Sharp
Independent film maker uses
Sharp projector as theater delivery vehicle
Mau Mau Sex Sex distribution first ever
| We all know Star Wars Episode One was the first major motion picture to be distributed to theaters in digital form. But did you know that the first movie distributed to theaters on DVD was a documentary called Mau Mau Sex Sex? And have you ever wondered how today's smaller digital projectors would perform in a theater environment that has been dominated for years by 35mm equipment? Ted Bonnitt, creator of Mau Mau, says he wondered that himself as he brought his completed film to theaters, and as he turned to Sharp projectors to make that possible. Five years in the making Bonnitt, a marketing consultant who does radio campaigns for motion pictures, decided to make the feature back in 1995. He had long been searching for a subject for an independent film, then got the idea to make a movie about two of the most successful independent filmmakers ever: Dan Sonney and David Friedman. During the 1940s, '50s and '60s Sonny and Friedman produced dozens of B-level adult exploitation films, including such titles as Goldilocks and the Three Bares and Blood Feast. Relatively mild by today's standards, these films pushed the envelope during their times, shocking many, amusing some and earning their producers a very good living. Mau Mau is essentially a reminiscence by these two old men, interspersed with clips from their films and those of Sonney's father, who was one of the founders of the American exploitation film industry. "It's a friendly portrait," says Bonnitt, "of two all-American hustlers who exploited the repressed desires of a society and laughed all the way to the bank. Though you do get a look at 50 or 60 years of Hollywood history that's little known, essentially it's a funny look back at two guys who lived life pretty well and were outrageous in the process." Bonnitt decided early on to create his footage in digital video. "I moved out to California with the intention of making movies. I spent a couple of years identifying a story, but realized it would take a $500,000 budget to make it on film. I just didn't have that much money to lose." When DV camcorders came out, Bonnitt was ecstatic. "A lot of people discounted them, saying 'it's a consumer camera, you can't do this,' and they'd throw numbers at you saying they don't add up to decent image quality. But that had nothing to do with the threshold an audience would accept. That was the great unknown, and that was the gamble I took. And people were just amazed at the quality we got." With four years of planning behind him, Bonnitt shot his interviews in 3 months, then edited the piece on a Macintosh G3 with Final Cut Pro software, completing it at the beginning of 2000. Premiering the piece that April at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and then the Hollywood Egyptian Theater, he managed to gather great reviews and a good deal of publicity-but no viable offers for commercial distribution. "I had a couple of meetings with distributors and realized that they were just expecting me to give it to them, because that's the only way it's done." Independent distribution, says Bonnitt, is set up for young filmmakers trying to break into the business, who aren't expecting anything more than recognition. "I had a lot of marketing experience and I thought, I'm not going to give it away. I also felt that if they didn't have any investment in it, then there's not going to be any incentive to market it properly." At that point Bonnitt had to make a decision. Would he distribute his movie himself? And if so, how? Mau Mau is friendly look back at some little-known movie history Shocking quality The distributors Bonnitt met told him he would have to convert Mau Mau to film, since most commercial theaters have only 16mm and 35mm projectors. "I had seen several DV movies that had been transferred to film, and most of them looked terrible. One of the things I liked about the camcorder and the DV was that it didn't have the stark Betacam look. It had sort of an intermediate look between video and film if you lit it right." So why not keep this wonderful quality in its native format? For his first commercial release, Bonnitt found three theaters in New York with video projectors, and they agreed to book the piece. Taking advantage of a certain fondness for the two old filmmakers by the New York critics, he was able to gain a great deal of press attention, which led to several very good reviews, making bookings in theaters much easier. So Bonnitt started making calls to independent and art houses across the country, but most of them didn't have video. "They wanted to book it," he says, "but they couldn't afford to rent the gear." "I went to the Consumer Electronics Show two years ago and I stumbled on the Sharp P20. It was just glowing, beckoning. So I went over and asked, 'what is this thing?' What really thrilled me, beyond the picture quality, was that it had a handle. I would be able to ship it to the theaters." "Back in LA, Jim Hull from Sharp came down to the Egyptian theater, where we tested it with Mau Mau on Betacam, DVcam and DVD. I had two projectionists from two of the best houses in Hollywood, who, as you would imagine, looked down their noses at video. But even the projectionists said, 'fine, this is fine.' We were on a 20 or 25' screen with maybe a 60 or 70' throw. The Betacam and the DVcam looked spectacular. With the DVD, you would see some degradation, but only in the high-action scenes. Because of the compression, there was some very minor pixilation that I don't think a layman would care about or notice." Bonnitt decided to distribute Mau Mau on DVD, and Sharp agreed to lend him two XG-P20 projectors on an indefinite basis. He began shipping a projector to those theaters that did not already have video. "In hindsight I should have just roadshowed the Sharp and taken it to every venue," he says. The quality of the theaters' own projectors varied from "excellent to hideous." LCD and indie filmmakers Mau Mau had a successful theatrical run, playing in over 24 cities in six countries. What was crucial to Bonnitt was the publicity he gathered from the theatrical release and the outstanding reviews he can now use to drive video sales. Though he has held on to his day job, he continues to market the movie and is working to put it in video stores. I asked Bonnitt if DVD and digital LCD projectors will have an important place in independent filmmaking. "Absolutely. This is the way the future is going, and DVD movie theaters are popping up everywhere...Very few people realize that there are two definite leagues of quality in this market. The big DLP projectors, which are going into theaters at $100,000 each, have nothing to do with what the smaller independent houses will buy. These people are trying to stay competitive against that technology and that sort of marketing power. And they're the ones that are starting to say, 'I'm going to buy a video projector. It looks great on my screen and I can now compete with live events, satellite broadcasts and independent festivals.'" Would Bonnitt go through the experience again? Yes, though he's learned enough about the distribution business that he thinks he could get a good contract, and he would prefer to go that way. "On the other hand, if I was just out of film school and really wanted to commit to a full-time career just making these kind of movies, the sky's the limit. And that is where it's going. You'll see it at Sundance." |
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