Jon Reiss — Voice Post
Jon Reiss is a documentary filmmaker and author. He wrote an inspirational book on film distribution called “Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era.” This book is a great step-by-step guide on marketing and distributing films for filmmakers. He also co-wrote two books called “Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul” as well as “Selling Your Film in Europe.” His filmmaking work includes “Bomb It,” “Better Living Through Circuitry,” and “Cleopatra’s Second Husband.” He has also directed multiple music videos from artists Nine Inch Nails, Slayer, The Black Crows, etc.
On his blog, Reiss takes on the voice of a media strategist. His experience as an author and filmmaker has led him to be well educated and informed on the topic of film marketing and distribution. Two of his most powerful blogs are “Ask Not What Your Audience Can Do For You — But What You Can Do For Your Audience” and “Theatrical is Dead — Long Live Theatrical: Events, Experiences, Scarcity & The Age of Abundance.” In both blogs he demonstrates his voice. His voice is informative, yet it can be eloquent. Ultimately, Reiss’ main goal is to educate.
This goal is mostly evident in the lists he creates in his blogs. For example, in “Theatrical is Dead,” he lists ways in which to create “Unique Live Experiences Unavailable Anywhere Else.” What follows is “1. Time Scarcity: Embrace the One Night Screening,” including an explanation and then, “2. Time Scarcity — Part 2 National and/or Internation One Night Screenings,” including another explanation. He goes all the way to number ten. This paragraph shape and flow points towards a more logical based type of thinking and demonstrates his informative voice.
Reiss further illustrates this informative voice through the use of percentages. In his article, “Ask Not What Your Audience Can Do For You — But What You Can Do For Your Audience, Reiss writes, “90% of what you communicate (at least) should be information that your audience is interested in — and not promotional.” His use of the percentage is interesting because it is not referencing the findings of any official research. And yet, the percentage is powerful since it holds a certain power, it gives his statement a sense of legitimacy. Furthermore, Reiss makes very definitive statements throughout his blog. For example, under “4. What value can you provide your audience?” in “Theatrical is Dead,” he writes, “… This is actually the most important action to consider.” By writing this he is simplifying the concept he is trying to illustrate. This lets the audience trust in his words, similar to the percentage.
Conversely, Reiss uses more eloquent styles of writing, especially in his introductions. This is a welcome contrast to his more informative voice. For example, in “Theatrical is Dead,” he writes, “The Holy Grail of a theatrical release still rings as a delusion for many. Fighting words still for untold thousands of filmmakers.” Here he is using figures of speech to illustrate the purpose of his post: While the industry has shifted to more digital forms of distribution, there is still a strong desire to put your film on the big screen, even if it is practically and economically unrealistic.
Reiss is a strong writer, whose voice leans more to the informative and logically side. On the other hand, he finds his way to introduce more eloquent writing in order to bring out the emotional elements of his topics.
