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Showing posts with the label marketing

PRODUCTION TIPS: Get Hollywood To Notice By Becoming A YouTube Star

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So there is a benefit to becoming famous on Youtube. Feature-length films starring YouTube stars are getting Hollywood's attention. In their quest to de-risk a film and make a film with a built-in audience and marketing potential at little cost, they have decided to invest in films starring people popular in the digital world. According to THR : There were about a dozen such "film" projects in 2015 alone, and that number could double this year as major entertainment players look to cash in. These digital-focused films follow a similar, and more inexpensive, formula on their way from concept to completed project. According to numerous industry sources, studios will pay between $500,000 and $1.5 million to produce the movie, and the marketing spend is a fraction of the minimum $20 million that a studio normally would shell out.  Instead of going to theaters, studios typically distribute the films through iTunes and Vimeo, where viewers can download them for about $

CASE STUDIES: How to Market Your Film to Different Audiences on Facebook like Straight Outta Compton Did

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According to Business Insider : In a panel at South by Southwest, Universal’s EVP of digital marketing, Ed Neil, and Facebook’s entertainment head, Jim Underwood, talked about the customized racial marketing for Straight Outta Compton, the 2015 film that chronicles the rise of gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A.  Neil credited part of this to a specialized Facebook marketing effort led by Universal’s “multicultural team” in conjunction with its Facebook team. They created tailored trailers for different segments of the population. Why?  The “general population” (non-African American, non-Hispanic) wasn’t familiar with N.W.A., or with the musical catalog of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, according to Neil. They connected to Ice Cube as an actor and Dr. Dre as the face of Beats, he said. The trailer marketed to them on Facebook had no mention of N.W.A., but sold the movie as a story of the rise of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre.  The trailer marketed to African Americans was completely different. Unive

PRODUCTION TIPS: Test Screening Your Film + Free Questionnaire Template

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I know, I know... Test screenings seem like an idea dreamed up by studio executives as a way to squeeze the artistry and creativity out of a director's movie and torment him with data that confirms his movie is "shit." But believe it or not, while there are many films that have been test screened from potential greatness to mediocrity , many films we love today benefitted from the comments after a test screening (Exhibit A and B ). Everything from changing the title to changing the ending is possible after a test screening. While few directors take solace in the brutal feedback a group of strangers may give his baby, the executives want the feedback data to see if the film will have an audience and, as a result, make money. It's easy to deride test screenings and " fucking hate them " but think of it from the investor's point of view for a minute. Every movie is essentially a new business start-up. And new business start-ups don't have a readym

CASE STUDY: What To Do As A Filmmaker With The PWC "Filmed Entertainment" 2015-2019 Data

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In his Art of War, Sun Tzu wisely counseled, "Assess the advantages in taking advice, then structure your forces, accordingly to supplement extraordinary tactics." With that kernel of wisdom in mind, I looked at this year's Pricewaterhouse Coopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2015-2019 and studied their summary of " Filmed Entertainment ." Although I have not read the full report, the summary provides plenty food for thought so I asked myself what would I do with this data as a filmmaker? My answers are below labeled, "The Film Strategy tip." Let me know what you would do with that data. Note, I have not purchased the full report and I am only basing this on the insights they published. But even those short insights are revealing. Growth around the world will boost filmed entertainment revenue.   Global total filmed entertainment revenue will rise at a 4.1% CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) to 2019, reaching US$104.62bn. Particular

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 2.5.14 (United Artists edition)

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My apologies for the temporary disappearance of the Monday and Midweek Mixers, I have been busy working with clients and developing projects for 2014 that rendered me unable to blog.  Although I love searching for informative and fun stuff to add to the mixers, it's time-consuming so I can only squeeze them in whenever I can.  Still, as busy as I get, I will do my best to continue to do so. And now without further adieu... Today in film history let's remember... 1919  –  Charlie Chaplin ,  Mary Pickford ,  Douglas Fairbanks , and  D.W. Griffith  launch  United Artists . 1933  – the birth of  Jörn Donner , Finnish director and screenwriter 1943 – the birth of  Michael Mann , American director, screenwriter, and producer 1948 – the birth of  Christopher Guest , American actor and director 1948 – the birth of  Errol Morris , American director Taking a cue from the formation of United Artists is a good reminder of the good work that can result when talented filmmak

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 1.8.14 ("It's-hard-for-black-actors-but-things-change" edition)

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Sometimes it's easy to forget how far we've come because we still have so far to go. Although public outcries forced SNL to hire a black female as a featured player on the show after so many years, opportunities are plentiful for actors of color compared to what it was like in the past.  And the roles are waaaaaaay more dignified.  So as a reminder of how hard it was for black actors who had to accept roles that were beneath them, let's offer a special HBD tip of the hat to... Butterfly McQueen . "She was born on January 8, 1911 in Tampa, Florida, to a stevedore and domestic maid, Thelma McQueen would go on to make cinematic history as one of the few African-American character actors in classic Hollywood. In 1916, her father abandoned the family, leaving her mother and her to travel the East Coast in search of work. She eventually landed in Long Island where she completed her education and learned to dance. She made her stage debut as a part of the Butterfly

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Monday Morning Mixer - 1.6.2014 (The-New-Journey edition)

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HBD John Singleton (director of Boyz in the Hood, Poetic Justice, etc.) and Anthony Minghella (director of The English Patient, Cold Mountain, etc.) [d.] and RIP Victor Fleming (director of The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, etc.) who died this day in 1949. WRITING: Is it possible to be a screenwriter and have a family ? (the bad news and the good news) PRODUCING:  What is your filmmaking game plan for 2014 ? FINANCING: What are investors considering when they fund films?   DIRECTING: Everyone knows that having famous actors in your movie will help it get financed and screened. So once you have them committed and casted, how do you direct famous actors in a microbudget film ? LIGHTING: Here's an homage to all the things grips and electrics have to do to light and shoot without the gear they actually need... shitty rigs . SHOOTING: How can you use camera angles to sell your scene ? SOUND: A tutorial on the importance of the pre-production process for your sou

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Monday Morning Mixer - 12.23.13 (HBD Transistor Edition)

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Amplifier circuit, common-emitter configuration with a voltage-divider bias circuit. HBD to the transistor , the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices , found in everything from TVs, mobile phones, radios, calculators and computers.  That you can read this post is a function of the transistor's capabilities, so thank you John Bardeen , Walter Brattain , and William Shockley for developing it at Bell Labs in 1947.  Thanks to the transistor we can watch movies on screens as large as walls and as small as belt buckles. WRITING: What are the elements of a good scene ? LEGAL: How much does an entertainment lawyer cost ? PRODUCING: Do women prefer films made by female filmmakers ? FINANCING: How do you finance a movie using VOD sales projections ? DIRECTING: How do you turn your boring movie into a Hitchcock thriller ? (h/t to Jeffrey Michael Bays and makes a great last-minute gift) SHOOTING: How do you add diffusion to your image by 'netting

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Happy Birthday, John Cassavetes - 12.9.13

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Today John Cassavetes would have been 84.  Aside from watching all of his films in an all-day or week-long marathon, there is no better way to pay homage to the godfather of American indie films then by learning from his words and his methods.  Below are excerpts and documentaries on the making of many of his films like Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence, Shadows and more. John Nicholas Cassavetes (in Greek: Ιωάννης Νικόλαος Κασσαβέτης; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Dirty Dozen (1967). Cassevetes was also a pioneer of American independent film by writing and directing over a dozen movies, some of which he partially self-financed, and which pioneered the use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style.  He studied acting with Don Richardson , using an acting technique based on muscle memory. ~~ Wikipedia   Here a

PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Midweek Morning Mixer - 12.4.13

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Created by script reader and Reddit user profound_whatever WRITING: What are 38 reasons why your screenplay isn't getting recommended by the script reader? PRODUCING: Ok, Mr./Ms. Producer, here's a challenge: What creative work would you make with this ? FINANCING: Even if you're a no-budget filmmaker right now, one day you will have to know the ABCs of International Pre-Sales .  Why not start learning today? DIRECTING: What can lessons on editing, directing actors and choosing shots from Bruno Dumont teach you about filmmaking? SHOOTING: When should you use RAW and when should you avoid it? LIGHTING: What are 5 tips to improve your green screen shooting skills ? SOUND: What are some things to learn from a quick primer on music licensing ? STUNTS & VFX: Ever consider that maybe the best set for your movie is your living room ? (h/t to @ JasonFararooei ) EDITING: What should you know about advanced storage for your files ? MARKETING:  Why is eng

CASE STUDY: Marketing A Film Based on Its Content NOT the Race of Its Characters

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www.hollywoodreporter.com It seems like common sense that the best way to market a film with minority characters is to emphasize the presence of those minority characters and draw in minority audiences in large numbers.  End of Watch is a good example of this;  "The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena as two cops assigned to South Central L.A. Pena's character is of Mexican descent and from East L.A.... When End of Watch debuted over the Sept. 21-23 weekend, 32 percent of the audience was Hispanic, both Spanish- and English-speaking (separate breakouts by language aren't available). The film, distributed by Open Road Films on behalf of Exclusive Media, won the frame, grossing $13.2 million (a solid number for an indie)..." But studios and distributors walk a fine line between promoting the film's minority appeal to get minority audiences and downplaying it's strong minority presence to avoid alienating white audiences.  As a 2011 study