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.

Budgeting

To conclude two weeks of crew tips – a reminder that it is best to be able to pay these crew people.  While sales agents should work on commission, lawyers, web designers, PMDs etc most likely will not.  You should create a budget that is as detailed as a production budget.  In Think Outside the Box Office I created such a budget with detailed explanation, using my budget and several others as examples.  Raising the money at inception will help avoid potentially costly P&A finance rates and last in- first out requirements.   If you have a tax rebate due you, don’t bank it, use it as a large portion (or all) of your distribution and marketing budget.    Here’s a list of what you will need to include in your budget:

-Distribution Crew including those who I have discussed and whoever else you need for your specific release: bookers, publicists, community engagement consultants, social media strategists, graphic designers;

-Marketing creative and materials: including trailer, poster/key art, press kit;

-Print and other delivery materials: Various masters, authoring, replication, digital cinema files etc.;

-Media buys from print to google;

-Travel expenses;

-General office supplies – especially shipping;

And anything else your release needs – the above is a very quick summary.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include these on my blog as he and I work together. These will run for about 8 weeks and cover bits of advice on film marketing and distribution. Here is the first one making its rounds on the blogosphere today.

Day 1 – The Next Chapter

Many of you might know me from the book that I have written recently, Think Outside the Box Office (TOTBO for short).  The primary reason that I wrote it was to share what I had learned while distributing my film Bomb It with other filmmakers so they could learn from my successes and mistakes.  In the continuation of that mission I am launching two more initiatives – both in support of how people want to interact with this information.  The first is a series of workshops around the world.  It seems that the live experience is as important as the written word in imparting this information for many people.   We are starting  with London on May 8/9, Amsterdam on May 12/13, New York on June 5, Vancouver on June 12/13, San Francisco July 31/Aug1 with more being lined up.

The second initiative is the launching of a TOTBO Tip of the Day.   This will soon be joined by Resource of the Day.   In these tips, I will give not only a sense of what’s in the book and workshop, but they will be a forum to convey new tips to you as I learn them.

I want to know what you think!  Comment here or on my blog, or @Jon_Reiss on twitter, or on the TOTBO Facebook page.   I look forward to hearing from you.

My friend and emerging indie filmmaker Zak Forsman writes posts for the Workbook Project  site called NEW BREED. Zak has also made 2 films in the last year called Heart of Now and White Knuckles. He shared his film festival strategy on the New Breed site and I asked if I could reprint it here in case you missed it. You can also follow him on Twitter @zakforsman. If you like what you read, please leave a comment on his site.

The SABI Festival Strategy

STEP ZERO: ASK YOURSELF WHY

Be honest with yourself and ask why you want to do this. It will be a financial, emotional and physical drain to be sure. So you must define your goals and the reason why they are goals. For us, we have solidified our plans to release HEART OF NOW and WHITE KNUCKLES through our own distribution company, CINEFIST. So we are not seeking traditional distribution. And by “traditional” I mean selling the domestic rights for 25 years, for less than $100,000 in advance and a tiny cut of the profit. Instead, we ARE seeking some rather important things to support a direct-to-audience distribution effort:

• To meet new friends, filmmakers, fans and partners
• To garner laurels, prestige, press and reviews
• To announce a platform release to a larger audience
• To make a little $$$ on DVD, soundtrack and merch sales at each screening
• To get additional feedback from audiences

So, what does a modern, forward-thinking festival strategy look like? From the outside, it looks like a bucket full of submission packets amounting to $1500 in fees for 40 festivals. I’ve come to define our festival strategy by working backwards from our direct-to-audience distribution plan. We know we want to begin the latter in July 2010 so the focus had to go toward festivals that would play between now and the end of June. The intent being that if we are accepted, we can incorporate that opportunity into the distribution road map, without relying on it “for direction”.

So how did I decide which festivals to submit to?

STEP ONE: MAKE LISTS

I researched other films and the festivals they played. I zeroed in on two films that I felt shared enough similarities with HEART OF NOW and WHITE KNUCKLES that they could attract the same appreciation for content and form. They were THE NEW YEAR PARADE and MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY.

Festivals that accepted The New Year Parade:

• SXSW
• Slamdance
• Ashland
• Philadelphia
• deadCENTER
• BendFilm
• Indie Memphis
• Lone Star Int’l
• IFF Boston
• Cucalorus
• Temecula Valley
• Vancouver Int’l
• Tofino
• Torino
• Woodstck
• Starz Denver

Festivals that accepted Medicine for Melancholy:

• SXSW
• Philadelphia
• IFF Boston
• Viennale
• San Francisco Int’l
• Toronto Int’l
• London
• Sarasota
• Maryland
• Los Angeles

And I also took a good look at the festivals suggested by Chris Gore as being essential to any festival effort:

• AFI Fest
• Dallas
• Atlanta
• Austin
• Chicago
• CineVegas (on hiatus)
• Denver
• Florida
• Los Angeles
• Phoenix
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Sidewalk
• Wisconsin
• Woodstock

I sought to make one final list of festivals that offered profit participation with the box office grosses, allowing filmmakers the opportunity to make some money off their own content. That list had no entries.

I entered all of this info in a GoogleWave and crunched through the data, noting their deadlines, doing searches on the Without-A-Box message board for filmmaker feedback and reading about each of them on FILM FESTIVAL WORLD as well as visiting each of their official sites.

STEP TWO: SEEK GUIDANCE FROM INTELLIGENT PEOPLE

Guidance came in two forms: from experienced people I’ve met in the last year and from books. My signed copy of THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX OFFICE by Jon Reiss has been a great resource for defining our upcoming distribution endeavor, allowing us to work backwards and plan a complimentary festival strategy. For festival-specific guidance, I picked up the 4th edition of CHRIS GORE’S ULTIMATE FILM FESTIVAL SURVIVAL GUIDE.

In addition, the heads of programming at SUNDANCE and SLAMDANCE both sent unofficial rejection notices that offered personal words of admiration for WHITE KNUCKLES, with the latter making suggestions for festivals that might also be receptive to it. It’s encouraging to know how closely we were considered for those two.

Next, Scott Macaulay of FILMMAKER MAGAZINE was gracious enough to lend his creative feedback and insight as we shaped the edit of HEART OF NOW. When I posted a plea on Facebook and Twitter for east coast festival recommendations, he offered a list for that film specifically.

In addition, festivals that programmed my short film, I F*CKING HATE YOU, fell into heavy consideration due to the existing relationships and friendships we had there. And finally, we’ve received direct invitations to screen HEART OF NOW from some smaller festivals who have been following SABI via Facebook and Twitter.

From those lists I shared above and the cumulative guidance of several people, I was able to identify which festivals would be our primary targets and which would be our second choices, submitting to both sets simultaneously. We made note of the premiere status requirements and the possible conflicts that could arise. A third list of smaller, more regional festivals lies in wait, to coincide with our direct-to-audience theatrical tour and home video releases. Those submissions will be made in the Spring of 2010.

STEP THREE: WHAT TO SEND, WHAT TO EXPECT

I set a full day aside to burn and test each DVD screener and to build out each submission. I use a stack of pre-printed blank DVD-Rs from ARCHETYPE DVD with whitespace for tracking numbers, contact info, running time and other notes. Each packet included the number of DVD screeners they asked for, labelled in the manner they requested, a brief and concise personal letter drafted by me to give the submission a little personality, the Without-A-Box printout, and nothing else. Be prepared for the clerk at your local post office to look at you like your an asshole when you ask for dozens of packages of varying weights to be sent first class.

As for expectations, I’m committed to the idea that a festival run is ancillary to the real objective – to get these arthouse films in front of a paying audience through multiple platforms. So my expectations are tempered. I was about as heartbroken over rejections from SUNDANCE and SLAMDANCE as I would be over not winning the lottery. Which is to say, not much at all really. I’ll save the heartache should we face low theater turn-out, bad reviews, dvd manufacturing delays, getting rejected from itunes, struggles to find a way into cable vod, etc. And I’ll find solace in the knowledge that if rejection or failure didn’t hit in some form, it meant we failed to take the inevitable risk, we failed to experiment as we do with all things and we failed in our attempt to innovate with an evolving model of sustainability – all part of the distribution journey.

Another one of the speakers of the night was Jon Reiss, award winning filmmaker and author of the new book Think Outside the Box Office mentioned in the last post. He started off by telling everyone that he regards himself as a filmmaker, not an author, but felt compelled to write this book to help other filmmakers avoid the mistakes he made while trying to distribute his films and to collect all of the resources he used when distributing his latest film Bomb It into one central guide.

He concentrated his talk on the theatrical release. He would like to see a reinvention of the term “theatrical.” Most people consider theatrical to be an experience that takes place in a theater with a built in projection system, built in sound, starts on a Friday ends on a Thursday, sells popcorn.  And anything otherwise is not theatrical. He thinks this works fine for the studio system but doesn’t work for most independent films. The new term he would like to see in use is Live Event/Theatrical to encompass grassroots community and alternative screenings as well as screenings in a theater. Live because it takes place in front of an audience, event because it happens on a certain day or a certain number of days in a certain place with elements (explained later), theatrical because he doesn’t want to throw out the term but it should mean a communal viewing experience in  any venue, in the manner defined by the filmmaker, so in the dark or with the lights on, whatever. These events can take place in a park, a club, a community center, a cemetery, wherever. He contends that most filmmakers intend their films to be viewed in a communal atmosphere and that it is hard to create this atmosphere of an event on the internet. While he appreciates that many viewers are content to watch online, he, as a filmmaker, prefers that films be watched in a live venue and thinks that people do like communal viewing.

Reiss encourages filmmakers to create a robust theatrical plan. It is fine to have traditional venue screenings in big cities like NY and LA, but have a few theater screenings mixed with campus, community and alternative screening events. Also he encourages short runs as opposed to block bookings. He recounted his own booking experience with Bomb It where many venues only wanted to book the film for a day or two and he hated doing that. It wasn’t the theatrical release he had envisioned. But looking back on his run, he had to admit that those one or two day bookings were far more profitable with much more attendance than his week long runs. One or two nights will be more profitable and encourage your audience to make a date to attend if they can only see it on that one night. It allows for generating buzz in the local community where it is screening. It also helps you book events because it doesn’t take up much of a theater’s schedule. They will be more willing to book you for the odd night that isn’t filled rather than having to make a week long booking.

He suggests that you give your screening a sense of an event by adding special touches like live appearances of the cast or director (which is a little done, but having a Skype Q&A on screen is gaining popularity); appearances by other well known people like Age of Stupid did with their New York premiere which featured Kofi Annan, Thom Yorke and Mobi; bringing in other entertainment applicable to the theme of the film like Anvil! The Story of Anvil did when they brought the band onstage during some of their theatrical run or Note by Note which featured live music from local Steinway piano shops. He doesn’t recommend having a party unless you can find a free venue nearby and an alcohol and food sponsor because parties get too expensive in every city. Partnering with a local charity or non profit group to throw a party is a good idea if your film ties in with one because it helps build awareness for the cause and your film plus you get the party free. He also referenced Peter Greenaway’s Tulse Luper films that he would remix live in the theater while the screenings were happening as a great event screening.

Lastly, he moved to film festivals and their new role. He recommends rethinking the role of film festivals. Previously, festivals were viewed as a place to sell your film, but that isn’t happening now. Festivals should be regarded as event generators and you can use the media buzz of a premiere festival to book other venues and/or start your distribution plan. It is very hard to reenact a media blitz every time you have a release, be it DVD or VOD so it is better to utilize the initial buzz to start your distribution. You may want to use the premiere festival to get the buzz going and then use the subsequent fests to start your sales. Look at festivals as a way to market your film, build your audience and start the sales process.

DIY Days videos  are available and feature all of  the speakers from the night if you happened to have missed it.  I will be talking about Jon’s book, which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed (I’m weird that way!), in a following post soon.

This week I attended an edition of the roving conference put on by WBP, filmmaker Lance Weiler’s outfit. It followed on nicely from seminars and conversations that were going on AFM the week before. I covered AFM for Microfilmmaker Magazine and the article will be out on December 1, but I wanted to share my notes from this event first.

The first speaker of the night was Weiler and his topic was Social Media for Storytellers. “There is more opportunity now than there ever has been to reach the audience,” Weiler proclaimed. He cited examples of his own work with his film HEAD TRAUMA where he used multiple media to engage the audience with comic books,  ARG, mobile phone components and live interaction during screenings. He also cited the work that the Mad Men TV show did to target different audience segments during their seasons to broaden the reach of the show. Their campaigns grew from building a buzz in the ad agency niche, then moved out to the entertainment media, early adopters WOM and then wide audience promotions.

He cautioned before you get a conversation going you need to decide what kind of voice you want to use. Should you engage from the characters’ perspective, a location- centric perspective, the voice of your staff or your own voice? There is no right or wrong to this, it just has to be determined and stay consistent.

He also advised to be realistic about time and resources. Choose outlets and accounts to use that will reach your audience best and these will change over time as new platforms come into fashion. Interaction will take up a measurable part of the day and there needs to be a routine. He utilizes interns or a full time community manager to handle this work. This has to be a conversation, no one likes to be talked to without any way to talk back or feel that no one is listening. Give them the tools to talk to you and to each other.

Weiler insists that building trust with your audience is key. You can’t just jump into conversation with them, you must slowly cultivate a relationship and it will take time to gather your audience. You must reward your audience by giving them access to content or access to you not widely available. You must respect them by not overusing your email list or making your content only self serving. This is important because you can’t control them and what they say. They can make or break you.

He closed by listing a few of the platforms he recommends for filmmaker audience building. WordPress, Flikr, Twitter, Feedburner and Delicious. He cautioned that you should mirror your audience list details from your online platforms because you do not own that information, the platform does. If you should ever lose privileges on a platform or want to change platforms, you want to have that information in your personal files for future access.

In part II, I will talk about Jon Reiss’ talk on theatrical releases and why the term needs to encompass more than cinemas. He has a new book out now called Think Outside the Box Office, the ultimate guide to film distribution and marketing in the digital era. I have read it and highly recommend it. He talks about his new philosophy in it in detail but highlighted it in this talk.