Can you define crazy?
TABLE OF CONTENTS Phase One
Phase Three
Phase Two
Phase Four
Overview.......................................................................................................7 General Information ..................................................................8 Marketing ...................................................................................................9
Film Festivals ......................................................................................13 Festival Kit ...............................................................................................14 Festival Marketing......................................................................17 Cast & Crew.........................................................................................19
Distribution............................................................................................25 Research ...............................................................................................26 Strategy....................................................................................................27
Release .......................................................................................................31 Creative.....................................................................................................32 Market Research .......................................................................37 Media ...........................................................................................................38 Publicity ...................................................................................................40 Partnerships .....................................................................................42 Internet Marketing....................................................................43 Special Thanks..........................................................................45
PHASE ONE
OVERVIEW Executive Summary Life in the psychiatric ward is sure to be interesting, but what happens when everyone you meet seems completely normal? Crazy Love is a film that follows twenty-something Emma through her stay in the psych ward, and from the people she meets and the events she witnesses, we learn that crazy has no definition. This marketing plan for Crazy Love will push the boundaries of traditional marketing to prove to the audience that this is a film they can’t miss. Through creative advertising, publicity, and promotions, we will draw the audience in to a crazy world that is seemingly normal.
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GENERAL INFORMATION Tagline Can you define crazy?
Positioning Statement
You never know who you’ll meet in the hospital – especially in the psych ward. But what happens when the people you meet seem completely normal? Crazy Love follows twentysomething Emma’s journey in the psych ward and through the people she meets, we learn that crazy has no definition.
Synopsis
On his first day as an orderly, Ryan meets Emma, a resident patient in the psych ward. Ryan follows Emma to the activity room, where the patients are free to draw, make music, and play games. Today is a music lesson, and pretty soon, things get a little out of hand. Ryan steps in to help and is knocked out by another patient.
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Days pass and Ryan and Emma become closer. There is a moment where they are dancing, but are soon interrupted by visitors - Emma’s family. This sends Emma into a screaming fit. The next day, Ryan approaches Emma and greets her with a bag of gummy bears, as she did the day they first met. Emma’s confused, until Ryan explains - he’s trading places.
MARKETING Genre & Rating Drama, PG-13
Target Audience Primary: women ages 18-24 Secondary: women ages 28-35 Niche: people with a relationship to mental illness
Marketing Opportunities Women of Chapman Endowed Filmmaker Fund recipient Female director Recurring chess game theme Key scenes: Emma & Ryan dancing, Activity Room
Marketing Obstacles Story based on mental illness, which can be a touchy subject Not about doctors, but does take place entirely in a hospital
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PHASE TWO
FILM FESTIVALS Rendezvous with Madness Rendezvous with Madness is a film festival dedicated to investigating the facts and mythologies surrounding mental illness. Crazy Love is a perfect candidate for this film festival since it dances so delicately around the idea of mental illness and the issues in trying to define “crazy�.
LunaFest
Luna Fest is a film festival that shows films by women, for women, and about women. Crazy Love fits in perfectly with this festival, as it was directed by a woman and features a woman protagonist. It also caters highly towards female, as it is a romantic drama.
Palm Springs International ShortFest The Palm Springs International ShortFest is the largest market for short films, so it would be great to have Crazy Love submitted to this festival. The Palm Springs International ShortFest is a larger festival than both Rendezvous with Madness and Luna Fest, so it is an opportunity to reach out to more people.
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FESTIVAL KIT Key Art The key art for Crazy Love was created based on the setting of the film. Since the film belongs entirely inside a hospital, and much of the action takes place walking through the halls, I felt the image of the hospital’s hallway portrayed the film the best. The hand drawn “tangled” heart shows that love is confusing, especially in Emma’s world. Emma says herself she doesn’t know what love is - but she also doesn’t know if the person she thinks she loves even exists.
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FESTIVAL KIT Pitch Letter & Press Release Karlo Haddad Producer hadda104@mail.chapman.edu 617.669.3662
CRAZY LOVE
Melanie Ward Marketing ward126@mail.chapman.edu 847.385.1314
Business Card (front)
CRAZY LOVE
Dodge College of Film & Media Arts Chapman University Orange, Calif. December, 2013 To the LunaFest team:
stay in the psychiatric ward at the local hospital. While there, she meets a variety of
the few female student directors at Dodge College of Film & Media Arts. LunaFest is are a perfect pair!
or hadda104@mail.chapman.edu.
Can you define crazy?
Karlo Haddad Producer hadda104@mail.chapman.edu 617.669.3662
CRAZY LOVE
Melanie Ward Marketing ward126@mail.chapman.edu 847.385.1314
Dodge College of Film & Media Arts Chapman University Orange, Calif. December, 2013
Business Card (back)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Love. stay in the psychiatric ward at the local hospital. While there, she meets a variety of characters, both as patients and hospital staff. We learn through Emma’s experiences
impossible to know what’s coming next. The characters are so relatable, you’ll feel
recipient of the Women of Chapman Endowed Filmmaker Fund, offered to inspiring
For more information, please contact Karlo Haddad at 617-669-3662 or hadda104@mail.chapman.edu.
Karlo Haddad
Producer hadda104@mail.chapman.edu 617.669.3662
Can you define crazy?
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FESTIVAL KIT DVD Case
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Disc Label
FESTIVAL MARKETING Marketing Strategy Our festival marketing strategy will be simple, yet effective. In addition to the classic marketing techniques, such as hanging posters, we will also be handing out postcards, chalking the ground, and carving into trees.
Chalk & Trees
CRAZY LOVE
The patients’ artwork plays a huge role in Crazy Love. Because of this, we have decided to get artsy with our marketing campaign. At each festival, we will have a street marketing team dedicated to covering the ground with chalk drawings and carving the Crazy Love logo into trees around town.
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FESTIVAL MARKETING Posters Our street marketing team will plaster the festival town with these posters. They will be hung on trees, bulletin boards in coffee shops, and anywhere else there’s room for an 8.5” x 11” in poster. Making these posters standard paper size sets the tone for Crazy Love, as it is a highly relatable film, and these posters will be seen in everyday locations. The marketing for Crazy Love will stay away from more outrageous strategies and stick to simpler techniques. There will be a large-scale print of the poster outside each theater Crazy Love screens in for the entirety of the festival.
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FESTIVAL MARKETING Postcards These postcards will contain information about the film, as well as screening times and locations specific to each festival. It will also have contact information for the producer and marketer.
You never know who you’ll meet in the hospital – especially in the psych ward. But what happens when the people you meet seem completely normal? Crazy Love follows twenty-something Emma’s journey in the psych ward and through the people she meets, we learn that crazy has no definition.
Screening Oct. 26 at 5:30 p.m. at the Art Theatre of Long Beach
Karlo Haddad Producer hadda104@mail.chapman.edu 617.669.3662
The postcards will be placed all around the festival town; they will be left on tables in nearby restaurants and cafes as well as at various locations at each festival. The Crazy Love street marketing team will be handing out these postcards to passerby's at the festival.
Melanie Ward Marketing ward126@mail.chapman.edu 847.385.1314
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CAST & CREW
Karlo Haddad Producer
Karlo Haddad is a senior creative producing major with a public relations minor. Â He has worked on a number of senior thesis and advanced production films at Chapman in addition to interning at several companies including William Morris Endeavor and Prospect Park Entertainment. Â
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Megan Kelly Director Megan Kelly is a directing student at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange, CA. As one of very few female directors, she works hard to create strong female characters in her films. Megan aims to make movies that touch on everyday themes in a comedic, emotional way.
Myke Thompson Writer
Mychal "Myke" Thompson is a 2013 Chapman graduate with a degree in Screenwriting. His biggest influences in writing and creativity are J. R.R. Tolkien and 20th Century British Literature. His creative vision is based upon bringing together music, art and literature and showcasing the importance of their collaboration.
CAST & CREW
Emma
Emma is a twenty-something redhead who suffers from depression and bipolar disorder. She is very creative and artistic. She is always taking pictures.. Although she appears normal, she views life through her own unique lens. Emma speaks her mind. After having a relapse upon the death of her boyfriend, Emma is forced to check back into the hospital.
Ryan
Ryan is in his early thirties. He is tall, a hipster, and brunette. He is an orderly at the hospital and feels stuck in his life. Ryan recently lost his son, forcing him to leave his loveless, complicated marriage with his wife and try to start anew. He is struggling to maintain his own sanity among the fantasy world of the patients.
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PHASE THREE
DISTRIBUTION Crazy Love Crazy Love will best fit an independent distributor, such as Focus Features or The Weinstein Company. Focus Features distributed It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2011), which is a very similar story to Crazy Love. The Weinstein Company was the distributor for Silver Linings Playbook (2012), which is also a film about mental illness and a love story between two people living with mental illness.
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RESEARCH Screenings
We will host pre-screenings in three of the major cities we will open the movie in first. These cities will be Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. This will help create word-ofmouth and see what the overall appeal is for Crazy Love. We will also learn how to better market to our target audience.
Tracking
In the weeks leading up to the opening day, and during the first few weeks after the film’s release, we will be closely monitoring the tracking for Crazy Love. This will tell us if we are reaching our target market and what we can change to gain more awareness and get people to the theater.
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STRATEGY Public Relations Activities
In order to secure distributors and reach out to our target market, we will have reviews suggest that Crazy Loud be compared to movies such as It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Since Crazy Love attracts the same audience as these two films, ideally the praise will encourage fans to see our film. We will be handing out teasers and clips of the film to local media in each city we are opening in.
Collateral Materials
Emily, 19
Crazy Love will be opening in Chicago on Oct. 10!
E19CL1010 Enter this code at www.crazylove.com for your chance to win!
front
back
We will also have postcards with information about the film to give out to media and viewers of our test screenings. In addition, every viewer will receive a collectible card with a code to enter online to win a prize. Prizes include: free tickets for when the movie opens, movie merchandise, and a digital download of the movie. Cards will also be given out with every purchase of a Crayola art item (crayons, markers, etc). Since some of the key scenes in Crazy Love take place in the Activity Room of the hospital, where patients do arts and crafts and create music, it makes sense to focus on artwork as a PR tool. Each card will feature a patient’s artwork that also appears in the film. 27
PHASE FOUR
RELEASE Release Strategy Our strategy for releasing Crazy Love is to start small, and then open wide. We have targeted specific cities to open in and then expand across the continent.
Platform Release Crazy Love will be a platform release, opening on 100 screens in major cities in North America. San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Toronto, and Vancouver will be the cities where Crazy Love first opens. After the first two weeks, and a reasonable amount of buzz has been generated about the film, it will open on 500 screens, then 1000 screens, ultimately playing on just under 3000 screens during its runtime in North America.
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RELEASE Release Dates Friday, October 10 on 100 screens Friday, October 24 on 600 screens Friday, November 14 on 1600 screens Wednesday, November 26 (Thanksgiving) on 3000 screens
Competition Oct 10 – Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (comedy) The Judge (drama) Oct 24 – Paranormal Activity 5 (horror) Nov 7 – Big Hero 6 (family/action) Nov 21 – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (action) McFarland (drama) There aren’t a lot of dramas being released in October and November of 2014, which is good for Crazy Love. There is a lot of hype around a few of these movies, including Big Hero 6 and Mockingjay. Those will be the biggest competition for Crazy Love.
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CREATIVE Creative Strategy Our creative strategy will be similar to our release strategy; it will start small, then grow. We will begin with handing out the postcards and collectible cards at the test screenings, where we will rely largely on word-of-mouth. In the weeks leading up to the film’s release, we will introduce larger creative advertising into the cities the film is opening in. We will continue this strategy throughout the entire runtime.
Materials List The following materials will be used to advertise Crazy Love: Postcards Posters Billboards Print Ads Collectible Cards Teasers Trailers Clips released to specific TV stations Interviews with the cast and director
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CREATIVE
in
CHICAGO
You never know who you’ll meet in the hospital – especially in the psych ward. But what happens when the people you meet seem completely normal? Crazy Love follows twenty-something Emma’s journey in the psych ward and through the people she meets, we learn that crazy has no definition.
#definecrazy
Postcards 34
www.crazylove.com
Opening on October 10 at: Arlington Theater AMC River East 21 AMC Loews 600 N Michigan Ave Buffalo Grove Theaters Gene Siskel Film Center
CREATIVE
Billboard Poster
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CREATIVE Emily, 19
Crazy Love will be opening in Chicago on Oct. 10!
E19CL1010 Enter this code at www.crazylove.com for your chance to win!
Collectible Cards Tony, 28
Crazy Love will be opening in Los Angeles on Oct. 10!
Print Ad 36
T28LA1010 Enter this code at www.crazylove.com for your chance to win!
MARKET RESEARCH Test Screenings We will host test screenings in each city we are opening in 2 months before the film is set to open. These screenings will be vital in measuring the effectiveness of our marketing plan. If we need to change anything, we will have time to adjust quickly before the marketing plan is implemented.
Focus Groups Focus groups will help see which market we are truly appealing to with Crazy Love. By testing our marketing strategies with specific focus groups (women ages 18-24, women ages 28-35, men ages 18-24, and men ages 28-35), we will be able to identify how well our marketing plan will work once it is implemented. These focus groups will be held 2 months prior to opening weekend. We will also screen the film for our focus groups in addition to our marketing materials to see how they enjoy the film.
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MEDIA Media Strategy Our media strategy will start small and grow larger, like our release and advertising strategies. We will start in the same cities that Crazy Love is opening in first: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Toronto, and Vancouver. We will begin media placements two weeks before the film opens in each city. We will have teasers playing during shows that are popular with our target market, such as Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Long Island Medium, and Undercover Boss. These shows are more dramatic and share a similar theme with Crazy Love.
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There will be paid advertisements online on sites like IMDb and YouTube promoting Crazy Love. We will also have placements in magazines popular with our target market, such as Cosmopolitan and PEOPLE, but our focus will mainly be on television and internet marketing.
MEDIA Media Plan Media"Exclusives" Publicity"Appearances" Partner"Promos" Outdoor" Social"Media" Online" Printed"Ads" Trailer" Teaser" 0"
1"
2"
3"
4"
5"
6"
Weeks leading up to Opening Weekend
7"
8"
9"
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PUBLICITY Publicity Strategy
For our publicity strategy, we will have our main cast and crew do interviews and talk shows two weeks before the premiere. We will also be pitching our film to local media in each city we are premiering in before the teasers, trailers, and other marketing materials go live.
Appearances
The cast and crew of Crazy Love will be appearing on talk shows like Ellen and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon two weeks before the premiere. These will bring attention to our target market, as they are the primary audience of those shows. Ellen will also send two viewers to the premiere as part of a press team to interview the cast and crew.
Press Junket
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Since the trailer will not be released until three weeks before the premiere, we will send local media in each of the ten opening cities exclusive clips to share with their viewers. One media station in each of the ten opening cities will also receive a pair of tickets to the premiere. We will also arrange interviews with the cast and crew in each city we are opening in.
PUBLICITY Premiere We will be holding our premiere at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on October 7. The Gene Siskel Film Center is not quite as flashy as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood or Tribeca Cinemas in New York. Crazy Love is definitely a hipster-esque film, so it wouldn’t make sense to have a huge premiere in Los Angeles or New York. Chicago poses as the perfect setting for the Crazy Love premiere, and the Chicago Theatre will stand our among the skyline and create the perfect backdrop for the premiere.
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PARTNERSHIPS Promotional Strategy
Since Crazy Love is an independent film, we will not have a large focus on promotions. We will partner with local artists and musicians programs in each city we open in, as well as partner nationally with Crayola. Art plays a huge role in Crazy Love, so it makes sense to focus on art for our promotions.
Local Artists & Musicians
By partnering with local artists and musicians, we can help them while they help us promote our film. We can set up gigs for local musicians to show how important art and music is in our life, and in Crazy Love. Local artists will be decorating sidewalk with art that relates to the film. At each show we will have a stack of postcards and posters to advertise.
Crayola
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Crayola will be heavily involved in the promotion of our film. With each box of Crayola products purchased, the customer will receive a collectible card with a code to enter a contest with a chance to win prizes such as free tickets, a digital download of the film, and movie merchandise. By partnering with Crayola, we hope to reach out to young adults, teachers, and parents.
INTERNET MARKETING Online Strategy
Our online strategy will be the first of our marketing tactics to be implemented. Nearly all of our target market is online, especially on social media sites. Because of this, we will focus heavily on online advertising and social media marketing before the film’s release.
Social Media
We will have active Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages running at least eight weeks before the film premieres. These pages will be updated daily with stills from the film. All posts will be tagged with the hashtag #definecrazy. This will also be featured at the end of each teaser and trailer. #definecrazy will be a way for fans to keep track of the status of Crazy Love.
Online Advertising
We will have paid advertisements and sponsorships on sites like YouTube, IMDb, Spotify, and Pandora. Our teasers will play before videos popular with our target market on YouTube, as well as having the “theme” of the site be Crazy Love for the week leading up to the premiere. Spotify and Pandora will have sponsored advertisements online as well as streaming the soundtrack of the film.
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SPECIAL THANKS Jim Fredrick Karlo Haddad Megan Kelly Kelly Kerekes Jennifer Lawrence Haley O’Brien Kendall Taubin Blaire Tolentino John Ward Robin Ward Thank you for keeping me sane!