You remember: last week I recommended War, Inc. The team behind the film is using a viral marketing approach only, since they have 0 money they can devote to traditional marketing. And it did the trick: they managed to get enough people out there to watch the film in theatres in LA and NYC and rake up more than $50,000.00 last weekend at the box office. Now if you do the math, this number correlates to the 2nd highest per screen average in the US (second only to Indiana Jones 4).

If people keep flocking to the theatres, the filmmakers will bring War, Inc. to additional cities around the US, which is what they are aiming for of course! They want this film to be seen by as many people as possible, and so they should – it is terrific!

So here is me playing my part in their viral marketing campaign (again): go see War, Inc. this weekend if you’re in LA or NYC! It is absolutely fantastic and deserves a wider release. And if you catch it, tell me how you liked it!

As you all know, I breathe film. So today I want to get your attention for a film that I think is brilliant and deserves to be watched many times: War, Inc.

I already wrote why you should watch it over on FilmTiki. But this is also interesting from a Social Media perspective: there is a lot of grassroots buzz and people rooting for this film in the blogosphere, and the filmmakers are utilizing MySpace and Facebook in addition to that. It is an independent film, and the online buzz is a marketing channel  which I think works well – it is totally in the spirit of this project. Check out the articles I bookmarked on my del.icio.us for more background info.

All this buzz now needs to translate into the box office: War, Inc. is starting out with a very limited release only, but if the people flock to the theatres in NYC and LA it may go wider. So if you’re there, take it from someone who’s seen it twice already – go! Trust me, you won’t regret it.

We have been working on the conception of the idea and how to formulate it like maniacs, and now we are at a stage where we need you. Our project is a collaborative undertaking – we require the input from people in the film industry who have anything and everything to do with film promotion and/or distribution. We need your help to shape this new platform! Just come on by www.filmtiki.com, have a look around, sign up for the pre-pre-alpha wiki and join us in this journey!

For all news regarding FilmTiki just subscribe to my blog over there.

1.    We have a new name: kickeyes.com
We never really liked filmbooster, and last week the perfect name came to me: kickeyes.com. I am very pleased with this, and so is my new 2nd CEO!
2.    New CEO
Yes, I have a partner in crime. Silvia Santangelo Jura will be the 2nd CEO of kickeyes.com. Her invaluable experience in the field of Internet marketing in the broad areas of film, music and the arts in general is a huge asset. I am very grateful to have her on board.

About kickeyes: kickeyes is a platform that will provide advice for filmmakers (in the broadest sense) on how to utilize the Internet as a marketing- and distribution channel. It will be a subscription-based tool that will make it easy for filmmakers to diagnose the appropriate channels for their film, their audiences, their goals, …
We are aiming to launch kickeyes early next year. At this stage we are in the pre-design phase, so you won’t find anything on kickeyes.com yet.
If you are a filmmaker, distributor, festival or in any way, shape or form involved in film marketing or distribution, get in touch with us! We want your input, in return for lifelong free access to our service.

Half a year ago I have started developing a concept for an online platform (the working title is filmbooster.com, which is just that at this stage – a working title), which will help filmmakers (independents, but also studios and film funding agencies) find the appropriate online marketing and distribution channels for their specific film. It will be fully automated – you tell us what kind of film you have and what you want to do with it, and we tell you which online channels to use to achieve those goals. We will also take into account the “old” marketing and distribution channels (like e.g. film festivals) that may have restrictions on how eligible you are for their festival in case you want to screen your film online in its entirety.

Basically, we will provide comprehensive and the most up-to-date online marketing and distribution data for the film industry. How and where to reach your audience, how to achieve your marketing goals for your film, how to raise your filmmaker profile, how to raise awareness for a specific project,… you name it. And the best thing is: this will be affordable to a large number of people. Working as the Wellington Fringe Film Festival Co-ordinator, and on countless short films in my life in New Zealand film I know that money is often tight – and filmmakers usually just want to get their film finished, but have no money left to get it out there.  We will be able to help you promote and distribute your work on a very limited budget.

But wait, there’s more: my dear friend Marian Adolf pointed me towards a funding agency based in Vienna called departure, who had a funding round for projects incorporating Web 2.0 into their business model in October. I pitched filmbooster to them, and received a grant of € 200 000 to complete and promote the platform within the next couple of years. This is so great – without this grant it would have been doable, but not as comprehensively as planned. And certainly not as fast. I am very grateful and honored. And I am excited and inspired about the fact that we will help filmmakers as well as take part in this paradigm shift by building a tool that will assist filmmakers, producers, studios, etc. in making the best use of the web for their specific agenda and leveraging the Long Tail.

Work on the project has started already (I have obviously been working on it for a while now, as have my colleagues Ursula Seethaler, Andreas Hafenscher, Matthew Kerr and Hans Lamprecht; currently I am recruiting more people into my team), and in the next little while I will approach more and more filmmakers to be part of our experts that will help us get the right info together, in exchange for lifetime free membership on our platform. If you’re a filmmaker who has promoted and/or distributed a film online – flick me an email. We want you!  The big kick-off will be mid-March, which coincides with my move back to Europe. Loudhail will be based in Vienna, but not to worry: I will of course keep working globally as a consultant, not only to the film industry!

There have been some reports in the Austrian press and online about the funding round and the funded projects: departure had about € 1 Million to spend, and 7 projects got funded. Read more here and here (in German only).

Thanks so much to all the people who have contributed to this so far and who are making this happen. Watch this space!