Reviews
"Stunning and brilliant!!"
Mary-Charlotte Domandi, National Public Radio
'Em' makes a haunting debut
by John Hartl, The Seattle Times
One of the spookiest and most intimate films in the festival,
writer-director Tony Barbieri's "Em" has its world premiere at 6:30
p.m. Saturday, June 14, at the Harvard Exit. In this 21st Century
variation on Hitchcock's "Vertigo," Nathan Wetherington gives a
riveting performance as a dazed Everyman who falls for a woman who
becomes a ghostly presence in his life. Barbieri, who won the
festival's New American Cinema award for "The Magic of Marciano" eight
years ago, suggests a Bergman-like ability to use his actors' faces to
suggest shifting emotions.
Links
www.emfilm.blogspot.com
www.floridafilmfestival.com
Cover Letter
Jonathan Heuslein
124 Monarch Circle #7
Fern Park, FL 32730
March 18, 2009
Florida Film Festival
Dear Mr.
As you are certainly aware, the Florida Film Festival is fast approaching. I am writing you to request your help. I would be thrilled if you would publish a story about the film making its East Coast premier at the festival, "EM".
"EM" is an award-winning film, winning awards such as The Criterion Collection/Wallflower Press International Inspiration Award on December 6th, 2008 and The New American Cinema Grand Jury Prize at its debut at the Seattle International Film Festival.
"EM" is a very touching love story about a man and woman who encounter an obstacle in their relationship that may be too large to overcome. It is not melodramatic or theatrical, but a very subtle artistic film, the type of art film that does not always make its way into theaters in Orlando. It is a fresh experience that I believe many people in Orlando would love to experience.
I would like to give you a call and discuss the film further. I am enclosing a press kit put together by the film's producer, Jim Jermanok.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Heuslein
Press Release
For Immediate Release Contact: Jonathan Heuslein
March 13, 2009 (407) 340-6574
FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL FICTION COMPETITION FEATURE
EM EXPLORES MATURE RELATIONSHIPS
Orlando, FL – Tony Barbieri's third film, EM, has its East Coast Premiere at the Florida Film Festival on March 28, 2009 and April 3, 2009 at the Regal Winter Park 20 and the Enzian theater. General admission per film is $10.
Josh Weathers is an aimless young man in his twenties who is looking for more out of life. Enter Amanda "Em" Helms, a vivacious and spirited young woman who lives life to the fullest. Instinctive mutual attraction brings them together and soon blossoms into a rich romance. But when the two decide to start a new life together, secrets from the past emerge.
Director Toni Barbieri's own relationship with a close friend suffering from bipolar disorder inspired him to write Em. His desire is to contrast the reality of the disorder with the traditionally-portrayed assumptions of films and television, filled with violent mood swings and outbursts.
EM
www.emfilm.blogspot.com
Jonathan Heuslein
124 Monarch Circle #7
Fern Park, FL 32730
# # #
Fliers
Flier art is on the blog at www.emflim.blogspot.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Conclusions
Rebecca Little
Unfortunately, homework from other classes kept me from really enjoying the festival, outside of working on this project. Plus, I’m not the sort of person who’s into big parties, so the after party wasn’t too alluring to me, believe it or not. As far as the project goes, the Monday after Spring break, I got my first round of stress-related nausea. Getting to see the film before everyone else at the festival was really cool, though, and handing out the fliers was fun. Two of the people who stopped to talk to us were musicians promoting their own bands in a similar fashion, and we exchanged fliers. My group members were great, too, which also helped handing out fliers and meeting to talk about the project more fun.
I would say that I learned promoting a film is a lot of hard work, but I kind of already expected that. Promoting a movie for the Florida Film Festival is a little more difficult than I expected, if only because they don’t know the show times until a couple of weeks in advance. A lot of groups and possible promotion areas already have their programming all figured out long before that. If a person has an in with a group, or radio station, etc, or a big name, it makes it a lot easier. Even then, though, based on one of the group presentations, I learned that even having an in with a radio station doesn’t automatically mean getting on the air. In the instance of the group getting the promotion with the restaurant, however, I learned that if a film has the right hook a person doesn’t necessarily need a name or a connection to get it out there. It’s a very complicated process.
Marc Maggio
The Florida Film Festival was the first film festival I have been to. It was an amazing experience and I would like to continue to attend it annually and start going to other film festivals. I learned that to get people in the seats you need to go out and spread the word. If you hand fliers out at five different locations and only five people attend, then that’s five more people that came to see the movie. If you didn’t go out, then it would have been five less people. You need to go out and spend the time to get people in the seats.
Jonathan Heuslien
Working on this project was a challenge for me in particular and for us as a group because all three of us are by nature introverted people. There is nothing wrong with this, it is just how we are. None of us are at all comfortable approaching people with something to sell. I can fake it the best, so I took the point: I was in charge of talking with Jim and the various sources we contacted.
It was very much like working to market our own film in that we did not have many restrictions (at first) on who we marketed to. We also had the opportunity to create our own blog and press release/cover letter and make contact with whomever we thought we should. The limitations that came later were constricting and disappointing and a bit of an annoyance (I still get emails for the bipolar support groups I joined). Supplied materials would have been really helpful, but we did our best with what we had.
Unfortunately, homework from other classes kept me from really enjoying the festival, outside of working on this project. Plus, I’m not the sort of person who’s into big parties, so the after party wasn’t too alluring to me, believe it or not. As far as the project goes, the Monday after Spring break, I got my first round of stress-related nausea. Getting to see the film before everyone else at the festival was really cool, though, and handing out the fliers was fun. Two of the people who stopped to talk to us were musicians promoting their own bands in a similar fashion, and we exchanged fliers. My group members were great, too, which also helped handing out fliers and meeting to talk about the project more fun.
I would say that I learned promoting a film is a lot of hard work, but I kind of already expected that. Promoting a movie for the Florida Film Festival is a little more difficult than I expected, if only because they don’t know the show times until a couple of weeks in advance. A lot of groups and possible promotion areas already have their programming all figured out long before that. If a person has an in with a group, or radio station, etc, or a big name, it makes it a lot easier. Even then, though, based on one of the group presentations, I learned that even having an in with a radio station doesn’t automatically mean getting on the air. In the instance of the group getting the promotion with the restaurant, however, I learned that if a film has the right hook a person doesn’t necessarily need a name or a connection to get it out there. It’s a very complicated process.
Marc Maggio
The Florida Film Festival was the first film festival I have been to. It was an amazing experience and I would like to continue to attend it annually and start going to other film festivals. I learned that to get people in the seats you need to go out and spread the word. If you hand fliers out at five different locations and only five people attend, then that’s five more people that came to see the movie. If you didn’t go out, then it would have been five less people. You need to go out and spend the time to get people in the seats.
Jonathan Heuslien
Working on this project was a challenge for me in particular and for us as a group because all three of us are by nature introverted people. There is nothing wrong with this, it is just how we are. None of us are at all comfortable approaching people with something to sell. I can fake it the best, so I took the point: I was in charge of talking with Jim and the various sources we contacted.
It was very much like working to market our own film in that we did not have many restrictions (at first) on who we marketed to. We also had the opportunity to create our own blog and press release/cover letter and make contact with whomever we thought we should. The limitations that came later were constricting and disappointing and a bit of an annoyance (I still get emails for the bipolar support groups I joined). Supplied materials would have been really helpful, but we did our best with what we had.
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.
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.
Calendar
Timeline
22 Feb First Team Meeting
--First Contact Attempt (Phone + Email
23 Feb Blog Domain Created
24 Feb First Email Reply
--Second Contact - Materials Inquiry
4 March Jim Sends Press Kit
4 March First Blog Posts
8 March Bio Pictures Added to Blog
9 March First Phone Conversation with Jim
11 March First Batch of Flyers Printed
12 March Blog Updated - Showtimes & Links
15 March Check Enzian for Materials (none)
16 March Second Team Meeting
--Contact Singles Groups & Bipolar Support Groups
**Meetup.com
**DBSA Florida (membership required - joined)
**BipolarSupportGroup.net (membership required - joined)
**orlandobiopolarsupport.com (membership required - joined)
--Contact Full Sail/Valencia to hand out Flyers
17 March FaceBook/MySpace Ad created
--Contact Attempted (Program Managers):
**Real Radio 104.1 FM
**WMMO 98.9 FM
**WLOQ 103.1 FM
19 March Contact Attempted - Cover Letter + Press Release + Kit Sent:
**Orlando Weekly
**Winter Park/Maintland Observer
**Seminole Chronicle
--Left Flyers at Stardust
23 March Third Team Meeting
--Phone Conversation with Jim
25 March Hand out Flyers at Enzian
26 March Hand out Flyers at UCF - Film Halls (before class and in)]
27 March Hand out Flyers at the Enzian
28 March Hand out Flyers at Winter Park Regal
31 March Poster "Drawing" at UCF
1 April Poster "Drawing" at UCF
2 April Hand out Flyers at the Enzian
3 April Hand out Flyers at the Enzian
Marketing Work
After watching our film the first thing we all agreed upon was to market the film towards people who are bipolar. We decided to do this because the film is about a man dealing with a breakup that was caused by his girlfriend being bipolar. Jon went online and searched for bipolar groups in the Orlando area and contacted a few of them.
Since the female lead was a painter, we decided to market toward artists. We didn't go any further with this idea.
After Jon spoke with the filmmaker, he told the group the they filmmaker didn't want us to market toward people who are bipolar. The filmmaker wanted us to market toward art/film students and he was willing to do TV/radio interviews.
Jon contacted local newspapers and radio stations to try to get them to market our film. He wrote a press release on our film. The radio stations we contacted told him that they scheduled their programs months in advance. The local newspapers he contacted said that they already did their coverage of the Florida Film Festival. One of them contacted him later saying that he wanted to do an interview with the filmmaker. Jon gave the reporter the filmmaker's info.
We assigned someone to create a MySpace AD. We decided to create one because we were learning a lot about online guerrilla marketing. We chose MySpace because we all liked the keyword search more than Facebook. Marc was assigned to create i. The keywords Marc used in the ad were: Indie films, drama, romance, and a few more that he can't remember. The amount we put down for the ad was $60 and chose the minimum price for each click.
Rebecca made fliers to hand out and we were going to hand them out at Valencia and Full Sail. We contacted them to see about their policy on handing out fliers. They both said they don't allow people to hand out fliers on campus. Rebecca then found a part of Full Sail that wasn't part of the main campus and she and Jon handed out fliers there. We chose to hand out fliers at Full Sail because the filmmaker told us that he was the first person to use this special type of lens and we thought it would appeal to Full Sail students.
After our first screening Rebecca came up with the idea to go on campus with poster board to inform people about our film. The idea was to have people draw on the poster board while we tell them about the movie. We started out in the area in front of the library and then made our way to the front of the student union.
Jon:
Contacted the Filmmaker
Contacted bipolar groups
Contacted local newspapers and radio stations
Set up group meetings
Set up blog
Rebecca:
Made fliers
Help set up blog
Thought of the poster board idea
Marc:
Set up MySpace AD
Our biggest disappointment was that the filmmaker didn't want us to market toward people who were bipolar. That would have gotten a lot more people to show up. We should have not listened and done it anyway. The film was hard enough to market and he took away the only thing we had going for us. One thing we learned to not do is to contact the place where you are planning to hand out fliers at. If you ask the place if you can, then they are most likely going to say no. If you don't contact them about it, then they won't know you are doing it and the worst thing they can do is tell you to leave. One thing we could have done better was going anywhere and handing out fliers. We only handed out fliers at part of Full Sail the was not part of the main campus and at the Florida Film Festival. Another problem we had was that we always did stuff as a group. Instead of always meeting up and doing things together, we could have done things individually which would have saved time. One major success we had was one of the local newspapers contacted us saying that he wanted to interview the filmmaker. The power board idea was one of our better ideas, but Rebecca thought of it too late. If we could do it all over we would have been on the street more and would have followed through with the bipolar groups.
Since the female lead was a painter, we decided to market toward artists. We didn't go any further with this idea.
After Jon spoke with the filmmaker, he told the group the they filmmaker didn't want us to market toward people who are bipolar. The filmmaker wanted us to market toward art/film students and he was willing to do TV/radio interviews.
Jon contacted local newspapers and radio stations to try to get them to market our film. He wrote a press release on our film. The radio stations we contacted told him that they scheduled their programs months in advance. The local newspapers he contacted said that they already did their coverage of the Florida Film Festival. One of them contacted him later saying that he wanted to do an interview with the filmmaker. Jon gave the reporter the filmmaker's info.
We assigned someone to create a MySpace AD. We decided to create one because we were learning a lot about online guerrilla marketing. We chose MySpace because we all liked the keyword search more than Facebook. Marc was assigned to create i. The keywords Marc used in the ad were: Indie films, drama, romance, and a few more that he can't remember. The amount we put down for the ad was $60 and chose the minimum price for each click.
Rebecca made fliers to hand out and we were going to hand them out at Valencia and Full Sail. We contacted them to see about their policy on handing out fliers. They both said they don't allow people to hand out fliers on campus. Rebecca then found a part of Full Sail that wasn't part of the main campus and she and Jon handed out fliers there. We chose to hand out fliers at Full Sail because the filmmaker told us that he was the first person to use this special type of lens and we thought it would appeal to Full Sail students.
After our first screening Rebecca came up with the idea to go on campus with poster board to inform people about our film. The idea was to have people draw on the poster board while we tell them about the movie. We started out in the area in front of the library and then made our way to the front of the student union.
Jon:
Contacted the Filmmaker
Contacted bipolar groups
Contacted local newspapers and radio stations
Set up group meetings
Set up blog
Rebecca:
Made fliers
Help set up blog
Thought of the poster board idea
Marc:
Set up MySpace AD
Our biggest disappointment was that the filmmaker didn't want us to market toward people who were bipolar. That would have gotten a lot more people to show up. We should have not listened and done it anyway. The film was hard enough to market and he took away the only thing we had going for us. One thing we learned to not do is to contact the place where you are planning to hand out fliers at. If you ask the place if you can, then they are most likely going to say no. If you don't contact them about it, then they won't know you are doing it and the worst thing they can do is tell you to leave. One thing we could have done better was going anywhere and handing out fliers. We only handed out fliers at part of Full Sail the was not part of the main campus and at the Florida Film Festival. Another problem we had was that we always did stuff as a group. Instead of always meeting up and doing things together, we could have done things individually which would have saved time. One major success we had was one of the local newspapers contacted us saying that he wanted to interview the filmmaker. The power board idea was one of our better ideas, but Rebecca thought of it too late. If we could do it all over we would have been on the street more and would have followed through with the bipolar groups.
Synopsis and Brief History
Josh Weathers is an aimless young man in his twenties who is looking for more out of life. Enter Amanda "Em" Helms, a vivacious and spirited young woman who lives life to the fullest. Instinctive mutual attraction brings them together and soon blossoms into a rich romance. But when the two decide to start a new life and a home together, secrets from the past emerge.
Em has shown at numerous festivals, but has yet to get picked up for distribution. The film was shot in HD using a Canon camera with a Carl Zeiss lens. This was the first time such a combination was used.
Em has shown at numerous festivals, but has yet to get picked up for distribution. The film was shot in HD using a Canon camera with a Carl Zeiss lens. This was the first time such a combination was used.
Project Introduction
Marketing "EM"
Introduction
This is the report about a project undertaken by the Film Producer class FIL-4661 offered by the Film Department at the University of Central Florida in the Spring of 2009.
The class included a series of lectures by experts in marketing including, Shannon Lacek and Rich Grula (both are previous marketing directors of the Florida Film Festival), producer Christine Vachon, FFF programmer Matthew Curtis, former students Tom Hurter and Nick Martinolich, and Professor Randy Finch.
The class was divided into 20 teams. Each team was assigned a film that would screen in competition at the 2009 Florida Film Festival. Working with the FFF staff and the various filmmakers, the students in FIL-4661 were responsible for the guerrilla marketing of the competition films.
Our team included Jonathan Heuslein, Film BA, Spring 2010; Rebecca Little, Film BA, Summer 2009; and Marc Maggio, Film BA Spring 2010. We were assigned a film in narrative competition entitled "EM". The filmmaker/contact for this film was Jim Jermanok.
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