For your viewing pleasure, from the sketchbook of the ever-talented Jayaraj Paul:
Tribute to those who came before
This post is a little tribute to other filmmakers who decided to embark on the daunting task of bringing The Pilgrim’s Progress to the big screen. (Yes, that is Liam Neeson.)
Some thoughts on distribution
As an independent film producer, it’s really important to always be thinking about distribution. After all, a film needs an audience and reaching the largest audience possible should be the goal of every filmmaker.
I read an interesting blog by Jane Kelly Kosek today on the topic of indie distribution that I thought I’d share. She attended Distribution U last weekend and posted her thoughts. Enjoy!
New Movie Poster
Hey everyone,
Here’s the new poster that we’re using for our marketing material. Enjoy!
John Concept
Jayaraj Paul (our graphic novel artist) sent us this concept of the character JOHN today. This is the role that Doug Jones will be playing. Enjoy!
Day Five in Los Angeles
From Erik:
What an interesting day! I attended a great panel discussion titled “The New Rules of Indie Marketing” that discussed a lot of new media approaches to marketing independent films using web tools, social networking, etc. It’s interesting to see that not only are these tools so new that no one quite knows what to do with them yet, but that there is actually even a little bit of panic about whether or not people will be able to effectively monetize these new distribution outlets.
However, the main focus on the discussion wasn’t really about these distribution methods, but using new tools to reach your audience (after all, this was a marketing panel). They talked about Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and stuff like that.
My favorite part of the discussion was all the talk about self-distribution and limited, market-specific, theatrical releases. I think I got a TON of information from people in the trenches that would otherwise be difficult to come by. Obviously, a solid distribution deal would be best for Narrow Road, but I feel confident that if we had to release the film on our own, we could do a great job and make some money!
In other seminar news: a scuffle broke out near the end of the marketing discussion…and in my row! It started with two people in front of me whispering to each other a little too loudly for a little too long. Easy enough for me to ignore, but apparently not the man next to me. There were a lot of explicatives and some name calling in the whisper fight that ensued, “let’s take this outside!”, and a torn vest. Pretty crazy.
Off to prepare for some big meetings tomorrow, which is my last day in L.A. Thanks for reading!
Day Four in Los Angeles
From Erik:
Well, today was another productive day in Santa Monica. This morning, Sunny attended the Genre Writing seminar with his buddy Ed Portillo. I got to meet Ed for the first time, but of course I recognized him from 305 in which he plays the character Shazaam. Ed is a great guy and is writing a script with Sunny that I would like to produce and shoot in Tucson (a low budget film).
The three of us met up with Mike Dohrmann for lunch. Mike is my friend from Tucson: a filmmaker from Tucson here at AFM to sell his first feature film, Mattie, starring Kaylee DeFer. Mike is the one who told me about this whole AFM thing in the first place, and I wish him the best of luck. From what I’ve seen of Mattie, I think that he’ll find a buyer soon. I can’t wait to see the finished film!
Mike also runs Chosen Film Works out of Tucson, and has been a HUGE resource for our production team. You can expect to hear more about Mike and Chosen Film Works as The Narrow Road progresses.
Lastly, I ended the day by having the great privilege of meeting with Jason Mellerstrig, Director of Business Affairs at Mpower Pictures! Mpower Pictures has produced films such as Bella and The Stoning of Soraya M. I’m a HUGE fan, in fact Bella is currently my favorite movie of all time! Jason was incredibly generous with his time and even invited me to come back with Sunny later this week. We’ll be meeting with Todd Burns, COO, as well. Todd has been a great resource for me over the last several months, allowing me to bounce ideas off of him and offering advice. I’m looking forward to meeting him in person. Mpower is the best!
Until tomorrow, goodnight!
Day Three in Los Angeles
From Erik:
No meetings today, although it was the official start of the conference for those of us with “half-market” badges. I attended a first-timers orientation in the morning (with my new friend and forum buddy, Allen) and picked up tons of material to help me zone in on which people we should set meetings with.
I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning updating our print material to include our new star, DOUG JONES, and headed over to the fine folks at FedEx Business to print lobby cards (basically large marketing post cards, as recommended by Bill Whitacre), updated Production Financial Offerings, and even a handful of scripts. I don’t know what I’ll need over the next few days, but now I’m prepared.
Tomorrow should be another busy day as I move through my list of target executives and attempt to schedule meetings for the rest of the week. I already know that Sunny and I have two BIG meetings awaiting confirmation, which could even lead to the attachment of ANOTHER STAR! We need more meetings though, so I better get to it.
Sunny has a Genre Writing seminar tomorrow put on by the Writers Guild of America, so I’ll try to get his thoughts and post them for you guys on tomorrow’s blog. Thanks for reading!
Day Two in Los Angeles
From Erik:
Well, Day Two was definitely slower than Day One but still very productive. Sunny and I attended the Pitch Me! seminar and got to hear about a dozen groups of filmmakers practice their project pitches on stage and get a FREE critique…in front of everyone. It was great fun and a great way to see what works and what doesn’t when speaking with potential investors, production partners, distributors, etc.
Basically, what I walked away with was that pitching is common sense (which is easy to overlook when you’re nervous…think job interview where you almost feel like you’re interviewing yourself). Here are my thoughts and observations about pitching:
-Know your material (after all, it’s your project) but be able to explain it quickly and concisely.
-DON’T sound too rehearsed!!! This is a double negative because: 1.) it sounds like a canned speech that you’ve given a hundred times…almost door-to-door salesman-like, and, 2.) you’re more likely to rush through the pitch, delivering your “lines” too quickly to be understood.
-Remember that movie executives are just people too. Explain your project like you would to anyone else who is not involved, like your mom, friends, or the neighbor kid that you want to impress. If you try to cover too many bases at once, you’ll confuse people and they’ll lose interest in the project.
And my personal advice…
People like to say that you’ll only ever get ONE chance to meet with an important executive. I think that this is crap if you treat people (all people) fairly and respectfully. Sure, you may be able to pitch them each project only once, but what about your next project? If they like you, they’ll be willing to meet with you again and again and again until, maybe one day, you pitch them a project that they’re looking for. Keep your foot in the door, take a genuine interest in the people on the other side of the table, and help when you can without expecting an immediate return.
More Meetings
A high point of the day was getting to meet some forum buddies from my favorite Christian Filmmakers forum. Sunny and I got to meet Allen and Calix, and had lunch with Calix. It’s great getting to meet people face to face that I know only through the Web. They are both working on selling exciting finished (or nearly finished) projects here at AFM, including my friend Ryan Dunlap’s neo-noir thriller film, Greyscale, now in the final stages of post production. (Ryan Dunlap is also the guy who helped our meeting with Doug Jones happen, and he is also being STRONGLY considered for a supporting role in The Narrow Road.)
Now I’m off to update all of our print material (that I spent days and days perfecting) to include our NEW STAR, Doug Jones. Worth it. Luckily I’ve procrastinated on getting the printing done so I don’t have a stack of unusable lobby cards and handouts…
Check back tomorrow for the next update. Thanks everyone!!!
