NW Film Financing: Movie Marketing

Today I made my way down to the Red Lion to sit on a panel about movie marketing. The funny thing is I have only marketed one film in my life, so I am not sure I was super qualified, but it was interesting none the less. I was on the second panel of the day that consisted of four people. The others were experts in social marketing, film festivals and getting your movie exhibited (in movie theaters). The panel before mine was all local film makers. I am sure this was a lot more interesting and probably more pertinent to the people in the room as they were all making or aspiring to make movies. That said, I think the presentation went pretty well.

I showed a short video that gives an overview of the marketing we did for Coraline, and then gave an overview of my involvement. I got a lot of questions about social marketing and how people could get the word out. While most of these people are making movies for $100,000 or less, less than what we spent on making our trailer, I think there are a lot of parallels. There is no doubt you are going to have to make a good film to get it widely seen and you are probably not going to make money. Once you come to terms with this, there are a lot of things independent film makers can do to get their movie seen.

Instead of investing a lot of money in a website, I suggested they try to get attention where people may have natural connections to their films. For example, I talked to one person who is making a film about street dogs in Chile and the people who try to help them. She was looking for funding help, which I am no expert on, but I suggested there would be a huge audience across the US of people involved in animal rights. If she were to go on tour and screen the finished film to people involved in these types of organizations, I am sure they would help promote it for her. I was surprised at how little people had thought about the potential audiences for their movies, as everyone I meet seems to have an opinion on how they could do my job better.

One of my favorite panelists was Kelley Baker. He is a local film maker that Barbara knows and he has been quite successful, i.e., he doesn't make any money, but this is his full-time job. I should clarify that by saying I doubt he makes any money on his films. He has been the sound designer on several of Gus Van Sant's features and he uses that money as well as his constant fundraising efforts to make his own films. In fact, he once sent out 100 letters to friends asking for $100 to make a movie, all he offered in return were tickets to the premier. We contributed to that effort as did 48 other people. If you want to check out Kelley's films or buy his book on making the extreme no-budget movie check out his website, the Angry Filmmaker.