No Time To Fail Case Study in Your Inbox
Below find the recording and our 14 page case study guide! from our No Time to Fail Case Study Webinar - and a lot of events!
Quick links for events and happenings - more info below.
Join us tomorrow, Dec 5th, for a Webinar with Keri Putnam to discuss her study of the indie film landscape.
This Thursday, Dec 5: Sabbath Queen opens in LA at the Laemmle with a plethora of events across LA. Click here for tickets.
Check out this years Portrait Creative Talents List!
Next Tuesday, Dec 10: Join me with Film Independent Webinar on Crafting Your Distribution & Marketing Plan and more.
And - we are nearly at 7200 subscribers! That’s 800 new subscribers since I started this Substack in September - thank you all!
But first . . .
No Time to Fail Case Study Highlights
At the very bottom of this email is the extensive case study guide filled out by filmmakers Margo Guernsey and Sara Archambault. As a teaser - here are the highlights of their campaign:
An unexpected success of our work is how deeply the film has been embraced as a tool within the election official community and those who work to support them. With record turnover in the industry, addressing burnout and mental health support is vital. Lots of organizational partners who really believe in us and the film.
Partnership with the League of Women Voters led to events in 30 cities. They brought out press and real conversations about our election administration.
MTV’s Mental Health Action day, in partnership with Carter Center, was our most successful event. The film was offered for free and election officials from around the country tuned in to watch together. More than 550 election workers signed up and received mental healthcare resources including TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF TO SERVE OTHERS: A Wellbeing Resource Guide for Election Officials, produced by the Carter Center's Democracy Program.
The trust the filmmakers built with organizations who support election administrators, and the clout we gained amongst election officials, led to synergy and a shorter “sister” film with a goal of continuing to tell the unfolding story of how election officials are standing up to the attacks on their integrity and working to make sure our constitutional right to vote is secure. It is also shorter, with the intention of reaching a wider audience. It is now streaming on TIME.com https://time.com/7017573/the-officials/
Elections Department in Dept of Defense watched the film as a morale booster for their staff.
Sabbath Queen Opens in LA, Held Over A 3rd Week in NYC
After a successful opening in NY — NYTimes Critics Pick, $25,000 first week box office at IFC Center in NYC - - - Sabbath Queen is coming to LA! I’ll be at the Friday night show at the Laemmle Royal - I hope to see your there. Get your tickets here! Some other highlights below:
Thursday, Dec 5 at 7pm Royal Theater — Q&A with director Sandi DuBowski and Amy Ziering (AMPAS member, two-time Emmy award-winning and Academy award-nominated investigative filmmaker, “The Invisible War," "Allen v. Farrow"
Saturday, Dec 7 at 7:10pm Royal Theater — Q&A with director Sandi DuBowski and protagonist Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie
Saturday, Dec 7 Special Event: Afternoon SoulSpa led by Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie — a meditative spa for soul and body, which is an adaptation of the Shabbat day service into an interactive musical experience which is everybody-friendly and God-optional, offering grounding, gratitude and contemplative conversations to lift up healing and hope. RSVP Here.
Sunday, Dec 8 SABBATH QUEEN Editing Masterclass 10:30am-12:30pm
At the Laemmle Royal with Editors/Writers Francisco Bello ACE and Jeremy Stulberg ACE, Editor Kyle Crichton, and director Sandi DuBowski to discuss the process of crafting a longitudinal documentary two decades in the making. RSVP Here
Portrait Creative Talent List 2024
I’m a huge fan of Portrait - social network for filmmakers! You should join in any case! But now there is a new reason - access this year’s Portrait's Creative Talent Lists for 2024. Portrait Creative Network want to help you keep track of the people behind this year’s best creative work with You've heard about these docs, features and shows all year. Now learn about the talent behind them. Browse by role, save contacts, and send private messages.
Film Independent Webinar
Last night I did a fun 3 hour webinar with Sundance Co//ab. Next week, on Tuesday, December 10, I will be doing a 1.5 hour webinar with Film Independent.
From Film Independent: In the new landscape of indie filmmaking, savvy producers don’t bet on a big sale at a prestige festival and just hope for the best. They start thinking about distribution and marketing long before their film is complete, and consider multiple options to give their project the greatest chance of success upon release.
Tickets: Free for FIND members, $15 for everyone else.
Hope to see you there!
Indie Film Landscape with Keri Putnam Tomorrow
Join me, Keri Putnam and Filmmaker Magazine’s Scott Macaulay tomorrow at 4pm PT / 7pm ET for a groundbreaking discussion on the state of independent cinema.
Sign up here.
Distribution Lab Info Sessions
If you or someone you know are interested in joining the January 2025 cohort - there is more information here. You can also sign up for one of our two upcoming information session on 5th & 12th December here:
DOC NYC Panel
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of moderating an incredible panel at DOC NYC's Distribution Day on the topic "Own Your Audience, Own Your Success."
With three amazing panelists, Neil Williams (GATHR), Christie Marchese (Kinema) and Tara Hein-Phillips (Jolt), we explored how filmmakers can build direct connections with their audience and take charge of their distribution journey.
We covered the differences between these three platforms (note: in the future I hope to do a webinar with all these three platforms and Eventive).
Neil, Christie, and Tara each gave two quick case studies of films on their platform indicating what film/filmmaker is best for their platform, how filmmakers can have the best success on their platforms, how each platform does or does not use data etc.
The excellent D-Word covered nearly all the industry panels at DOC NYC including ours - here is a link to the writeups.
A huge thank you to the panelists for their expertise and to DOC NYC and Malikkah Rollins for bringing us all together!
And Finally:
The No Time to Fail Case Study Guide
All 14+ pages.
Jon Reiss Substack Case Study Questions
Your Name: Margo Guernsey and Sara Archambault
Your Film: No Time To Fail
Date of Completion of Survey: 10/31/24 and 11/1/24
Film Background and Release Timeline:
When did you start filming? 2020
When did you start post? 2021
When was the film finished? 2022
Highlights:
An unexpected success of our work is how deeply the film has been embraced as a tool within the election official community and those who work to support them. With record turnover in the industry, addressing burnout and mental health support is vital. Lots of organizational partners who really believe in us and the film.
Partnership with the League of Women Voters led to events in 30 cities. They brought out press and real conversations about our election administration.
MTV’s Mental Health Action day, in partnership with Carter Center, was our most successful event. The film was offered for free and election officials from around the country tuned in to watch together. More than 550 election workers signed up and received mental healthcare resources including TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF TO SERVE OTHERS: A Wellbeing Resource Guide for Election Officials, produced by the Carter Center's Democracy Program.
The trust the filmmakers built with organizations who support election administrators, and the clout we gained amongst election officials, led to synergy and a shorter “sister” film with a goal of continuing to tell the unfolding story of how election officials are standing up to the attacks on their integrity and working to make sure our constitutional right to vote is secure. It is also shorter, with the intention of reaching a wider audience. It is now streaming on TIME.com https://time.com/7017573/the-officials/
Elections Department in Dept of Defense watched the film as a morale booster for their staff.
Goals
What was the primary goal with the release?
(Either one of: Money, Career, Change the World, Audience or Long Term Audience development)
This was an entirely impact-centered distribution plan. We finished the film on the eve of the 2022 midterms. Election officials around the country had borne the brunt of relentless attacks throughout 2021 and into 2022. With the midterms approaching, our goal was to bring audiences behind the curtain of this little known profession, revealing the dedication election officials give to this work. All of our decisions for this release were based on lifting up the stories of election officials as Americans were getting ready to vote.
What was the secondary goal with the release?
We always have an unspoken goal of continuing to bring our careers to the next level. While that was on our minds, it was never the primary motivation for the decisions we were making. That is not to say that having that motivation is a bad thing, sometimes we wish we had done that more actively! But our North Star for this project was always impact.
That said, for Sara, this was also her first time directing. Working alongside Margo in that role was helpful, as we each had a “wing person” in decision-making, gut checks, etc. That can be hard, but it was also incredibly educational. It was an important opportunity for Sara to feel out if she’d ever do this again.
Did the goals change over the course of the release – if so how?
We started getting very positive feedback from election officials around the country almost immediately after the film began touring festivals. Through Sept and October that continued, snowballing in our screenings on Kinema that sold out. That changed the goals of the campaign as we pivoted to using the film as a tool to bring election officials around the country together, to be seen and validated in their work, and to strengthen community and collegial bonds between each other. This culminated in our partnership with the Carter Center around Mental Health Day in May 2023.
Do you feel you met your goals? And why?
Our initial goal had a very broad audience, the American electorate, and our hope was to reach that group through more traditional means such as a national broadcast and large festival run. We were thrilled to reach this goal through a broadcast with World Channel, but we were not able to leverage as much publicity as we wanted. We know that there is only a small portion of the public who will watch a feature film about election administration on public media, and our hope was to use the publicity generated around the broadcast to penetrate the more mainstream narratives around questions on election integrity. Because of the limitations there, we went on to create a short film (released with TIME) to address that audience gap. Not everyone creates another film to address the gaps in their goals for the first, but it worked for us!
That said, in the weeks after premiere we pivoted quickly to (a) take advantage of getting the most traction we could to creating audience in the 2022 midterms and (b) focus more intently on the niche audience who were embracing this film most - election administrators and other government officials. In 2020, this group of people pulled off the incredible feat of the most safe and secure election in US history, reaching this accomplishment with the added chaos of a global pandemic, and yet the public narrative about the election was one of fraud, disillusionment and failure. They needed this film as a narrative correction, public education, and validation. In our work with this niche audience, we far exceeded our own expectations. Over 100 screenings is more than we imagined, and the kinds of feedback from all corners of the country about how the film resonated, and how election and government officials used it to show others what they do for work, was more tangible impact than we thought we might have.
The Film
What unique qualities of the film did you identify early on that would distinguish the project from other films?
We always joked that this is very much a COVID film. It has a very handmade feel since the cinematography was on prosumer cameras, and it matches the feel of the work because election administration is underfunded, not sexy and pretty. The way in which the look and feel of the film matched the work of the people in the film is not pushing boundaries in film, but definitely unique.
The access we were granted at the time was also unique. What sane election official would trust filmmakers with cameras to film their every move behind the scenes during the most challenging year of their professional lives? It was our deep roots in the community that gained us the access we had; and we knew that it was special.
Although there have been other films that looked at election administration from the eyes of voters (films by Katy Chevigny and Kevin Jerome Everson come to mind), we think that - at the time - this was the first behind-the-scenes documentary about election administration from the POV of election officials.
Also, importantly, the film captured the “canary in the coalmine” moment of a cultural change regarding the American public and its relationship with election administration. Prior to the 2020 election, with the possible exception of 2000 and of course the long history of activism around the disenfranchisement of Black and brown citizens, the majority of the American electorate trusted that the process was the process and was handled according to the rules. No Time To Fail captured the time in history when that actively changed.
Audience
Who did you think the audience of the film was when you conceptualized the project?
American electorate, broadly.
How did that conception change as you approached distribution?
Our concept for audience didn’t change significantly until after the film started to circulate.
Who did the audience of the film turn out to be?
While there was a general audience that this film reached, the active niche audience for this film were election administrators and government workers, themselves. Voters and civically-minded citizens did embrace the film, but election workers who really saw themselves in the story were the true evangelists for the project.
In some ways this is a distribution 101 type lesson. All filmmakers want EVERYONE to see their film. But know who your niche audience is and really lean into them. They are the ones who will love the film and carry it out into the world for you.
Reaching Audience
How did you think you were going to engage and reach audiences prior to distribution?
A combination of festivals, limited theatrical and broadcast was the initial plan. And while we did all three, the most effective pieces of this plan were the broadcast and a shifted focus on community screenings - with a large number of screenings through active civic engagement networks, government associations and even in the offices of election administrators.
Budgeting:
Did you budget for and raise money for distribution and marketing? When? How much?
All of our funders for the marketing and distribution were also funders of the film. They didn’t see this as marketing dollars per se, but as impact dollars. They were as committed as we were to making sure this film reaches a large audience so that more Americans learn about how our elections are administered.
Yes. We planned for an impact campaign funded by philanthropic donors as opposed to distribution income. This plan came together during the year of edit (it was a 12 month edit!) and the fundraising happened during that year as well.
How much money did you raise to start distribution and marketing?
We raised $231,275
Distribution:
What was your overall distribution strategy?
Our strategy was very traditional at the outset. We submitted to festivals, and hoped to go from there to a broadcast. In between we planned an impact campaign to lift up the visibility of the work of election officials. It was to include community screenings, a limited theatrical (centered in our impact goals) in targeted cities, online conversations about the work of election officials, and the offering of the film as an educational tool to make sure that elected officials really understand the work of these government employees.
When in the production/post process did you start developing this strategy?
During edit.
It is worth noting that we were only in production for six months because we were documenting an election cycle. Had this been a more typical production process (i.e. shooting over many years), we would have developed our distribution strategy more thoroughly beginning at an earlier stage.
Domestic Sales:
Did you have a domestic sales agent? No
Marketing
What was your overall marketing strategy?
Our first tier marketing strategy was largely driven through the lens of our impact partnerships. As described above, we understood quickly that a focus on the general electorate was not going to get us quick traction. To activate our niche, we knew where to find them and we had the relationships. All of our marketing efforts were low cost (social media, newsletters, etc.) and directly related to impact-focused partnerships that we had developed all along. These are the people with the mailing lists and the trust-based relationships that can get the film on the radars of those invested in the issues. We developed all the publicity materials, graphics, toolkits, etc., and then activated our first tier partners in getting the word out on screenings, online events, educational availability, and, of course, the broadcast through their social networks, groups, newsletters, etc. This was a relatively low-cost marketing effort with a hyper focus on getting the word out to already-interested, likely viewers.
Once we secured the broadcast with America Reframed, we leaned in on that brand and its marketing ability to bring in the “general electorate” audience. The AR team’s year-round audience development, in addition to the focused work on the title itself, got the film to the audience we could not with our focus on the niche. I’m also loving their experiments on YouTube as a way to get their films into spaces that capture people who are not typical “PBS viewers,” but I’m uncertain how much actual marketing is done in that arena beyond brand-building.
Partner Outreach
What was your outreach strategy?
Knowing that impact work would be an important part of achieving our goals for the film, we prioritized those goals throughout production. From very early production stages, we built close relationships with a few big non-profits that support election administrators and these relationships really paid off during our impact campaign.
When in the process and what date did you start doing organizational outreach?
In development of the film! SEE ABOVE
How long did the connections take?
Years. Seriously. We started these conversations in 2020 and they started to pay off in 2022 with the release of the film.
What helped you in this process?
Building trust was key. We asked for lots of information and assistance, and we shared our own knowledge and gave back in every way we could.
How many national, international and local partners did you have?
Our most trusted allies with whom we have the closest relationships - this means we were strategizing together as well as holding joint events:
Issue One
Brennan Center
League of Women Voters
Common Cause
Power to the Polls
Election Center
Democracy Fund
These organizations partnered with us on events, or participated in events in a big way:
Carter Center
URI Votes
National Association of State Election Directors
Center for Tech and Civic Life
California Voter Foundation
Verified Voting
Bipartisan Policy Center
Why did those partners get involved in your release? How was the win/win relationship structured?
Our closest partners have seen us as their allies throughout. When we approached them, we were essentially coming to them with something that they needed and didn’t have - effective, emotional storytelling about election administration. They were excellent in sharing facts, information, how to’s, FAQ’s, but had less emotional, character-driven storytelling to support their work in voter education and strengthening the field. From production and post through to distribution and impact, we sought their advice, asked for their help with things like fact-checking, and this grew to asking them to share the film with their networks, host screenings, and share other resources. The film was aligned closely with their mission driven work, so the synergies were there from the beginning.
Particular examples?
The League of Women Voters created a toolkit and encouraged chapters around the country to host events, resulting in at least 30 events from this partnership that often also led to press coverage
Issue One co-sponsored online events, strategy meetings, backed the promotion of new short film, and created its study guide.
The Brennan Center co-sponsored theatrical screenings, appeared with us on panels, brought behind the scenes support particularly in the fact check, and participate in press interviews with us.
Email/Newsletter
What was your email/newsletter strategy?
Though we had a wonderful newsletter for the film that our impact team at Red Owl developed for us, it wasn’t a strength for this campaign. It takes a lot of work to build up the niche database for your film and we realized early on that the best way for us to get to those lists was through our impact partners. Though we did produce a newsletter, our main strategy was to be communicating with partners and getting our materials into THEIR newsletters.
When did you start collecting email addresses?
Collecting email addresses happened during production, along with creating our main spreadsheet of potential partners, but the work had a lot more focus during the impact campaign itself.
Influencers
What was your influencer strategy?
Having an influencer strategy is hard for a film like this one because staying non-partisan was a non-negotiable priority for this project. With so many people feeling aligned either to the right or left, it wasn’t the best way to work for us. That said, we did do events with more “notable” election officials like Jocelyn Benson (Sec of State, MI) and Philadelphia Election Director Al Schmidt (who briefly had to go into hiding with this family, and is now Secretary of the Commonwealth!). We did have an influencer come on as EP for our new short. That strategy is still playing out so we won’t be quite ready to assess it yet!
Press/Earned Media
What was your earned media strategy?
We hired a publicist to help us with earned media throughout our limited theatrical. Though we did get some good coverage, it didn’t do the work we hoped it would do. We wanted it to accomplish too much too fast without a major festival premiere. And working with experts in film press when you want local, political press is not the way to go.
When did you start engaging the earned media?
As part of our impact rollout in Sept 2022 ahead of the mid-terms. We did hire a publicist, but at least half of the press we got was a result of one of the filmmakers personal connections, or an event host’s connections. The League of Women Voters got a lot of press, and the New Hampshire Film Festival got good press.
Did you hire a publicist?
Yes
For which parts of your release?
We focused our publicist’s work on special events, limited theatrical and festival appearances occurring in the fall of 2022. All of this work is associated with our Impact campaign but their work was aligned most directly with the limited theatrical timeline.
Did you find it helpful? If so how?
It was hard to get coverage without a broader release. I wouldn’t hire a publicist again without a national release.
Paid Ads
Did you use paid ads for growth prior to the release?
No.
Organic Social Media
What was your organic social media strategy?
We hired a social media manager to really focus on building a presence online. We worked with Wealth Agency and they did a great job. Our social media strategy was design to work as an information hub not just for information on the film, but for news and information related to election administration, the unique challenges of the job, etc. It was a place where our outreach partners could see their work lifted up as well. We tried to make the social media space one that was not just promotional, but also educational and election community-focused.
When did you start organic social?
Around the time of premiere.
What was helpful in this process?
The person we hired did an excellent job.
Did this strategy evolve over time - if so how?
We tried a lot of fun stuff, but none of it really stuck. For example, we tried to create a storytelling initiative where we would collect short videos from election officials across the country - that either we would record or they would record themselves - that we could post as a way to make this largely invisible workforce more visible! But doing this at their busiest time - election season - was not a great way to go! Even a short :30 second video is a lot to do, as well all know well and given their exhaustion (and, for some, fears of being targeted), this little initiative didn’t take off. It’s still a good idea that needed more money and better execution!
What platforms did you focus on? Starting #s and Current #s?
I would say we were most active on Instagram and FB, but we should have spent WAY more time on Twitter because that is where politics/government workers and journalists live.
Events - Festivals
Finishing the edit in 2022, we ideally wanted to get the film out during the fall to maximize its visibility during an election year.
Festivals did not love this film. It wasn’t a shiny, sexy object. The feedback we got was that it felt too local to RI, though that feedback was always perplexing as there are so many films that address universal themes and ideas but that are located in the hyper-specific.
We premiered it in RI - knowing that we wanted to share with the local community first, but we also knew pretty quickly that this wasn’t going to be a festival darling film and that we would need to pivot away from festivals quickly.
What was your festival strategy? Why?
Our strategy was for visibility at festivals. We did not time the release with the industry festival schedule so we had to take what we could get. At the time election officials continued to get harassed and so the goal was to get the film out before the mid-terms.
Premiere festival? Date?
Rhode Island International Film Festival - August 2022. We prioritized premiering in the film participants’ hometown with local community.
How many other festivals?
GlobeDocs
Atlanta Film Festival
New Hampshire Film Festival
Did you make money on your festivals?
No.
Who booked festivals?
We did.
Comments/reflections/notables about your festival release:
Festivals were not a significant part of this release.
Theatrical
Did you do a theatrical release?
Yes, a limited impact theatrical. One day only in select cities which each screening eventized.
Did you have a distributor/booker?
Yes, Michael Tuckman / mTuckmanMedia
What was the strategy for the theatrical?
Visibility and press for the film.
How many cities?
10
How much revenue?
$4,047 was our share of BOR (note: we paid theatrical booker 10k so this was a net loss)
What worked - what didn’t work
Having a strong partner doing turnout and marketing on the ground was the key to a full theater. We also got more local press in those cities.
Comments/reflections/notables about the theatrical:
It’s all about eventizing AND having a local mission-aligned partner.
Community Screenings
Did you do a community screening release?
Yes.
What was the strategy for the community screenings?
Visibility for election officials and education about how our elections work.
We had to be careful not to lobby for legislation because of our funding from the non-profit sector, however we did make an effort to get the film in front of legislators. We wanted elected officials to understand that funding for election infrastructure is critical.
Did you have an impact producer/outreach manager?
Yes, we hired Red Owl. They did a fantastic job.
How many cities?
We had over 100 screenings
How much revenue?
Kinema - $3,568
It is important to note that revenue was not a goal, so we mostly offered the film at no charge.
Windowing Events
How were the events above windowed in relationship to each other?
Festivals / impact theatrical / community events online and in person. Sept 2022 - May 2023 - > Broadcast fall 2023 - > available through PBS educational distribution
Educational
Are you doing an educational release?
Yes.
What is the strategy for educational?
Reach as many civics classrooms as possible.
Do you have an educational distributor? Who?
PBS.
Total net revenue?
TBD, but likely low. PBS is offering it at very low cost.
Comments/reflections/notables about Educational?
We have very little control and knowledge over who is seeing it and where, which makes it hard to continue to plan educational impact goals.
VOD/Broadcast/Digital
What was your strategy around VOD/Broadcast/Digital?
We intentionally gave it to PBS to distribute through their channels because they are a trusted source of educational content.
What was the order of VOD in relationship to Events?
SVOD after TVOD?
AVOD?
Physical Merch
We did canvas bags and stickers. They were a huge hit, and they cost us a lot. They became part of the impact work as opposed to a revenue stream. I have not seen merch be a way to bring in profit for films, but that could be different for a very specific film with a very specific audience.
International
Did you have a foreign sales agent and/or direct sales?
No.
Revenue
Event Revenue:
Festivals - none
Community Screenings - we chose to offer screenings at no cost to serve our niche audience, and we gave rights to public performance licenses to PBS, so most of our screenings were offered free of charge
Kinema - $3,568 (we didn’t plan to make any $$ on this, and in retrospect we could have brought in more had we gone in with that idea)
Theatrical - $4,047 (note: we paid theatrical booker 10k so this was a net loss)
VOD/Broadcast Revenue:
Broadcast/SVOD - 10k
TVOD - TBD (numbers are not available yet)
AVOD - TBD (numbers are not available yet)
One note on revenue - We knew from the very beginning that this wasn’t going to be a money-maker. The goal was impact / hearts + minds. And because of that, we fit the financing plan accordingly. We knew that the only way to make this work was to fund the film and distribution 100% philanthropically and we were successful at funding both the full film and outreach in this way. With the follow up film, too!
Top 5-10 Things You Feel You Did Well
We connected and built trust with people who are adjacent to the film - meaning folks who are not in the film but do similar work.
We built strong relationships with mission-aligned national non-profit organizations.
We listened to our partners and pivoted our impact work accordingly (i.e. shifted to reaching out to more and more election officials), and followed the lead of allies who had specific ideas for how they wanted to use the film. This was particularly true for the Carter Center and LWV, which were our strongest impact partners.
We secured a broadcast on WORLD through America ReFramed, which gave the film a huge boost of credibility and has reached a lot more people because of that. They ran it again for free this fall, and we know anecdotally that many people have been watching.
We walked away from a couple offers for distribution that would have put it on streaming platforms (Amazon, iTunes, and on demand) but would have taken educational rights. We were determined to make sure we could get the film in the hands of a group that could really get it into classrooms. PBS was the perfect partner for that. We had to really push for it to get onto PBSd platforms after we contracted with AmReframed.
Top 5-10 Things You Feel You Could Improve Upon/Mistakes You Made/Would Do Differently
We didn’t start out with a plan to monetize the release and we didn’t pivot to consider our niche audience until after we started. In retrospect, we could have pushed even farther and wider with the intention of holding screenings for election officials in all jurisdictions, on a sliding scale or for a donation. That would have probably reached even more people and might have brought in more funds to help sustain the campaign for a longer period of time.
Similar to above, we could have held on to public performance license rights rather than give it all to PBS for the purpose of being in direct contact with more of the people hosting screenings. That would give us more ability to collect emails and build on those screenings for future screenings. To be clear, we are glad we gave educational to PBS. We just could have held the public performance piece.
Next time I would wait to hire a publicist for the national broadcast, and depend on filmmaker connections to media and partner connections for publicity of community screenings.
There are lots of ways to do your first big Kinema screening. I don’t think what we did was a mistake, but we could have really had a Kinema strategy rather than a few one-off screenings. A few events that build on each other where we are telling folks to tell their friends about the next one. One could be free, but the rest should have a modest ticket price like $5.