I am in the middle of filming my first full length film and i was wondering does any one have any tips on how to get it noticed.
How do you get your film noticed?
- Thread starter letsmakeamovie6
- Start date
How about spend 10 years designing new hardware and make it in 3D LOL.
I use lots and lots of social marketing. You need to spend hours sending out your trailer and website info anywhere you can. I did a race Doc. I would put it up on my Facebook site, tag everybody and then it went to their page and all their friends saw it. I have sold a bunch of copies that way.
Bottom line is that it takes a lot of work.
I use lots and lots of social marketing. You need to spend hours sending out your trailer and website info anywhere you can. I did a race Doc. I would put it up on my Facebook site, tag everybody and then it went to their page and all their friends saw it. I have sold a bunch of copies that way.
Bottom line is that it takes a lot of work.
Work your ass off, talk to a marketing adviser, he/she will let you know a little about distribution.
That is the question that the vast majority of us who release one of the 30,000 + videos every year face. Put up a website, stick a trailer on YouTube, and Hulu. If you have something unique then send a copy to Entertainment Weekly, People Mag, Access Hollywood, etc. You've got about a snowball's chance in hell that they will talk about an indie movie but it's worth a try; That's the kind of "home run" you need to stand out from the other 30,000.
We had great success in January by financing our own premiere. Started pounding the media 6 months before. Rented out a local theatre and hired a projection team (the theatre had no video projection system of their own.) Hired a singer/guitarist to entertain in the lobby plus catered it with a simple spread. Gave away all 350 tickets (what? why on earth would you do that?) Pounded the media some more. Created our own (what they call) buzz...one paper interviewed us about the project, causing another paper to also follow the story, etc. Ended up on the local Detroit Fox station's Sunday newsmagazine show a week before the premiere. This caused the local NBC affiliate to not want to get scooped, so they showed up at the premiere. What they saw was a packed lobby of 350 people who couldn't wait to see our 30 minute film.
Premiere was a grand success replete with standing ovation.
Afterwards the band that played the theme song in the movie performed it live onstage.
Had a grand after-party at a local bar with a $5.00 cover, where we netted about $700.
I'm sitting on over two hundred pre-orders for the DVD which will be ready in about a month which will net about $3,000.
Cost of production: around $100
Cost of premiere: around $3,000
Profits: $600, to be used for festival entry fees
Not much profit, but the REAL benefit of the grand, expensive premiere was in networking. For instance, once guy that was a friend of the producers owns a helicopter. He wanted to get involved so donated a chopper flight for a scene we shot last month for our next movie. Another excited person that came to the premiere owns a print shop and donated some custom made prop signage. Another guy owns a bar and let us shoot there one day. They came to us because of the excitement generated by the premiere...they had such a blast at that premiere they can't wait for the next one.
Premiere was a grand success replete with standing ovation.
Afterwards the band that played the theme song in the movie performed it live onstage.
Had a grand after-party at a local bar with a $5.00 cover, where we netted about $700.
I'm sitting on over two hundred pre-orders for the DVD which will be ready in about a month which will net about $3,000.
Cost of production: around $100
Cost of premiere: around $3,000
Profits: $600, to be used for festival entry fees
Not much profit, but the REAL benefit of the grand, expensive premiere was in networking. For instance, once guy that was a friend of the producers owns a helicopter. He wanted to get involved so donated a chopper flight for a scene we shot last month for our next movie. Another excited person that came to the premiere owns a print shop and donated some custom made prop signage. Another guy owns a bar and let us shoot there one day. They came to us because of the excitement generated by the premiere...they had such a blast at that premiere they can't wait for the next one.
Way to rock the old-school indie! It sounds like a blast. When I finally get a feature done (or a long enough short) my plan was to shop it around the the local bars and tiny theaters to see if I could screen it anywhere. You went all out, though!
Congrats, dude
Primal Quest Badlands premiered as part of a local outdoor festival. I did 5 radio interviews,2 TV and newspaper the week before. We sold out the theater. I sold a bunch of DVDs. the profits from the box office went to a Charity. People were very excited to revisit an event that happened in their area. The arts group that put it on can not wait for another.
That's some beneficial techniques of practice right there, nice work man, genius initiative.
we're living in the best time to let people know about our films. Social networking is the way to spread the word all over the world. But like most filmmaking it's a whole lot of WORK and TIME. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, youTube, Hulu these are all tools you should be using and the best part it the cost.
Your sweat equity is all it will cost you.
Good luck
Your sweat equity is all it will cost you.
Good luck
Getting some press in just one city isn't gonna do a whole lot. You need a home run. You need a syndicated or national outlet to mention your movie. Radio and TV is best. Next best is print. Don't forget that bad press is good press. Look at what it has done for Human Centipede.
On an indie level, it doesn't make sense to put a whole lot of money into advertising. Hitting a home run with the magazines will most likely only happen if you know someone really well that runs the company. I think the best bet for an indie film is to make a film that is really good, let the audience build by itself through word of mouth as they go out and rent it. It's a long process but if your film is good, the people will eventually find it and talk about it. Probably 2 years after it's release, you will finally get the recognition you deserve. But that shouldn't stop you from continually promoting it on all the social networking sites. Unless you get picked up by a mega distributor, thats a different story.
I don't know anyone at magazines, but I get articles about my work all the time (http://www.sonnyboo.com/press.htm). It comes from issuing a formal, well written press release. That didn't cost me any money at all and it has yielded almost all press mentions I have ever gotten, local and national/international press mentions in print and on the web, as well as TV.
No one can ever realistically expect that if you just make a good movie and don't work to promote it that anyone can (or would) find it. That's illogical, even if it is a great movie. If you aren't your film's number cheerleader, who the hell is going to get in line to do that for you? What's in it for them? You have to work very hard to market and promote your film. As mentioned, a formal press release is a start. Getting press, putting that on a website, social networking sites, updates, continual content creation and letting fans know about it. Film Festival submissions help, but you have to work hard at promoting THOSE screenings as well.
Finishing your feature is not even the halfway mark to getting it sold and promoting it.