The Amish Do Not Watch Movies Image via Wikipedia

As a filmmaker your success depends on your ability to stand up and proclaim “I have a movie idea!” The trick is figuring out which of your many movie ideas actually have a chance of flickering across the big screen. And beyond imagination, which of your many movie ideas have the best chance for success?

As a serious entrepreneurial filmmaker you may have heard a lot of different advice when it comes to making movies. In fact most filmmakers will tell you it’s better to take action and do something rather than doing nothing. And while I agree with this sentiment, in a world flooded with cheaply produced backyard indies, I urge you take a few moments to consider your chances for making money.

Choose Your Movie Based on Demand

Before you turn your movie idea into a movie, I recommend that you consider your niche audience and create a marketing plan for reaching them.

What is Niche Movie Marketing?

Niche movie marketing is simply taking the time to evaluate how your movie ideas will relate to a very targeted audience. For example, the horror genre is very broad. It includes slasher flicks, stalker flicks, gore flicks, zombies, vampires, psychos and killer aliens. But using this example, your goal is to find a niche within the genre. Killer Clowns would be an even tighter niche. And Killer Clowns From Outer Space would be even tighter.

In the same regard, finding your movie marketing niche is not solely defined by the genre. For example, you might choose instead to market your movie to a particular demographic, such as college students. And in doing this, you may opt to focus all efforts on college publications and hosting screenings on campus.

You might even break it down further. Maybe you will choose to create an Amish Teen Horror movie and focus your marketing towards the Amish communities of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Idaho. In this context, your movie marketing niche would revolve around geography. By the way, I do not recommend creating an Amish Teen Horror, as the Amish are not a culture who watch movies.

So what is the major benefit for finding your movie marketing niche?

Movie Niche Internet Traffic

Many movie marketers have found out that trying to market to everybody is cost prohibitive. It is far easier to find your niche and concentrate all efforts to spreading word of mouth and encouraging audience engagement. In the years to come independent filmmakers will become increasingly dependent on internet traffic to drive movie sales.

If your movie website does not “speak” your visitor, then they will bounce off your movie website and never come back. It is significantly easier to sell your movie to someone who already loves the types of movies you’re selling. For example, a teen love story is not going to appeal to the same audience as the Killer Clown movie.

When you choose a movie idea that already has an established niche audience, it is much easier to optimize your movie website to not only attract your intended visitor, but convert these folks into paying movie watchers. These people come to your website because they are searching for your type of movie. And the cool part? Utilizing several internet traffic estimators, modern moviemakers can find out how many people are searching for movies within a particular genre.

Building Community Around Your Filmmaking

With the emergence of non-discriminatory movie distribution, you must remember that YOU are responsible for building your audience. The amount of people who know you and like you and buy your movies will determine your success.

If you don’t mind the idea of becoming “that guy,” creating several movies marketed to a well defined target audience makes it much easier to develop a following of people who enthusiastically devour your movies. And once established, having a following provides you with the opportunity to really get to know your audience. Which makes it much easier to say: “I have a movie idea.”

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If you liked this article, you’ll love the independent producer’s guide to Movie Distribution.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

We all know movies begin with a screenplay. And as a talented up-and-coming filmmaker, you probably noticed that a lot of the movies being made these days are crap. And you probably think you can do better.

The good news is, you’re probably right!

A few years back, I read screenplays for a producer in NYC… And I learned a few things. The biggest lesson I learned was that most screenplays floating around the market are crap. And I’m not just talking about new screenwriters.

I remember reading screenplays from working, established writers that just seemed underdeveloped. Add the enormous amount of material that came from friends of friends and other producers and I was able to see first-hand how much garbage is floating around out there.

So I can tell you, if you have any talent as a writer, the odds are stacked in your favor. Write a good script!

SCREENWRITING

I’m assuming you want to make a movie. So I’m not going to provide too much advice on how to “sell” your screenplay.

That being said, weither you plan on producing your own material or selling it, there are still a few factors applicable to your end-goal. The first thing you have to do is write.  And that means actually sitting down and forcing yourself to put words on an otherwise blank screen.

If this is difficult for you, you might consider finding a writing partner and then sharing a story credit.

Here is the down and dirty lesson for today:

ACTIONS

1. Get some screenplay software. Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter are the industry standard. Or you could do a Google search for “free screenwriting software.”
2. Once you have the software, consider writing a feature script on the cheap. Think in terms of limited locations, with limited actors, with a short schedule that you can eventually shoot with limited equipment on HD video.
3. Consider making things funny. Some people think horror comedy works pretty well.
4. The story should be fun with a STRONG, marketable CONCEPT.
5. The name of the game is FUN. If you can’t have fun, you’re doing something wrong.

Putting the final polish on a screenplay is an amazing accomplishment. But just make sure you’ve created your best work. As they say, you only get one chance to make a good first impression – that same thinking applies to your screenplay.

You only get one chance to grab the attention of a potential actor or department head who may or may not decide to help you with your project. Two screenwriting books you might want to check out are: Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting and How to Write a Movie in 21 Days.

And one more resource (It’s my own) – The Indie Producer’s Guide To Writing Screenplays That Sell

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under SCREENWRITING

One of the first accomplishments most filmmakers check off their list is the short film. If you’ve never made a short film, you’re in luck. Not only are there a gazillion film festivals that offer a short  movie program, but with so many websites, like YouTube and Meta Cafe’, you have the ability to reach a global audience.

MAKE SOME MORE SHORT FILMS

In the old days, the short movie was often projected in theaters before the feature presentation. Then later, the short movie seemed to disappear. The market for shorts wasn’t great. And it was almost impossible to make money with a short film – so finding investors for a short was super challenging.

While I can’t say that the economics of short movie making has improved dramatically, I have noticed an emergence of viral marketing associated with fun movies, as well as short web series which remind me of the old-old-old days when radio filled the airwaves with Saturday morning serials.

But regardless, the short movie is still great training ground for feature filmmakers. And if you haven’t yet made a short, you can make the process simple or complex. The following action steps should help:

ACTIONS

1. In the event you have not yet made a short movie, write one or two page scripts and then produce your story on a borrowed camcorder.
2. Edit the footage on a friend’s computer.
3. Upload the footage to video sites like YouTube. Test audience reaction. Is it good or bad? Learn from it. Then make another video… Then another… Then another.
4. Once you feel confident with short storytelling, move on to bigger and bigger projects.
5. Keep pushing yourself. Keep refining and learning!

101 Short Film Ideas

If you follow these steps and continually work to improve your movie making craft, you’ll be much more prepared than the guy who never made a short, who maxes out his credit cards to make his first feature.

So, you can choose to make your mistakes now, or make them later. It’s up to you. But regardless, GET MOVING!

Happy filmmaking!

Posted under FILMMAKING

Do not make a movie unless you know how to access your movie niche audience. I know the drill – you probably think this filmmaking advice is way too business oriented. I don’t care.

A few years back, I got involved in a project “for the love” without considering who would actually buy the movie. Guess what? The movie died. The movie did not make money. And several of my friends are still paying off their credit cards. That was stupid. Avoid this.

Filmmaking is more fun when you can cash checks.

So how do you find you niche target audience? It begins with your USP (your unique selling proposition). Answer these questions:

1. What is your movie about?
2. Is there an audience for your movie?

Some of you will have silly answers to these questions. You’ll say, “YES! My movie is appealing to everybody.” And I’ll say – “well guess what? Everybody is nobody!” Here is my rule of thumb… If there is a print magazine devoted to your subject matter, then those subscribers are your target audience. If you cannot find a print magazine, then odds are good that your niche is too small or not profitable.

The other thing you can do is find some keywords related to your movie and use Google’s Keyword traffic estimator to find out if anybody is actually searching for your topic.

1. Goto:Keyword Tool
2. Type your search term. Make sure you put your keywords in quotes, like this: “Filmmaking Stuff”
3. Hit submit.
4. Once you get results, look for a box on the left-hand-side that says “exact.” Click that box and submit again…
5. The search data will be displayed.

This information will let you know if there is a market for your movie. If there is, then your next step in this process is to test your concept. To do this, set up a crowdfunding campaign at one of the following sites:

1. www.indieGoGo.com
2. www.KickStarter.com
3. www.crowdfundingmovies.com

With a crowdfunding campaign, you’ll be able to test your concept long before you jump into your project two feet first…

If you liked this filmmaking article, please Tweet about it (utilize the little box at the beginning of this article.)

Posted under FILMMAKING

For filmmakers, the demand is HIGH for quality filmmaking and screenwriting how-to material and solutions. Make Your Movie Now! offers filmmakers with easy to follow, step-by-step action guides so that filmmakers can work to to make their movie now!

The following video provides information on becoming a filmmaking affiliate:

Filmmaking Stuff Affiliate Link

If you are interested in finding out more, follow this link to become a Filmmaking Stuff affiliate

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Posted under Filmmaking News

Super 8 Image via Wikipedia

Like most filmmakers, I constantly spend my life pushing myself from project to my next project. I have been in LA for close to six years, and in that time, I’ve garnered producer credits on four features. Pretty fun.

But I gotta tell you, as we enter the remaining six months of 2011, I am trying very hard to do a little less grinding, and hopefully finding time to have a lot more fun.

Yesterday I sat through two movies. And during that time, with my phone turned off, I realized once again why it’s awesome to make movies. We make movies because sharing our work with the world is special and magical. We have stories and we need to tell them.

As a filmmaker, it’s essential to recharge your creative batteries at least once a week… I’m interested to know what you do to unwind. Filmmaking comments welcome below >>

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

Filmmakers seeking money for movies have been jumping onto the various crowdfunding platforms to seek sponsorship monies. And if you’ve been following the trends, you know that crowfunding is becoming an increasingly viable way for filmmakers to raise money from sponsors.

And even with the buzz surrounding crowdfunding, whenever I put on a filmmaking workshop, I am always surprised by the amount of filmmakers who never heard of the concept.

If you’re a filmmaker seeking money, I’d like to provide you with several filmmaker friendly crowdfunding resources.

1. www.IndieGoGo.com
2. www.KickStarter.com
3. www.CrowdFundingMovies.com (my sponsor.)

While many of these sites have been catering to filmmakers since inception, I recently partnered with MicroGiving which touts the fact that they do not have a lot of filmmakers jamming up the space – but they do have many sponsors looking for projects. To find out more about this, visit the website www.CrowdfundingMovies.com

Posted under FILM FINANCING

If you have a Kindle, and enjoy reading filmmaking stuff – I wanted to let you know that you can now access this Filmmaking Stuff blog right on your Amazon Kindle. Cool right?

In just a few clicks of your Kindle, you’ll be able to read articles as they become available. Here is the link:

Filmmaking Stuff – Read This Blog On Kindle

Outside of this, I am busting my butt to release some more products later this summer. I can’t wait to tell you more… So STAY TUNED.

Posted under 21 Part Filmmaking Mini-Course

Modern Marketing For Filmmakers

When it comes to marketing your movie, you need to become proficient at driving targeted traffic to your movie website. While old school filmmakers could rely on various video stores and retail outlets to sell their movies, these days the popular marketplaces are Amazon and iTunes.

Both of these markets are web based. And both are accessible through my partner distribber. But just because your movie gets into the market doesn’t mean people will find you. This means, you’ll have to drive traffic to your movie website. But before you start driving traffic, you must first figure out your filmmaker website strategy.

I suggest creating something my internet marketing friend, Fred Gleeck calls a conversion funnel. Basically it looks like this:

This simple movie marketing model demonstrates that  not everybody who visits your  movie website will buy your movie. But by working to get more and more targeted prospects into the top of your funnel, you will increase your chances of making more sales at the bottom. Additionally, in the event a prospect tries to leave your movie website prematurely (abandon the funnel), you will ask these folks to “opt-in” to your audience list.

Once these prospects opt-in, they will get to know you and know more your movie. Utilizing this “lead capture” strategy, your odds of converting a prospect into customer increases.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Given the ways in which independent movie distribution is changing, having a great filmmaker websites for both your production company and your movie is one of the most important aspects of your eventual movie marketing campaign.

The first step in getting your website established, involves reserving website hosting and a domain name for both your production company, as well as separate sites for each of your movies. And if you already know the name of your movie, you will want to reserve it as soon as you can (before somebody else grabs it).

Create a Filmmaker Website Fast

To set up a website for your filmmaking business, you will need hosting and your domain name. To do this, head over to my friends at www.MovieSiteHost.com – Like most links I mention, MovieSiteHost pays me to promote. I would not recommend them unless I utilized the service myself. And so far I have utilized MovieSiteHost for all of my websites, without issue. In the few instances when I needed to reach someone in customer service, my calls were always answered.

In terms of setting up your actual site, I no longer recommend building a site from scratch. Instead, consder using something called a content management system – or CMS. With a CMS, you can have your own movie website in minutes…

Just in case some of these terms of confusing, let’s recap: Website hosting can be compared to the vacant lot where you’ll eventually build your office building. Your domain name can be compared to your street address. And the CMS is the raw materials needed to build your office building, or in this case, a sophisticated website.

Assuming you are utilizing www.MovieSiteHost.com for your hosting, these elements can be implement in a few clicks of a mouse.

Assuming you have a little technical know-how, when you arrive at MovieSiteHost, you will first need to reserve a domain name for your production company.

To set up your initial CMS website (for your production company or your movie), after you reserve your domain name, you will be redirected to your MovieSiteHost control panel. Once there, click on an icon called “WordPress.”

From there, you will install WordPress on your server.

After a minute or two, your movie CMS will be installed. You will then be issued with a username and a password. Once you have it, you can log into your new website and begin your customization.

In my opinion, WordPress is one of the most robust and powerful content management systems in the world. And the reason I recommend installing a CMS for filmmakers, over building a traditional website is because once you set up WordPress, you will be able to create and modify your content and change the entire look and feel of your website, with the ease of sending an email.

By making these tweaks yourself, you will save the cost of constantly contacting your webmaster.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION