6Qs with Cora Olson & Jennifer Dubin of GOOD DICK

In 2007, filmmakers Cora Olson & Jennifer Dubin wrapped up their first Present Pictures film GOOD DICK. Their collaboration lead to Sundance premiere in 2008, which they parlayed into a successful self-distribution effort that continues today. 

GOOD DICK is a modern love story about a troubled, reclusive young woman and the persistent video clerk who draws her out of her claustrophobic world by starting up a unique courtship with her.   The film stars Jason Ritter,  Tom Arnold, Martin Starr & Marianna Palka.
 

From their "What Does Good Dick Mean to You" campaign to their social networking strategy, learn what has helped Cora & Jennifer make GOOD DICK a success.

Q1. What were your goals for Good Dick?

First off, our goal was to make a great movie for as little money as possible. We worked with two fantastic producing partners to make it happen: the innovative and inspired writer/director/actress Marianna Palka and actor Jason Ritter, who is an incredible force of nature.  The four of us became a very tight, strong unit through the process of making this $200K film and taking it to Sundance, an experience that empowered us and made us feel capable of handling the daunting, yet thrilling process of self-distribution.  Once we embarked on the release, our goal became to reach as many people as possible with the film, make our money back, and prove that this model can work.  Check us out at www.gooddickthefilm.com

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

Any way we can.  We were very fortunate to catch the attention of a brilliant interactive television marketing company early on called Brightline iTV, who executed a very successful campaign that put our trailer and a 15 minute featurette on IFC and Sundance Channels, as well as their online and Video-On-Demand platforms, garnering several hundred thousands hits in a matter of weeks.  We got our trailer up on Apple iTunes, which also helped. Our website gets strong traffic, and is linked to our profiles on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. We also traveled to all seven cities where we released the film theatrically and did in person Q & A’s, gathering up our audiences’ email addresses and encouraging them to participate in our ‘What Does Good Dick Mean to You?’ campaign by sending in short videos, poems, artwork, etc letting us know how the film impacted them, and what they think the title means. It was important for us to engage our fans directly and create a dialogue with them. We continue to accept festival invitations, as they offer further opportunity to interact with our audience, and build new fans, awareness and local press.  We are also booking a college tour and are excited for Marianna and Jason to continue the discussion about this film and our process with young people across the country. Our DVD will be released into the mainstream retail marketplace this summer, on Showtime in August, and we are currently on Video-On-Demand in 50 million homes nation wide.  The availability of the film through these venues helps us to broaden our reach and continue to build fans.

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

We were very fortunate to have one extremely supportive investor, who believed in the film from Day 1 and got excited by our plan to make the movie on the cheap.  Then at Sundance, we were able to sell the UK rights for half of our films’ budget and that helped remove some of the pressure to accept the lowball offers for the US rights.  When we began to hatch our plan for self-distribution, it was our original investor who stepped up and supplied the additional capital we needed to execute the release. As far as general financing goes, it is all about finding someone or someones who believe in the filmmaker and want to get behind them and the project.  We all know movies are risky, although in today’s economy, we’ve seen firsthand that there are no totally ‘safe’ investments any more. So it is really about finding people who can afford this type of investment and are excited to support a filmmaker. From there, it is your job as the producer or writer or director or even actor, to make sure that every penny is spent wisely and that you have a solid plan to make a great movie, finish it professionally, and get it out there to your audience so you can make your investor his or her or their money back.

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

The web plays a huge role for us in getting awareness of the movie out to audiences.  In the case of GOOD DICK, we didn’t use the internet to raise funds but we have used it for marketing, promotions, publicity and social networking.  Through the social networks, we can keep our fans informed of what is happening with the title and the filmmakers, and as much as possible we want to make the fans a part of the process, bringing them into a direct conversation with us and the director. We rely on the internet since we don’t have the deep pockets of traditional film distributors.  It allows us to reach more people and spend less money getting the word out there.

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

The web is only one piece of the puzzle.  In person appearances and more traditional press like print, radio and tv stories/interviews help as well.  We try to have someone from the film at any festival screening of the movie to give audiences a personal connection to the project.  We’ve met so many incredible people who have shared their stories with us, told us why the film resonated for them, and this has been one of the most rewarding parts of the process. We always invite people we meet at screenings and events to contribute to our online campaign “What Does GOOD DICK Mean To You?” and keep in touch with us via our website and blogging.

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

Present Pictures is developing several film projects, spanning a range of genres and budget sizes, and working with talented filmmakers to get their voices heard.  We are working on a heartwarming family comedy called THE PERFECT FAMILY, which Anne Renton will direct this summer.  We are putting together the drama FOREVER, with director Tatia Pilieva and the summer comedy THE ALAMO with comedy group Almost Mediocre.  We’re executive producing the eco-family movie FUTURE WEATHER from filmmaker Jenny Deller.  And we’ll be shooting an incredible web series quite soon called SOUND OF MY VOICE.  We’ve had a successful experience distributing GOOD DICK ourselves and are interested in branching out into that area, building community for filmmakers, and figuring out ways to help others get their own films out there.  We are building our company website and soon you’ll be able to track what we’re up to at www.presentpictures.net  

Congrats to the IndieGoGo team for all that they’ve been able to create.  It’s folks like these who are helping keep the spirit of independent film alive, and support a new direction for the industry. Thank you!

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