Film and Digital Media @ Messiah

[Excerpted from David English, Studio Monthly, January 1, 2009]

The first thing you have to do is overcome your fear of rejection. “For every film festival we get into, we’re probably rejected by four,” says Zimet. “For every critic we write to try and get a review, most don’t write us back.” At first the rejections can be overwhelming, but the more you do it, the more you take it in stride. “Today we wrote to a sailing magazine because our main character sailed the Atlantic on a raft made of junk,” he says. “Another film site has had our film for a while, and I was wondering when the review is going to show up. Every day, it’s what baby steps can we take to keep moving this along.”

Zimet recommends two Web sites for independents looking to promote their films or videos. The first is Film Specific (filmspecific.com). “It’s run by Stacey Parks, who has a lot of experience on the distribution and marketing side of the business, but is totally accessible to people trying to fight their way into the marketplace,” he explains. The second is Brave New Theaters (bravenewtheaters.com). “Through that, we got an art house in Indiana to play the film for a night,” he says. “Through word of mouth, the film played a night at another art house in Phoenix.”

Read the whole article here