How To Market Your New Film

How To Market Your New FilmBy Nicholl McGuire
Whether you are a new screenwriter, producer and/or director,you may be looking for that one chance to make a difference inyour life and the lives of other people, but Hollywood has saidno to you.
That’s okay, because more and more companies are coming out tosupport new filmmakers and you may be looking for them whilethey are looking for you.
The average Joe isn’t interested in many of the movies thatcome out on the big screen like you assume. Instead, he is moreinterested in what is happening in his own neighborhood and hiswife is just as interested. Why is it your family movie hasn’tbeen shown at the local high school gymnasium, church or your Rrated movie at the neighborhood bar? What about working with theowner of the neighborhood video store to get it in his or herstore? Why don’t we see fliers promoting your movie? How comeyou haven’t bothered to employ your local college students tohelp you get the word out about your movie?
Some filmmakers have no professional affiliations and thatcauses many obstacles for them as well. How do filmmakers knowhow to successfully market their movies when they don’t botherto put into action what they observe others are doing?
Twelve marketing strategies filmmakers are presently using intheir marketing campaigns include:
1) Creating a website about their film.
Filmmakers provide a simple teaser that draws the viewer intothe film wanting more than they cut it, leaving you wanting formore. Every site has contact information which is easily foundand all links are fully functional.
2) Maintaining blogs about their film.
Everyday someone is posting something on the site related tothe synopsis of the film, photographs, the company orindividuals involved with the production, or some other relatedinformation.
3) Registering with social networking websites.
Whether they are adding friends, keeping the “about me” sectioncurrent or discussing related topics to the film in the chatrooms, they are keeping communication live about their film.
4) Sending press releases to Internet and local media outlets.
Every local media outlet that bothers to print a press releasehas received something about the film whether it is a short, aposter, or something else that promotes their new film.
5) Distributing fliers to local movie, book and music stores.
The information is professionally designed and easilyaccessible in the store. Sometimes it is located next to thosefree neighborhood newspapers.
6) Purchasing email lists.
The filmmaker has an idea of who his or her target market issuch as what gender, age group, background and general filminterest of the person who may be watching the film. With thisinformation he or she knows what kind of email list to buy.
7) Professional memberships related to the film industry.
He or she is networking with other people who may be able toassist him or her with the film. The bigger the circle the moreopportunities to meet the right person or group.
8) Getting listed in internet movie databases.
The average Joe should be able to get online and find yourmovie in someone’s database, if he or she can’t find yousomewhere, then you know you have a lot of work to do. Try this,type the name of your film in the search engine window, if itdoesn’t show up on the first page, this is a good indicationthat you haven’t been doing a good job marketing it. Findsomeone who can write an article about you, your company and thefilm. Then have an article distribution service distribute itto other article websites (this tactic is called articlemarketing.) Once you get this done, watch how easy it will be tolocate information about your film online when someone searchesfor you.
9) Hosting screening parties.
No more partying for the pure joy of it, filmmakers use everyopportunity to party as a way to get their film out there.Change the typical way you host parties.
10) Uploading movie stills to photography sites.
Look at what other filmmakers have done with this, just type inan independent film you really like and see what kind ofpresence they have on the photography site.
11) Uploading trailers to video sites.
Once again, see what your competitors have done with this, thengo to a site that offers books on the subject rather thanvisiting someone’s freebie site. You will want to get theinstructions on doing this right the first time. Wasted time ismoney lost, learn from professionals.
12) Offering freebies such as t-shirts and posters advertisingtheir film.
People love free stuff, so if you can give things away relatedto your movie, do it, in time you will get something in returnfor your efforts, fans!
All of these tactics take time to implement. Take a task eachday from this list and work on it until you have completed alltwelve. Once you have finished these duties, start looking forother ideas you can accomplish within a certain deadline youhave set for yourself. Without a deadline, you won’t getanything done. To your success!
About the Author: Nicholl McGuire, Freelance Writer & Blogger,for more information visit http://audiovideobooks.blogspot.com
Source: http://www.isnare.com
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