Industry
August 28, 2010: A Must Read for any Serious Filmmaker: Think Outside the Box Office, by Jon Reiss
Think Outside the Box Office is an indispensible tool for filmmakers who want to get their film out to the public and be financially successful. The old paradigm of going to a festival in hopes of securing a distribution deal is long since dead and buried. It does happen, but there are also people who hit the lottery, they play it, but certainly don’t count on it. I’m not telling you to give up on the festival route. It is still part of the overall package. If your movie is placed in the right festival it could create a significant buzz. What do you do with that buzz if you fall short of getting a deal?
The first thing you should do is pick up this book. In today’s film market the up-coming filmmaker needs to make her own way. If there isn’t enough money, the modern producer must don many hats, such as publicist and marketer, in order to get noticed. Think Outside the Box Office is a guide that will bring you up to speed, let you know what your options are and show you alternative ways to get your film out to the public.
Knowledge is king and as more movies are being made the competition is only increasing. Today’s producer must be his own distributer. Jon Reiss has organized the process and created a system to follow, along with different options depending on what type of film you have to sell.
One may read it cover to cover, but it also may be used as a reference book. Jon Reiss’ book is essential to distribution in today’s movie market. The book will help you figure out your strategy for distribution and the necessity to begin the distribution process before shooting the movie. If you have completed your film it is still a must read. There are many ideas and tips to help you push your movie toward financial success.
If you are serious about breaking into the overly competitive movie market, you must have the right tools. Making a good movie is the hardest part, but without proper publicity and marketing your movie will collect dust on the shelf. It is time to be pro-active, and if you haven’t read this book you are probably still living in the dark ages.
August 10, 2010: The Tax Incentive Blues
Unfortunately for the working filmmaker, Governor Deval Patrick has put the dagger into the heart of the Mass tax incentive. Earlier this year the governor thought he should remove the incentive off the books. This of course caused quite a hullabaloo in the Massachusetts movie industry. The state senate overturned the governor’s proposal to cut the tax incentives and everything is as it was before, everything except movies coming to Massachusetts.
When the governor proposed this bright idea it left production companies in limbo. With the incentive on the line producers were forced to seek out other states to shoot their movies. Before the announcement there were several movies preparing for location shooting in Massachusetts. After the announcement they hightailed it out of town like a bunch of extras leaving a barren craft service table.
For several months while the incentive was on the block, producers scattered to Michigan, Georgia and any other state looking to cash in on the Hollywood dream. There were only two things that one could have done short of raising millions of dollars to shoot a movie. The first was to call your local state representative and express disappointment with the proposed budget cut. The other thing was to wait to it out and see what would happen.
In the meantime, we lost several features in the early part of the year and have since lost any momentum those movies would have carried. As we stand in mid-August there have been only one movie and two pilots, with nothing else on the horizon. Cutting the tax incentive or saying you’re going to cut it amounts to the same thing. There is no joy in Beantown as the mighty Gov. Deval Patrick has struck out.
March 18, 2010: Distribution tip 47A: The Newsletter
Who will know what you are doing if you don’t tell them yourself. Today’s artist must blow her own horn otherwise she will be lost in the massive sea of media that surrounds us. It’s time to put that extensive email list that you have been collecting to work.
Your monthly or weekly filmmaker newsletter will let your friends, fans and colleagues keep up with your work and progress. You can tell the folks all about your up and coming projects and all the attached artistic minutia. Along with your accomplishments share what you have learned, even if it just a cool place to get coffee to have your meetings.
Don’t do a sales pitch here. This is strictly for information and to breathe life into your network. Of course you should announce your screenings and DVD release, just don’t hit your loveable fan base up for cash here. Perhaps you can devote a portion of your newsletter to a particular niche in the movie industry that you can pontificate on objectively.
Think about the persona you take on, I prefer the straightforward honest approach, be yourself. The newsletter should be on the casual side and easy to read. Be sure to separate the paragraphs and ideas so it doesn’t look like one long run on sentence. Put a slightly larger font on the catchy titles to make them stand out. Make it interesting and entertaining so people want to read it.
Your newsletter should be a visual experience as well; pictures can help, but don’t over shadow the content. Also you don’t want it to take extra time to open up. Our society has little patience; your info must be at their fingertips.
March 12, 2010: Distribution: Marketing Tip #27 the Email List
An email list that you put together is more powerful than a locomotive. It is certainly faster than a speeding bullet, and in time you will see how many buildings it can leap in a single bound.
Your email list is one of your most effective and dynamic tools. Every person in your database is already connected with you through a personal or working relationship. This is the beginning of assembling a massive list of people who are genuinely interested in your work.
As you go through your career you will come across more and more people who will become fans of you and your work. They will want to keep up with you and will be most helpful in spreading the word about your projects. As time passes the list will grow and down the road like a good stock it will yield dividends.
As you have auditions, talk to vendors, meet like-minded groups, throw a kick off or a wrap party, you are meeting tons of people. There should always be someone on your team making sure that these new friends, fans or colleagues find their way into your database. You can also expand your list by combining with groups that have an affinity to your project or joining groups with mutual interests.
This was something I wished I had started earlier, but like spilled milk or over exposed film it doesn’t matter. If you haven’t started, now is the time. Organize your address book, put your emails into whatever system works best for you and you’ll have a dynamic marketing tool at your disposal.
February 24, 2010: Distribution: Self Distribution and the Theatrical Release
We all want a theatrical release for our movie. It is the ultimate way to experience a film. There is also value in the publicity one receives in a theatrical release. One must weigh out the pros and cons before heading down this road, as it requires a great deal of time and energy. One must have enough lead-time to make the arrangements, market properly and publicize.
It may be best to test the waters first with a hometown opener rather then try to put a tour together or go with a New York or L.A. premiere. Most likely you’ve made the movie where you live and have the most support. You will continue to have that support through a local release. You can learn the process locally before venturing across the country.
By premiering locally you’ll know whether the reality of taking your film on the road is viable or not. You should not go it alone, you will need a team of people to pull this off. You need to get written up in all the papers in your area. Find your way onto radio shows and TV if you can swing it. Poster the area around the theater and contact all groups and organizations who would be interested in your movie. All this and other publicity and advertisement must be timed properly for the premiere.
If you are going to have any merchandise such as t-shirts, mugs or posters, the theater is the perfect place to push these products with you close by to autograph them. Your audience will hopefully come floating out of the theater after the experience you have created for them. Especially after you wowed them at the question and answer period after the show. If done well, you can make money and generate more buzz, thus getting further word out on the street. A long term benefit of doing a theatrical release is that you are setting up relationships with theaters and after you prove your movie can make money it will be easier the next time around and the much of the leg work will already be done.
Having the DVD ready at the same time is essential. Your window of momentum and buzz will only be open for so long. Have the DVD at the screenings for a reduced price. The audience has already paid for it once, it may entice them to buy it again if they were getting a deal. After the premiere you can immediately launch sales on line.
A word of warning; there are many elements to pull together for a theatrical release; it is time consuming and will require a great deal of work to make it happen. Does your film warrant this type of exhibition? Will you be able to sell tickets? Can you create the excitement needed to get people interested? Without a fulltime commitment by you and a staff you will be setting yourself up for failure.
February 11, 2010: Distribution 4 distro person
As a modern filmmaker you have been forced to don the distributer’s hat. This may be daunting but that’s the fact Jack. Instead of taking on the whole burden yourself you should bring someone on to your staff who will be working on distribution from the moment you green light your movie. If you have someone who can carry that torch while you prep, shoot and edit your movie that will put you leaps and bounds ahead when it comes time to put your product on the market.
Now that you have someone who will wage this battle you need to grease the wheels a little. That’s right, money. Many producers today are allocating a portion of their budget toward distribution; in some cases they are matching their production budget. You’ve spent a year or two or even three years prepping, planning, scheming, begging, borrowing and hopefully not stealing, to make your movie, and after it is all said and done you don’t want to be standing there with a great product and upturned pockets.
If you have already completed your movie and you are out of cash all is not lost, you just have to work harder. This is where the ringmaster in you really must shine. Share your dream with people, create enthusiasm for your project and get people to believe in what you’re doing. Build the bandwagon and have them jump on board for either a back end deal, the sake of art or for your sake. If you can get people who are willing to help you and work the Internet beast you can still get results. What is needed is personnel who can market and publicize, people who are willing to put the time in to make it happen. They must have drive and they should be vested in some way.
The filmmaker’s plate is quite full, but distribution is part of the package. Address it early in the process, build your team, make your movie and then sell. That sounds easy enough.
February 4, 2010: The Art of Networking
This is not an age-old art and is fairly new as far as art goes. Sort of a late 20th Century thing that has hit epic proportions in the new millennium. We network to advance our professional selves in the world. We hope to meet people who can either help us or find a common connection for collaboration that will be good for both sides.
Networking is very much like panning for gold. The gold is buried in the sea of our fellow networkers. It is however, very hard to find a nugget that is real. As we all know there is a lot of fools gold out there. To use the baseball cliché which describes the long grueling season; it’s not a sprint it’s a marathon. More times than not you will go to a networking event and come home with nothing to show for it. This does not mean you should give up.
The big networking loop is online. Live events are fine because you never know when you could catch lighting in a bottle, let’s not underestimate the right place at the right time. Networking online is now a feeding frenzy. You need to do a lot of sifting before something could develop. I have found in my cyber experience that many people are not taking the proper time and steps to schmooze in an effective manner. There is a big portion of the populace that fails to understand the core of this social networking phenomenon.
At the core of it people are looking to connect on a stronger level. The ones who exist on a completely superficial level will find that their info is deleted as soon as it arrives. If you can put the effort in to meeting people and put energy into knowing them then after you have a relationship, which makes it possible for a door or two may open up for you. People want to connect but they also want to know if you are real. The ones who don’t care if you are real probably don’t care about you either.
So keep panning for gold and put your best foot forward, birds of a feather do flock together. If you plant ice you are going to harvest wind, told to me by a wise old sage.
January 28, 2010: Mass Tax Incentives: Is The Sky Falling In?
The Massachusetts tax incentives are being messed with as we speak. Governor Deval Patrick is suggesting a cap at 200 million. This is a knee jerk reaction to the troubled economy. There is no rhyme or reason it is just a cap for the sake of capping.
Governor Deval Patrick stated, “The temporary nature of this cap should not interfere with long-term plans to build film studios and will ultimately keep Massachusetts among the most competitive states for this significant industry.” This statement is naïve at best. The reason there is a competitive interest in Massachusetts for the movie industry is the tax incentive alone. The studio is also irrelevant since no one is building one any way.
The issue for me; does this incentive help or not? If it helps the economy why are we capping it? Massachusetts is already taking a hit from its Midwest counterpart Michigan with a whopping 42% in rebates, which is pushing film production through the roof. Even if the state does not approve the Governor’s budget the landscape could be changing anyway.
This is the nature of the movie business; we must be able to roll with the punches. It is not all doom and gloom as nothing has been settled and there is support in the legislative body for the incentives to stay as they are. It is always nice to have a plan B. I hear the weather in Michigan is lovely this time of year.
February 1, 2010: Distribution: The Never Ending Story
You’re still at the blackboard but you know what kind of movie you are going to make and you are ready to move on. What are your immediate goals for your movie? Is this movie your calling card or do you want it to make money back for you and your investors. This decision needs to be made long before you roll your first frame.
If you are interested in the calling card method and care not for the short term materialistic reward from box office and DVD sales, then you can push the film down the throats of the masses via festivals, getting reviews, youtube, streaming and other events that can showcase your film. My only warning to this strategy is that your investors may not approve. To use the old standby time tested cliché of truth; investors do not grow on trees. They should be highly valued and unless they share your vision of the long-term plan this methodology will surely cause a riff between you and the moneyman.
That was my last word on non-profit filmmaking. I am concerned with how to get movies out there, make money in order to make more movies. Your movie will need a website, well let’s get that up there and running and maybe this is overstating the obvious, make it good there are many bad websites out there. If you are representing yourself as a media artist you need to follow all the way through and your website needs to be representative of your movie vision. If you have can combine the look and theme with your site so much the better. It is not too early to start your branding.
Along with your website you should look at and embrace social media. You must have your own facebook page, fan facebook page for your movie, linked-in and twitter to get the ball rolling. These networking avenues are free and these sites cannot be neglected, you need not only to be on them, you need to work them. They take a while to build and that’s ok since you are just starting. If you are further in the movie making process act now and get moving on this stuff. The social networking sites are fairly easy to figure out, the website will take planning, designing and strategy. Like your movie it will take longer than you think it will to make it.
Feel free to dialogue with me on this on going topic, the modern day distribution world is about networking, marketing and creating buzz. The day of the big distributor is dead. It is a new frontier with the destiny of modern filmmakers is in their own hands. As Robert De Niro’s character Harry Tuttle says in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, “We’re all in it together.”
January 26, 2010: Should You Move To Los Angeles?
The short answer is yes and no. Elaborated, L.A. is the center of the film industry, the Mecca if you will. All the big production companies are there. All the distributers are there. All the actors are there. Everyone is there. If you want to rise to the top of the pyramid as a director or producer you should absolutely go to L.A, likewise if you are an actor and want to be in the movies there is no choice, go and don’t look back.
If you would like to be a technician or pursue another crew craft then L.A. is not necessarily the best place right now. Due to out of state tax incentives the work in L.A. has dried up a bit. Many of the California film folk have hit the trail to Massachusetts, Louisiana, or other states offering great incentives. Michigan is now leading the pack with a whopping 42% tax incentive.
The other side of the coin is to consider the quality of life in L.A. The city is a nightmare to get around in; you haven’t seen traffic until you have moved to Los Angeles. You need to consider the lifestyle: I’m not making a judgment; let’s just say it’s not for everyone. If you like L.A. then it is a no brainer. If you don’t go to L.A. you’ll have a harder time winning the academy award. However, if you just want to work somewhere in the industry, there are people all over the U.S making a good living on movies and other media. Figure out your priority, apply my advice and you will know what to do.
January 19, 2010: Distribution: The Never Ending Story
The first thing is to think about is the market. Does the movie have a niche? Who does the movie appeal to and who will pay to see it? These questions need to be answered before you do a thing. The distribution must be part of the plan from the beginning. No other business would make a product and not know where it would be sold.
How flexible are you in your movie vision. When you begin to conceptualize your movie you need to start thinking about your audience at this moment. The sooner you consider your audience the easier it will be to find them. Perhaps you can find a project that has a built in audience already. If you are making a narrative piece you can option a book that already has a fan base. If you are making a documentary on the yellow-bellied sapsucker, you can find out where the sapsucker enthusiasts congregate and get your movie to them.
If you can tailor your film to an audience so much the better, if you must make a film that you have to get out from inside your artistic self and there is no compromise fine, then figure out who wants to see this movie. As you go through the filmmaking process from light bulb in your head to a shrink-wrapped DVD you must weave the marketing and the film together so that they support each other. You begin to sell your product the day you say to yourself, “I am going to make this movie.”
If marketing and self promotion is not your area of expertise or you don’t feel comfortable doing that because you are the artist type, then get over it and make it your area of expertise. Marketing is an acquired skill and it can be learned. We are in the do-it-yourself era of filmmaking. No one will discover you amongst the thousands of filmmakers the digital age has spawned. Make your movie and get it out there yourself and then people will know who you are and what you can do.
January 13, 2010: Swansea Rep Lambastes Mass Tax Incentive
The Massachusetts tax credit was raked over the coals by Representative D’Amico last night on Chronicle. He blasted the incentive without a clear-cut argument. Basically comparing it to dumping money on the ground outside the State House.
It is easy to get on a soapbox and throw stones at something that is seemingly costing money. Chronicle spoofed the tax incentive as someone pretended to write direct checks to Leonard Di Caprio and Cameron Diaz. Mr. D’Amico’s biggest beef was that we are paying off Hollywood celebrities to make their movies here. What we are doing is supporting one of the few growing industries in the Bay State.
If you want to scrutinize the incentive to see if it is working, that’s fine. Let’s get out the calculators and slide rulers to see if it is helping or not. Let’s not take broad stabs at one of the few thriving industries in Massachusetts. There are certain facts that cannot be disputed. Jobs have been created. The local movie union (I.A.T.S.E.) is growing and constantly training new members to service the industry. Money is being spent and taxed. Besides stimulating the economy there is money being recouped.
I would think twice before making a push to shut down an industry that employs people and supports local businesses. The tax incentive did exactly what it set out to do, it stimulated the economy, created jobs where there weren’t and allowed people to pay their bills.
January 12, 2010: Massachusetts Tax Credit: Good for the State, Good for the Producer
The Massachusetts tax credits have been a benefit to both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the movie industry. Due to the tax credits employment in the movie industry has increased. There are more people actively working in the movie business then ever before. In the last three years there has been about billion dollars spent on movie production.
Besides employment there are other benefits the state reaps. Many local businesses outside of film related companies also prosper. A major motion picture uses many different vendors to create a movie. They use lumbar yards, hotels, rental cars, dry cleaners, restaurants, florists, hardware stores, car service, storage, super markets; the list goes on. This money is pumped into the economy. When Adam Sandler shotGrown-Ups in Essex, the production paid the town $150,000 in location fees. This is truly a win win situation.
An intangible that isn’t spoken about is the advertisement Boston receives when these movies are released. When Boston is used as a backdrop for a movie it is great press and the movie acts as a commercial for the city.
The tax credit is not only for the major studios, it also benefits the independent filmmaker; the state has lowered the minimum to $50,000.00. If you are thinking about where to produce your next movie Massachusetts is the perfect place. There are many different looks throughout the state. It could also doubles for other places. The Pink Panther 2 used it to double as Paris.
This is a great time to shoot in Boston or anywhere in Massachusetts. There are many seasoned crew people with a sufficient infrastructure that supplies all the necessary equipment. The welcome mat is out for the movies. Whether you are a big studio or a small indie producer, it is a great place to shoot and glean the benefits of the tax incentive.
January 7, 2010: Check Out the new 7 Day PSA Competition.
A new film competition is calling for entries in Rhode Island, a new innovative idea that will benefit filmmakers and non-profit organizations. The Flicker’s Art Collaborative and Rhode Island International Film Festival will challenge local filmmakers to use their skills to meet the needs of local non-profit organizations, who struggle to produce quality public service announcements.
The winning filmmakers will have their PSA broadcasted. Most festivals only give out awards that are worth the status of the event. The winners of this competition will have their work broadcasted on network television. Winning the 7 Day PSA guarantees your work to be seen by a wider audience.
Crafting a 30 to 60 second piece is not easy, but it is not time consuming. Once the concept and script are made a piece of this size can be shot in one day or less. The bang for the buck is great. I like the idea of this competition. It’s not like the 48 Hour Film Festival where you thrash for 2 days and nights without sleep to create a short film. You get a week to put your work together, which is plenty of time to make a quality PSA.
The submission deadline is approaching on January 15, 2010. This is a great opportunity to have a chance for your work to be broadcasted on network TV. For the small amount of time commitment this project demands, the upside is huge.
Check it out at: http://www.film-festival.org/7DayPSA.php
January 4, 2010: Self Distribution: The Only Game in Town
You come up with a brilliant idea. You write a great script. By some miracle you find the money to make the movie. It’s finished and it came out pretty good. Now what do you do? This is the toughest part of the process; selling your film.
In the 90’s you would make an independent movie and take it to a festival or a distributor. If it was good you would have a decent chance of getting it picked up with a cash advance. There were also less independent films made and less competition.
Technology changed and movie making is much more accessible to the average Joe. There are more film students than ever with the illusive dream of becoming a Hollywood director. Everyone is making a movie today, and as the old laws of supply in demand are still in effect, the distributors are in the cat bird seat.
Most filmmakers find themselves over a barrel. By the time the movie is complete they are broke. After the initial buzz dies down, desperation kicks in; Snidely Whiplash comes along and gives them a line of hope. They end up making a deal with the devil and like Credence Clearwater Revival their rights have been lost in perpetuity.
Even if the distributor has good intentions when the deal is signed, the wind changes frequently in this fickle business and over night your movie is shelved. In the meantime debt has accrued due to advertisement, DVD costs and other clerical bills. The distributor’s expenses must be recouped before you see a penny. If you have a less scrupulous distributor you will be flimflammed with creative accounting. Even with success at the box office and DVD sales you still may not make any money.
There is an alternative for independent filmmakers. Today’s producers not only need to know how to make the movie they need to know how to distribute it. This is actually a great opportunity for the modern filmmaker. There has never been a better time where an individual can create something and get it out to the world. The internet is so dynamic that with the right marketing and execution the product can sell. The best recourse for today’s movie maker is self distribution.
It is not enough for a producer to be an artist and visionary. Today’s producer must also be a savvy business person, an excellent marketer, and a great salesperson. These are new trades to learn. If you can’t do it, you better find someone to bring on your team who can. If not you’ll be left with a home movie you can show to your family at Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanza celebration.
