So you want to create the next American Beauty. Where do you start?
Mark Ehrenkranz knows independent movies inside-out— he screens them at his weekly New York Film Critics Series, and he produces them, too.
He’ll share tips on how to develop, produce and market indie movies on Sept. 12, 2013, at the Morristown & Township Library.
The free program starts at 7 pm and refreshments will be served. The library is at One Miller Road in Morristown.
Below is a statement from the library. And here is more about Mark:
FROM THE MORRISTOWN & TOWNSHIP LIBRARY:
Developing, Making and Marketing an Independent Film
Featuring New York Film Critics Series producer Mark Ehrenkranz.
MORRISTOWN, NJ—The Morristown & Morris Township Library is hosting a program on Thursday, September 12 featuring New York Film Critics Series producer Mark Ehrenkranz entitled “Developing, Making and Marketing an Independent Film. The free program begins at 7:00 p.m. and refreshments will be served. This program is supported through funding from the Friends of the Morristown & Morris Township Library.
An Independent film is a feature film which is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. Some of our best and most popular films––American Beauty, To Kill A Mockingbird, Pulp Fiction, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Psycho, to name a few,––were Independent films. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers’ personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower film budgets than major studio films. In what promises to be a fascinating presentation, New York Film Critics Series producer Mark Ehrenkranz, will provide us with an inside look at independent films: their conception and development, packaging and financing, production, marketing and much more.
The discussion will include the process of developing an idea to taking a film to market and everything in between. Mark will explore the developmental stages of how to plan, write a screenplay, how to package a project and how to fund it. Once a film is fully or partially funded, what must a filmmaker do to begin production and finish post production? Upon completion of a project, how does a filmmaker market it and premiere it at festivals and screenings? Once a movie has a mode of distribution strategy so that audiences may see it, the process continues with PR, marketing and managing the revenue. This talk will explore the entire lifespan—one that has been compared to bearing offspring from baby to adult and the various cycles with which a project experiences for both the movie fan and or professional.
Bios
Mark Ehrenkranz is the New York Film Critics Series (NYFCS) producer. Along with the NYFCS’ critics, Mark curates the finest films available along with the guests for the ongoing seasons. Mark has also accomplished the following: he is the producer of Turbulent Souls – a Full Length Feature Film based on The memoirs of Stephen J. Dubner (co-author of Freakonomics); the Creator/Marketing Director of VideoLine; the Associate Supervising Director of Michael Nesmith’s Prime Time NBC Series, Television Parts; and has developed comedy videos for Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, Whoopi Goldberg and others. Mark is also a freelance video director and producer and has wrote, produced and directed comedy videos with theatrical New York City Comedians.
