I am so excited to see that the crew position my friend Jon Reiss coined in his book Think Outside the Box Office is being embraced by people all over the globe. There seems to be a lot of interest in this kind of work that is mostly forgotten about or avoided by the average indie filmmaker in the hopes that a distributor will come, give them a big check and take that baby off their hands. I was always a huge champion of the position when I was given Jon’s book as a draft copy and I am glad to see that he is now inspiring so many people to take up this work. But I do have some concerns and advice to share.

I always saw this as a position for a person trained in marketing or sales. It isn’t enough, in fact isn’t even needed, for a person aspiring to be a PMD to be a filmmaker. This work requires a different mindset and a different set of skills and knowledge that are not acquired in film school or behind a camera. While Jon has often maintained that this is knowledge filmmakers need to have, I have always thought it would be easier to teach a trained marketing person about the business of film than it would be to train a filmmaker to be a business person. The workload of trying to be both is just too overwhelming for each endeavor to be done well. Filmmakers have asked where they can find someone to do this work and potential PMDs have asked how they can  find filmmakers to work with? Both are very warranted questions and I am going to share a few thoughts on that coming from the perspective of having done this work.

I have never claimed the title of PMD because I have yet to be involved in a production from the beginning and I am being very careful about the project I pick to work with from conception. Usually projects come to me in the middle of production or more commonly after post, so the work I would have been doing from the start has to be sped up in order to launch properly. Generally this is the work of a publicist, not a PMD. The worst is when a filmmaker comes to me after the film has failed to find an audience or a traditional distributor and now wants me to work miracles. With no money. I do not take those projects because that is unrealistic work, a fool’s errand. Take note of this PMDs! The filmmaker will not have the patience to wait until an audience is built and you will be blamed because you are working with extremely limited financial resources and they will expect sales immediately.

I also don’t think that it is possible for one PMD to take on the work of more than about 2 projects at a time and do them successfully. More than this and the time devoted is too stretched and can’t be done effectively for the amount of time and attention that has to be spent. As a producer, how many films can be produced at one time and do all things necessary to make them successful?

To say you are hanging out a shingle to solicit clients is really the wrong way to look at this job. You aren’t going for volume unless you have an agency with a staff to handle each film. Perhaps in the future there will be PMD agencies, with a staff member to handle the duties of each film project. It is going to take that kind of one on one attention to do this well. My opinion is there are already marketing companies that say they can do this, but this work shouldn’t be outsourced to a company with no connections to a film’s audience. So, they shout at them with messages instead and hope to make enough noise to get some sales. These connections cannot be bought with money, the attention is acquired through spending time with the communities where the audiences live and I don’t know any outside company that can accomplish this because they have to be embedded in the community and it doesn’t scale with a large business. A PMD is part of the filmmaking team just like all of the other crew, maybe more so as their work starts at the beginning and ends long after the tech crew and actors go home.

During a recent interview, I was asked what I thought were good skills and characteristics for a PMD. Here is what I came up with:

-Some kind of marketing and/or sales training. This would be a background in the fundamentals of marketing, advertising, public relations. One of the most important duties of a PMD is being able to draft a marketing plan and budget as well as know distribution pathways for film. Distribution can be figured out relatively easily, negotiating contracts and terms will be done with an attorney if an outside distributor is used and there are those whose work is solely devoted to distribution to help navigate this path. A certain amount of information gathering never hurt though.

-Someone with great communication skills who can speak with knowledge and purpose. By communicate, I don’t just mean someone who likes to talk. There is a lot of listening in this line of work in order to find great communities to connect with, collaborate with, mutually respect. Someone who only knows how to advertise will not make a good PMD. Someone who only knows hard sell techniques will not make a good PMD. This kind of communication is subtle, careful and respectful. Not everyone will love your project and that is ok.

-Someone familiar with online tools and how they are used best. It isn’t enough to be a prolific blogger or have thousands of personal friends on Facebook and Twitter. If one uses these tools as free advertising platforms only, they will yield very limited success. These are tools that demand a strategy behind how they are used. They may not even be useful depending on the audience for the project. They certainly won’t be the only tool to use so don’t be overly dependent on them because they are free.

-Someone with research skills. This is definitely important and strangely the job often given to the most inexperienced intern. Not only must online and offline communities be researched and evaluated, they also have to be contacted and, through the research, a determination will be made as to what motivates these groups, who is the most influential in the circle to convince so that the contact will be done in a respectful and genuine way. No one likes to be contacted out of the blue. The first instinct is trepidation about the motivation. How can communication be genuine if you haven’t done the research yourself? The key to this research is narrowing down the scope of the audience, to really get to the core of the interest in your film. Without a significant media budget, a wide audience cannot be reached and time and effort will be wasted to try. Start small, grow wider as you go. Better still, research niche groups of a special interest where there is a need for content and make that content for them. Again, if you can’t genuinely connect with that audience, do not try this method or it will fail.

Another note about research. You will be researching to find interesting topics to provide for your audience. As I said, your communication cannot only be about your project. It gets boring to hear about you, you, you all the time. You will also need to be a resource for your film’s community. This means constant surveillance on topics of interest, the latest news stories appropriate to both the audience and the film, interesting video content that is not footage of the film. You will populate your site and networking pages with this information and it has to be relevant.

-Someone who can write. There is a ton of writing in this work. Blog posts, feature articles, web content, press releases, synopsis, biographies, social networking content, email blasts, advertising copy. A PMD must be a great writer and have mastery of the basics of grammar and spelling.

-Someone with technical skills like web or widget design is a bonus but that mentality very rarely mixes with the other attributes and it is too easy to find people who are experts at just this. Use them, don’t try to learn these skills too. You’ll have plenty to do on the project.

First and foremost think of yourself as the ambassador of the film. You will be providing the voice the audience hears for the project, figuratively as it will be most likely be online but perhaps it will be off as well at events, meetups, screenings, festivals etc. If a project is presented to you, really evaluate the fit. If you can’t stand zombie films, for example, you will not be effective in presenting that film. Pass and find a more suitable project. This goes for filmmakers as well. Look at the personal interests of the PMD you are considering because they are going to represent the voice of the film in all the work to be done. If they have no discernible interest in your topic, if they aren’t a member of any target audience groups for the film or able to connect with them on some level, find someone who is.

Notice I didn’t say they should have lots of experience. In looking through these skills and attributes, this isn’t a role many people have worked in previously. I can’t think of many publicists, distribution execs, or sales agents that can claim that they were ambassadors for one film, solely. They have worked on some aspect, usually after the film was finished but they didn’t do the end to end job of marketing a film by themselves. Not to worry, most of all this job is about passion, connection building and the ability to learn new things. Most filmmakers who come to me are new too and I don’t judge them because of their inexperience, but if I can’t connect with the project or I see the outcome of the film and decide it won’t be successful no matter how much marketing is done, I will pass.

Most of all a PMD is NOT a consultant. A consultant only provides advice and tells someone else what to do. A PMD actually does the work. I hope to connect with all of you at some point to see what you are working on and if ever you need someone to talk to, I am here.

I just want to make a quick comment here on the recent review this film had in The Hollywood Reporter. I haven’t seen this film, only people in attendance at the world premiere in Berlin this week have seen it, and probably a few sales agents and would be distributors. I hope they saw it before The Hollywood Reporter ripped it to shreds. As such, I cannot comment on the validity of the review and the critic. Let’s suffice it to say the critic has seen a film or two in his career and that is why people take such notice of these THR reviews and why they seem so coveted.

I do a fair amount of publicity when working with a film. It isn’t the only thing I do, but it is one of the elements of my film marketing plans. I have stated in a previous post that I tend to shy away from going after publications like THR, Variety, EW and even indieWire. I do not have personal contacts with those publications for one and usually they do not cover small, low budget films with no stars. There is another reason I don’t recommend it too.

I like outreach to online publications, blogs, online radio, forums etc  for coverage. These resources are usually more familiar with lower budget work. They can forgive some editing, lighting, music choice mistakes. They know their audience is more forgiving of it too. They aren’t expecting Cameron level work. Sometimes, they are just excited to champion a film  they believe their audience would enjoy and those are the places where you will find your greatest reviews. Plus, it is the place where your audience will read about it and whose opinions they will value far more than the critic of the THR. They may be more influenced to watch it or buy it when one of these online places gives it a thumbs up.

Clearly, the publicist for this film has some connection to THR and included them in her press invitation to view the film… and he came. I would venture a guess that she is more of a traditional publicist obsessed with big publications, traditional publications, and is not targeting the true audience for this film. This approach is good when you only want to attract distributors. Distributors read THR, not the consumer audience. The risk with any review is there is no guarantee the critic will like it. This one REALLY didn’t. Should she only have courted media relevant to the film’s audience? Was this a mistake? Has this review sunk the likelihood of the film getting distribution? I think the filmmakers would have been better off targeting to their audience. This is a devastating review to get over. I think it will affect their distribution chances, certainly for a good deal.

Lesson: know the film you have, know the audience for it, and go after publications relevant to them. If they champion you, other publicity chances will follow and when you have a dedicated audience, distributors will follow you too.

PS: update on this film. A distribution partner was found in Cinema Guild. There are plans for a small theatrical run in the fall.

This is crunch time for team YELLOWBRICKROAD on the way to Slamdance. It is T-minus 12 days to world premiere. We just released key art last night and have had an overwhelming response from all our friends at the major horror blog sites and I am totally not complaining. But feeling the need to do an update here, I wanted to share some advice from my recent experiences with the press on this film.

I wrote this entry on another new film community site called www.filmees.com, check it out and I am reposting it here, because 1) I am too tired to think up something totally original (see my 2 previous posts ) and 2) because it is relevant if you are about to release your film and need some advice on reaching the media.

Here’s how I do it. (I can’t believe I am giving out my secrets like this!)

Forget trying to get your low budget, no star film reviewed or covered by any big traditional publication. Variety, THR, Entertainment Weekly even indieWire. They don’t really care about your film unless you have those elements or you have very strong connections into their organization. Go after online publications and bloggers within the niche of your film. This takes either working with someone who does this work professionally (like me ) or through lots of homework.

Study these sites, look at what they talk about. Even within a niche like horror, not all are interested in just any type of horror. They have a preference. If your film isn’t tailored to their audience interests, they aren’t your publication and no amount of badgering is going to help. There are literally thousands of sites covering EVERYTHING. You will find some right for your news.

Next, you want coverage by someone with good traffic to their site. I use Compete.com to see what I can find out about a site’s general traffic numbers. Those are your first sites to hit, they may be your only ones to hit because I find that if  big pubs like Fangoria (using horror sites here because I am currently in touch with them for YBR), Fearnet, Shocktilyoudrop, Bloody Disgusting, Dread Central etc. take up your story, the other smaller ones cannibalize their news so you don’t even have to contact them. But you should, I’ll get to that in a minute. Next, you go to those sites and look for the About Us tab. Research who covers your type of film. Not all journalists are going to cover all types of film. Look at their past articles or what they say interests them if they have a bio. Get their email address and write them a little note explaining who you are, why your film is good for them to cover (this is a hook, an angle) for their audience. None of this is about YOU and your needs.

Give them a trailer to look at (so you’d better have one) or some production stills. Something visually interesting to judge. If you are in preprod or production, then stills will do, but try to have at least a short (short!) clip of the most compelling part of your story. This means it had better be 1)kick ass 2)tailored to the taste of their publication and audience. That goes for the stills too. And give them a short synposis. If they like what they see, they will either get in touch with more questions or to set up an interview or ask for a screener. Here’s where it is tricky.

A word about stills (bold because this is important, write this down!)

Please, please have a professional person take your stills. Take stills of mostly the SCENES and not the crew, the set ups, the behind the scenes. As a publicist, I only need about 10 pictures of the crew and set ups. That is it. The rest I want of action in the scene without extraneous crew in the shot. Those crew pictures are only good for publications covering filmmaking not for pubs covering the film itself. Use a scene rehearsal before shooting or after shooting so the camera sound doesn’t show up in the shoot and the photographer isn’t in the way, but get those scene shots. Please! Make sure they are well lit, well compositioned, and in focus. Please! Please! ok rant over.

If you are looking for distribution and the film gets widely reviewed ahead of time through sending out massive amounts of screeners, this can turn off distributors. They want to be able to launch the film later and build the buzz from reviews at that time. So if it the film has already had many reviews, those publications will not re-review it at the launch. This is bad for a publicity campaign. The buzz was already built and its hard to get that back. Same at a festival, if you launch at a big festival and get lots of coverage from publications and then a distributor wants to go back at film launch time, they won’t get those pubs to cover it again. So be mindful if you are going to do traditional distribution. If you aren’t, then getting as many of the RIGHT publications to review it is your goal. By right, I mean pubs that truly reach your audience and understand your type of film. This will lead to a greater chance (not guaranteed!) of having a good, usable review.

So back to those smaller publications and bloggers, I set up Google Alerts (Twitter alerts are good too) to watch for references to my films. These do a good job of letting me know who is talking about us. I visit every site that gives us a mention and connect with them in comments. I try not to make it purely advertising. If I can personally thank them for helping us and give them more insight or pictures, they think that is too cool; that you acknowledged them and took the time. This is how you build an audience my friend! Even one at a time if you have to. Don’t underestimate how a little bit of encouragement can go a long way with the blogger community.

You want to put all of these writers in a database. Likely you will want to call on them again in the future for other projects. You also want to keep up with them a little because people move around among pubs. It is easier to recontact later if you can remind them of how they know you (“you wrote a piece on my suchandsuch film in suchandsuch publication” etc).

This same advice can be used for online podcasters and radio sites. It is all in the homework and how you approach them. Understand the audience they reach and what would interest them in your film. Oh and listen to the show, make sure they are professional. You want someone professional and knowledgable doing your interview. Online stays there forever, unlike terrestrial broadcast, so you want a good one.

Now a word about press kits. Forget all this paper nonsense. Get yourself a drop.io or some other file sharing account (there are a few, just can’t recall them all at the moment Badango is one too) and load up your releases, your production stills, your online press clipping URL’s, your trailer and clips, synopsis, cast bio, crew bio and pictures of each. As more things come up, you can easily add them to the file for update. Make it password protected so you can give it to journalists and it tracks who looked at it and no one else can change the content.

We have done this for Slamdance and I do not plan on putting anything on paper in the press office. Journalists are really all digital these days, or the relevant ones are, so no need for a paper press kit that you have to keep reprinting. Just make sure if you are at a fest, the press office knows about your file online. Probably they won’t help you anyway, you’ll just have to send the links to journalists directly. Then bring business cards with your contact deets and the link to the online press kit to give out.

I spent some time at the American Film Market this week wearing my badge with my name and company on it. Most of the time when people read it, they said “oh, you’re a publicist” and I thought, “no, that’s not what I am. Why do they think that?” I guess a publicist is most often associated with films after they are made, but I do not really think of myself this way. I use publicity as one element of a marketing plan. So, it is more accurate to say that I am a marketer who uses publicity, among other tools, to build awareness of a film, gather an audience and ultimately make money for the filmmaker and their investors. I do these activities before, during and after the production process. What’s the difference between marketing and publicity? I mean all of it is promoting a film, right?

Marketing is a combination of all the activities that help to increase the sale of your film,  including a mix of public relations (publicity), advertising, online marketing, social media marketing and other promotional activities. It encompasses two basic things. One, identifying your audience. Who they are; why would they be interested in your film; and how to reach them? Two, building a plan for how to make the audience aware of your film and see it or buy it.

Publicity is one  tool in the mix and it uses the media to reach the audience. This includes reviews; print, radio or television interviews; blog mentions; Twitter mentions; Digg/Linkedin/Deli.ci.ous mentions, etc. Publicity is a less expensive method to advertising and a less visible process, but when successfully used, its effects are long-lasting in helping to build up a reputation for the film and the filmmaker. A publicist is the the film’s advocate and a conduit to the media, essentially the informer to journalists and bloggers that their audience may be interested in your project because of various reasons (angles) and that they should consider checking it out. This is known as a pitch. There is no guarantee that the journalist will decide to make that connection with the film and write about it but the chances that they will are increased if they have been made aware. I do this work and have been successful in getting press attention, but it isn’t the only element I focus on.

I am mainly concerned with creating an overall plan to use as many outlets as resources will allow to build awareness for the film that will lead to increased sales and recoupment of costs with profit.

Here is a good visual to explain the differences between the elements in product promotion.