Today, it occurred to me that I haven't really explained the POINT of all the viral marketing I'm putting together for Sam Bailey.  Here's my reasoning:

Part of why I'm doing this is to mitigate the risk of an unknown cast before taking it to investors.  Beyond that, I want to make it easier for folks in the industry to support Sam Bailey.  In either case, it's about making business easier and less risky. 

From a business perspective, producing any film without regard for the "names" involved can be viewed as irresponsible - and rightly so!  For exactly that reason, we've got to consider and account for the fact that we are producing a film with no stars.    Ignoring it gets us nowhere.

If people already want to see a movie, the popularity of the film's cast becomes less important. That's how it worked with Napoleon Dynamite and Fireproof, and because I have the necessary distribution relationships, I'm in a good position to pull off a success on that kind of scale.  If we can make good box office figures in the US, our foreign rights become valuable.  By taking things step-by-step, we can open up our markets without spending tons of marketing dollars.

If the film is a celebrity, the cast doesn't need to be.

Of course, the film itself has to live up to audience expectation. In this case, the expectation I'm building is of a quirky, smooth genre picture with good production value, instead of a herky-jerky comedy or the easily fulfilled promise of Christian values. (By the way, I like Napoleon Dynamite and I haven't seen Fireproof. All I'm saying is that delivering on audience expectation wasn't the biggest hurdle those productions faced.)

At the same time, delivering a strong picture is a risk and a responsibility I'm well-positioned and prepared to handle. Getting that expectation to develop is going to take lots of time and work. That's what this is about.

To lend your support, visit us at www.8sidedfilms.com.