Jon Reiss

TOTBO Tip of the Day 11 Developing Organizational Relationships

Jon Reiss’ TOTBO Tip of the Day 11 Developing Organizational Relationships

Last week I spoke about connecting with audience, creating a dynamic website and bloggin. Today’s tip is how to create relationships between your film organizations that should be interested in your film. This is an especially useful strategy for documentaries that naturally have a wide range of potential issue-oriented sites to connect to. But with a little outside-the-box thinking you can probably find relevant sites for your narrative film as well.

Ways to create a relationship with other sites/organizations:
1. Blog about their sites and link to them.
2. Request that they link back to you.
3. Send them your film and ask them to blog about the film and/or review it. (This also helps your search engine rankings — search engines will improve the rankings of sites that other sites not only link to but also write about.)
4. Go one step further: Create an affiliate relationship with those sites or organizations.
5. Use this relationship to generate community screenings.

My workshops start this week in London on May 8th-9th and Amsterdam on May 12th-13th. Hope to see you there!

I want to know what you think! Comment here or on my blog, or @Jon_Reiss on twitter, or on the TOTBO Facebook page. Check out the book Think Outside the Box Office. I look forward to hearing from you.

TOTBO Tip of the Day 10 Blog

Blogging helps in two ways: First, it drives traffic to your site as you link to new and interesting stories that are related to the subject of your film (For Bomb It, we post news about graffiti around the world.) And second, your blogging activity will help your site’s SEO (search engine optimization). This will result in higher search rankings for your film in relevant categories. What to blog about? Of course you should blog about your film, your filmmaking experiences and your screenings, but you should also consider blogging about subjects that relate to your film and your film’s audience. This will make your project relevant to them on a broader level and keep them coming back to your site. One simple way to come up with information to blog about is to use Google Alerts. We received a weekly Google Alert about “graffiti” and “street art” and select a few top articles to blog about.

My live workshops are coming to London on May 8th-9th and Amsterdam on May 12th-13th. Hope to see you there!

I want to know what you think! Comment here or on my blog, or @Jon_Reiss on twitter, or on the TOTBO Facebook page. Check out the book Think Outside the Box Office. I look forward to hearing from you.

TOTBO Tip of the Day 8 Engage Organizations to Promote Your Film

Step 2 of Audience Engagement is: Know WHERE your audience derives information/congregates.

Many niche’s have organizations that support those specific topics and interests. Engage those organizations early in your filmmaking process (as early as conception and prep). It is important to have the proper attitude toward your audience and these organizations. You need to think, “What can I give them?” instead of “What can they do for me?” If you think of the former, the latter will flow. People are very busy. You need to give them an incentive to be involved with you. The film is not enough. How will the film service their organization, their lives and the lives of their members? In turn, they will help you promote your film to your direct audience. This has been used by great effect by documentary filmmakers. Narrative filmmakers need to follow their lead.

My live workshops are coming to London on May 8th-9th and Amsterdam on May 12th-13th. Hope to see you there!

I want to know what you think! Comment here or on my blog, or @Jon_Reiss on twitter, or on the TOTBO Facebook page. Check out the book Think Outside the Box Office. I look forward to hearing from you.

TOTBO Tip of the Day 7 Differentiating Core and Niche Audiences

The terms Core and Niche are often used interchangeably and this is a mistake. The niche audience for your film is that slice of the population that has a particular interest in your film or an aspect of your film. The core audience for your film is those people within each niche that are your most ardent supporters. Those people who will spread the word about your film to not only their networks, but to the rest of that niche. You can have multiple niches that are interested in your film, and within each niche there is a core who combined adds up to the core of your film.

My live workshops are coming to London on May 8th-9th and Amsterdam on May 12th-13th. Hope to see you there!

I want to know what you think! Comment here or on my blog, or @Jon_Reiss on twitter, or on the TOTBO Facebook page. Check out the book Think Outside the Box Office. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jon and Sheri Candler to Join ‘Gone Fishing’ Chris Jones in Workshop in London

Distribution In 2010 For You And Your Film – We are flying in Jon Reiss and Sheri Candler from LA!
By CHRIS JONES

‘Revealing the new distribution and marketing realities is of critical importance to film makers and our community. Media content creators of all types need to understand that the days in which you could merely “create” and let someone else distribute and market are nearly over. A new paradigm exists in which making films and finding a way for that film to reach an audience are not merely equally important, but need to be organically integrated into a seamless whole.’ – Jon Reiss, Los Angeles March 2010

When we wrote the first edition of The Guerilla FilmMakers Handbook back in 1994, people wanted to know… ‘how the heck do you make a film?’ Now in 2010 and six books later, we know that you can make a film. In fact, we are pretty sure you can make a terrific film. But making a film is no longer the problem.

For the first time in the history of commercial film making, YOU THE FILM MAKER, can create powerful, sustainable and income generating distribution models WITHOUT THE EXCLUSIVE NEED for third parties such as a sales agents, distributors and even broadcasters.

Your film CAN succeed or fail based on YOUR HARD WORK, TALENT, THE STORY YOU CHOOSE TO TELL AND THE BUSINESS MODEL YOU BUILD.

Finally, we are in full control of the flow of money back to us… the entrepreneurs and creatives! It’s never been more exciting to be a film maker.

Click here for more info…