Shameless Self Promotion: Vote for This SXSW 2012 Panel

in

This is the second year SXSW has opened up the Panel Picker for its annual film conference, a tool that allows people to submit proposals for panels and other conference events. It's an ingenious way for the festival to vet proposals; instead of the staff or  advisory panel coming up with all the ideas, anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection can submit a proposal, which is then voted on by the public, which gets a lofty 30 percent of the decision power. This is no small thing, since those who plan on attending the conference have the opportunity to weigh in on what they feel is relevant and keep the topics fresh. The only downside is that there are many panel proposals to read and decide among.

So please allow me to direct your attention to a Slackerwood-inspired panel: Removing Barriers Between Press, PR, and Producers, submitted by yours truly. The original idea for the panel happened during SXSW 2011, when I surprised a producer of a great little film by mentioning that Slackerwood gets mileage out of reviews far beyond festivals. In some cases, we get serious spikes in page views more than a year after a review was posted.

For example, this month one of our top traffic-getting pages is a review of Main Street, which screened at Austin Film Festival last year and is about to get a limited theatrical and VOD release. Our list of top ten pages for 2010 includes a review of AFF 2010 selection DMI: The Spirit Molecule and also my review of AFF 2009 film The Donner Party. Cummings Farm may have been renamed All American Orgy but my AFF 2009 review was still being read by many, over a year after I saw the movie.

It got me thinking about barriers I've experienced covering movies before and after a festival. Some things are obvious, such as the impossibility of covering every single film. Other things may not be so evident, such as most festivals finalizing their schedule shortly after the final lineup is announced; while there can be some flexibility, it's not something filmmakers should count on any more than the press rep who cold calls press three days into the festival asking for coverage.

Not covering your film doesn't mean we don't want to, it more likely means we can't, either because of sheer logistics, the focus of our content or editorial decisions. And if those of us in the press have limitations, so do PR and marketing reps. I can make assumptions, but wouldn't it be great to have a veteran in film PR explain things? And what about hearing the perspective of a filmmaker who has been involved in a variety of projects?

Essentially, this is an unholy alliance, as press, public relations, and producers can appear to be working at cross-purposes. But most of us are working in these roles because we love film. So I proposed a SXSW panel to define the barriers between these groups and how to remove them. And then I thought of Chris Ohlson and Erik Bright.

Austin's own Chris Ohlson has an incredible breadth of experience as a producer on indie films. His credits range from the Spirit Award-nominated Sundance and SXSW selection Lovers of Hate, which had strong critical response. He was also a line producer on the aforementioned documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule, which had such a built-in audience that the number of fans on Facebook was over 40,000 even before the film premiered at Austin Film Festival last October (it now has 127,000). Chris also produced one of my favorite films of recent years: The Happy Poet, which is criminally under-seen, even by locals.

Erik Bright from Prodigy Public Relations is a film public relations veteran and has repped movies from LA to Austin to Cannes and back again. Erik sets the bar for PR reps; he's articulate, appreciates honest opinions and has an extensive background in film PR, from blockbusters to genre films. I first met Erik at the infamous SXSW screening of Red, White & Blue, and he impressed me by being genuinely interested in my honest opinion of the film, despite being mid-fest and me working for a smaller site. You might have heard of a few of the films he's been associated with, such as Little Miss Sunshine, Hooligans, The Matador, Sideways and Crash as well as Red White & Blue and other films that have played SXSW.

I was thrilled Chris and Erik were interested in doing this panel. But I'm equally thrilled at the opportunity to help filmmakers take advantage of festival coverage by understanding some of the less obvious aspects of film promotion and media coverage. I hope you'll consider voting for our panel proposal via the SXSW Panel Picker.

SXSW Panel Picker voting is open through 11:59 pm September 2. SXSW Film Festival and Conference runs March 9-18, 2012.

[Photo credit: "How to Rawk SXSW Film 2010" by Debbie Cerda]