The Controversial MMFF
I rarely watch TV nowadays because I’m more often in the office than at home. Last night though, I got a glimpse of the news in ABS-CBN and heard about the rants of movie producers regarding the controversial rules on the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
Frankly speaking, I the producers are just sour-graping because their movie was not able to earn as much as they expected it to. And what better way to escape the guilt feeling than blame it on the the MMFF authorities for making such "commercialized" rules.
Looking at it in an objective way, the movie industry, in whatever way you look at it, is still a business. And as such, one of the main objective, if not the primary objective of that business is to earn money. Why else would any producers invest on it if they do not plan to profit out of it?
There are directors, writters, artists, and other people behind the production of any movie, whose main objective is for people to appreciate their art/craft/work. The more people watching the movie, the more appreciation they will get. The other upside to it is the more profit the producers will make out of the movie.
But if the movie is not patronized by the public, the only reason is that it does not appeal to the audience. From an artist’s perspective, the movie is not a good artwork because it did not connect to the target market. From a business standpoint, the movie is not a good product because the target market did not buy it.
Remember, the target market of any movie is the public who goes to the movie houses to buy the ticket, not the movie critics - whose written criticism are sometimes more "artistic" than the movie itself for average person to understand -, nor judges of any award giving bodies - whose judgement are sometimes based on their personal preferences/taste in art.
Endpoint, you do not need any political influence or an award to make your target market watch your movie. An award is just an icing on the cake of a box office hit. To sell your movie, what you need, aside from a good product, is good marketing strategy. They don’t call movie trailers a "teaser" for nothing. A good case in point - Blair Witch Project. You’d be surprised at how much a good promotion can do to your product. Just look at Manny Pacquiao.
