Interview Sheri Candler

Sheri Candler is an inbound marketing strategist who helps independent filmmakers build identities for themselves and their films. Through the use of content marketing tools such as social networking, podcasts, blogs, and online media publications, as well as relationship building with organizations and influencers, she assists filmmakers in building an engaged and robust online community for their work that will help develop and sustain their careers.

Sheri was involved with festival promotion for 2010 Slamdance official selection "YELLOWBRICKROAD;" 2011 Sundance and SXSW short film official selection “The High Level Bridge,” which achieved a broadcast distribution deal from CBC and was viewed over 100,000 times in the Sundance Youtube Screening Room; press outreach for feature documentary “Ride The Divide” which utilized a unique hybrid distribution strategy partnering with LiveStrong and mountain biking organizations; and social media/organizational outreach in the US for the theatrical release of feature film “Undertow (Contracorriente),” Peru’s official submission for 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

You can follow her on Twitter @shericandler, find her on Facebook Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity and read her blog www.shericandler.com

What is the current project you are working on?

I always have multiple projects going on, sometimes they are long term and some are very short, like consultation only. In the short term, I am working to formulate the promotion of a book I coauthored called Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul Presented by PreScreen which is a case study digital book due out in September 2011. I have 2 other books I am a part of, also digital books though one might become physical. The first was released on July 1 called The Modern MovieMaking Movement featuring knowledge and advice from 10 experts in independent film. It is a free ebook. The second is an anthology of Ted Hope’s Hope for Film blog and will be coming out this summer both in digital and in physical print.

Did you always want to work in the film industry?

No, when I was very young I wanted to be a ballet dancer and trained for it for over 16 years. That didn’t happen through a variety of events but I still love to dance and have recently gone back to taking class. When I entered college, I thought I would study journalism but discovered my university had a film and television department so I switched over to get a BA in Broadcasting and Film. Though I had to take courses in both, as well as radio, it became apparent that I didn’t have a forte in filmmaking. I went down the broadcast track instead. I also took marketing and advertising courses in school, but didn’t like it so much at the time. It wasn’tuntil I lived in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok that I took my marketing education back up again and when we moved to London, studied for a certification in Marketing, Advertising and PR. I worked as the marketing manager of a broadcast equipment manufacturer in charge of the European, Middle East and African territory so  marriage of both things I had studied.

  Who or what inspires you?

I am inspired by courageous people. People who do not sit by and wait for something to happen or something to change. When I was younger, I used to be quite the rule follower and believed that if you were “good enough,” great things would happen to you. I don’t wait for that anymore. I believe you make your own luck through hard work and I am inspired by people who also see the world that way.

What is the best thing about marketing independent film?

Talking to people. Most people think marketing is pushing out a message, basically interrupting people by shouting at them until they do something, buy something. I don’t see it that way. I think you pull people to you by giving them information, knowledge, solutions to problems they have. With indie film, I think marketing is about making people feel an emotional connection to the material and to the artist by being in direct contact with them. When they are emotionally invested, they want to support it.

You won’t have to push them into something or chase people down and badger them to death. It takes a while to do marketing this way, most don’t have the patience and time for it. But I do and I love it and those people will stick with the artist and her work far longer so whatever time is spent doing this is far more effective than starting over again and again and spending lots of money to get attention from most people who will never do what you ask.

 What is the worst thing about it?

Honestly, it is all the myth that surrounds the industry. The myth of the overnight sensation. The myth of films making lots of money, as in box office results. Those results never take into account how much was spent to buy that outcome. And then dealing with artists and executives who buy into those myths and hold them up as truth and measure all things by it. I think we would all be better off to know what real success looks like, accept what is real instead of fabricating an image that is almost impossible to achieve.

No one wants to hear that though, it is more comfortable to perpetuate the idea of success and hide behind a feeling of accomplishment that “my film got distribution” so it was a success. Nevermind that many such films never repay investors or lead to any form of sustainability to the filmmaker. I am not interested in the myth, I want to hear about artists who experience success however modest and are able to keep going. The definition of success is to bring in more money than one is spending and to be able to do work that you love.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

Lost count really. Sometimes I only offer consultation, sometimes I work for only a limited time, like during one festival campaign. Sometimes the work is ongoing like with a documentary I am working on with producer/director Dawn Mikkelson called Smooch which will take maybe years to complete. I have only been working in film marketing for two and half years, first with a film festival and then with filmmakers and artists directly. I see this as an advantage because I am not entrenched in the traditional way of doing things. I can see how the landscape is changing more easily than someone who has become accustomed to policy and legacy. I can adapt faster because I am not protecting an old business model. I also have worked with musicians and authors, not just filmmakers. The principles of marketing for them is the same as with films and filmmakers though.

 Who is your favorite filmmaker?

I love Tim Burton. I don’t love every film he has made, but I love his style, his creativity.

 How has your life changed since you became involved in the film industry?

A lot of things changed in my personal life around the time I started working with indie film. Let’s say it was a time where I could start over to do anything I wanted to do and I chose to do this. I don’t feel I am part of the “industry” and I don’t aspire to it. I want each filmmaker to be their own studio and build a team of collaborators around them with similar goals. I want to work with those teams but only the ones I feel have similar goals and beliefs. I don’t take on every project because of a paycheck. In fact, many times I give advice for free just because I want to see something succeed that I believe in and I know that generosity will come back to me. It always does in some way either through money or opportunity or accomplishment.

 What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to make it in the movie business?

Stop trying to make it in the business. YOU are the business so educate yourself in all aspects of it. Stop waiting for permission, stop waiting to be “picked’ and championed. People champion those who are similar to themselves and offer value so figure out who your champions could be and make yourself useful to them in some way.

I can’t stand the whiners, the complainers, those who say they’ve done all they can to network with no success. I say you’re networking the wrong way then, you’re looking for a savior and people can sense that about you.They can sense the helplessness, the weakness. No one wants to be your savior. Prove that you are capable of saving yourself, or elevating yourself and align with others who have that same outlook. People are pleased to help someone they know is valuable. Be valuable and worth helping. Prove your worth because everyone has worth inside of them.

What do you like to do besides marketing?

I love alternative music and discovering new bands. I take ballet class for exercise. I like taking my kids for a walk on the beach with the dog. As I said, marketing to me is about connecting with people either online (which is the majority of what I do) or in real life and I couldn’t do it well if I didn’t like finding and speaking with people, sharing resources with them.

Have you had any other jobs before you decided to become involved in marketing and the independent film industry?

Yes, I was an on air news announcer in Moscow Russia

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

TV shows: Nurse Jackie, Weeds, United States of Tara, How I Met Your Mother

American films: Hard Candy, Timer, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Inception-I also love Rockumentaries no matter what the music

Foreign: A Room With a View, Let the Right One In

 How would you describe your film education?

A few courses in university taught me that I wasn’t a filmmaker, just a film lover

How would you describe the film "scene" where you live?

Non existent where I am now. In LA, there is a scene of course, but not for indies necessarily. It feels like everyone there is just biding their time to go do studio work. The scene online (where I spend most of my day) is very lively with lots of filmmakers doing creative things and experimenting with lots of different business models. Those are the ones I am most interested in.

 How has social media changed the independent film industry?

The internet first and then social media have changed the world. Where it used to be that you either were stuck in your local area or had to physically move to meet new people, we now have this virtual way of meeting all kinds of people with any interest you can imagine, globally. It used to be just a few people held power over changing minds, influencing, now anyone is able to do it on their own; anyone can have their views heard, anyone can find kindreds, anyone can influence.

Of course, this has just made it a lot more difficult to rise above the noise and unfortunately people feel like the solution is to just shout louder and louder. My view is to whisper, concentrating only on those who want to hear from you. If you only concentrate first on those few, more and more will seek you out. You don’t need to shout, but you do need to be patient and satisfied that reaching a few very passionate people will be more effective than screaming at the large but uncaring masses.

It has also made it far easier and cheaper to distribute work on a global scale. Those who devote their time to figuring out how to harness this power of free distribution coupled with reasons and ways people will support you will do very well for themselves in a sustainable way. I don’t think large corporations will be the guides to figuring this out. Many monoliths will perish in this time. It will be the tiny guy with little lose and the ability to adapt quickly who will have the huge advantage here. Stop looking for huge success stories, at first there will be very few, but that doesn’t mean small success should be discounted. Change starts small and gains momentum. Stop waiting to only join in when the momentum is a full speed, you’ll only be run over that way.

What's your opinion on crowdfunding?

I think it is wonderful. You can’t do it successfully if you don’t have a network so build a base first. I think we’ll start to see more and more “name” people use it too, not for raising money necessarily but for gathering audience and word of mouth ahead of a project release. Many indies don’t even think of crowdfunding being used for this, only for money. That’s a mistake. Get that emotional as well as financial investment in early and cultivate it.

How do you choose which filmmakers you will offer your services to?

Ha, you’re making me sound like a high priced call girl! I no longer solicit offers, they come to me. I live what I preach in that I pull in work instead of going out and finding it. I evaluate where in the process they are and what they need to be done. If they haven’t done any audience building and they are now ready for distribution, my advice is spend some ad money really quickly and lots of it. Make sure you have some good reviews and get the film out as quickly as possible everywhere. You likely only have the money for one big push in this case, no use in windowing.

My methods are slow, effective but slow, and someone who is ready to distribute now doesn’t want to wait, doesn’t want to know they will probably have to do this work for a year before they see significant sales. No distributor wants that either. They all say they use social media to find audience, but they use it incorrectly. They use it as free advertising and bother people. They use it only for taking and rarely for giving. It isn’t effective for that mindset.

The best projects for me are the ones in preproduction or development. I am working at the moment with Jon Reiss to train filmmaking teams on how to do this work themselves. Training for PMDs (Producer of Marketing and Distribution) to be able to make confident decisions on marketing and distribution, how to connect effectively with audience, what tools to use, what distribution platforms are open to them and making connections with those companies well ahead of release. We also write plans, research the audience and we can implement for you but that is pretty costly for most filmmakers. Not every project is going to be a personal fit for us as people, but most projects can benefit from having training. I say a fit for us as people because to be effective at social media marketing, you have to be able to connect authentically to the audience. You can't pretend you are interested in what they are interested, you can’t insert yourself in their communities if you really have no feeling for them. There are just some topics I have no personal feeling for and I wouldn’t be a good person to implement audience building for those. But I can train someone who is passionate about a subject to use tools effectively, to think about alternative content to create, to cultivate an audience. If this is something your readers are interested in and they have budgeted for marketing and distribution and left adequate time for training and implementation, contact either of us.

 How does independent film differ from the mainstream?

If you are speaking about independent film as opposed to studio, then it is only where the money to make it comes from. But I think you mean the stories.

I see independent film for a narrow niche audience. A small group you will delight with your story. Studio films want to delight on a mass scale, their stories are often cliché, benign. In order to please the greatest number, you have to be benign. The best indie films have a distinct point of view, they don’t wish to please everyone and that’s ok. This is particularly true for low budget, no star projects.

You could go back in time and see any classic film being made. Which film would it be and why?

I’m the worst about being on set. It seems like it will be exciting, but to me it is boring. I do like to watch documentaries about the process or hear about it in short chunks on blog posts though.

 What's your favorite movie quote and why?

It is from The Incredibles-Edna Mode says something like “I never look back darling, it detracts from the now.” Many people call me out on not acknowledging what worked in past systems and migrating it into the future. I feel like the whole system needs reinvention, is being reinvented now. To cleave on to the past and try and make it work in the new system doesn’t work and slows everything down. Sometimes to progress, you have to forget everything you knew and start anew. It’s damn frightening though.

I am sure as I get older and more comfortable, I will have to read this and remind myself to keep reinventing. Reinvention never happens when you are comfortable with the way things are.

 You could have any super power. What would it be?

To make dreams come true…and people would have to live with what they wished for. LOL!

What makes a film marketable?

A clearly identifiable audience.

 What is your opinion on movie remakes?

I’m ok with that. You are talking to someone who likes to see reinvention! I would like to see original material though, not the same story retold.

What is your opinion on book to movie adaptations?

If they are being touted as book adaptations, then I think that is what they should be, true to the book. If they are only inspired by the book, then it’s ok to expand the material or make the story fit the medium of film.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I have a digital book coming out in September called Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul Presented by PreScreen-Case Studies in Hybrid, DIY and P2P Independent Distribution http://www.sellingyourfilm.com/ .

I’m really excited about it because it will be the first book of its kind in digital format with video interviews, URL links to tools used and source material, the ability to connect the content to social media. And I think it is one of the first books to really give the real deal information on the new models of distribution with budgets, spend, revenue numbers. This information is almost impossible to find anywhere. We have even had some projects decline when they found out all that had to be revealed to be included in the book. It seems like the whole industry would rather be in denial or perpetuate myth than own up to the truth, to really let people see what success looks like in indie film. We wanted to uncover that and celebrate those courageous filmmakers who are bold enough to experiment, gather their own audience, find a good path to distribution for their work and not being dependent on someone else to make it happen for them.  I can’t wait for every filmmaker in the world to have a copy. At least one version (a pdf text only version) will be completely free for everyone globally. There will be no excuse not to have this information that way.

We have all agreed now that there will be a physical copy version too, but it will release at a slightly later date as we are concentrating on the digital version first to make it the best it can be. As we advocate in the book, we are self distributing the book because all of the authors (Orly Ravid and Jeffrey Winter from The Film Collaborative, Jon Reiss and myself) are very in touch with the independent filmmaker community worldwide, better than a publisher would be able to reach them. It doesn’t make sense to abdicate our rights to reach a world we are in touch with directly.

 

 

 

Thanks Sheri for doing the interview. Everyone check out Sheri's book when it comes out in September. I agree with Sheri, Let The Right One  is one of my favorite foreign films.