Red State Values, Blue State Visuals
One of the things that’s been seeping into my thick skull, is that as much hard work lies ahead of me in post, I’ve got twice as much work ahead of me marketing the work that we’ve done.
Post is easy, all it takes is the time. If something’s not coming together, it’s a 90% certainty that it’s just because you haven’t spent enough time working the footage. All things considered, I think the seven scenes/interviews we shot in the last month and half are going to take less time per finished minute than most things I’ve worked on (cross my fingers I don’t regret typing that!) But marketing… Ugh. Marketing. Isn’t the idea to make something that’s so good that “the world will beat a path to your door”? Nice as that sounds, I realized that that’s a one in a million. Creating is hard work. Selling what you’ve created is even harder work.
Selling Marie and Jack: A Hardcore Love Story was an educational experience to say the least. You can’t sell people something by telling them what it isn’t. “It’s not amateur” or “It’s not gonzo” or “It’s not really a documentary”. You can’t sell an isn’t. So I’ve been playing around with different buzz phrases. “Porn for people who don’t like porn”, “Films for people who like sex”, and others too embarrassing to mention.
Recently I’ve been auditioning “Red State Values, Blue State Visuals”. I don’t like it because I don’t believe family or loyalty or commitment belong to the Red States. And I don’t believe that sexual happiness belongs to the Blue States. But I do like it because everytime I say it to someone they seem to understand what I mean right away. And I do like it because it seems to say that whatever our political differences, we are sexual beings. I like it because it says that showing sex on film doesn’t have to mean showing sex that is devoid of the human connection we all yearn for.
So we’re going to give it a whirl, maybe even make some t-shirts. (We’re already working on New York Society for the Suppression of Vice t-shirts.) I’m also taking a long hard look at “Another Hardcore Love Story from Comstock Films”, as in:
Ashley and Kisha:The Right Fit
Another hardcore love story from Comstock Films
Something about how that rolls off the tongue seems to be the right fit for what we’re doing!
-T.C.
March 4th, 2005 at 7:43 am
I like the “Hardcore Love Story” line,
Hardcore Love Stories works for me as a collective term for your films — a new category on the shelf…I wonder if the marketing will be easier with a whole bunch of films to promote, that it’s easier for a purchaser to see where you’re coming from when they see a whole body of work?
I see your reasoning but Red state/Blue state gives me scary, not so nice visuals of politicians TC. I’m a foreigner though so perhaps that’s not the case for you?
Marketing is hard work especially if you’re selling a “gourmet” product. Folks will soon get a taste for it.
Cheers,
Ell
March 4th, 2005 at 7:59 am
Yeah, it’s one of those things that popped out of my mouth, a cute little through away. But for whatever reason, it really seems to capture the imagination of the people I’ve tried it on, whether they’re “Red Staters” or “Blue Staters”.
I guess the other thing I like about it is that it plays into the whole red/blue nonsense, while undercutting it at the same time. Isn’t that the essense of subversion?
-T.C.
March 6th, 2005 at 7:03 pm
“Red state values, blue state visuals” sounds terrible to me, as I think many people would associate homophobia with “red state values.” If you’re trying to mock this supposed dichotomy, I don’t think you can do it successfully in one line.
March 6th, 2005 at 7:09 pm
Even as I said it for the first time, that was certainly my take on it. But strangely enough, as I’ve floated it, my experience has been that a lot reasonable people from all points of both the policitical and sexual compass find something in it they connect with.
It’s just a test drive. Hell, I’m not even sure we’ve left the dealer’s lot!
-T.C.