This from the man himself, Jon Reiss, in response to the many wonderful posts this week from Michael Barnard, Lucas McNelly and Dennis Peters regarding the PMD.

Let me clarify some of my feelings about the PMD.   I will add my universal caveat that every film and situation is different.  But  here are some important guidelines:

1.  The best case scenario is that a PMD is on board as a full collaborator and worker from as close to inception of the film as possible.  No later than beginning of prep.  This allows for, what I feel, the optimum of the integration of audience connection and engagement (which is what distribution and marketing is at its essence).   If you wait till you have finished your film – you are in a world of hurt (I’ve said that before, but I don’t think I can say it enough) because this connection building and engagement take time and effort and cannot be hurried.

2.  The best marketing is as creative as traditional filmmaking now – and frankly the line is blurred between what is the “film” and what is marketing.  This is a de facto state of things since the rise of transmedia.  If anyone just wants to make a traditional feature these days – that is great,– I am not going to tell anyone what his or her creative output should or should not be, but  I am only pointing out that there is a tremendous amount of creative potential that focusing only on feature films ignores.  I feel as a film community we should embrace it – and many filmmakers are. It is tremendously exciting.  Look at what Lance Weiler is doing.  I was fortunate enough to be at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh yesterday – and many things struck me (more blog posts coming on this subject) – but he was one of the first transmedia artists – we can learn a lot from him about what it means to be a creative person AND what it means to connect with audience.  (And Sheri Candler – yes he was an incredible leader of a tribe – another post on that coming too).   I know for many of you this is old news – but I still feel there is a battle being waged about this – one that is a waste of time in my opinion.

3.  As a result, the PMD is not just a social marketer, a dealmaker, a festival publicist, a line producer, a distributor, a publicist – he or she needs to understand all aspects of the marketing and distribution of a film and conceptualize, develop and oversee its execution over the full life of a film.  To do all of the above is a tremendous amount of work – akin to being the sole producer of a film in a crew of 3 (and at times this will happen – just as micro budget films have been produced in this way).  But I do advise that there be a distribution and marketing team (I took a whole chapter of TOTBO to outline this crew and even that should be supplemented now (another blog post later). The PMD is the one who oversees all of the pieces (but as in the case of all who work on indie films – they will be working full time and busting their butt in the trenches like everyone else – because there is never enough money to hire as many people as anyone would ever like).

4.   Just as people cut their teeth in indie film by taking on smaller tasks and working their way up – so it will be with PMDs.   Electrics become gaffers become DPs.  Social media assistants become social media strategists become PMDs. (as an example) While people work up the ladder – if they want to be the top creative in the department – they will learn ALL aspects of that department on their way up.  It is an intense learning curve – but people who want it – do it.

5.  When people cut their teeth in indie film – they usually work for free or for little money to have a chance to prove themselves.  Money, work, and credit are always  negotiated in independent film.  I don’t see that changing with the PMD.  Film has always been an apprenticeship system.  Even with film schools (and PMD training is on its way – more future blog posts) – most film students discover that they still need to apprentice out of school.   This is not just true for film – but for all arts not only in the US now – but throughout the world and throughout time.

6.  An alternative to this is  a group of filmmakers who band together as a team – all chipping in resources and skills – to make a film.  They usually divide up responsibilities and credits.  But each member of the team has his or her own sweat equity skin in the game.   This is where you have new producers, directors, DPs born who have not worked through the apprentice system.  But they take the risk on a project and prove themselves.

7.  The last alternative (which usually involves apprenticeship as well) is to get a lower level paid gig in an established, commercially based company (e.g. a publicity firm, social media establishment, transmedia commercial company etc) and get paid for doing lower level work on commercial projects.  Often people do this and  learn all the ropes, change jobs to learn a different skill (again paid for commercial work) until they have enough skills to strike out on their own.

8.  All of the above goes to say that I feel that if you want to be a PMD in the indie world – it will be difficult to ask to be paid without a track record.  Like all other people in the indie world – you need to pay your dues – work on films – build a reputation, resume, reel – to show what you are worth.   Most people in indie film – especially when they are starting out – have multiple jobs and find multiple ways to make a living.

9.  If you are in film – especially indie film – to make money – I suggest finding another career.  There are many other ways to make money more simply. Chances are you’ll make more money per hour at McDonalds than from working on any indie film. The world of film and media are for people who love film and media and cannot live without it.  It is a tough life except for a very few. (Again from Warhol: “Life is very hard”).

10.  The people whom I have met who want to be PMDs around the world – have a love of film – but feel that they have a set of skills more geared toward marketing than actual production – and are excited by having a way to work in the field they love (film and media) and use their special talents.  They are not doing it primarily for money.  They are doing it because everything else besides film is unsatisfying – and while they do need to find a way to make a living – they need to be involved with film.

11.  The hope is of course – with everyone in independent film – is to find a way to do what you love and sustain yourself.  There are many, many ways that people find to do this.  It is of course tougher than ever now – especially as we are in this transitional period.  I don’t feel I have all the answers – but I am excited by what the future holds, by having discussions with passionate people who care about our world and I feel together we will all find a way to make this work.  I don’t feel that we as filmmakers are alone in this.  All media content creators and artists are facing the same conundrum – musicians, journalists, authors, artists, photo journalists, graphic artists, game designers (massive layoffs in Australia in the months prior to my visit).  We are all facing the same challenges and I feel that we can all learn from each other.

Let me know your thoughts at  @Jon_Reiss on twitter or facebook.com/ThinkOutsidetheBoxOffice

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.

Today was the season finale of Chris Jones’ webshow The Production Office. When I visited him in May, we shot this interview and it aired on the show today. In case you missed it, here it is again. To watch all of the past shows, encore presentations are available on his site www.chrisjonesblog.com

Live in The Production Office

When Booking Your Film: Make the Call 

When calling the theater, ask for the person in charge of programming. These bookers are generally very nice people who love film. Why else would they be involved with small theaters that make no money? And remember, it is important to call first before sending an e-mail. An e-mail cannot express your passion, nor will an e-mail exchange allow you to address the bookers‘ concerns about your film in a direct and instantaneous fashion. I always followed up my phone calls with an e-mail and not the other way around.

My workshops are coming to NYC on June 5 & 6^th organized through IFP – and Vancouver on June 12 & 13^th.   One of the perks of attending is a digital pack of articles and documents my theatrical pitch letter and a list of theater listings etc.  I hope to see you there! Check out the book and workshops here.

When Booking Your Film: Do Your Research

Of course you have done your organizational research, but assuming you are still going to book some conventional theaters the first step is: Research. Most information you need to book your film is readily available online.  There are already lists of theaters that book independent films available online.  My distribution and marketing tools site: ultimatefilmguides.com has a list of these lists!  Most theaters have Web sites, and in nearly all of them, the office number can be found if you look hard enough. To compile your list of theaters to contact, check out where other similar independent films have played.

My workshops are coming to NYC on June 5 & 6^th organized through IFP – and Vancouver on June 12 & 13^th.   One of the perks of attending is a digital pack of articles and documents my theatrical pitch letter and a list of theater listings etc.  I hope to see you there! Check out the book and workshops here.

There is also a tweetup planned in NYC at the Rooftop Films location on Friday June 4. For more details, see the posting on it below

Use Organizational Partners

If you have laid the groundwork with organizational partners, you can have them organize many of your screenings what Lisa Smithline calls DIFY – or Do It For You.  This is one of the many added benefits of starting your distribution and marketing groundwork from the beginning.  Even if they don’t do the actual screening organization, they can provide audience, support structure, event production, and event talent.  If you don’t have an organization – but have an engaged audience – you can work with your audience in this way too.

Again this is one of the many topics that are covered in depth in the workshops.  In NY we are fortunate to have social engagement strategist Sheri Candler and community outreach specialist Caitlin Boyle giving presentations!  In Vancouver we have Colleen Nystedt from Movieset!

My workshops are coming to NYC on June 5 & 6^th organized through IFP – and Vancouver on June 12 & 13^th.   One of the perks of attending is a digital pack of articles and documents, my theatrical booking  pitch letter and a list of theater listings etc.  I hope to see you there! Check out the book and workshops here.

Some of you may know that I will be participating in the IFP/Jon Reiss TOTBO workshop in NYC this weekend. I am a late add, so you won’t find details about me on their event site. You can look me up on Google or on this site under About. Promise, my ticket is booked and I will be there. I have proposed a tweetup in the city the night before the workshop.

Friday June 4, I would like to have everyone come to the Rooftop Films screening at the New Design High School, 350 GRAND ST., NEW YORK, NY 10002 in the lower east side of town. The doors open at 8pm, screening starts at 9pm. If it rains, there is an inside venue at the same location. I have requested that they give us a small discount on the admission price, normally $10. They haven’t given me a definitive answer yet, but I wanted to get this news out so that you can plan accordingly. I will let you know their answer as soon as it comes and what the high sign will be for the discount (probably a twitter hashtag).

After a little cajoling, mostly because he is afraid of having a late night right before the early morning workshop, Jon has agreed to come along for a bit that night too. So if you would like to meet him, see what he is about, on the fence about joining us the next day, whatever, come. You can still sign up the morning of the workshop if you want. Come even if you have NO interest in the workshop, we might pout, but we’ll get over it and you can meet some of your fellow NYC filmmakers, people you don’t yet know in real life. AND since most of you have expressed a desire to see the tradition of indie films screened in a live setting continue, this will be a good chance to support the idea with a local organization trying to keep that spirit alive.

Hope to see all our NYC tweeps there. Please come up and introduce yourself to me, maybe even wear a badge with your Twitter handle so everyone knows who you are. Mine is @shericandler.

UPDATE: a discount of $4 off the admission has been arranged, but per Rooftop’s request, I can’t publicize the password that you have to say to get the discount at the door. Send me an email on Thursday and I will send you the word. shericand at gmail dot com