I thought the crowdfunding was the way to get your project out there and most of the other things you said.
I think that's a popular misconception. Kickstarter, Indiegogo and the rest don't do any promotion or marketing for you. Crowdfunding is a tool for raising money for a project from a large number of people - nothing more. It can certainly be used strategically as a component in a comprehensive marketing plan, but in and of itself it's not a form of promotion. And like I said before - crowdfunding doesn't work without a crowd. If you don't have a crowd you need to figure out a way to find one.
If people need to spend so much time creating interest it's forced. Something worthy will create it's own interest soon enough.
Any examples of how people gain interest would help me but you either have something that does well or it doesn't. If it takes forever to gain minimal interest it wasn't ever going to
I hate to say it but that's a very naive way of looking at things. There are countless 'worthy' projects that never gain much interest because people just don't know about them. There is a ton of noise out there, and if you can't figure out a way to get people's attention it doesn't really matter how worthy your project is. How long it takes you to build that interest isn't necessarily a measure of the project - it's a measure of your approach (or lack thereof) to promotion.
Think of it this way - you're standing in a large auditorium full of thousands of people. At one end of the auditorium is a stage with a PA system. Every 10 minutes someone gets up on stage to tell people about their movie over the PA system. You want to build some interest in your own project too by telling the audience about it.
Now obviously the quickest and easiest way to do this is to get up on stage and use the PA system - you'll reach everyone in the room at once, and you'll command their attention because you're the loudest thing in the room. There's just one problem - lots of people want to use the PA to promote their own projects, and there's only a limited amount of time on stage available. So the owners of the PA system can charge for that time, and it's very expensive - they want $100,000 each time you get up there to talk. No problem if you've got a large marketing budget, but way out of reach for most indie projects unless you are independently wealthy.
Now a second option would be to find someone in the crowd with money and partner with them - get them to pay for the time on the PA in exchange for a share of the sales that result from it. The problem with this is that there's only a few people in the crowd with that kind of money, and lots of people trying to partner up with them, so it's hard to get a chance to talk to them and difficult to convince them to choose your project over the others. So it's going to take some more time and effort than the first option because you have to seek out the people with money in the crowd and convince them of the merits of your project.
A third option would be to introduce yourself to the people standing next to you, get to know them and then tell them about your film. Then you walk over to some other people and do the same thing, and continue doing so as you make your way through the crowd. This is far less expensive than using the PA, but it's going to take a lot of time and effort to reach a large number of people. If you stick with it and do it steadily over time you can let a lot of people know about your project without spending much money. Additionally, your project may be more than just another generic movie to them because they'll know you personally from your conversations with them - so they'll feel more of a personal connection to it. And because of that they may be more likely to tell other people about it, or tell others to come talk to you - which can help you reach more people over time than you can physically reach yourself.
A final option would be to just stand there and wait for people to come ask you about your project. The problem is that most people probably aren't going around asking other people about their projects, so you won't end up with many people finding out about yours - no matter how good it is. You'll also only reach the people who are nearest to where you stand, or who happen to walk by at a moment where they are seeking out films. It's going to take a very, very long time to get any significant buzz going, and it's very likely it will never happen at all.
The first option is traditional advertising - TV, radio, print, etc. The second option is the typical route of finding a distributor for your film. The third option is using social media to build an audience and a personal brand. And the final option is just waiting for your film to be discovered.
Of the four options the last one is certainly the easiest to do, but also by far the least likely to be successful - it's the equivalent of playing the lottery and hoping you'll be the one out of millions who win without putting any effort in. The first is also pretty easy - assuming you've got plenty of money. If you don't have a lot of money, but are hoping to be successful, the second and third options are the only realistically viable ones. And the second option gets a lot easier if you've already taken the third approach - because an existing fan base/audience makes you more attractive to a potential distributor.
