photo credit Leilani Holmes

Once again my friend Jon Reiss will be heading to the UK for 2 events. The first is early this week at the Edinburgh Film Festival where he is giving the keynote at Short Sighted on June 22, an event that will educate you on getting your short film distributed. He also will be doing one on one consultations  with filmmakers through Creative Scotland the next day.

He will then bring his 2 day film marketing and distribution workshop to the London Film School June 25-26. The workshop is a live step by step guide into to new world of hybrid distribution and marketing including how to create a release strategy that is unique for your film, the various markets that are available for your film, how and why to engage your audience as early as possible and how to think beyond the feature film to create new forms of content and/or to market and distribute your film. He will be joined by many special guest speakers including:

Terry Stevens from Dogwoof- Using a fresh approach, Dogwoof partners with filmmakers to help themselves giving them direct access to professional film distribution services, while letting them retain the rights to their film, controlling costs, and actually having the chance of seeing revenues and profits. The film experience is changing and they intend to help filmmakers set the new rules.  Terry will speak about a new theatrical initiative that Dogwoof is launching.

Peter Gerard and Andy Green from Distrify- Via Skype: Peter and Andy will discuss DIY digital distribution.  They created Distrify which is a revolutionary toolset for social-media marketing with sales and distribution built in. Share and embed your movie trailer with Distrify. With built-in VOD, downloads, merchandise sales, and audience engagement tools including an affiliate revenue program, Distrify makes every view of your trailer a potential transaction. Sell anything, anywhere.

Chris Jones- Chris Jones is a filmmaker and author of the The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series and he will talk about the ever confusing world of deliverables that trips up so many filmmakers.

I will skype in to talk about creating your filmmaking brand – and promoting yourself to the world as an artist. If you have no audience around your work, you have no future. I want you to have a sustainable career.

Gregory Bayne- Gregory Bayne is a filmmaker who has run three successful Kickstarter campaigns to fund and distribute his films.  Greg will talk about the dos and don’t for a successful crowdfunding campaign.

When we were there last year, all the participants raved about the quality and quantity of information they received. I am personally in touch with many of these people to this day! It was a very inspiring workshop for me as it was the first time that I really saw people get what I was trying to say and feel excited about it and determined to undertake this work. I think there is still a lot of resistance to having to undertake both the production of film as well as the marketing and distribution of work. I will never tell you that it is easy work or that you will hear the magic piece of advice that will work for every film. Anyone who promises that is a fool. But the days of artists moaning about how there isn’t a level playing field, that studios have all the  power to reach audiences are over. ANYONE can use the tools available to make their work a success. It doesn’t “just happen,” there will be blood, sweat and tears so accept that. But if you are truly looking to take advantage of the tools available to help you and gain the knowledge of how to do it, then you shouldn’t miss this workshop.

To follow all of the workshop speakers on Twitter, here are their handles

@jon_reiss @shericandler @dogwoof @gregorybayne @distrify @livingspiritpix   (Chris Jones)

A Seth Godin-ism that I recently heard on the radioLitopia site in an interview on the new face of publishing. In Seth’s view, this isn’t a bad thing, it just means roles will be redefined, responsibilities will be greater on creators (authors, musicians, filmmakers, artists in general). Nothing you haven’t been hearing me say to you for a while now. You can of course listen to the whole 30 minute interview, or you can just read these highlights I pulled out. Though he is talking about book publishing, there are many parallels with film.

-The internet has expanded the amount of content created and consumed, but it destroyed the industry In his view, we won’t create and consume less, but for the bureaucratic and scarcity driven business models that once dominated the industry, the end is near. He even recounted conversations he has had in boardrooms of publishing houses where management seems content that they will retire long before the new models are figured out. WHAT?? He thinks publishers (and I will add distributors) are woefully unprepared for their new role as connector, curator and partner to creators. Few have invested in the platforms and dialogs with consumers that will drive the new economy.

-Don’t fear price, fear clutter He sees a divide in pricing structures for books and I can see it for films as well. As more and more titles flood the market, the price you can charge becomes directly related to how similar your story is to others and how much of a following you have as an artist. Recent ebook success stories from authors Joe Konrath and Amanda Hocking show the pricing divide. While you may not have heard of either of these authors, they are cranking the $.99 ebook to six figure incomes. Higher paid authors and higher priced books come from only the very tippy top of the traditional publishing world as does comparable filmmakers and studio films. The more similar the films you are making to others already in existence, the more difficulty you will have making money. Are you telling stories anyone could tell? If so, you’d better make them cheaply because the value to the consumer is low, maybe worthless.

-The film is just the center of a conversation He said a book here, but you get what I mean. The fans need a work to be the short hand for a group of like minded people, the “in” people, the cool people. Enable your work to become the entry point to a larger conversation with you and among others. If one hasn’t seen the movie (read the book), one can’t easily join the conversation. In this way, your work spreads.

He also touched on the need for publishers to adopt a whole new way of looking at their client relationships. If an author/creator has built their own audience, created a sense of loyalty, sourced a means of distribution directly and tells one of a kind stories, what do they need a third party (publisher, distributor) for? In order to sustain and remain relevant, publishers/distributors should also be in direct contact with an interest driven audience that can be serviced by partnerships with author/creators rather than staying focused on the retail market relationship. In other words, instead of insisting authors/creators use social media to building audience relationships, they should try doing more of it themselves.

It is quickly becoming my biggest pet peeve, filmmakers (and distributors) who want to start their social media accounts and “campaigns” a short time (like a week!) from when they are launching something. While I have spoken at length about creating community and how long it takes, I am still being contacted in hopes of being able to provide a large number of instant followers/fans who will buy the DVD/order VOD/go see it in a theater/festival next week! This is an unrealistic expectation and a fool’s errand to undertake. Please don’t try to do this. I know this thought is a result of not being educated on what social media is, except that it is cheap,  so I want to address that here. If you expect social media sites to provide you with instant results, you are using the wrong tool.

What social media is good at:

-Conversation-this is a two way communication medium, not a one way message mechanism for free. You can’t develop strong relationships and meaningful conversations in a week, or a month. Before you can influence active behavior using social media, you have to have a relationship.

-Community-whether you are building your own or participating in others, you should not use a community just to shill.  It is an intrusion, an irritation, and no good results will come of it. To become part of an online community, you have to spend time there just as you would in offline life. You won’t have time to do it if you leave it too late.

-Contribution-social media relationship building means contributing meaningfully to the relationship, just as in real life. You will get out of it what you put into it. Provide value (information, answer questions, be helpful) consistently and you will get the attention you need to convert people. Again, this happens over time.

What you need to implement social media strategies:

-Research-You have to mine the space for data to see which tools to use for your audience. It might be Facebook, but it might be a forum dedicated to the topic of your film. It is probably several sites, each with their own way of communicating effectively. Data mining takes time, patience, energy. You’ll also want to find influencers to help. It takes research to find and evaluate those people.

-Content, and plenty of it-yes, production stills, videos, director blogs are all content, but they are really boring if that is all you are talking about. You need a content calendar to plan out what  the sites you own (your own pages) will run and at what frequency and what kind of material you will be commenting on at other sites. This is where your Google alerts and your social mention programs come in. What other kind of information can you share or comment on?

-More tools than just social platforms-distributors know this, in fact social media is often left too late because more focus is given to other tools like advertising and publicity. There is more work to maintaining a community than there is to buying ads and pitching media, so they often just treat it as a free way to advertise. The filmmaking team needs to be doing this community maintenance (they are the closest to the community), but the success of social media initiatives are tied together with an integrated plan using many different tools, not just social platforms.

-ROI or VOI-probably the most contentious issue in social media marketing, how to measure Return on Investment (ROI)? A recent eMarketer report cites that social media strategists’ biggest goal for 2011 is better measurement of this. Since social media is a conversation medium, it is difficult to measure the effect  particular conversations have on sales or awareness. You can measure how much/far your message traveled, how many people potentially saw it or how many directly participated in a conversation and correlate that to sales. I think it is better to measure on the Value on Investment (VOI), how valuable is it to speak to your community? Is your community growing and active because people learn from you and enjoy being there? Are you considered a source of information and a brand that is connected and listening to their followers? By using social media as a listening device, are you better able to learn what messages resonate and how you might make effective changes? These are all valid goals so don’t just measure in sales and revenue.

I don’t even agree that you social media efforts should be viewed as campaigns. A campaign is an aggressive activity conducted for the short term. Social media marketing is more of a way of doing business. The mindset you have to have is your activities are geared toward the on going conversation and steady growth of a community around your brand, not the quick collection of numbers on your Facebook page or Twitter account. Plan for the long haul when using social tools.

Your sphere of influence. photo credit Luke W Design

Today, my good friend and Twitter buddy Zahra Zamorrodian sent me a link to a theater blog on The Guardian site. The post was written by Simon Casson who produces live events and theatrical productions in London, mostly for the fringe set. He was bemoaning the low attendance of one of his shows. His company normally has a high turn out for their gay themed club events which usually run a night or two, but this production was more experimental in nature and the audience for his previous endeavors did not support this latest effort. He asked “what went wrong?”

The production seems plagued from the outset. It did not have an easily definable target audience, no one line tag to describe what it was, a low to non existent marketing budget mostly dependent on press reviews and word of mouth. Sound familiar my independent filmmakers? It was also an “experimental production,” one that was organic and changeable from show to show. Nothing at all wrong with experiments, but experiments do not often gather large audiences and press reviews in major publications and this is the complaint of Casson. He needed bums on seats in order to pay for the production and give a living wage to the performers (and presumably the investors,and the venue and himself). I think it was unreasonable to expect such an outcome if he wasn’t absolutely sure who the audience for the show was.

How can you be sure of your audience?

I have posted before about building an audience (or a tribe, to borrow from Seth Godin) around yourselves as artists in order to have a sustainable career. If Casson was truly in touch with the audience for his company’s work, he would have known about their support (or lack of) well ahead of performance. Granted, the audience for his other events may not be the same as for this production and he was taking a chance at picking up those outside of his sphere of influence when he chose to produce this event. I think this is a common mistake often made by artists (and companies) who either have no audience built for their work or disregard them in a bid to reach the mass. You may have a small circle of supporters, people who are within your sphere of influence. But if you think you will change them, expand their interests, educate them to appreciate other styles because YOU feel the need to create something different, you will lose their attention AND fail to garner attention from the mass with whom you have no relationship. The responsibility to your tribe is everything. You must meet these people, stay in communication with them, gauge their response, introduce new concepts slowly. It is unreasonable to expect sustainability will continue if you venture far outside of your sphere of influence and try to reach an unknown mass.

In comments, some of the readers condemned Casson for using his connections as a contributing writer with The Guardian to promote his show in an international publication. Indeed, I am sure his blog is meant to address the general state of the theater landscape in London and not to be used to shill for his own show, but why not use a connection if you have it? He wasn’t getting reviews from the publication so…

A few pointed out that in trying to mimic the success of some other better known fringe theater companies, Casson underestimated how long the path to success would take. BINGO!! This is very key to understand. In trying to replicate the apparent “overnight success” of other production companies, he was setting himself up for failure. Time and again, I have indie filmmakers tell me their film will be the next Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch, The Cove etc. as if that level of success is easily or commonly accomplished. Lightning in a bottle more like. More common, success comes from years and years of work to build up a following. If you haven’t started yet, now is the time.

What to do if you haven’t got a tribe?

Everyone has to start somewhere, usually from the ground. If you are just starting out or you have not yet built up an audience following, you should be extremely mindful of your production budget. For the first few films, you are not likely to make that money back. Either you haven’t developed your craft enough to expect to sell it or you will not be able to start building up a large audience immediately that will repay your investment. Invest very little money and don’t involve a lot of other people’s labor in order to build up your audience. You shouldn’t be planning for one film, you should be planning for 3 films, each building more and more audience so that you can invest more and more money and finally see a return. My friends Hunter Weeks, Gregory Bayne and David Baker are all following this method. They invest small amounts of money, but gradually they are building audience for their next projects. Are these guys directors you have heard of? Probably not, they aren’t looking to reach the mass. They are building audience for THEIR work, not for Hollywood’s mass audience.

Next post: Building and maintaining a tribe, start early it will take a while.

Part 2 of a 10 part series sees filmmaker/author Jon Reiss giving us answers to the most asked about questions regarding the new role on a film production, the PMD or Producer of Marketing and Distribution, that he coined in his book Think Outside the Box Office.

What are the responsibilities of a PMD?

The responsibilities of a PMD are wide and varied. Not all films will utilize all of these elements (since every film is different and will have a unique approach to distribution and marketing), but each should be considered when strategizing and planning for the film’s release.

1. Identify, research and engage with the audience for the film.

2. Develop a distribution and marketing strategy and plan for the film in conjunction with the key principles of the filmmaking team. Integrate this plan into the business plan for the film.

3. Create a budget for the M&D plan.

4. As needed and appropriate strategize and implement fundraising from the audience of the film in conjunction with or in replace of traditional financing which would include: crowdfunding, organizational partnerships, sponsorships and even modified versions of traditional fundraising.

5. Assemble and supervise the necessary team/crew elements to carry out the plan which can include social media, publicity, M&D production crew for extra diagetic material, key artists, editors, bookers etc.

6. Audience outreach through organizations, blogs, social media (including email collection), traditional publicity etc.

7. Supervise the creation of promotional and (if necessary due to the lack of a separate transmedia coordinator) trans media elements: script and concept for transmedia, the films website and social media sites, production stills, video assets – both behind the scenes and trans media, promotional copy and art/key art.

8. Outreach to potential distribution and marketing partners including film festivals, theatrical service companies, community theatrical bookers, DVD distributors, Digital and VOD aggregators, TV sales agents, foreign sales agents as well as sponsors and promotional partners.

Just FYI – nearly all of the above and much of 9 happen before the film is finished.

9. Supervise the creation of traditional deliverables in addition to creation of all media needed for the execution of the release as needed including:
• Live event/theatrical: Prints either 35 or Disk or Drive. Any other physical prep for event screenings.
• Merchandise: All hard good physical products including DVDs and any special packaging (authoring and replication) and all other forms of merchandise: books, apparel, toys, reproductions of props etc, and hard versions of games.
• Digital products: encoding of digital products, iphone/Android apps etc.

10. Modify and adjust the distribution and marketing plan as the film progresses as information about audience, market, new opportunities, partnerships arise.

11. When appropriate, engage the distribution process, which includes the release of:
• Live Event Theatrical – Booking, delivery, of all forms of public exhibition of the film including all elements that make the screenings special events (appearances, live performance etc.)
• Merchandise – Distribution of all hard good physical products created for the film.
• Digitally – oversee all sales of the film in the form of 0s and 1s: TV/Cable/VOD/Mobile/Broadband/Video games etc.
• This not just in the home territory – but also internationally.
• Some of these activities may be handled in conjunction with a distribution partner in which case the PMD would be supervising the execution in conjunction with that partner.

12. Ramp up the marketing of the film to coincide with the release, which includes:
• Social Media
• Publicity
• Organizational Relationships
• Sponsorship Relationships
• Affiliate and Email Marketing
• Promotions
• Media Buys (as warranted)
• Pushing Trailers and other video content
• Any specific marketing especially tailored to the film.
• Promoting and releasing trailers and other forms of video material
• Transmedia campaigns

This list should indicate how it would be difficult, if not impossible to expect existing traditional crew categories to accomplish or even coordinate the work outlined above. In addition while some of the work above is “quantifiable”, much of it is not – just like much of what a producer or even director does is not “quantifiable”.

Creating your team

As many of you know, my good friend Jon Reiss coined the term PMD (Producer of Marketing and Distribution) in his book Think Outside The Box Office. Recently, there have been many questions on exactly what is the role of this person on a film’s production crew, how much should they be paid, who oversees them and how crucial is it to actually have such a person? Jon will be answering these questions individually over the next few weeks and I will carry those answers here too. Enjoy!

PMD FAQ 1: What is the purpose of having a PMD?

The purpose of the PMD is for one person on a filmmaking team to be responsible for audience engagement (aka distribution and marketing). It derives from the recognition that filmmakers (filmmaking teams) need to own the audience engagement process and that this process should start as early as possible – either at inception or no later than the beginning of pre-production for the best results.

The need for a PMD also results from the recognition that audience engagement is a lot of work (perhaps as much or more work than actually making a film) and that traditional filmmakers (writers, directors, producers etc) are already busy with the task of making a great film. These traditional members of a filmmaking team rarely have the extra time to devote to distribution and marketing (so it often falls by the wayside). In addition, many traditional filmmakers are not suited or interested in the kinds of tasks that audience engagement requires.

I look forward to hearing what you think about the concept of the PMD. You can comment on this post by clicking here. Here is the complete list of PMD FAQs forthcoming:

• What are the responsibilities of a PMD?
• What skill sets and experience are necessary for a PMD?
• Doesn’t having a PMD make me a slave of the marketplace and crush the passion and vision of independent film?
• Who oversees a PMD or is this role part of the executive (decision making) level?
• How is a PMD different than a Producer?
• Can’t filmmakers be their own PMD?
• Can a PMD be a fellow filmmaker too?
• Can PMDs actively work on many different projects at the same time?
• How do you pay a PMD?
• Does a PMD work by themselves – or is there a Marketing and Distribution team?

Jon Reiss can be accessed on his blog, on Twitter @Jon_Reiss and on Facebook ThinkOutsideTheBoxOffice

Today’s guest post is from Tyler Weaver; editor in chief of the amazing blogozine Multihyphenate and practicing PMD.

Sitting in a music business class at a shall-not-be-named institution (rhymes with “Jerklee”) during the death of the music industry as we knew it was fascinating. This was in 2003-04, and it was a sad time to be in “the industry.” Nonetheless, we clung to our hardcover and expensive door stops, taking in each lesson as we were told. But the writing was on the wall: you’re learning stuff that was out of date yesterday. Thanks for the tuition check. 

As I sat there, staring blankly at what was going on in front of me, one remark the “professor” made stuck with me: “Those who control the trucks control what’s out there and what isn’t.” 

Funnily enough, my training in business and creative marketing didn’t come from a music business course. It came from majoring in music composition, where self-distribution is the way of life. No one is going to pluck you out of obscurity when you’re writing obscure pieces of new absolute music. You have to bootstrap (as this is Sheri’s blog, I can’t let my first post go by here without mentioning the equally ubiquitous Seth Godin). You have to find your own musicians. You have to find your own performance venues (even if it’s a dude with a guitar in a subway station), and you have to get it out there. 

It was during my time there that I learned the most important lesson of creativity: It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, if no one knows about you, you’re worthless. Creativity is not only a collaboration with other creatives, it’s a collaboration with your audience as you reel them into your work and make your work part of their lives. 

When I made the career switch to film in the middle noughties, that sensibility carried over.  I’ve never been a patient person, so I have no interest in waiting for others to swoop in and get people to see my work. I was hard-wired for self-distribution because it was the only way to survive. 

When I worked at a non-profit, I used no-budget video documentaries to bring in new eyes to bad news and increase readership and site usage. The videos could stand on their own, but were meant to highlight individual stories within the purview of the NPO’s mission and cause. 

So what, you may be asking, does all of this have to do with the newly coined (and rapidly burgeoning) position of “Producer of Marketing & Distribution?” If my time as a music composer hard-wired me to self-distribution as “Plan A,” my film and NPO experience taught me the most important lesson of marketing: 

Never market something you don’t feel passionate about. 

I cared about the NPO’s mission greatly. But I was never as passionate about it as I should have been. For awhile, it was greatly successful, but then the recession hit HARD and the competition for purse strings skewed the direction of more heart-tugging causes. Failure after failure piled up, and weighed heavily. By the end, I felt like the guy trying to market the Titanic as sink-proof after the iceberg.

As a filmmaker, I would never take on a project that I wasn’t completely, unabashedly, 100% passionate about. I would never take on a project if the script wasn’t wonderful, if it didn’t make me well up with tears at the thought of someone else making this movie. As a PMD, I would never take on a project if I didn’t have the same feelings for your project. I owe you that.  

But what stirs up those feelings? A great story. 

My love of marketing comes from a love of storytelling – and in spite of my seemingly haphazard career jumping, I have always been a storyteller, be it in music, film, or marketing. Your career is a story. Your film is a story. The making of your film is a story. I want to help you tell your story. 

Orson Welles famously said, “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” I’ve seen stories stop at sad endings, and at happy ones. And I’ve been responsible for both outcomes.

In today’s wild west media landscape where truly, as William Goldman remarked, “Nobody knows anything,” filmmakers and creatives are in a position of power. Our careers are in our hands now. Gone are the days where the magical distributor will discover you like a Tarantino or Rodriguez; we are no longer in the age of “making it,” but in the age of “getting it made and getting it seen.” It’s the latter part of your story that I’m excited to be a part of. 

I’m a creative because I want to see cool stuff. I want to tell a great story. I want to be engaged. I want to be told a great story. And now, I want to make sure your great story is seen and heard. We’re all truck drivers now. Our cargo: our stories. It’s my job to make sure they get where they need to go – the eyes and ears of the audience. It doesn’t matter how great you are, if you don’t bring in the last collaborator – the audience – your story is never fully told. 

And that’s not a happy ending. 

TYLER WEAVER is a storyteller whose chosen medium happens to be that expensive form called film. He’s made some stuff, like THE FOURTEEN MINUTE GAP, IL MIO CANTO LIBERO, and GATHER ‘ROUND THE MIC. He lets the world knows what he thinks as the founder and EIC of Multi-Hyphenate and takes great joy in helping other people tell their stories as a PMD and marketing strategist.  He’s currently developing a transmedia project called WHIZ!BAM!POW! that pays tribute to his lifelong love of comic books. Because he’s slightly insane, he’s simultaneously developing a new documentary. He yaks about that and more on Twitter under the creative guise of @tylerweaver