PMD Rising
As some of you may know, I coined a new crew category titled the Producer of Marketing and Distribution (or PMD) in my book Think Outside the Box Office. I came up with the idea when trying to think of a solution to the enormous amount of work that distribution and marketing can be for filmmakers without a distributor. The concept boils down to: you didn’t make your film on your own – why should you release it on your own. You can read about the concept of the PMD in one of my other posts. I am happy to report that this concept is gaining traction. I was spurred to write this post after 25% (20 out of 80) of each of my Perth and Adelaide workshops indicated that they wanted to be PMDs (this is before my upcoming classes in Sydney and Melbourne). In Adelaide, the SA Film Corporation has plans to set up an in house PMD to help support the distribution efforts of independent filmmakers in South Australia.
Also just this week Adam Daniel Mezei who in January wrote a great blog post about the responsibilities of a PMD, has set himself up as a PMD for Hire. One of the attendees of my Amsterdam workshop has another PMD site and is already working on a Dutch film as a PMD. A group of Vancouver attendees formed a PMD support group this past month.
I feel that this beginning indicates that there a huge numbers of potential PMDs in the world who love films, don’t want to be on set and love the work of distribution and marketing. These are the people we filmmakers should seek out to be our PMDs.
This August I will be heading to the University Film and Video Conference (for US film school profs) to give 2 presentations on how and why to teach film distribution and marketing to film students. This is not just so that writer/directors can be aware of the realities of the world that awaits them, it is also to train a new generation of PMDs (and their support crew).
Finally, I will be working on my own educational initiative for PMDs (beyond the 2 day workshops that I am giving).
My goal is that in five years time, whenever a filmmaker puts out a call for a PMD they will receive as many resumes for a PMD as for a DP or Editor or AD. Even if a film ends up with traditional distribution, the work of a PMD during prep, production and post is invaluable. If the film doesn’t obtain traditional distribution (or doesn’t want traditional distribution) a PMD (and a complete distribution and marketing crew) are vital.
from Melbourne July 22, 2010
Seize the Power Why You Should Pay Attention to the LAFF Symposium this Weekend
Two weeks ago I wrote a guest post on Truly Free Film about the need to educate filmmakers on distribution and marketing their films. This weekend the Los Angeles Film Festival is hosting a truly wonderful event which I am proud to have developed in collaboration with LAFF and Film Independent (with strong push and support from Ted Hope): Seize the Power: A Marketing and (DIY)stribution Symposium.
The Symposium is designed to focus on the nuts and bolts solutions to the current distribution and marketing malaise plaguing our industry. The intention is to provide an introduction to a wealth of new tools for filmmakers (and all artists/media content creators) as well as strategic guidance from many of the key practitioners and thought leaders in our field. It is an antidote to the concerns of too much talk talk talk on this subject with little true education.
In addition there is a non-public component that you can participate in via twitter. I will be giving a distribution and marketing boot camp to the LAFF competition filmmakers Friday June 18th 9am – 12:30pm and 2:30pm – 5pm and Saturday June 19th from 9am-11:30am. All times PST. We will be tweeting bullet points on #totbo We have done this in the workshops I have given in the past month – and we have found that people around the world start to participate and chime in – creating a global discussion around these topics.
The Symposium: Starting Saturday afternoon at 1pm – Ted kicks it off with a presentation on the need for the artist entrepreneur to encourage filmmakers to think expansively about their creative output in order to create sustainable careers. This is followed by a plethora of service providers (from Orly Ravid of the Film Collaborative to Yancy Strickler of Kickstarter to Bob Moczydlowsky of Topspin) that we brought together so that filmmakers could learn the best ways to put these tools into practice in their own careers.
Sunday morning will kick off with a discussion between myself and Corey McAbee (The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam). We will explore how he uses the new distribution and marketing tools and landscape to create a viable artistic career for himself. Caitlin Boyle from Film Sprout will give one of her incredible introductions to grassroots audience development and distribution. I am super excited to see Lance Weiler and Henry Jenkins on Transmedia. (somehow Lance always has a way of frying my brain – in a good way). The inimitable Peter Broderick will lead a discussion on crowdfunding, Colleen Nystedt and Sean Percival will present different tactics for audience engagement. The event will cap with one of those incredible Film Independent public case study examinations of two films: Children of Invention and Bass Ackwards.
Last but not least – it will give filmmakers an opportunity to connect with each other and the presenters. Come on down and introduce yourself, learn and contribute. I hope to see you there (ps I won’t be there Saturday afternoon due to my daughter’s dance recital :) – but Ted will be in the house and many others!)
Jon Reiss TOTBO Tip of the Day 35 – A Meta Stream of Tips
Today’s tip will be a meta tip. If you go to Twitter and search #totbo you will see the stream of tips, ideas, comments, suggestions etc from everyone who was engaged in the Totbo NY Workshop in the room in NYC or who virtually participated in distant lands! Kudos to all the participants at the NYC Totbo Workshop this weekend who sent out hundreds of tweets about what was being covered in the workshop. And special kudos to @khanb1 who compiled all the posts into a tumblr post – click here for the link.
So the NY workshop was great – we had over 70 people in the room – with special guests Sheri Candler, Caitlin Boyle and Lance Weiler. Next stop Vancouver, the Los Angeles Film Festival Symposium, followed by a four city tour of Australia in July and then San Francisco on July 31/August 1st. Check out the Totbo site for information.
Totbo Workshop Twitter Winner 3: How to Keep Fans Coming Back
Totbo Workshop Pass Twitter Winner # 3
@ Missmichaelshow do u keep fans coming back to your FB fanpage thru marketing w/out crossing the line into spam world & losing fans? #dist2010
This one I could have easily responded to in Twitter: By providing content and information – especially content that is entertaining and usefull to your audience.
I would say 80% of what you tweet/blog/fb about should be about what interests your audience that is not information about your film. Social media is not primarily about promotion. It is about engagement first then if you engage people you can promote. If you provide value to people then they might be inclined to join you on your journey. For our Bomb It blog during production we rarely posted about the film – we posted about what was going on in the world of graff and street art so that we became a go-to resource about the world our audience was interested in.
Totbo Twitter Question Winner 2: What Skills Does a PMD Need
From @Jakestetler #dist2010 What skills and/or experience do you look for in a great PMD for a film project?
I chose this because I really love when I see people adopting the PMD concept. I love this because I see this as one of the keys toward helping filmmakers cope with their new responsibilities of distribution and marketing, while understanding that they have a film to make:
A PMD should have good sales and marketing experience, should be a good salesperson, personable, good on the phone, enthusiastic. Those qualities will usually mean that they they most likely have a love of social media and connecting with people on line and in person. Additional good qualities: organized, hard worker, gets stuff done, has an understanding of the distribution world, a good numbers sense.
Alternatively especially on very small films – should posses the qualities the filmmaker does not. Eg if the filmmaker is already a good salesperson but is scattered – a PMD should be organized and focused almost more than anything.
Time to start the PMD Academy. The first step of the PMD Academy will be www.ultimatefilmguides.com. A centralized hub of information and resources about distribution and marketing.
Truly Free Film Feed- A Nice Paragraph Capturing Reality Of Today September 2, 2010I recently had the pleasure of coming across this fine bit of reading, and I thought it summed up our current state of the film biz quite well. And heck, it may even protect you from some liabilities down the road… The Parties hereby acknowledge that there is presently no executed agreement with any distributor to distribute the Picture. The[…] […]tedhope
- A Nice Paragraph Capturing Reality Of Today September 2, 2010
- TOTBO Tip of the Day
- Tip of the Week: How to Cope With Symposium Brain FryI heard a number of comments after this weekend’s LAFF Seize the Power Symposium that people where overwhelmed – that their brain’s had been fried by so many ideas and so much information. To me that’s a sign that we succeeded. When Film Independent and the Los ... […]
- Tip of the Week: How to Cope With Symposium Brain Fry
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