Tips on how to promote your indie film
Once you get your film done, you have to promote. There are a lot of films out there competing for people’s attention and you have to set your film apart from everyone else’s. There is a right way and wrong way to do this. Pretending to be a fan of the film and spamming message boards about how “great” your movie is, is the wrong way to do this. You’re only going to piss people off. If you’re going to hit the message boards, post as yourself, be humble, and give the necessary info related to your film.
Now you can only go so far posting on message boards. You have to get people’s attention who don’t go to message boards. One way to do this is to send out screener copies to numerous websites that are open to reviewing independent films. Do a search on the web and you can find a bunch of websites like this.
Now here is the tip that will help you the most. I experimented with this recently to great effect. Now if you put up a website with your movie's info and trailer, you face an uphill battle trying to get people to your site. You desperately want people to view the trailer for your film but how do you get them to? Just recently sites like www.youtube.com and video.google.com/ have popped up. You can upload your trailer to these sites and your trailer will be viewed by an audience you never expected to watch it. In less than two months a trailer for a movie I worked on has been watched 5689 times between the 2 sites. That’s a lot of views for a no name indie film. When you upload your trailer to either or both of these sites, be sure to put a link to your movie’s website and a link to where they can buy the film.
I hope these little tips help you and if other filmmakers have tips, please post them. Edited by: GaySerialKiller at: 3/16/06 7:50 pm
Re: Tips on how to promote your indie film
What methods do you use to promote people watching them on YouTube and video google? Do people just stumble across them? Or do you use the message boards in that sense? Have you ever used filmmaker myspace? I just registered one myself and I think it could be really helpful.
Re: Tips on how to promote your indie film
The cool thing about google video and youtube is you don't need to promote your trailer. People are searching these sites for stuff to watch and they just come across your stuff. I've done practically no promotion for the trailer. People just found it. It's great unobtrusive advertising. I haven't tried filmaker myspace yet, let us know how it works for you.
Edited by: GaySerialKiller at: 3/17/06 12:13 am
Re: Tips on how to promote your indie film
I'm paying a PR firm a couple hundred to promote Gainesville Ripper. It's only $200 to cover every paper,mag,tv show and trade paper in California. It's worth every penny.
Re: Tips on how to promote your indie film
I only have dial up,and was planning to pick up a camera and dvd-burner soon. How long do you think it would take to upload a video file online? Is it possible or will it take forever like it does if I send a small 10 second video clip through email?
Re: Tips on how to promote your indie film
I'd use a friends house or work or school or something. Dial up is a headache and a half for uploading something like a video, unless you compress the hell out of it and thus just make it look shitty.
Re: sorry
unspeakable has been VERY good to us for everything we have ever done. The even post about our stuff before we get a chance to. I can't say enough good things about them. So hit them up if you got something you want to get noticed.
Re: Tips on how to promote your indie film
Here's another site where you can post your trailer or other things. The cool thing about this site is they don't care if your clip has nudity and gore. Google video and youtube can sometimes give you a hassle over content:
Re: re:
I don't think a trailer should be graphic anyway. Surprise the audience with it rather than spill the beans before hand. YouTube is getting huger and huger so i think its the best one to put a trailer on.
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