My friend told me that he saw a movie that he heard was self distributed on DVD by the director/producer. He can't recall the title of the movie, but it was a recent horror thriller. He said that the filmmaker decided to sell DVD copies himself from his own websites, and perhaps other markets but not sure. Do a lot of filmmakers do that nowadays to get their movies noticed and make money?
How many of you have tried the self distribution DVD method?
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
Marketing is the key to any distro... huge studio films that don't get enough public exposure never make their money back... the marketing is the most important part of a release strategy. There are alot of complaints about crappy stories being shown in the theatre... the fact is that they make profit if they're marketed well... regardless the quality of the story.
If you're moving past making a film into trying to get to making enough money to make back what you spent on your film or even funding the next one... you have to MARKET THE HELL OUT OF IT.
Get enough people interested in paying to see it before it comes out so that even if it sucks, you turn a profit... if you produce something that doesn't suck, making the next one make more money is even easier.
If you're moving past making a film into trying to get to making enough money to make back what you spent on your film or even funding the next one... you have to MARKET THE HELL OUT OF IT.
Get enough people interested in paying to see it before it comes out so that even if it sucks, you turn a profit... if you produce something that doesn't suck, making the next one make more money is even easier.
I'm not sure DVD distribution is the way to go anymore. I guess it's a good option to have, but I think the trend is moving towards digital downloads. And there is no overhead involved with a file (minus hosting fees), rather then authoring DVDs. Which normally costs $1000 to produce a decent run.
I read a stat somewhere that says that people under the age of 25 buy most of their media via their cellphone. That target market is the major consumer of films and tv. Catering to that market is the key. I'm working on collecting data about online advertising and targeting your audience. There is an on going discussion on IndieTalk. With links and feedback for the overall concept:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=38668
I read a stat somewhere that says that people under the age of 25 buy most of their media via their cellphone. That target market is the major consumer of films and tv. Catering to that market is the key. I'm working on collecting data about online advertising and targeting your audience. There is an on going discussion on IndieTalk. With links and feedback for the overall concept:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=38668
True. How much percent of your budget would you spend on marketing alone?
That is difficult to say.
If your budget is $10,- any percentage below 1000% isn't a budget at all
Some say 50% should go to marketing.
So if you spent $1000,- on making it, you should spend another $1000,- to market it.
But I guess there is no real rule here.
The only rule is that nobody will watch it, if they don't know it's out there
Marketing should be planned when the movie is being planned, so you can seriuosly consider your strategy and choose your marketing and sales-channels.
(Somehow I feel there will be a few hundred new questions about marketing in here soon
And just like filmmaking, marketing isn't a trick you learn from a few questions on a forum.)To begin with something:
how is your presence on social media?
Are you active on facebook, twitter, tumbler, youtube, etc?
Do have a lot of connections?
They are the people you can reach with little effort. Making them a fan is the first step.
I don't really have a lot of connections or media. I was thinking of starting out in festivals probably. Are there any books on marketing your movie? There are some books on making them. If I could get books on marketing that would be great! A lot has changed the past couple of years though it seems so I will need books up to the current.
I've yet to do any heavy lifting investigating film marketing and promotion but have run across ods and ends of it while beginning my look into VOD distribution.
You may find some decent marketing aspects to consider when reading over the thread, including UPressPlay's "25%" stat above.
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=37825
Before I pay anyone for PR & marketing I would really want them to show me some brass tacks numbers on where and frequency they intend to spend my money.
I want them to tell me "Yes. You can goto THIS site and see YOUR film advertised at least once every XX clicks for Y number of weeks." Or something to that effect.
How much homework would you do before purchasing a $10k video camera?
How much homework would you do before purchasing $10k of marketing and promotion?
Zero difference.
You may find some decent marketing aspects to consider when reading over the thread, including UPressPlay's "25%" stat above.
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=37825
Before I pay anyone for PR & marketing I would really want them to show me some brass tacks numbers on where and frequency they intend to spend my money.
I want them to tell me "Yes. You can goto THIS site and see YOUR film advertised at least once every XX clicks for Y number of weeks." Or something to that effect.
How much homework would you do before purchasing a $10k video camera?
How much homework would you do before purchasing $10k of marketing and promotion?
Zero difference.
The Guerrilla Angel Golden rule: 10 hours of marketing for each DVD sold.
(It seems like it, anyway.
But you get the idea. Like everyone has already said, marketing is the key. If you don't do marketing you will not sell even 1 DVD to someone that you don't already know -- pity purchases don't count.)
Good luck!
(It seems like it, anyway.
But you get the idea. Like everyone has already said, marketing is the key. If you don't do marketing you will not sell even 1 DVD to someone that you don't already know -- pity purchases don't count.)Good luck!
I tried to ask whether you have accounts on social media (besides Indietalk
) and whether you have many 'connections' (friends, followers, connections, stalkers, fans, subscribers, whatever it's called) on those accounts.Because if they can be triggered to promote your DVD you can reach not just your 'connections', but your connections' connections as well.
(It's just a start, but you have to start somewhere...)
Find out how marketing works.
Deep down the basics are the same for selling a DVD or shoes.
(Target audience, reach audience and offer something to make them feel they need it. 'These shoes make you a sportstar', 'this perfum makes you irresistable', 'this dress makes you sexy', 'this is something you need to experience', 'this is wow', 'this is the movie you have to see, because it's hot/hilarious/exciting/intriguing/scary/romantic/crap/genious/whatever'.)
That is difficult to say.
If your budget is $10,- any percentage below 1000% isn't a budget at all
Some say 50% should go to marketing.
So if you spent $1000,- on making it, you should spend another $1000,- to market it.
But I guess there is no real rule here.
The only rule is that nobody will watch it, if they don't know it's out there
I'll add that you don't need to specifically consider money as your only budget to spend... if you only spent $10, you probably have tons of TIME in the project... in many of my posts, I state that Time = Money... if you can't spend money, spend time! If you want to budget 50% on marketing and spent 600 HOURS making the film... spend 300 HOURS marketing it. That's nearly 2 full work weeks.