Is Anyone Watching?
People often ask, “how do I get people to see my film?”
Well, if you have hundreds of thousands of dollars, I suggest a great ad campaign. Don’t have that? Read on.
If you want people to see your films and have no money for advertising, there are a number of things you can do.
If you are on the festival circuit, make sure to not only promote your film but promote the other films in festival. First of all, it’s the nice thing to do and second of all, the hope is that those filmmakers will do the same and so their audience becomes your audience too and your audience becomes their audience. Everyone wins.
Once you are done with the festival circuit, put your film out to the world for free. Just release it to the world and don’t charge a dime. You can self release on many major platforms now so the sky is the limit for making it available.
Why free? Well, people pay for the their streaming services and when they select a movie to watch, even a movie that is well known, with people they have heard of, they hesitate to pay again. You are likely a person they do not know and your cast may be all “unknowns” as well so the chances that they will select to pay an additional fee for your film are slim to none.
The first thing you need to do is get those people watching so they become your fans and then maybe when you release something else, they will pay for the next one. Authors of books do this all the time. First one in the series is free. Then once you are hooked on their writing and their characters, the charges begin.
Also, once you have a film up online, and you get enough people watching and hopefully posting positive reviews, you can start charging for that film. You’ve built “street cred” and that may be enough to entice people to pay, if you price appropriately.
Social media and just asking helps. I ask. All the time. I have no pride.
Someone once advised me, “Be shameless and self-promote.”
Ask friends, colleagues and family members to go online and not only watch the film but post a review. And make that an honest, balanced review. People can see through the ones obviously written by family members. “I GIVE IT ALL THE STARS. IT’S PERFECT.” No film, especially an indie film on a lower budget is perfect. So those posts are just jokes and don’t count and can actually turn people off. So ask people to write three things they love about it and one thing they thought could be better. As in, “This film has a great vision, wonderful characters and a talented cast. I wish they could have had a bigger budget for effects as those are lacking a bit, but overall a great watch and fun watch. Highly recommend!’
In fact, you can copy and paste it and say replace the words in bold when posting. TADA! Instant reviews. Seriously, leave your pride behind. Prompt people. Ask for what you need.
Building a fan base is key. (And also building a social media following so there are people to promote to is vital.)
Once you have fans and people who want to watch your work, they will start recommending your films for you. And things will snowball.
Aren’t ready to self promote and feeling a bit overwhelmed? That’s okay, too. Put your film online and let it sit there for a months or years until you are ready. While it is sitting there, people will find it accidentally based on title or tags and they will watch it. Especially for shorter form content. Strangers in far off lands. People you never could have reached on your own. They will find it.
I know someone who posted a short and within a couple of years, without any promotion got a few thousand hits.
So if that happens, maybe that will build your confidence to do the self promotion and take it even further.
The key thing is to put the work out there. Don’t wait for that “big distribution deal” that hasn’t arrived after six months on the festival circuit…most of those make you little to no money anyway. Just put your work out there. You spent all that time making it, share it with the world.