5 Spots Remain for In-Depth Workshop on Building a Fan Base & Generating Revenue, 12/1 in San Francisco

I'm doing an in-depth version of my workshop on "Building Big Audiences and Generating Revenue in the Digital Age" next Tuesday evening, 12.1.09, at BAVC in San Francisco. There are just five spots left (and the registration rate goes up on Saturday at midnight... if any seats remain.)

We'll explore several important case studies of media pioneers who've built big fan bases online, including Joss Whedon, OK Go, M dot Strange, ze frank, Michael Buckley, and Jonathan Coulton. We'll talk about online fundraising, selling merchandise, digital downloads, and other new revenue streams. We'll detail some of the really simple techniques for turning a small audience into a big audience -- stuff I've picked up, and stuff you've picked up.

And as a group we'll brainstorm strategies for several projects being developed by the workshop participants.

Even though this is San Francisco, I'm assuming that participants are artists, not techno-whizzes, so this will be a workshop delivered in plain English, with lots of time for Q&A. I want you to leave with a few practical, powerful things on your to-do list, not questions and confusion.

The full description of this evening workshop is here. Everyone will get a free paperback copy of Fans, Friends & Followers.

I wrote the book for independent artists (filmmakers, musicians, stand-up comics, writers, artists) trying to make a giant dent in the world, without a major media conglomerate's resources. And that's exactly who this workshop is for.

Hope to see you there!

"Fish Where the Fish Are" (Video w/ Tim Kring & Reif Larsen)

Last month, I had the chance to host a session with "Heroes" creator Tim Kring and author/artist Reif Larsen at the first annual Boston Book Festival.

Larsen's talk was hilarious; Kring spoke about the origins and essence of transmedia storytelling (although he also spent a bit too much time for my taste screening "Heroes" promos).

The message that stuck with me from this session was that if you want to be a storyteller, rather than struggling to get people to come to you (on whatever medium/distribution platform you've chosen to use), why not take your story to where the audience is? "Fish where the fish are," Kring says. That may mean bringing your message to cell phones, video games, embedded Web videos, whatever. You may be surprised at the artistic and economic sparks that fly in those different media.

The video is now up.



At the 45-minute mark, we talk about attention. I suggest the game that all storytellers are playing is about winning peoples' attention.

"Our greatest asset is our sustained attention," Larsen said, quoting Ken Burns (who had done a session earlier in the day that I missed.) "That's the asset that is quickly disappearing."

Talking with Jon Reiss, Author of 'Think Outside the Box Office'

Back in September, I sat down with filmmaker Jon Reiss to talk about his forthcoming book, Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era.' Jon takes a very nuts-and-bolts approach to creating a distribution strategy that combines the best of the old world and the new world. The book just went on sale this week, and if you're in New York, Jon is giving a presentation tonight at the IFC Center. (Jon was a discussion leader at Distribution U. earlier this month in L.A., and the photo above is of him signing a few advance copies of Think Outside the Box Office at that event.)

In our conversation, we talked about:

- Why filmmakers still feel compelled to make feature-length films, when everyone is watching short videos on the Internet
- Developing a marketing and distribution strategy before you hit the festival circuit
- Thinking about your core audience, especially if you're making a narrative feature or a doc on a broad societal issue
- Services Jon recommends for selling DVDs and digital downloads.

You can download the MP3 (it runs about 14 minutes) here, or just click "play" below.



Your comments welcome...

SXSW Panel Highlights: Audience-Building for Creatives (Video)

The folks at SXSW did a nice job plucking six minutes of highlights from a really jam-packed panel I moderated this past March.

The panel featured artist Natasha Wescoat, politics blogger Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, musician Jonathan Coulton, filmmaker Brett Gaylor, and animator Burnie Burns. (Everyone but Markos is featured in some way in Fans, Friends & Followers.)



I posted an MP3 of the complete panel earlier this year.... and in the current issue of SXSW World magazine, I have a short piece about audience-building on page 24.

New approaches to audience-building are a big focus of SXSW each year -- and it's obviously an issue I care a lot about.

The Distribution U. Wrap-Up

Wow: two hundred filmmakers made their way to USC on Saturday (braving a walkathon that encircled the campus) to talk about the future of film marketing and distribution.

Amidst the continual caterwauling about the indie film “crisis,” Distribution U. was remarkably optimistic, as Peter Broderick and I had hoped it would be. Rather than organizing a panel where various experts would wring their hands about how it’s impossible to turn a profit making indie films anymore, our objective was to focus the day solely on strategies and tactics for finding an audience and earning a return.

I began the day by looking back at the history of cinema, briefly. Thomas Edison thought that movies projected for a communal audience would spell the end of his lucrative Kinetoscope business: the movie industry’s first existential crisis. In the late 1920s, most of Hollywood was convinced that sound technology was too expensive and complicated, and probably a passing fad anyway. TV was seen as a threat to the studios’ box office take, and a few decades later, once a big TV licensing business had emerged for movie studios, they were certain that the VCR and home taping would mean the end of that gravy train. Now, studio honchos and indies alike worry about declining DVD sales and digital revenues that, of course, will never be sufficient to support high-quality content creation.

But the bulk of my talk consisted of examples of how filmmakers (and musicians, artists, and writers) are engaging with their audience in new ways, and generating substantial revenues. (This was a one-hour version of a three-hour Fans, Friends & Followers workshop I’ll be giving in San Francisco on the evening of December 1st, at BAVC.)

Peter’s presentation was split into two hour-long parts, and though I’ve seen him speak several times before, each time there are new examples and clips that make me excited about the future. You can certainly keep hoping for the lottery ticket distribution deal, where someone hands you $10 or $20 million and turns your film into a great hit. Or you can be as creative with marketing and distribution as you were with your film, and take matters into your own hands.

One tidbit from Peter’s talk: he emphasized the need for filmmakers to create a persona – to be a human representation of their film, the “character” responsible for its creation. You might call this personal branding, and I know it doesn’t come as second-nature to every producer or director, some of whom prefer to operate behind-the-scenes. One of the filmmakers who was present at Distribution U. to lead a lunchtime discussion group, Adrian Belic (“Beyond the Call,” “Genghis Blues”), is a near-perfect example of someone who has cultivated a larger-than-life filmmaker persona. Belic is so enthusiastic about his movies, and bursts forth with stories about them, that you feel like the absolute next thing you must do is go see them.

We ended the day by inviting five filmmakers up to the stage to tell us a bit about their current project. (People were chosen at random.) Then, several of our guest experts – as well as other filmmakers in the audience -- offered constructive ideas and advice about marketing, sales, and distribution. (Among the folks who chimed in were Belic, Thomas Mai of Festival Darlings, filmmaker and marketing guru Marc Rosenbush, producer Cora Olsen, and Madelyn Hammond, most recently a top marketing exec at Variety and Landmark Theatres.)

The five films we talked about were:

- ”Two Spirits”

- ”Tricks”

- ”In My Sleep”

- “While Time Stands Still”

- ”Becoming Bert Stern”

It was a nice mix of narrative features and docs from some really driven, creative filmmakers.

We closed the day by asking the participants to boo if they were feeling more depressed and pessimistic than they had been in the morning. The room was quiet. Then we asked for applause if people were feeling more energized and enthusiastic, and it seemed like just about everyone was clapping.

Were you at Distribution U.? If so, what was the idea or tactic that struck you as most useful? What did you get out of the lunch discussion you were part of? Was there any advice you had for the five filmmakers who were part of the brainstorming session, but didn’t get a chance to impart? Do post a comment….

And here are some more pics from the event...



Madelyn Hammond leads a lunch discussion group.



Cora Olsen talks with the audience after her case study session.



Sacha Gervasi shares some advice with the audience.



Thomas Mai leads a lunchtime discussion on foreign sales.



Adrian Belic leads a lunchtime discussion group on theatrical bookings and working the festival circuit.



View from the back of the room. (Yes, we're hoping to release a DVD of the course at some point...)

Catching Up: Peter Broderick Video, DVD Data, 'Inbound Marketing' book, SMPTE Talk

- Filmmaker Magazine this week published an interview I conducted with Peter Broderick at Sundance this year, talking about new approaches to indie film distribution. (You can tell I have the usual Park-City-in-January cold.) I'm planning to post the full 30-minute interview here soon. This video is part of a series I'm doing on the future of entertainment, underwritten by the nice folks at Akamai. The idea was to take some of the topics we discussed at The Conversation last fall in Berkeley and make them more accessible to people anywhere in the world. I invite you to embed the video wherever you like, link to it, or comment on it.

The Future of Indie Film Distribution: Peter Broderick from Scott Kirsner on Vimeo.

This video, of course, is also a nice little appetizer for the Distribution U. workshop Peter and I are doing next Saturday, November 7th, at USC.

- This NY Times piece from Monday is really worth a read: "Studios' Quest for Life After DVDs." Here's just one juicy passage from Brooks Barnes' story:

In the first six months of 2009, revenue from disc sales declined 13.5 percent, to $5.4 billion, according to Mr. Morris’s evaluation of Digital Entertainment Group data. A $200 million uptick in Blu-ray sales partly offset a $1 billion decline in DVD sales. Over all, home video revenue declined just 4 percent, helped by a spike in rental revenue.

That bleak picture has studios now openly discussing what they have known privately for a long time: DVDs will continue to play a role, but it may be a supporting one to digital.

“DVD is going to remain very viable, but you’ve also got a strong base of interest in digital consumption,” Mr. Chapek of Disney said. “I see a peaceful coexistence.”

- The best book I've read about marketing and social media in a long while was just published this month. It's called Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. This is the kind of book I guarantee you'll find useful if you work in marketing or are trying to sell DVDs or downloads of a film (or other creative work.) It was written by two of the founders of a marketing firm in Boston called HubSpot, and the company also runs this weekly video podcast about Internet marketing, which you can subscribe to (for free) in iTunes. (That, by the way, was not a paid promotion...just an honest endorsement of something worthwhile!)

- Variety was kind enough to run some coverage of my keynote talk last Wednesday for the annual SMPTE Tech Conference in Hollywood. (This was a version of my talk about Inventing the Movies, with lots of movie clips. It was fun to have a few digital cinema pioneers in the audience whom I'd interviewed for the book back in 2006 and 2007.)

Three Cool Ideas: Streaming from the Set, OpenIndie, and "14 Islands"

I hear about way too much cool stuff via e-mail, and am constantly feeling guilty that I don't / can't blog about more of it.

So, if you are doing cool stuff (whether or not you have been letting me know about it), please keep it up! You're awesome.

For now, just wanted to share three cool ideas that have popped into my inbox this month:

1. Australian marketing and distribution consultant Simon Britton e-mailed to let me know about a cool live streaming project he is involved with that takes place on November 4th, to help generate awareness for a feature film about sharks called 'The Reef.' From his post:

In what we think is a world first, the production company will provide all-day live stream from the shoot in Hervey Bay on November 4th.

Viewers will be able to see [director] Andrew [Traucki] and the cast in action (and probably in the water) as a video crew follows him around on the day.

It's live coverage and a making-of rolled into one, featuring interviews with cast and crew as the action unfolds. Viewers will be able to ask questions in real-time.

Simon tells me via e-mail that he "will be be going to location for the stream, doing some camera work and editing. In typical Australian style, everyone on the team does whatever is required!"

2. OpenIndie is a new distribution project from Arin Crumley and Kieran Masterson which hopes to raise $10,000 from 100 filmmakers this month. (They are about half-way there.) Eric Kohn serves up the details on IndieWire, but the gist is that they'd like to have independent filmmakers pool their e-mail lists of people interested in seeing their film (or in putting on screenings), and then be able to collectively use the people in that database to understand where the greatest demand is for a given film, organize screenings and fill theaters (or house parties.)

3. I love this contest for filmmakers in the UK: "The 14 Islands Film Challenge." From the PR e-mail I received:

The 14 Islands Film Challenge (http://14islandsfilmchallenge.co.uk/) is an initiative to find 14 of the best young filmmakers in the UK - to send to the 14 islands of The Bahamas, where each director will create a movie of any genre, on their own island with the help of a local team. They will be there for 14 days and once they return there will be a BAFTA red carpet screening where a grand high winner will be selected by public vote and a panel of judges to win, yes, £14,000!

You, Me & Peter Broderick: Distribution U., Nov. 7th @ USC

Here is the scary thing about talking about the new landscape of marketing and distribution at a film festival:

The panels and presentations are often too short (and sometimes too superficial) to really make much of a dent. Ask the audience at the end whether they're feeling more confident and in control of their destiny, or more anxious and confused, and they're likely to say the latter.

I've been talking for the last couple months with Peter Broderick about taking a different approach. We wanted to create a full-day workshop that'd dive into some of the marketing and audience-building strategies I explore in Fans, Friends & Followers, and would get into the nitty gritty of distribution and savvy deal-making, which Peter works on every day with his clients. We also wanted to bring in some guest filmmakers to talk in detail about how they've gotten attention for their work -- and made money from it.

Finally, we wanted to make this a great opportunity to meet other filmmakers and writers and producers who're working on this "bleeding edge" of new marketing and distribution strategy -- to create lunch discussion groups around topics you're interested in -- and, if you'd like, to get some ideas from Peter, me, and the rest of the group about actual, tactical things you might do with your film, online and off.

We're calling it "Distribution U.: A One-Day Crash Course on the New Rules of Marketing and Distribution." We're doing it on Saturday, November 7th in LA, on the campus of USC. If you register before noon on October 18th, you can take advantage of the early bird discount.

Our goal is to cram in as many examples, case studies, data points, and proven strategies into eight hours as is humanly possible. The complete schedule is here.

Right now, we're planning on doing this just once.

Hope you can make it, and if not, perhaps you'll spread the word to friends who are in LA.

(And if you'd be interested in a DVD of the proceedings, which we're considering, send me an e-mail.)