Be Quiet

Sorry, not to be rude. That’s the name of the short film that played before the new film in the horror franchise series, A Quiet Place.

Gary Davies recently posted about how his short film would be playing before screenings of the new film A Quiet Place: Day One.

First, follow Gary on LinkedIn as he sets out to take this momentum to get his feature films made. https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyjohndavies/

I looked up the short film and what most intrigued me was that it was released on YouTube over a year ago, after already doing the festival circuit. For those wondering why I find that intriguing…how does a nearly two year old film get chosen to screen before a franchise film?

How Does this Happen?

I want to take a side step here and mention what I think is an important note. I have been in this industry for 20 years and have seen and learned a lot. One of the things that I feel is the most important on my journey is to ask questions to learn even more.

I don’t know Gary, we just became connected via LinkedIn. I say this, because you don’t have to know someone to be inquisitive and ask them questions. The answers I got from Gary didn’t teach me anything new, BUT it did reinforce a very important concept in film marketing that I think many people look over. We will get to that below.

Q&A

I think it is easiest for me to share my Q&A with Gary. One so you can see my train of thought in asking questions and two so that you can have Gary’s direct answers.

Q: It looks like you released your film in 2022. How did it go from being released with only a few thousand views to playing in front of a franchise horror film at one of the US's most beloved indie cinema chains? Did someone reach out to you? Did you have a specific contact? Why just the Alamo drafthouse. If you can say, any part of the deal that could be educational or useful for other filmmakers who find themselves in that same situation.

A: I'll let the video content producer from Alamo Drafthouse answer this:

"Good question! I seemed to have some vague memory that a few years back there was a crop of good horror shorts that were kind of based on simple premises (I think Lights Out was one of them?), and so I went looking for one where quiet or silence was a central theme to match the movie, and yours showed up when I searched for it. So I watched it and really dug it!"

*Essentially the content producer reached out to me via email, keen to use BE QUIET as the pre-show for A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE.

The important marketing tool!

As I said above I wanted to mention the important but sometimes overlooked important marketing tool.

The Title.

If you reread through the answer given by the representative of Alamo Drafthouse, he was essentially looking for “quiet”.

My guess is that he googled “quiet short films” and guess what, Gary’s would have been one of the first to pop up. The title was the marketing tool.

Jordan Peele does this VERY well. Look at the names of his first two films, Get Out, and Us. They are easy to remember, and especially they align exactly with the premise of the movie. The title markets the whole film. It is really the one area where you don’t have to spend marketing money and it can have the biggest impact.

It is easy to want to be clever with the titles, but sometimes simplicity is the most clever approach.

Now on with the rest of the Q&A.

Q: When you made this short film, what was your main goal? Film festivals? Proof of concept for a feature? How did you go about trying to achieve those goals? After it's festival run, were you happy with what was achieved or did you try to aim for more? Did you learn anything from the process that you would
implement in the future or do differently?

A: My main goal in making BE QUIET was to make a cool, scary and atmospheric film, both as a viewing experience and as a calling card for my feature horror slate. The secondary goal was to have an impact at festivals, where the film has done well.

We achieved these goals by ensuring we had a great vision for BE QUIET, and a great cast and crew that could deliver. Obviously our brilliant young stars were key, and we dedicated a lot of time and care to finding and nurturing them. We also spent a lot of time searching for and securing a great location.
Plus we had a solid festival strategy.

I was happy with what BE QUIET achieved on its festival run, numerous selections, awards etc, but you always want your film to get into more festivals and in front of more audiences.


Q: Now that the film has generated this new life playing before a franchise film, has new opportunities opened up? How have you been using the new energy to drive the next projects?

A: It's another point of difference, or asset, to use when reaching out/pitching to producers, actors, etc. Being a major achievement, it's definitely aiding me and my feature slate in terms of 'getting a foot in the door' of production companies etc. I'm using it as much as I can as leverage to drive my next
project/s - as my kiwi mate in LA always puts it, 'you've gotta keep running something up the flagpole' - I'm waving this new flag proudly: this is what I can achieve on a tiny budget, now let's make a bigger film with a bigger budget and make a bigger impact!

Q: Do you have any advice or strategies for new filmmakers starting with shorts to carve out a path for themselves? Sort of that stuff you know now that you wish you knew before.

A: My advice is simply to make as good a film as you can with whatever resources you have, and never give up - keep on pushing and see it through. There are likely to be moments where you feel like you can't achieve what you're after, or that you can't see the end of the road. Hang in there, keep
believing - you have to keep believing in yourself and your vision. This is all on you, this filmmaking dream; it's up to you to make it happen - all the best with your endeavours!

One last thing I'd mention is that a lot of people almost expect BE QUIET to be a proof of concept short, 'When's the feature version coming?' What I say to them is that my film IS indeed a proof of concept - for my entire feature slate. The film encompasses all the key elements of my cinematic
storytelling; I love visual, atmospheric filmmaking with minimal dialogue, juicy mystery and thrills & chills. Make features with me - let's jam!

Now enjoy this fantastic short film:

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