I like to get the physical paper in the morning. And regardless of Rupert Murdoch's assertion that classified are dying and he is going to charge for his news assets on line (Good luck with that one, Rupes!) I like to read the physical paper.

I tend to read the front page and then skim through the next three or four pages, and then get to the opinions and letters page. I normally read all the letters below the fold. Today I happened to see a headline in the editorial column that caught my eye, “Wake-up call for local film funding”.

It informed me of the statistics: “There are approximately 24 locally made feature films each year. There is a fair amount of government assistance. And they don't get visibility on the screens!”

Quote:

That is right.  It is a tactical blitzkrieg.

The big studios have found a way to combat the superior plots, scripts, cinematography, direction etc that so-called foreign movies display. (Our movies are foreign to them!) So because they can't win competing on an even playing field, the big studios just throw megabucks at the problem and end up dominating advertising of movies so much that the exhibitors roll over and only screen the movies that have the biggest promotional budget.

This should tell you a couple of things.

The first is that the Australian cinema marketplace is possibly of strategic importance to Hollywood. If it wasn't why would they spend so much money on advertising?

The second is that what we do must be scaring the Yanks. We absolutely need to support Australian made movies. But the producers need to help in this too. It can't all be done by the consumer.

What producers of movies that do not have a screen presence need to do is to unleash their movies into the P2P networks and then promote the fact that they are there to be downloaded and shared for nothing. But by watching them and using your discretionary time on these movies you would be ensuring that a few dollars less goes into the big studios bank accounts! And if you comment on the movie at the IMDB you would be giving the movie more visibility and more potential to get a commercial release. Yes this is a way to ensure that P2P assists new producers.

And, equally as important, you would be generating more visibility for an Australian director and his or her work, building credibility for the actors, the scriptwriter etc and that would be a very good thing.

Oh and by the way, if the movie can't get a screening anywhere it is unlikely to generate enough interest to get a DVD release, so that means zilch revenue for the movie. If it gets visibility on line people in Hollywood are going to be talking about the buzz and reacting to it. Use P2P to get a buzz going for you unscreened movie – it makes sense!

Make the movie work for you, Mr Producer, and put it into the P2P network and then get PR to revolve around that reality!

We are happy to help on this…. Just get in touch!

This entry was posted on August 6, 2009 at 10:01 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Main Page by Chris Gilbey No Comments Yet