You don’t need to be rich to promote your indie flick.
For those who love filmmaking but don’t have an endless supply of cash, there are other options. Now, just for full disclosure, I’m not personally a filmmaker. But I am good at creating visibility online, and I work with a film and video production company. So I’m in the industry, but I’m not in it the same way a filmmaker is in it.
What that means is I’m not “stuck” in the problem the same way a starving filmmaker might be, so I can offer a different perspective. But I’m around filmmakers enough to be aware of the promotional issues and lack of cash that can accompany producing your own film.
Let’s face it, filmmaking is an expensive proposition any way you look at it. Just the equipment alone is pretty pricey. No point in making a crappy looking film, so compromising on the right look isn’t an option. Fortunately, Canon DSLRs are paving the way to reducing these costs, and they are closely followed by innovators in lighting and rigs.
By actual calculation, The Association determined that using Canon DSLRs allowed us to reduce filming costs by up to 85%. That’s a pretty sizable reduction. Not only are the cameras a lot smaller (requiring less people to handle them) but since Canon DSLRs can use available light, it requires less equipment for that great shot.
Shooting by Candlelight from The Association/Canon Boot Camp on Vimeo.
When lighting is required, LED lights are leading the way in reduction of heat, size and cost. We’ve started using Zabolights in our Canon HDSLR camera classes and their quite friendly in all aspects. Stay tuned to our blog for future demo videos on Zabolights.
But back to promoting your films. I’ve written about blogging before, but it bears repeating. No matter what you are filming, there’s an audience out there that’s going to like your work. And be willing to donate or pay for tickets or whatever. Exactly how you end up interacting with that audience is up to you and them, but if your film, your work or you never make it in front of that audience, you won’t be able to interact.
Blogging is hands-down one of the most inexpensive and best ways to get in front of any audience. Why? Because everyone who’s online knows how to use Google to search! And they are there searching for you already, but if your work isn’t represented online, they’ll never find it.
It takes time (start early!) but once you build up visibility, you’re in! There’s no waiting for someone else to approve you or give you link karma, it’s just you and your words. Without getting super technical, there’s only a few things you need to do to achieve success in the online arena:
- Blog daily, 150-500 words. About anything is better than nothing.
- Be yourself, write about things that interest you, keep it real. Communicate your passion.
- Blog daily.
- Blog daily.
- Did I mention blog daily?
If you did nothing else but blog daily, you’d win eventually.
This is because most sites that compete for that first page of a Google Search blog often, but only a small percentage blog often or daily. Every blog post is a “page” to Google, and the number of pages a site has is a huge factor in showing up at all. If you blog unique, relevant content that other people interact with, Google will love you and include you in their search results. Eventually you’ll make it to the top.
Is there more to know about blogging? Of course. But it’s pointless to learn more if don’t master the discipline of blogging daily. That’s the hard part, but it gets easier if you just do it. And Do it. And Do it.
For a 45 minute primer on how blogging and online promotion works (in basic terms), check out my free video.
Got some tips of your own? Please share in the comments below.