We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Ray. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.
Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.
With the explosion of science fiction entertainment, we’re finally seeing more diversity in front of and behind the camera. However, no matter how great a movie is, far too many indie filmmakers of color don’t receive effective marketing and promotion services that’s vital to the success of their film. A common obstacle is that traditional marketing techniques on today’s smart, diverse sci-fi fans don’t typically work. In an effort to solve this problem, I created a company run by a diverse staff who understands these challenges first hand and can find creative ways to address them.
Most studios today spend millions of dollars on marketing, which still doesn’t guarantee success or popularity of their entertainment projects. If this is happening with major studio releases, it is likely that smaller, independent filmmakers are struggling even more. This inspired me to focus on supporting indie filmmakers by founding the Atlanta Sci-fi Film Festival! After following the careers of many indie filmmakers we’ve showcased at our festival, I discovered that, even after landing distribution deals, they had to market and promote their work themselves. This can be challenging, as most don’t have the knowledge and experience to create effective marketing campaigns. Further, even if they have a small marketing budget, they usually don’t have access to marketing companies that understand how to market and promote science fiction films with diverse casts, to an all-inclusive audience. There is also a lot of competition, making it daunting to stand out among myriad sci-fi entertainment on streaming platforms. I wanted to provide assistance at this stage.
With the support of our festival sponsors, we’re able to provide opportunities and resources to young, up-and-coming African American filmmakers, including Jahmil Eady, director of Heartland and 1st Place winner and recipient of the Panavision Camera Package; and Atlanta’s own Tim Glover, winner of the IMAX Young Filmmakers Award for his film, In-Touch. We also provide additional marketing and promotional services to our winners as well as other indie filmmakers through our parent company, the Multicultural Sci-fi Organization (MCSFO), a new boutique, niche marketing agency that produces the festival. I work closely with directors to discuss their ideas and create the best marketing campaigns to engage their target audiences. It’s incredibly rewarding to support directors at the beginning, or any stage, of their careers, and watch them grow. For example, it was inspiring to witness Emily Dean, a talented, female Asian director, screen her first short Andromeda in our festival, and eventually direct an episode of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots Vol. 3.
The Atlanta Sci-fi Film Festival is an event where people can experience films without constraints from Hollywood execs, be transported into a future with relatable characters of all genders, sexuality, ethnicities, and cultures, and engage with stories that are both entertaining and inspiring.
To kick things off this Spring, we’re producing a new 48-Hour Sci-Tech Film Competition! We’re also partnering again with Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media, and Communications, and a few Gwinnett County High Schools to create student competitions. For this year’s festival in the Fall, we’re inviting directors from several Native American Reservations, as well as other Indigenous communities around the world to participate in a special short film competition! We’re also bringing back our Afrofuturism category and inviting filmmakers from Cape Town and Johannesburg South Africa. All of this is in addition to our regular sci-fi film category! Each year, we host several educational panel discussions for filmmakers who work in various departments in the film industry. For this year’s panel, professional Key Art Designers who create movie posters for some of the biggest blockbuster films will discuss ways directors can create the most visually engaging and thought-provoking key artwork to promote their films on budgets! I’m so excited and eager to discover new talent and find creative ways to help them promote their sci-fi films globally!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Science fiction has been in my blood for as long as I can remember. The seeds were first planted by my mother who was a huge Star Trek fan. I quickly developed my own insatiable appetite for the genre and wanted to turn it into a career. While living in NYC in 2013, I joined a sci-fi Meetup group. Although I enjoyed analyzing popular sci-fi movies and shows with the guys, I was almost always the only black female at the meetings. After relocating back to Atlanta in 2014, I envisioned a community center where people from all ethnicities, genders, and sexualities could come and share their love of the genre. After realizing a physical location would be too arduous for me to create at the time, I turned it into the Multicultural Sci-fi Meet-up Group! There weren’t many all inclusive sci-fi groups at the time, so membership grew quickly. Now, I’m the Founder and CEO of the Multicultural Sci-fi Organization (MCSFO) and organizer of The Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival. The science fiction genre is synonymous with diversity and multiculturalism, with fans from different ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and cultures around the world. Unfortunately, for decades, it was rare to see African American, Asian, or Latino actors prominently featured in sci-fi films or series, much less directing one! For the few who did, these films and series were not marketed successfully to people of color, even though there was a large and growing number of us watching and supporting them. For some, it can be an intimidating demographic to market to. As a fellow sci-fi geek of color, I understand these challenges first hand and work hard to find innovative ways to engage this audience. In addition to helping indie filmmakers through the Atlanta Sci-fi Film Festival, I began partnering with other marketing companies and networks to engage a multicultural audience under our parent company, MCSFO. We focus on servicing a previously neglected segment of sci-fi fans such as women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community through cultural relevance, authentic and meaningful connections. As the film industry continues to be in constant flux, the services we provide will evolve to fit the needs of all fans and indie filmmakers around the world.
The saying, “you will never work a day in your life when you love what you do,” is very true for me. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I’m marketing and promoting content, whether it’s the Oscar Nominated film, Everything Everywhere All At Once, independant shorts, international sci-fi cult classics like Timecrimes and The Wandering Earth, homegrown cerebral hidden gems like Dark City and Predestination, and culturally diverse shows like The Expanse and Westworld!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I’m always grateful to our festival goers who expect high quality international science fiction films and are interested in discovering new, talented filmmakers from around the world. The festival’s reputation has been strengthened by attendees who share their experiences at our advance screening events on our podcast and their social media pages. Our partnerships and industry relationships have also been vital to our reputation. They’re very supportive and always refer other companies, filmmakers, and people to us. Underrepresented directors around the world expect equal and fair judgement of their science fiction films. At the festival, everyone is respected as professional filmmakers, regardless of their level of talent.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like every business that strives to remain viable and profitable, I had to pivot multiple times! The first time was when I envisioned the company to be a sci-fi center – a place where sci-fi fans of all backgrounds would come to enjoy films, books, music, artwork, and writing workshops. After being laid off from my job, I had to rethink this grand idea. Although I would still like to realize this idea in the future, I needed to pivot and focus on the film festival and other marketing plans first. After the festival took off with its first event sponsored by IMAX, I had to pivot again to focus on our parent company, MCSFO. We partnered with HBO to promote the award-winning sci-fi series, Westworld, with an experiential advanced screening event and panel discussion for seasons 1 and 2. We had season 2 at Atlanta’s Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Spring 2018, and I had to pivot again back to the film festival later that Fall!! Although it was pretty stressful, I wouldn’t change anything about this experience! It was one of the biggest highlights of my career!
Another pivot I made was creating a small children’s film festival called Kids with S.T.E.A.M. Audience members from our regular sci-fi festival asked if we could show children’s content. This gave me a different idea to increase interest in S.T.E.A.M. and generate income for myself while working as a substitute teacher. To do this, I curated a few short films and screened them in elementary schools in partnership with Cartoon Network. This eventually led to a new film competition where teachers and students from high schools and elementary schools as far as LA got involved! The pandemic put a real damper on this, but we’re making plans to bring this event back to the schools next year. Although I am always thinking of new ways to grow my business, the pandemic really forced me to think of more ways to pivot strategies to continue offering value to our customers, under one company at a time. All of these setbacks, redirects, and pivots led me to where I am today and I wouldn’t change a thing!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.atlantascififilmfestival.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atlantasci_fifilmfestival/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASCIFFF
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlanta-sci-fi-film-festival/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ASCIFFF
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/@mcsfo Listen to full interview on our new Sci-fi Creative Corner podcast show, available on most podcast platforms including: Apple – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast… Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/4j5Tz8l… Amazon – https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1b6… Google – https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0… Check out some MCSFO merch! The word “Sci-fi” in multiple languages and more!! https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/504… https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/494… https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/493…