How to market and sell your film
Over the past decade, everything has changed for the independent filmmaker. These days, there is no excuse not to make a feature film. But just as importantly, there is no excuse not to see your film production as a business. That means you don’t just have to focus on making the movie, you really need to have a strategy to make money from your movie.
Many filmmakers spend years making their first feature film, only to have their hopes of prosperity dashed at the first sign of rejection and disappointment. The festival circuit can be quite difficult. Throw in thoughts of a non-existent traditional distribution deal, and you might get pretty cynical.
To avoid some headaches, before you start shooting the camera, I recommend creating two idealized plans for how your film will make money:
PLAN A: You get everything you want. Their distribution is solid. You have a great audience. You are now financially free and have money in the bank for at least two more movies.
PLAN B: You did the festivals. You got the meetings (or maybe you didn’t) but nothing happened. You have a lot of hot air, but no action. If this happens, what is your strategy to make money from your film?
Generally speaking, here are some steps you can take to start selling your film:
1. Set up an account in CreateSpace. Present your film as a digital download, rental and physical sale. Unless you want to spend all your time shipping things, consider letting those people handle shipping and order fulfillment. Yes, they will take a large part. But at the same time, all you have to do is cash checks. Also, choose a price that ends in 7. For some reason, people like this number. $14.97 – maybe.
2. Redesign your website. Up to this point, it has had a website that features a ton of production photos and extra cute stuff from the movie. Get rid of all the extra stuff. Includes a high resolution trailer, a low resolution trailer and a “BUY NOW” button. It also includes one of those social media buttons that lets you tell your friends.
3. You will know if your trailer is not good. If people don’t buy your movie, consider upgrading your trailer. The trailer should reflect the best aspects of your movie, without giving everything away. It must address your target audience. If you’re missing the mark, cut back. Also, be sure to include a trailer on YouTube with a link to your website.
4. There are two ways people get traffic. Organic and paid advertising. When possible, go organic, but don’t spam. Do a Google search for SEO. Read everything you can about this. It will help you. If you decide to pay for traffic, you can do it online and offline. Offline would be in things like magazines etc. Online – well, here, online. Once again, make sure you are targeting your target audience.
5. Try, try and try again. Install Google Analytics on your website. This will tell you where your visitors are coming from, how long they stay on the site, and how many people they are converting into sales.
Finally, if you like this kind of thing, great. If you don’t, you’re out of luck. There are many producer marketing consultants who are willing to work with you and help you achieve your movie making goals!