Money, money, money...

...must be funny in a rich man's (not art department's) world. I quote this ABBA tune & say a little prayer that a money tree grows in my backyard tonight.

As production designer for our film, I am in charge of all the props, costumes, and set design for each frame, which entails 7 (kind of deadly) stages:
1. picking a color palatte
2. sketches of room designs
3. asking friends/other art people for common prop items
4. buying things online & praying they look like their picture
5. multiple trips to Salvation Army/Walmart
6. improvising....a lot (the prop weed is cotton balls rolled in glue, then rolled around in various spices, but hey it looks pretty realistic so thats ok)
7. crying because you have no money left

Depending on the project, an art department's budget can either be very minimal, or rather large. Because this is part of my independent study I went in with a "i'm going to plan for a lot of stuff and then get paid back later because I want this to look good and be worth it!!!" But right now I'm in that scary place of having spent money on art department and not getting paid back for it yet. Which means my bank account looks like this:

So I'm hoping that by some happy miracle more money is donated to our indiegogo so that I can afford to be paid back :) :) :)

Then again, if the film looks awesome, it's all worth the temporary debt, right???

Publicizing for Dummies

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I know this early posting may come as a shock to you all, but this week's schedule is looking a bit random, so I figured I'd enlighten you all tonight! Don't worry, I'd never let anything get between us. Now you may be wondering, how would a series of blog posts become as famous as this? Well, aside from the beautifully written ideas that I've shared with the world, it's been completely due to my Publicist! Not really. But wouldn't you love to know more about publicity? Of course you would!

A production's publicist works alongside some very important people. Specifically, a publicist works closely with the executive producer, director, art director, and publicity designer. They work to promote and, well, publicize the film during every phase of production. From the beginning of preproduction to the end of postproduction, a publicist's job is definitely one of the most vital responsibilities that decides a film's success. If no one knows about it, no one goes to see it. It's as simple as that.

In the simplest form, a publicists job is to advertise the film. This can manifest itself in posters, flyers,
and other promotional advertisements. One of the responsibilities of a publicist is to secure permission for and to supervise the placement of these advertisements. This can include anything from putting up posters in theaters around town to securing radio spots nationally. This is really the most obvious of a publicists responsibilities and it's probably the job that the public notices the most. They just don't usually know who's behind those flashy ads that convince them to see the movies.

The publicist also acts as a liaison with the press. They're to go-to-guy (or girl) when it comes to dealing with the press. It may not be particularly glamorous, but hey, someone's gotta do it. Who knows, the press may be kind of cool when you're not a famous person. Probably not, but maybe. The publicist additionally supervises the generation and distribution of press releases. I'm not totally sure how that's different from the first point in this paragraph, but it was two separate bullet points on this article I'm reading, so it's got to be its own substantial point. Right? Ah, who cares?

The last main responsibility of a film publicist is to assist in fundraising activities. This can involve crowd funding (such as IndieGoGo and GoFundMe) or outreach (begging rich people for money, but with class, of course). The publicist works with the executive producers in this step of their job. So basically they work with rich people to get more money from other rich people. It's actually a pretty ingenious setup if you think about it. It seems to work pretty well, at least.

Without publicists, there would be no films. Well, there would be films, but no one would go to see them, considering no one would know anything about them...or the fact that they exist. So they may as well not exist. That's what publicists are for! (Letting us know what's out there and why we "should" see it.)

Wrapping Your Brain Around Marketing

Let's paint a scenario...

You've been working endlessly on your newest film for the past two years. The shots look fantastic, your audio was mixed by a serious professional, and your actors nailed their performance. Through all the blood, sweat, and tears (also known as pre-production, production, and post-production) you finally have a beautiful film that you're especially proud of.

Awesome.

But now what?

You just spent thousands of dollars putting this thing together. But how are you going to make that money back? And if you're lucky enough, make a profit?
Well, this is where marketing comes in. That's right, marketing... that thing you thought only business and IMC majors had to worry about. And unlike the normal three-step production process, marketing and sales is something that spans the entire filmmaking process. Here's a helpful diagram to illustrate:
(sorry for the eye-squinting sized text)

In case you can't read it, the diagram suggests that the moment the development process starts, it's time to start thinking about how the film will be marketed. In other words:

WHO is going to watch your film?

&

HOW will you make them remember it?

A recent article on nofilmschool.com highlighted six points that were stressed as part of a panel at IFP Week entitled "Wrapping Your Brain Around Marketing". These points (which I've summed up into four) can help insure your film is a success when you're finally ready for it to be viewed by the public.

1. Stay on Topic

It's important to remember that your film is not just a singular product but more like a brand. With every piece of production material, there has to be a sense unity between it all. In their article they use the example of the the "Super-Size Me" poster:

Other good examples of posters that exemplify their film include "Her" and "Pulp Fiction".

Even without knowing any concepts of design you can tell these posters give an accurate, and most importantly memorable, depiction of their film. But it's not just about having a poster. Which brings me to their next point:

2. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

From wide shots to production stills, having additional content can save you that sinking feeling when you're deep in editing and realize you don't have enough content in terms of coverage. They also recommend having a professional photographer on set for at least a few days to capture behind the scenes material which can be used for promotion and possibly even poster ideas. Once you have all of those extra pictures though... be careful with them. If your lucky enough to have your film featured in a magazine, they will want exclusive photos. Having professional, exclusive content can make or break the promotion of a film. 

3. Distribution

So you've got your great film and pretty poster but now it's time to move on to the serious part. Interestingly enough though, they don't ramble on about how hard it is for your film to be shown at a festival or featured in a movie theater. Instead they mention the rapidly growing market of video-on-demand (VOD) for documentary filmmakers. 

Films that people don't want to go see in movie theaters are the very ones they want to watch at home on their Mac, Kindle, Xbox, or whatever they use to watch films at home these days. Watching epic films at the movie theater will never loose it's charm, but for indie and doc filmmakers VOD might be the way of the future. 

4. Funding

Let be real. Having professional posters, pictures, and a distribution plan is great, but how the hell are you going to afford that? Money does not come from thin air, and I doubt you have enough money in your pocket to create that dream project. Thankfully though, raising money is easier today then it ever was!

These crowd-sourcing fundraiser websites have paved the way for thousands of independent films. They stress in the article that a filmmaker has to take advantage of every resource available to them – that includes the "old-fashioned" email list and yes, even that cold hard phone call.   

The main point... (tl;dr) is that marketing is not an extra task started after the film is created but part of the entire filmmaking process. It starts in the earliest parts of the development process, and finishes well after the film is released. 

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FOOD!

I've heard a lot of buzz going on about this here documentary so I thought I'll give it a look and I must say, it was a great documentary. Before I get into my opinion about the film, I have to give my opinion on documentaries first. I love documentaries when they are done well, very informative, and unbiased  It's very difficult to shoot, in my opinion, a documentary that isn't, in someway, basis. There are so many complications when trying to shoot a documentary like trying to interview certain people or companies. For example, in Food Inc., none of the companies that they were exposing in the film wanted to do the interview, which is understandable, but on that same notion it makes the film look a little bias in one sided because there is no one speaking for the other side of this issue. I also question why some of the shots, especially in a documentary such as this one, seem like they were taking from a hidden camera? On one part of the fim the narrator actually states that the footage we were seeing is from a hidden camera. If this is the case, how do they not get in trouble for such shots? Questions, questions, questions. Definitely plan on looking more into that.

 Overall, I think t was a good documentary. It informed of information I've never known or even thought of before. It made me question how much does the government actually care about the well-being of it's citizen. It's disgusting how easily they can turn the other way when there is a profit to be gained. I can understand how someone can see this film and change the way they eat. Me personally, i love food and I love eating the things I eat. It just so happens one of my favorite things is a cheeseburger! More then anything, this film made me more aware and conscious of the food industry and how it operates. I prepare and cook my own food daily so I am constantly shopping for food, so this information is very useful to me. Documentary is definitely recommended.