NEW BREED: A Box Elder – Todd Sklar
Comrades,
My name is Todd and I made a film last year called Box Elder. I actually made it twice technically (we re-shot the entire thing after getting 80% of it in the can), but that’s a story for another blog. We’re here today to talk about this distribution tour we’re about to embark on, and first, a little bit more on the film that started it last spring.
Box Elder is a collegiate love letter that was largely based on me and my friends in college, although over the past few months, I’ve been told by most of the people who watch it that it reminds them of their friends in college, and that is without a doubt the greatest compliment one can receive with a film like this.
We made the film in Columbia, Missouri for about 60K using the Panasonic HVX (equipped with the Brevis 35 adapter), homeade lights, stolen sets, and a whole lot of blood, sweat and beers. We had a skeleton crew of 7-8 people, and most of the cast was either friends of mine from college, or friends that I had met working at the Sundance Labs during that summer, and we all went into the fire as beginners together. Only our DP had any prior film experience, and he served not just as our cinematographer, but also as the wise sage of the team, much like when a ball club picks up a veteran pitcher to guide the youngsters in a pennant race.
The film itself is a humanistic comedy with a lot of naturalism and improv, and although it was scripted to serve that purpose, a lot of the reason it breathes the way it does is because of the contributions of my cast and crew. As a responsibility to them and there work, as well as the film itself, I felt that I had to make sure it connected with an audience, rather than sit on a shelf, and that’s what originally birthed this touring idea. I wanted the film to connect with an audience and make them laugh, and maybe make them recognize something about themselves too, but the only way to do either of those things was by getting them to watch the film in the first place.
So how do you do that? There’s the obvious routes of applying to festivals and hoping somebody likes your film and thinks it’s marketable and wants to pick it up, but even that doesn’t really guarantee anyone is gonna see it, since the release strategy and marketing campaign aren’t structured around trying to find your film’s audience and connect with them. In fact, more often than not, the current model has most films hoping that an audience finds it, through traditional advertising and marketing, and in a crowded marketplace, that just seems a little presumptuous. So not being one for presumptions, I decided against the traditional route, plus I didn’t really feel like my film was likely to make a splash at a festival anyways (so much for not being presumptuous right?), and as a result, I decided to develop a release model that catered specifically to bringing my film to it’s intended audience.
As things progress, we’ll post more as far as the details concerning that model and the difference between what we’re doing and how a film is traditionally released and marketed, but a good brief metaphor comparing the two would maybe be;
If you needed a stick of butter to make some cookies, you could either hop in the car and go to the store and head to the dairy section, or you could walk outside and jump and scream and yell as loud as you can “hey I need a fuckin stick of butter….somebody help me” and hope that the right person is listening and interested.
Or, maybe a more apt metaphor for independent film would be, if you needed a stick of low fat organic danish truffle butter, you could either go to the wine and cheese store in the danish district of town, or you could walk into a walmart and start yelling “hey, i need a fuckin stick of low fat organic danish truffle butter….somebody help me” and hope that they carry it in stock and someone cares enough to bring you a stick before the floor manager ejects you for potty language.
Butter and metaphors aside, the tour itself is essentially another extension of the great American road trip, and one that includes an inherently progressive distribution model within it’s structure. It’s through this tour, and this model, that we hope to connect again with a lot of new friends and fans, and hopefully show them some great films before we move onto the next stop. In the meantime, we’ll all be checking in back here, giving you updates from the road, as well as insight into our distribution process in general from time to time.
Til then, eyes on the prize,
Todd
Todd Sklar watched The 400 Blows. Soon after, his short film Caught Naked in a Public Place screened at a handful of festivals you weren’t at. Late in 2007, he launched Range Life Entertainment, a niche-market oriented distribution company focusing on tour based platform distribution. Most recently, he ate his roommate’s leftover sandwiche without asking, and then read this bio out loud, without pants on. Box Elder is his debut feature film.
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Neat trailer, looks good guys, good luck with this distribution effort!
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