#tom bernard

Tom Bernard finished undergrad at Berkeley, he holds an MBA from The Wharton School of Business, as well as a Masters in Taxation.He has spent over 3 decades in finance and has taught personal finance at the City College of San Francisco.Born and raised in California, Tom lives in San Francisco with his family and is very close to being a free-birder (as opposed to empty nester).When he’s not…

I love a local radio station... except the morning show, which I’ve always hated. Apparently he’s gotten worse which is so gross. So I’m boycotting now. 

Here is the letter I wrote: 

What I was doing part of yesterday: 

Future of film looks a lot like the past, for now, but maybe not for long

By David Bloom

Technology may provide more options for distributing and watching movies and other video content than ever, but for now, only a few film projects are likely to make sense for a day-and-date release in theatrical and VODchannels, said Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, at a West Hollywood conference today. 

“It’s the best time it’s ever been for someone who’s made a movie,” said Bernard, now in his 20th year running the speciality arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “There’s somewhere you can play your movie.” 

But Bernard, one of the most prominent and thriving survivors of the up-and-down specialty film business, remains a big believer in traditional “windowing” across distribution platforms, starting with the traditional theatrical release. 

“‘Margin Call’ (an early VOD release) left a lot of money on the table,” Bernard said. “It left a lot of awards on the table. (SPC’s) “Midnight in Paris” stayed in theaters for eight months and made almost $60 million. I don’t think it could have done that if it opened on VOD at the same time it opened in theaters.” 

But that doesn’t mean Bernard and SPC aren’t trying new marketing tricks, particularly as traditional newspaper movie advertising collapses in reach and effectiveness. 

With “Searching for Sugar Man,” which this week was named an Oscar finalist for Best Documentary Feature, it opened poorly in August, forcing Bernard and his colleagues to pivot to a different marketing approach.

The film is about a long-lost 1960s Detroit musician named Rodriguezwhose one album stiffed in the United States but improbably became an inspiration and national hit for anti-apartheid activists in South Africa. So SPC reached out to musicians such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Detroit native Kid Rock, who all championed the film on Twitter and beyond. 

Sharing copies of the film also paid off with “60 Minutes,” which ran its own story about Rodriguez, and David Letterman, who augmented his house band with a 20-piece orchestra for Rodriguez’ performance on the late-night show, Bernard said. Four months later, the film remains in theaters. 

For small guys, there are new ways to make at least some money. One indie filmmaker in the audience said he even turns his trailers into moneymakers, from revenue sharing based on views of the trailers on Google’s YouTubesite. His posted trailers generate $600 a month for what are essentially ads. 

Conference sponsor Bit Torrent, long the bane of Hollywood anti-piracy warriors, is now billing itself as a friend to film marketers. Matt Mason, the company’s executive director of marketing, presented case studies for two documentaries, Stacy Peralta’s “Bones Brigade: An Autobiography” andVikram Gandhi’s “Kumare.”  

In each case, the company distributed digital collections of trailers and other marketing material across Bit Torrent sites across the world, significantly increasing views of the marketing material and, importantly, click-throughs to ticket-sales sites, Mason said. 

Such options will become increasingly important in the specialty film business, which has long depended on newspaper film critics and display advertising. 

“My biggest fear is the information system, which is newspapers, is going to disappear,” Bernard said. “We have to reinvent how you get your movie into zeitgeist.”

That includes new approaches such as buying video advertising on cable interconnect systems, Bernard said. That advertising allows marketers to target tightly on the geographic area closest to an art-house theater. 

“We can buy (ad time) on “The Daily Show” just in Manhattan. And it’s cheap,” Bernard said. “We don’t have to buy the whole country.”

Though the conference was called the Future of Film Summit, however, it was clear that many speakers aren’t letting go any time soon of the approaches that have long been lucrative, even as the viewing options and delivery and marketing platforms proliferate.

“We believe in the theatrical experience,” said Tucker Tooley, president ofRelativity Media. “We continue to believe that’s the way to go.” 

Among the challenges: getting financing. For now, project budgets are likely to be quite small, though that may ease as more well-made films such as “Arbitrage” and “Margin Call” are released initially at least partly on VOD. 

“Traditional forms of financing that kind of content will evolve,” said David Shaheen, managing director for J.P. Morgan Chase who heads the bank’s entertainment industry group. “It wasn’t all that long ago that banks wouldn’t finance foreign pre-sales.” 

But smarter marketing and new release strategies like will be more and more important as the Baby Boomers who have long filled specialty film screenings age out.

“All I know is we’re screwed when the Baby Boomers die out,” Bernard said. “There is a smarter audience coming up but it’s not like the Baby Boomers, who were brought up on film school.”

What I was doing part of yesterday: 

Future of film looks a lot like the past, for now, but maybe not for long

By David Bloom

Technology may provide more options for distributing and watching movies and other video content than ever, but for now, only a few film projects are likely to make sense for a day-and-date release in theatrical and VOD channels, said Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, at a West Hollywood conference today. 

“It’s the best time it’s ever been for someone who’s made a movie,” said Bernard, now in his 20th year running the speciality arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “There’s somewhere you can play your movie.” 

But Bernard, one of the most prominent and thriving survivors of the up-and-down specialty film business, remains a big believer in traditional “windowing” across distribution platforms, starting with the traditional theatrical release. 

“‘Margin Call’ (an early VOD release) left a lot of money on the table,” Bernard said. “It left a lot of awards on the table. (SPC’s) “Midnight in Paris” stayed in theaters for eight months and made almost $60 million. I don’t think it could have done that if it opened on VOD at the same time it opened in theaters.” 

But that doesn’t mean Bernard and SPC aren’t trying new marketing tricks, particularly as traditional newspaper movie advertising collapses in reach and effectiveness. 

With “Searching for Sugar Man,” which this week was named an Oscar finalist for Best Documentary Feature, it opened poorly in August, forcing Bernard and his colleagues to pivot to a different marketing approach.

The film is about a long-lost 1960s Detroit musician named Rodriguez whose one album stiffed in the United States but improbably became an inspiration and national hit for anti-apartheid activists in South Africa. So SPC reached out to musicians such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Detroit native Kid Rock, who all championed the film on Twitter and beyond. 

Sharing copies of the film also paid off with “60 Minutes,” which ran its own story about Rodriguez, and David Letterman, who augmented his house band with a 20-piece orchestra for Rodriguez’ performance on the late-night show, Bernard said. Four months later, the film remains in theaters. 

For small guys, there are new ways to make at least some money. One indie filmmaker in the audience said he even turns his trailers into moneymakers, from revenue sharing based on views of the trailers on Google’s YouTube site. His posted trailers generate $600 a month for what are essentially ads. 

Conference sponsor Bit Torrent, long the bane of Hollywood anti-piracy warriors, is now billing itself as a friend to film marketers. Matt Mason, the company’s executive director of marketing, presented case studies for two documentaries, Stacy Peralta’s “Bones Brigade: An Autobiography” and Vikram Gandhi’s “Kumare.”  

In each case, the company distributed digital collections of trailers and other marketing material across Bit Torrent sites across the world, significantly increasing views of the marketing material and, importantly, click-throughs to ticket-sales sites, Mason said. 

Such options will become increasingly important in the specialty film business, which has long depended on newspaper film critics and display advertising. 

“My biggest fear is the information system, which is newspapers, is going to disappear,” Bernard said. “We have to reinvent how you get your movie into zeitgeist.”

That includes new approaches such as buying video advertising on cable interconnect systems, Bernard said. That advertising allows marketers to target tightly on the geographic area closest to an art-house theater. 

“We can buy (ad time) on “The Daily Show” just in Manhattan. And it’s cheap,” Bernard said. “We don’t have to buy the whole country.”

Though the conference was called the Future of Film Summit, however, it was clear that many speakers aren’t letting go any time soon of the approaches that have long been lucrative, even as the viewing options and delivery and marketing platforms proliferate.

“We believe in the theatrical experience,” said Tucker Tooley, president of Relativity Media. “We continue to believe that’s the way to go.” 

Among the challenges: getting financing. For now, project budgets are likely to be quite small, though that may ease as more well-made films such as “Arbitrage” and “Margin Call” are released initially at least partly on VOD. 

“Traditional forms of financing that kind of content will evolve,” said David Shaheen, managing director for J.P. Morgan Chase who heads the bank’s entertainment industry group. “It wasn’t all that long ago that banks wouldn’t finance foreign pre-sales.” 

But smarter marketing and new release strategies like will be more and more important as the Baby Boomers who have long filled specialty film screenings age out.

“All I know is we’re screwed when the Baby Boomers die out,” Bernard said. “There is a smarter audience coming up but it’s not like the Baby Boomers, who were brought up on film school.”