Here’s a first: an indie film that plays festivals, gets some great buzz, then premieres on Hulu instead of in theaters. That’s exactly what’s happening with Crawford, one of the hit docs of this past year’s South by Southwest film festival, courtesy of distributor B-Side (my employer).
There’s a lot of talk about how indie film distribution will work in the future. In my opinion it really boils down to a simple equation: the more people see your movie, the more people will buy it. (Given that the potential of any indie film to saturate the market like a Hollywood film is practically nil, the idea that an indie film can be “overplayed” is laughable.) Congratulations to director David Modigliani for taking some brave first steps in the new world of progressive distribution.
I’m serving on the narrative shorts jury this weekend at the Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival in Birmingham Alabama. You should be able to see me on a panel or two during the festival, in particular the “alternative distribution” panel at 4:00 p.m.
These are my notes on the Niche Marketing Tools panel, including some of my thoughts before the panel and some of the more interesting concepts that came up during the panel. I’ve listed them below in no particular order and attributed them to the panelists where I could remember where they came from — apologies to those whom I misremember.
- To speak generally, niche marketing is about identifying special interests in your film, researching that special interest, and contacting those heavily engaged in that interest to spread the word within the existing community. Tapping into existing communities who can spread word of mouth for you is the goal.
- The basics of marketing a film still apply — still photos, well-written supporting material, making a good first impression. (Jon Gerrans)
- Jason Cassidy – On marketing “Blindness” — speaking to the built-in core audience of people who loved the book was hugely important in marketing that film.
- Larry Fessenden – On creating a film web site: Stills, etc are important but it’s also important to use the ability to customize to help draw visitors into the story of your film and the story behind the film. A director’s statement (while it may seem corny) can very much influence press and audience perception of the film. Web site preferable to facebook or myspace in this way because you can customize a web site in ways that one cannot with facebook.
- Larry Fessenden – On building community — your community consists not just of your fans but also of other filmmakers, journalists who cover your genre (including bloggers, etc). Recruit them to your cause and be a partner to them as well. Larry has built a network of horror/genre filmmakers who have their own stories that feed into the larger story of this filmmaking community. Like a mini-studio or unofficial releasing “brand.”
– Jason Cassidy – On Facebook: New media like facebook can make marketing more efficient but the social tools only work if people are drawn to them. That can actually take a media/advertising spend to gain critical mass and make maintaining Facebook presence worth it.
- Jon Garrans – On Facebook: Facebook is a great place to store data like trailers, etc, which might otherwise cost you money to store and transmit (outgoing bandwidth fees).
- Aaron Hillis – On bandwidth fees – Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) can also help with storage at low cost. http://amazon.com/s3
- Aaron Hillis – Facebook & MySpace can be oversaturated, difficult to attract an audience to any one thing — get more creative, take steps beyond just setting up a social network page.
- Stephen Raphael, on communities – some communities are stronger than others and distributors make decisions based on that. For example Jewish community networks are very strong and can be relied upon to spread word of mouth but also have strong formal networks (community centers, email lists, etc).
- Stephen Raphael, in answer to question about tapping known niches – Don’t self-distribute to a niche if you think you might want to beyond self-distribution. If you tap out a potential revenue source then you’re reducing the value of your property to a distributor. Doing the research on that niche, however, is a selling point — the more supporting evidence you have that there are people out there just waiting to buy your film, the stronger selling advantage you have.
Web sites for panelists:
Jason Cassidy, Miramax – http://www.miramax.com/
Larry Fessenden, “The Last Winter” – http://www.thelastwinter.net/
Jon Gerrans, Strand Releasing – http://www.strandreleasing.com/
Aaron Hillis, Benten Films – http://www.bentenfilms.com/
By chris, September 15th, 2008 in Events, news | Comments Off
For the next couple of days I’ll be hanging out at Independent Film Week in NYC. Everyone still calls it IFP but they rebranded this year and moved to the Fashion Institute of Technology so I guess I’ll do them the favor of using the proper name, but if you want to read about it on Twitter you’d better search for IFP.
Saw the talk on festivals yesterday which was pretty basic but it sounds like a lot of people need the basic info; it only reinforced my feelings that Film Festival Secrets (the upcoming book) is a book that needed to be written. Speaking of which, I’m making rapid progress and on track to release the download version by mid-October; the print version should either be available at the same time or shortly thereafter. If you haven’t subscribed to the newsletter I suggest you do so, as I’ll be releasing a sneak preview to newsletter members only.
I also stuck around for the Kevin Smith talk, which was a variant of the same Q&A Kevin Smith always gives — there are only so many questions to ask the guy, and he has answers ready for all of ‘em. This might be a bad thing but since he’s such a born yarn-spinner it’s usually entertaining even if you’ve heard the story before. When asked to compare his experiences between indie and studio filmmaking, he shot back:
I’ve made one independent film: Clerks. But I’m labeled as an independent filmmaker forever. I saw in indieWIRE the other day that I’m a “veteran independent filmmaker.” That made me feel old. But I guess it’s like being gay, right? You suck one cock and you’re always gay.
Smith also encouraged filmmakers to make Clerks, as it’s the only way he knows to break into the industry.
Nobody’s made a convenience store movie in 15 years! You could be that guy.
When asked what the reaction might be if Clerks were released today:
“This guy rips off Judd Apatow!” . . . (smiles) You feel me?
I’ll be in New York for the next couple of days and moderating the Tuesday afternoon panel on Niche Marketing Tools. Hope to see you there.
By chris, June 27th, 2008 in contests, Events | Comments Off
This weekend another 48-Hour Film Project kicks off, this time in Atlanta. While the deadline to sign up for the competition has passed, you can see the results of this coming weekend’s hard labor during mid-week screenings at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema (the same location where the Atlanta Film Festival is held each year). Screenings begin July 1st at 7 p.m. and resume on the 2nd and 3rd, also at 7 p.m.
The winning team from Atlanta will be invited to attend the Filmapalooza Awards weekend, and will go on to compete in second round competitions. The winning 48 Hour film of 2008 is expected to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
There’s no guarantee that all of these films will be good, but if you’re looking for the indie-est of the indie films in Atlanta, the 48-Hour Film Project is definitely the place to be this week.
I’ve long been an advocate of short filmmaking competitions. Even more so than local film festivals, such competitions encourage an interest in filmmaking where traditionally little has existed. 48-Hour is certainly the most prominent example of the form, but newer efforts like Filmmaking Frenzy and Rapid i Movement give hope to the idea that short form filmmaking is the dominion of more than just film school students and web cam dancers.
One of the best excuses I can think of to visit New York City (though who needs excuses?) is the Independent Film Week (formerly the IFP Market), taking place September 14-19 this year. IFW is part festival, part market, part seminar, and all for filmmakers and industry types looking to get a handle on the ever-changing landscape of the indie film scene.
IFW has a number of curated programs to which you can submit. Some of the deadlines have already passed, and some are coming up fast, but even without a project to submit it’s well worth looking into whether IFW might have something to offer you and your career.
By chris, May 7th, 2008 in contests, Events | Comments Off
Clever — tying a short film contest to the Democratic national convention. Contests & events like these with a solidly defined niche are very popular right now. There is no entry free for Cinemocracy; visit the web site to learn more.
By chris, April 16th, 2008 in Events, news | Comments Off
Timed film competitions have blossomed all over the world, with aspiring filmmakers given extremely short windows ranging from 15 minutes to 48 hours to write, shoot, edit and deliver a short film. And these all-nighters are attracting big-name sponsors.
. . .
Diesel’s Film Racing Tour is in its second year. “It’s improv for filmmakers,” says competition director Charlie Weisman, who assigns a theme like “revenge” or “bad advice” and gives teams just 24 hours to finish.
As I started to read this article about short filmmaking competitions, I mentally rolled my eyes and thought, “There’s one in every town.” But the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that there should be one in every town. Competitions like Filmmaking Frenzy not only encourage budding filmmakers outside of the traditional “film towns” but also foster creativity by placing constraints on the type and content of the films entering the competition. It’s true that few masterpieces emerge from these contests but they usually produce a few entertaining entries, especially if the contestants are encouraged to take risks and be funny. It’s not as if cinematic master works are flowing forth from the nation’s film schools, either — those movies are just better looking and cost more to make.
Here’s hoping that short filmmaking contests continue to proliferate. If nothing else, they help filmmakers realize that the process of creation, completion, and moving on to the next project can be the best way to approach a career in filmmaking — or maybe just provide needed, consequence free distraction from an involving project.
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This weekend another 
One of the best excuses I can think of to visit New York City (though who needs excuses?) is the Independent Film Week (formerly the IFP Market), taking place September 14-19 this year. IFW is part festival, part market, part seminar, and all for filmmakers and industry types looking to get a handle on the ever-changing landscape of the indie film scene. 
