This is the off-season for Dances With Films, but I noticed
a tremendous spike in page views lately.
Whether that is due to film festival submission season kicking into gear
with Sundance's last submission deadline coming up, or because I've started promotion
on my book, Billy Bobble Makes A Magic Wand, I don't know – but I thought I
should give either audience something new to read since it's definitely too
late to be a part of this year's festival (it was over in June and the subject
of my last post).
My mind right now is on marketing. As just about any experienced artist in any
medium will tell you, they knew marketing was important, but didn't listen when
they were rookies and someone told them marketing starts on the first day of
production.
In a way, all artists are marketing all of the time. No matter what discipline, we are
communicating something through our art, and so are trying to present that
communication in the best possible way.
From the political, in-your-face, theatre of the 60s and 70s, to the
pop-art of the 1990s, to the indie film and book circuits of today, every
artist begins with a story to tell and a way to tell it. That's marketing, like it or not.
Lately, artists have become more and more responsible for
the marketing end of things. Ask any
author lucky enough to get an advance, and most of them will tell you they've
rolled that into their own sales plan.
Alumni of Dances With Films know how much we push each filmmaker to have
a marketing strategy, and many of them have come back to thank us for that over
the years.
As I now launch into sales of Billy Bobble, I'm learning a
ton regarding internet marketing, that I'm not sure filmmakers know about –
which they should. Films are being sold
side-by-side with books these days on Amazon, iTunes, Nook, etc. The same campaigns that drive people to those
sites for books can work for films.
One example is blog tours.
Now almost passé with books, I'm not sure many indie filmmakers are
aware of them. Blog tours reach out to
the super-fans (or super-bloggers) for certain subjects and arrange interviews,
guest posts, or reviews. Reviews, of
course, every filmmaker knows about, but most seem fixated on the Trades and
The Times (New York and LA). Sure, those
are extremely important, but just as important are the super-fans on
Amazon. Getting good reviews from fans
with large followings has become a must with indie novelists – and they should
with filmmakers, too.
When dealing with these bloggers, be respectful. There really isn't any difference between a
critic on a blog and one for a major news organization – except that the
blogger is usually a volunteer. The
blogger doesn't usually have a staff, and is often doing this on their own time
just for the love of it. They don't owe
you a favorable review. Hopefully,
they'll write a good one, favorable or not.
Regardless, make sure to say "thank you."
That's it for now, and possibly for a while. We are busy getting ready for year 18! Some filmmakers may have already
submitted. That's fine, but submission
don't officially open until sometime in October – I think. I don't keep up with that part. I just watch 'em and help pick 'em.
In the meantime, filmmakers, finish your sound! Short filmmakers, try cutting your movie in
half and show it to your beta testers.
See if they like it better. If
so, LISTEN TO THEM! If your music is a
bunch of random cords (usually on a piano, usually with a cello coming in on
the big emotional part), thank whatever friend you asked to do the music and go
find a real composer. If you've already
shot your movie, these are the things you can be doing to make it better.
Believe me, everyone at Dances With Films wants your movie to be
better!
Thanks for reading.
