Jonathan Brun

How to market your indie film or documentary

I have no experience in the movie industry, have never made a movie, and probably couldn’t make one either. But, I recently had an interesting email exchange with the creators of the documentary Buck. I contacted them to outline my frustration at trying to watch the movie in Canada. The movie had been on the festival circuit for many months, and was available on DVD in the United States, but it was not available in Canada. On their website, they mention a number of screenings in Canada, none of which were in Montréal.

Due to my frustration, I ended up illegally downloading the film to watch it. In this blog post, I plan to lay out my thoughts on how film makers can more effectively market their documentary or small indie film.

Let’s face it, the industry’s distribution model is completely broken – it is based in a world where the Internet does not exist. Film makers must fix their marketing strategy so that they can increase revenues and facilitate financing for future films.

1. Don’t waste 80% of your marketing budget!

Movies spend most of their advertising budget in the run up to the theatrical release. But ,by the time the film is ready for distribution on iTunes, NetFlix, and other large scale platforms – the public has forgotten your ads.

Time your advertising with easy access to your film. Since the best way to distribute your movie today is through online systems, not theatres, your marketing budget for online and theatrical release should be adjusted accordingly. Obviously leverage social media for promotion – Facebook, Twitter, etc.

You could also release the film online from the start to maximize exposure from reviews and critical acclaim.

2. Don’t release your film by country, eh!

With the internet, it’s insane to try and stagger your releases by country. When someone in Canada has to wait months to see your US movie, they will inevitably turn to a pirated copy, I did.

Most of your marketing will and should be done online. Because online marketing can easily link to a purchase or rental of your film, it seems wise to ensure it is available everywhere simultaneously. Because the producers of the Matrix 2 knew their audience was tech savvy and would pirate the film; they decided to release it globally at the same time. It worked.

3. Theatres no longer guarantee a better viewing experience

The traditional argument for releasing to theatres has been that the theatre provides the most authentic experience of the film as intended by the creators. In 2011, millions of homes have amazing HD TVs, surround sound and great seating: the theatre -quality argument seems weaker by the day.

As a side note, the move to 3D films in theatres has clearly been to keep consumers coming out to theatres, theatre companies are very aware of this HD TV issue. For traditional 2D movies and especially films that play in smaller artistic theatres, the home often provides a higher quality experience than the theatre.

It all boils down to this: someone has to break the control theatres and distributors have on movie creators. I understand the prestige of releasing your film in theatres, but if your goal is to have as many people as possible pay to see it; theatres are no longer the best approach.

Film production costs have been dramatically reduced thanks to HD cameras and high power computers. Filmmakers have un-rivalled distribution channels to millions of people; yet, they still seem set on the old model of festivals and theatres.

Your goal as a movie creator should be to earn a healthy living and have your film enjoyed by as many people see it as possible, not to get awards and help movie theatres. Simply stated, I think movie creaters should bypass the existing distribution traps, market your film directly to your audience, and retain ownership of the entire process.

It took the music industry a decade and billions of dollars to learn this lesson, how long will it take the film industry?

If you have not read the Long Tail by Marc Anderson of Wired magazine, please do.

On Steve Jobs

In 2003 my friend Louis introduced me to Apple, it’s been a one way trip. It’s sometimes hard to explain to people what makes Apple’s products different; how do you explain the nuance of serif and sans-serif font, the click of a keyboard or the lightness of a Macbook Air. Of course, it’s not one of these innovations that makes Apple stand out, but rather the uncomprimising combination of them.

Yes, Apple makes consumer products for relatively wealthy people. Yes, there are bigger problems and greater issues in the world. But, Apple and its undying devotion to perfection inspired and empowered many of us to do what we do today.

It is hard to imagine I’ve much to add to what will be said. Yet, it is however as simple as this; to honour Steve Jobs and his legacy, ask yourself: What would you do with your time on earth if it were limited to 56 years.

Do that, and nothing else, and the world will be a better place.

The human touch

TED talks are always good, sometimes they’re great. The talk below by doctor Abraham Verghese outlines the importance of the human relationship in medicine. In many fields, we are increasingly relying on analytics, statistics, reports and metrics – but we forget that behind the numbers lie people, patients, customers, clients, friends. Take 20 minutes to watch this talk, it’s definitely worth it.

Personally, I’m continually trying to find ways to be more personal – going to events, participating in the community and caring about other peoples’ stories. Pay attention to details and lean into conversations.

Brief Update

I have not had much time to update the blog lately. In the past month, I have travelled a lot. A trip to Washington D.C. for a wedding, which was visited by non other than hurricane Irene. The hurricane stranded us on an island with no power for 24 hours, but good times were had by all and it was a most memorable wedding! That was followed by a business trip to Philadelphia to present the use of iPads in the auditing world and the role of technology in the workplace. Then a nice long weekend in New York City where I managed to try some amazing food and visit Harlem and other parts of the city I had not yet seen. Lastly, we took a Montréal Ouvert trip up to Québec City.

In Québec, Jean-Noé Landry and I had the privelege to present open data to the Assemblée Nationale. We have been working insanely hard on Montréal Ouvert for 14 months now, so the the trip to Québec was definitly a personal highlight. Deputies, public servants and other great people came to meet us and discuss open-data. In partnership with the Gautrin Public consultation group, we presented in the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (a personal hero of mine) meeting room; the participants were very welcoming to the open data and will hopefully become enthousastic champions (our presentation is here). During the same trip, Jean-Noé and I managed to participate in the launch of Capitale Ouverte.

Capitale Ouverte is a citizen initiative for open data for the city of Québec and was inspired by the hard work done at Montréal Ouvert. With an open data policy and portal on the horizon for Montréal, I hope it will not be long before we see one at the provincial level and for Québec city.

Read more at the Montréal Ouvert Blog.

Chocolate covered criminals

Chocolate is a delicious, delicious treat; however, it is far too often tainted with the sweat of child slaves. While slavery in the chocolate industry remains a small portion of the global slave population (~27 million people enslaved today), it is something that can easily be fixed.

Today, the cacao industry employees somewhere between 15 000 and 100 000 children in the Ivory Coast (as of 2002), which represents 40% of the world chocolate production of about 3.6 million tonnes. Hundreds (if not thousands) of children are trafficked every year from Burkina Faso, Ghana and other countries to work in the Ivory Coast, children go for 230 euros or less.

I don’t think anyone argues this is a good thing, so let’s move straight to possible solutions. To eat chocolate produced through slavery is to support slavery. Or as Frederick Douglas once said,

No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

Chocolate is big business and requires a constant flow of cacao beans at low-cost. By making intelligent purchasing decisions and voicing your concern to cacao bean producers, the use of child labour can be addressed.

How can you help? The safest bet is to buy fair trade chocolate, though limited in availability, it does ensure a certain level of verification. Buying chocolate that uses beans from South America should also reduce your exposure to child slave labour.

The alternative is to try to avoid chocolate by the main companies who do not seem willing to enforce child labour laws in their supply chain (though some are doing more than others). Nestle (Nestle contact page), with 12% world market share, should be your first target, also consider Cargill (cocoa@cargill.com), Kraft (Contact Page), ADM (+1-800-558-9958 Contact Page) , Mars (Contact Page) and Barry Callebaut (Contact Page). You can also sign the Avaaz Petition here.

This comprehensive report from Norway lays out details of the chocolate industry in West Africa. A couple of organisations I fell upon include Slave Free Chocolate and work by the Anti Slavery group in the UK with their app (which seems to be down at time of writing) Choco-Coat.com (blog post about it here). Also take a look at this report on the chocolate slave industry entitled Bitter Harvest.

It seems high time to boycott or at least voice your concern to the main chocolate companies we inevitably purchase candy from. Turning a blind eye is no longer acceptable and a short email or tweet is an easy task we can all do. Some dare more.

To expose the truth behind our corner store candy, journalists risk their lives. In 2004, French Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer was kidnapped in Ivory Coast and is still missing. Just that should make us appreciate the risks that journalists take when filming these illicit industries. To better understand the situation, take 45 minutes to watch the great documentary “The Dark Side of Chocolate” which lays out the situation quite clearly:

For more information on the current global slavery situation, see this TED Talk by Kevin Bales from Free the Slaves.net