Film Courage: What do you think is the best way for a filmmaker who's made a movie let's say
cost $20,000 to make that money back in today so probably not with DVDs as much
maybe? Mark Harris, Filmmaker: I don't know. I think the best way for filmmakers to make a movie if they
made a movie for $20,000 to make that movie back is if the budget is
$20,000, why not rent out theaters right. So say for instance, keep the price very
low so if you if you ran a theater I know in Chicago I can write out a
300-seat theater for like $800 if you do that four or five times you made your
money back you know and then what you want to do is you want to you want you
always want to make sure that we're doing your marketing try to do one more
so to us social media because it's free you want Instagram you know your
Facebook you want LinkedIn so target target those your audience there and do
group pages and things like that and so make sure that like trying to sell a
ticket for like $10 you know 10 to 12 dollars so try to go $20 because it's
easier to get 10 or $12 on a person than $20 and people with people again it will
support you and don't get frustrated and I think a big mistake as we as
filmmakers what our frustration comes a night is that we look for friends we
look from support from our friends and our family don't do it the people who
are going to support you are the people like your people that you don't know
like lawyers doctors school teachers firemen police officers those people
they everyone loves movies so so go to those people you know but we want to you
want to market towards other filmmakers no don't do that don't don't other film
eights are going to support you if they want to support you and don't get
frustrated with other filmmakers don't see why we why are we promoting to other
filmmakers those are not the people that's not our audience our audiences
people who are not filmmakers people who just want it
those a lot of people that you market to like people who have no interest at all
in a film business you know and then what happens is that those people are
going that crowd like give you a perfect example when Tyler Perry started to
build his empire he didn't he didn't market towards other filmmakers or other
play writers he marketed towards the church and those church people they
weren't sure and they just want entertainment you know when he built the
Empire because of people who just wanted to sit down at place they didn't want to
be actors they want to be directors they don't want to be producers this is DS
one entertainment so there was a lot of people that he was marking it toward too
so that's that's what we have to do as well so I know I had a lot of filmmakers
get frustrated and say you know I don't get the support well because you're
marketing to the wrong people market to those people again to the
fireman to the police officers to the teachers to the janitor to just everyday
normal human being who doesn't want anything at all to do with the film
business but to enjoy a movie so that's our audience it's a little tricky here
because a lot of people do these dual I mean there's people that work you know
in all facets of LA and then they're also an actor on the side or what you
know they're going on gameshow auditions and then they're a fireman by day or
whatever you know so there's some you know but I hear what you're saying and I
find that very interesting that you said not to friends and family or or let's
say college alumni or whatever it's so can you talk about did you did you have
to learn that the hard way I did okay oh yes nothing this is all that Charley
terrible Oh like my first film you know my first film like I would you know go
to I will text my friends and I would takes my family members as far as
tickets I was like okay this is not working you know so what I would do is I
will go another thing what I would do is I would get a Chicago we call them
pluggers I guess you are called like pluggers or which are like flyers oh we
call them and Chicago we call them pluggers interesting so they're like you
know copy the DVD with all the information on there and I will go to
the different bus stops so in Chicago I'm
they have them here people drive and they park their cars in these Lots and
they take the train at work and but they would do this out in the south suburbs
so so the people out in the south suburbs what they are coming to the city
these you have all these different Lots so I would get like ten thousand Flyers
pull up made up and when I would go in doing that time when the network I would
put the flags on their cars you know that's how we were you know those are
the people that our head but it was because I already knew I but it takes me
a long time to find out that you just can't promote to your friends your
family and other filmmakers but most of the people the people not you know your
friends not you know cuz they're gonna they're gonna support you they're gonna
support you you know you shouldn't mean you should we should have to force them
to support us right so if we have to force them you want somebody to people
who are going to sincerely and genuinely want to support you
you know not to support you but you want them that's going to come out because
the entertainment is good the quality is good and so those are the people that we
want out though
you