I’m here in Montreal and about to moderate a panel on Audience Engagement. Go figure, I forgot to post this here, so unless you live in Montreal, it’s too late to plan to attend, but I’ll post some follow-up comments later. Next up is a session about the Future of VOD at IDFA in Amsterdam. If you plan to attend I hope to see you there. Here’s info on the panels.
More than ever, the question of what filmmakers must do to find and engage their audience is becoming key. Funders are asking filmmakers to go beyond marketing and distribution strategies and submit creative engagement campaigns for films that will have an impact and rally the audience around a story or a cause. But what is a successful engagement strategy and when should filmmakers start planning them? How can they do so in a way that will not only be relevant to funders but that will also contribute to a meaningful development of their film’s audience? This session will invite filmmakers to think outside the box and consider new approaches and ways of imagining the role of the viewer in the development, production and distribution phases of documentary films. It will explore the shift from audience as passive consumers to active collaborators.
GUESTS: Christopher Allen, Union Docs; Amaury Augé, Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour sa diffusion (ACID); Caitlin Boyle, Film Sprout; Catalina Briceno, Canada Media Fund; Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, Sundance Institute
IDFA – The Future of VOD What’s in it for the Filmmaker?
Different VOD platforms, aggregators, subsidized or commercial with various business models around one table. How do they operate? And how can you, as a filmmaker or producer, benefit from them? VOD expert Brian Newman leads you through this jungle of companies that all have their own vision of the future.
Guests: Greg Rubidge (Syndicado) | Robert Franke (Viewster) | Peter Gerard (Distrify) | Casey Pugh (VHX)