6Q with John Paul Rice of No Restrictions Entertainment

John Paul Rice of No Restrictions Entertainment (formerly with Mandate Pictures/Senator International) is a successful filmmaker having produced Three Stages of Stan in 2002 and One Hour Fantasy Girl in 2008. 

The latter tells the story of a 20 year old girl who ran away from an abusive alcoholic mother at the age of 15 only to find herself working as a dominatrix in escape of poverty.  Rice has utilized the internet extesively: from casting via YouTube videos to audience-building via MySpace & IndieGoGo. 

His endless experimentation with marketing tactics resulted in the discovery of a passionate core audience he would've never expected--women fighting against domestic violence.  Learn from his DIWO story!

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Q1.  What are the goals for One Hour Fantasy Girl?

JPR: A return for our investors and that our film is enjoyed by people who see it.

To achieve these goals, we are self-distributing the DVD on the film’s website www.OneHourFantasyGirlMovie.com with most of the sales traffic coming from our online fan base (now over 16,000 fans and growing) via social media sites. 

Next, we are expanding our distribution by targeting and selling to the 12,000+ independent video chains/stores in the U.S. for rentals.  Stores such as Vidiots www.vidiotsvideo.com here in Los Angeles now carry the film.

Our next step is to partner with a national organization that combats domestic abuse (part of the main character’s back story shown in the film). A portion of each DVD sale for ONE HOUR FANTASY GIRL will go toward a cause that helps victims of domestic abuse.

Based on theatrical audience responses where over 80% purchased a DVD after seeing the film, along with expressed interest from our diverse fan base, we believe a limited-platform theatrical release in 10-15 cities is possible along with strong foreign broadcast sales. In order to secure a distributor that puts in effective marketing dollars, we are using our social media network as the foundation to build the film’s value, backed with hard sales data.

Q2.  How are you identifying, reaching and building your audience?

JPR: We have built a solid presence on social media sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and IndieGoGo. Based on responses and numerical data obtained from these sites, a large majority of the film’s audience is women who say they identify with or care for a strong yet troubled young girl trying to pull herself out of a bad situation. That, combined with the theme of empowerment, survival and never giving up hope, seems to resonate with them. Young men and adult males like the film too, but the core demographic for ONE HOUR FANTASY GIRL is women.

First, to reach out, individual friend requests are sent to people that we believe best fit with our primary and secondary demographic. As in the case with Myspace, we send each request with a short, often personalized message inviting potential fans to check out the film clips, trailer and ask them to let us know what they think.  When they accept, we thank them, one-at-a-time, and leave a door open for conversation. 

Second, to expand our online audience, we contact bloggers and film sites that review independent film, sending a link to the trailer, clips and ask if they'd like to check the film out for a review on their site. 

Third, to reach a larger portion of our primary demographic beyond the web, we are targeting non-film print magazines for reviews as well as stories about elements in the film or “making of” with an angle catered to the magazine's audience.  

Fourth, we plan to contact university film departments and student groups to sponsor screenings of the film on campuses across the country. 

Q3.  What tactics did you use for financing? Any advice? 

JPR: It all starts with the script and the scope of the story which determines the budget. Because of the way the story was crafted with a limited number of locations and characters; we were able to set out with a realistic goal of producing a film that, should no one else invest, we could finance ourselves without going into debt.  The director and I set aside what we could afford from each pay period for one year (starting at 8 months before shooting). At the same time, we reached out to all of our contacts - friends, family and business relationships. For some, we presented a group investment pitch along the lines of "If I can get four other people to put in X amount each, would you invest X amount in our movie?" They say "yes”, we get signed letter of intent, then on to the next person with the same pitch. By the time we were through, we had raised $100,000 to complete the film.

Aside from these tactics, we believe the key that made all of this work for our investors was first, their reaction to the script and second, after meeting with us, their belief in our ability to execute the plan.

Advice: Don’t wait for Hollywood to tell you when you can make your film. Tell the story that you believe in. Be passionate, measured and reasoned in your approach. Dream big but plan and work in reality one step at a time. A major key to the success of executing this film was that Edgar and I mapped out what we needed to do week-by-week, 6 months before the first day of shooting.

Q4.  What role does the Internet and social media play in your DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) fund raising or audience-building? 

JPR:  We have yet to tap into this on the fundraising side. That said, the internet played a key role in everything we did on this film - from pre-production, online casting, crewing to shooting, post-production, marketing and self-distribution. Social media sites have shown us how to identify and cultivate an audience.  The most important lesson learned early on is to treat this as a relationship with people, not a numbers or dollars game. A filmmaker who approaches this as a unique opportunity to connect with fans - engaging them in a dialog, making them an active part of your film making experience and cultivating that into a long-term relationship - then based on what we have seen in the first months of our film’s release on DVD, the opportunities for higher profits and potential fund raising are far greater than the traditional methods and routes to finance, produce and sell a low-budget indie film.

Word-of-mouth is key to this process as it is probably the most powerful and effective form of communication. It used to be the slowest but the internet and mobile technology has completely broken that barrier. As part of our audience-building model, we are further using our social media to connect with locals in states and cities that will work with us to coordinate locally on the ground setting up a weekend of screenings, gather local media to cover the event and help to secure venues.

Q5.  How do you connect your online campaigns with offline fund raising and audience-building?

JPR: Our investors on ONE HOUR FANTASY GIRL were pleased with the way the film turned out and that adds to their confidence in the film’s potential but that only goes so far.  With our online fans buying the DVD and their reactions strongly positive, this further validates and reinforces our investors’ confidence in the film and gets them excited to be involved in the next film. 

Based on this observation, for our next film, we are exploring creative ways that combine matching funds from other groups of investors and our fans, taking from political campaigns and seeing how we can effectively apply that model. The most important aspect of this piece is placing you in the fan’s shoes and seeing it from their perspective.  What are you offering that they cannot get anywhere else? 

Q6.  What is next on your radar?  And where can folks follow your efforts?

JPR: Next up for us is the sequel to ONE HOUR FANTASY GIRL, a dark comedy entitled THE BOY WHO COULDN'T SAY NO, the story of a 19 year old Mormon Missionary who falls in love with an ex-dominatrix. The type of audience we believe BOY will draw is people who enjoyed films like LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE & SECRETARY. 

The best place to connect with us is at www.OneHourFantasyGirlMovie.com – all the social media websites for No Restrictions Entertainment are linked on the main page.

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To get involved, watch the trailers, contribute & get VIP perks, endorse, comment or follow ONE HOUR FANTASY GIRL or  THE BOY WHO COULDN'T SAY NO, click on their GoGoWidgets below.  You can follow John Paul Rice on IndieGoGo as weel as www.indiegogo.com/NoRestrictions.