Posts Tagged ‘front’

MIDEM – the front of the Palais in Cannes France

WorldSound www.worldsound.com President Warren Wyatt describes the scene outside the front of the 2009 MIDEM on the day before opening.

Cannes beach front

Image taken on 2008-06-19 00:14:09 by stuartmoulder.

Film Marketing: How to get on the front cover from film festivals!

I have attended many film festivals, but the one I know the best is Cannes, having run a busy press office there for over 20 years! It is the one festival where pretty much anything goes as far as PR stunts are concerned and providing you don’t incur the wrath of over zealous police officers by defacing buildings or carrying offensive-looking weapons, or upset the Mayor by making the town look stupid, you should let your imagination soar.

My PR Stunts:
I have been involved in organizing a few stunts, and some have been hugely successful and easy to organize, and some have been unmitigated disasters and have cost fortunes.

I did a photocall once for a film called FRAUDS, where I found a lovely Victorian merry-go-round just across from the Majestic Hotel, by the beach. The film starred Phil Collins and Hugo Weaving, and at 8.30am one morning I got the owner to open up early and did a really fun photocall. We made all the papers the next day. The power of the photo! Mind you, I had to line the owner’s palm!! Nothing for nothing in Cannes…..or very little anyway!

Some very basic rules on how to stage a PR stunt:
1. Make sure the stunt has impact – do something big, dramatic, outrageous and relevant to your film
2. Use your imagination – clever ideas nearly always beat expense for coverage
3. Find some of the photographers before hand and issue flyers etc so that they know its happening – you’ll see them at any of the main events happening so go round and hand them out afterwards – otherwise engage a PR specialist who knows everyone – see tips below!
4. It won’t always work – circumstances and other events need to be taken into consideration when planning a stunt

How to do a photocall in Cannes and alert photographers:

This follows for every major festival, but my experience is of Cannes so I will use that to explain the process.

1. Tell the photographers when your photocall is – grab their attention with a poster
2. Put on the poster a photo of the subject if you have one and use bright ink!
3. Put the poster up in the press office and photographers room – you might have to be a little creative to get in!
4. Hand out flyers at someone else’s photocall or grab the photographers as they are walking in!

Timing for the Stunt…

Choose a time of day when the light is good, and there isn’t much happening – so avoid lunchtime, which despite it being the busiest time of day, is rubbish light and there is too much going on, and the French are eating! Around 5pm is ideal, just as the sun is beginning to weaken and the light is ‘soft’. There are very few ‘public’, therefore FREE places left during Festival time, and greedy entrepreneurs will wring the last Euro wherever possible, but two of the beaches are free, and always full – we did a fabulous Kung Fu demonstration one early evening on the beach, with a lovely man called Chuck Norris. The kids were out of school, catching the last rays of the day, and we were mobbed by families and snappers alike. There is the Croisette itself, where you will often see mime artists, buskers, jugglers, and a rather dubious bloke who has a cat and a mouse doing tricks together (they have to be drugged right?). Everyone is plying their trade in Cannes, and with a little imagination, you can ply yours