I know, not my usual type of post, but saw this on Twitter and had to share. JB Movies and Visual Arts LLC are holding a contest to design the poster for their film “Amnesia”. I’ll let them explain it:
JB Movies and Visual Arts LLC Poster Contest
Posted under blogs
This post was written by Shawna on January 14, 2009
Please…just shoot me now.
What the fuck is wrong with this world? What this “contest” is really saying is “We don’t want to pay for a poster so let’s see if we can find some dumb schmuck to give us something for free.”
Do we really need to change the way movies are promoted? I dunno. I think we (me included since I get PAID to design posters and market movies) do a great job at convincing consumers that movies we know suck are actually really great and worthy of your $13.50.
Good luck with your stupid contest, John W. Bosely. I hope you fall flat on your face.
(Disclaimer: None of this rant is intended as a reflection on Shawna’s awesome post and awesome blog. Shawna Rocks!!)
Chesher_Cat… thanks for rant. Prefer rants like this directed to me on Twitter, but that’s ok.:) We did this contest not to be cheap but because when we asked for responses on our flyers, tons of Tweeps were saying they’d love to do poster for us. It only seemed right to do the contest since we had so many responses.
Why does everything in this world have to be about money? Why is it always driven by the “have’s” and not by the masses? Think about it… we’re in a recession… big Hollywood spends tons of money promoting films, but do they know whether their promotions even work? Do they do tested advertising? No. They just keep putting out the same thing over and over again.
Now this contest we will post all the posters. Tweeps and other who want to vote cast their vote. When the votes are tallied then we post everyone and how many votes they got and who did what poster. It’s great PR not just for what we’re doing but also for the designers of the posters.
Did I twist your arm into doing it?… Wait a second, you never asked to do it. You just wanted to whine… thanks. Refer negative reactions to my twitter acount so they rest of my followers can hear it -JBMovies
John -
Whatever your ultimate intention, the fact is that the method by which you have set up this contest is a giant petri dish for corruption and exploitation. I am entirely in line with Deb on that one.
I think a way to mitigate that perception is to hold an online pr campaign for the winner who would not only receive the DVD but any followups. In other words, make the prize worth the effort and put that winner’s name and talent out there way beyond just posting that they won on your site.
It makes them look good and you even better. Give the idea some consideration.
You will also need to provide a bunch (100) of well shot, high rez stills online so graphic artists have something worthwhile with which to design.
I would also redesign your website. It’s not helping your case.
Bill Cunningham,
Appreciate your comments. Sorry if I had not made my intentions entirely clear with the promotions of the winner. I don’t want to just promote the winner but possibly the top five winners. I think anyone who creates art and puts themselves out there should receive praise for their work.
I was also going to post all the posters on twitpic.com during and after the contest so that people can comment on the work and what they like about each contestants posters. I am also looking into Flickr and any other outlet to promote their work.
Originaly, at the time we were posting the contest, no one had comment any negativity until now. We were originally going to just stick to our own re-designs of our 1-sheet poster, but it was after several individuals voiced interest in the development, that we thought it would be both fun and interesting to see different people’s take on the poster.
With the rise of social networking our beleif was that connecting with an audience on a more personal level would make the film more than just something to watch but something that had interaction. To do this contest, I guess, was more than just a slight risk in this intensely competitive world.:)
My idea was that whoever won, if they weren’t employed or wanted more side-work, I would promote that they made the film poster, while at the festivals ( I would promote them making it, period, just saying an extra emphasis on the “unemployed”). My atitude was that the poster was in a way a large “business card”.
Part of me is contimplating reevaltuating whether to continue the contest entirely… I will have to think on it tonight.
At no time do I ever want to even be considered “exploiting” anyone. The idea was never to have someone make a “free” poster for us, we can do that on our own just fine. We want to be more interactive, if that didn’t come across in our promotion, than I apologize.
After “sleeping on it”, I have come to the conclusion that even if this contest has drawn a little controversy, it would be moraly wrong for me to cancel the contest. Think about it, I have already near 20 people who entered. For me to tell them that any work they put it won’t be seen or voted on would be mean. So I am still going to have the contest, I just won’t be promoting the “submission” part any more. If people want to submit, they can, I just won’t be spreading the word around as much as I was.
Jan 31st is the last day of entries, then we’ll put up all the posters like we had mentioned and see what response people like just as originally planned.
People who wanted the material to make the poster can email the address below the poster that is on our site. Then we email you the stuff in a zip file. High rez photos are too big to have on a site, it slows the thing way down.
Okay, I saw your picture on your website and you look like a nice guy. Maybe I was a tad harsh. I can see you are trying to fight the Hollywood paradigm, although I suspect if a studio came-a-calling on you to do a film you’d jump at the chance.
Anyway, with regard to the poster contest, you need to be honest with people…having designed a poster that may appear at a film festival is not an incentive. The entrants should know that it means squat. They will not gain any notoriety for their efforts, nor will they get offers for paid work. It just doesn’t work that way…unless they happen to design a brilliant piece and they attend the festival and network like crazy.
I did the Sundance poster for The Believer (great movie starring Ryan Gosling) which I received several thousand dollars to design. The movie went on to win Sundance. I like to believe my poster garnered attention for the movie and had some small part in its Sundance success. I put it in my portfolio but having it at Sundance didn’t get me work, nor any particular notice.
I wouldn’t have ragged on your contest if you had offered prize money to the winner…say a minimum of $500. I still contend that the prizes you’re offering are lame. Also, I hope you mix in the poster your ‘marketing people’ design with the amateur entries so those voting don’t know which one is the ‘professional’.
Chesher Cat,
First I needed to clear something up on our site http://www.jbmovies.com There is a section labeled “Join The Revolution”. It had been our on “To Do List” to add a disclaimer at the top, but some how I had overlooked the fact that we had forgotten to add it. Thus, below is the disclaimer we added:
“Disclaimer: The following “speech” is not to be interpreted as simply a criticism of Hollywood. I’m non-discriminatory with both my criticism and concern; this “speech” is for Hollywood filmmakers, the independent filmmakers and myself. This is NOT about Independent vs. Hollywood nor the underdog vs. the established. I am calling on EVERY filmmaker to strive for more innovative, original story ideas that are followed through with great screenplays. The screenplay, which is the foundation of a film, has been pushed aside for big budgets, celebrity names and special effects. –We can ALL do better.”
With the poster design, I like your ideas. I appreciate that you took the time to check out our site and to comment on how we could do things better with this contest. But after much consideration, I realized this morning that for us to suddenly change the contest, by adding a monetary prize, would be immoral, unethical and possibly run into legal issues. Only 6 days left before the submission due date is not the time to do sudden changes to the contest, especailly not a change like attaching a monetary prize to the contest.
What I am going to do is take all of your suggestions and keep them for a later contest. We are considering something similiar for our next film, but that is still up for discussion.
The contest was designed as something interactive with people on Twitter who are either supporters, fans or fans of films who wanted a more personal connection to a film. People on Twitter responded that they saw it as something “fun” to do. Most are not professionals just people who like films and interacting with each other on Twitter.
I had not expected to have received the response we had received on Twitter. All I did was post some updates on it every day and others RT’d those posts. But we received 2,073 hits on the poster page in 9 days.
Thank you for your suggestions, but as I said, it’s too late to suddenly change the prize at the last minute.