NEW BREED: It’s About Time
Todd Sklar reports – I’m just now getting caught up on life post-tour, so I’m gonna start this post off with a sincere apology for the lack of participation on my behalf re; this group blog. Not sure how many readers there are out there, nor how many of them give a fuck whether or not I’m posting material, but on the off-chance that a handful do, I wanted to kick things off with my apologies for leaving you hanging on the telephone.
Moving forward, I recently was having a (digital) conversation about the timing of press and marketing with a friend of mine who’s in the process of completing a feature, and I wanted to do a short post summarizing a couple things from our conversation because I realized in the midst of it that most of it was stuff that was at least worth considering for anyone making and/or releasing an independent film.
Since I developed part of my own release platform based on content that I found on this very site, I’ll assume I’m blogging to an “informed audience” and skip a lot of the details and background info simply cover the nuggets – but feel free to shoot me an email if the following evokes questions/comments due to brevity. *
So anyways, the thrust of the dialog was that my aforementioned bro-ham was contemplating when to start implementing blogs and press and all sorts of other goodies into their release platform, and he was mentioning that he wanted to wait until they had a premiere set and then develop a strategy based on that.
As someone who wasn’t smart enough to do that and has seen it from both sides now twice over (two tours equals two releases essentially), I couldn’t agree more with his plans to collect and create content for their release, but withhold putting it out there and implementing the campaign until they can use it all within a tight release schedule.
This sounds like an obvious thing, but for many first time, and even seasoned filmmakers (myself included) the desire to just get stuff out there and start connecting with an audience can be verrrrrrry tempting, and it takes tru maturity to recognize the trouble that jumping the gun can get you into.
Two examples that I witnessed/experienced firsthand were;
1) You jump the gun on building buzz and then lose momentum and interest before it’s time to utilize that buzz (i.e, a theatrical, DVD, or on-line release). With niche content (and face it, every film w/o one or two A-list stars in it is niche content to an extent) it’s incredibly easy to run out of steam during those waiting periods before each release, and then you’ve gotta re-generate that very same interest, as well as new interest when you’re finally ready to move forward.
ex. A film premieres at Sundance to wide acclaim, then gets more acclaim leading up to it’s theatrical release, and then continues to build exposure and attention through it’s release. Big success, except that the filmmaker now has to raise even more attention when it’s time to release the DVD, and at that point, there might not be much else to say about the film, or nearly as many interested listeners.
2) You jump the gun on your release and can’t support it with the necessary content or resources & planning b/c it’s a full time job just maintaining whatever momentum and interest your gaining from the film’s release. This puts you in a constant state of pushing things forward while also continuously going backwards to try and finish building a ship that’s already sailing at full speed.
ex. A filmmaker plots out a theatrical tour in pre-production, then spends months making and then re-making the film, finishing it 4 days before the premiere, and 7 days before the 3 month tour begins. That’s a recipe for disaster, made worse only by the fact that if aid tour goes well, you only have 3 months to build upon that success while re-building your model/platform for a second release. next thing you know, you’re spending your first break in 18 months fixing your website and making a DVD for a film that’s already been screened across the country twice and has already made it’s impression on 90% of the people who will ever know it exists.
P.S. – have you already checked out the new Box Elder website and 2 disc DVD? I thought not.
By creating content and stockpiling it until you’ve developed a strategy and a release schedule, you can easily avoid both of those outcomes. **
More soon,
Todd
* Note: I’m just now getting caught up on emails from as far back as Oct., so please be patient if it takes me forever to reply.
** Note: both of those aforementioned scenarios are under the assumption that the film is good, and can generate enough interest and momentum on it’s own merits, or that it’s filmmaker(s) can at least make up for the film’s shortcomings with savy marketing tactics.
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 sandwich without asking, and then read this bio out loud, without pants on. Box Elder is his debut feature film.
Popularity: 73% [?]
I’m in the middle of prepping for a March 30th DVD release (online distribution and perhaps digi download). I’ve already started my myspace page and have been blogging. after reading your blog I have a concern about this process: how does one begin locating/contacting potential audiences for a niche film if they keep all content embargoed?
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