Rian Johnson sold LOOPER the same way we’ve sold all of our TV shows and pilots…using great tape to generate excitement.
Clip-O-Mania
If you haven’t seen it already, Rian released the “clip-o-matic” tape he put together to help generate interest in his latest box-office hit LOOPER starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon- Levitt.
Have a peek:
Talk about a super-cool behind the scenes look at the birth of a film.
A Tried and True Technique
Clip reels like these are created for every kind of project you can imagine, and the good ones really do open doors.
In fact, a tape much like this helped us get our first agent in Hollywood many years ago (keep an eye out for it in a future post, I’ll dig it up.)
Pitch tapes (or clip-o-matics if you prefer) helped us sell every TV show we’ve ever made, including CAGED which just recently aired on MTV.
We even had a short clip reel in the early stages of our film Dying to do Letterman to show people it would actually be funny, and not just a depressing movie about the dreaded “C” word.
Great Tape is a Great Tool
When trying to get your vision across to a roomful of executives, no matter if it’s a documentary series, reality TV show, or, as Rian proves, a feature film, it’s tough to beat a great pitch reel that gives a sense of the final project’s potential.
Can You Make Great Tape?
If you’ve been around this blog, you know we’re all about the hands-on-producing approach to filmmaking: the ability to pick up a camera, get behind an edit bay, and actually make something, start to finish, on your own.
Rian’s clip-o-matic is AWESOME — a terrific piece of tape clearly backed up by his artistry and vision. Most importantly, it showed people exactly the kind of movie Mr. Johnson was trying to make.
But the LOOPER clip-o-matic is a piece of tape that many of you could put together on your own, right?
It’s wonderful, but technically, you could make something similar for your script or project, too. If you couldn’t do all the work yourself, surely you have a few talented friends who could help, right?
Sure, you might not have Joseph Gordon-Levitt to do the voice over, but you could just as easily have Brad Pitt star in your tape, too :-)
And you could read our post Steal This Editing Secret to Edit Film and Video Like a Pro to give yourself a head start. (Or get our newsletter for a bunch of tips to get you going.)
Another Tool to Help You Succeed in Hollywood
Many of you have asked how to make the leap from short films to features. Here’s yet another way to give yourself and your project a better chance of success.
So once you have your great script, no more excuses — give yourself an extra edge by making some great tape.
And if you have a pitch reel for unscripted television…don’t forget, we want to see it.
Kudos to Rian Johnson, on twitter as @rcjohnso for being cool enough to share his Looper clip-o-matic.
And you can follow us @jokeandbiagio or hit up our Facebook page.