Russell Schwartz

Russell Schwartz

Associate Professor
Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts
Expertise: Entertainment Marketing for Producers; Industry Marketing Consultant/Speaker; Photography;
Office Location: Becket Building 207
Education:
City University of New York Hunter College, Bachelor of Arts

Biography

Russell Schwartz has been president of Pandemic Marketing Corp. since its inception in 2008. Pandemic Marketing provides strategic marketing, theatrical distribution, ancillary placement solutions and digital execution for the motion picture industry.

From 2013-2014, he was president of worldwide marketing at Relativity Media and was responsible for their entire slate including The Family, Don Jon and Beyond the Lights. He also established the Relativity Marketing Council, which was comprised of young execs from the Relativity divisions of sports, music, brand, television, distribution and marketing.

Schwartz was president of theatrical marketing at New Line Cinema from 2001-2008. IN that role, he oversaw all the company’s marketing efforts, which resulted in more than 44 Academy Award nominations and billions of dollars at the domestic box office. Some of the films he managed and created marketing campaigns for include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hairspray, Wedding Crashers, Elf, Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour3, The Notebook, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, About Schmidt and Little Children.

Prior to that, Schwartz was president of USA Films and released such films as Traffic, Nurse Betty, Topsy Turvey, Being John Malkovich and Pitch Black.

Earlier in his career, from 1992-1999, Schwartz was president of Gramercy Pictures and oversaw the marketing of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Fargo, The Usual Suspects, Elizabeth, The Big Lebowski, Dazed and Confused, Dead Man Walking and many others.

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Senior Creative Producers Graduation Photo shoot, This look was to replicate the classic "Vanity Fair" Hollywood look. Students learned lighting, camera, organization of eight different groups and schedules, fashion and posing
Media U, an ed tech startup commissioned me to write, produce and be the lead mentor in a ten part/15 hour series called the Independent Marketing and Distribution Roadmap for Filmmakers. This project is for sale on the mediaU website (https://www.mediau.com/) and includes followup live one on one and group mentoring.
AMERICAN FILM MARKET 2021 - Presenter: A Marketing Toolkit for Your Film