Students Get a Real-Time Lesson in Marketing for an Oscar Nominated Film
Fifty per cent of the movie business is making the film, but the other half is marketing and distribution of it, according to Michael Paszt. Currently, students at the Toronto Film School have the opportunity to learn about and observe the marketing behind an Oscar nominated film.
At Toronto Film School, Paszt works with the Film Production Diploma program, teaches students that latter half of the business.
“I work with students on developing their projects, but afterwards I also teach them about marketing and distribution,” Paszt said. “How do you reach your audience and ultimately get eyeballs on it.”
In addition to instructing at Toronto Film School, Paszt, along with his two partners, owns Raven Banner Entertainment Inc. and a second arm of the company called Northern Banner.
The Raven Banner arm of the operation produces and distributes films in the horror genre. While Northern Banner is a specialty label and it deals in documentaries, art house cinema, family films and films of strong independent cinema from all over the world.
“We acquire those films for the right to distribute them in Canada,” Paszt explained.
Earlier in 2015, Northern Banner acquired the rights to distribute a movie called Embrace Of The Serpent. It is a Colombian film and it was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
“We picked it up at the Cannes Film Festival and then it had it’s Canadian premier at TIFF,” he explained. “And we have been working on the film creating social media and getting ready to launch its theatrical release on Feb. 19.”
Whether you are an independent company, like Northern Banner, or a large company, Paszt said being aligned with an Oscar nominated film is what everyone wants — it’s a feather in their cap.
“When we saw Embrace Of The Serpent we thought it is a beautiful film and we felt it would have the legs to get nominated for an Academy Award,” Paszt said. “You have to have an eye for those type of films.
From the marketing side, it’s the marketing of the Academy Award that will help us propel the film and get a bigger audience,” Paszt explained
Not only is it an exciting time for his company, but also for all of the students at the Toronto Film School.
“I can provide them with real time experience,” Paszt said. “As we are marketing this film I can provide real-time experience to the students,” Paszt said. They are seeing what is happening they are seeing what it takes for us to launch a film, to get it out there to the audience.”
There are also several students at Toronto Film School from Colombia, who are interning with Northern Banner to help with some of the outreach for marketing the film.
“It is really exciting for them to be involved,” Paszt said.
Filmed in black-and-white, Embrace Of The Serpent centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers (Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes) who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.
Embrace Of The Serpent opens theatrically on February 19 at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.
To learn more about the Toronto Film School and its programs click here.
