INTRODUCTION

This report concerns a student project conducted by Jonathan Richter, Daniel Baron, and Heath Lacy. The class in which this project took place was FIL 4661: The Film Producer. The project was created in order to teach students the importance of advertising and marketing in order to drive revenue and create a financially viable film. Providing a pre-existing substance, numerous lectures were held and autobiographical screenings were shown in the class. Some of these included lectures by experts in marketing, including Shannon Lacek and Rich Grula (both are previous marketing directors of the Florida Film Festival), producer Christine Vachon, Florida Film Festival programmer Matthew Curtis, former students Tom Hurter and Nick Martinolich, and Professor Randy Finch. These served the purpose of inciting and inspiring different types of advertising ideas in order to aid in the creation of material for this project. The class was broken into about 20 teams of 2 to 3 students each. Each team was then assigned a movie. Our team included Jonathan Richter, Daniel Baron, and Heath Lacy. The film assigned to us was Poundcake, directed by Rafael Monserrate and written by Troy Hall and Kevin Logie.

POUNDCAKE SYNOPSIS

On the night before Thanksgiving, Cliff and Carol Morgan gather their three grown children, Robby, a late night radio DJ, his hypochondriac younger brother Charlie and their adopted sister Brooke at their favorite Chinese restaurant, The Golden Buddha for an announcement. After 30 years of marriage, Cliff and Carol are getting a divorce. Now the Morgan's must spend what may be their last Thanksgiving together as a family, in as civilized a manner as possible. Set in Buffalo, NY in the late 1980’s with a killer authentic soundtrack from the era, Poundcake is a dysfunctional family comedy with heart and stars Academy Award® Nominee Kathleen Quinlan and Jay O. Sanders.

A family recipe with all the wrong ingredients.

HISTORY

FIRST DATE

We met while performing improve at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City and after performing together for about a year, we decided to break away from UCB and develop a comedy sketch show for themselves. The original idea for the show was based on Kevin’s parents who were, unfortunately at the time, going through a divorce. The first sketch was about a husband and wife dealing with an affair that was inevitable. The mother was being won over by a man who claimed to be the world’s master of origami. The sketch was funny, but also heartbreaking and real. For Kevin, it was a cathartic process and for Troy, it was free practice in psychoanalysis… and there, in Starbucks on 42nd Street, POUNDCAKE was conceived.

MEETING THE PARENTS

We would sit for hours and talk about the effect the divorce was having on Kevin’s family and of course, Kevin. Troy would ask questions, trying to get to the core of what it all meant to a grown man watching his family dissolve before his eyes. We both quickly realized that there is a loss of innocence at whatever age, when you realize that your parents aren’t super heroes, they are just two people trying to survive and sometimes that means … not together. The point: “Divorce is hilarious!”

THE BIRTH OF BABY “POUNDCAKE”

For two years we worked night and day to bring POUNDCAKE to life. We’d meet anywhere we could during the day-- the floor in Grand Central Station, Barnes & Noble and restaurants… but mostly we worked at various Starbucks locations all over Manhattan. In fact, Troy spent $1,344.00 on grande coffees over the time spent there … true story. A usual evening of work would require Kevin to drive an hour each way from his home to Troy’s and then we’d write until the wee hours of the morning. This was at least two or three nights a week. In fact, one night at the wee hour of 3 a.m., Kevin went outside to his car to go home only to find that the spot where he parked his car was missing one thing … his car!

MONEY FOR COLLEGE

After two years on the script, it was time to figure out how we were going to make the movie. Inspired by the Coen brothers, we opted to shoot a trailer and over two days and a minimal budget we did. With Director Rafael Monserrate on board, we would eventually gain the interest and the money of two investors. After a month or so, the “experienced” Hollywood investor of the two, informed the team that he thought the movie couldn’t be shot for under a million because we needed a stunt coordinator and CG to make it legit. So needless to say there were obvious creative differences that made Troy put his foot down which in turn made the “experienced” investor pull his monies out one month before production was suppose to start. See ya’ … now what? Troy and Kevin decided, like any proud parent, that they would invest in their baby. Troy took out a loan and with Kevin, they would split it down the middle. By the way Kev, still owes Troy for September and October. Not having much experience in the realm of producing independent films, Troy and Kevin searched for someone who could steer the ship. After much research, Rafael contacted Mridu Chandra via email and pleaded their case. Mridu had some experience, she had line produced the indie film “Love Ludlow” and several documentaries. It was the indie aspect of her resume that attracted them to her. Mridu met with Troy, Kevin and Rafael at Coffee Bar in NYC and decided she would do a budget for the film but she would be going back to her day job and the boys would fend for themselves… accept Troy got down on his knees and begged Mridu to quit her job and take a chance on them. She did and it proved to be the best possible move for all of them. It seemed that this team was meant to be and Mridu Chandra proved to be the powerhouse producer that the boys thought she was. Troy refers to Mridu as his “producing soul-mate”.

FINDING PEOPLE TO LEAD

Working at New York’s well known casting agency Telsey + Co., casting director David Vaccari has known Troy for about ten years. Troy gave David the script in hopes that he could help with casting. After reading it, David immediately came on board as a producer and ended up getting the script into the hands of many well-respected actors in both New York and LA but the three of us had Kathleen Quinlan and Jay O. Sanders at the top of our wish list. After numerous meetings on both coasts, we sat down with Kathleen Quinlan at a Mexican restaurant Santa Monica and then with Jay O. Sanders in a little New York French bistro in the west village and we got our wish.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL POSTPONED

October, a week before production was to begin, Buffalo – where we were filming -- was hit with a catastrophic blizzard. Hundreds of thousands of trees were destroyed, millions of people were without electricity or heat in their homes and the entire Western New York region looked as if it was a war zone. The production team had to make a decision, ‘Do we make POUNDCAKE into a war epic? Or do we shoot around the chaos?’ Needless to say, we made a post apocalyptic war film comedy. The production went forward.

OFFICIAL FIRST DAY

The team was in place and everyone would be venturing on this journey with at least one thing in common: their first feature film… first time director, writers, producers and editor. Both Kathleen and Jay attached themselves based on the merit of the script and graciously agreed to work for scale. Also, the actors would have the luxury of four days of rehearsal with first time director Rafael. The cast and crew of forty people would become one big happy family while working on the film for the nineteen-day shoot and living together at the Holiday Inn. Great rates by the way. For nineteen days, the production team worked tirelessly and enjoyed every second of the film’s true independent spirit. All of the locations were given to the production at no cost. Food was donated, cooked for us and volunteers from the Buffalo community came to the set each day and helped in whatever capacity they could. Even Kevin Logie’s grandmother let the production take over her home for a week to use as “The Morgan” house. Kevin’s hometown was proving to be the perfect place for POUNDCAKE.

FOUR YEARS OF EDUCATION

From the day of the film’s conception, through the writing process, finding investors, the 19-day shoot and the post-production phase, it’s all taken four years. Director Rafael and first time feature film editor, Anthony Ripoli, sat in Anthony’s homemade edit suite in Brooklyn and worked passionately for a year. Independent films rarely have the luxury of resources that would allow the film making process to be much faster, but we looked at our indie status time stretch as a huge blessing… “It’s our one shot, let’s get it right.”

FILMMAKER BIOS

Rafael Monserrate- Director

Rafael Monserrate was born in Puerto Rico and studied Acting and Directing at Framingham State College before winning a scholarship to study theatre at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. He directed a series of plays in NYC before moving to LA to work as an acting and dialogue coach, productions include Miss Miami (NBC), Chasing Pap(20th Century Fox), and The Rundown(Universal Pictures). In 2004 he was hired to voice direct the first all Latin cast animated feature SIAN KAAN and then went on to voice direct A Cat’s Tale starring Michelle Rodriguez, Troy Garity, Jeremy Piven, and Troy Hall. This past December, Rafael directed a television pilot, IMAGINE THIS that is already buzzing all around the networks. Poundcake is his directorial debut.

Troy Hall – Producer/ Screenwriter/Actor

Troy is a good ol’ Georgia boy but has been living in the New York City area for the last fourteen years. He is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and has been working as an actor for the last eight years. Some of Troy’s film and television credits include THE FAMILY MAN, THE WAR WITHIN, TWO AGAINST TIME, and as “Tito” on ANOTHER WORLD. His theatre credits include DANNY BOY (Official Selection of The New York Fringe Festival), LONESTAR, TRACERS, THE MELVILLE BOYS, AWAKENING, and WRONG FOR EACH OTHER. Troy has made a living doing voice-overs for commercials as well as acting in several on-camera campaigns. He starred in comic genius Marty Granger’s 2005 Miller Lite campaign, which was voted one of 2005’s Funniest Commercials. He also kicked off Cingular Wireless’ “More Bars in More Places” campaign in a commercial called “Road Trip”, directed by world-renowned cinematographer Lance Acord and slated as the most recognizable commercial of 2005 & 2006. Troy has been the voice of a number of national campaigns, including Verizon, Oral-B, H&R Block, Garnier, Dunkin Donuts, and Ralph Lauren. Troy met writing partner Kevin Logie while doing improv at New York City’s well-known Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and shortly thereafter, Poundcake was born. Poundcake is Troy’s first feature length screenplay, which he also stars in and produced.

Kevin Logie– Producer/ Screenwriter/Actor

Actor Kevin was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. He was a disc jockey working nights and weekends for 103.3 WEDG-FM and then auditioned to be an emcee for the New York Lottery. Competing with over 400 people, Kevin was chosen as the Western New York representative of the New York Lottery Draw Team. He took classes at Studio Arena Theatre School and soon after, moved to NYC to be an actor. Eventually, he ended up doing improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, where he met writing partner Troy Hall, and started writing Poundcake. Poundcake is Kevin’s first feature length screenplay, which he also stars in and produced.

Mridu Chandra-Producer

Mridu Chandra has been producing social issue documentaries and narrative films for the past decade. In addition to co-producing Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (Sundance 2003, P.O.V. 2003), she produced the documentary film Let the Church Say Amen (AFI/ Silverdocs 2003, Sundance 2004, Independent Lens 2005). Her Indie feature projects include line producing “Love, Ludlow” (Sundance 2005), associate producing Tanuj Chopra’s “Punching at the Sun” (Sundance 2006) and most recently producing “Poundcake.” She currently teaches documentary classes at The New School in their Graduate Department of Media Studies and at New York University in their School of Continuing and Professional Studies. She is a fellow at American University’s Center for Social Media focusing on ethical practice in documentary filmmaking. Mridu was born in India, grew up in Virginia, and lives in New York City.

Gene Miller -Producer

Gene Raphael Miller studied acting with Mr. Hall and Mr. Monserrate at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts. He furthered the collaboration with the two in numerous theatrical productions in the late 90's. Gene co-produced "The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me" in 2000, and in 2004, Gene lead produced the recently released at Blockbuster film "Crazy For Love" starring David Krumholtz, Natasha Lyonne, and Tim Blake Nelson. "Poundcake" came next, and most recently Gene has produced a television pilot called "Imagine This!."

David Vacarri -Producer

David Vaccari is currently a casting director at Telsey & Company where his most recent film credits include Jonathan Demme’s, “Rachel Getting Married”, Gus Van Sant’s “Paranoid Park”, Peter Hedges’ “Dan in Real Life”, Helen Hunt’s “Then She Found Me” and Julie Taymor’s “Across the Universe.” Past film projects include “Rent”, “Pieces of April” , “The Bone Collector”, “Keane,” “The Grey Zone” & “Finding Forrester.” In television he has worked on “Whoopi” for NBC, and for HBO he worked with John Leguizamo on his film “Undefeated” as well as the JJ Abrams pilot, “Hope Against Hope.” One of the original casting directors of the stage musical “Rent”, his career in theater casting includes working with Woody Allen, David Mamet, Martin Short, Edward Albee. and Eric Bogosian on premiers of their work. Current commercials include work by Chris Guest, Todd Field, Tom Schiller, Frank Todaro, Noam Murro, Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris and Jared Hess. “Poundcake” marks his first feature as a producer, having produced the short film, “Right Foot, Left Foot”, which appeared on IFC last year.

Anthony Ripoli – Editor

Anthony Ripoli is a graduate of NYU’s Film School and “Poundcake” is his first feature editing credit. Previously, he served as assistant editor on “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints,” “El Cantante,” and “Fighting” (due out this Spring). Most recently, he edited with David Tedeschi on the Martin Scorsese featurette “Shine A Light: The Making Of” (the Rolling Stones Concert Film).

Josh Silfen – Director of Photography

Josh Silfen has been shooting films since graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2001. In that time he has shot shorts, music videos, commercials, and several feature films including THE BIG BAD SWIM (Tribeca ‘06) and GOODBYE BABY (Slamdance ‘08). POUNDCAKE marks Josh’s first collaboration with director Rafael Monserrate, and his first film in Buffalo.

MARKETING

As a team, we tried the basic forms of digital advertisement. The film had very bad publicity coming into this festival, bad reviews by the score and no website for the film itself, so outside of the few materials the filmmakers gave us, we didn't have much to post on the blog or around the web. We had to improvise and adapt our marketing plan, focusing heavily on personal advertising. Below is a list of our forms of marketing from least effective to most effective:

MySpace: Heath made the Myspace quite early on, but that didn't seem to take off at all. It is most likely because of the randomness of its construction and the lack of content or use for promotion. The filmmakers also already had a Facebook group that had a huge following.

Blog: Since the film did not have a website during our promoting, we used the blog to fill that void (www.fffpoundcake.blogspot.com). We put everything we could on there, from cast bios, to production stills, to video interviews. Unfortunately, the blog never seemed to take flight. Aside from the group, nobody blogged on it. However, it did serve well as a means to link viewers to the purchase ticket page, and as a bulletin for the date and times.

Facebook Event: This worked pretty well. We managed to get a lot of friends to join the event, who in turn came to see the movie. We also connected the event with Troy Hall's Facebook, who in turn invited everyone in the Poundcake group, giving the appearance of a huge following. The Facebook event served better then a Facebook group because it listed specific times and helped to keep a tab on how many people were interested in attending.

Poster and Flier Distribution: Dan, Jonathan, and Aleigh from Attic Door walked around UCF, The Enzian, and Regal for hours a day on multiple occasions. They passed out fliers and postcards to anyone they came across, and if there was enough time, they pitched the movie. This seemed to attract a lot of attention, especially in front of the Regal Cinemas. One of the key components to this method’s success was the attention gained by Aleigh walking around on stilts. This would draw people to us, giving us the opportunity to talk to them about Poundcake.

O’Boys Food Deal: We convinced the owner of O’Boys BBQ to offer 20% off at the restaurant to anyone who purchased a ticket to Poundcake. This was the clincher for Poundcake sales. Countless times did people see the discount at O’Boys and make their decision based purely on that fact. The movie did build a lot of hype on its own, but this discount drew in stragglers who were on the fence about what to see and people who simply wanted the discount.

The Buzz: It was to our luck that despite all the bad press, Poundcake had an audience at this festival. There was a buzz about this film before we started our marketing campaign. This more than likely accounted for a good portion of tickets sold. However, this buzz helped us in more ways than one. Because people were talking about the film, there was a sort of a curiosity about it. When we hit the streets, we enhanced the buzz, and helped convince those who had heard about the film to go and see it.


Results: Whether it was our countless hours of street teaming, the buzz surrounding the film, the coupon deal with O’Boys, or a combination of all, seats were sold. Our first screening was on Monday, March 30th at 8:45 p.m. and the individuals working the ticket table told us that just about two hundred tickets had been sold for a theatre that holds two hundred eighty five. At our second screening we were told by those same individuals at the ticket table that all available tickets had been sold. Our goal was to fill seats, and ultimately that’s what we did.

Success

Our greatest success during this project was acquiring the food sponsor. At first we honestly did not think it was something we could actually accomplish. This feeling grew stronger and stronger as we went from one place on our list to the next only to be told “NO”. Then on a whim we went in to O’boys BBQ, and too our surprise we heard the word “YES”. This idea was suggested to us our first week on the project, and we didn’t complete it until three days before our first screening.

Our other success was our street team tactics. To be more specific it was Aleigh’s stilts. They drew so much attention and gave us several opportunities to tell people about the film. People would be drawn to the stilts and then we would plug Poundcake. Dan referred to the tactic as the bait and switch.

Failure

Our biggest weakness was the use of the Internet to market the film. We created a blog, and a Facebook event to compliment the filmmakers Facebook group they had previously created. Aside from that, we really did not pursue Internet marketing any further. We did not utilize the Facebook/Myspace ad idea due to a lack of funds and the disinterest of the filmmakers to pursue that type of advertising.

We also were unable to get any press for the film other than the press it got on its own. Jonathan sent out press kits and called various newspapers and radio stations, but nobody seemed to be that interested. Aside from sending information and calling, we weren’t very aggressive and probably could have been more persistent.

Next Time

If we were to do it again there are several things we would repeat and a few things we would do differently. First, we would defiantly hit the streets again (with the stilts, of course), handing out fliers and talking about the film. We would also try and get a food sponsor again, because that gets people go see the film simply for the food. We would probably be more persistent with the press next time, even if it means visiting them in person. We would also try and find more ways to advertise on the Internet, especially with Myspace and Facebook.

GROUP MEMBER CONTRIBUTION

Daniel Barron:

Dan was the group’s official liaison to the film maker, Troy Hall. Dan created a GMAIL account (poundcakeucf@gmai.com) as a means for us to contact the filmmaker and as a way for all of us to send and receive emails from a single source. Because of his people skills, Dan was also the groups’ official spokesperson. Dan worked with Jonathan on the original marketing plan, searching for and finding a food sponsor, and distributing marketing materials (posters, postcards, and fliers) on several occasions. He also designed the blog and created a Facebook event.


Jonathan Richter:

Initially Jonathan was the official press coordinator for the group. He was in charge of creating a press release and distributing it to any and all outlets of publication (news papers, radio stations, and television studios). In addition to completing these tasks, Jonathan became responsible for designing all the advertisements, i.e. fliers, posters, postcards, and coupon ads. Jonathan also worked with Dan on the original marketing plan, searching for and finding a food sponsor, and distributing marketing materials (posters, postcards, and fliers) on several occasions. He also designed and created all the postings for the blog and convinced one of his professors to offer extra credit to any fellow class member who saw the film.

Heath Lacy:

Taking advantage of his job at Kinko’s, Heath was our go-to print guy. He printed all of the fliers, postcards, and posters for the group. Originally, Heath was assigned to design the posters/fliers/etc. After reviewing the designs, however, the group decided that Jonathan would redo them because he had an idea to better fit the aesthetic of the filmmakers’ designs. He also distributed marketing materials with Dan and Jonathan on a few occasions. Additionally Heath took the initiative to design a Myspace page for the film; however we were unable to use because the filmmakers already had one.

ORIGINAL MARKETING PLAN

Timeline

Feb.18th – Feb. 28th :
• Watch Film
• Discuss and develop Marketing Strategy
• Research potential advertising
• Groups, Stores, Clubs, Locations, etc.

March 1st - March 14th:
• Discuss and finalize Marketing Strategy
• Create and or obtain Collateral Materials
• Flyers, Posters, and Postcards
• Create a Blog for the Film
• Design Myspace and Facebook Ads and Launch by March 8th.
• Contact Filmmakers

March 15th - March 27th
• Distribute Collateral Materials
• Hang flyers and posters at movie theaters, various retail stores, and clubs with 80’s Nights
• Hand out flyers and postcards
• Try to get the filmmaker to do a phone-in interview with radio stations by Friday, March 20th

March 27th - April 5th
• Attend Festival
• Distribute Collateral Materials
• Hand out flyers and postcards at the festival

CALANDER OF EVENTS

COMPARE & CONTRAST

When it was all said and done we managed to keep pretty close to our original plan. There were a few differences, however, first of which was the addition of a new strategy: the search for a food sponsor. We also never originally planned to work with another group, marketing each other’s films. There were also a few things that we never got around to doing. We never got out to the clubs, we were unable to obtain a radio interview, and we did not make Myspace or Facebook advertisements.

FUTURE MARKETING

This film most likely will not run into many more issues in the future, seeing how well it did in Orlando and now more recently with the awards won in Austin. However, one issue with the film is that it has a few very strong actors backed up by a group of weaker actors and over time that may become more and more obvious.

That leads into the next point, if we were producing this film, and wanted it to make a lot more money, we would suggest casting stars in the main rolls as apposed to casting them as secondary characters. Even though Troy and Kevin wrote Poundcake to be performed by themselves, it would have been easier to sell if they had two big name actors/comedians in the main roles.

As for film distribution, we think they took the best course of action and we wouldn’t do much different. We would continue to ride out the festival circuit, hopefully winning awards, until we acquired a deal for distribution.

CONCLUSION

Poundcake was truly an amazing experience. When we were first assigned this film, we all had doubts. The film didn't make us laugh and really didn't feel like much of a festival film. We got right to work on the best ways to attack the right audience. Thankfully, we had a lot of help along the way, especially from the filmmaker Troy Hall. His willingness to help allowed us to obtain everything we needed and do our job to the highest effectiveness.

We learned how powerful word of mouth truly is. So many critics slammed this movie that we thought we were in for nothing but rejection. For some reason, however, people wanted to see the film. It was amazing how quickly the word spread, and how many people not only came but also truly enjoyed the film.

I also learned not to believe critics at all. They have their opinions, and while they are founded in some great knowledge, they do no know how the general public will enjoy a film. If presented with the opportunity to do this all again, I would never have freaked out when I read all the bad reviews.

It also goes without saying that it was nice to have a group work together as well as we did. Heath working at FedEx Kinkos was a big plus, Jonathan being on top of all the details and being ready at a moments notice to step up for whatever was needed, and Dan's ability to talk to virtually anyone and make them a friend when he had finished made this an enjoyable group assignment.

APPENDIX

List of Everyone We Met:

1. Writer/Producer/Actor: Troy Hall
2. Writer/Producer/Actor: Kevin Logie
3. Director: Rafael Monserrate
4. Producer: Gene Raphael Miller
5. Director: Danny Daneau

Press about the film:

1. Variety Online
2. The Orlando Sentinel
3. Suite101.com
4. Viddler
   

Additional Links:

1. Wendyle Photography
2. Imdb.com
3. Poundcake Blog
4. Poundcake Official Website
5. Florida Film Festival Official Website

PHOTOS/FLIERS/POSTERS

ORIGINAL IMAGES

FLIERS & POSTCARDS

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FOOD AD SAMPLES

FOOD ADS