This is really bad advice. Especially the marketing advice. Especially the $100 advice. Especially the "hope" advice that says if you do your best without really thinking, something will happen. It won't. You have to become far larger and stronger that this post insinuates before you stand a chance.
Blair witch project is the poster child for a fluke project that is not replicate-able on any significant scale. People talk about it like they've seen a new formula for cinema, but the evidence strongly opposes that view. I estimate 20,000 people telling each other "found footage is the way" this year, and 1 successful found footage film per decade. Marketing for blair witch was in the millions.
At last count I had 1.1 million internet views across multiple networks, mostly Vuze. It did absolutely nothing for me. Nobody in the industry surfs youtube for employees.
What i am saying here is not just from my fantasy but i have experience in online marketing. I have been selling ebooks and e-courses online. That's how i earn my daily bread. So i know what i am talking about. And most of my online promotions is free or as good as free.
People are open to new things when they are on internet and they DO BUY A LOT online.
Sure, selling books and online courses and movies might be a different thing, BUT same buying principles apply IMO...
It may be difficult initially but you can gradually build up a viewer base and build email list or start a blog and inform them about your latest work.
I am sure that there is a NEED amongst people who would love to watch a good movie even if there is not a famous actor involved. It has happened several times in the past.
And if there is a need, you CAN exploit that need to offer them a product and make money hence forth.
Yes, all this is not easy as a PIE but it is VERY doable.
another example would be movies that are shown on TV.
If you can convince TV channels managers that your movies have viewers (on youtube etc) you can get them to licence your work to be shown on TV. And i don't think that TV is a bad medium for making money (though the amount of money indie guy can make this way can vary a lot)
Justin beiber and many others have got into mainstream media because of YouTube.
Most of the times TV channels will pay you 50% of the revenue of advertisements. Not bad for an indie movie.
The best part of going on a micro budget is you can
take risks and try something new. Hollywood guys can't do that.
Slumdog millionare was not exactly an indie movie but still can be considered as a small budget movie and it did nt had any famous actor in it.
Blair witch project was marketed online and online marketing surely can be replicated I am not talking about artistic aspect of it but online marketing part...
For the advertising part
don't under estimate the power of internet and youtube. You can literally reach millions of people for pennies and even using free services like email and blogging twitter etc.
The electronic medium has literally made it possible. There are people writing and selling books on amazon without even going to publishing houses.
The viral nature of web 2.0 and social networking scene can do wonders.
The only condition is that what you are promoting should have quality, without that even millions of marketing budget would fail.
Don't forget other alternative ways of making money with your movies
- Find sponsors or affiliate marketing. There is a lot of opportunity here. you can tie up with any online website and offer ads between your video. FilmRiot on youtube is a good example who does that.
- YouTube has a partner program and pays decent money, there are several others.
- You can show first part or 20 minutes of your movie as a teaser for free on youtube and ask people to pay for download or full view.
- You can sell things related to movie posters to the viewers.
Again, i think these ideas are worth trying.
Nobody can tell what the result would be
until we try..
A good story can lead to WORD OF MOUTH publicity and is the best tool for getting more audience. In fact there are many classic movies that were a box office fail but gradually caught up became HIT because of word of mouth.
The only condition >> you gotta do QUALITY work!
"The more eyeballs = more money" if that's not the case with you then you are just not doing it the right way...
streamline the process and it should work!