The distributors screening went well, minus the part where we didn't have the money for the screening room payment because a credit card had taken the liberty to reduce our available credit without warning. Jeff had Gen Art's accountant front the cash and keep the annoying management at the screening room from executing their threat to shut down the screening.
Thanks to the collective representation I spoke about in the last entry a couple acquisitions people were there, Wellspring and a screener for Paramount Classics. We already knew Paramount Classics was completely out of the question and suspected that wellspring was gravitating towards more high production value projects after feeling they've been there done that with Tarnation as far as ultra-low budget films go. Both distributors are no good for our film which is why they weren't on our most wanted list, but at least they got to see our work because who knows, our next project might be perfect for one of them. No thanks to our most wanted list, none of our top 4 companies had any representation at the screening.
The best thing that has come out of the distributors screening other then the left over danishes has been the meetings we've been able to land. I think there is an added sense of urgency because other distributors may have been at the screening so if another company couldn't make it they feel they should at least take a meeting. This is where Jeff Abramson has distinguished himself as something more then a member of our collective representation, he's been setting up meetings using his Gen Art status and his NYC contacts to make these meetings happen. Jeff's role is kind of like our agent which is huge to us because it's so hard to pitch yourself with out some kind of legit back up. It just really has helped so much to have Jeff vouch for us and tell people what we bring to the table so we can just explain the marketing ideas with out them wondering the whole time if we are just full of shit. And he's learning a lot too because he usually doesn't have any involvement with the process of a film getting distribution. (article continues)
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So here is a review of the meetings we've done so far.
IFCTV marketing department: We met with Evan Fleischer in the marketing department who showed us a sonogram picture of his unborn child on his wall and chatted with us informally about our marketing ideas. He's a smart guy who had a lot of questions and did most of the talking thinking of ideas we've thought of before we said anything. It was sort of a brainstorm session and we were all pretty in sync. We showed him a version of the new trailer we've been working on and he had a lot of good ideas which we've implemented in our newer new trailer. The highlight of the meeting was probably when he said, "okay so you have all these assets, it's okay if I call them assets?" And I replied with, "you can call them assets," as I thought to myself, cool, finally someone thinks of what we are doing as having a monetary value, we might actually get out of debt someday.
Meeting with David Koh at Palm Pictures
Probably one of the most promising moments since the phone call getting into Slamdance was us walking into David Koh's fancy board room and him taking us seriously. He seemed receptive to the marketing ideas and explained that they believe in giving away free content that helps promote content that will be sold. They have a bunch of episodic series on their video on demand service on comcast which he mentioned would be a good place to "seed" the video blogs. Jeff asked if Koh had seen the most wanted list and he said he had looked at it that morning and sort of laughed. I think he was a little embarrassed by it. In general the meeting gave us the feeling that all that needed to happen was for them to like the film when they watch the DVD.??Another good sign was that David Koh started selling us on their company which is the opposite of what we were there for.? In doing so he mentioned all of the awesome things they've done and at some point it came up that they are a lifestyle company.? A flag went off in my head about an observation I had about that concept.
My thoughts about Lifestyle Marketing:
Anybody who has had a point in their lives in which they respected MTV for a period of time has been turned on to music via lifestyle marketing. For me it was seeing "smells like teen spirit" on MTV and being interested by the lifestyle of the band members and thinking that they were cool and going out and buying the CD. I got an expression of who they were and what there intention was and then I wanted to fully get behind the intention of what they were creating. That was the first heavy music I got into so if I had just heard the song on the radio I probably wouldn't have been ready to take it in fully. And because Nirvana was pretty ahead of their time, probably way less people would have been ready if it was just up to the music to sell itself. That is where the auxiliary lifestyle element came in and made the whole thing palatable.
Now I've talked to people that are scared of the MTVization of independent film and they think that is a laughable attempt that doesn't make any sense and drives them crazy that people are ruining film that way. I agree if we are talking about current modern day MTV tactics of shoving things down your throat and saying, "now I've got something cool for you, your going to love it because it's cool, it's so cool." That is the type of over hyping and over glamorous bullshit that makes the way mainstream music is promoted unbearable. And I could see not wanting independent film to feel they need to conform to that in order to be promoted.
However, there is something that can be taken from early MTV and applied to the present day goal of independent film which is to reach a big enough audience to sustain the making of future independent films. And I think at least two companies are attempting this, palm and IFC. Right now I have to say Palm is doing a better job because they are curating a better experience. For example I'm pretty sure based on the trailers that Cronicas is better then the Baxter . I think right now the Palm aesthetic has a better chance to really pick up momentum and continue to attract an audience that doesn't really have much to see, the younger audience that is open to independently produced films.
I really feel the future of independent film sustaining itself is to attract younger audiences. You don't base an entire music industry on adult contemporary music do you? No, that is just one sliver of the music industry. And it's even a smaller sliver when you only look at independent music.
The younger audiences 16 to 25 are totally open to edgier, more personally created, lower budget sometimes more abstract independent content but they are not getting stories that are for them except for in the horror genre which most people don't really care for. Or I guess Garden State is supposed to do that but come on, that movie is such a mild ride, people are really ready for something more compelling and more unique then that.
Attracting younger audiences requires a lifestyle element and I think that Palm Pictures and IFCTV & IFC Films understand this. But with IFC I go back on forth on what it seems like their future goals are, they may be happy having a 25 to 40 year old loyal audience and putting all their energy into that. My opinion is that they'll miss out big time on the enthusiastic energetic element that makes marketing to younger people yield situations where word of mouth can take over and things can become popular very quickly. To me I just think that environment is more interesting and is a better environment for innovative films to really start to change the paradigm that mainstream movies have been stuck in for a long time. The nice thing about younger audiences is I think they see that right through independent movies that try to adhere to that paradigm and they are ready for some truly original independent films.
So where does Four Eyed Monsters and our distribution goals come into all of this. Well, we need to find a distribution company who agrees with us about this topic and wants to move in that direction. We have a couple other meetings coming up so I'll let you guys know how those go.
Arin Crumley
Co-director - Four Eyed Monsters
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