Motion picture releases force actors, directors and writers to deal with the press more often than most business or political figures. Yet, those in filmmaking get taught about how to manage the press far less often than those in the political or Fortune 100 arenas. To help balance this affect, I decided to cover the basics of managing the press.

DON’T CONTROL THE PRESS: The press is made up of professionals and attention getting bloggers who use people skills to get human stories. No one likes to be controlled and the press is no different. It’s a people business that is all about promoting various levels of celebrities. The key to managing the press is to understand who is reputable and what audience they serve. Without this basic knowledge, you will send a message that has a high chance of being misquoted to the wrong people.

BUILD LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS: Developing relationships with the right reporter, who attracts the right audience, empowers you to get a clean message to the right people. This ideal takes time to nurture, as both the filmmaker and the reporter need to develop trust in each other.

PACKAGE YOUR STORY FOR THE RIGHT REPORTER: Journalists and reporters are always interested in the right story, but much of their time is sorting through a myriad of stories that don’t fit their audience. For instance, a church sending Easter service information to a sports writer is a waste of everyone’s time. All too often press releases don’t get to the right editor or journalist because no one took time to research their ideal audience and who writes what they read.

DON’T GRAB FREE PRESS, PROVIDE FREE NEWS: Every newspaper and radio station knows that you want free press to promote your film, but no one wants to help you, unless they benefit from it. By providing the right reporter with the right content for the right audience, your story becomes news worthy. This makes the press look good, while you’re introducing your film to a new audience – Everyone wins.

KNOW WHAT’S ON AND OFF THE RECORD: Everything is on the record unless agreed to otherwise, and the tape recorder is turned off and the pencil set down. Giving background information isn’t typically quoted, but helps the reporter gain an understanding of the circumstances in order to build their story properly. With this all said, it’s important to understand that the person being interviewed must be careful in their responses to make sure the reporter doesn’t take anything out of context.

By managing the press with the above 5 keys, word about your film will get out to your primary audience, who will be inspired to support you with high ticket sales. They might even re-tweet your promotional information to help their friends.

Copyright © 2013 by CJ Powers
Photo © wellphoto – Fotolia.com

Last night I watched a new faith based film that will release next week. It had a great cast, yet fell flat. While some of the film’s problems are attributed to the low budget and low production values, the most notable issue was the film’s lack of conflict. Conflict is the core element of drama. Without it, the film is merely a narrative with no power, traction or energy.

Conflict occurs when two characters (the protagonist and the antagonist) have mutually exclusive, contrasting objectives simultaneously. Only one character can win and the conflict comes when each character does what it takes to make sure they succeed at accomplishing their objective.

There are five types of conflict that can be played visually:

INTERNAL CONFLICT: Any form of story that touches on the character’s self-esteem creates an inner conflict. This can be in the form of the character second-guessing himself. It can be played out as insecurity, him being unsure of himself, or second-guessing his actions. Many times it is revealed through a conversation with a confidant.

RELATIONAL CONFLICT: The most used form of conflict is reflected in the struggles of the protagonist and antagonist attempting to achieve his goals, which typically rises from their relationship as they attack their mutually exclusive objectives. The protagonist and the antagonist can both be good people, but their separate objectives contrast each other and therefore only one can win.

SOCIETAL CONFLICT: This is like the David versus Goliath type story with a character battling against the government, a group, or a system.

NATURAL CONFLICT: Characters are typically thrust into this type of conflict through natural disasters and they find themselves battling the elements. These types of man against “nature” films require large physical or CGI effects. The greatest concern with this type of conflict is that most stories need a secondary relationship based conflict to cause the audience to care about the outcome.

SUPERNATURAL CONFLICT: This conflict is also known as man against god. It is all about the protagonist battling against an invisible being like the devil or some other supernatural force. To make this type of conflict more visual, stories tend to show the protagonist projecting his problems onto another character.

For these types of conflict to work, the protagonist must have an opposing character or force that is an equal opponent or adversary. The more clearly this relationship between the protagonist and antagonist is displayed, the stronger the conflict will be – Driving the drama to its highest level.

The conflict must also be visual and can’t be avoided. For Hitchcock’s knife scene in Psycho to work, the audience had to see the knife coming down into the shower curtain. However, they didn’t need to see it pierce the woman, but they did need to see the blood going down the drain.

In the film I watched last night, a man lost his loving wife to a car accident that the audience didn’t see. The scene was not emotionally charged or dramatic in any sense of the matter. This was due to the scene not being visual.

Conflict can’t be avoided in a drama, but it can be off screen if the audience can see the reaction to the situation through the eyes of another character. Last night’s film could have been very dramatic had the husband heard screeching tires, turned to look, and then recoiled in shock as the audience heard the thud of a body hitting the car hood.

The visual tells us how dramatic the moment is and how it should impact our emotions. If the visual is not present in some form, there is no drama. This is of course why there are many problems translating a good book to the screen. It also explains why many faith based films fall flat, when the filmmaker tries to avoid the visible conflict in order to keep the film “clean” for all ages.

Copyright © 2013 by CJ Powers
Photo © Sergey Nivens – Fotolia.com

This past week I was asked by three screenwriters what I do to avoid or get out of screenwriter’s block. My response was, “There is no such thing.” They were all adamant that it existed, but I had a differing viewpoint since I’ve never experienced it. These discussions helped me to realize that some people need a few steps to regenerate their creativity, so here they are:

STEP 1: CHANGE PERSPECTIVE – Change your perspective the moment your creative juices feel like they are slowing down.

I was in a special Bell Labs program where we were asked to come up with 100 different uses for a widget that was put in front of us. Others who participated in the think tank a week earlier only came up with 17 innovative ideas and gave up.

The team I was on immediately came up with 23 ideas and then everyone’s ideas except for mine started to fade. A few people asked why I wasn’t stumped. I shared how I thought through everything from my perspective, then looked at it from the viewpoint of a child. After hitting 56 ideas, I changed my perspective to that of an elderly woman.

Everyone followed suit and we completed the project with 137 innovative ideas. We later learned that idea number 97 was selected and the product was manufactured, making the company millions.

STEP 2: SCRIBBLE DOWN FIRST THOUGHTS – Before you start, scribble a bunch of ideas onto paper without much thought.

I worked on an animated project with an expert animator who started his brainstorming process by scribbling doodles onto a plain white piece of paper. He never wanted to start with nothing, and the scribbles made sure he always started with something.

The first time I scribbled lots of messy lines onto the page, I found three cool characters buried inside of the scribbles. I then went over them with a thicker marker so they would stand out enough for me to transfer the concepts to a clean sheet.

The technique worked the same for writers. By reducing first thoughts to writing, the creative person is able to develop a mind map or board ideas that will drive new ideas and a fresh focus.

STEP 3: BIRTH NEW IDEAS BY EXPLORING CONTENT – If your content is too short or not entertaining, expand it by asking questions about each existing idea.

The first writing course I ever took taught me about the 5Ws and H: Who, what, where, when, why and how. By asking these questions around every brainstormed idea, the writer is able to see additional possibilities worth expanding. The process can also bring clarity to what elements are most important.

Copyright © 2013 by CJ Powers