Do Not Read this Article - If You Want Your Film to Fail

Why filmmakers make films Let’s start with a multiple choice pop quiz that includes just one question:

Why do filmmakers make films?

1) Because they’re bored and have nothing else to do.

2) Because they have too much money and don’t know how else to spend it.

3) Because they want to watch it in their room, by themselves, on their laptop, over and over.

4) Because it’s a fun, albeit expensive, way to meet people and maybe find a date.

5) Because they have a story they want to tell and share with as large an audience as possible.

If you answered 1, 2, 3, or 4, stop reading his article right now and see what’s playing on Bravo.

If you answered number 5 and you indeed are a filmmaker, or interested in becoming one, read on.

In all honesty, I don’t think there are many filmmakers that set out with the objective of having their film fail. They’re not rooting for it to be seen by only a handful of family and friends, or spend its life in distribution limbo or be remembered only as a side note, they can say, yeah I made a film once.

But the way many filmmakers act and the decisions they make or don’t make has to make one wonder.

Without marketing and public relations there is no film success.

Period.

It’s a given.

It’s a truth, set in stone and yet it’s something that many filmmakers ignore or avoid or in some case simply forget. They are so focused on getting their film made that they forget why they are making their movie.

Understand that as a filmmaker marketing is an integral part of your job description. It isn’t simply something you could do. It isn’t a choice, isn’t an option

If you want your film to succeed setting up a marketing plan that stats when you’re writing your first draft is something you will do.

Start outlining your public relations campaign, as soon as you start working on your project. Whether at the writing or preproduction stage, start thinking about the PR angles and how you can best utilize them when ready

Once you have your stories map out your outreach, if you can hire a PR firm to launch a campaign, or for some basic consultation, that will make your life a heck of a lot easier, but if your budget doesn’t allow it, don’t let that stop you.

Make a list of your possible stories or media angles. Successful PR is successful storytelling. It’s an art. One angle could be the film itself, the subject matter, another could be your journey to making the film, and another could be the cast members. No matter how crazy some of the ideas might sound, write them down. You never know where that one story that hits the right nerve will come from.

If you’re adept at writing, put together a one page press release. If you’re not, find someone who can and have him or her write one for you. Keep it at one page.

Next put together a list of your main target media outlets. Now contact them. Be aggressive, but not pushy.

Don’t wait for others to market your film. It’s up to you to take action. Either bring a professional on board or start your own marketing outreach.

You’ll never get where you want to go if you don’t start.

So…

Start!

The Film Festival Marketing Approach

Film festivals are definitely one approach to market and showcase your film and one I would encourage any filmmaker to consider. But using that as your sole approach can backfire. Let’s say one of your primary goals is to show your film at film festivals, particularly at the top festivals. Fine, the film festival route is certainly a viable one when it comes to promoting and marketing your film, but keep in mind that’s not the only route. Plenty of independent films land a distributor or self distribute and find an audience going different routes altogether. Regardless of whether you go the film festival route or have another strategy, you should start thinking about your film’s marketing and release strategy as soon as possible. If you’re smart, you’ll start before the screenplay is finished, certainly before the first frame has been shot.

Remember, the PR & marketing can be the engine that drives the project. It can open doors to distribution, financing and build your audience base. Keep your options open every step of the way. As I mentioned earlier festivals are one approach, but not the only one. Let’s say you’re working on a documentary; you have a number of distribution and showing possibilities from the festivals, to theatrical to outside the box screenings at schools, museums, organizations and churches. Often these types of screenings can run even during a festival showing.

One way festivals can help, is they are great places for forming relationships with others involved in various aspects of the film process. This can be particularly helpful for producers and filmmakerswho are going to self distribute their film. Filmmakers now need to take a more active role in the marketing, public relations, and distribution of their films and festivals can definitely help forge important relationships.

But there can also be a downside to festivals. It’s possible to get locked in the film festival loop and not look at alternative, creative ways to market, show and showcase your film. Even if your film is accepted to one or more, that in itself does not guarantee your film will succeed. Too many film producers base their entire marketing strategy on being accepted by a festival. If it turns out no festival bites, which happens a fair amount of time, these filmmakers are left with no alternate strategy. They are more or less stranded and left with no alternate approach. You don’t want to find yourself in that position.

My advice is to begin on day one with a PR and marketing strategy that goes forward whether or not your film finds its way to a festival. Regardless of the direction you choose to take, get your PR and marketing gameplan in place, start your PR outreach and launch your filmmaking journey.

Cresswell, Jackson. “Sundance London Film Festival is Launching in April 2012.” Collider. 15, Mar 2011. 19 Apr 2013. <http://collider.com/sundance-london-film-festival-2012/>

Filmmakers: Making Marketing Your Top Priority

The film festival route is certainly a viable one when it comes to promoting and marketing your film, but keep in mind that’s not the only route. Plenty of independent films land a distributor and find an audience going different routes altogether. Regardless of whether you go the film festival route or have another strategy, you should start thinking about your film’s marketing, publicity and release strategy as soon as possible. If you’re smart, you’ll start before the screenplay is finished, certainly before the first frame has been shot.

Remember, the PR and marketing can be the engine that drives the project. It can open doors to distribution, financing and build your audience base. Keep your options open every step of the way. For example, if you’re working on a documentary, you have a number of distribution and showing possibilities from the festivals, to theatrical to outside the box screenings at schools, museums, organizations and churches. Often these types of screenings can run even during a festival showing.

Festivals can be a great place for meeting distributors and forming relationships with strategic partners. This can be particularly helpful for producers and filmmakers who are going to self distribute their film. Filmmakers now need to take a more active role in the marketing, public relations, and distribution of their films.

Producing A Film? Create Your PR Plan First

Making a film can be a magical experience, but many filmmakers get so excited about and engrossed in the making of their film that they forget producing their film is only step one. Actually the production of your film should be pretty far down the line in your film to-do list. Particularly when it comes to new filmmakers, the excitement of making a film, and all that is involved in scripting, pre-producing, casting, production and post production, has a tendency to become all consuming. Creating the film becomes everything. But here’s the question, what are you going to do once your film (filled with joy, enthusiasm and dreams as well as blood sweat and tears) is completed. How are you going to get your film, promoted, marketed, distributed? How are you going to build that bridge between your finished product and your audience?

If this article were actually a script, we’d be having a flashback sequence here. We flash back to the incarnation of your project. We would fade back to before you edited, shot, cast, or wrote your film and add a new focus to the process. In this sequence your new flash back approach in the past would change your future. You’d figure out a game plan outlining how to PR, promote and market your film. Your new public relations plan would act as a guide, as a roadmap as you moved forward in your filmmaking process. It would be a bridge-building process between you, your audience, distributors, potential investors and influences. It would be the focus that helped insure your film would have a strong shot at succeeding.

So many filmmakers come to me after they’ve finished their film. They’ve been so wrapped in the process and the project has inevitably gone over budget. They didn’t consider a marketing campaign before they started production and now have very little money left for marketing. There’s often little I can do for them at that point. Those I have most success with either start with me during pre-production, or from the start realized that marketing was an essential part of the game plan and kept that in mind during the production process.

Ideally you want to start promoting your film and creating a buzz online and in the media before you finish shooting or editing your project. A well thought out media relations and social media campaign can serve you in a number of ways. Keep in mind, depending on your needs; you are going to be addressing different audiences with your media relations campaign. One outreach could be directed to the general public, another to a more targeted grout of viewers, another to distributors and still another to possible investors. You can also start creating a buzz for upcoming projects while promoting your current film.

So dive into your film project. Make the very best film you can. But be smart about it. Make a PR and marketing campaign an essential part of your film’s game plan. You don’t want to end up with a film that a few of your friends see, or gathers dust in your home, or gets submitted to a few film festivals and then fades away. You’ve put your heart, soul, time and money into your film project. You now owe it to the film and to yourself to give it a chance to succeed.

The PR & Distribution Connection for Indie Films

There are two primary areas where most independent films run into roadblocks, the first is marketing/PR and the second is distribution. That has pretty much always been the case, but now, with the film industry in such flux and more competitive than ever, it’s becoming even more of a challenge. Marketing, public relations and media exposure do not only create a buzz and help establish your brand, but these strategies can also solidify distribution interest, and interest film festivals. Distribution gives your film a way to reach your audience

At Anthony Mora Communications, Inc. we’ve been promoting major and independent feature films and documentaries for years. Having worked as a screenwriter and indie film producer, I know the hazards and pitfalls of getting a film from concept to the market. With that in mind, we’ve developed a unique PR and distribution outreach designed to publicize and market films as well as secure distribution.

Our firm specializes in media placement, media training and image development. We have placed clients in a wide range of local, national and international media venues including: Time, Newsweek, The Today Show, 60 Minutes, CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News, People, US, Entertainment Tonight, Premiere, Fox News, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, 20/20, Oprah, The London Times, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and various other media outlets.

Making a film can be a magical experience, but many filmmakers get so immersed in the making of their film that they forget about focusing on the next steps, specifically marketing and securing distribution. Too many filmmakers forget to ask themselves what they are going to do once their film is completed. How are they going to get their film, promoted, marketed, and distributed? What is their gameplan for building that bridge between the finished product and the audience?

What we’ve developed are unique PR and distribution film packages with the independent filmmaker in mind. The approach is to actively PR and market a film while pursuing distribution through a number of channels including theatrical, DVD, VOD/Pay TV, and Online/Streaming.

We deal directly with distributors to make sure your film get the best deal and secure the widest release possible. By coupling our distribution efforts with a simultaneous specialized publicity campaign, we increase your film’s exposure both during the process of securing distribution, and during your film’s release.

If you have a completed independent film and are seeking distribution and publicity we can help. We have worked with a wide array of movies. Each film is unique and there are an almost infinite number of different strategies we can utilize depending on the needs of each project. Your primary objectives are to have your film find its audience and to make your project profitable. Public relations and distribution are the two keys that can help you reach your goals.