Greater exposure for my films

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pacey1800

I used to have a Youtube page that was specifically dedicated to the short films I was making, but I decided to take it down mainly because of some weird comments that I was getting from people about them. Granted, my early work wasn't exactly focused, but I'm wondering if I should try this again, just to get people to watch, or if I should just not do it, because it'll get lost in the shuffle of all the usual silly crap that is on Youtube. I finished a short mini-doc that I linked to here, and aside from a few people outside the forum, including the subject of the documentary, I haven't gotten any reaction to it at all, and because it's not really technically fancy or slick or big-budget or anything, I'm wondering if I should still try to submit it to festivals. What do you all think?
 
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The world is full of filmmakers. Those filmmakers have their work on multiple platforms, (vimeo, youtube, websites, etc.) In my opinion, just posting on youtube isn't enough. How do you expect these people to just stumble upon your work? Creating content is only part of the journey. You need to start putting your work in front of people rather than sit and wait for people to find it!

Think of interesting ways to get your work in front of people's noses!
 
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I know, but I have absolutely no idea how to do that. The only real possibility would be festivals, but I'm simply not sure. I'm just one guy here, with a very limited budget, and I just don't know what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
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Pay for advertising. That's what most of the world does. Even suer small ad budgets (talking under $10 a month) have generated thousands of views for me on YouTube. Bigger ones do better. But yeah, inter ads, billboards, TV and radio commercials, magazines, etc... Sure it costs money, but when you're selling a product it takes money to make money.
 
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I also agree with the above post. Try and get it on as many platforms as possible. As well as YouTube there is vimeo, metacafe and dailymotion (I think that's what they're called). A Facebook page, myspace, bebo etc, etc. also, it may sound lame but try and get a celeb to retweet a link to you video on twitter.

more conventionally, see if a local newspaper want to write an article on you or review your work. From there it can be spread word of mouth
 
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I already have a Vimeo page, and I honestly thought that the local paper would have done an article on that festival that I was in (not necessarily only on my film, but on the others that were shown as well), but they didn't. As much as I hate to say this, I really know nothing whatsoever about distribution at all. The celebrity idea, though, just my opinion, sounds rather ridiculous. I really don't use Twitter, I don't really get the purpose for it, and I'm thinking it would be a real stretch for me to reach out to celebrities, especially because I'm relatively new and have no real reputation to speak of as a filmmaker. Thanks, though, for the advice, but I'm just not sure at this point.
 
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as ridiculous as it sounds thousands of people get retweeted by celebs daily. not to everyones choosing but think of it this way, most z list celebs have around 100,000 followers just tell them they are the best thing since sliced bread and you get a retweet of your video.

in regards to the local paper I think the best approach is to be proactive. call them, tell them about your project, tell them it was at a local festival etc etc. as with anything it's going to be hit and miss but the more you plug the more chance you'll get of ppl seeing it
 
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pacey1800 said:
I know, and you're right. I'm just not sure what the best way to get that attention is.
Click to expand...

make good films, it's the best way to get noticed.

i look at yt as a place to upload vids and a free web page for my stuff. they only promote unfunny people and crap music so you're not going to get help from them to promote your vids. post your vids on different sites and any other forums you participate in. i find i get more feedback and response from some non filmmaking sites than from here, even if it is them saying it is shit or whatever lol at least they're watching and someone might like it.

i haven't submitted to any festivals because i'm not ready yet, but my first short film was shown at a fest (the writer entered it) and now might be shown around the uk because someone saw it and liked it. so just believe in your work and get it out there.
 
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Thanks very much. I honestly do believe in my work, and I always set out to make the best films I can make within the budget framework I have. I think, though, now that I consider this issue, that maybe this idea I put in my mind that film festivals would somehow disqualify or discount my work because of any low budget production values was just silly on my part. I think, for now anyway, that festivals might be the only real outlet for my work, and not necessarily Youtube, precisely because if I were to put it on Youtube, it would be lost amidst all the stupid stuff that is posted there.
 
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I'm still not sure you're getting it. Of course if you just put your film up on YouTube and then sit back and wait for people to find it nothing will happen - it'll get lost amidst all the stuff that is posted there, stupid or not. In fact I wouldn't worry too much about getting lost amid the stupid stuff, I'd worry about getting lost among all the good stuff... but that's beside the point.

If you want people to watch your film online it doesn't matter where you host it, you have to get out there and actively work to get it in front of an audience. That may mean posting it in forums, or contacting popular blog authors and asking them to watch and post about your film, or starting your own blog to build an audience over time, or asking your facebook friends to post it to their accounts, or buying ads on youtube, facebook, google, etc, or sending press releases to your local papers, or entering them in festivals, or putting on your own screenings. Or, more likely, all of the above.

The advantage of hosting it on youtube is that if you can get enough views through the above actions then you may start to pick up more organically from the network effect of youtube's size. But you have to do the work first to get that started.

I'm not sure why you think festivals will be the best or only outlet - the reality is only a very small percentage of films submitted get into most festivals, so it's not necessarily any more likely you'll get in than blowing up on youtube. And while you'll likely be competing against a smaller pool of videos than on youtube, you'll be competing against higher average quality than youtube as well - so your film will have to be that much better to stand out. Again, it's just as easy to get lost among the good films as it is amidst all the crap on youtube.

LastSunsetFilms said:
make good films, it's the best way to get noticed.
Click to expand...

I'd have to disagree, at least in part. I think making good films is simply the most basic starting point to getting noticed... but a good film that nobody knows about doesn't do you any more good than a bad one. If a film plays in the forest , and no one's there to see it, does it matter how good it is? You have to do the work to reach an audience; if you wait for them to come to you, you'll probably be waiting a long time.

So make good films, and do whatever you have to to put them in front of people who will take notice; it's the best way to get noticed.
 
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