I must apologize once again in advance for more late blog posts. As spectacular as this week has been, festival wall is no joke and has been hit extremely hard.
Wed. 9/16/15: Day 6
Today Alex and I attended an industry conference led by Jeremy Boxer, creative director of film and video, Vimeo and director of the Vimeo Festival. The conference was advertised in the TIFF program as “Seven Awesome Tips for Selling your Film Directly.” Besides the job title of speaker Jeremy Boxer, nothing of Vimeo was mentioned. The lecture ended up turning into “12 Dynamic Tips for Selling your Film on Vimeo On Demand.” We had not noticed the conference was being managed by Vimeo On Demand and naturally, the conference ended up seeming like more of a marketing attempt for the brand rather than an info session for aspiring screen writers and film makers. However, the information on Vimeo On Demand and general tips for utilizing it efficiently were interesting and still quite informative. The tips that were shared were things that could be done without a webpage to advertise on and were fairly traditional in nature. Here are a few random examples.
- Know your Audience
- Identify Influencers
- Marketing and distribution. Create a windowing plan.
- Drive word of mouth and press
I also attended the master class with Christian Blauvelt today. Christian is the Deputy Culture Editor for the BBC. A lot of the things Christian had to say about his experiences with progressing in the film industry were similar to Theresa’s statements on utilizing regional sector opportunities and expanding outward. Here are some of Christian’s statements taken from my field journal:
“I maximized the opportunities I had at Northwestern once I was introduced to Cinema Studies and realized I wanted to write as a critic. Realize what you’re doing at Oakland can really affect what you do in the industry in the future.”
“Because of my academic applications I was able to stand out even as a reporter/ editor. People can get seduced by the industry’s glamour but it can be a very tough life today.”
“The BBC’s mission- Educate and entertain.”
Stay tuned for the next big cinema reviews/ news Christian is involved with at:
BBC.com/Culture