All Your Questions, Answered

I had fun today doing a live Webcast (which will eventually be on iTunes) about building an audience and a business model in the digital age. It was hosted by PermissionTV, and they took a number of questions via Twitter. (I also gave away a couple copies of Fans, Friends & Followers to a few lucky viewers.)

But we didn't get to all the questions during the hour-long Webcast, so here are some quick takes on other questions. (Please add your thoughts...)

Q. bobwoolsey: What is the best way to get advertisers for programs?

A. If you can sell ads or sponsorships to companies on your own, that's going to let you pocket the most money. Otherwise, you can have Google or another ad sales firm (like Brightroll, Blip.tv, or ScanScout) place ads in or around your video and cut you in on a portion of the revenue.

Q. kellyannlive: Is there a good balance between providing valuable content for your "fans" and letting them run the show?

A. I think this will be different for everyone. Some people, like Matt Hanson with 'Swarm of Angels', seem to enjoy creating content in collaboration with the community. Others will want to pick specific tasks, like when Jonathan Coulton invited his fans to submit a solo for the song 'Shop-Vac.' How much you want to let fans do is entirely up to you.

Q. marcaross: do blogs still matter?

A. Obviously, I think so. There are some people I enjoy hearing from in bursts longer than 140 characters. Blogs are also indexed by Google... which is not as true with messages on Twitter and some social networking sites.

Q. jonarcher: Wondering what the difference is b/n #kirsner's FF&F model and the 1000 True Fans model.

A. I like Kevin Kelly's "1000 True Fans" idea, although there has been considerable debate about the sorts of artists it will work for. With my Fans, Friends & Followers research, I certainly was trying to explore the same terrain as Kevin -- how does this new relationship with fans work, and how can you earn a living? -- by talking to people I identified as pioneers, and analyzing some of the lessons they've learned.

Q. MichaelKolowich: @scottkirsner Can you comment on need for good production values in web video? Do they matter? Someday, a "flight to quality"?

A. I think Web video is always going to have an aesthetic that's different from broadcast TV, in part because it needs to grab your attention in a short period of time, and in part because lower production values can feel more intimate and authentic. So far, the number of pixels doesn't seem to have mattered much -- but decent lighting and sound are always nice. Lately, I have been thinking that if we start watching Web video on our TV sets in a couple years, that will change and HD will be important.

Q. bobwoolsey: What is the easiest way to get to the book?

A. Google works, or you can visit this page to find out how to buy it as a paperback, PDF, or Kindle download.

Variety's New 'Technotainment' Blog

Former Variety staffer Ben Fritz is maintaining a new blog on Variety.com called Technotainment, which aims to cover "digital media, technology and gadgets from the Hollywood angle." Worth a look...

Worth a Gander: Web site for 'Objectified,' Gary Huswit's New Doc

Gary Huswit made a splash in 2007 with 'Helvetica,' a documentary that told the story of the world's most influential typeface. (It's airing on PBS this month.)

His new doc is 'Objectified,' about product design, and it'll premiere at SXSW this March.

The site is here. Hard to think of what else you'd want from the Web site for a film that has yet to be released: there's a trailer, a list of some of the better-known interviewees, a newsletter you can sign up for, a blog, and products you can buy. Most interesting option: for $500, you can become an "Objectifier." What do you get?

- An Objectified T-shirt
- An Objectified limited-edition silkscreen print by Build
- A “Helvetica” Blu-ray special edition by Experimental Jetset
- An invite for you and a guest to either the New York or London private sneak preview (whichever’s closer to you) of Objectified in early 2009, before the general public sees it
- A copy of the DVD of Objectified when it’s released
- Your name (or your company’s name if you prefer) will appear in the “thank you” section of the film’s credits
- More perks as we think them up

Also interesting that the first place Huswit released the movie's trailer to was Gizmodo, a site for techies and gadget hounds. That spawned dozens of comments, including, "Wow! That movie looks amazing. I had never heard of Helvetica before, I'm going to be checking it out."

A great way to tap into big audiences online that will likely be interested in the film...

When You Need Traditional Media, and When You Need Bloggers

I'm in Silver Spring, MD today for Silverdocs.

This morning, I was on a panel with Karina Longworth, AJ Schnack, Anthony Kaufman, and Sandy Mandelberger, moderated by former Washington Post film critic Desson Thomson. We were talking about the differences between reviews and film coverage in traditional media versus the blog world.

I proposed one theory: that traditional media (radio, TV, print) and the blogosphere serve two very different purposes for filmmakers.

Traditional media coverage takes a lot of energy to get. Often you have to hire a PR firm, or hope your distributor employs a sharp PR person. But getting reviewed or written about in a magazine, or having Richard Roeper say nice things about your work on 'At the Movies,' is really important if your film is playing in theaters. Traditional media coverage is still very important if you're trying to put butts in seats -- or get people to watch your film when it is broadcast on TV.

On the flip side, blogosphere coverage is *much* more powerful if you're trying to sell DVDs or downloads of your film. The reason is that blogs will usually link directly to your film's site (or sometimes, directly to Amazon or iTunes or somewhere else where it's available for sale -- so that they can pocket the referral fee that comes from sending a paying customer their way). That link is a direct "synaptic connection" between someone interested in your film and the place where they can purchase or immediately watch your film. Traditional media just can't do that. Even if "Fresh Air" decides to devote a half-hour to interviewing you, listeners still have to remember the title of your movie, and seek it out in theaters or on DVD.

And blogosphere coverage is something you can get without an expensive PR firm (in fact, it may be better off *not* to have an expensive PR firm.) You can approach bloggers directly, offering them an interview, some exclusive clips from the film, a "guest blog post," a podcast interview with your star.... anything that will help them cover your film. The producers of "King Corn" did a really good job of cultivating coverage in the blogosphere (and I've written a case study about how they did it, which may one day show up online.) Just Google "King Corn reviews", and you'll see how much "ink" they got from bloggers.

In short, traditional media can still put ticket-buyers in seats and get people to tune in to TV broadcasts (or at least TiVo them.) But bloggers are great -- and perhaps even more powerful than traditional media -- when it comes to selling DVDs and downloads.

Your thoughts?

Internet Publicity: Control Versus Chaos

Last month, I wrote about some comments made during a panel discussion at the IFP Filmmaker Conference by Mark Urman, head of theatrical distribution for THINKFilm.

The gist of that post was that I thought Urman was underestimating the power of blogs, niche movie review sites, podcasts, and video reviews to help promote THINKFilm's releases. One indicator of that attitude: THINKFilm requires that anyone who wants to access press materials enter a username or password, but doesn't explain how to get one in the first place. That's not friendly to someone in Schenectady who runs a movie review Web site, and might potentially promote a THINKFilm release.

Urman sent me an e-mail shortly after that; he didn't agree, and wanted to explain his position. I asked if he'd post a comment on the original blog entry, but his preference was to talk by phone, which we did a couple weeks later.

I didn't take notes during the chat, but Urman said his company was doing outreach to blogs and movie sites, but that THINKFilm wanted to be able to vet site editors before giving them press access, and it was important for the company to keep tabs on where people were talking about its movies, and what they were saying.

I tried to explain to Urman that the old model of promoting movies was to pick your shots, focusing on the media most likely to write about a given picture (Premiere magazine, the New York Times, Variety, etc.); according to the new model, you need to let the media pick you, making it easy for them to cover your stuff. Why not provide the same movie clips to some video blogger in Seattle who reviews one art-house release a week as you do to 'At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper'?

Urman didn't seem swayed: controlling and monitoring how THINKFilm's movies are written about still seems preferable to him than submitting to the chaos of the Web -- which always produces unanticipated results, sometimes positive and sometimes negative.

I also tried to tell Urman that as a working journalist, I usually don't waste my time applying for passwords to "press areas" on Web sites -- too often, you're on deadline and can't wait for the reply. The call ended with Urman telling me that it was easy to get a password -- just call up the New York office of THINKFilm. (Not so easy, of course, for a blogger in Capetown or Sydney or London...)

I took that as a challenge.

Day One: Poking around the THINKFilm site, I found the number for their office in New York, and called it around 5:30 on Friday, October 5th. The receptionist wasn't quite sure what sort of password and username I was asking for, but after putting me on hold for a few minutes, told me that I should e-mail someone named Alex Klenert, and gave me his e-mail address.

I e-mailed Klenert immediately: "I'm a blogger, and hoping to get a press password for the THINKFilm Web site. I'm especially interested in blogging about 'In the Shadow of the Moon.'" I didn't send a link to my blog.

I also, just for comparison, e-mailed the press contact at Sony Pictures Classics, a competitor of THINKFilm's; they also require a password to get your hands on press materials. (But unlike THINK, they actually give you an e-mail address on the page, without forcing you to dial New York during business hours to request a password.)

Day Four: By Monday morning, a Sony Pictures Classics person had e-mailed me back the password.

Day Seven: It wasn't until the following Thursday, October 11th, that I double-checked my notebook and realized that I had mis-spelled Alex Klenert's last name when I sent my original e-mail (my mistake), so I sent a new request that day to the correct address. I heard back from Klenert pretty quickly, asking me what my blog was. I sent the URL. (Klenert, it turns out, is vice president for publicity at THINK.)

Day Eleven: By October 15th, more than a week after my initial phone call to THINK, I still hadn't heard anything, so I e-mailed Klenert again.

Day Fourteen: On October 18th, I finally got the password to THINK's press downloads page. (Klenert apologized, and said they'd been having e-mail problems at THINKFilm.)

I suspect THINK is not going to change its position on this topic, but let me ask you indie filmmakers, producers, and distribution execs out there: should you make it that hard for someone who wants to write about your movie to write about your movie?

(The photo posted up top is my trophy from this whole effort -- a publicity still from the recent THINKFilm release 'In the Shadow of the Moon,' a really wonderful re-telling of the Apollo story.)

Quick links: 3-D, WGA blogging, Kerner Optical

Just about to head out for a packed day of meetings in San Francisco.... so some quick links:

- Gregg Kilday of the Hollywood Reporter covers a panel on digital 3-D moviemaking in South Korea, which includes some interesting thoughts on how filmmaking methods may change:

Filmmakers working in 3-D are likely to favor longer shots, [Matthew DeJohn of In-Three] said, since in 3-D, "you can look around (in the frame) and every image is more interesting than a 2-D image." There will probably be less rapid editing, so that the viewer can take in all the information on the screen, and filmmakers will also have to consider the "question of breaking the edge of the frame."

- WSJ has a story about a blog that's proving to be an important window into the Writer's Guild contract talks. From the piece:

The blog, www.artfulwriter.com, is showing the ways in which the Internet can become an important public sounding board in union negotiations that largely take place in private. Run by screenwriters Craig Mazin, who co-wrote "Scary Movie 3," and Ted Elliot, who co-wrote "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the blog is watched by both Writers Guild of America leadership and the studios as a gauge of opinion among the guild's 12,000 voting members.

Hollywood is looking for signals of how strongly guild members feel about a strike. After months of bluster, starting over the summer, negotiations for a contract between Hollywood studios and the Guild got tough last week: Some bargaining sessions collapsed and the union set a strike authorization vote deadline for Oct. 18. It seems an unscripted writers' strike in Hollywood could happen sooner -- perhaps by the end of this month -- rather than later.

- Great piece in fxguide about Kerner Optical, the model shop that spun off from ILM. This is the first comprehensive piece I've seen on what they're up to.

- I'm excited to add two guest speakers for my workshop this Thursday on digital distribution and marketing: Alex Afterman of Heretic Films and documentary filmmaker Jim Kerns.

From the IFP Conference: Everyone's in the Media

Mark Urman of THINKFilm is of course a marketing and distribution genius -- he handled "Spellbound," "Born Into Brothels," and "The Aristocrats," among other recent hits -- but here's one important thing he doesn't get. (And there's a lesson here for filmmakers.)

Urman was a panelist during an IFP session today on "Niche Marketing."

"Print media is in terrible crisis," Urman said, adding that there is no longer a guarantee that you'll get reviewed, even if you open in a theater in New York.

But blogs and Web site like MySpace, he said, are "not proven." MySpace "is not an alternative, when I have a film that will appeal to a 47-year old suburbanite. They're not going on MySpace; they're not YouTubing. They're reading the New York Times."

As Urman was talking, I was poking around the THINKFilm site.

Now, let's imagine that I was a blogger who happened to run a blog for 47-year old suburbanites, and I had just seen a THINKFilm movie (let's say it was "Then She Found Me," a great movie from Helen Hunt that THINKFilm just picked up at Toronto). I want to tell my readers about it. I go to the THINKFilm Web site looking for a promo clip from the movie, or some still photos to use on my blog. But to get to THINKFilm's press download area, you need a password -- and there's no information about how to get one. Nowhere on the site could I even find a press contact phone number or e-mail.

I work in traditional media, and I'm also a blogger -- and when I encounter a site that asks me for a password to prove that I'm legitimate media, I almost never fill it out. It's just a hassle, and too often I don't hear back until after my deadline. (Especially when there's no phone number on the page to tell you who to call to prove that you are "real" media.)

So if Urman really wanted to let non-traditional outlets promote his movies, he'd simply put the press download material out in the open, where anyone could get to them. That way, if the NY Times or Daily News don't have the resources to write about one of his movies, a thousand bloggers will be able to fill that void.

The lesson for filmmakers (and other studios): make it INCREDIBLY EASY for anyone who wants to help publicize your movie to do so. Production notes should be on your site, making-of clips, production stills, press releases, cast bios, your prize-winning recipe for beef stew, etc.

Urman did have some very good advice during the panel (I'm sorry I didn't take more notes), but THINKFilm ought to be more of a leader on its Web site.

One more comment from him, which is very good advice for indie filmmakers: from the moment a big studio green-lights a film, they start researching its likely audience and planning the PR and marketing campaign: how do we reach that audience? Indies, even though they may have fewer resources, need to start thinking about PR and marketing right out of the gates, too.

This Weekend: Woods Hole Film Festival

I had the pleasure of lunching today with filmmaker/techie David Tamés, who has been doing some shooting of late on the Ray Kurzweil documentary 'The Singularity is Near.' David has a great blog called Kino-Eye.com, and also maintains a list of events that would surely be of interest to CinemaTech readers in the Boston area.

And if you happen to be headed to Cape Cod this weekend, David has organized three really cool panels at the Woods Hole Film Festival:

- The future of long-form documentary in the age of Internet video
- Delivering Video via the Internet: Challenges and Opportunities, and
- Media Literacy in the 21st Century

Not only that, but one of David's short films, 'Smile Boston Project,' is screening at the fest next Saturday.

Netflix's new(ish) blog

Michael Rubin over at Netflix started the Netflix Community Blog back in May -- but I'm just discovering it. Lots of talk about new features being added to the site, or under consideration -- and a chance to post comments and ideas.

(Here's my friend Meghan, who manages the Netflix Queue, communicating with Netflix customers about it.)

Increasingly, this is the way every company is going to stay in touch with their most loyal customers, developing new generations of the product by listening.

How Disney/Pixar is Using Blogs to Market 'Ratatouille'

Pixar's 'Ratatouille' opens on Friday, and the company has an outside marketing agency working to build buzz among bloggers. They got in touch with me via e-mail today (two days before the release) to try to generate some coverage here.

It succeeded, but only because I think this kind of outreach is important for all filmmakers/studios to understand -- and I don't think you need to hire a marketing agency to make it happen.

An earlier post here about the movie shows up on Google when you search for "Pixar Ratatouille" (on the fifth page of the results.) My e-mail is pretty easy to find, and the PR associate simply dashed off a casual e-mail with some links to promotional content about the movie. She was very up-front about what she was doing ... which is of course crucial.

Here's the e-mail, in its entirety:

Hi!

My name is Jen [last name deleted] and I am working with Disney●Pixar on their new film RATATOUILLE. I work with the studio to distribute content online and I came across your post on the film. Thank you for supporting the movie! I just wanted to touch base and update you on some of the new assets that are available for RATATOUILLE that I thought you and your readers may find of interest.

I have included below, some of the new content for the film:

· Two rough animation tests called: “Emile’s Workout” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RklCvgYEO9w) and “Emile’s Magic Trick” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v42LVMi6Suk)
· See 9-minutes of the film here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBeTMsmU53U
· Images for the film can be viewed and downloaded here: http://www.media-file.net/4/ratatouille/
· Many more videos are available on the official on the official YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/ratatouillemovie

If you would prefer streaming links for any of these videos, I’d be happy to provide those to you as well. Just make sure to let me know what format you prefer.

Also, would like to be included on distributions for future Disney films? We have many exciting projects coming up and I would love to work with you in the future. Please let me know and I will make sure to include you.

If you have any questions, or if there is anything else that I can provide you with, please don’t hesitate to contact me. RATATOUILLE opens in theaters THIS FRIDAY, June 29th!

Your thoughts? This strikes me as very savvy...