Jon Reiss

JON REISS Named one of “10 Digital Directors to Watch” by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss is a critically acclaimed filmmaker whose experience releasing his documentary feature, Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. In that book he created the concept of the Producer of Marketing and Distribution (PMD) in order create a new crew member who would be in charge of a film’s audience engagment and release. He recently co-wrote Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul.

Reiss also works as a consultant helping filmmakers with their distribution and marketing strategies. He has worked with and consulted for IFP, the Sundance Institute, Screen Australia, Film Independent, Creative Scotland, The South Australian Film Corporation and numerous film schools and festivals to devise ways to educate and help independent filmmakers in the new economic landscape. He has conducted his TOTBO Workshops over three continents i and is the year round distribution and marketing lab leader at the IFP Filmmaker Labs. He also teaches at the Film Directing Program at Cal Arts.

His previous documentary feature films are Better Living Through Circuitry, a startling, humorous and entertaining glimpse into the exploding rave culture and Cleopatra’s Second Husband, a dark psychological drama. Reiss has also directed videos for Nine Inch Nails, The Black Crowes, Danzig, Slayer, and the Kottonmouth Kings. Reiss’ “Happiness in Slavery” video for Nine Inch Nails won awards at the Chicago and San Francisco film festivals and was voted Top Ten by the Village Voice Critics Poll for Best Music Video.

Jon Reiss’ early credits also include four hour-long documentaries concerning the notorious performance group Survival Research Laboratories which were included on a compilation 10 Years of Robotic Mayhem. Reiss got his start in filmmaking at Target Video, a San Francisco based alternative video company where he covered much of the West Coast punk explosion.

Reiss is working on two more book projects: the first is devoted to the PMD, the second book takes the structure of distribution and marketing outlined in TOTBO and applies it to all the art forms. Reiss also contributes to Filmmaker Magazine, Huffington Post, Indiewire, Screen Daily, Moviemaker Magazine and other publications.

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Email: jon@jonreiss.com