Hi my name is Ant Timpson. I do some film things in New Zealand like the 48HOURS and the INCREDIBLY STRANGE segment of the Film Festival, the 24HOUR MOVIE MARATHON and whore myself to media anywhere I can.

So whats with this kerfuffle all about? Well we have to go back a few years to the city of Toronto.

At a secret (non Festival) screening in Toronto a few years ago I was lucky enough to sit with five friends and watch the horror film REC before anyone knew what the film was about. I loved the film and wanted to bring it to New Zealand to show audiences. I told head honcho of Rialto Distribution Kelly Rogers that he needed to buy the film immediately as long as I could promote it and secure it for the film festival. He agreed and bought REC. The film has was a success in the film festival, in its limited theatrical release and finally on home-video. The dvd was sub-distributed by Vendetta Films.

When REC2 came up for sale Rialto passed onit but Vendetta jumped all over it. Since I found REC and helped release it to NZ they approached me about helping release the film again in NZ. It was a no-brainer for me. The first film has so much goodwill and love from fans that they are very keen to see the second one. The only hitch, Vendetta only want a limited release and have a very small marketing budget (approx NZ$7500 all up). The sanest thing to do would be to just go out direct to dvd and save your $7500 as there’s an audience already waiting for the film.

However I love seeing horror movies with audiences in CINEMAS.. they transform into fantastic collective experiences, especially when they deliver. And both RECs deliver. So how do you release a film to cinemas with only $7500? Lets remember that a large mainstream release can have hundreds of thousanns spent on P&A (prints and advertising) to reach its audience.

You can’t compete with the majors on terms of budget. It’s like throwing peanuts at a tank. So how do you try to compete in a cluttered marketplace where the dominant alphas are all huge studio films.

Well recently a company** (Stradella Road)** that handles all of Peter Jackson’s online marketing and strategy came out with a survey they did on nearly 4000 moviegoers. The results were insightful and telling. Old media is not where moviegoers get their movie information from. For the first time in recorded history more people find out about films online than even tv now. 70% find out via online trailers and friend chatter. 86% across all demos go online once a day. They spend more time per week online than in front of TV now. 90% have mobiles. The decision to see a movie now is split between a friend in their clique telling them and the actual storyline itself. The bottom line is they are getting all their information primarily via online and mobile. Obvious but then why are studios only spending a pittance of their marketing budgets online?

Because it takes a lot to move a mountain. They are very much tied into their old ways and refuse to make the changes they should.

Awhile back I was inspired by a clever young Auckland media student named Michael Chal who took an assignment about raising online awareness to dizzying new heights when he pretended to auction sexy photos of his Mother on the online auction site TradeMe. Chal ended up being covered by every newspaper and tv news show in NZ. It was perhaps a little deceitful but most kiwis saw the humour in it and as an experiment it was phenomenally successful.

So the idea came to me, instead of spending the tiny marketing budget on old media to alert NZ fans about REC2 (the $7500 budget would be absorbed by a couple of NZ Herald ads and a tiny radio campaign) why don’t I just give away nearly all the marketing cash (some saved for web design and misc) as a prize to someone who creates the most Buzz about the films release.

So this will be an experiment to see if we can get some people along to see this small film without spending a fortune. If it works it means that perhaps we can rely on social networks to help local films and that we aren’t beholden to old media dinosaurs who charge a fortune for a dying delivery system.

So even if you don’t submit something to our contest (but you really should) maybe you can pass the word about the $5k giveaway. Maybe text or tweet or bebo or Facecrack it to someone. By doing one small thing you are contributing to the wave of buzz about REC2 and for that I thank you.

Speak up or forever see small cool films debut on dvd.

And so here I am with a briefcase of $5000 cash and looking for some clever person to take it from me.

(PS: To all would be robbers and thieves, I don’t have the $5000 at home - it’s at the bank!)