Group Member: Rene Arriaza's Contribution

I was very up front with my group. They knew going into this project that I would not be as active of a street team member as I would have liked, due to the fact that I was producing two short films directly before the film festival. I tried my best to set out a strong and thorough marketing plan so that our group would be successful. At one of our first group meetings, we screened the film and then got to work on the preliminary marketing memo. As a group, we worked on this document. After Lauren got the notes provided by Kim, I decided to do extensive research on the people that we could contact. Our marketing memo grew from about two pages to seven pages. As a group we divided the contacts. I was responsible for calling WPRK, clubs and bars, coffee houses, and High Schools F-Z. Please see the marketing memo in the appendix.

On set, I wore my Prodigal Sons t-shirt. I figured that the people on set were a captive audience. There was no way they could not hear me talking about the film. It really bugged one my crew members that the print was backwards. I'm glad our mistake, worked in our favor.

Our form letter came in handy for e-mailing the high schools. However, my e-mails went out over Orange County Public Schools spring break. We should have planned ahead and looked at the school board's website.

I modified the form letter to make it even shorter when e-mailing the clubs and bars, as well as the coffee houses. During this heavy e-mailing session, I changed my signature to make sure that every e-mail went out with a link to ticket presales with the Florida Film Festival's website as well as a link to our blog: www.prodigalsonsmovie.blogspot.com.

I emailed the show Gay Talk Orlando at WPRK to see if I could set up a telephone or live interview with our filmmaker, Kimberely Reed. I did not get a response. In fact, I got worried that the show no longer existed. So I researched this on the web, and I found it to be true. This research helped ameliorate the feeling that I was not doing enough. However, the day Kim arrived, Lauren and I found out that Kim had been interviewed on WPRK. Whatever the connection was, at least it was made.

I did not get a response back from the clubs/bars or coffee houses. Regardless, Lauren and I picked a club to go to promote the film. We chose Pulse for two reasons. Reason one being we could get in free (our budgets were very limited for the project). Reason two was that Pulse is a known gay and lesbian club. We decided to go together because it is safer to market in pairs (especially at a club). All we did was pass out flyers. We did not want to get kicked out. Perhaps with more planning, going clubbing could have been a better strategy. If I could have hit just one club well, we would have had a better turnout.

Looking back, what I think we should have done was to contact the Noe at ABC Bartending School. He would have told me the current owner's name and maybe even put in a good word for me. Lauren and I should have set up a meeting with the owner/manager during off hours and presented the pitch. If we could get him to agree to announce the film with a MySpace keyword we would have been in the clear. Clubs market through MySpace. We should have asked to get a link posted to their website. Maybe made a deal like: If you show your Prodigal Sons ticket stub, you get in for free. They already let people in for free, so the owner would not lose anything. Once we get one owner to agree, others usually follow. Many of the club owners' downtown have one or two clubs and they all listen to their competition.

It was frustrating not hearing back from anyone. The two days before the first screening, I did face to face marketing. I left flyers in coffee houses downtown. I used the marketing memo as a guide. However, I did go inside shops not on the list.

Mike and I promoted before the first screening at the Winter Park Regal. Lauren and I met Kim for the screening at the Enzian. Our film finished screening by the first Tuesday of the film festival. Because, I felt that I had missed out on not doing enough street team work, I decided to take full advantage of the networking possibilities at the film festival. During the festival I kept a diary, scraps of notebook paper of what had occurred.