How to Get a Famous Person to Recommend Your Movie
Ancient Zen Buddhist saying: “The destination is not the reward. The true reward is in the journey.”
I am proud to announce that Mariel Hemingway, the Academy Award and BAFTA nominated actress, the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, is now supporting and promoting my movie Yoko Grapefruit. How did this happen?
Well, here is a good lesson for all filmmakers.
Think about this: When you see a full page ad in the newspaper or a magazine that says, “This restaurant is the best! You should eat here!” Do you go to that restaurant? No.
But if a friend of yours says to you, “Hey! You know that restaurant over there? It’s really great. You should go there!” Then you would probably go, right?
And if a famous person, who lots of people love, say, “That’s a great restaurant. I highly recommend it!” You would probably definitely go.
This is called, “Third person recommendation.” It is the Holy Grail in Marketing to getting great word of mouth recommendations. And word of mouth recommendations are the most important factor in any success of any business. They cost nothing, but getting word of mouth is the key to all great marketing plans.
But how do you start to get good word of mouth especially from well known and popular artists, actors and actresses?
First off, if you are reading this, you are like me. I didn’t know any famous actors or actresses.
But I made a movie and I got the world famous Mariel Hemingway to recommend my movie. And I didn’t pay her a cent for the recommendation!
I made a movie about Yoko Ono, the movie is called Grapefruit. It is a short movie. It is a short movie as from the initial concept, I did not make this movie with a profit motive. I made it because I wanted to make art. Some people will hate the movie, some people might like the movie. That is good. I do not want anyone who sees the movie to have no opinion. They should love or hate this movie.
Before completing all the post production and editing, I wanted to find some sort of good charity to have my movie support. My thinking was: I will support your charity and you support my movie. I inquired with many people but just couldn’t seem to find the right person.
At this time, I heard that Yoko Ono is not well and is suffering from some sort of disorder. I began looking for a charity that supports people with depression or dementia or these types of disorders. I spoke with many people and asked, but nothing felt quite, “Right.”
Then one day, I was talking with a good friend in California named Jeremiah Higgins. Jeremiah is a world famous radio talk show host. He said, “You know Mariel Hemingway? She runs a charity for this sort of thing. Do you want me to ask her?”
Mariel Hemingway? Did he mean the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway? The Academy Award and BAFTA nominated actress? He offered to introduce me. Of course I said, “Yes!”
Soon, I had a Zoom call with Mariel and we hit it off very well. She told me about her charity’s needs, I told her what I wanted. I also told her I would support her charity if she would help promote my movie. Of course, she had to see the movie first. So, I gathered together all the data and sent it to her.
Finally, after waiting several weeks, she made a promo video for me and now I have it to help promote my movie and, in turn, promote her charity! Now isn’t that a win-win deal for everyone? And, now, because of Mariel, my motivation has changed a bit and if I sell the movie to some company, I will donate all the money to her charity. Why not? I didn’t intend to make money off this movie from the beginning.
But even if I can’t send her a big fat check to support her charity, I can promote the charity and everyone who sees this movie will see her charity. How much would that have cost the charity? That is also a great way to get word of mouth promotion.
But ultimately, this partnership helps us help people who are so often in a situation with no one to turn to.
So, you can do this too. Think and try to find a charity (hopefully in your own country) that you would like to support and that would like to support your project. Think out of the box. You don’t have to make a movie about the Amazon River to get like minded charities to support. Your movie could be a cerebral drama and there are many options for support from those charities. Think about it and look up those charities and see or find good ones that might have a famous person supporting them. Write to that famous person directly at that charity.
You might be very surprised at the answer you get.
It takes a while and will take several tries, but why wouldn’t some famous person want you to help to support their charity?
Actually, I wasn’t so surprised that Mariel agreed to help, my only concern was my movie! Maybe it is too weird and maybe a bit scary. But she loved it!
Many charities have a famous person who could make you a short video and you can use that to promote their charity and your movie! And it will cost you nothing.
And remember the old saying, “Asking doesn’t cost a cent!”
Grapefruit
Starring Natsuki Belleza, Hiroshi Matsumoto,
Written and directed by Mike Rogers,
Camera & Editing by Henry Morse,
Camera by Les Deciduous,
Sound design by Ken Nishikawa,
Produced by Hiroshi Matsumoto, Harrison Bates, Lance E. Lee, Koji Kamibayashi, & Ralph Saunders.
Thanks to Yuka Rogers, Junji Naito, Adam Feldpausch, Mariel Hemingway, Melissa Yamaguchi, and Jeremiah Higgins.
“Our Mission at The Mariel Hemingway Foundation is to compassionately help the patient navigate their mental illness by providing the best access to qualified practitioners, treatments, and technologies.” — Mariel Hemingway
Mike Rogers [aka Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers] is a director, producer, and a radio host. He was also known as “Nigel Nitro,” former lead singer of the Los Angeles punk band, The Rotters (who had the monster hit, “Sit on My Face, Stevie Nix” in the late 1970s.) Life Currently, he hosts the Mike Rogers Show on WFMU “Sheena’s Jungle Room” and Love FM 76.1 Japan. His show is also syndicated world-wide.
He is also the writer, producer and co-director of the features, “Ghostroads – A Japanese Rock n Roll Ghost Story” and “Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha” and his current film “Yoko – Grapefruit.” He is a founding member of the JIFF Japan Indies Film Festival and JIMA Japan Indies Music Awards.
