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.
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.any tips on how to get it noticed
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.
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.
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.