World Building
Kim Gordon stars as Marlene Baxter the president of the American Figure Skating Federation in Serpentine.
In Serpentine the name of the fictional skating association is The American Figure Skating Federation. In the real world it’s called U.S. Figure Skating. It seems fitting that as I continue work on the domestic and international marketing plans for Serpentine, the United States and Canadian national figure skating championships are underway.
The one major difference between the fictional world of Serpentine and the reality of today’s skating world is that there are no lyrics in Serpentine’s skating music. When I was at World’s last year and heard more than one skater perform to the theme of Titanic with dialogue from the film after the ship sank (with sinking skating performances to match), what do you even say except ‘Who approved this?’ Imagine offering the movie Airport ’77 on a transatlantic flight. Sorry, I just digressed.
Since her mother disappeared five years ago the FBI has been following Suzanne Wilson.
This past week I continued building out the marketing and launch plans for Serpentine. Indeed it’s like building a federation of sorts. By one definition a federation is “the action of forming states or organizations into a single group with centralized control.” Given the political climate we can forget “the state” for a moment and just focus on organization. Yes, I strongly believe in centralized control especially when marketing a product. Many years ago it was magazines, now its film. In today’s challenging film market there’s no question that you need a well thought out plan with some sort of hook to market a film.
With Sundance well underway I’m starting to see articles in the trades and consumer press about the new complexities surrounding the distribution of independent films. Yes, there are those films like Hidden Figures that find a growing following. Then there are those like Silence that literally fall silent at the box office. For Hidden Figures the marketing was clear and powerful, the untold story of African-American women “computers” in the early years of NASA’s space program. For Silence there were too many articles about the director complaining about budget and pay.
We are no longer just filmmakers we are marketers. Last week I talked about living in a bubble. While the accolades at film festivals are certainly welcoming and inspiring, it does come down to translation into the real world. In the world of Serpentine, that means the primary VOD platform will be Amazon Prime, with marketing to include all the member nations of the International Skating Union with a primary focus on select other countries.
United States.
Ice Market
Serpentine will shortly go to picture lock.
With picture lock on Serpentine coming up probably this week, the marketing plan I’m putting in place for this film won’t exactly be created from scratch. Having published a consumer magazine in the sport for just over ten years, let’s just say I have a pretty good understanding of this market. Oh sure, things have changed over the years, but not that much. Case in point, I’ve been presenting the opening credits to a variety of industry insiders over the last couple of weeks.
But this project isn’t just targeted to the sport. As a political thriller that traverses a variety of countries and covert situations, the aim is to reach a broader audience. As I state on our website Serpentine is “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Americans meet the sport of figure skating with a hint of Madam Secretary”.
This shot from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy inspired the FBI conference room shot in Serpentine.
Of course since my time publishing magazines, we now have online streaming and social media. Both have been a godsend to the entertainment industry and a must for independent filmmakers like myself. Platforms that are essentially free that reach around the world. Just over ten years ago, if I wanted to reach a market in a foreign country I had to buy premium newsstand placement and display ads. While the latter still has a place, geomarketing on social media is de rigueur.
But with these new mediums come a lot of noise. If you let it happen, it’s very easy to get caught up in someone’s vortex of whatever. Seriously, unless it’s somewhat business related or of personal interest to me, I just tune it out. I always make an effort to ask myself if what I’m posting is improving my brand or my business. Sure, we all have our positions on a variety of things and “milk toast” posts are boring, but it really comes down to how others are perceiving you. I know I’ve made more than a few social and business related decisions simply by what someone is posting. Social media is like the SETI project. The majority of signals are just noise, but on occasion there is that “WOW” moment.
This shot in Serpentine was inspired from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
On the marketing front it has been interesting watching a variety of screeners through the SAG Awards voting process. While some of these films have done an outstanding job of marketing, others have just failed miserably. Because I read the trades I generally know what the films are doing before they reach the market. Does that influence my vote? No. Because making a film is hard enough and if you are part of the voting process it should be watched. There’s no question that I believe Arrival is a brilliant film in concept and execution and I’ve been more than public about my disdain for one filmed in my home state. But having started to watch Hidden Figures, the story simply grabs you right out of the gate. Or maybe I should have said the launch pad!
But through all this I do see a bright future for independent film. Oh there are those that complain about this and about that. Financing has always been difficult and getting a film together can be just as involved as a Moon launch, but filmmakers are an innovative bunch. We cut through the noise, drive around the roadblocks, scale the brick walls and every other obstacle and persevere. To partially quote Theodore Roosevelt, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort…”
Next steps.
The Ashton Times 