A Gift for Laughter -- Audience and distribution

Audience & Distribution Prospects

Distribution

Most of the marketing strategies commonly employed by independent distributors will be used to market A Gift For Laughter. The actual marketing of the film itself is the distributor's job. It involves the representation of the film in terms of genre, the placement of advertisements in various media, the selection of a sales approach for exhibitors and foreign buyers, and the "hype" (word of mouth, promotional events, alliances with special interest groups, and so on.) All of these factors are critical to the film's success.
In acquiring a project, the distributor looks at the following elements, among others:

Uniqueness of storyline

Special audience segment for the type or genre of film

Ability of cast members to attract audiences or buyers on their names alone

Past successes of the producers and/or director

Attached money

Our film will meet these criteria. Our talent and their management teams have a close relationship with HBO, our first choice as a distributor. We will reserve the right to negotiate with several theatrical distributors and bring our project to the Independent Feature Market in New York as well as Film Festivals around the world. We will also arrange for special screening events in cooperation with comedy networks and comedy clubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto.
No distribution agreements have been established to date.

"We believe there is a market for this film when it's completed and we would be very interested in reviewing it for distribution."

– Udy Epstein, Senior Vice President, Seventh
Art Releasing, Cordish Media Inc.

The ultimate objective is to obtain international exposure for the film. To this end, the following avenues of exhibition and distribution will be followed:

"Based on this excellent proposal and reel, your track record, the distinguished advisory board and the fact that no high quality film has been produced on the subject of comedy and the Jews, I am confident there will be great interest in [the] completed film from the various television markets with whom I work."

– Charles Schuerhoff, CS Associates, distributor of Baseball and Jazz by Ken Burns, Sound and Fury by Josh Aronson and Roger Weisberg, and, for over two decades, every Frontline documentary produced for PBS.

Theatrical

Our goal is to produce the film in 2007 in anticipation of a premiere at the Sundance Film Festival where we will seek an agreement with a theatrical distributor.

Festival Screenings

We will enter A GIFT FOR LAUGHTER in as many film and video festivals in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim as possible. These will include the Cannes International Film Festival, Venice International, Berlin International, Sundance, Jerusalem International , Toronto International, Amsterdam International, the International Documentary Film Festival, Aspen Filmfest, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, and other major Jewish Film Festivals. A Gift For Laughter will also enter the Documentary Festival of New York, the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and the New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Moscow, Leningrad, London, Hong Kong, Haifa, Sydney and Hawaii International Film Festivals, among others.

Non-Theatrical

Among the most important distribution outlets are schools, colleges, universities and Jewish organizations. Working with our non-theatrical distributor, we will produce a study, discussion and resource guide on the history of Jews in comedy for use in Jewish and American cultural history courses. We will also conduct a direct mail campaign to the largest, most prominent Jewish organizations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Israel, to promote the documentary.

International

Among the top foreign television markets are Channel 4 and the BBC in the United Kingdom, NHK in Japan, German television, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Canal Plus in France. CS Associates, the country’s largest distributor of documentaries to foreign broadcasters (they handle Ken Burns’ films) will distribute the film to foreign television markets. A CS representative will attend every major international television market and seek the broadest possible foreign television exposure for the film.

Media Outreach

We will promote the documentary to a mainstream U.S. audience with the help of special screening events supported by comedy celebrity networks in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. We will seek major media coverage through reviews and feature articles in every publication that reviews popular entertainment and Jewish culture. With the assistance of a national publicist, we will pursue publicity on dozens of national radio and television programs and talk shows, from NPR’s Fresh Air and All Things Considered, to Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, Larry King, Jon Stewart, Michael Krasny's Forum, and others.