At the SXSW opening night party, Jason Reitman showed me the trailer (below) for Aaron Katz’s third feature Cold Weather on his iPhone. Reitman was psyched to see it, and I was intrigued, but it was up against Michel Gondry’s Cannes doc Thorn in My Heart, which I needed to see in order to interview him Sunday.
Sure enough, Reitman was right: the LAT’s Mark Olsen, LA Weekly’s Karina Longworth and indieWIRE’s own Eric Kohn have all raved.
At a provocative panel Sunday, “Saving Cinema in the Digital Era,” IFC’s Ryan Werner said he was interested in the movie, but that it was just this sort of indie American drama that was the toughest to market these days. Local exhibitor Tim League of the Alamo Drafthouse agreed, saying that he markets films at his two local cinemas via twitter and facebook, not print and radio. The message of the panel—well-moderated by indieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez, who recognized that some of the most interesting things were brought up by questioners from the interactive side—was that everyone needs to get as much publicity as possible by any means necessary. What’s exciting about SXSW is the way that the interactive/music/film/online worlds collide and cross-pollinate and inform. The networking and panels are fab.
Katz posted his YouTube trailer well in advance of the fest—which obviously started the process of grabbing notice.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Festivals, SXSW, Genres, Independents, Reviews, Video, Trailers, Web/Tech, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube on March 14, 2010 at 12:50pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (0)
On Friday afternoons folks start to relax and hang on Twitter. This afternoon was particularly rich with delights. First, Deadline.com editrix Nikki Finke tweeted to refute USA Today staffer Anthony Breznican’s assertion that a publicist pitched him to have Finke appear on his radio show, even though he doesn’t have one. (I have heard Finke, who doesn’t go out much, do radio interviews.)
@NikkiFinke: “someone is punking the news media by offering me as an interview. Neither I nor Deadline.com has ever employed a publicist.”
Maybe not directly. Here’s the email pitch that Breznican received from Hollywood Life publicist Marigo S. Mihalos:
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Web/Tech, Twitter on February 19, 2010 at 5:17pm PST | Permalink | Comments (4)
In case some of these stories got past you, Amy Dawes rounds up the day’s industry news:
While confessing to some fatigue at its length, Screen’s Tim Grierson generally raves about the pulpy thrills of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, which premiered out of competition Saturday at the Berlin film festival and opens Feb. 19 stateside. But New York Magazine’s David Edelstein calls it a long slog, and Emanuel Levy finds it similarly overwrought. In case you’ve somehow avoided it, here’s the trailer.
More pulp pleasures lie ahead if Quentin Tarantino succeeds in making his next project a raucously re-imagined ‘slavery Western,’ or as he predicts he might call it, ‘a Southern.’ And John Edwards’ campaign trail cocksmanship will spin boxoffice turnstyles as well as dirty laundry cycles if Ari Emanuel has his way.
Read More
by Amy Dawes, posted to Directors, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Festivals, Reviews, Web/Tech, Twitter on February 15, 2010 at 6:33pm PST | Permalink | Comments (2)
These days, keeping up with Twitter, email, Facebook, Linkedin (I abandoned myspace long ago) is almost more than a single person can sustain, much less reading something of any length or, God Forbid, thinking or doing any work.
Adding to the general noise is Google Buzz, which actually looks pretty nifty:
by Anne Thompson, posted to Web/Tech, Google, Twitter on February 9, 2010 at 2:46pm PST | Permalink | Comments (1)
Just who is @JFCameron, as in “James Fucking Cameron,” on Twitter? The tweeter started channeling the mighty director on August 22 with the following:
Name: James F-ing Cameron
Location: Pandora
Bio: The director of True Lies, Titanic and the greatest film of all-time James Cameron’s AvatarNot sure why Twitter won’t allow me to register under my full legal name - James Fucking Cameron.
My middle name is actually “Fucking.” No joke. That name change is the first thing I did with my monies from Titanic.
Without actually believing that the fake Cameron was the real deal, a lot of us (1268 followers and counting) played along. Fox should be delighted with his promotion of the Avatar cause, as he dutifully retweeted positive Avatar news and took on all naysayers with brio. The tweets were often convincing, even witty (a selection are on the jump). Recently, a few of my followers asked if JFCameron was the real deal. So I asked the director himself at the Avatar premiere.
“I never twitter,” Cameron answered.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Directors, James Cameron, Web/Tech, Twitter on December 21, 2009 at 3:09pm PST | Permalink | Comments (0)
“If content is not king,” asked Variety publisher Neil Stiles at a downbeat Digital Hollywood journalism panel Wednesday, “what is?”
Also trying to make sense of the new media landscape were (in photo, rear) The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman (who reported here), Drex Heikes, new editor of LA Weekly, Alan Frutkin, a video producer at Nielsen Business Media, (in front) Fox News Channel correspondent Anita Vogel and LA Times calendar/business entertainment editor Sallie Hoffmeister. Moderating was USC Annenberg’s Jerry Swerling.
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Media, Web/Tech, Facebook, Twitter on October 21, 2009 at 6:33pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (2)
From the start, Paramount online marketing executive Amy Powell knew that she could sell micro-budget horror thriller Paranormal Activity on the Internet.
Friday, October 16, Paramount will open the haunted-house flick on 1000 760 screens; last weekend it grossed $7.1 million on 160 screens. The studio allowed Powell to perform her web-marketing experiment, daring her to deliver butts in seats before they’d release the film in theaters. She delivered by promoting the film primarily online, asking moviegoers to demand via eventful.com that the movie play in their local town. The towns with the most votes would win a booking. The studio agreed that if Paranormal Activity scored one million votes, they would release the movie nationwide. Paramount is delivering on that promise: “The first-ever film release decided by you.”
The strategic decision behind Paranormal Activity‘s success was to avoid trickle-down marketing, where a studio hard-sells audiences on what to watch, in favor of a grassroots movement propelling its own decisions about what to see. President Obama’s online bid for the White House, where he let the people own his campaign, was Powell’s initial inspiration.
Paranormal Activity could promote a new marketing approach where less costly, long-term brand-and-buzz building from the ground up replaces mass-market saturated ad blasts at moviegoers. Tired of information overload, movie fans are seeking authenticity, as movies with no stars, from District 9 to Zombieland, keep scoring at the box office. Word-of-mouth has always been the most potent way to sell a movie. Now the Internet spreads it with the speed of a click. Paranormal Activity demonstrates that power.
Of course it only works with a movie that plays!
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Box Office, Fall, Exhibition, Genres, Horror, Marketing, Studios, Paramount, Web/Tech, Facebook, Twitter on October 15, 2009 at 1:48pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (21)
Digital marketer Chris Dorr continues his informative exploration of the field with an essay explaining the many uses of Twitter. His use of the service is very close to mine, though I suspect I re-tweet more than he does. It is essential for me to check into my followers several times a day. They will let me know what’s going on in the world quicker than anyone else. Later I check my re-tweets on my Twitter Profile and often add them to my Daily Reads—just in case you aren’t following me @akstanwyck.
Read MoreIt is always amusing to me the way Hollywood studio executives regard advances in digital technology.
Witness the most recent statements about Twitter, a micro-blogging service whose user base has exploded over the past year.
Just a few months ago, the sages of Hollywood were saying that Twitter was killing the movie business when BRUNO dropped like a rock. This past weekend PARANORMAL ACTIVITY did well at the box office and was a top trending topic on Twitter. Now, many will surely conclude that Twitter is saving Hollywood.
by Chris Dorr, posted to Web/Tech, Twitter on October 14, 2009 at 12:13pm PDT | Permalink | Comments (4)
Call it the Flixster Effect.
As the viral buzz pushing Paranormal Activity demonstrates, a fundamental shift is transforming how people discover movies. The studios aren’t just force-feeding marketing to consumers anymore. On social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, moviegoers are telling each other what to see, which is helping to steer people toward movies with buzz (Zombieland) and away from movies with bad WOM (The Invention of Lying).
But way more user movie ratings are shared on Flixster than Twitter.
Facebook and MySpace users are familiar with Flixster.com, the movie-oriented social network, which is growing exponentially. (I’m addicted to their movie trivia quizzes.) Flixster’s 6 million users have now created 2 billion movie ratings and reviews. That’s a staggering number after three and half years. Flixster CEO Joe Greenstein says that Flixster users—about 20 million uniques a month—are creating 1,000 movie ratings and reviews a minute. “Word-of-mouth and social sharing is happening so fast,” he says. “We live in a hyper-connected world. It’s all about interacting, rating movies, sharing with friends. And the discovery of movies and decision-making on the mobile.”
Read Moreby Anne Thompson, posted to Web/Tech, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter on October 12, 2009 at 12:16am PDT | Permalink | Comments (3)
In the second of a series of service pieces about independent film marketing, digital consultant Chris Dorr uses Bright Star as an example of a movie that has not taken full advantage of its online potential. He offers three ways the film could unleash the passion online that is in such evidence onscreen:
Read MoreWhen a filmmaker creates a movie, she brings many tools to unlock her artistic passion, which she attempts to capture on the screen. These tools; the screenplay, the actors, the physical setting and the cinematography all combine to bring into existence a new emotional experience that is shared with an audience.
Today, as a result of rapid digital innovation, a filmmaker has the opportunity to use another set of tools to unlock and organize the passion of her audience. When deployed successfully they give an audience a chance to share a passion with each other and connect with the creator of the movie. Through their use the filmmaker expands her audience in every venue her film plays. These digital tools are broadly available across many online social networks and they are FREE.
Are filmmakers and distributors truly taking advantage of these tools? Let’s look at the recent release of BRIGHT STAR as an example.
BRIGHT STAR is an exquisitely realized movie in every way, from its acting, its directing, its screenplay, to its cinematography. It was a pleasure to watch with an audience. Jane Campion made great use of the tools she was given.
What about online?
by Chris Dorr, posted to Marketing, Web/Tech, Facebook, Twitter on October 8, 2009 at 8:01am PDT | Permalink | Comments (32)
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