Well, you just finished your movie? Congratulations! Now comes the hard part: Promoting your movie and getting it into a reputable festival like Raindance.
The first year, after the completion of your movie, you must try famous film festivals. Why? Because if a famous festival, like Raindance, selects your movie then things become much easier because of status and because you may even get offers from other festivals. I know because I’ve done that!
If some unknown festival selects your film and then screens it, then no famous film festival probably will select your film. That’s just the way this business runs.
I don’t need to tell you how to submit, we all know of FilmFreeway.
But what are the very first steps you should take even before submitting your movie?
That’s what this article is about Getting good reviews of your movie.
I made a movie, my third, and it is called “Grapefruit.” It is a surreal avant-garde movie about a person who has led a very avant-garde life. It’s about Yoko Ono’s life as an artist in 1964 before she met John Lennon. It stars singer Natsuki Belleza and Hiroshi Matsumoto.
First off, you don’t need a long-winded review. You only need a few sentences, a blurb, from several people, preferably famous or sort of famous.
But how? How many of us know of famous people who will write us a short blurb? We have to think and really consider the people we know.
I thought about it and I know a writer/DJ named Darryl Bullock in the UK. Darryl has written several award-winning books! He was the first person I wrote to. Darryl wrote me a great blurb and I use it to this day!
Then I wrote to a famous TV caster, a writer, some more musicians, and a few others. They all gladly wrote great blurbs for me.
You don’t know anyone who is sort of famous? No problem. Just get your friends to write blurbs for you. I know, that, the more you think about finding famous people, the more names you’ll come up with.
Then you write your own movie review.
You can use your name or use a pen name. Like this article. “Ricky Zipp,” is not my real name.
Write your own review for your movie. That right! That’s what you should be doing right now.
Writing your own review beats paying some no-name movie critic to write a blurb for you. As those people often seem to usually want money. If you have to pay money, then what is the point of their blurb?
But, why go for a big name? Isn’t the Lame-Stream mass media dying? Look at the others riding a train with you. Who is reading a newspaper? Who watches cable TV news? A magazine?… What’s that? Everywhere you look people are saying the Lame-Stream mass media is dying.
Uh, you are a filmmaker, right? So you know people in this business, right? Ask them. Even your student friends are good.
But what are people watching? Where are people getting their news from? The internet is where people get their information, now that’s for sure.
A recent Pew Research paper said that “Over 86% of all Americans get their information from the internet.”
Is Siskel & Ebert still doing movie reviews? I don’t think so. Though they do still have their own internet page (reviewing old movies)!
The internet is where it’s all at and will be where it’s at for the foreseeable future.
“Oh! But I can’t write my own movie review of my own movie!” Look you made a movie, right? If you’ve completed a movie, then there is no reason to be unable to write a review for your movie, or for anyone’s movie
Isn’t the old saying, “Everyone’s a critic?”
Get your blurbs lined up. Put them in a good order. Even bad reviews should be used (sparingly).
Then go to a place, online, that targets your audience. That’s why this article is here: Raindance is 100% the target audience for indie movies. And they publish articles for filmmakers every day! They are desperate to find the next Kurosawa or Cecil B. DeMille!
Make your article about something useful to indie filmmakers and slip in a section about your movie. The information should be brief and be useful to any and all indie filmmakers.
Then, at the bottom of your article, add in the quotes you’ve received. And Viola! You have a great article that is useful to indie filmmakers and it promotes your film!
Here is the email you should submit your article to at Raindance: [email protected]
Here are some of the quotes I have received:
“Mike Rogers’ film, Grapefruit, captures the spirit and elegance of Yoko’s early poetry and performance art in a surreal, dream-like piece.” – Darryl W. Bullock (Author of David Bowie Made Me Gay and The Velvet Mafia. 2023 Winner of the Penderyn Music Book Award, Winner of the 2023 Shout-Out Award.)
“Artist to artist, what an inspiration.” – Carole Hisasue (Japanese Legendary Radio DJ)
“Not since Brunel’s ‘Un Chien Andalou’ has a surrealist film taken center stage,” – Stephen David Brooks (Multi-Award winning Hollywood Writer, Director. Writer of Stephen King’s film, “The Mangler.”)
“Grapefruit has a very unique view of the world. Avant-garde like Yoko Ono.” – Naoko Yamano (Shonen Knife)
“Grapefruit” is brilliant. Yoko’s words are beautiful and wise. Music and cinematography is spectacular.” – Mr. Fab (Program Director, WFMU radio New Jersey)
“A visually stunning and thought-provoking film” – Jeremiah Higgins (FM Radio Host in Los Angeles, Calif.)
“Beautiful and jarring.” – Keith Cahoon (President Tower Records Asia)
“This movie is crap.” – Mike Rogers (DJ, Filmmaker)
So, see? I wrote an article that helps you get the promotion you need (by thinking out of the box) and I promoted my movie!
Start sending your movie out to a select few, and get those blurbs. Time’s a-wastin’.
My next article is a critical one: Getting butts into the seats at your screening at a great film festival, like Raindance. I believe I am the only one who has ever sold out three screenings at Raindance! Even Quentin Tarantino couldn’t do that!
Ricky Zipp is a punk rock legend. He first appeared in 1980 and then disappeared completely for nearly 30 years until he became a writer for Alex Empire’s Atari Teenage Riot’s webpage (Which he is not sure it still exists today). Once again, after that, Ricky Zipp disappeared, and reappeared in 2022 writing for Second Scene Magazine and interviewing lots of super famous music people. Some think Ricky Zipp is actually Mike Rogers, but Mike denies that completely.
