Guerrilla Film Marketing for Werewolves

My man, Sam Thompson, director of the Slamdance film, "There's a Werewolf in My Attic", who I met briefly at Sundance a few years back just launched a simple fun campaign to promote and sell his newest horror flick "Living Arrangements".

I'm reposting it here because I think it's an excellent case-study in no-budget film marketing, promotion and self-distribution. Making a a film you're proud of is great, but I think it's pretty damn pointless, if you don't also take great pains and efforts to make sure that an audience actually finds and sees it.

As indie filmmakers I think we should all be as saavy as Sam and come up with clever (not necessarily expensive or even overly-time-consuming) ways to get people interested in our projects. Congrats to Sam for fine filmmaking hustle.

Peep Sam's guerrilla marketing approach:












The Trailer for "Living Arrangements":

Filmmaking...Any Monkey Can Do It!

A while ago in the NY Times there was a long article about how chimpanzees are so smart they could almost talk. Naturally we are curious what they would say. Well, since that didn't work, we figured we would try to communicate in other ways and see what kind of movies they would make. Check out the full article, aptly titled "Chimpanzees Discover Guerilla Filmmaking" about what the chimps made of their op in the director's chair, other than fling poo at the camera.

The Intersection of Filmmaking and Video Games: Part I

What is the nature of the relationship between the video game and film industries? The media landscape has changed incredibly since the early days of Atari and Nintendo. As video games have increased in number, quality, and audience, the lines dividing games and films has blurred. Today, the video gaming and film markets feed off of each other, and often work in tandem as part of multimedia, cross-platform marketing.

This blog is the first in a two part series examining the relationship between film and video game production. Part I provides a history of video game design, while Part II examines the current relationship between film and video game production.

Part I: A Historical Examination

Early Failures: As the Los Angeles Times notes in this article, the relationship between film companies and video gaming began when well-known companies like Warner Communications and Lucasfilms began their own interactive media branches. In the 1970s, Warner Communications bought Atari, while companies like Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Co., and DreamWorks branched out into interactive gaming in the '80s and '90s. These early forays into video game production were ill-fated, however, in part because film production companies didn't understand the medias' inherent production and narrative structure differences.

Many film companies underestimated video game production time lines, and thus released less-than stellar games like the infamous "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", which was created in just 5 weeks. Overproduction, coupled with poor graphics and repetitive game play led to Atari's loss of a whooping $100million. The game's failure is considered one of the contributing factors to the "video game crash of 1983."



Video Game Resurgence:
The 1990s saw a rebirth of video game technologies, with the introduction of 3D environments and optical disc storage, which were able to store larger amounts of data cheaply. The 1990s also witnessed the creation of the 'interactive movie,' a video game format that utilized "full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage." This genre--which utilized Laserdisc technologies--followed a 'cinematic' storyline, and featured either animated characters or real actors. Gamers were prompted to decide the actions of the main characters, and their decisions would trigger the playback of particular film clips. In 1982, the video game "Rollercoaster" was released; it included playback of scenes from the film of the same name. A year later Cinematronics released "Dragon's Lair," a game so successful it inspired two sequels and additional platform releases, including a recent re-release on BluRay.

What Mao Zedong and Napster Have in Common

In an article in the New York Times on Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010 John Tierney addresses digital piracy from two people who helped propagate it in the first place: Jaron Lanier and Dr. Lieboweitz of University of Texas in Dallas. They were loud advocates for the Free Information movement of the 80’s, when internet began and a sparkling future of possibilities opened up. And yet, it wasn’t long before both changed their minds.

Tierney explores the points of view of these two men in regards to the free web’s effects on piracy of intellectual property of all kinds and the effects that piracy has had on the very essence of the intellectual property created.

At first Jaron’s views are laid out. Views that compare the effects of the internet with political communism, where the media material one makes is for all to share, or even Feudalism where the media material is made in a peasant-like way for Lord-like mega sites like YouTube to run on. He compares the mentality of Internet users to “hive” mentality, where none are thinking individually and a mob is formed. This “destructive social construct” revolves around the acceptance that any kind of artist or writer or creator of intellectual property should resign their work over to the masses, gaining no monetary credit for their labors.

Lanier blames this construct on a form of software Lock-In, where archaic practices are kept in use because new and improved ones are too expensive to implement. This is where Lanier and Liebowitz begin to differ. While Lanier sees it as a problem of the systems and of the mega websites like Google, Liebowitz sees the cause to be the collective feeling of entitlement of internet users over any digitized form of intellectual property, as well as the security measures that allow for piracy to happen.

Dr. Liebowitz, much like those annoying piracy commercials they used to play in movie theatres before the previews, believes that while most people are not thieves and would not steal a CD from a store, they do not see piracy as stealing. Instead, they justify it with the ideologies that information should be free for all.

According to Liebowitz, though, this ideology is propagate by the lack of disciplinary action taken against pirates. If you try to take a CD from (I was going to say Virgin Megastore, but never mind) Best Buy, the beeper thing goes off at the door and you are prosecuted for shoplifting. If only there were stronger punishments, there would be less piracy. However, there is one big problem with that, which Liebowitz acknowledges. As Tierney puts it “when the majority of people feel entitled to someone else’s property, who is going to stand in their way?”

I personally blame the word "piracy". Well, not entirely, but I think if it was called “thievery” and not piracy, we would associate it more with being behind bars than with Captain Sparrow.

I agree with Liebowitz, more than I do with Lanier, but I still disagree with some of his arguments. For example, he claims “an intelligent person feels guilty for downloading music without paying for it”. Um, no, not necessarily. Those who don’t create intellectual property themselves often don’t fret with their conscience at all about downloading something off Limewire. And even if “an intelligent person” does feel guilty, we are talking about the majority of the world.

I will quote the wisdom of the Men in Black (notice I give credit to them):

J: People are smart, they would understand…

K: A person is smart. People are dumb, stupid wild animals, and you know that.

ANTHONY'S TAKE: Christa, is much more thoughtful and philosophical on this subject than me. I'm from Baltimore, so I take a little more gully approach to the issue of people stealing that which I've worked hard to create. I think the best deterrent is the Tupac approach...

(Click the link or picture above for video.) Bootleggers would think twice if more people handled their business like Pac.

NETWORKING # 2 - Two Major Investments: Smoke and Mirrors.

I don’t care if you want to make documentaries about cleft palates in Sierra Leon, or B-rated horror movies, you still have to have a business demeanor when talking to people in your industry. The superficiality of Hollywood is applicable across the board. Without beating around the bush, the ultimate goal of all this networking is money. Whether it is a personal check to reward your hard work, a grant to cover movie making expenses or free labor and donations that are saving you money (a penny saved is a penny earned! Keep that in mind when making budgets), movie making runs on money. More than usual it is someone else’s money. And people with money will usually not give it out to people that don’t look like they know what to do with money.

There are a few things you can do to make a better impression when meeting important people. These are small investments on your part that can convey the message that you are yourself well put together and therefore your film or your work is more likely to also be well put together.

You know what the first part of a first impression is? Appearance. Before you can say anything or give anything out, you will have to be seen by the people you are trying to talk to. So this is where I bring in

Investment # 1- business casual clothing.

If you are wearing threadbare jeans and a band t-shirt with your high-school sneakers, it doesn’t look like you know what to do with money because it looks like you have never had more than $200 at once in your whole independent life. If you wear your very fashionable snakeskin jumpsuit, it will look like you have some money, which is good for you, but you obviously squander it on things like that.

So now we tread a fine line. You want to stand out, you want to look good, but you don’t want to spend a lot of money because we all know you aren’t supposed to have much, right? Get some basics like black dress pants and a button shirt. You can then make them more “you” by still wearing those Converse All-Stars, or your Williamsburg earrings or keeping in your blue streaks. Just don’t let your eccentricities overshadow you.

Here, check out this article by EHow on "How to Dress Business Casual"!

Ok so now they important people saw you and s poke to you at this event, but how are they going to remember you? You have to leave them with a little bit of you to keep.

Investment 2 -GET BUSINESSCARDS.

The most commonplace form of self-promotion. Your business card is the way to leave the Big Guys with a little bit of you when you are no longer there to say who you are. They are a quick and easy way to make all of your information readily available to these people. In most occasions, they will hardly look at it and put it in the huge stack of cards they receive from everyone at every event, but that is why when you say, “here is my card”, you follow it with “do you have a card?” And since, like I said, appearances are a big deal, they will follow social pressure and proper etiquette and BINGO! You have their contact information.

There are innumerable places to get your business cards done. I get mine done at

Vistaprint.com. If you're really in a money crunch, they offer free business cards as long as they have a small Vistaprint logo on the back, which is much better than nothing. And for a bit more you can customize them to your liking. The good thing about Vistaprint is that once you order one thing, they always send you emails with offers for free products. Take advantage!

Keep in mind, you can make the appearance of your business cards matter. Those two seconds that this important person will look at your card (thanks to the human reflex of looking at what has just been thrust into your hand can be expanded if your card is worth looking at.

Just please, please, please keep this in mind: If you can’t resist putting tacky things on your card, then don’t put anything on it at all.

Try cool or fun fonts as long as they’re legible, or different colors as long as they’re legible, or maybe a picture behind or beside the text as long as the text is still legible. Most cards are horizontal- make yours vertical. Make it thin. Make it have metallic borders. Whatever. It is not a must, but if you get a mildly impressed “Huh!” from Big Guy, it is worth it.

Now remember- all these accouterments are just that. They are add-ons to the main product: you. They are there to facilitate your ideas and potential from getting the attention they deserve. No matter how much icing you put on the cake and how pretty it looks, people will be able to tell in one bite if it’s stale. So please, while all of this is important it will not get your movies made. Only YOU can get your movies made, so make sure that is where the majority of your energy is going.

The Importance of Networking #1- Don't Be A Hermit

You don’t make films on your own. Unless you want to make your film in a closet and never show it to anyone, you have to interact with people who can potentially help you, or at least watch your film. And I mean people other than your mom.

Go to the mirror, look into your eyes and say “Hello, my name is [insert name here].” Easy enough right? Now make it your goal to go up to three strangers tomorrow and say exactly that.

I know, I know, there are, what? Like 8 million people in New York City? Not everyone is going to be interested in your film, much less in helping you make it. However, there are easy ways to target people that will be of better use to you.

First of all, if you want to get someone interested in a film, it helps if they are already interested in films to begin with. I know this sounds like I am stating the obvious, but people who really like films usually frequent film screenings. So go to film screenings. I don’t mean go to the opening night of Transformers III or something because that won’t narrow your search that much. Go out of your way to find out about less frequented screenings.

If you live in, New York you are blessed with so many opportunities to watch indies, oldies, and experimentals on the big screen. Not only will going to these screenings put you closer to people who are seriously interested in film, it gives you something to talk about when you meet them. Pick up a Time Out magazine or something and see what is playing.

Search for screenings that have a Q & A afterward. Only people interested in the process of the filmmaking will stay for those, and you can learn a thing or two. You might even be able to go up and introduce yourself to the director. As a matter of fact, if the director is there, don’t even think about not going up to him. “Hello, my name is Bob. I really enjoyed your film.” Start with that.

Panel discussions about films or industry events of that nature are the perfect place to rub the right shoulders. Not only are the panels usually comprised of well established filmmakers and industry pros, the audience members who go see them are obviously all actively interested or involved in filmmaking as well. You don’t have to just meet people who are well established- it is just as useful and often times much easier to approach other aspiring filmmakers and budding talent who can provide information, connections, help and camaraderie.

All this for what, you ask? Well, the thing is, you never know. You will not win the lottery if you never bother buying a ticket. You have better chances of meeting someone helpful to your career by going to events and introducing yourself, than you do at winning the lottery, but you have to bother trying. Little by little you will start seeing the same faces at similar events, start developing a radar for who to go up to, and feel more confident about your approach. It starts with getting off the computer, going out and saying “hello”.

(Read Part 2)

Scamdance 2010 - Beware of Bogus Film Festivals!

Ok, so indie filmmakers these days are just finding out if Sundance and Berlin and SXSW film festivals accepted or rejected their films- and for those who unfortunately get rejection letters, it is time to move down to Plan B (or C or D or X) and apply to other lower-profile film festivals in order to get their film screened and reviewed.

We all know that while it is everyone’s strategy to apply to multiple film festivals to increase the chances of getting in. But each new submission costs between $25-$60, plus copies of the film and promo materials. That can be a real ouch as it is- even more so when they go to waste on film festivals that turn out to be scams.

What are scam film festivals? Basically a ploy set up by a con artist who puts out a website and maybe some ads about “Whatever Film Festival” in Bumble-nowhere, Iowa. The small, new film festival is set up only to profit from those ever-present submission fees, when actually no films are watched, reviewed or screened. In other words, there is no actual festival. It is a scam.

These scammers prey mostly on indie filmmakers who are new to the whole film fest thing and who desperately want a chance to have their film, their sweat and blood and money, screened to a live audience on a big screen and hear them ooh and aah. The best way to AVOID them is to be prepared, know what to look for and research. Yes, research.

First off, look for red flags.

· New Festivals- New festivals can be a great backup if you are rejected by the Big Boys like Cannes and Toronto. However, take a close look at their website. Check things like, festivals from previous years, ads, reviews or press materials from previous years. Were there any actual events? In this article, its mentioned how the Alaska Film Festival website mentioned that they had a been around for years but had no mention of films previously screened. Upon closer look at the fine print, it said that movies were never actually screened to a public audience. What kind of film festival is that?

· High $ubmission fees- especially it is from a relatively unknown festival. Really it is only the top tier festivals that can get away with fees above $30. And even then, Sundance only charges $35 and is one of the biggest out there. So if Scamdance in Ohio is asking for a $70 fee, make sure to raise an eyebrow.

· Who the Check is Written to- Film festivals are organizations, so submission fees should usually be requested payable to the organization, not to an individual within the organization. If it is, do some more research.

There are many ways that you can further inspect suspicious festivals. Again, research. For example, Google the festival. Sometimes something as simple as that will bring up forums where victims of previous scams report their experiences. If the festival is legit, then there should be some old news, reviews or blurbs about it in local newsprint.

If you’re still not convinced, look up the local film commission for Bumble-nowhere, Iowa and ask. They definitely should be able to tell you if they have heard good things of the festival (or have heard of it at all).

Another thing is the way you find out about film festivals in the first place. As a filmmaker you should probably be at least skimming film periodicals every once in a while to keep yourself up to speed on the industry you want to be working in. These types of publications will have news, blurbs and updates on legit film festivals.

Withoutabox.com Have you heard of them? Shame on you if you hadn’t. This great little website has streamlined the film festival application process and provided a way to research and catalog and keep track of film festivals. You can be assured that festivals on that website will be legit and your application process will be that much easier. Check them out!

All in all have common sense and dig a bit deeper when you smell something iffy. And remember, you should bee keeping yourself informed regardless, so a lot of these tips should just be extensions of stuff you already do. So good luck with your submissions!

The Sh*t Never Ends in This Business

As most of you already know there is little, if any, glamor in filmmaking. (Fabricated studies have shown that for every 10 hours of ass-busting hard work you put into a shoot, there's about a minute of glamor somewhere on the back-end.)

Many times my students have complained about the difficulty, unpredictableness, and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants nature of making student film projects. And every one of them thinks it will be totally different and much easier when they get to "the big time".

I always tell them the same thing- no matter how big the budget, the difficulty and wild ride of filmmaking NEVER stop. Not for Francis Ford Coppola, not for Spike Lee or James Cameron either. Every minute you see up on the screen is usually hard fought on multiple levels- financially, physically, emotionally, logistically and technically.

Your best bet is to just plan well to anticipate and avoid problems, and then expect problems anyway. Accept them and deal with them, 'cause the sh*t never stops in film and tv...Not even when you get a job as a "big-time" news producer for CNN. So suck it up, and get used to the constant obstacles and adversity 'cause they ain't goin' nowhere...

Witness the behind-the-scenes of a simple interview for a major news network...

It's All About Being a P.A. on the Next Double Down Film Show!

On the next Double Down Film Show we’ll be breaking down the real skinny on working as a P.A. with our special guest, 2^nd A.D. Jason Altieri (Ray, The Devil's Rejects, The Box) who will be sharing some of the many tips he learned the hard way in his self-formulated “P.A. Manifesto”.

Whether you want to be a D.P., cameraman or producer, your first job on a professional set will probably be as a production assistant. Film school basics and knowing how to coil a cable may get you on the set, but it’s takes a whole lot more knowledge and understanding to rise above the dregs of grunt P.A. and onto your desired career path in the world of filmmaking.

• What types of P.A. jobs can you get?
• How do you break in as a P.A.?
• What offenses will get you fired on the spot?
  
• How can you ingratiate yourself to the crew?
• What are walkie talkie best practices on set?
• What answer should you never give?

Tune in and move up the production ladder faster with the answers to all these practical questions and more on the next Double Down Film Show. Raw answers to real filmmaking questions, every Wednesday night. Listen and learn.

The Double Down Film Show...Filmmaking Reality Starts Here!

Listen Live Every Wednesday 9pm-10pm E.S.T.

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*PS - If you can't tune in live, you can still stream the show or save the podcast to your iPod later at the site above.

'Avatar' Director, Stars To Talk To Fans In MTV News Live Stream Event - TODAY!

In little over two weeks, James Cameron's sci-fi epic "Avatar," which the director has been working on since 1995, will arrive in a burst of 3-D-enhanced splendor. Before then, MTV News readers will get an unprecedented opportunity to pick Cameron's brain as we partner with Facebook to present "Avatar Live: An MTV News/Facebook Forum."

This Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, [MTV] will stream this live online show, in which viewers get to interact with the folks in front of the camera, asking the questions they really want answered...

Click HERE to read the full article By Eric Ditzian on MTV.com

Then:

Click HERE to listen to the Double Down Film Show's exclusive interview with Avatar co-star Zoe Saldana who plays an alien in the movie.