American Film Market Dailies

The American Film Market (AFM^®) presented the Marketing Conference  by holding two sessions focused on Crowd Sourcing Your Audience and Demystifying Film Festivals.

The first session, Crowd Sourcing Your Audience, discussed how successful producers are discovering the latest tools to building and activating a target audience by using social media to aggregate potential audiences before and during production. The keynote address was given by Nicholas Gonda (Tugg Inc). The panel discussion was moderated by Richard Boto, Founder & CEO, Stage 32 with panelists including Rikk Galvan, Principal, RGM/BIG Games, Susan Johnston, Founder & Director, New Media Film Festival, Christian McGuigan, Producer REZ (Director, Social Action Film Campaigns, Participant Media), Jonathan Reiss, Founder, Hybrid Cinema, and Andrea Sisson, Filmmaker, "I Send You This Place."

Said Rikk Galvan, Principal, RGM/BIG Games during the conference:

“Once you make an emotional connection, keep stimulating them to think, to be in the realm of whatever the idea is of your movie. If you ask your audience to do something – they will.  It’s so easy to access and keep audiences as long as you do it in a small way that keeps them informed."

The second session, Film Festivals: Demystified was moderated by Dana Harris, Editor-in-Chief & General Manager, IndieWire. Panelists included Robert Ogden Barnum, Producer, e2b Capital, Mike Goodridge, CEO, Protagonist Pictures, Kevin Iwashina, Managing Partner, Preferred Content, Ryan Kampe, President, Visit Films, and Charlotte Mickie, EVP, International Sales, Entertainment One.

Key quotes from the Film Festivals: Demystified  session include the following:

On how much does a sales agent have to do with getting into festival:

“It has the potential to increase your odds, but at the end of the day, a quality film will rise to the top. Every film is contextualized to where it fits within the program”- Kevin Iwashina, Managing Partner, Preferred Content

On Festival names & its perception:

Sundance:

“I think they’re looking for smaller films with American leaning stories…” – Robert Ogden Barnum, Producer, e2b Capital.

Berlin:

“More prestige films skewing US” – Robert Ogden Barnum, Producer, e2b Capital.

“It’s a really great place for non-American filmmakers” – Kevin Iwashina, Managing Partner, Preferred Content.

Cannes:

“Generally if your film is in Cannes, you’ll sell that movie”-- Charlotte Mickie, EVP, International Sales, Entertainment One.

“It’s the premiere event of the year as far I am concerned” – Mike Goodridge, CEO, Protagonist Pictures.

Round three of the Producer’s Forum kicked off with a packed crowd at the Risk and Reward: Presentation to Investors session featuring Joseph N. Cohen, President, American Entertainment Investors Inc. Topics discussed included: Non-Correlated Investments, Diversification, Monte Carlo simulations, Institutional Investors, how to mitigate risk and many more. Below is a quote from the panel:

On selling a film without a concept:

 “You’re selling blue sky – a concept; a dream…Lionsgate sold the shit out of POINT BREAK with no cast.” --Joseph N. Cohen, President, American Entertainment Investors Inc.

The second and third session, respectively, focused on Production Incentives and Financing and Producing in Canada with panelists including Paul Audley, FilmL.A. Inc., Silvia Echeverri, Colombian Film Commission, Hans Fraikin, Quebec Film & Television Council, Pam Haynes, West Virginia Film Office, Pedro Notario, Puerto Rico Film Commission, Gabriel Padilla, Panama Film Commission, Julia Son, Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Jeff Spilman, Film Reno Tahoe, Karen Witte, Mexican Film Commission and Benedict Carver, SVP, Filmed Entertainment, Entertainment One discussing benefits for filming their locations.  

The last session focused on Working with the U.S. Guilds featuring panelists: Darrien Michele Gipson, National Director, SAG Indie and Kay S. Wolf, Independent Film Executive, WGAW. They touched upon topics covering SAG Indie low budget contracts, specifically: the Short Film Agreement, Ultra Low Budget Agreement, Modified Low Budget Agreement, Low Budget Agreement and Basic Codified Agreement in addition to the WGA Low Budget Agreements for Theatrical Films.

A few key quotes from the Working with the U.S. Guilds session include:

 “As of December 1^st the WGA has a new agreement for low-budget films. These will be more workable for producers and those who wear various hats on a production.” - Kay S. Wolf, Independent Film Executive, WGAW

 “If you’re close to a ceiling, do not run over.  You will incur charges and there will be difficulties…They (SAG Indie) want you to operate your indie film and stay under budget.” - Darrien Michele Gipson, National Director, SAG Indie

Lastly, AFM Day 6 wrapped with an Industry Conversation entitled Distributing & Monetizing Feature Documentaries. The panel discussion was moderated by Marjan Safinia, Board President, International Documentary Association with panelists, Daniel Bauer, Co-Founder/Producer/Business & Legal Affairs, K5 MEDIA GROUP GmbH, Kevin Iwashina, Managing Partner, Preferred Content, Michael Werner, Chairman, Fortissimo Films and Glenn Zipper, Producer, "Undefeated."

A few key quotes from the Distributing & Monetizing Feature Documentaries industry conversation include:

On when you enter into the documentary process:

“We look at documentaries at every stage. However, the one thing we don’t do, we do not invest in documentaries by first time filmmakers.  Documentaries are different than story narratives.  They are like college papers: you start with a hypotheses and don’t really know where it’s going to go.” - Michael Werner, Chairman, Fortissimo Films.

On what attracts him to projects:

“For us it’s about emotion. If something that comes in punches us in the gut, we want to get involved. You have to give a shit about the film because it’s really difficult to make a documentary. If you ask me what a producer is, I’d tell you we take a director's dream and make it his nightmare.”

 “The pitch needs to hook us in a few minutes. If you cannot find the hook that makes it exciting in a few sentences, then we won’t be able to make it exciting later on. I find crowd funding interesting because if you can’t find a way of putting a film online to raise money, it’s going to be difficult to find an audience for your film later on if you can’t explain it to people from the beginning.” - Daniel Bauer, Co-Founder/Producer/Business & Legal Affairs, K5 MEDIA GROUP GmbH