Future Marketting Strategy

The inspiration for EM comes from depicting bipolar disorder more realistically and subtly. In a way, the revelation that she’s bipolar acts as a twist in the movie, because the audience barely sees it coming. The biggest marketing challenge is deciding whether or not to spoil that revelation. The advantages of mystery and intrigue exist in marketing EM as a love story with a heartbreaking twist. However, Amanda’s condition is revealed rather early on in the film, and the focus of the film becomes Josh dealing with his loss. This means the film isn’t really about the twist. Plus, bipolar disorder is the film’s major hook. People with the disorder and people who are close to those with the disorder make up the market that’s probably easiest to identify and corner. To do that, one would have to be upfront about the film’s secret.

EM had its strong points, but I wouldn’t have pegged it as a big moneymaker, honestly. If I were to suggest any improvements to help in that department, I’d say really play up the twist aspect. Rather than sort of glossing over two years of Amanda and Josh’s relationship, linger on that to spend more time showing the symptoms of Amanda’s disorder, keeping them subtle, of course. It would make the audience work to figure it out and keep in line with the original concept. There’s a big audience for films that have surprises, though, and focusing on the twist would give EM more re-watch value. After discovering the secret, people would want to go back looking for the signs and see if it’s consistent.

Now to get the film more general attention, especially at film festivals, there are two main points of focus: the story and the camera work. First of all, the film goes about its subject matter in two rather unique ways. One, as mentioned before, it’s hard to tell that there’s much of anything wrong with Amanda until she actually tries to commit suicide. Secondly, Josh clings to the relationship as hard as he can, and it’s Amanda who breaks it off. This latter point is different because it seems like the sane person who’s struggling with the temptation to jump ship in a typical depiction of this sort of relationship. Both of those plot points culminate in, as mentioned before, the point of the film being love story with a twist that will take the audience’s breath away. Mysterious things do seem to get a lot of attention. Besides the unique plot, the other point of focus to get the film attention would probably be the camera work. Tony getting the camera for free because of his innovative idea to use a camcorder with 35mm film lenses makes a great little story for an interview, on the radio, in a magazine, or in a newspaper.

I’m not sure why the filmmaker is against marketing to the bipolar niche. As mentioned earlier, it seems like the most obvious hook. There isn’t exactly a boatload of movies about that disorder specifically, and his big inspiration was to make one that’s realistic and sensitive. It seems he succeeded. Whatever reason he has, I think he should reconsider his stance.