Posts Tagged ‘film promotion’

FILM MARKETING (Part 4): FILM FESTIVAL PR STUNTS

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

By Susie Tullett (Head of DDA’s PR Unit at Cannes for over 10 years)

Film making is nothing without having your film seen, and particularly the prestige of a film festival – the ultimate film marketing event and place to get your film noticed (and in some cases, distributed!).

There is a Film Festival going on somewhere in the world every day of the year it seems to me. They all have websites, so the first thing to do is see which one is best for your film.  There are many specialist festivals: animation, horror, sci-fi etc., so choose carefully, look them up online and find out how to submit your film.  There will be submission guidelines, and you will need to follow them to the letter.

While researching this section, I came across a brilliant online piece about submitting your film to a festival. This is not a cop-out but I can’t possibly improve on it, so I encourage you to read it.  It is written by an American, but from my experience he has it absolutely spot on.  So do have a read, and I will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

http://thefix-online.com/features/getting-your-film-into-a-festival-2/

HOW TO PR YOUR FILM  AT A FILM FESTIVAL

I have attended many film festivals, but the one I know the best is Cannes, having run a busy press office there for over 20 years!  It is the one festival where pretty much anything goes as far as PR stunts are concerned and providing you don’t incur the wrath of over zealous police officers by defacing buildings or carrying offensive-looking weapons, or upset the Mayor by making the town look stupid, you should let your imagination soar.

For those who are not familiar with Cannes (and I will deal with other festivals later), out of festival time it is a sleepy seaside town. It has lovely beaches, a gorgeous promenade (La Croisette, affectionately known as the Croissant), ladies with poodles and blue rinses, fabulous restaurants, a stunning ‘old’ town, a breathtaking harbour, and elderly folk strolling along without a care in the world .  Once the Festival comes to town, all hell breaks loose and the town is taken over by film makers, producers, directors, major stars, unknown actors trying to get a break, distributors, buyers, sellers, PR outfits, inflated restaurant prices, and the beautiful hotel facades become Hollywood poster sites.  Even the air is strewn with planes flying over with streaming banners following in their wake (at a huge cost!).

Some PR Stunt Examples:

La Merditude des Choses

Stunts in Cannes range from the conventional glamorous red carpet premieres to the whacky and outrageous. It is actually possible to hype your film for the price of an EasyJet ticket to Nice and a bed for a couple of nights, and a lot of imagination.  You might also need a bit of manpower and a lot of courage!  Last year a hitherto unknown film made global headlines because of a stunt in Cannes, when director Felix van Groeningen and 35 mates cycled up and down the Croisette absolutely stark bollock naked!.  The film was called La Merditude des Choses – look it up online if you are curious!

The Bee Movie

This one probably cost a few quid in 2007 – to promote The Bee Movie, Jerry Seinfeld climbed to the top of the iconic eight-storey Carlton Hotel, dressed in a giant bee costume. Thirty minutes later, arms and legs flailing, he zoomed down a 126 meter wire which took him across the Croisette, to the beach pier below where the press pack of international media were assembled.

My PR Stunts…

I have been involved in organizing a few stunts, and some have been hugely successful and easy to organize, and some have been unmitigated disasters and have cost fortunes.  Allow me to tell you about some of them.

Case Study: Escape from El Diablo

My most spectacular disaster was when I was handling a film called ‘Escape from El Diablo’.  It’s a few years ago now, but it starred John Wayne’s youngest son Ethan, and Timothy Van Patten.  It told the story of a young man’s attempt to escape from a Mexican prison.  We knew that Ethan Wayne and Tim VP were coming to Cannes, and happily these were the days before personal publicists vetoed everything!  I decided that it would be spectacular if we could have the two boys fly over the Med in a helicopter, and then lower themselves down a dangling rope into a speedboat which would bring them to a drinks reception on the beach in front of the Carlton.  There would be hundreds of photographers of course, and it would be front page news.  The boys were up for it, the distributors agreed to pay for the chopper, and we hired a boat and a driver.  We set up the bar, loaded with Margaritas of course, and posted huge alerts in the press room. We were all set.

The day finally arrived; the boys were met at the local airport and taken on board the chopper with my enthusiastic assistant.  I was really excited, and raced down the Croisette to the waiting horde of photographers to find – no one!  Not one damn photographer other than my own ‘house’ photographer who we had paid to be there!  Panic…..more panic.  I was getting messages saying the chopper was ready to fly, but I had to stall them.  What on earth could have happened?  It turned out that a press conference for David Bowie had overrun and all the press and photographers were locked in to the Palais (the Cannes conference centre).  In the end, we could hold the helicopter no more, and I had about 5 minutes to find as many photographers as I could.  Please remember dear reader, there were NO mobile phones at this stage of the game, so I had to literally run up to everyone who had a camera, and yes, most of them were tourists, and drag them to my temporary Mexican bar!  Nightmare.  Suddenly, a colleague from the office came dashing down to me saying the driver of the boat refused to go out to pick them up since the weather had changed and the sea was too choppy…..Oh My God!  Now what?  I just wanted to drink the bar dry and run away…..I had no press, no photographers, and now it was looking like no stunt.  I still go cold when I think of this moment, and its more than 20 years ago……

In the end, my two adventurous actors came down the rope as close to the Carlton as they could, and actually jumped in to the water, and swam in!  Bless them….it did make the papers the next day but literally by the skin of our teeth.  I never, ever used a helicopter again.  The whole drama was made worse when someone nicked my idea and pulled off the perfect helicopter stunt two days later…..aaaaaargh!

A Stunt that costs nothing: Use Photocalls

Photocalls in Cannes, are a great way to attract press attention.  Think back to the early days of the festival when Brigitte Bardot first appeared on a beach in a bikini (or ask your parents!).  Since then every wannabe starlet has stripped off on the beach for a photographer.  You only need one (starlet and one photographer!), and within minutes there are hundreds of paparazzi flocking round your willing semi-naked victim.  A photocall costs nothing to stage, you just need to make sure the photographers know where, when and that it sounds exciting and unmissable.  Mind you, vying for press attention time in Cannes is not easy.  Everyone is trying to promote something, from morning, noon to night.

Case Study: Frauds

I did a photocall once for a film called FRAUDS, where I found a lovely Victorian merry-go-round just across from the Majestic Hotel, by the beach.  The film starred Phil Collins and Hugo Weaving, and at 8.30am one morning I got the owner to open up early and did a really fun photocall.  We made all the papers the next day.  The power of the photo! Mind you, I had to line the owner’s palm!! Nothing for nothing in Cannes…..or very little anyway!

Case Study: Deflating Arnie!

But I am not the only one to suffer defeat at the hands of a stunt.  One year, one of the biggest distribs on earth put up a giant blow-up figure of Arnie Schwarzenegger on a pontoon on the sea.  It was huge, and Arnie was packing a gun.  It looked so impressive and could be seen for miles and miles…but it soon turned into a bit of a disaster when Arnie started to deflate overnight.  By the next morning the blow-up was virtually half its size and the gun was wavering rather dangerously around the model’s crotch.  It looked like a mini Arnie, with a huge erection! ‘Nuff said.

If you are lucky enough to get your film to Cannes, have a good long think about a stunt.  If it works it can be brilliant, and if not you could end up with egg on your face.  I’ve seen a few, but I think my favourite has to be 35 naked men cycling up the Croisette!  Classic. And it was the one year I was NOT in Cannes!!!

Some very basic rules on how to stage a PR stunt:

  • Make sure the stunt has impact – do something big, dramatic, outrageous and relevant to your film
  • Use your imagination – clever  ideas nearly always beat expense for coverage
  • Find some of the photographers before hand and issue flyers etc so that they know its happening – you’ll see them at any of the main events happening so go round and hand them out afterwards – otherwise engage a PR specialist who knows everyone – see tips below!
  • It won’t always work – circumstances and other events need to be taken into consideration when planning a stunt

How to do a photocall in Cannes and alert photographers

This follows for every major festival, but my experience is of Cannes so I will use that to explain the process.

The best way to alert the photographers of an upcoming photocall is to create a poster – large sheet of paper, coloured marker, a photograph of the subject if you have one, and away you go – then take it to the main festival building (Palais des Festivals in Cannes) armed with your Blue-tac, display it for all to see in the Press office, and in the photographers room.  Security at the Palais (and at other festivals) these days is a bit of a problem, so if you don’t have your official ‘pass’ – which also gets you in to all the hotels, unless you are Arnie or Sly, or roll up to the front of the Carlton in a limo – you are likely to hit problems.  However, so long as you don’t deface anything, or destroy any trees, be resourceful, and as suggested earlier, hand out flyers at someone else’s photocall, or get there early enough for when the photographers are walking in.

Timing for the Stunt…

Choose a time of day when the light is good, and there isn’t much happening – so avoid lunchtime, which despite it being the busiest time of day, is rubbish light and there is too much going on, and the French are eating!  Around 5pm is ideal, just as the sun is beginning to weaken and the light is ‘soft’.  There are very few ‘public’, therefore FREE places left during Festival time, and greedy entrepreneurs will wring the last Euro wherever possible, but two of the beaches are free, and always full – we did a fabulous Kung Fu demonstration one early evening on the beach, with a lovely man called Chuck Norris.  The kids were out of school, catching the last rays of the day, and we were mobbed by families and snappers alike.  There is the Croisette itself, where you will often see mime artists, buskers, jugglers, and a rather dubious bloke who has a cat and a mouse doing tricks together (they have to be drugged right?). Everyone is plying their trade in Cannes, and with a little imagination, you can ply yours too.

There is a press screening every morning at 8.30am – this is the official press screening of the ‘official’ competition red carpet screening of the same night.  There are other press screenings of course, but only one official ‘main’ competition film per day.  This culminates in the prize giving at the end of the Festival.  Generally speaking therefore, between 8.30am and 11am, Cannes is pretty quiet as all the journalists are watching movies and then attending press conferences.  The photographers are generally twiddling their thumbs, nursing their hangovers and looking for a killer picture.  This is another time of day that can work for a photocall.  But do give the snappers a couple of days’ notice, and check out the competition.  No point in you driving your army tank down the main street with a couple of naked ladies sitting atop, if Penelope Cruz and Meryl Streep are announcing their first film together!

Good luck when you enter!

Next Time: The EPK – what to include, what not to!



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Tags: directors, film festival PR, film festivals, Film Marketing, Film PR, film production, film promotion, Film Publicity, filmmakers, films, how to PR your film, independent film production, One Fat Cigar, PR Stunts
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FILM MARKETING: HOW TO WRITE A KILLER FILM PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

By Susie Tullett ( Head of DDA’s Film PR team in Cannes for over 10 years)

Introduction

One of the keys to film marketing is the press release. This should provide a very basic guide as to the crucial elements of writing your release and how to push and promote it. For the benefit of feature filmmakers on a budget I will use a case study of the Illusionist (Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti, Rufus Sewell) to illustrate how to write a unit press release (rather than a launch release) for a relatively low budget film. We will deal with a film festival launch in my next article.

I should also stress that this blog is about interaction, if you have questions or thoughts or things that are specific that you would like to see, please feel free to include them below. I want it to be as useful as it can be, while covering the key elements you’ll need to succeed and providing some basic rules to follow.

A press release contains basic information about your film, and initially should announce the start date, the cast and the location.  It goes without saying the headline should be snappy and smart and there are various ways you can do this.

Rule 1 – The Headline is King

First of all, consider the most important part of the story – for this is ultimately news.  If it’s the subject of the film, include that in the headline.  If you have managed to cast someone on the up and up, make his/her name prominent; if you are filming in an unusual location, make that the subject.  For example:

Derelict Power Station becomes Dodge City in thrilling new Western

Council Give Rare Permission to Film in Haunted London Cemetery

Rookie Helmer Harry Hampton helps himself to weird movie location

Star Magician to act as movie adviser on new thriller from Prism Pictures

….in case you are wondering, these are all made up, but they do tell you something about the film without naming any of the actors. If your cast is unknown then let the location become the star.

If you have managed to secure rights to an unusual project, like an autobiography for example, your headline might read something like this:

Lengthy legal wrangle ends with family signature for Charlie Chaplin biopic

The Life and Times of Charlie Chaplin….to be filmed finally!

Charlie Chaplin’s life laid bare in daring new movie

….I think you get the picture!

If you are lucky enough to have a starring name heading your case, make sure he or she is included in the headline.  You hardly need examples but I am on a roll now…..

Brad Pitt to play Jekyll and Hyde


George Clooney uglies up to play The Elephant Man in breathtaking new drama

Angelina Jolie and the Pitt-pack to star in a horror version of The Sound of Music

Rule 2- Keep it simple – stick to the facts!

In all honesty, a press release should be really simple.  The facts, the start date, the storyline, the cast and producer/director credits.  In my early days, you could pretty much rely on a press release being reproduced verbatim in a paper or magazine, but today with so much competition, and so many media outlets, many press releases end up in the bin!  There are just too many to read.   This is why yours has to stand out with a colourful headline, a clever alliteration or something that stops you dead in your tracks.

Case Study: The Illusionist

Here’s one I wrote at the start of principal photography of The Illusionist, starring Edward Norton, Jessica Biel and Paul Giamatti.  Nothing particularly clever about it, as it had to encompass a lot of information.  This was also aimed at mainly film trade press, e.g Screen International, Hollywood Reporter and Variety, as well as to flag it up to international press. However it does serve as a good example of a basic, straight-forward film press release.

PRESS RELEASE

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY UNDERWAY IN PRAGUE ON

BULL’S EYE’S THE ILLUSIONIST

Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell and Eddie Marsan head cast in Neil Burger’s stylish screen adaptation of

Steven Millhauser’s short story ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’

Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly.

-Paracelsus (1493- 1541)

Prague, 4th April 2005: Nine weeks of principal photography are underway on location in Prague on THE ILLUSIONIST, director Neil Burger’s (Interview with the Assassin) screen adaptation of Steven Millhauser’s short story ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’.  Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a magician in early 1900’s Vienna, who falls in love with a woman well above his social standing.  When she becomes engaged to a crown prince, the magician uses his powers to win her back and undermine the stability of the royal house of Vienna.

Neil Burger directs, with Cathy Schulman and Bob Yari of Bull’s Eye Entertainment / Yari Film Group and Michael London of Michael London Productions producing, alongside Brian Koppelman & David Levien and Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds Geschaeftsfuehrungs GmbH’s Andreas Schmid.  Jane Garnett of Michael London Productions , Andreas Grosch of Entertainment VIP Medienfonds Geschaeftsfuehrungs GmbH and Tom Nunan of Bull’s Eye Entertainment executive produce.  Matthew Stillman and David Minkowski of Stillking Films co-produce with Tom Karnowski.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton heads the stellar cast in the lead role of Eisenheim.  Norton rose to prominence starring opposite Richard Gere in Primal Fear, for which he gained his first Academy Award nomination and has gone on to star in numerous Hollywood blockbusters such as The People vs Larry Flynt, Fight Club, Red Dragon and The Italian Job.

Golden Globe nominee Paul Giamatti, stars alongside in the role of Inspector Uhl. Giamatti’s illustrious career includes starring roles in Man on the Moon and Duets, and award winning leading roles in American Splendor and Sideways, for which he received his Golden Globe nomination.

Jessica Biel, fast becoming one of Hollywood’s most sought after actresses following starring roles in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Blade: Trinity and most recently Stealth and Elisabethtown, stars opposite Norton as Sophie, the beautiful woman with whom Eisenheim falls in love.

Rufus Sewell (A Knights Tale, Dark City, and the upcoming Legend of Zorro); Eddie Marsan (Vera Drake, 21 Grams, Gangs of New York); Jake Wood (Vera Drake, Flesh & Blood); Tom Fisher (Van Helsing, The Mummy Returns, Enigma); and introducing fourteen year old actor Aaron Johnson (Shanghai Nights) as young Eisenheim.

Prior to shooting, director Neil Burger immersed himself enthusiastically into the fascinating world of magic and the art of illusion, working closely with renowned magician Ricky Jay in order to perfect the extraordinary tricks performed in the film.  British Magic Circle member James Freedman is also acting as Magic Consultant on the movie and has been training Edward Norton, and young Aaron Johnson in perfecting the art of sleight of hand for their roles.  The illusions will be performed in the film as they were performed in the early 1900′s with little CGI interference, and no state of the art cinematic trickery.

THE ILLUSIONIST is financed by The Yari Film Group as well as Film & Entertainment VIP Medienfonds Geschaeftsfuehrungs GmbH and produced by Bull’s Eye Entertainment and Michael London Productions, alongside Brian Koppelman & David Levien Productions. Stillking Films co-produces.

International sales on THE ILLUSIONIST are being handled by Syndicate Films International.

This was a particularly complex release, as there were multiple producers.  It was too long for my liking, but I had to include all those names, and ‘boilerplate’ details. Keep the release short, sweet and newsworthy.

Rule 3 – Always, Always include contact information at the end of the release.

Journalists may often need more information than you have included, require still photographs or wish to contact the ‘star name’ for an interview. Accommodate them.

E.g. Susie@SusieTullettProductions.com – Unit Publicist, The Illusionist

And a telephone number!

……………………………………..

You’ve written the release, now get it out there!

So, what do you do with the press release now that it’s written?  Well, the whole idea is to get your film noticed so it should be sent out to the press and/or anyone you hope will be interested.

Social Networks

Send it to friends and family, use services such as prnewswire, propeller, digg and make sure you share with your friends these links and ask them to ‘prop’ your release this gets it noticed as a rising article that might be of interest to others. Then post a link to it through status updates on Twitter and Facebook (and via your fan page that you will have already set up!) and send them to Propeller or Digg. (If you like the article you are reading now you can Prop it, or Digg it) – the more people who do this the more will be aware of your film, and to show you the power of that please simply ‘Prop’ to say you like the article.

Prop: http://pplr.us/s/Oiky/

Digg: http://digg.com/d314WRf

We’ll deal more about the detail of this in our online PR element section in a later blog post, but social networks are brilliant for PR, especially since you can include video media content and all the things you need in your EPK.

Press Lists

If you don’t have access to up to date press lists,  my very simple advice is to spend a day at the library (or better still, delegate this task!) trawling through the daily/Sunday/weekly papers and making a note of the writers of film features or reviews and their addresses.  You will soon compile a decent list of national and local press. If your film has a theme -  horror, fantasy, sci-fi, politics, religion, murder, romance, fashion etc – then research specialist publications catering specifically to that market.   There are of course media directories, publications in the UK like the ‘Editors’ series, PR Planner, and others but they charge a lot for them.  PR News online is also a good source of information and PR Week. Don’t forget your local radio and TV stations – they are all Google-able, email them with your release. Be polite. You would like to announce your new feature film!

Rule 4 – Build Relationships

When you write, make sure the email isn’t generic. Research your specific journalist, read what they have written, what they like – and don’t. Include a covering email to the release and mention some of their articles. Be friendly – they are interested if you are interested in them and have a story to tell. You will soon be known as someone who gives good valuable information and doesn’t waste time.
PR is all about relationships. It seems simple, and it is. People need to trust you and integrity is everything. Make sure that through all that you do you keep this integrity, always be conscious of your behavior towards others, it is a two-way street, you do well, and they were able to break the story for you it reflects well on them.

Rule 5 – Have Fun – it reflects in your writing!

I have had great fun making up headlines for press releases, and you can do the same.  Every day I read clever one-liners on Facebook and Twitter…I haven’t a clue what they mean, but they do make me wonder.  That is what your release has to do, make people interested, interested enough to pick up the phone to you and say ‘tell me more’.  Then you can invite them to your set, and the communication ball will be rolling.

Next time: How to Launch and PR your film at a festival!

What to do now:


Tags: directors, Edward Norton, facebook page, Film Marketing, Film PR, film promotion, Film Publicity, films, how to PR your film, independent film production, independent filmmakers, Jessica Biel, Susie Tullett, The Illusionist
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Mission Statement For Filmmakers, Writers, Actors, and those who Love Film!

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Afternoon all,

This is our first blog and I guess a bit of a mission statement.

We haven’t won anything. Don’t really want to. We want to have fun making original, challenging, dangerous, adventurous, humourous, flaw ridden films that have a degree of character. Something to talk about. We want to help talented up-and-coming and professional film makers, writers, actors, make the best films possible through our One Fat Cigar website and most importantly get their work seen by the public.

How? We like to think of this site as a one-stop-shop. A piece of Film Making Equipment. Put up your (feature/short/ad/music video/tv drama) project, when you have just an idea. A script, something before a script. Post the fact that you need a writer for your idea. Make a new friend and get something written. Blog about it. Video or otherwise. Do a bit of finance raising, then crew and cast your film. Cast can even apply with their showreel, so you can see what they’ve done and how good they are, invite them to audition perhaps or just search and find them, or get a Casting Director to do it for you. Likewise for Directors and Film Makers. Attach them to your project, make some more friends and they too can post blogs if you want. And all the time, the film loving public are becoming fans of what you’re doing, following your work, getting updated about it. And they know it’s real – direct from the real film maker, because they can see you on camera.

In pre-production, upload images, stills, moving pictures, interviews, location reccis, artwork. Don’t let us know everything, we want to be teased. We like working titles, maybe we’ll give you an opinion on it.

In production, we want to know how you’re doing, setting up shots, make-up, out-takes, interviews with key team people, talk us through the kit you like. Maybe a DOP blog, there’s a piece of cinematography we just love. More stills please. More trivia.

Take us through post, show us trailers, let’s talk with the Editor, Director. How are you getting on with a distributor? Maybe we need to pool the support of fans, get them shouting. If a distributor is smart, they’ll be listening anyway. If they’re not the more film makers on here doing it, the more they’ll have to listen, the more fans there are.

Most of all we all love characters… which is why we become fans after all. Show us yours.

About Us….

We’re friendly, say hello! If we can help we will, or suggest ways we could do something better? Tell us. We might like it and do it. We’re also quite small, so bear with us while we add features that you want and we want for you… we’re just starting and with your support we’ll get better.

Ross and Craig, co-founders, One Fat Cigar.

P.S. Someone asked about the name. When anyone makes it in the film industry, all we can ever remember seeing is the stereotype of someone smoking a ridiculously big cigar. Think Wolverine. We’re hoping some of you are already doing that and others will be shortly – making the best films possible.

Things to do…

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Tags: actors, best films, directors, fat cigar, film fans, film network, film production, film promotion, independent film production, independent films, writers
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