Movie Marketing: Opening the Picture and Giving It Legs [Paperback]

Tiiu Lukk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

This text seeks to demystify complex marketing issues; profiling marketing strategies for films of widely varying budgets, genres and intended audiences through the words of those responsible for developing and implementing these strategies - marketers, distributors and occasionally filmmakers. This tour of the many varied ways to market films should be of value to independent filmmakers and anyone hoping to work in film distribution and marketing. It also features chapters on merchandising and promotions and creating trailers. Among the films profiled are "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Pulp Fiction", "The Brothers McMullen", "Goldeneye", "Hoop Dreams", "Welcome to the Dollhouse", "Howard's End", "Crumb", "Carnosaur", "Malice" and "Brother's Keeper".

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Silman-James Press; 1st edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187950538X
• ISBN-13: 978-1879505384
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,139,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Terrible Waste of Time, December 29, 2001

By 

Thor Vader "Herr Director" (Beverly Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Movie Marketing: Opening the Picture and Giving It Legs (Paperback)

The main problem with this book is that it is based on a series of interviews and "War Stories", and thus there is really only 1 chapter that has any value. If a person wants to read a bunch of stories of what happened... then this is a good choice. If, however, you wish to read about marketing your movie by "opening the picture and giving it legs"... you would get more value from reading the gossip column of the National Enquirer.

The book is broken down into "case studies" as follows: Romantic Comedy, American Independent Films, Action-adventure, Documentary, Foreign Films, Low Budget & B-movies, Suspense Thriller, Black, and then a section on making trialers & promotions. The first three chapters seemed to get off to at least an interesting start as the interviewees discussed "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Pulp Fiction" and "Golden-eye." However, it takes a nose dive thereafter.

The chapter on GoldenEye discusses the BMW tie in, and as such was informative. Also, the discussion surrounding "Four Weddings" was such that they gave insight into building a campaign.

Why does it hit a brick wall you ask? The author literally starts quoting people's comments on what should have been done... and does nothing to craft arguments or illustrations that would have improved the readers understanding. For example, he talks about Spike Lee, John Singleton, and the Hughes brothers in terms of their marketability in the Black Film section, but then provides absolutely no examples of how these filmmakers projects are marketed, nor what sorts of special approaches one might consider.

Overall, I rarely try to slam a book. Nevertheless, this book was complete garbage and hours of my life that I will never get back. If I didn't have a strict rule of always finishing a book once I start it, I would have set it down by page 50 of 273. Trust me... read the trades or use your own powers of observation, because this book will not help you beyond that advice.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting cases, but a dearth of specifics, May 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Movie Marketing: Opening the Picture and Giving It Legs (Paperback)

Considering the hefty price tag, this book was a major disappointment. As an aspiring producer, I was hungry for specific technical info about the marketing of movies in today's cutthroat environment. I expected Luuk to walk me through the movie marketing process step-by-step, from beginning to end. Instead, she adopts an anecdotal approach, focusing on the marketing of one movie in each of several genres. This might have been valuable had she employed any kind of analysis and selectivity, but she seems to have merely interviewed the key players, and presented their responses in unbelievably long, unedited quotations. Had it been her avowed intention to present complete interviews with movie marketers, this would be fine, but it was not.

All in all, a disappointment. I would not recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Insider Accounts of Movie Marketing, May 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Movie Marketing: Opening the Picture and Giving It Legs (Paperback)

Anyone who has looked for books on movie marketing knows there are only a few books out there on the subject, and while those few are thorough, nuts and bolts approaches to the subject, they often make for dry reading. Tiiu Lukk brings the subject of movie marketing to life by allowing savvy movie marketers to tell the in-depth stories of their adventures in the field, to a great extent, "in their own words." We find out about each marketer's intentions in marketing their films (often focusing on individual films), their strategy, their execution of the plan, and the success and failure of their efforts. Readable, entertaining and informative.