Joe Swanberg is premiering his new film, “Alexander The Last”, at SXSW next week, which is nice for him. But the real story is happening in the business. An elegantly orchestrated publicity campaign with several important distribution break-throughs will make this film, whatever it’s merits, an important event. . . . . .

Swanberg uses an improvisational approach and digital cinematography techniques to produce microbudget films that have hit a nerve with an audience that is, he says, “like him”. The innovations in this release, however, are important beyond the film itself. This post is created so that we can add the news as it happens and have a record of what the results of this initiative will be — a novelty or a genuine break with past distribution straight-jackets.

First, however, lets say that the distribution experiment is building on a film with strong appeal to its audience. Issues of privacy, intimacy, and commitment in a sexy film with an appealing cast will have enough of an appeal to generate a good level of interest and viewership. That audience is getting a thoroughly innovative experiement in film distribution, consistent with Swanberg’s interest in new technology and digital methods applied to film and video.

The distribution partner in this project is IFC Films, and the campaign behind the film looks more like something they would have put together. It is very smooth, very orchestrated, and has all the earmarks of being very effective. So the first thing we’ll do is frame the launch event — then we’ll look at what is leading up to it — and then we’ll leave room to see what happens later.

Distribution: The Launch

This film will premier at South-by-Southwest on Saturday, March 14. It will simultaneously open on the video on demand service provided by IFC. It is our understanding that it will have one-and-only-one screening at SXSW and that it’s subsequent visibility will only be on the IFC-VOD service. IFC is premiering four other films simultaneously with SXSW, but this is the title that is getting all the visibility.

Publicity: Pre-Launch

IFC made an announcement that attracted a great deal of attention at Sundance (follow the link to see the IndieWire report).

Agnes Varnum has a great analysis of the announcement, in response to a prompt from Ingrid Koop, which she posts on her blog, doc it out about a week later.

Subsequently, there was a press screening in New York City which was covered again by IndieWire, this time with a preview trailer embedded in the article.

Finally, there is a report (unverified rumor from a usually reliable source — however, this sentence will be corrected when it does not happened or expanded on when it does) that the release will be covered by the NY Times film critic, Manohla Dargis, arguably the most important film critic publishing today.

Publicity: Post-Launch

So let’s see what happens. We’ll edit this post to include developments following the premier screening and see how the story unfolds.

Top-Line Summary of the Project

1. no theatrical run

2. coordinated national release with festival premier

3. no payment reported to the festival for providing the launch platform

4. low advances typically paid for VOD licenses, filmmaker participation in VOD numbers

5. national visibility for the launch event

6. national availability on VOD from all major multi-system cable operators

7. first time review for a film launched in the digital/electronic media

8. no digital rights management agency fees

9. no sales or producer’s rep agency fees

10. no retail costs associated with internet or physical retail

So that looks like a pretty innovative program, right there. But it’s not the only one. We’ll have a recap of the SNAG Films, IndiePix, Cinema Guild distribution of The Least Of These illustrating another approach soon.