Evan Saxon and Doug Kluthe, partners at Hollywood independent film distribution company D&E Entertainment, are betting on the underdog at this weekend’s box office.
Their firm is marketing and distributing the low-budget documentary “Rise & Shine,” which tells the story of Jay DeMerit, a soccer benchwarmer that elevated his team to the English Premier League and scored a spot on the U.S. Olympic squad.
Without major studio backing, the duo marketed the film using a Facebook page and e-mail chains rather than a print and TV ad blitz.
“There was not a penny spent on traditional media,” said Saxon, who added that his company’s marketing budget varies from $5,000 to $75,000 per film.
With “Rise &Shine,” D&E directed the campaign to the in-boxes and Facebook accounts of the 600,000 members of the American Youth Soccer Organization, which agreed to send trailers to its members and encourage them to post about the movie on the organization’s Facebook page.
To reach even more fans of the sport, D & E made a deal with Major League Soccer to air the film’s trailer on stadium megascreens before this season’s playoff games.
The film was released Nov. 3 at 130 theaters nationwide including the ArcLight Cinemas and AMC chains. It’s being shown at nonpeak times, such as the early evening, hoping to draw soccer moms and their families, and to create some viral buzz.
“With a limited number of screens you create demand through scarcity,” said Saxon.
The limited release at off-hours also reduces distribution costs.
“Rise & Shine” has some underdog roots as well. San Diego production company Truth2Life financed the film with $215,000 raised online at Kickstarter.com, an online crowdfunding site.
The film features DeMerit, and cameos by soccer stars Landon Donovan and Wayne Rooney.
Recovering Market
The American Film Market, an eight-day festival in Santa Monica where international buyers come to shop for independent films, had a strong opening last week.
The event, which kicked off Nov. 2, was attended by an estimated 1,650 buyers, about 90 percent of whom were from foreign countries. That’s about 10 percent more than attended last year’s festival, organized by the Westwood trade group Independent Film & Television Alliance.
Jonathan Wolf, executive vice president at the alliance, said the increase in buyers traveling to this year’s show from overseas is a sign that the film market is returning back to normal.
At the 2006 event, before the financial crisis made film financing more difficult, some 600 movies were up for sale. As a result, many foreign buyers bought finished films without attending the festival.
Now, with fewer finished films available, foreign buyers are coming back to do deals with producers working on projects in development. They want to meet and get comfortable with the producers and assess whether they can provide a marketable product.
“This is a return to equilibrium in the marketplace. Now, the buyer has to travel again,” said Wolf, who added that about 415 films were up for sale this year.
Among the more prominent films being shopped internationally at this year’s market is Ron Howard’s Formula 1 racing feature, “Rush,” which will be released domestically next year by Universal Pictures.
A total of 8,000 people were expected to attend the festival before it wraps up Friday. That number includes about 3,000 exhibitors and other film industry types, as well as 2,000 attendees from support professions such as banking and law.
Strike Out
With the start of the National Basketball Association season postponed due to a labor dispute between the league’s players and owners, the airwaves at ESPN-AM (710) have been eerily bereft of sneaker squeaking, shot-clock buzzers and Lakers play-by-play.
The station is slated to carry all of the Lakers preseason, regular season and postseason games this year, but has instead been filling Lakers timeslots with sports talk.
That hasn’t been a problem so far, since ESPN Radio Group, owned by Walt Disney Co. and its ABC network, has abundant content. What’s more, Lakers advertisers, some of them the station’s largest, have had their spots played during USC and New York Jets football games.
“The Lakers sponsors are significant advertisers,” said Scott McCarthy, general manager at ESPN 710.
But those are temporary arrangements largely based on hope for a shortened NBA season. If a settlement between players and owners isn’t reached, an advertiser pullback is likely.
“We, and most, believe that it’s going to get going soon, but if the season were scrapped in its entirety, that’s another discussion,” he said.
Staff reporter Jonathan Polakoff can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.
