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Filmmaking resources for indie filmmakers, including, screenwriting, financing, producing and film distribution

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Can’t Find Film Investors? Here’s The Magical Filmmaking Equation

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One reason you aren’t finding investors is because you don’t know how many units you need to sell in order to breakeven. Having spent the majority of my career working in film distribution, I can tell you that the filmmakers that get the best deals are those who do their homework.

So in order to make back your money and (hopefully) make a profit, you’re going to need to crunch some quick numbers. And don’t worry. The magical filmmaking equation is simple.

filmmaking equation

The Magical Filmmaking Equation

Let’s suppose you go out and raise some money to make your film. And let’s say you make your movie, but you do not garner a dream distribution deal. And for the sake of this article, let’s say the only way you can recoup your investment is by making a $5 profit from each VOD unit sold.

The formula would look something like this.

  • $100 dollars = 20 units at $5 each.
  • $1000 dollars = 200 units at $5 each.
  • $10,000 dollars = 2,000 units at $5 each.
  • $100,000 dollars = 20,000 units at $5 each.

Once you know how many units you need to sell, then you can focus on HOW you’re going to do it. What casting, marketing and distribution choices will you make to help reduce risk and improve the chances for success?

For example, what happens when you cast a famed social media star with a million subscribers in a secondary role? What happens if you partner with another organization and do a massive email blast to a few thousand people? And what about traditional PR and other buzz building tactics.

While this filmmaking equation isn’t exactly magical, it’s pretty darn useful. Once you know your numbers, you can start planning your film. You’ll be light years ahead of filmmakers who are just guessing. And if you liked this, you’ll love these filmmaking tactics.

5 Ways to Promote Your Film Fast

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In order to get people to watch your film, you have to promote your film. And after all the effort spent actually getting the film made, the last thing you want to think about is promotion. I get it. But in order to make your film a success, you need to fight the fatigue and find some creative ways to build buzz.

Before we get into actual promotional tactics, you need to figure out how to sell your film. Will you choose to release through a popular marketplace like iTunes, Amazon, VuDu or Google Play for the first window? Or will you choose to sell your film from your own website?

promote-your-film

5 Ways to Promote Your Film Fast

Popular platforms have millions of customers. So if you can make a few hundred sales in a short amount of time, you increase the probability that your film will rise in the rankings. This in turn gets your film discovered by more people. And this can increase sales.

With that said, here are five ways to promote your film fast:

1. Call your friends and family on the phone: I know. You think the idea of promoting your film through the phone is silly. But as mentioned earlier, the goal is to make lots of sales in a short time so you can rise in the rankings. Who better to buy than your friends and family?

2. Get on the local news: If you’re not in a major city, you will have an advantage over the indie filmmakers saturating Hollywood. Pick up the phone and cold call your local news station. Let them know that your film just went live on a major platform and you’d love to share your experience with their viewers. (Your effort will be more successful if you can tie your film topic into a current event.)

3. Reach out to influencers: Okay. So you didn’t cast a major celebrity (or social media star) in your film. That doesn’t mean you can’t reach out to an influencer and somehow get them involved in the promotion. Services like Speakr make this process easy.

4. Send out a solo ad: A solo ad is another term for an email blast. And if you can identify several online publications with robust email lists, you can pay them for reach. Just make sure you take time and find out the average open rates and click through rates.

5. Get on PodCasts: If your film has an easily definable target audience like “mommy bloggers” or “mixed martial artists” then you’re in luck. Do a search and you’ll find thousands of pod-casters who cater to your audience, eager to schedule interviews.

If you explore some of these channels and fail to get a response, it is probably because your branding sucks. When it comes to promoting your film, perception is reality. So you will want to make sure your artwork, website and overall message looks like a REAL film.

If you’re interested, you can learn film distribution here.

Email Marketing For Movies (Why You Need To Start Now!)

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Did you know that email marketing for movies is as important as making your movie?

Sounds weird right?

I mean, you’re a filmmaker. What does email marketing for movies have to do with your success?

Everything…

In fact, I believe that email marketing for movies is essential.

And here’s one example why:

Picture This – You’re meeting a prospective investor for the first time.

You enter her gigantic office and you sit down. The assistant asks if you’d like anything to drink. You politely decline. (The truth is, you’re thirsty – But this is a big meeting and you don’t want to spill anything on your shirt.)

After a few minutes, your prospective investor walks into the room, sits down and you start talking. Everything is going well and the conversation organically flows into why you’re there. You’re there because you’re looking for investors. Specifically, you’d like her to fund your movie. And it goes something like this:

[Disclaimer: I am not a tax, legal or investment professional. So what I am about to share should be no way construed as any sort of advice. In fact, I am merely demonstrating via dialogue why I believe email marketing for movies is essential for filmmakers. Please speak with a qualified professional before taking any meetings with anybody anywhere in the universe.]

BEGIN SCENE

Filmmaker
I’m going to make a movie right here in this town. And I am looking for prospective investors who would be interested in backing the project.

Prospective Investor
Sounds interesting. As you can probably imagine, I have meetings like this every week. Last week someone proposed I should invest in their purple-pine-cone business. They are already profitable. And they are offering me an amazing opportunity with very low risk. Why should I invest in your project?

Filmmaker
We have this really great script. And we are going to make a movie. Take it to Sundance, sell the movie for maximum profit. And then we are going to use those profits to make more movies.

Prospective Investor
Get out of my office!

Filmmaker
Why?

Prospective Investor
Because what you just presented is not a business. It is a gamble. You don’t know if you’ll get into Sundance. And you don’t know if someone will buy your movie. And even if you do, you have no idea how much they will pay.

Filmmaker
But Paranormal Activity did awesome!

Prospective Investor
Get out!!! And only come back when you have a REAL business plan.

END SCENE

The world of independent filmmaking is changing.

The market is flooded with backyard indies. As a result, there is no longer a world where you get into Sundance and simply sell your movie to the highest bidder. And even if that world still existed, it was always a crappy bet for new filmmakers and inexperienced film investors.

Email Marketing For Movies

Email Marketing For Movies

As a result of these changes, filmmakers who want to make a living making independent movies need to start thinking about their target audience BEFORE YOU MAKE YOUR MOVIE!

While I would never suggest that you completely forgo your artistic integrity, I would suggest you answer the following questions:

  1. Who is going to buy and watch your movie? (Hint, if you answer everybody, you answered nobody.)
  2. How will you reach your intended niche, target audience?
  3. How many VOD downloads will it take to recoup your initial investment?

Since those of you who make movies are mostly filmmakers, not marketers, it becomes increasingly challenging to market your movie and your work. But some aspects of marketing are easier than you think.

How to get started?

One easy thing you can do is set up your own email marketing system. Email marketing for movies works like this – The bigger your list of targeted subscribers, the more sales you can potentially make. And for an example of how this works, click here to grab your free filmmaker checklist.

Pretty cool right?

If you signed up, you did so because the Filmmaker Checklist is more valuable than the time it takes to type your email address. (And I really did put a lot of work into making it valuable for you.) This is what marketers call an “ethical bribe,” “opt-in candy” or a “lead magnet.” And you need to create a lead magnet for your movie website visitors too.

Common lead magnet examples for movie website usually consist of: behind the scenes photos, movie song downloads or soundtrack, poster downloads, short video clips, or pretty much anything your audience would value…

There are two tools I utilize to create this and build my list. And both pay me to promote. (So do your own research.) One is called Aweber. And the other is called LeadPages.

Aweber manages my professional email correspondence and helps me avoid ending up in the Spam trap. And LeadPages links with Aweber and helps me come up with really awesome subscriber forms like the one you clicked above.

As a rule of thumb, never email blast from your own servers. Always use a 3rd party email marketing company that insists on something called a double opt-in. A double opt-in means that after people submit their name and email to your list, they will still need to check their email for a confirmation link.

Then in each subsequent blast, the email will always provide an easy way to unsubscribe.

For a recap, here are the three steps you take to get started with email marketing for your movie.

  1. Come up with a “lead magnet.”
  2. Get started with Aweber (they pay me.)
  3. Link Aweber to Leadpages (they also pay me.)

Collect Email From Your Movie Website

In the context of movie promotion, several other movies do this really well. Check out Food Matters, Camp Takota and Forks Over Knives. Each example is a highly successful movie. And one major reason for this success is, you guessed it:

Email marketing for movies!

As you can see, most of these movie websites are very streamlined, usually limited to trailer as well as an opt-in form. This is intentional. Above all else, building an email list is essential for the long term success of these movies, selling related merchandise and subsequent sequels.

Copy this strategy for your own movie website! Like these other filmmakers, start collecting names and email addresses of prospective audience members as soon as you can. Or to put it another way:

You are no longer in the movie business. You are now in the audience engagement business.

Through both online and offline marketing efforts, your objective is to grow community around your movie – which could spread positive word of mouth. This could eventually lead to direct video on demand sales! And the other benefit? If you start now, you could begin to grow a list. this can help you while you’re raising money.

Here’s that example again (with the added value of a robust email list.)

BEGIN SCENE

Filmmaker
I’m going to make a movie right here in this town. And I am looking for prospective investors who would be interested in backing the project.

Prospective Investor
Sounds interesting. As you can probably imagine, I have meetings like this every week. Last week someone proposed I should invest in their purple-pine-cone business. They are already profitable. And they are offering me an amazing opportunity with very low risk. Why should I invest in your project?

Filmmaker
We have this really great script, a robust email list of 15,000 raving fans! So far, the responses for this next movie seem favorable. So this at least gives us a direct market base to hedge our bets. Aside from selling the movie directly, many have expressed interest in additional merchandise, like t-shirts. So this offers us a great opportunity to create multiple retail, revenue opportunities.

Prospective Investor
Sounds like you’ve done your homework. Tell me more!

END SCENE

While this is a totally fictional example, I am hoping you see the power of email marketing for movies. Having a plan for email can accelerate the growth of your movie business. And we aren’t just talking your current movie, but all movies moving forward!

sell your movieSometime down the road, long after your movie has played the festivals and sold out on iTunes, you may find there is value in promoting other movies of a similar genre – or better yet, selling your next movie. This is when email marketing for movies really pays off. Remember, with email marketing for movies, the real money is in your list!

If you liked these marketing tips, you will love the sell your movie action pack.

 

How To Create a Film Website (So You Can Sell Your Movie)

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As a filmmaker, your film website is one of the most important tools for promoting and (eventually) distributing your film. Your film website will provide an overview of your film, including why you made it and why your audience should care.

Before we get into the mechanics of creating your film website, it’s important to understand your website will go through two stages. The first stage of your film website is your pre-launch promotional stage. During this time, your film website will simply consist of your movie title, a synopsis, and some fancy images that express what your are tying to accomplish.

Then after you participate in some film festivals and get to the stage where you’re ready to sell your film (or get a distribution deal) your website evolve from the promotional stage to the full sale stage. (Don’t worry, I’ll share more on this a little later in the article.)

How To Create a Film Website

How To Create a Film Website

There are three tools you’ll need to set up your film website.

  1. A domain name: The address you use to promote your film.
  2. A hosting account: Where your website actually resides online.
  3. A WordPress theme: WordPress provides a quick way to set up a film website.

Step 1: Grab Hosting and Your Domain Name

The first step in getting your film website established, involves reserving website hosting and a domain name. 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. While there are many hosting companies, the one I’ve been using for years is Bluehost. (In full disclosure, this is my affiliate link for Bluehost and they pay me to promote.)



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. When you arrive at Bluehost, you will first need to reserve a domain name for your movie.

When it comes to creating a domain name for your film website, I suggest you got with a DOT COM domain name. For example if your film is an environmental documentary called Toxic Soup, you may want to grab ToxicSoupMovie.com. The other stuff that ends in DOT IO or DOT NET might be readily available, but may be harder for your audience to remember.

After you have selected the term of your registration (such as 1, 2 or more years) and decided if you want public or private registration, you only need to enter your billing info and complete your purchase.

Pick-Domain

Step 2: Install WordPress On Your Server

In terms of setting up your actual film website, I recommend building your site in a content management system, or CMS. One of the most popular is WordPress. And Bluehost makes the set up easy. After you reserve your domain name, you will be redirected to your control panel. Once there, click on an icon called “WordPress.”

Choose_Word_Press

From there, you will START a brand new install WordPress on your server.

Start_Install

After a minute or two, WordPress will be installed in your account. 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.

Websites-for-filmmakers-made-easy-300x198

In my opinion, WordPress is one of the most robust and powerful content management systems in the world. And it’s easy to use. Once you set up WordPress, you can choose from different themes, which makes it easy to create a website that “speaks” directly to your niche target audience. You can then create and modify your content and change the entire look and feel of your website, with the ease of sending an email.

Step 3: Find A WordPress Theme For Your Film Website

When we launched the film website for Toxic Soup, we focused on getting environmental activists to join our newsletter. In addition capturing emails, the Toxic Soup landing page had another goal – We wanted to let people know that Toxic Soup was more than just a movie. It was a movement. And we wanted to get our audience to help spread the message.

film website

Share Your Story

In addition to your email registration form, your film website should include a video that tells your prospective fan about your movie. A good example of this can be found at Cow Power, a documentary focused on turning cow poop into fuel.

Cow power film website

I met the filmmaker, Allison Gillette when she attended my panel discussion at WestDoc. And I especially like her email registration form. Do you see how it is limited to just asking for the email? Many marketers agree that asking for less is more.

Add Testimonials On Your Film Website

Just because you do not yet have a movie, does not mean you cannot find at least one early fan excited about the prospect of your movie. An example might be “Hey Jason – I can’t wait to see your ninja zombie movie!”

These early testimonials simply need to demonstrate that someone else knows about your movie. To do this, you will want to contact your subscribers and ask them if they’d be willing to give you a testimonial about why they signed up for your mailing list.

The purpose of an audience list and why you need it!

The primary objective of your film website during the promotional stage is to get people to enroll in your mailing list. To do this, you will want to research several 3rd party email providers.

Two popular email marketing providers are MailChimp and Aweber. I actually utilize Aweber to manage our Filmmaking Stuff mailing list and I totally love the service. (Full disclosure, in addition to using the service, I get paid to promote Aweber.)

After selecting your preferred email management service, your next step is to actually create the registration form.

As mentioned previously, you should only ask for the most essential information. In my testing, asking for anything more than a name and email dramatically diminishes opt-ins. Both MailChimp and Aweber make this very easy, as they allow to customize registration forms you can embed on your website.

As a filmmaker, depending on the word of mouth potential of your movie, having a promotional film website can help you take advantage of initial movie marketing opportunity.

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

[Check Out This Film Distribution Resource]

Three Tips On How To Target Your Target Audience

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Knowing how to find your target audience gives you power. And before you get into the mechanics of growing your audience – You need to take time to find your target audience even before you write your screenplay. If this is a new concept, you’re not alone.

Most filmmakers fail to consider their target audience. Or worse, many filmmakers will tell you that everyone is their audience. This means men, women, teens, tweens, children, puppies and space aliens could all benefit from your movie.

This is a mistake. It’s a left-over concept from the indie era of 1995. Back then, you only had one goal with your movie. Get into the festivals, fill up your screening and hope the some distributor shows up and writes a check. Many filmmakers still believe this. But these filmmakers are wrong.

Think about it.

Think about the last time you went to a film festival. What did you see? Was it a bunch of acquisitions professionals handing out business cards like candy? Or did you happen to see other filmmakers handing you postcards, asking:

“Will you come to my screening?”

If you want to figure out how to find your target audience, here’s a solid piece of advice:

Other filmmakers are not your target audience!

But don’t worry. Because I’ve worked on the inside of film distribution for several years, I am going to help you avoid the mistakes 99% of other filmmakers make. I am going to provide you with three simple steps on how to find your target audience.

And these simple steps will put you years ahead of other filmmakers who are living off the hope and pray film distribution strategy of the bygone era. Are you ready to rock?

find your target audience

 

Find Your Target Audience

Here is the thing. There are ton of filmmakers that consistently muck up their film release strategy. As I mentioned earlier, the reason most films fail is because the filmmaker never took time to really write out a release plan.

The process of finding your audience starts with refining your movie concept.

Step 1: Refine Your Movie Concept: For this example, let’s pretend your lead character is a boxer living in an improvised community. And then let’s pretend that your boxer ends up with ONE big opportunity to take a shot.

A. From this, we know your movie is geared towards: Boxing.

B. We can also think about related interests: weightlifting, fitness gear, diary supplements, et al.

Step 2 – Conduct a Google Search: Your next step is to locate blogs, websites and publications already targeting people who may be interested in your subject matter. In this example, you can quickly Google “boxing.”

When you do this, “boxing” will get over forty-nine million results. This is not surprising. Interests such as boxing, horror movies, martial arts and race car driving have prominence in our culture.

Step 3 – Build a List: Add the top 50 targeted publications (both online and offline) to a spreadsheet. Then reach out to each publication and request their demographic statistics. These stats will tell you how many people subscribe to the publication and will often provide details on age and gender. (You will use this info later, when you go to sell your movie.)

You can apply these three steps whenever you want to find your target audience. And once you have a good understanding of your target audience, all future advertising, marketing language and your trailer should be created with your target audience in mind.

Then later, when your movie enters the marketplace, this research will provide you a contact list full of organizations that may help you promote your movie. And if you would like more information on how to market and sell your movie, go here.