Meet the Angel of Film PR, Lynnaire MacDonald

Lynnaire MacDonald is the founder of Film Sprites PR, a publicity and digital marketing consultancy for independent films. Since 2014, Film Sprites PR has worked with filmmakers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to provide publicity, social media marketing strategy and implementation, brand consultancy, and crowdfunding campaign strategy and assistance.

Film Sprites PR has worked with many filmmakers, including providing post-release publicity and social media marketing assistance for Night of the Templar, starring Norman Reedus, Paul Samson and David Carradine; as well as working on the Kickstarter campaign for Us Among the Stones, the second feature from D.R Hood whose first film, Wreckers, starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy.

Since 2014 @FilmSpritesPR has been providing #publicity and #digitalmarketing for #indiefilms around the world.

Want sparkling #PR and #socialmediamarketing for your #film in 2018? Find out more here: https://t.co/a6CriLe3h8 pic.twitter.com/81dyPPvVJI

— Lynnaire Macdonald (@Angel_of_FilmPR) January 21, 2018

In addition to running Film Sprites PR, Lynnaire is also the Projects and Operations Assistant at Boosted, the crowdfunding platform of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. In this role she assists artists with support for their crowdfunding campaigns on the Boosted platform. She is a native of New Zealand.

indieactivity: Talk to us about your love for movies?
Lynnaire: I’ve loved movies for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I can remember all of the times I went to the movies with friends and family and the films we saw. My room was plastered in movie posters from the local video store (that’s showing my age, haha!). I’m the kind of person who has to be seated at a film in time for the trailers…I cannot miss them.

Growing up, I was a very solitary person and got mercilessly bullied at school for being ‘weird’, so movies provided a refuge. As I grew, my taste for movies grew with it. As a teenager, my best friend and I saw Trainspotting on video and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of films that didn’t have happy endings and made you think even deeper. Movies are still a refuge for me, and while it’s so easy to watch a film on Netflix or rent one from Google Play or iTunes,

I still love the cinema experience. It transports you for a few hours, and as a collective audience you laugh, you cry, you feel. Film is my first love (don’t tell my partner, haha!).

indieactivity: What is PR?
Lynnaire: Public Relations (PR) is a huge collection of activities…in fact, when I did my Certificate in Public Relations and Business Communication 5 years ago we spent an entire section of the course dedicated to discussion what PR is. I kid you not! It can encompass anything from media relations, event management, crisis management through to publicity and social media marketing. The bulk of what I do on a day to day basis is publicity, media relations and social media marketing, although I have also done event management on occasion as well.

indieactivity: Why should indie filmmakers think about publicity and social media marketing for their films?
Lynnaire: In the 21st century we’re at a point now where self-distribution options have really opened up for indie filmmakers, meaning more opportunities to connect with your audience. Publicity and social media marketing isn’t just for mainstream films and it can grow your audience and awareness of your films and your filmmaking even further.

indieactivity: What’s the genesis of Film Sprites PR? What do you offer?
Lynnaire: I had always wanted to work in film, but for most of my life it was something I pushed to the back of my mind. I tried a ‘sensible’ career in teaching and did administration for many years, both of which were not for me. Film Sprites PR was created in the aftermath of the devastating Christchurch earthquake of February 22nd, 2011.

The quake and the subsequent aftershocks had such an effect on me. My partner and I were fortunate enough to be safe, but the quake still took its toll emotionally. The only peace I found at the time was going to see films at the cinema. It was during one such visit that I had an epiphany: I didn’t have to be a victim of circumstance. I could (and should) pursue my dream of working in the film industry. I felt like my life was a blank slate! I did my PR certification in 2013, launched Sprites in 2014…and the rest is history.

Film Sprites PR provides various publicity and social media marketing services, including press kit creation, social media marketing and strategy, and media relations and coaching. You can find out more about what we offer here.

indieactivity: Tell us about successful projects
Lynnaire: We’ve assisted with several successful crowdfunding campaigns, but one project that I was particularly happy with was when we were providing publicity and social media marketing for the NZ tour of a Canadian documentary about sustainability. The film had a special preview screening and Q&A session in February. The only issue? Quentin Tarantino was in town that week for the NZ premiere of The Hateful Eight. All eyes media-wise would be on him.

It was literally like David versus Goliath! So I did the traditional media outreach to mainstream outlets, blogs, radio stations, etcetera…but I also did ‘grassroots’ outreach. That meant getting in touch with organizations with an interest in sustainability, organic cafes and health food supermarkets, environmental groups, the Green Party, and so on. It was a great screening! In fact, some people I contacted prior to the screening actually said they’d heard about the film via our social media and were going to the event.

indieactivity: Where do you see yourself in the future?
Lynnaire: In the short-term I want to assist even more filmmakers right here in my native New Zealand. In the past four years I’ve spent a lot of time working with clients in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, but I’d love to work with filmmakers and films closer to home. That would mean so much to me! I also want to get into producing films in some capacity- many of the things I do on a daily basis at Sprites lend themselves well to producing.

Who knows- perhaps I’ll have a production company of my own! One of my most cherished goals, however, is to work for a studio or distributor. In fact, believe it or not, I never set out to work for myself- it just kind of happened! Ultimately I’d like to work for someone else. I know a lot of people do things the other way, but what can I say, I’ve never done anything the traditional way.

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