As Stephen Colbert might say “this is part one in a neverending series on…”
Marketing and promoting your film to audiences
In speaking with many filmmakers, marketing and publicity professionals and others who have already taken their films through the festival circuit and are now distributing, it is important to have a marketing plan before you embark on your short or feature film.
We have decided to add resources to our website and that includes pointers to get the most out of your festival run as well as learning how to grassroots market your film and create the audience you need to sustain your film once it gets to the distribution market in whatever form or format.
To begin your journey, once you have a name for your film, buy the URL or something close to it from a site like GoDaddy, which offers cheap registration, hosting, website creation, email marketing etc.
Find someone to create a nice looking clean website or do it yourself. It doesn’t have to be flashy, or have the latest technologies, but it should have a hook, whether it be a tagline, or pictures or a logo for your film or film company. If the page is only a placeholder until you get more assets, be sure to include somewhere that visitors can join the site, so you can start collecting emails.
While creating your website, you should start a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter and Youtube account. Take advantage of some of the largest sites on the web to drive interest and traffic to your brand(film).
Invite the friends you already have and begin the “Snowball” effect! You can then link your facebook updates to Twitter and you can start building followers. The more active you are on these sites the more will follow and be sure to link up to groups and individuals on these sites with similar interests.
Once you start shooting, Youtube is great for onset videos, trailers, teases and other video assets to create a buzz, you can link your Youtube videos to Facebook and tweet them to your followers.
When you are in production, be sure to have someone take production stills, behind the scenes (EPK) video, even take those little USB video cameras and shoot a couple little vignettes from set and upload them. Do anything you can to create an interactive aspect for your film. The more you involve your followers, users, the more they will look forward to seeing your completed film.
As you build your brand, you should keep your website up to date, add Twitter, Facebook, Youtube links, if you enjoy writing from set, or taking photos on set, put them up, or blog on your site! Keep it active and updated often!
Actors are a great marketing tool as well!! The actors in your film are just as excited about seeing the final product…most of them will also tweet, facebook and youtube about the project, and never forget to invite them to any festival screenings. I have spoken with actors who had never known that a film they were in played at a festival, until after the event.
The great thing about a collaborative effort is that everyone involved wants to see it through and cast and crew should not be forgotten as some of them may already have a huge following, especially if you are using SAG or AFTRA actors.
Before you launch your films festival journey, be sure to have a strong trailer, great Key Art, and production stills and a short synopses with major cast. Most festivals are fine with digital assets, so no need to send out lots of paper.
Think about ancillary markets…Create T-shirts, posters, postcards, if your film has a genre specific theme, you may be able to create other promotional items.
Once you embark on your festival journey, start thinking about distribution. A feature film has a better chance of distribution. However some festivals offer shorts distribution, be careful not to end up in a clearinghouse, which basically collects films and never really distributes them to the public.
We are aware filmmakers tend to be wary of distribution deals, as many have been burned before and are gunshy, but if you feel you have a great product you may want to make it available during the festival run, as a download, so when audience comes out of the screening and ask you how they can get your film, you don’t have to spend money bringing DVD’s, creating artwork, lugging them from city to city. If they can download it on there computer or Ipod, or Iphone, you are already making money back!
Find what’s right for you, as many distribution models are no-cost, revenue share with non-exclusive deals. Think of it as a vanity press for your personal use, it’s not truly distribution, and most film festivals don’t really care if your film is available online, this is mostly true for short content. Feature film is another story. Very few features will ever see there money back when going through a middleman, maybe you want to DIY!!
From our experiences, we know many filmmakers are not marketers, and we also think investing the time creating it yourself or hiring a indie film marketing pro could be a good thing to get audiences to your screening and visibility for your film.
Be aware, marketing is a time intensive process and not a one day thing, build a good following from the beginning and they become invested in you. You don’t necessarily need to hire anyone to market, but if you have the extra money or can get a free consultation with one, it’s not a bad idea to pick the brain of a professional, or someone who’s been through the process and come out successful on the other side!
This is part one of an on-going series, how many, who knows…
Please feel free to comment and add suggestions We want this to be as thorough and informative as possible.
