ning. This is no longer the case, and more and more films--such as Get Shorty--have started their advertising two to three weeks before the opening. Cable is one reason for this--cable rates are lower so ads can be run for a longer period of time.
An independent film such as Doom Generation, which is being released by the small distributor Trimark Films, does not have the luxury of long-term advertising in any medium. Indeed, the film opened with little to no television advertising at all anywhere but on cable music channels where the presumed audience for the film would be found--the film's soundtrack features a number of rock bands. At the same time, this is a difficult place to sell the movie because it is unrated, so no one under the age of 17 is admitted without an adult. This reduces the size of the audience, especially when a film is so geared to hard rock and its audience.
The use of the alternative press is also related to this target audience of rock fans, though the film would actually have a broader appeal as a form of road movie and a coming of age movie. The filmmakers have determined that their audience is to be found largely in urban regions with a strong alternative-music structure such as is reflected in the film itself. This audience is not reached by television or even newspaper ads as much as is the mass-market audience, and instead it is reached through posters (such as appeared all over town when the film opened) and through alternative newspapers, music channels, and the like. T
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