I get a number of emails from folks regularly asking us about distribution possibilities and creative ways to promote their films. The areas of distribution and promotions are two which we intend to expand in order to make the magazine more useful in all areas of filmmaking. Additionally, we're still trying to open up doors for filmmakers to get varying forms of theatrical and internet distribution.
In the mean time, however, there are a few innovative suggestions I can now make that tap into some of the information we’ve compiled in the last year or so. Some of it may be common sense, but you'd be shocked at how many people don't do some extremely common sense things. Others are less well known and may get you thinking in entirely new ways.
1) Create a killer website. The snappier looking your website, the more likely it is to get people to take your film seriously. For folks who want a Flash website but don't know Flash, the new Adobe Premiere Pro with Encore CS3 will export an entire DVD as a Flash website. This is very useful as it allows you to use the skills you normally use in making a DVD to make your website without knowing any Flash scripting languages. (To read our review of Adobe’s Creative Suite: CS3 which covers this feature, check it out here.)
As a web designer myself, I do recommend that your website be no larger than 800 px wide by 600 pix high, as this makes it easily viewable to most online users. (The Premiere Pro/Encore CS3 package only exports out 640 px wide by 480 px high, which was the previous standard for websites. It's still used by a lot of Flash websites, so it's not that big a detriment.) For selling your DVDs, you can link to your CreateSpace account (more on this later) or set up a free PayPal account, which will allow you to take Paypal and Credit Card payment.
2) Create an exciting and compelling trailer. Trailer edting can be a real nightmare for many filmmakers, as editing a trailer is very different than editing a film. However, this is a necessary art form for getting people to seriously want to buy your film. As this is such a well-guarded secret, we had trailer genius Mike Flanagan write an in-depth article on doing so, which you can read here.
Once you have your trailer designed, make sure you place it on your website, so folks can watch it and become excited to buy your film. It's a good idea to put it in a few different formats, including a downloadable format like .AVI or .mov for folks whose internet connections aren't fast enough for streaming. (Some creative filmmakers have taken these first two steps further by doing them before they even shoot their film! They include a write up on an upcoming film, a Speculative Trailer with standins and mockups to get people excited about the potential finished product, and then put up a PayPal setup so people can donate to their film endeavor. This can be a great way to raise both money and awareness for an upcoming film before you get into production on it.)
3) Get a CreateSpace account. (http://www.createspace.com) Formerly known as CustomFlix, this company was started by the folks that created Cleaner for Mac and has turned the heads of many people in the music, book making, and film industry. Basically, you upload your film as part of a digital DVD along with cover art and liner notes. Then, CreateSpace and their owner, Amazon.com, posts your film on both sites. Whenever someone orders a copy of your film, they print the DVD at their headquarters, ship it to the person, and pay you a cut of the profits. Very simple and you don't have to buy a bunch of DVDs from the printer ahead of time. (Although you can choose to do this at bulk rates.) In addition, you can set up a storefront at CreateSpace and make your film available as a pay-per-download from Amazon.com's new Unbox service. Feel free to read an interview Mike Flanagan did with Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, the co-founder of CustomFlix/CreateSpace, earlier this year.
4) See if you can get your film in the hands of some of the "Drivers" from MobMov. If you haven't heard of MobMov, you're not alone. Up until recently, I hadn't heard of them either. They're a group that is trying to bring the drive-in experience back to the masses. They do this by showing movies free of charge from mobile, car-mounted projectors and organizing shows the way flash-mobs are organized. (ie, over the internet and via text services.) While you won't make money directly from getting in with these guys, you will gain something much more valuable: publicity. If people see your film at a Mob-Mov event and like it, then they'll come to your site and buy it. We recently reprinted an article about starting a MobMov Drive in and getting more information on this movement.
As you can see, the overall layout of these previous ideas relate directly to selling your film on DVD. If you want to go straight to theaters, start with the website and trailer recommendations, then submit your film to whatever festivals seem appropriate to you, making sure to keep appropriate press packets readily available if you get accepted. Festival distribution services like WithoutABox.com easily allow you to get in touch with different festivals and apply to them are helpful ways to do this. However, this can be a costly way to go about things, as each festival requires an entry fee and, if you aren't immediately accepted at Sundance or Tribeca, you could easily go through some cash in this area.
Additionally, with exceptions of certain standouts like the HiLo (High Concept, Low Budget) Film Festival, most film festivals have no budgetary restrictions, which means that a microfilmmaker with an $1100 film is likely to compete to be selected for the festival against studio-backed "Indie" films with budgets between $5 million to $20 million. Both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction fell into this well-financed group, yet they enjoyed the artistic "credibility" of being chosen for Sundance. (Despite this dichotomy, a well-designed website can help you get selected in this area, although it often does so through a rather convoluted path. Roger Ingraham’s $9200 vampire chronicle, Moonlight, was selected for 2006’s Sundance Festival when an agent from the William Morris Agency happened to come across the well-designed Moonlight website and caught the trailer. The agent was so intrigued by the trailer that he offered to represent Ingraham and the film, campaigning successfully with the Sundance officials to get Moonlight into the festival. Obviously, this isn’t a common scenario, but it does drive home the importance of a well-designed website.)
For those of you who are interested in hearing one account of navigating the festival circuit by one of the most talented filmmakers we've seen, then check out Mike Flanagan's fascinating article on this topic and self-distribution.
For folk who would like a shot at distributing their films in traditional indoor theaters without the meddling of Hollywood, we did do an interview with Lance Weiller, the co-director of ‘99’s underground digital sensation, The Last Broadcast. For 2006’s Head Trauma, his follow up feature, he was able to put his film on an InDex portable hard drive/video output system and take it to theaters in a sort of film tour. (Not unlike a rock band going on tour with their music.) While this requires a lot of pre-planning, it’s actually fairly affordable and worth taking a look at if you would like to get your film into national theaters without wading through the wirlpools of Hollywood theatrical distribution. Read his entire insightful interview here.
Hopefully these give you some ideas for how to get the word out about your movie and how to promote it that you might not have thought of before now.
