Internet Marketing for my Indie Film

[mikebabz]

I have been producing a no budget feature length indie film for the last year now and we are almost done production.. it has definately been quite a struggle. Now I am working on creating some hype for our project over the internet. Underground filmmaker Marco Suave has been following us around and has so far created 2 "making of" episodes that i am using to get some hype going before we release our teaser. I want to get some initial interest going and have dove in to Youtube, Digg, Facebook, Myspace, Stumbleupon, and Delicious.... there are so many places to put these videos up... once they are up there how do i go about getting people to see them?
if you build it they will come... but how do they know that its even built!!

the making of videos are quite entertaining and are up on youtube here:

part one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2vIAq4Yv3k

part two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngr-n8GVdZs

I would really appreciate some feedback on some internet marketing tips, thank you so much for your time

Mike Babiarz

 

[mikebabz]

feedback

i would also really appreciate any feedback on these two clips.

i have been reading thru a lot of the posts and there are some very very helpful tips on driving traffic to your site and whatnot, great forums!!

mike

 

[devhaven]

Hey I'm struggling with the same issue a little. We have a website and have put some trailers up. To make people interested in your city is one thing, but to gain interest on the Internet is another. What I think needs to be done, is to make a viral trailer. Something that really grabs a viewers attention from the start and is different from everything else they have seen.

Check out our trailer http://youtube.com/watch?v=rNRuMD6GfhU . We made the film with only a few thousand dollars. Its not exactly an Internet success story, but you get what I mean by something at the beginning of the trailer that catches the viewers attention.

However, i havent exactly heard of too many micro-budget or no budget films having a huge Internet sucess.

Well that's my advice, let me know what you can think of.

 

[mdifilm]

Mike, this is just my opinion, the 2 videos you have are good for BTS footages for dvd package (like featurrette), for internet viewers, you want something fast, quick and short.

In a sense, most people watching the Internet video want something that can either be very stupid, or silly or very 'cool' that slow pace wouldn't exist. which is very hard.

One way to do this is to create a series of trailers that are meant to be 'exciting' (either drama, sex, explosion, action, whatever), to cut it with the best scenes you have and spread it all over.

or like what Devhaven said, create a virual video and spread it out. however, the way to spread it out is no longer as easier as it used to be.

Back in the old years, you can have one video, post online and you get a lot of attention, nowadays, thanks to all the website that can post home videos (youtube, myspace, facebook etc), you have to find the 'target' audience, and it's becoming extremely hard to do it.

One way, is to create a 'following' by visiting ALL websites that have forums like these (at least, from last SonnyBoo provided me, there is at least 125 or so forums that he chats on), and started networking there, and/or join myspace and youtube and facebook and whatever other sites (videooh, googlevideo, indieflix, IFC Media Lab, etc) and start getting a page up and start promoting your trailer there (post it there, post it everywhere).

It's hard but you will notice that slowly, your site visitors will increase.

THink of this like this: if you have a music band, and you have a show coming up at (let's say The Plaza), would you post the flyer about your show at every coffee shops, groccery stores, and telephone poles that you can possible fill it up with? this is the same with indie marketing, branding.

Get your name or the movie name out there and it'll start generating buzz...

 

[devhaven]

Hey, excellent reply. That is totally right. The more you mention you website or your trailer on forums and websites, and the more things link to each other, the better results you on see on Google too.

Is there any way I can get that list of forums?

Thanks

 

[directorik]

There is nothing that turns me off more than checking my favorite
forums and seeing a new person asking me to view and comment
on their movie. A filmmaker who doesn't bother to join in on any
discussion of the forum or even ask about the films of the other
filmmakers.

I rarely see a new person come to a forum and say, "I'd love to see
and talk about your work." - it's always "I'm new. Please look at and
discuss MY work."

I'd like to ask you guys, how do YOU find the work of other filmmakers
like yourself?

mdifilm mentions creating a following. How many filmmaker are you
currently following?

I hope you see my point. Everything you say is valid, but does it actually
work? As filmmakers we are always looking for that following, we are
always hoping that lots of people will find out movie and buy it. But do
WE find, follow and buy films from other filmmakers? If we aren't the
market, who is?

SonnyBoo is great at posting on forums and internet marketing. How
many of you bought a copy of "Horrors of War"?

 

[mdifilm]

There is nothing that turns me off more than checking my favorite
forums and seeing a new person asking me to view and comment
on their movie. A filmmaker who doesn't bother to join in on any
discussion of the forum or even ask about the films of the other
filmmakers.

I rarely see a new person come to a forum and say, "I'd love to see
and talk about your work." - it's always "I'm new. Please look at and
discuss MY work."

I'd like to ask you guys, how do YOU find the work of other filmmakers
like yourself?

mdifilm mentions creating a following. How many filmmaker are you
currently following?

I hope you see my point. Everything you say is valid, but does it actually
work? As filmmakers we are always looking for that following, we are
always hoping that lots of people will find out movie and buy it. But do
WE find, follow and buy films from other filmmakers? If we aren't the
market, who is?

SonnyBoo is great at posting on forums and internet marketing. How
many of you bought a copy of "Horrors of War"?

So, to respond to your question of how many people one had 'followed' other filmmakers? I'll be the first to respond.

To name a few: some IndieTalk members, and other forum members, Mike Conway, Peter John Ross, Christian Viel, late Neil Frederick, Steven Lebed, Al Leong, John Sheetz, Ray O'Neal, Bill Johns, Chayden (from batmanfanfilms), Neil, Eric, Thomas Gallagher of UK, Peter Field, Peter Sampson, almost all the Cleveland filmmaker yahoogroup members (300+ members on our list who post all the time), Bob Kuzman, Clive's blog (or I wouldn't have posted questions), Ted Sikora, Bob Gray, Ron, Mark Hamil, Marc Moser, Mark Bosco, Robert Banks, David Litz, Bill Laufer, Captain of Wreck Beach with his once in a while video post, a few others that when emailing me privately, people from dvxusers.com forums, people from myspace friend pages (all of my pages), people from facebook, people from tribehollywood, people from dv.com forum, other boards, hmmm, oh yeah, those who I got emailed from checking references of my sales rep and somehow I started learning of their success, filmspecific.com, and when I go to film festivals, I get to meet other indie filmmakers and we continue our communication, so, yeah, I think I can be very safe to say I did it and it worked.

I also have privately talked to many filmmakers to learn about their marketing stragety and distribution techniques and what worked at film markets, learning from what they did right and wrong that helped me with my current done feature film. So yeah, the indie filmmakers HELPED me to prepare for my film but... they not necessarily is your market...

In addition to be participating at filmmakers' forums, I am also at many other forums (cellphone forums, beta tester groups for software plug ins) - which is why RedGiant Software donated a bunch of their software plugins for The Rapture's usage, theatre groups, nonprofit org. etc. and I always keep my signature stating I'm a filmmaker and link to my pages, and surprisingly, they also draw a lot of interest, and more surprisngly, they are the one who buy my movies.

When I said go to forums and network, I am refering it to NETWORK and not to do a drive-by-posting, I do agree, I myself also hate that.

Also, the reality of 'our market' is not really the other indie filmmakers, because we are too critical of anyone's work, but our market is really, the audiences that will help you financially, the audience is what I would say, the people (or all the people) your film is marketed for. If you really want to make a movie and have the movie out to the masses, your target should be narrowed down to the type the movie is for, and how to get the audience to spread the word, but not necessarily to other independent filmmakers, BUT they are good to give you their POV, yet probably (80% of them) will not help promote you because they also need to promote their own movies, so you gotta look at the bigger picture on what are the way to 'spread' ur film out.

As for buying or having other indie films... I have plenty, I rarely buy them, but I trade with them, when I started to get some noise and good festivals run with my short film The Chase and on with A Joker's Card and now with The Rapture, I trade my films with others. A Joker's Card in particularly, was given away over 3000 copies (and we sold about 200 so far).... With The Rapture (which already sold to 3 territories and 5 pending now), I'll be giving to first the cast/crew and then to filmmakers that I've traded with (and so far, since 1 month ago, we only had sold about 25 copies based on small posting at indie forums and mainly word of mouth) As for SonnyBoo's HoW I have, and still keep, all the versions he gave me, because someday, they'll cost millions And so with Mike Conway's Terrarium (or now War of the Planets), Recon 2020 etc. I have very much rented a lot of films from Hollywood Videos that are independently based to see how/why they were distributed. I also buy a lot of foreign films from yesasia.com and other sites to learn how they did their films in a cheaper budget based.

Albeit, you are right, many newcommers' first post is "Hey, I made this, come check it out" or "Hey, I am giving a lecture, come to it" or "hey I have a great script tha will make millions, who want to shoot it?"

Johnny Wu

EDIT: I need to emphasize a bit on this: Having the biggest name out there all over the world doesn't necessarily means you are going to get everyone's support to buy or rent your film. However, by branding, you made yourself an "authority' figure and that by that along, will eventually HELP you in the long run.

 

[clive]

Internet marketing is a complex issue... and Johnny makes some valid very valid points.

The drop in and "will you look at my film/book/magazine" almost never works... partly because people generally assume that anyone new to a group is either a newbie, a scam artist or an idiot... (until they prove otherwise)

I've just experienced that myself... so, I announce that 1000dollarfilm is to become a magazine here and I get some pats on the back, because you guys know me and I'm an established part of the group... however, I do the same thing over at (%%EE..club) another film forum and get handed my ass in basket.

As a screenwriter, I ought to know better, because there are only really two stories... a person goes on a journey or a stranger comes into town

Now, with "a stranger comes into town" it's very rarely to the ringing welcome of the visitors and the offer of cherry pie... basically, it's always to the sound of sharpening pitch forks and the digging out of the "good lynching rope" LOL

The internet is composed of thousands of villages... where anyone running through with a billboard gets pelted with eggs

 

[mikebabz]

I would love to see what every filmmaker on here has to offer! I was just putting what I have done out there because i am proud of it and excited to start getting it out there.. if you want to check it out, great!! hit me back with some of your work!! How else are we going to see what each other has done. I joined this forum to become a part of a community not just peddle my wares. I have questions and you guys gave me answers, thanks so much. I have really started reaching out over the internet over the last couple weeks and have made some good friends, contacts and learned a lot about what i want to do with my film.
Also i have been too busy with production of the film over the last couple years to worry about getting it out there, now that its at a point where we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel i remembered there is a whole world out there and we better start creating some awareness about what we have been doing.

Anyways thanks so much for the replies, much appreciated.

Mike

 

[clive]

Hey Mike... you're welcome here at indietalk and I think this is the best film forum on the net... and trust me, I've been tarred and feathered out of every other one LOL

I think directorik is bang on when he says that online marketing comes with building a reputation and being a solid part of whichever community you're talking to.

What I'm trying to do at the moment is build up as many viral networking groups as possible, both in forums and also on facebook, which I know you already use.

I'm very aware that as a community film makers have real strength, and alone we all struggle.

That's the reason I set up the crazy 1000 group on facebook... the idea was to have a core group of 1000 filmmakers to use as a springboard for launching micro-budget films.

Filmmakers on facebook always gather as many friends as possible... but let's say they have sixty each... once the crazy 1000 is at full strength that's a primary market group of 60,000 people... all of whom are involved in social networking.

My guess is that more and more that kind of marketing is going to be the key in selling micro-budget films.

 

[kneko]

Okay, I'm totally late to this discussion. Clive, congrats on the magazine. Rock on!

So, I'm not a film guru, but in my day job as a market consultant I've watched the Web unfold over the last decade, actually I've studied it. I totally agree with Clive and mdifilm - it's about plugging into the right communities and the right networks where your work (whatever it is) will be most relevant. Getting a million eyeballs won't matter if they aren't interested in what you're doing. It's just traffic.

MikeBabz, for what it's worth, I watched your clips and the project looks interesting. I had a hard time following the first couple of minutes of Part 1 and the video quality could be better. I enjoyed Part 2 much more and liked your choice of music.

DevHaven, I saw your trailer...whoa. Beautiful shots. I'd love to see more.

I don't know if you guys are interested in video-on-demand. If you are, check out my latest venture, Eyesoda.com - I'm currently seeking new independent films, especially those optimized for the Web. I'd be happy to talk to both of you about the site and explore how we could work together to promote your films in my community. I hope you reach out: kneko@eyesoda.com.

warm regards, kneko