Paulo Coelho turns his book into a feature film with MySpace users’ videos

This should be interesting. Author Paulo Coelho is going to collaborate with MySpace to make his latest book into his first feature film. The MySpace collaboration will center around creating a mashup of videos and songs created and submitted by MySpace users.  Coelho will choose the winning videos and songs to use in his film.

But here’s the rub: Coelho is going to own the film.  What do the MySpace filmmakers and musicians get?

Winners will enjoy significant publicity, and their work will be featured across MySpace worldwide including the homepage, MySpaceTV and an extensive banner campaign.

Well, exposure is always a good thing, right?  Not as sweet as a percentage of the gross, or residuals, but you have to start somewhere.

Oh, and the fine print says that if there aren’t enough videos and songs submitted that meet the required standards, the whole project will be scrapped.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this. [Via Publishers Weekly]

 

Your film discovered in an AWESOME new festival

I occasionally volunteer my services to a film-related activity (seminar, educational article, festival, charity benefit).  I don’t volunteer very often.  I don’t have much free time on my hands, and frankly, I’m discriminating about which projects I want to support.   They have to fit with my own desire to advocate and publicize quality films, to educate filmmakers about publicity and promotion in the era of social media and social networking, and to support the art.  They’ve got to be something really special.

I’ve recently signed on to support something very special.  Actually, a better word for it is ‘awesome’.  Founded by DIY filmmaking pioneers Lance Weiler (The Last Broadcast, Head Trauma), Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) and M dot Strange (We Are The Strange), From Here to Awesome - a discovery and distribution film festival is the first of its kind, and if you’re a filmmaker it just might be the perfect system to get your film blasted to audiences in theaters, living rooms, online and via mobile phones.

Online Publicity Case Study: Focus Feature’s “Reservation Road”

Chris at MovieMarketingMadness.com lets us know about SearchEngineWatch’s analysis of online publicity for Reservation Road.  It provides an interesting case study on the basics of film publicity on the Web.

It’s well worth reading the entire analysis.  The cliff notes version of the lesson to be learned would be:

1. Every film needs its own website.
2. Every film needs a presence on a major social networking site, like MySpace or FaceBook.
3. Every film needs production stills and promotional photos that can easily be downloaded and shared.
4. Every film needs SEO.

Movie fans are our friends. Seek them out. Talk to them.

Unless you’re a big Hollywood studio, or independently wealthy, chances are slim to none that you’ll  purchase 30-second commercial time slots on primetime TV to show the trailer of your new film.  The odds that you’ll get a “coming soon” preview article in the pop culture national print magazines, or even be included in Yahoo’s Greg’s movie previews are also stacked against you. 

No worries, though.  With a little time, effort,  creativity, and the power of Web 2.0,  you can still garner some recognition for your film.  Here’s an idea, one that filmmakers are embracing more and more these days:  Go around the traditional avenues for promoting your film, and go directly to fans of movies.  After all, you didn’t make your film for the press, or critics, you made it for people, everyday people, to watch.  Right? 

If you don’t have a MySpace page for your film, then shame on you. It’s totally free, for pete’s sake. Make your way to the filmmaker forum, do the free registration, create your film’s page, upload some production stills, a trailer, and start adding friends like there’s no tomorrow. And once you get those friends, talk to them. That’s right, interact with people about your film. There are tons of websites that provide code you can load into your MySpace page that helps you to talk to people: you can set up a form on your film’s MySpace page for people to sign up for e-mail newsletters from you so you can keep them informed on what’s happening with your project; you can add an instant message widget, like from meebo.com to your MySpace page and/or your website and chat live with people.

Moviegoers absolutely love to interact with filmmakers. Talk about breaking that fourth wall! What better way to get someone excited about seeing your film than to talk to them about it?And then something magical happens, in this world of Web 2.0. They tell someone about you and your film, and then they tell someone, and they tell someone, and so on. Who needs a 30-second prime-time commercial spot that may be seen by a few hundred thousand people (the rest have gotten up from the couch to get a snack, or more likely, will fast forward right past it on their DVR) when you can potentially reach millions of people?

Tip: Interact directly with movie fans.
Talk: What are some of the ways you’re reaching out to talk about your film?

film publicity help