals in production.

“You have to find out what your movie is capable of going out there and making and then make your film for less than that. Set your budget at

Tags Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, BLUE POTATO, Guest Post, Harvard Business School, Kavita Pullapilly

Truly Free Film

FIRST TIME AT THE FEST: 20 Guidelines for a Successful Festival

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date January 3, 2013
52 Comments on FIRST TIME AT THE FEST: 20 Guidelines for a Successful Festival

By Melanie Coombs

FIRST TIME AT THE FEST: 20 Guidelines* for a successful Market or Festival (*Producers don’t do Rules; ‘everything is negotiable’)

Over the last decade I have assisted new Producers as they attend their first market or festival. Here are 20 tips to help you enjoy the event while looking after yourself, your project and your professional reputation.

1. PRODUCING IS NOT COOL – tragically for us all, if you haven’t been completely humiliated you probably haven’t really financed your project. Be warm, not cool, and be all the things that make you a Producer – an Advocate, an Enthusiast, an Eccentric, a Charmer and an Artist.

2. PRODUCING IS NOT A COMPETITIVE SPORT – help each other. It is so rare that you are ever genuinely competing with your fellow producers – you have different taste, projects, Directors and are approaching different investors at different times. By working as a friendly colleague you will not only help others but will get their help in return. And you wont be alone as you go about the often frightening business of pitching into the marketplace for the first time.

3. DO NOT PITCH UNLESS ASKED TO DO SO.

Continue reading “FIRST TIME AT THE FEST: 20 Guidelines for a Successful Festival”

Tags film festivals, Film Markets, Guest Post, Melanie Coombs, producing

Truly Free Film

Don’t Think Facebook is Helping Your Film? Maybe You’re Not Doing It Right.

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date January 3, 2013
182 Comments on Don’t Think Facebook is Helping Your Film? Maybe You’re Not Doing It Right.

By Reid Rosefelt

Can you really sell your film on Facebook with one of those dinky ads on the right side of the page?

Let’s begin by taking off the table the fact that many people really hate them. Assuming that that’s not the case, usually the 100 pixel x 72 pixel size is too small to even show the poster image, and the maximum 90 characters makes a tweet look like a novel. It’s true that Facebook ads can be dirt cheap– for the price of one weekly ad in IndieWire– I once got 60 million “impressions” (times displayed) on Facebook– and it offers prodigious targeting abilities allowing you to zero in on fans of any director, actor, movie, social issue, among other things, but still, you end up with a bargain price on a zillion itsy-bitsy ads that I personally don’t think will directly lead to anything as big as a ticket purchase or a video viewing. Selling shoes or an exercise program or ice cream cones, yes; movie tix, no. In my opinion, the sole purpose of those itsy-bitsy teeny-weenie ads on the right side of the page is to drive people to like your Facebook page. It’s worked for me and countless others and it can work for you (if you do it right).

Continue reading “Don’t Think Facebook is Helping Your Film? Maybe You’re Not Doing It Right.”

Tags Facebook, Guest Post, Marketing, Reid Rosefelt, Social Marketing

Truly Free Film

Following My Own Advice

By Reid Rosefelt

had breakfast recently with Jaie LaPlante, the Executive Director of the Miami International Film Festival. Jaie has healthy 13,000 fans on his Facebook page, but like most people, he’s hungry for more.

I explained that he shouldn’t worry much too much about the number of fans–the thing that matters is how active his page is–he should be concerned with the number of likes, comments and shares. What was he doing to stir up traffic? Jaie said he had a guy named Igor Shteyrenberg who was merrily posting all day long. “He shouldn’t posting so often,” I said, repeating a truisms I’d rattled off so often in blogs and lectures. “All Facebook research has proven that you should never post more than two or three times a day.”

Umm….wrong. Rules don’t apply when you have great content.

Despite–or maybe because of–the constant postings, I later discovered that Miami had one of the liveliest festival pages I’d ever seen. Igor turned out to be the George Takei of movies,

Tags Facebook, Guest Post, Marketing, Reid Rosefelt

Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup Part 17: How KinoNation Works

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date December 18, 2012
74 Comments on Diary of a Film Startup Part 17: How KinoNation Works

By Roger Jackson

Previously: Top Ten Lessons, So Far

We’re far enough along with development to have a clear work-flow for content owners. I’ve had lots of requests for this. So now’s a good time to explain the step-by-step flow for a film submitted to KinoNation. Right now we’re still in “beta-testing” mode, but expect to launch this more complete service in January 2013.

1. Human Readable: We’ve never liked those sign-up processes where you’re expected to read 10 pages of impenetrable legalese. So we’ve taken our cue from the folks at Creative Commons who believe there are humans — and then there are lawyers! i.e. that terms of use should be “human readable” with a link to the underlying “lawyer readable” text for those that want it. Here’s the human-readable stuff:

You grant KinoNation the right:

Continue reading “Diary of a Film Startup Part 17: How KinoNation Works”

Tags Guest Post, KinoNation, Roger Jackson

Truly Free Film

Still Don’t Understand How Facebook Sells Movies? Read This.

Post author By Ted Hope
Post date December 13, 2012
78 Comments on Still Don’t Understand How Facebook Sells Movies? Read This.

By Reid Rosefelt

The HBO show “The Wire” went off the air in March of 2008 after five seasons. It never received hire ratings or an Emmy nomination, but many critics called it one of the greatest TV dramas of all time when it was on, and admiration for the program has increased exponentially over the years.

HBO put up an official Facebook page in 2010 which currently has 1.7 million likes. This past Tuesday, December 4th they put up a picture Wendell Pierce as beloved Detective William “Bunk” Moreland accompanied by the quote , and asking the fans to share their favorite Bunk quotes.

So far, 1505 people have commented, 13,129 liked the picture, and 1879 people shared it, for a total of 16,513 mentions on Facebook timelines.

Tags Facebook, Facebook marketing, Guest Post, Marketing, Reid Rosefelt, social media, social media marketing, The Wire, Wendell Peirce

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