Tuesday, April 28, 2009


Smile ‘Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story
A Report By:
Johnny Moniz, Korey Perkins, and Brent Buffington


The Smiles And Frowns of Our Time With
“Smile ‘Til It Hurts”
(Project Introduction)

This report is a comprehensive reflection on a Spring 2009 marketing project tied to the U.C.F. Film Department by way of a course called “The Film Producer”.
On the surface, the class’s internal subject matter is as its name describes. We learned, by way of lectures, about the tasks for which a producer is responsible and about the history of the position with a particular focus on the film legend/boy-wonder known as Irving Thalberg.
Aside from the teachings of our professor, Mr. Randy Finch, we were fortunate enough to have several guest lecturers including the critically acclaimed producer Christine Vachon. With a newfound wealth of knowledge at our disposal, we were ready to undertake the challenges that make this particular course unlike any other.
The unique component of the Film Producer comes from its connection to the Florida Film Festival—which is held yearly in Orlando and hosted by the Enzian Theater. The festival screens and competes ten feature films and ten documentaries each year, and, since our class had approximately sixty students, we were broken up in twenty teams of (usually) three people and subsequently assigned—at random—to a festival film. Our job was market the film to which we were assigned and creatively become the perfect street team for our respective filmmakers.
Our team—which included Johnny Moniz (a Cinema Studies major who is expected to graduate in 2011), Brent Buffington (a BFA Film major who is expected to graduate in 2011), and Korey Perkins (a Cinema Studies major who is expected to graduate in 2010)—was assigned to a documentary film entitled “Smile ‘Til It Hurts, The Up With People Story” which was directed by Mrs. Lee Storey.
The following is a report on our experience with the festival and all that we attempted, accomplished, and—in the end—came to learn.

Synopsis and Brief History

Smile ‘Til It Hurts, The Up With People Story is a documentary film that explores the origins of the perky, smile-drenched, singing phenomenon known as Up With People. Up With People was born in response to the liberal counter-culture of the ‘60s by the ultra-conservative religious sect, Moral ReArmament. Over the years, they traveled the world and were embraced by leaders ranging from US Presidents Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush, to King Juan Carlos of Spain, Queen Noor of Jordon and Pope John Paul II.
Despite the optimistic stereotype of the organization, the film attempts to explore the darker, cult-like side of Up With People and is composed of several interviews with former members that are matched with decades worth of rich archival footage.
The Film was shot digitally, over the course of a few years, using a Panasonic DVX 100A camcorder. It has begun to play the festival circuit and has screened at festivals such as Slam Dance and Full Frame. There is currently no distribution, but the filmmaker is reaching out and beginning to investigate opportunities.
Smile’s director, Lee Storey, came to make the film after learning that her long time husband had actually been a member of Up With People. The two had been married for 15 years before he ever mentioned his involvement, and Lee’s curiosity over why he had been so reserved in regards to the subject led her to research the organization. She is a lawyer by trade and spends Monday through Friday negotiating water rights settlements with Native American tribes in Arizona, so Smile ‘Til It Hurts (which is her first film) was a brand new experience.

Marketing Work

Our team was very fortunate in that we were assigned to a film that already had (to an extent) a built in audience. In addition to this, Lee had already created a colorful and informative website, a personal blog about her and the film, and she had printed up thousands of postcards, hundreds of posters, a number of collectable buttons, and a few handfuls customized Smile ‘Til It Hurts chap stick. We received tons of materials with which to work and realized that—because of the abundance of said materials—it would be most beneficial to the film if we organized ourselves as the “street team” and made effective use of the supplies we were given.
With that said, our biggest marketing campaign was the verbal advertisement coupled with flyer distribution. Each team member carried a stack with them at all times and everyone with whom we came in contact while we were “on duty” was told about the festival as a whole and then given a flyer about the film. We kept in mind that our target demographic was aged 35 and up, and we received the most favorable responses from older men and women who remembered or had seen Up With People in the past.
We were hesitant to place flyers on cars because of how often they are cast aside when found in such a fashion, but at select locations—such as Kohls—we knew that the clientele were much more inclined to consider attending.
With posters, we found it more difficult because of how many places have policies that do not allow them to hang anything their corporate counterpart(s) had not specifically approved. We did however manage to place them on community bulletin boards and in various “mom and pop” establishments throughout the area.
We also went to the internet and attempted to secure the Glenn Close audience by posting the film’s information of several blogs and online articles that made mention of her attendance at the festival.
Most of our activities were done as a unit, but we each took a specific position based mainly on our availability and locations. Johnny, whose normal school/work schedule was the least busy, agreed to keep in contact with the filmmaker and exchanged several e-mails and phone calls with her throughout the marketing stage. He informed the team of her various requests and ideas and made plans to pick her up from the airport on the day she arrived. Johnny spent considerable time on campus in order to put up posters and hand out his own flyers to all of the organizations that typically solicit in front of the union. He then moved his campaign to Winter Park and attempted to do the same. Johnny also wrote the press release document and cleared the final draft with the filmmaker.
Brent Buffington spent much time coming up with the best places to distribute flyers and talk about the film. He then made it happen by journeying to locations such as Timber Creek High School and advertising to those students involved in extracurricular activities that shared common themes with the film. Johnny and Brent went on one particular excursion during which time they hung several posters and flyered several cars as a team throughout the afternoon. Brent also was responsible for making the facebook events that proved (for every team) to be unsuccessful.
Korey, who lives and works two jobs downtown, was in charge of covering the general (west) downtown and Winter Park area. He made sure to keep both his places of employment stocked with stack of Smile Flyers, as well as hanging posters wherever possible. Korey was also in charge of making phone calls to contact the local press and media with information about the film. He unable to lockdown any hard newspaper coverage, but this was due to countless unanswered voice mail messages, unreturned emails, and our filmmaker’s belief that by the time the article was printed in the few newspapers that did respond, but wanted payment, it would not make a significant difference in seats filled.
On the day of the first screening, the entire team met with Lee and two of our volunteers to dress up and sing the Up With People Theme song in front of the theatre and around the Winter Park Village Plaza. We distributed a healthy portion of our remaining flyers to the patrons who were seated outside and appeared interested in our song and dance.
The second screening, which was at the Enzian theatre, did not require the same showmanship. We realized that anyone who was at the Enzian was already aware of the festival, and so we simply spent time around the Eden bar and the ticket lines spreading information and distributing more flyers. On both nights, we reserved the buttons and Chap Stick for individuals who actually purchased tickets as a small extra incentive. After the second screening we gave away our many of our remaining posters to pleased patrons on their way out of the theatre.
At the request of the filmmaker, Johnny took what postcards were left to the Glenn Close interview on Friday evening and gave them out to generate interest based on Glenn’s involvement while pointing out her picture on the front.
The two screenings were each successful in bringing in decent sized crowds. The Regal screen had approximately 120 people and the Enzian had roughly 200. Our Filmmakers was very pleased and we all felt that it had been a job well done.
However, no success can exist without some failure, and it is safe to say that we had our fair share. In terms of marketing, it was unbelievably difficult to appeal to a youthful demographic. This was most frustrating because of how much we (and other young people who DID see the film) came to enjoy it. This was due far more to the preconceived notions of the generation then it was to any lack of effort. It was also difficult to find the right places to put posters and then actually earn the approval of the management. Perhaps we should have made arrangements before the posters arrived so we would have places prepared to begin with.

Calendar

FEBRUARY 21st

Conference Call
The three of us spoke via the phone after watching the film and set up a temporary
marketing plan. We appointed our point contact which was Johnny.

Marketing Plan
Our marketing plan consisted of a pitch, audience profile, keywords to attach via the
internet, our distribution plans which consisted of press releases, posters, flyers and
pre-performance marketing.

MARCH 1st
We made contact with our filmmaker via email and introduced ourselves and who we
are. We presented our marketing plan to our filmmaker and she loved every bit of it.
This was her fist film, so this was awesome for her to see a group of college kids doing
pro bono for her. We set up some questions that were sent back and forth from both
ends.

MARCH 4th
We set up a more specific marketing plan, began formatting a press release, and set up
times to pass out flyers.

MARCH 17th
Our team has now acquired the materials sent by our filmmaker, we have divided them
amongst ourselves and plan to do as much unplanned marketing as possible, on top of
our planned days.

We make first contact with press and media via our press releases which were sent out
in emails and contacted via phone calls. No one seemed really interested, they all said
they were covering the Florida Film Festival and that was all they were going to do.
Huge let down.

MARCH 18th
We have set up two facebook events and have invited all of our friends and friends of
friends. We came to a total of about 1,000 in each screening night, and about 400 said
they would come. Facebook is full of liars, so out of that we expected 10.

MARCH 21st
Brent Buffington distributed flyers at a local high school musical at Timber Creek High
School.

Johnny and Brent went out to all the local community boards at locations like Panera
and Starbucks to post flyers and posters. We had about a 50% success rate of locations
allowing us to post material. After leaving these locations we went to the Kohls in
Waterford Lakes shopping center to put flyers on cars, while there we encountered a
lady who said she would come because she had a best friend while growing up who
was in it.

MARCH 26th
We all picked up our volunteer badges at the Enzian and dispersed from there to our
respective location to distribute flyers, this included Downtown, Winter Park, and
Downtown Disney (tourist areas). We have also begun casting and rehearsing our
dance and singing team which will sign and dance prior to the shows to attract more
people to see it.

MARCH 27th
Last big push for distribution on UCFs campus and restaurants in the Orlando area. We
have also set up pick up times for our filmmaker who will be flying in for the first
screening.

MARCH 28th
This was the date of our first screening at the Regal. We arrived three hours early,
where the three team members, the filmmaker and two friends walked around the Town
Center singing a song from the film, passing out flyers, as we were dressed up like the
ʻUp With People’ group. We had what appeared to be a close to sell out screening that
night. After, the filmmaker held a Q&A which Johnny filmed for her.

APRIL 1st
Brent attended the Kodak forum at the Enzian where he passed out flyers to everyone
in the forum and nearby passerby's. Johnny also went around town putting the last
couple posters up on anything that would hold the size of the poster.

APRIL 2nd
This was our film and last screening at the Enzian location. Brent arrived two hours
early to pass out flyers because he couldn’t stay after the screening started. While there
he met the head of Women for Film/TV Florida who was the sponsor of the film we were
promoting, she was excited to see how much work we were putting in to this film. After
Johnny and his friend arrived, they distributed a couple more flyer with just enough time
to snag a set before this screening as well almost sold out. There was another Q&A
which Johnny filmed for the filmmaker.

APRIL 22nd
We gave our oral report in front of the class, we put a lot of work into preparing and feel
we did a great job of recapping the events that transpired over this semester.

The difference between our original marketing plan and what was actually implemented
was mainly the difference in times and dates that we performed that activities, while
adding a couple more marketing tools. We decided to scrap internet advertising due to a
lack of money within out group and filmmaker, however we feel that after seeing our
demographic in person at the screenings, web advertisement would not have been affective.
Future Marketing Strategy

The biggest problem with marketing Smile ‘Til It Hurt, The Up With People Story” is that, on the surface, it does not appear to be a film with which young people can identify. It is about an organization of which many people have never heard and marketers may find that enticing closed-minded people into seeing it is a difficult task.
Interestingly enough, I don’t think that any of the content needs changing. All of the young people who we did coax (by way of free tickets etc.) into seeing the film admitted to having an absolutely terrific time. The vehicle of the film is indeed Up With People, but the story itself is one of youthful idealism. It is relevant to all generations, and the issue is not about changing content, but about finding the best way to get people aboard the vehicle.
In order to gain attention and/or awards, I would make sure that every Up With People Alumni organization was well aware of the Film. Lee was resourceful enough to do just that, and she had people lined up months in advance. While the film is relatively balanced, it clearly has the potential to illicit strong emotional responses from former Up With People cast members, and their powerful reactions are likely to stir up an additional buzz around the film.
As far as future advice goes, I would first tell Lee to keep up the great work that she has been doing, but if she were to make any improvements whatsoever, they would be to investigate new ways to make trailers and promotional materials that appeal to the younger generation.

Conclusion

Participating in the marketing of a 2009 Florida Film Festival entry was a unique and rewarding experience that allowed us to freely exercise our creativity and people skills. The Festival also generated an opportunity for us to put the lessons of our Film Producer course into practice. We learned many important things along the way, including the importance of our persistence, the clarity of our intentions, and the power of song of and dance. It was difficult to wrangle all of the people we had intended but as a whole the project was a success, we look forward to keeping up with the future of Smile ‘Til It Hurts.

Appendix

People We Met:

Lee Storey – Director and Producer
John Jones – of the Enzian staff
Matt Morris – Director of Pickin’ Trimmin’
The President of Women in film and television
Two Up With People Alumni
Scott Hamilton Kennedy – director of The Garden

*According to Lee Storey, the Regal showing had 120 patrons and the Enzian screening had 200

Links:

(Lee’s official website for the film)

(Lee’s official Blog)

(Clip of the Up With People theme which we sang)

(photo of Enzian after screening)

(photo of Lee from the Enzian Q&A)

(photo of Lee from the Regal Q&A)

(photo of the Regal after the screening)

(PDF of the Image that was used to make the flyers, posters, and buttons with which Lee provided us)