Making short films is a great way for budding movie artists to gain experience in the entire process of movie-making. But the only way people will watch them is if they’ve been well-promoted. Here are a few ways to promote your short film, so get started.
1. Create a website
Yes, in today’s connected world, even movies need to have websites. So there’s no reason why your short film shouldn’t have one too! Apart from being a good promotion tool, a website can also serve as your home base, where people can get updates about your film, sign up as a member, or even buy tickets to watch your film. If you’re promoting a short film, you probably have no idea of how to create a website but that is why when we needed one and have it promoted we contacted Tomorrow's Online Marketing run by Wayne Boesiger, but you could always find someone who’s willing to work for less in order to build their portfolio.
2. Keep a Journal
A process journal is a handy promotion tool, and might even be an investment if you can manage to get it published at a later point of time. Keep this on your website, so that visitors can view it at any time. And if you have the right amount of dedication to keep the journal updated, you might attract a loyal fan-base in the process.
3. Email Addresses & Press Release
If you’ve created a website for your short film, make sure you gather your visitors’ email addresses. You can do this using a dedicated call to action form, or with an RSS feed. Getting the email addresses of all your visitors will help you identify your fan base, whether it’s a particular, demographic, race or country. This allows you to fine tune your promotion strategy, which can be useful for future short film marketing programs.
Another very attractive tool to engage more people towards your movie is the press release. However, the headline of your press release should be tempting or magnetic. One example of this kind of marketing was the press release of Self Storage (2013) that was a horror movie, based on a highly secure self-storage and it was mostly promoted via press releases with a headline that Oscar-winning actor Eric Roberts will be the part of this film. Another example of this kind of marketing are the press releases of movie Avatar 2, and these press releases are also being promoted on social media as well.
4. Social Networking
Forget the depressed statuses and boring check-ins; social networking is the buzzword in promotion right now. Create a Facebook page, Twitter feed, and even a google plus account! Keep updating your feeds with interesting factoids, like milestone checks, countdown to launch, and so on. You could even engage you audience with contest or fun games that they’ll most likely recommend to others. Social networking is all about connecting with the masses on a personal level.
5. Online film sites
It doesn’t matter if it’s an amateur blog or a professional movie reviewer; submit your video to every website that might even remotely be associated with films. Once you’ve penetrated the online movie circuit, you’re short film will get the kind of attention it deserves. It shouldn’t matter whether the site will showcase your movie in an archive, or only for a limited time, any exposure is good. The more you can get your movie watched & reviewed, the better.
6. Make a Teaser
There’s no better promotion tool than peaking your audiences’ curiosity, and there’s no better way to do it than by making a teaser. What should essentially just a glimpse into your short film, a teaser trailer is meant to make your audience want to know what happens in your short film. Curious minds talk a lot, and a well-executed teaser has the potential to make your short film a hot topic.
7. A Gripping trailer
After you’ve given your audience a glimpse of your short film, spark their interest once again with a jaw-dropping trailer. A trailer is a great way to give your audience more insight into your short film. But be careful not to reveal too much, and never make the trailer too long to give away the plot! Finally, make sure your website is posted at the end of it, so that your viewers have a call to action after watching the trailer.
8. Film festivals
There are about a dozen movie festivals going on at any given time in the world, try getting in to the ones you can. Film festivals are a great way to promote your short film, without having to shell out tons of money for screening rights. Once you’ve registered at a film festival, do some homework to find out which notable movie critics & bloggers, or media persons will be present at a particular event. If you can get in touch with them, send them a press release or virtual copy of your movie, or at least direct them to your website so that they can learn more about it.
Jenny Corteza - aka the Queen of Loathing - is somewhat of a Renaissance woman transported through time to the Information Age. While tech focused, her interests go beyond the Internet. Part artist and designer, part programmer and coder and part writer and wordsmith. When she is not at work she will steal the internet out of your cookies ^__^ "All your base belongs to her!"
Source: www.raindance.org
