Took a good workshop on self-distributing film and video to the educational market this past Saturday at Scribe Video Center in Philly. I had not been back there in years. The place looks the same, and noticed that the video library is still mostly VHS. Hmmm…
S. Leo Chiang was in town to present his new documentary film, “A Village Called Versailles” at the Asian Arts Initiative that night.
It was only a two two hour class, and should’ve been longer. Here’s my notes from the class.
Frontline World – a short version of “A Village Called Versailles” was commissioned by them.
In the educational market shorter films are good b/c they allow for screening and discussion time in class.
20-30% of proceeds go to a filmmaker from an educational film distributor
Generally, there is a 1-year cycle of outreach and getting the film out there once the film is completed. Although there is plenty of outreach work to do during the production phase.
Distributors often have two tiered pricing for the educational and community markets.
“Under Our Skin” has had a successful outreach campaign, good website, and positive feedback.
Producing a discussion guide may be a bonus for educators and give the film a possible advantage over similar titles out there.
Groundspark – “respect for all” project. 4 films, so far, in a series about tolerance for LGBT and alternative families. The filmmaker created a nonprofit to ‘house’ the films and generate support for the films to be used as educational tools.
Filmmakers and distributors often use a fulfillment processor, such as Transit Media. They take the orders, do customer service and ship out the order.
Mailing lists & email lists: MDR provides lists of educational institutions and individuals for a fee. Rents lists of individuals at schools – for example a targeted list to A/V librarians or specific professors.
Email harvesting. On the ethical / non-ethical border? What are the legal ramifications?
One can / should collect email lists from friends and associates who belong to professional groups, such as a society for sociologists, etc…
Postcard mail campaign cost upwards of $5000 for 10,000 postcards. And a 3% response rate is considered good.
Mailing postcards is oldschool. But printing postcards for screenings and business purposes is still a good idea.
He’s used tracking through giving out promo codes for purchase.
Email list companies include: iContact, Constant Contact and Vertical Response. They charge in different ways. Constant Contact charges per contact in your online database. Vertical Response
charges per email address you send out – you buy in bulk $10.00 per 1,000 email address.
It’s important to gather contacts in various fields and then get quotes from, ideally, prominent professors, etc… in terms of the educational market. Different quotes for home distro.
Academic journals may review films – so it’s a good idea to get in touch with them to see if your film would be of interest to review. They are very selective though.
Also good to try and get a review in places like Booklist or Video Librarian trade journals.
Present or propose to do a panel or workshop on your film. Do a co-presentation with an academic. Could be costly because of travel to the conference, plus attendance and stay. But sometimes worth the investment.
University screenings are great. Ask the hosting professors or organization to request that the university buy a copy for their library. If present, could get an honorarium and travel reimbursement.
Ask folks to post to listservs.
New Day Films – a filmmakers’ cooperative for distribution. Need to apply. Also important to have money to foot your own distribution / outreach related costs. Potentially a lot of work is still involved. You are expected to do all the legwork in getting your film ‘out there.’ But provides a supportive community and network. They take care of distribution logistics. Now doing streaming video.
Okay, so I haven’t posted since October, 2009. Anyways…
The good folks of the Harold Hunter Foundation brought crazy happiness, and positive stories, and a ‘do what you love to succeed’ message, to school kids in the Bronx on Friday. I haven’t ever seen that many genuinely thrilled kids in one place, ever. Steve Rodriguez of 5Boro, Luis Tolentino and Rodney Smith of Shut, Chad Muska, and Rob – an E.R. doctor who’s last name I forget – all presented to a small group of middle school students, did a skate demo in the school yard and then conducted a signing frenzy back inside. I was just as thrilled as the kids to be there and take photos of the whole thing thanks HHF! and thanks Satoko!
On Monday, October 5th, 2009, Hunter College cafeteria workers protested against their new management company, AVI, which took over recently from Sodexho. Hunter faculty, students and others joined them to let AVI know that they will not accept reduced inferior working conditions. AVI is refusing to stand by the cafeteria workers’ old contract which included healthcare and a pension fund that some workers have been paying into for decades.
I’d highly recommend checking out Code Pink’s recent video “Eight Years Later” that essentially animates a speech given by Rep. Barbara Lee prior to the invasion.
dunno who ivan cruz is, but he recently made this impressive animation with the voice of npr commentator Andrei Codrescu. though i find the idea of hybrid to be much more nuanced than its presented here, and am fine with some healthy pessimism. here’s ivan’s animation.
A newly minted store selling “skateboards, flowers and dry goods” makes its presence in Crown Heights, Brooklyn by reaching out to young skaters, families, and putting on free community events.
Park Deli’s owners, Valentine Leung and Michael Sclafani are young entrepreneurs and new parents who are holding it down by keeping their side jobs as a dress designer and window decorator.
This Saturday – May 30th – I’ll be conducting a low budget video lighting workshop with fellow IMA students Laurie Sumiye and Sebastian Gutierrez at the 6th annual Grassroots Media Conference. It’ll be in the morning slot 10:30 – 12:00 at Hunter College.
And Hunter’s own Veralyn Williams was on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show along with Jennifer Nedbalsky, a founder of the GMC and Giovanni Mato, editor-in-chief of Word on the Street.
Here are some photos from the “Youth Action” screening last night. It was put on by the Grassroots Media Conference crew and hosted by Youth Media Reporter at the Academy for Educational Development. Filmmakers that have made work through Educational Video Center, and Casa Atabex Ache were on hand to show and talk about their work. There were also some peeps from the Ghetto Film School who are going to Brasil to work on a narrative piece, damn I’m jealous.
okay. it may be embarrassing but that’s why it’s so funny. noam came home with some obscurely patriotic in-class assignment. they were supposed to write letters to prospective immigrants to the U.S. in order to convince them to become citizens. and noam’s letter had a line in it like “illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes.” so i kinda freaked, got pissed and wrote the teacher an email which probably reads like a nutty letter to the editor.
the best part is that in the teacher’s follow-up reply he wrote that noam essentially has problems with authority figures. he corrects them when they’re wrong. or otherwise. i wonder where he gets that from???
———-
On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Marc wrote:
Mr. Rothberg,
I just wannted to touch base with you and see how you thought the meeting went yesterday while I was there and after I left. I saw the final IEP, without any changes, and just wanted to make sure that your feelings were expressed.
Additionally, Noam is complainiing of a sore throat and wanted me to ask you if someone could drop of lozengers for him.
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 2:21:32 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: IEP
Hi Marc,
Unfortunately I just got this email, and school is coming to a close anyway, so I’ll bring him some lozenges when I pick him up. Thanks for letting me know though.
I thought the meeting went well. Noam seems to have improved greatly since last year. I think a lot of it just has to do with him getting more mature as he gets older.
Honestly, I’m not sure how much meeting with Ms. Rizzo is actually helping. He seems to seriously dislike her. I wonder whether or not it would be better to have a ‘happy’ kid who isn’t frustrated at school. Or have a frustrated kid, who might be helped by her tutoring even if he dislikes it.
However, he’s always taken it personally when he gets corrected. As you mentioned yesterday when I saw you, he’s been aggravated by your corrections. Which is interesting because, that’s what teachers do… and he’s never mentioned it to me before I brought it up with him after school.
On another subject, I was concerned to hear that you told the students that “illegal” immigrants do not pay taxes. That is unfortunately not true. Undocumented immigrants work often resort to using false social security numbers in order to work. This way they pay into the U.S. social welfare system yet reap none of its benefits. Further, more and more immigrants are being detained for no good reason. Our very unfair economic system depends on undocumented immigrants to do a lot of hard work for little money. You can find out more about all of this here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/immigrant-detention/page.do?id=1641031
and a .pdf fact sheet can be found here: http://archdiocese.la/ministry/justice/peace/pdf/Factsheet-JusticeforImmigrants.pdf
Also, all of this nation’s residents are illegal immigrants, unless you’re 100% native american.
If I understood the lesson incorrectly – because it was translated through Noam, then let me know. I’d be happy to be wrong about that.
Best,
Fivel
———
Mr. Rothberg,
I neglected to mention that we spoke of Migrant workers, not illegal immigrants. The story mentioned “aliens” and Noam was fixated on that. He also felt the term was not appropriate, which he stated in class. I brought up the definition to show him what it really means (he thinks it means little green men from space).
We do need to work on his understanding that since he is a student, it is not appropriate to correct adults, especially Administration, regardless if they are correct or not.
—–
Mr. Rothberg:
I think the issue with Noam’s information was the fact the that he neglected to tell you WHEN the story and facts took place. The story we were discussing took place in the 1880’s, not in recent years. The facts are presented to the teacher to share with the students by the company that creates the textbooks. I interpret them and share what I know. I also showed a video presented by a different company, however, again, this information is from the 1880’s.
Maybe that added insight helps explain the lesson.
