Here is how Valley filmmaker Matt Borlenghi spent one weekend promoting “Jack,” his short film about an actor turned serial killer. He went from Los Angeles to Arkansas to show “Jack” at a film festival there, then traveled on to another festival in North Carolina before making the return trip to L.A. “It says something when you make the effort and be there to back your project,” Borlenghi said. In March, Borlenghi didn’t need to travel nearly as far as “Jack” was shown at the San Fernando Valley International Film Festival in North Hollywood. But in April “Jack” hits the road again when the 13-minute short is part of the Bare Bones festival in Oklahoma. Made specifically for the festival circuit, “Jack” has already earned Borlenghi awards from the Short Film Festival of Los Angeles and the Eureka Springs Digital Festival. The benefits of attending the festivals is the immediate feedback to his work, said Borlenghi, whose television credits include “All My Children” and “The Jeff Foxworthy Show” and roles in the feature films “Alpha Dog” and “Kate’s Addiction.” When a filmmaker is trying to get noticed or make a statement, there is no better way to do that than hitting the festival circuit, meeting other filmmakers and seeing how an audience reacts, Borlenghi said. The big name festivals such as Sundance in Park City, Utah are in Borlenghi’s opinion no longer about the films but just a big party for the A-listers and studio execs. “These smaller festivals are about trying to scratch your way to the surface,” Borlenghi said. Having always been involved in the creative side of the entertainment business, Borlenghi said it was a “rude awakening” when he started writing the checks for the self-financed film. Producing partner Glenn Garland handles the marketing and also designed the poster and title sequence. Christopher Duddy, another of the producers, doubled as the cinematographer. Borlenghi’s brother Larry did the film’s still photography and music. Shot on location in Palmdale and Lancaster, “Jack” is about an actor tormented by his fame who snaps and then uses his fame and the trust that people put in him to become a serial killer. Borlenghi describes the film as dark but with funny moments and pictures “Jack” making a good anthology television series. The film shown in North Hollywood and other festivals is not the first cut of “Jack.” Once Borlenghi completed the film and didn’t get into as many festivals as he hoped, he stepped back and looked at his work more objectively. Re-editing the film resulted in dropping opening scenes. “I cut three or four minutes from the film but it works much better,” Borlenghi said. Future of Film Marketing How promoting and marketing independent films will evolve was the topic of a panel that included David Straus, founder and CEO of Withoutabox in Studio City, at the day-long Future of Film in Beverly Hills on March 21. Straus addressed the panel’s subhead “Who Will Be the MySpace for Film Promotion?” with the response there will be no single site but instead multiple sites will connect filmmakers with distributors, other filmmakers and their fan base. Withoutabox has been around for seven years and “democratizes” the distribution and promotion of independent films through access to festivals, distributors and viewers, Straus said. The site’s database contains nearly 3,000 film festivals, highlights when submissions are being accepted and gives the means for electronic applications. This can boost submission numbers for a festival, eliminates having to type in information from paper applications, and has entry fees collected electronically. Withoutabox does collect a commission for each submission through its system. In the Audience section of the site, film goers can find out where and when independent films are playing in their area, can submit reviews, rank aspects of story and craft, and create their own blog to make and receive recommendations on films. “We build the tools so you can take our social networking software and put it on a website and aggregate your fan base,” Straus said. “It isn’t about a filmmaker having to re-invent the wheel.” Reaching for an Urban Audience Navigating the waters of new distribution methods is something that Valley native Jason Brooks finds himself doing as he makes documentaries under the brand name Street Anarchy. Koch Entertainment in New York signed Brooks and JayGee Entertainment to a 15-picture distribution deal for the direct-to-DVD market. The first title for Koch, “Gangbangin’ Fo’ Life Vol. 2,” debuts April 10 followed by the streetbike-themed “Stunt or Die” in June. While the Koch deal brings major distribution, it comes at a time when retail outlets that carried Brooks’s self-distributed titles are folding – such as Tower Records and Suncoast Video – and the remaining big box stores won’t carry his edgy product that appeals to young males. “You have to toe the line of edgy and acceptable for the mainstream stores because that is where the money comes from,” the 31-year-old Brooks said. Clips from his “Gangbangin’ Fo’ Life” videos drew a combined 500,000 views at Youtube.com. Sales of “Gangbangin Fo’ Life Vol. 1” hit 15,000 units over 60 days, a number that helped seal the deal with Koch. The videos are not meant to glamorize the life of gang members but neither are they exploitative. Brooks said he initially wanted to engage the members with serious questions about the neighborhoods they live in but they were not receptive and instead played up what their lives are like. To appeal to his target audience, Brooks said he needed to include material such as the gang members showing off weapons or demonstrating how to hotwire a car. A Valley native who went to Birmingham High School and later took marketing and business courses at Pierce College and Santa Monica College, Brooks sees a future of getting around retailers by getting his work distributed perhaps through on-demand video or on mobile devices. “I have to switch it up and figure out the new mediums of the Internet and file sharing sites,” Brooks said. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected].