We started off our week of documentary screenings last night with a film about 80's rocker Rick Springfield, which featured loads of screaming and lovestruck fans (apparently years later, they are still staunchly loyal to their idol). As the credits began to roll at the end of the film, guess who walks into the theatre? Mr. Rick Springfield himself!! He walked down the theatre aisle as "Jessie's Girl" played on screen. It was a genius marketing move by the director and producer and got us thinking of ways to promote our film. It is much harder when you are telling a serious story like Defensora, but just as important to use creative ways to find larger audiences.
Several more meetings booked for the week and requests to see a rough cut. It is not easy in this industry to raise funds to complete a film, so we are still hoping for a co-production. Today we met NHK, a Japanese broadcaster. The woman we met with was one of our most informative meetings to date, asking us some pointed questions and offering suggestions about what more an audience might want to know about the story.
We are really interested to observe the Forum tomorrow. Over 20 filmmakers will pitch their film ideas to a huge table of over 50 commissioning editors and broadcasters. We plan to take notes, listen to the broadcasters' questions, and see if we can get ideas from the pitching strategies being used.
Lastly, as you may have noticed, we have changed the name of the documentary to 'Defensora'. The word means 'defender' in English, and we think this is a better representation of the story.
Until tomorrow,
Lee and Rachel
