FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tropfest NZ is thrilled to announce that renowned American digital film marketer Sheri Candler will speak at Tropfest Roughcut in Auckland on 4 September 2014.

A long-time marketing professional, Sheri Candler identified social media as a potential marketing tool when it was in its very infancy. She began to explore how creators and artists could utilize this new development to sell their own works, and soon gravitated to the film industry.

“A massive paradigm shift is occurring in the global film industry and Sheri Candler has led the charge as social media and the internet have altered the face of movie marketing and distribution forever,” said TAFT CEO Suzanne Porter.

Sheri Candler helps independent filmmakers navigate the new paradigm and profit from it. She works as an independent marketing and publicity consultant and as director of digital marketing strategy for The Film Collaborative (TFC) based in Los Angeles. TFC provides an educational resource for independent filmmakers, and acts as a fiscal sponsor and a non-profit film sales and distribution company.

One of the significant changes that have come about is that the traditional gate keepers of film revenue, such as exhibitors, sales agents and distributors are losing their stranglehold. For the independent filmmaker particularly, this is good news as it means some or a greater percentage of revenue flows back to them rather than to the middlemen.

In the new paradigm, however, Ms Candler believes there is something profound occurring that independent filmmakers have to consider.

“The new social tools are changing the way work is being made, the formats that can be made,” Candler says. “It’s not just about building up a big Twitter following or still looking for finance from other people. A lot of it has to do just as much with your own creativity as it does with marketing and distribution.”

Ms Candler will speak with other yet-to-be-announced speakers at Tropfest NZ Roughcut, an educational symposium for emerging filmmakers, at Auckland’s Q Theatre on 4 September 2014 at 6PM. She will be available earlier in the day to conduct one-on-one, half-hour sessions with independent filmmakers, seeking advice for their projects.

After the official presentations from 6 – 8PM, Tropfest NZ will screen a 50-minute ‘Taste of Tropfest’ selection of the best of New Zealand and International Tropfest short films of recent years. This will be followed by a 30-minute networking opportunity with refreshments.

Event Details:
WHEN: Thursday 4 September 2014
TIME: Half-hour consultations with Sheri Candler 9AM – 4PM, Roughcut Film Symposium 6 – 8PM, Taste of Tropfest 8 – 9PM, Drinks & canapés (included in ticket price) 9 – 9:30PM
WHERE: Q Theatre, 305 Queen Street, Auckland
TICKETS: Roughcut - $30 per Roughcut ticket ($25 early bird), on sale 25 July thru Q Theatre www.qtheatre.co.nz, One-on-One Consultations - $50pp

For more information, please contact:

Tui Ruwhiu
+64 21 659 950
tui@wavecomms.co.nz
OR
Lisa McMullan
+64 275 13 2223
lisa@taft.co.nz

 
Sheri Candler Profile
Sheri Candler directs digital marketing strategy for The Film Collaborative (TFC), promoting their work as an educational resource for independent filmmakers, a fiscal sponsor and a nonprofit film sales and distribution company. She also consults with TFC members on using social media to build audiences so that their distribution efforts will be successful as well as working directly with productions to help gather an audience. Film represented by The Film Collaborative include award winning documentaries "The Invisible War" (Oscar nominated 2013), "I Am Divine," "Cesar's Last Fast" and "Valentine Road;" and narrative films "Appropriate Behavior," "Boy Meets Girl," "Red Hook Summer," and "Weekend."

She is the co-author of two books of case studies for filmmakers called "Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul" and “Selling Your Film Outside the US” which chronicle the different paths filmmakers are taking to bring their films to audiences around the world.
She regularly writes, speaks and teaches creators about using social media and has presented at industry events including American Film Market, Directors Guild of American East, National Screen Institute of Canada, Binger Film Lab Amsterdam, and was the keynote speaker at the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) annual meeting & Screen Directors Guild of Ireland annual meeting.

She can be reached on her own website www.shericandler.com, The Film Collaborative’s website www.thefilmcollaborative.org, Twitter: @shericandler, Facebook: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity, & her Google+ community http://bit.ly/VzROCj.

About Roughcut
Tropfest Roughcut was launched in Australia in 2012 by Tropfest founder John Polson as a way of nurturing budding and experienced filmmakers through the experiences of others in the industry.

In New Zealand, Roughcut launched together with the inaugural Tropfest NZ Short Film Festival competition in 2013.

The presenters for the previous Tropfest NZ Roughcut were:

Craig Hall
Craig has received critical acclaim for his performances in film, theatre and television nationally and internationally. His recent TV work includes: A Place to Call Home, Outrageous Fortune, East Of Everything, Underbelly: Razor, Tricky Business, Rake and the telemovie Bloodlines, in which he won the 2011 AFTA for Best Supporting Actor. He has also been seen in the Australian mini-series Howzat! as Gavin Warner.

Jason van Genderen
An unorthodox filmmaker is probably the best way to describe Australian born Jason. His first works pioneered pocket filmmaking as he experimented with mobile phones and pocket cameras to create stories that stood comfortably alongside big-budget short films on the international stage. Attracting numerous awards for his films, Jason has become a frequent visitor to the stages of Tropfest (winning Tropfest NY in 2006 and Tropfest AUS in 2008) Aspen Shortsfest, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and San Francisco International Short Film Festival, to name but a few. Jason has presented numerous pocket filmmaking workshops across Australia and has been a speaker at Tropfest Roughcut Australia.

Heather O'Leary
Heather has a diploma in Advanced Digital Filmmaking from YOOBEE School of Design and as well as currently working full time in commercial videography and photography she is also the founder, Director, DOP, VFX and Video Editor at Optic Nova Studios in Christchurch. Heather’s name and work received nationwide media attention in 2012 when she successfully crowd funded enough money to cover the costs of her documentary Road to Ruin. Her company, Optic Nova Studios has become known for their self-designed film equipment which they design and build themselves at a tenth of the cost of professional gear.

Tim Riley
Tim Riley is a partner at Dominion Law – New Zealand’s only multi-partner specialist entertainment law firm. He acts for a range of clients across the film, television, music, theatre, and online entertainment industries. Tim has acted as lead production counsel on a number of short and feature films; including the Magnolia financed Ant Timpson films ABCS OF DEATH 1 and 2 (each film involving legal relationships with 26 different filmmakers in dozens of different countries).  On ABCS OF DEATH 2, he is also an associate producer. Recently Tim made the jump to full producer status on KID LAZER, a NZ/Canada co-production.
Whetu Fala
Whetu has a background as an actor, editor, writer, director and producer for short drama, television, web content creation and feature films and is a co-creator of Fale Matariki and a founding member of Nga Aho Whakaari. Her current role as Short Film Manager and the NZ Film Commission means she works closely with filmmakers and is an expert on creative talent development and funding opportunities.

Briar Grace-Smith
Briar was a development executive at the New Zealand Film commission, and is a writer of plays, films, television and short fiction. She has worked as a script consultant for many years. Her first screenplay, The Strength of Water, premiered in 2009. Her second feature, horror comedy Fresh Meat, premiered in New Zealand in 2012 and screened in the Midnight section of the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

About Tropfest
Tropfest began in Sydney 22 years ago when director John Polson showed a six-minute film he made for under $100 at his local café (‘The Tropicana’) in Sydney for 200 friends and family. Today the free Australian event is attended annually by a live audience of around 150,000 film-lovers and hundreds of thousands more watching via its live national TV broadcast and other platforms.

In the past two decades, Tropfest has become recognised as one of the world's most exciting launchpads for emerging filmmakers. Tropfest is also known for securing the support of some of the biggest names in the international film community including Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush, Liev Schreiber and Tobey Maguire. Tropfest launched last year in New Zealand, Arabia and in the USA with Tropfest Las Vegas and Tropfest New York.

The Tropfest YouTube Channel. Past Finalist films can be viewed at Tropfest’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/tropfest. The channel has more than 50,000 subscribers and the films have been viewed over than 25 million times.

The first Tropfest NZ event was held in 2012. In 2013 the Tropfest NZ competition began and was attended by 8,000 people. The winner was a short film called ‘Cappuccino Tango’, directed by Taranaki local Dave Smith. An estimated 8,000 audience turned out in February 2014 to see director Andrew Cooper declared the Tropfest NZ 2014 winner for his short film ‘Help’.

For 2015, Tropfest NZ has added $10,000 in cash to the best film prize of a return trip to meet film executives in Los Angeles, including attendance at the US’s largest industry gathering, the American Film Market.

TROPFEST NZ – The world’s largest short film festival, now in New Zealand – Saturday 14 February 2015, TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth, Taranaki

www.tropfest.co.nz  www.facebook.com/tropfestnz