Tag: Marketing

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Truly Free Film

Let’s Remake The Greatest Movies Of All Time!

Okay, let’s let the the great movies be the great movies (at least for now), but who says we can’t have fun with their various extensions?  Eddie Burns is on a role.  He’s always gotten a great deal of inspiration from the greats.  THE BROTHERS McMULLEN had a bit of Woody Allen — in Irish drag — as it’s patron saint.  He’s found new inspiration and energy from an embrace of DIY and social media, and as much as he’s looking forward, he’s drawing on the past.  To get us all ready for his new film NICE GUY JOHNNY (opening on all platforms Oct. 26), Eddie has looked at  the greatest movies ever made, but hey he’s a busy guy, so he doesn’t have time to watch the whole feature and has settled on the trailers.

Does this trailer remind you of anything you’ve seen before?

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Truly Free Film

Thoughts On Titles (Plus: Ten Titles For Nonexistent Films!)

Are titles more than a marketing tool?  They certainly can be that thing that encourages the desire, and the fond memory, the element that represents the art & the ambition, as well as being the reminder of the thing you want.  Titles can tell us that the movie is distinct and worth our consideration (The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) or warn us that we may not be the correct audience for it (Blood _______).  Good titles grow richer once we see the movie (The Ice Storm) and can move from seeming initially generic into some sort of deeper resonance (as Ang’s movie did).

The industry’s holy grail is often seen as the title that gives you a clear idea of both the tone and content or concept of the film (The Forty Year Old Virgin).  Some subjects demand to be put in the title (weddings, food, chocolate, blood) because they are the things that audiences love most.  Life’s big subjects get more than their fair share of attention (death, sex, love, power).

Sometimes though it seems as if who’s ever picking the titles deliberately tries to confuse,

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Truly Free Film

Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer

Okay, it’s a minute too long, but maybe that’s because they want you to know it is important…

Hat tip to Pericles @PretentiousFilm!

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Truly Free Film

Seize The Power: LAFF’s Film Financing Conf Now TWO-DAY DIY MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION SYMPOSIUM

Film Independent sent out the following email:

We have spent the last ten years making the Film Financing Conference an invaluable experience for filmmakers, and as the industry is swept by very significant changes, we want to rise up to meet those changes with programs that meet filmmaker needs at this moment.  With that in mind, the Los Angeles Film Festival has created Seize the Power: A Marketing and (DIY)stribution Symposium, a new program specifically designed to help filmmakers navigate marketing and distribution in the growing age of new media and to promote an open dialogue on the impact and exciting possibilities the changes in our industry bring.

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Truly Free Film

Should Movie Poster Tag Lines Be Transformed

“Earth.  It Was Fun While It Lasted.”  Armegeddon’s tag line sticks with me, because I instinctively substitute “Earth” for “Indie Film” when I read it.

In these days of RampantFilmBizChange,  everything is ripe for reconsideration.  MCN hipped me to AdWeek’s collection of “66 Great Movie Taglines“.  Sure the list gets a smile regularly from me, but I walk away deadened and jaded.  The sell is obvious.  The dominant clever factor feels like a child beauty pagents’ related icky. “Look at me!  Look at me!  Give me a trophy!  Now!!!”.  Get me outta there.

Can’t we do better?  Or at least do different?

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Truly Free Film

Take A Lesson From The Master

It seems to be pretty much the gospel now that Slumdog could never have rewritten the rules as it has without Searchlight’s help.  Everyone marvels at their marketing campaigns, and how well they work.  People say they’ve trademarked color, to the point if you use a bold singular shade in your campaign, folks feel you’ve copped a page from Ms. Utley.

Titles are always a difficult thing in the positioning of a film.  Posters however make titles look easy.  When our films are handled by one of the top distributors we often see over 100 different mock-ups.  And it’s rare that by the time a choice is made, I frequently feel we made a wrong decision, or rather never found the answer.  One of the real challenges is finding a poster that not only serves the campaign in terms of positioning the film and enhancing desire to see it, but also serves the test of time and rests comfortably on the wall years later.
All the tests though are compounded when you have little or no funds like most indie filmmakers.  I recently posted on TheNextGoodIdea about CrowdSpring where you offer a prize and hold a contest among designers to see who will make the best poster (or logo or whatever).  It certainly is a good way to get a lot of interesting ideas.  Searchlight, the undisputed master, takes up one notch with their campaign for 500 DAYS OF SUMMER.  They are using the multiple images to increase pre-release buzz by holding a poll regarding four different posters, apparently pulling the audience into the process, and cementing allegiance to some degree in the process.
The contest for a final image campaign seems like something all indie filmmakers should put in their playbook.  When would be the right time to run it?  Seems to me that if your film has played one of the major film festivals and garnered some good attention, right before the next big festival would be the ideal time.   Hey, isn’t that exactly what Searchlight is doing?  500DOS played Sundance and will soon be screened at SxSW and now the SL poster poll is go.  Which basically means that if you are going to have 4 images to select you need to start to get them in at least a month prior to first fest screening.
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Truly Free Film

It Could Be Getting So Much Better All The Time #6: Marketing Money

Actress, writer, director, producer, political activist, choreographer, and independent film enthusiast Rosie Perez knows, it’s all about the money:

If you do not have the realistic financial support, outside of your production buget, to promote and advertise your film in the same way studio supported films are, the possibility of a successful box office is lessen, which then lessens the possibility of financial support for your next independent film project, regardless of it’s content, which then hurts the future of all independent films.

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