We are looking for an intern!

Like the arts? Want to buff up your CV? Kinda like the idea of seeing the Perth arts scene grow? We want you!

In recent weeks things at Amicko Films have become very busy and we need a helper to learn and grow with us.

This intership would involve learning about the business aspects of the film industry, ie: everything after wrapping a film.

Tasks would include:

• Film festival submission and management

• Help run micro cinema events

• Dealing with local and national media

• Sourcing new films

• Office admin

• Making promo materials

Must be available for one day a week for at least 3 months, possibility of paid work there after.

The ideal candidate would be:

• Entry level arts experience, ie: uni student or just finished and wants to build up experience

• Has drivers license

• Is business minded with an interest in film and arts events (film buff not necessary)

• Can work with us during a 9-5 day, and the occasional night

• Has a passion for making arty things happen in Perth!

• Wants a career in the wider film or arts industry, not just filmmaking

• Positive and happy ‘can do’ attitude

To apply please send you CVs to amy@amickofilms.com with a cover letter which includes: a long term career vision statement, and the reason why you are attracted to the arts industry.

Applications close Friday 17th of September, 2010.

Amičko Films finds a home in the McNess Studios.

And what a lovely office it is! Created out of the need to support and encourage an emerging arts seen in the Perth, the office is now know around Australia for being home to some of Perth ’s top creative professionals. If you’re in Perth, drop in and say hello.  McNess Studios

Sundance Report – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Festival attendance: 27th – 31st January 2010.

Sundance was the last stop on the Amičko Films North American networking tour. During this trip I was able to meet with the Programming Directors of Denver IFF, SXSW, Expresions En Corto, San Francisco Film Society, Los Angeles IFF and the Spirit Awards. While in Austin I also met John Pierson who is largely credited for discovering Michael Moore, Spike Lee and Kevin Smith having been involved in all of their breakthrough works (see IMDB). So this has be of great benefit to Amičko Films for now and long into the future.

I was able to use Sundance for pitching, research and networking. I had four clients to represent at Sundance three of which are Western Australian film makers. Fugue by Jamie Helmer, More4Me by Lincoln Fenner, and It’s Just Gary by Perrella and Osborn. I provided a festival marketing service for my clients which involved booking meeting and networking the festival on their behalf for a reduced cost of $150 AUD. I felt this was great value for the indie filmmaker who cannot afford to attend large international festivals. I was able to pitch their films to several festival programmers, sales agents, distribution and rights management firms which were received with a warm response. I am now currently following up on all on discussions from the festival.

The most educational part of the festival was the panel discussion Internet Evolution as part of the New Frontier program. This panel consisted of eight industry leading professionals (AOL, Google etc) discussing the latest expansion of the internet and how this relates to the film industry. They discussed ‘Internet 3.0′ and innovative ways for producers to use cloud technology for both film production and distribution. This will come in great help in the near future of Amičko Films as we look to distribution for short films.

I was very inspired by meeting many of the Sundance filmmakers. They all had they own story about their journey to Sundance, some filmmakers had never made a short nor trained in film prior. One had been told by 10 different funding bodies that his film would never be interesting, and another received no funding or support for their government film funding agencies. All of these filmmakers went on to win at lease one if not more awards at Sundance. The common successful element in all Sundance films was research, in either feature or documentary, they displayed significant preparation done in preproduction. All had great depth and subtlety to them, perhaps something which is sadly missing in most Australian films. From this experience I see it is important for film makers to be not only educated about the latest box offices releases but also what the indie peers are doing around the world, but seeing the current international bench mark can be hard in remote Perth.

Sundance industry attendance was apparently significantly down from previous years which matched the general opinion of industry I met there, they are gradually becoming disappointed with the large and expensive film festival and are choosing to go abroad to festivals with cheaper accreditations. Although the programming is still strong the festival is not user friendly. The accreditation process is awkward, the administration team make frequent mistakes and lack customer service, the majority of venues are not cinemas and are located far apart from each other which means travel times distracts from meetings and networking. From both the industry I met prior to Sundance and during there was an agreement that Sundance has ‘had it’s time’ and now SXSW was the film festival to watch, lucky Amičko Films knows them personally.

However the my overall experience at Sundance was extremely valuable and I was very grateful to have attended, and Amičko Films current and future clients will benefit immensely from my Sundance experience.

Brains?… Interview

2010 looks really promising for film in Perth, and one reason for that is Amicko Films. Marketing has gots to be the veritable chink in the filmmakers armour. This is where Amicko steps in (it’s pronounced a-MITCH-ko, the little ten-ten thingy above the ‘c’ is nowhere to be found on this keyboard). Brains? caught up with Amy from Amicko to get the who and the what. Whole interview here: www.brainsquestionmark.com or read below

What kind of projects should be approaching you for representation?

Everything, including high quality schools’ works. Features, genres, shorts, docs, I’ll work on anything if it’s good. There is a pathway for launching every film, but each one needs it’s own unique approach. And no, just submitting to the top 30 film festivals is not a marketing plan.

Things that can start the ‘I won’t touch your film with a ten foot pole’  bell ringing in my head can be:

- After asking a film maker what their film is about they reply: ‘Oh its great, you’ll love it, it’s fantastic’. No info, no interest.

- Often if the film has been a one man job, writer, director, editor – more often then not it’s well… pretty lame.  All art needs outside influences, everyone needs to learn from one another and gain perspective.

- A short film which isn’t short for the right reasons, eg: it’s a sort due to lack of funding or story development. Shorts shouldn’t just be used as practice, they can be a highly entertaining and powerful medium; learn what makes short films ‘work’.

- Genre films which don’t really fit nicely into a genre. Often I’ll see a horror/comedy and it is neither horrifying nor funny, do one thing and do it well.

-Lastly, if a producer is aiming for telesales and are not willing to fit in with the distributor’s needs. Have a 52 min and 90 min cut of your film, as TV companies can easily look elsewhere for someone who is ready and willing.

At what stage of production should producers contact you?

I’m always happy to learn about what’s coming up, so even when you’re in pre production, please drop me a line and say hi. I’m very happy to answer any questions film makers may have and give some free advice.

However, I won’t commit to a film until I’ve seen the final cut. I greatly rely on my industry connections, if I send them an average film once, I’ll never be able to send them a film again, it’ll be the fastest way to kill my business. So late post production would be an ideal time and before your first screening, as premier status and whom you give it to is very important!

What portion of budgets should be put into marketing?

ANYTHING! I have been truly shocked at the lack of education there is regarding marketing and budgets. I rarely meet a indie film maker who actually has a marketing budget let alone a practical one, and it’s not their fault as there is not an institution in WA which fully prepares you for this. To loosely quote Rich Dad, Poor Dad: Most people are one skill away from a million dollars… do what you already do, but learn how to market and learn how to sell.

Usually the marketing budget is unfortunately the first expense to go, and frankly that’s insane! Does the money you invest in your make-up artist come with a possible return? I dont think so. The bare minimum, for either a short or feature is $2,000 per every six months of marketing, and that is literally for festival submission fees and postage alone! This money must to be ready right at the end of production too, you can’t waste months hoping that more funding will come along. If you don’t make an impression on the industry asap they will move on to something newer, bigger and better.

So seriously, if you can’t spend $2k on marketing, then you might as well pay your cast and crew, not make a film and go home and have a cuppa.

Can you give us a loose idea of how your 4 year business plan for Perth film might take shape?

At the moment, it’s a work in progress. Personally I feel it’s naive and extremely hard to predict or plan for anything, everyone always wants the best opportunity on offer at the time, and I have no idea what opportunities will be available in 12 months.

What I am passionate about is filling the gap in education of film marketing and economics, and seeing more Australian films overseas and succeeding in the international market place.

So education will be a big part of Amičko Films in the near future, I hope to offer both film marketing mentoring and internships with the business. Work with new technologies for distribution and hopefully get Pay Per View on my site, so local film makers can start earning money through a non-exclusive agreement. Get the Amičko international representative network firing. This means we will have a professional in each continent to persoanly represent our clients at film markets and festivals – meaning we can be everywhere at once and dont have to worry about travel costs.

I am currently planning a free marketing seminar to be held in the near future, so keep an eye out!  I’m also working on two new film events for Perth, the likes of which have not yet been seen in Australia, but I have them to keep it hush hush for now. So it’s looking at being a very busy start to the new decade, and hopefully a very prosperous one for the WA film industry.

Chasing Amy? Not exactly. John & Me, almost… Austin’rats? Bingo.

To any film buff the above play on words should ring a rather familiar bell, but perhaps not the name behind the indie classics, John Pierson – Producer, Author and Godfather of American independent film. Recently, I recently had the pleasure of Pierson being my Austin tour guide, and whattaya know he’s even seen WA short ‘This is Perth’.

Pierson has a CV which can barely be rivalled, having played pivotal roles in launching Michael Moore, Spike Lee and Kevin Smith’s careers. Selling Roger & Me to Hollywood for millions, invested $10, 000 into ‘She’s Gotta Have It’, assisted ‘Mallrats’, and was executive producer on ‘Chasing Amy’. I bet if you’re reading this now, you either own one if not all of them on DVD, and you also owe John Pierson one mighty big thank you for making your world a better place.

Austin was the third stop on my North American networking tour. After freezing in -20c in Denver and drinking with cowboys in Dallas, I approached Austin with great expectations and the ‘blue dot on the red map’ did not disappoint.

John is a true Texan now, he suggested a BBQ Ribs spot for lunch but was greatly disappointed when I revealled my vegetarian ways. We decided a visit a cowboy boots store, the Barton Hot Springs, Waterloo Records, a trip to local film studios, and the SXSW film offices would have to be my Austin cultural hit instead, tough hey?

For lunch we met with the president of the Austin Film Critics Association, Cole Dabney for a bite of TexMex. Cole was buzzing as he had just gotten off the phone from a particularly influential Hollywood producer to announce the critics awards for 2009. Needless to say Cole and John are extreme film buffs, a walking version of IMDB. Anyone that knows me will know that it’s not film theory that attracts me to this industry, so it was time to sit, smile, and nod.

The topic finally moved on to Australia, at last a conversation I could participate in! Impressed with Cole’s knowledge of WA and our mining industry I used the opportunity to defined the term bogan, explained how I couldn’t be bothered seeing ‘Australia’, and informed them of another ‘Mad Max’. Only hours before I had sent John the youtube link to Perrella & Osborn’s short ‘This Is Perth’ to allow for a bit of understanding of my culture. I was pleasantly surprised when he quoted  ‘revolving prison… disco-pop fusion… aahahah’ to our lunch associate.

And how did this film newbie from Perth arrange this little meeting? Well it will have to remain an industry secret for now, or at least until you see me at the next Perth networking gig or film festival… PS, I prefer vodka.

For more info on John Pierson www.grainypictures.com

The Austin Film Critics Association www.austinfilmcritics.org

SUNDANCE

Yes, really really, Amičko Films is really going to Sundance and hanging out with Robert Redford. Many thanks to Screen West for providing a travel grant to make this possible. During Sundance the Amičko Films general manager, Amy Broadfoot, will attend regular industry and press events, to remain educated on current North American market trends and opportunities. As well as researching premier films in the industry video library to observe the current international leaders, popular themes and individual territory tastes, thus being better able to strategically plan marketing for future films.

Sundance also has a unique feature – the Native Forum. A hub for the International Indigenous film community, including a program of panel discussions, filmmaker discussions, and networking events that provide opportunities for Indigenous filmmakers to share their expertise and knowledge with each other and the larger independent film community. Amičko Films sees this as an important opportunity to develop an understanding for an international pathway for Australian indigenous films.

Amičko Films Expands into North America

Amičko Films would like to welcome aboard Jeimmy Cesar as our new International Representative for North America. Our international reps will act as our eyes and ears in their local film industry – which means Amičko Films will personally attend more film festivals and industry events in order to better represent our clients, expand our industry network and our increase our international profile.

Jeimmy has a degree in Marketing and Communications, she has worked professionally promoting large scale events in both the States and Europe. She is an active member in the Texan film industry, a writer-journalist, and a passionate follower of the arts. Amičko Films looks forward to our future endeavours with Ms. Cesar.

WOW World of Women’s Cinema

Amičko Films is very happy to be sponsoring the WOW festival for 2009, we are looking forward to representing two winners of  this years festival. The 5 day festival will be held 14 – 18th October at the Chauvel Cinema, Sydney, Australia.

The World of Women (WOW) Film Festival is a short film festival that promotes and awards the talents of women directors, producers, writers, editors and cinematographers in the Australian film industry and in Oceania. It is a unique festival that offers emerging and established filmmakers the opportunity to screen short works giving a thematic perspective of … “seeing the world through the eyes of women”. For more information: www.wift.org/wow

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