K E N T M A T S U O K A
K E N T M A T S U O K A
The Benefits of a FAM Tour
A “FAM” or “Familiarization” Tour is a little known tool in the economic development and tourism industry to introduce potential influencers and decision makers to what a region has to offer.
It is commonly used by the tourism industry to invite travel agents or journalists to familiarize them with properties or attractions they offer so that they have first hand knowledge and can speak from personal experience about what the region offers.
With the growth of film tourism and the understanding of the positive economic benefit that a film production can bring to a region, more and more film commissions have been using FAM Tours to introduce film producers to their regions.
Two questions film commissions frequently ask themselves are: “does it work?” and “who do I invite?” A FAM Tour can be a significant line item for a smaller film commission or involve calling in favors with various community stakeholders that may or may not show verifiable gains quick enough to justify the expense to the bean counters holding the purse strings.
To answer the first question, yes...but if you have a look easily replicated somewhere else, don’t offer any incentives, or don’t have any significant infrastructure, you’re going to have to figure out what benefits you can offer to make your region more attractive, perhaps you have something unique no one else has? If faced with the above, the second question regarding the people you invite is much more important as you want someone who will go back and tell their friends and associates about you. Just be warned that you should also prepare your supervisors and community partners that it won’t be an immediate response and one that might take several years to nurture.
What is key for film industry FAM tours isn’t to focus on the picture postcard locations you sell the tourists, but to offer the most unique and widest diversity of locations you can offer from gritty back streets to government or military installations that aren’t normally accessible to the general public. Think of the movies that you would love to attract, and imagine where they could film those scenes, including the big fight scene or the clandestine meeting in the back alley.
Try not to show locations that can be cheated in Los Angeles or New York, but something that is unique to your region. Just as a local producer wouldn’t spend all the money to travel to Los Angeles to shoot a scene that could easily be shot in your backyard, we wouldn’t either. If there’s a location that a hotel sponsoring the trip owns or a local politician that wants to show in exchange for signing off on the trip, make sure your invitees know what’s going on, and minimize the time spent showing it. If it’s an hour out of the way and impossible to support logistically, try to explain to the patron the bigger picture of the need to “hook” the attendees on locations worth coming all the way to your region and that the time you have to sell them is limited enough already.
An understanding of basic film production is important since showing busy tourist attractions that can’t be controlled does more harm than good, while lesser known or privately owned properties that offer greater freedom for complicated camera movements, control of traffic around the location, and convenient parking for trucks and cast trailers are great. Inviting some of your more experienced production service companies to participate is generally a good idea as they can give a better idea of resources available and speak from experience about specific logistical consideration with individual locations and the permitting process from their point of view.
To answer the second question, “who to invite”, that’s a little more complicated. Who’s going to give you the biggest bang for your buck?
Ideally, the best invitee would be a senior studio executive who has the ability to green light a project, but they rarely have the time to go out on an exploratory expedition for some future project not even pitched yet and won’t want to spend all day driving around in a van looking at random locations. Second, unless they are personally invested in the region, they’re less likely to share the information about the region with producers working on competing projects or at different studios so the scope of your efforts will be severely limited.
As with the studio executives, directors, may look good for promotional purposes but probably not the best choice unless you have specific intel that they are actively working on a project that you know for a fact that your region is perfect for, and can taylor a tour specifically for locations they’re looking for. Otherwise they will be unwilling to spend hours driving around looking at irrelevant locations and will be unlikely to share their experiences with other film makers.
Next, you have writers, producers, production designers, location managers, and tax accountants. All of whom have a say in the creative and logistical feasibility of various regions. Now this list of people is significantly larger than the above two, and thus much more difficult to determine who actually has the ear of the above.
Writers might sound like a logical choice as they could write in your region and specific locations that they’ve experienced into scripts they are working on, but that requires their actually selling the script, and that the studio producing the story to not change the location for somewhere cheaper or easier to film. Some writers have a background in production and have a better understanding of what makes for a realistic filming location, however most will just compromise on the location for incentives just to get their property off the ground.
Producers can a great choice if you can get them, they understand both the creative and the logistical needs of the production, and can help drive the production in a specific direction. Try and concentrate on creative producers and UPMs as opposed to executive and financing producers who aren’t as involved in the creative decisions.
Next on the list, three below the line positions are your best bet in availability, and are the above turn to advise them of appropriate locations for the story. They are the Production Designers, Location Managers, and believe it or not, Accountants.
Production Designers and Location Managers are great choices as they are the primary creative influencers regarding the look of a film, can look beyond the blank canvas of a location and see it for what it can be, take lots of photos, and keep them on file should a project come up that your region might work for.
Accountants have recently been added to the list now due to the predominance of tax incentives, but they’ll want a tailored trip that involves meeting with your tax specialists to discuss the particularities of the incentives offered, as well as filing and certification protocol. They’ll also want to know the stability of the currency, availability and experience of local crew, availability of hotel rooms, and ability of and restrictions in regards to money transfers.
If touting a new incentive, a trip for some international tax accountants and advisors might be a good idea. Addressing these questions with concrete answers is also key for the producers and location managers so they can take back the bullet points to the studio accountants, but doesn’t necessarily need to be quite as in-depth as bringing in your tax specialists to address specific nuances.
Some of the best FAM tours I’ve been on have included a mixed group of below the line professionals representing different jobs and areas, and we were able to discuss what we were looking at and why. One particular trip included a writer, production managers, and location managers from New York and Los Angeles. We each asked different questions depending on various perceived needs and regional differences that helped the rest of us better understand how better to sell the region to our respective peers.
One might assume that the best people to invite are those with the fattest resumes and longest experience but that might not necessarily be the best choice. For international locations, a professional with primarily television experience doesn’t generally get the opportunity to travel outside the studio zone but is a valuable contact if you're inside their zone, while a someone with 30+ years experience probably doesn’t feel the need to promote themselves and share their experience with others.
Ignoring the strength of social media today would be a mistake if you wanted to get the biggest bang out of your promotional dollar. The invitees I’d focus on are the mid-level, up-and-coming professionals on the forefront of the changes in the industry with significant social media presence. These are the guys who will probably tweet and instagram juicy teaser shots during the trip, post images to their Facebook and LinkedIn on their return, and submit images to their guild magazines and volunteer quotes about the region to the trades. They better understand personal branding and make an effort to actively promote you through their own experiences.
Be sure to provide a reliable "mifi" type mobile wireless hotspot in the van so your participates can get online and update in between locations, especially on international trips where they may be roaming with expensive and limited bandwidth.
Round out the group with an industry veteran or two for name recognition, and the likelihood that your local media and the trades might pick up the story offers the added benefit of positive public relations in showing the population the efforts of the government in attracting foreign investment and gives you a chance to educate the population of the positive benefits of film production.
Another recent development has been the hybrid FAM tour where a day or two are devoted to meeting with local film professionals or government officials to help them understand the needs of Hollywood and what they can do to better attract foreign production. Many of these officials have never seen the inner workings of a Hollywood production and don’t understand the scope of work that goes on behind the scenes. I’ve personally presented powerpoint decks with storyboards, calendars, behind the scenes photos, and clips of the final product so they can better understand the scope of work they’re potentially dealing with and will be stronger allies when pushing for increased or continued incentives.
So yes, a FAM tour can be a sound investment, but make sure you understand the market and temper your expectations that the group you bring in might not bring a project right away as a studio feature can take a number of years to develop. Also remember that while it may be a significant investment for you, you will be asking these individuals to take time off from work, so try to be considerate of their time and don't use them as political tools to parade around to community stakeholders without prior notification and consent.
Making inroads into Hollywood through strategic invitee choices and potential for secondary advertising through social media can be the difference between simply comping someone’s vacation and valuable marketing strategy.
Saturday, July 18, 2015