How to Market Your Short Film

[Music] you're super excited about your short film but what about everyone else in order to make sure your film finds its audience you'll need to market it properly let's take a look at some of the basic strategies you can use to create some buzz around your short film you'll want to start marketing your film as soon as possible it's best if you can start outlining your marketing strategy in pre-production that way you can build an audience for your film before it's even finished thinking about marketing and distribution early also means you can factor any associated costs into your overall budget if you spend all of your money in production you may not have the resources to properly publicize your work you should also try to coordinate your marketing strategy to build buzz around specific events screenings or release dates if you send a trailer out to bloggers a year before your film premieres any interest that coverage may have generated will have faded before your film is available to watch in order to start marketing your film you'll need a press kit your press kit also known as an EP Kay or electronic press kit is a collection of all written or visual media that you will use to promote your film at a minimum text assets should include your logline a synopsis as well as filmmaker BIOS for a central casting crew and director statement visual assets include things like posters production stills and teasers or trailers let's take a quick look at the essential marketing assets you'll need to create your logline is a one sentence summary of the main story and themes presented in your film this is often the first thing potential viewers will read about your film so it's important to make your logline as intriguing as possible think of this as your elevator pitch you need to hook your audience and immediately get them invested in your story don't focus too much on explaining the plot instead highlight your film central conflict and overarching themes let's compare two different log lines for et the extra-terrestrial the basic version an extraterrestrial finds himself stranded on earth and with the help of a young boy makes his way back home a better version a meek and alienated little boy finds a stranded extraterrestrial and has to find the courage to defy the authorities to help the alien return home which logline would get you to buy a movie ticket it's important to spend time writing and revising your logline make sure you formulated it best convey not just the storyline but also the emotion behind the story your logline conveys the emotional core of your story the synopsis flushes out the plot as presented in the script the ideal length will vary on use case so it's good to save several versions of your synopsis ranging in length from a few sentences to a few paragraphs regardless of the length your synopsis should highlight the important characters and plot points that drive your story forward it can be helpful to provide bloggers and journalists with biographies for your key cast and crew members a good bio provides a bit more context for the project and adds a human element to any potential coverage of your work plus it gives you an opportunity to highlight your team's previous work another factor people use when determining whether or not a film is worth watching the director statement is your chance to give potential viewers your perspective it should cover both how and why you made the short film at this particular time in your career one or two paragraphs is usually all you need for a director statement while these written assets are necessary your visual assets will play a vital role in grabbing viewer attention a promotional poster image will help potential viewers get a sense for the genre and style of your project try to use a poster design that works well in both digital and printed formats that way you can use your poster both in online marketing efforts and to promote local screenings it's also a good idea to include production stills as they are available these can be stills taken from scenes in the finished film or photos taken on set showing what goes on behind the scenes including production stills in your collection of marketing assets helps convey the overall aesthetic of your project and also provides a peek into the production process you should also put together a teaser or trailer for your short as soon as possible even before the film is finished a teaser is like a super short trailer designed to be attention-grabbing and memorable it should run no more than one minute a trailer is a bit longer and can therefore include more information about your film's plot and main themes depending on your shorts runtime you may want to skip the trailer and make only a teaser in any case don't give away so much that your audience no longer feels the need to watch the rest of your film let's watch an example we found an intruder in our top tier level five classified alpha laboratory she showed up on a scenario our most secure room no camera footage showed our entering no ID [Music] I have misgivings about you and that makes me feel very insecure I hear a nice warm bubble bath helps with that just from watching the teaser we already know the name of the short memoir as well as the overall tone and theme it's a sci-fi thriller about a mysterious little girl well chosen clips and sound effects give us just enough to make us curious about the characters and the rest of the story of all the marketing material you'll create for your film this is the most effective way to show potential viewers what your film is about your press kit may evolve over time but once you have the basics in place it's time to start getting the word out first of all you'll need a link that you can give people so they can learn more about your project that means you need a dedicated website or landing page for your short your website should have a domain name that's easy to remember along with a clean modern design you don't need it to be elaborate but you do need it to be visually appealing use your website to present all of your marketing assets in a way that's organized and easy to navigate highlight your teaser as well as any awards your film Garner's you'll also want to include information on how to watch the film and of course don't forget to include a way for fans and press to get in touch as you work to complete your project you can keep your audience excited and engaged with behind the scenes process blogs or vlogs this also helps them connect with you as a filmmaker making them more likely to engage with future projects as well these updates can be posted to your website or YouTube or both this helps craft a behind the scenes stories that gets people invested in your work making them much more likely to show up to a screening or purchase a copy another way to keep your audience up to date is with a newsletter sent out via email make it easy for people to sign up for your newsletter on your website and blog posts then maintain the relationship with periodic production updates this will be the most direct way to reach your audience when you're ready for them to take action your website also serves as a social hub connecting visitors to your social media profiles social media is best used as a place to connect and engage with your audience it can be helpful to think of your social media efforts as community building rather than traditional marketing and outreach next up film festivals at first glance may appear to be distribution opportunities in a way they are film festivals help you get your film in front of an audience you even have a chance of earning some cash in the form of prize money however if you're hoping to make a profit from distributing your short film it helps to think of your festival run as part of your marketing strategy festivals serve as exceptional networking opportunities managers agents and distributors actively Scout the larger festivals for new talent paying special attention to the shorts program to find emerging talent these connections can help you find distribution channels for your film or funding for larger projects like a feature film submission requirements will vary for each festival so be sure to follow all instructions and provide all the requested materials your press kit will come in handy here each festival is different in its scope and range and it's important to know which festivals are worth the entry and which ones will help you reach your specific goals local and regional festivals are a great place to start but the connections a notoriety that come from a larger festival may be more beneficial to your career do lots of research before you submit festival entry fees can really add up press relations or PR is a way to expand your reach without spending any money once you have your website and social media profiles set up you can start reaching out to relevant blogs and publications for possible coverage this puts your film in front of their audience send your press kit to any publication blog or youtube channel with an audience who might be interested in your work invite bloggers journalists and other influential people out to watch your film or send them a private link so they can enjoy it on their own you may also want to include a press release highlighting any upcoming events or milestones connecting your film to a specific event will make your story more timely and relevant which means you're more likely to receive coverage good PR will also make your press kit more robust since you can use quotes from reviews as endorsements for your even just highlighting the fact that your film was featured in a high-profile publication can lend your film some clout paid advertising can help get your short films poster or trailer in front of more eyeballs but this strategy should only be used to serve a specific goal you may choose to buy an ad in a local newspaper to promote an upcoming screening but more often you'll run your ads online social media ads can be an approachable and affordable way to get your film in front of more people precise targeting and low minimum spend make this kind of advertising even more attractive Facebook and Instagram let you create a variety of rich media advertisements and with YouTube you can have your trailer run in front of similar content to tap into new relevant audiences if you're really ambitious you could consider running ads on IMDB or other sites where movie buffs hang out whatever route you choose create and place your ads with a specific goal in mind ask yourself what do I want the viewer to do after watching this ad then make sure the ad you create is serving that goal Marketing noir short film comes down to getting the right information in front of the right people at the right time more than anything else good marketing requires strategy start planning early so that your film can get the audience it deserves this is just one of 10 videos we offer on short filmmaking to watch the rest and get access to the short filmmaking checklist click the link in the description [Music]

Channel: Videomaker

Views: 16,855

Keywords: videomaker, video production, filmmaking

Id: kkm_TAA48Wc

Length: 11min 5sec (665 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020