Ascent into Banality
The annual film festival held in Santa Barbara ended last night. I heard something about our little film festival this past week: there are some films that get submitted and accepted for screening to the festival, but the filmmakers pull out of festival if they get distribution for their film between the submission and the festival itself. The reasoning? They don't like the thought of anyone who wants to see the movie to get to see it for free.
It's their prerogative; don't get me wrong. But there are some pretty famous and influential people that attend our little film festival. Does it really make sense to pull the screening in an effort to recoup one theater's worthy of box office receipts? Couldn't you rationally take the money you're "losing" on the one screening out of the advertising budget?
Seems like the goal of any movie maker should be to make something that people can't help but talk about, and if that's the case, they'd be delighted to screen the movie for free, to any audience willing to watch. If you're not trying as hard as you can to start conversations amongst viewers, then no amount of PR is going to make the movie a box office success.
It's their prerogative; don't get me wrong. But there are some pretty famous and influential people that attend our little film festival. Does it really make sense to pull the screening in an effort to recoup one theater's worthy of box office receipts? Couldn't you rationally take the money you're "losing" on the one screening out of the advertising budget?
Seems like the goal of any movie maker should be to make something that people can't help but talk about, and if that's the case, they'd be delighted to screen the movie for free, to any audience willing to watch. If you're not trying as hard as you can to start conversations amongst viewers, then no amount of PR is going to make the movie a box office success.