REPORT FROM THE FILM FRONT - Get out the Vote!

Gabrielle Burton
FIVE SISTERS PRODUCTIONS

As probably you know, my four sisters, my parents, and I made our third film, MANNA FROM HEAVEN, in our hometown of Buffalo. I adore Buffalo. I think of my childhood with an idyllic peacefulness set in a sophisticated city bordered by water, ski slopes, cool green lawns, and another country. However, Buffalo has long suffered from low self-esteem. My sisters and I decided that, no matter how hard it would be, we would make our third movie in Buffalo and show the rest of the country what a beautiful place it is. People said it was crazy; we should shoot in Canada and save money -- but we were determined to make it in the U.S. and to make a film entirely in Buffalo. The stars (who lived in Buffalo for four weeks) fell in love with the city, the film is a love-letter to Buffalo, and the city rallied around the movie's production.

Since a wonderful special preview at Shea's Theater, we began traveling with the movie to film festivals, and MANNA FROM HEAVEN proved to be a real crowd-pleaser. Liz Smith, Ain't It Cool News, and other nationally respected journalists gave it a great response. To our delight, theaters were selling out, extra screenings were being added, and we were being invited to festivals by their directors. The movie was beginning to have strong word-of-mouth.

So it was time for distribution. We had offers from many distributors. Most thought it deserved a theatrical release, but it would get lost in the marketplace if they didn't spend enough on advertising. Ticket sales are typically directly related to how much money is spent on advertising a film, and usually major money is only spent on stars like Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, and Julia Roberts.

So here’s the rub. The average film’s publicity budget these days is $35 million dollars. Yes, that’s right. Thirty-five million dollars just for publicity. That’s the average.

People who have seen MANNA often ask us why more movies like this aren’t made. The fact is that people often aren’t aware of them.

Reports on movies are based on box office grosses. No longer is the quality of the movie top story news -- its ticket sales are. This is not a good state of affairs for the arts, because production and distribution companies consider quantity of ticket sales more important than the quality of a film -- and projection from past sales are the basis for deciding what movies to make and distribute in the future.

So what it comes down to is this: people’s ticket purchases are like votes.

When you buy a ticket for a movie, you are voting for that type of movie –– you are saying you want more movie of that type to be made.

People should realize that because the film business is a business, they have power over dictating what kind of films get made. They have to value their own votes and vote for what they want to see more.

You've seen the issues about media consolidation, with the FCC regulations of late. Disney owns Miramax; NBC owns Bravo -- these outlets create automatic advertising partners for promotion of films by a parent studio. The advertising gets more and more omnipresent and multifaceted, making small films simply unable to compete.

We sisters have decided we are going to spend a year promoting MANNA FROM HEAVEN, doing grassroots organization of communities to “get out the vote” for more movies like it. Recently, some films have proven that such an approach can work; they have done very well, some playing over a year in cities simply from public support. The biggest hurdle is getting people to the movie theater on the first weekend (after which the theater decides whether or not to keep the film in the theater the following week, based on a mixture of politics & performance -- and for a non-studio-backed film, it is critical to have strong ticket sale performance).

As we are a small independent film company, it is an uphill battle to keep the movie playing long enough to reap its word-of-mouth power. We’re doing creative marketing, offering filmmaker Q&As for groups, handing out fliers for hours, promoting with t-shirts, posters, etc. We’re determined to get MANNA FROM HEAVEN available to the public, even if it is not fitting into an easy marketing structure -- just as we were determined to get such an incredible cast together, and to make the film in our hometown.

Alongside the majors and the edgy indies, there should also be a space for intelligent, feel-good American independent films.

Too often people complain that there aren't good movies, or enough selection. We all hold the power to change the way movies are made, to change what studios and distribution companies look for and provide us. The possibility for molding the product is there each time you go to the theater. Your ticket is a vote for the future. Use it wisely.

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