Transmedia storyteller Robert Pratten lectured at the University of Central Florida’s graduate film program last week while in town on vacation (thanks Robert for taking time to speak to us!). His experience in transmedia marketing is invaluable to the graduate film students who are required to direct and produce a feature-length film for their thesis project. I am one of those fortunate enough to have been admitted into the program and had the opportunity to sit in on Robert’s speed mentoring session where I gained valuable insights into how to use transmedia marketing to promote and distribute my films.
I’m currently in post-production on a feature-length documentary film about sex offenders called Scum of the Earth and in pre-production on an experimental essay film about fate, free will, and moral culpability titled A Matter of Choice.
Transmedia storytelling will be utilized to market and distribute both films. First, let’s look at the documentary.
Scum of the Earth was filmed over a two-year period at the Palace Mobile Home Park in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Palace is a transitional home to approximately 100 sex offenders who have recently been released from prison. Many of the residents served prison sentences of 10 years or more for child molestation. Others were convicted of such crimes as internet solicitation of minors, indecent exposure, aggravated sexual battery, and rape.
The film follows six offenders who land at the Palace upon release from prison because they cannot find housing that meets the housing restrictions placed on sex offenders. State law prevents sex offenders from living within 1000 feet of schools, playgrounds, bus stops and day care centers or other places where children congregate. Some additional local ordinances extend that restriction to 2500 feet which effectively bars sex offenders from living within the city limits. Miami is one such city in which sex offenders have virtually no place to live and thus end up moving elsewhere in the state.
Five of the six offenders molested children under the age of twelve. The sixth offender was caught masturbating on a webcam to a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl. The film delves briefly into each offenders’ past history, including their own childhood abuse and neglect histories. From there we follow them as they gain and lose employment, face eviction, become homeless, get arrested, attend therapy, suffer from untreated mental disorders, and face the legal challenges of probation.
The original plan was to film for a month, but after becoming involved with the residents, we quickly recognized the benefit of a longitudinal study that would do more than report on the current moment in time in these offenders’ lives.
To be able to track events over a six-month or even year period was possible given the low overhead and the willingness of the offenders to allow us into their lives for an extended period of time. So many monumental events kept occurring in their lives that it was difficult to end the project. That first month turned into six months, then into a year, and finally into two years at the end of which, among many other things, four had been rearrested, one became pregnant, and one died.
There were 75 offenders who volunteered to be photographed, interviewed and filmed. Most appear only briefly in the film during group meetings or while hanging out at the Palace. However, their roles will be expanded through opportunities inherent in transmedia storytelling.
The website will be home to many (20-40) two minute clips from interviews from individual offenders who were interviewed over the course of filming.
Documentary photographer (and co-producer of the film) Gary Monroe photographed each of the offenders in their rooms and translated their interviews into micro-histories (144 words each just to make it a challenge). Those photographs and stories will be posted on the website along with the two minute clips from their interviews.
The benefit of this approach will be multi-faceted. It will provide a perspective about the wide range of offenses in the population. It will also give a voice to many of these men and women who have been banished to the margins of society and who are begging to be heard.
This clearinghouse of stories and experiences will draw many different viewers to the site. Of course, there will be the voyeuristic who will find some perverse pleasure in hearing others talk about molesting children; that is unavoidable. Other groups will include other offenders and families of offenders, sexual abuse survivors, professionals who treat offenders, loved ones of children who have been sexually abused, incest victims, and hate groups that target sex offenders. Documentary photography and film fans will also be drawn to this highly controversial and provocative film.
Transmedia marketing will include:
I. A website that features:
1. the two-minute films, stories and photographs of the 75 additional offenders who are not in the film;
2. blogs from three of the major offenders in the film;
3. blogs from the management of the Palace;
4. postings from the program founder;
5. blogs from the therapist who works with the offenders;
6. blogs from leaders of support groups for offenders;
7. commentary from viewers will be allowed on most blogs;
8. links to professional research and researchers in the field of sexual offending;
9. uploads from visitors who can post their own stories for possible publication in book;
10. list of legislators to contact about reforming laws;
11. petition to sign to reform laws;
12. news streams with links to stories in the news related to sex offenses, legislation, treatment, etc.
13. festival screenings;
14. press and film reviews;
15. store to purchase dvds, books and merchandise;
II. Books for sale that come directly from this film project
1. Three of the offenders are writing their lifestories and will be publishing them through online publishing services;
2. Documentary photography project (art book) by Gary Monroe;
3. New book(s) that will be published from stories that viewers post;
4. Books for sale that are written by outside authors but pertain to the subject of offending (commission on sale of books through site);
IV. Film download or streaming for fee;
V. DVD deluxe set which includes dvd with extra scenes, behind the scenes, interviews with filmmakers, therapist, park managers, copy of the documentary photography book, copy of one, two or three of the offenders’ biographies; and compilation of stories from viewers to the site.
VI. Live Events
1. Local sex offenders get permits to protest march. Groups that lobby against offenders’ rights will be notified of the event so that they will attend as well (conflict!). Media coverage is almost guaranteed.
2. Speaking engagements/private screenings with Q & A in towns that show a lot of interest in the film.
3. Speaking engagements at colleges, universities, social service agencies, law enforcement agencies;
The core audience for this film will stem from participants in the project (100+) and their network of immediate family and close friends, the personal and professional network of the three filmmakers, therapist, program manager, the leading sex offender researcher in the country, local public defenders and defense attorneys, and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
Alliances are being established between the filmmakers and the featured offenders to national support groups for sex offenders. These groups have thousands of followers, many of whom have their own newsletters, local branches, talk radio programs, blogs, etc. Likewise, groups who protest against the rights of offenders will be sought out to provide an alternate viewpoint (which actually has more common ground that one might think at first in that all involved want the most dangerous offenders restricted and monitored).
From this group the target audience should expand to include social service providers, mental health professionals, Department of Corrections, college and university programs, public defenders, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the general public if the press can generate enough interest.
