Red State - A New Kevin Smith Film

Red State is the upcoming horror film by Kevin Smith.  Kevin Smith is the writer and director of classics such as Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma.  This new film, though, has a twist.

Red State is a horror movie.  It is not filled to the brim with dick & fart jokes and pot humor.  Red State is reported to not look like a Kevin Smith film--a sentiment that Smith himself touts with pride.  Red State is also not a political movie.  When the title was announced some vituperation from the political right came to bear, but previews and discussion of the film have revealed that it is certainly a horror film more than anything else, even when the internet seems to say otherwise.

Another twist on Red State is the way the film is being marketed.  Typically, a $10 million dollar film will cost another $5-10 million in its budget for marketing.  It's a typical Hollywood studio strategy.  You make a movie, then advertise the hell out of it to try and grab a wide audience.  Kevin Smith is taking a different route.





Core Control

Smith contends that his core audience of 8-10 million people are going to go see the move whether or not they see countless previews and billboards for the film.  Additionally, extra viewers he might get from casting the wide net on TV and billboard ads won't bring in enough revenue to really justify the expense.  Smith decided to just make the film for his core audience and leave out the maybes and would-bes.  It's a novel tactic with a low budget.

Podcasting Smodcasting

Of course, Smith isn't being shy about promoting his film online to his core fans.  He runs a hugely popular and very active Twitter feed.  It is closely personal to Smith's life, work, opinions, and fans.  He also runs a podcast network called the Smodcast Network.  The Smodcast headlines the network featuring Smith and his longtime producer Scott Mosier.  It is one of the most popular podcasts in iTunes, but Smith also appears in five additional podcasts on his mini-network and helps cross-promote his friends' and business compatriots' podcasts as well.

The Red State of the Union Podcast is one of these on the network.  RSotU is a Q&A session with Kevin Smith and one guest from the cast or crew of his Red State film.  Bloggers, film journalists, fans, and friends gather at Smith's Smodcastle to hear about the latest updates on the film, herar stories of production, or just learn a little (or a lot) about how to make a film.  The interviews and questions range from philosophical underpinnings of visual media to camera and lighting techniques to the ever present pot and cock jokes.  The podcast is released for free, and is another hugely popular download.

@ThatKevinSmith too

To promote the film on Twitter, Smith conducts semi-regular bidding wars for the rights to host new Red State movie posters.  All the proceeds go to various charitable causes.  The website who wins the bidding gets the file emailed from Smith, and they then host the poster from their website, generating traffic and ad revenue for themselves, while also contributing to a charitable cause.  All of the images on this blog post are linked from the winning websites to help redirect traffic to the winners/bidders/contributors.

Where the Puck is Going to Be

Smith often cites a quote from hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, which goes something like "A good hockey player plays where the puck is.  A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."  Smith has taken on this mantra for himself, but replaces hockey with film making.  The idea is that the current way that films are made, marketed, and distributed is inefficient, and going to way of the music industry before it.  Smith sees this as an opportunity.  Where the puck is going in this case is to more specialized audiences through more personal channels.

Smith is betting that his core audience wants to see Red State, wants to hear about the process of making the film, wants to hear about the arguments he has with his wife while making the film, and wants to hear Smith's juvenile (yet hilarious) commentary as he and members of the crew discuss the finer points of testicle humor.  So far it looks like his bets are right.

In all this the excitement of a new method of distribution and marketing, not to mention film-making in general, is manifest.  Count me as a fan and a curious writer.  I'm an excited enthusiast who is following the progress of this entire project with an eye on the future.  Regardless of success or failure, it will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

If it works...

If Smith slaps the puck right on the money because he skated to where it's going to be count Smith and company as pioneers toward a new way of building and maintaining a media product and look for more people to follow in his footsteps.

For now, I'm looking forward to Red State coming out at Sundance this January, and I hope some of you are willing to take a look.  Here's a preview that you won't see on TV.