As alluded to in my previous post, this was meant as a 2 part correspondence, and this second posting is more-so a list of some things I’ve learned regarding the release and marketing of an independent film:

- You need to have a solid website 5 minutes after you’ve written the script.

- You need to have a solid trailer 5 days after you’ve wrapped shooting.

- You need to release your DVD within 6 weeks of your premiere.

- You need to start making your DVD 6 hours after you’ve made your final cut.

- You need to do your theatrical release within 2-4 weeks of your festival premiere (2 wks allows you to maximize press/buzz, but 4 wks also allows for that buzz to build and grow a bit - whether or not that happens is out of your hands).

- You need to implement a festival premiere into your release platform, and there’s no better/other way to do it than utilizing it as the springboard for your theatrical release. Simply put, there’s a very small, but (arguably) very important audience that simply won’t/can’t pay attention to your film unless you bring it to a festival. I’m not sure if I could’ve gotten Box Elder into a festival, but I am sure that it was silly to tour it for 3 months and have over 10,000 people see it and not have a single piece of press or cred to show for it. Whether or not the festival audience maters is very debatable, and I’ll save my thoughts on that for a later blog, but there’s no question that it can’t hurt to have your premiere at a festival and use that as a launch for your film’s release. ***

- You need to look at the theatrical release as a brand building and audience building campaign and focus on exposure and press secondly. A few really well written articles can a go a long way when used correctly, and getting them linked, sent, or posted in as many places by as many people as possible is A LOT more effective than collecting a catalog of press to showcase to the people you’ve already won over (the reality is that aside from a handful of stragglers here and there, 90% of the people who are gonna read your press anyways are the people who are either seeking it out b/c they’re already interested or are getting it sent to them via the people who are already interested).

- You need to be ready to make your next one before your release this one. They always say that in hollywood people only care about “what’s next” when you meet with them re; a current project or a recent success….. audiences and fans are the same, if not even more fickle and impatient.

- You need to roll with the punches and remember to focus on your planning your work and working your plan. Don’t let anything get in your. Use this guy as an example of how motivated and focused you need to be to avoid letting distractions throw twigs in your bike spokes. ****

- Last but not least, you need sell DVD’s during your theatrical release. Even if you only sell one per night, that’s still one person who now has the ability to promote your film throughout their social network. I cannot tell you how many times we’d be at a screening and someone would come up and say they heard about it because their friend in St. Louis told them about it after they watched their roommates copy during winter break, etc.

Most people (esp. in the biz) will argue that the friend in St. Louis didn’t buy a DVD or a ticket and thus you’ve wasted the opportunity to monetize your potential audience, but most people (ESP. in the biz) are fucking idiots. Releasing a film is not about monetizing your potential audience, it’s about building your potential audience, and the truth of the matter is; if you’ve made a film that’s worth it’s weight, there’s simply nothing bad that can come from people watching it, whether they’ve paid or not.

Relating this concept to food makes it a bit easier to justify - If you started a bakery and it had the absolute best cookies in the country, but no one in the country, let alone your city knew they existed because they hadn’t ever heard of you or you new bakery, the worst thing you could do would be restrict how much and how often people were able to experience those wonderful cookies. Rather, if you simply tried to get them out in as many places and as often as possible and then let the strength of the cookies themselves lead to future revenue, you’d be growing both your business, as well as the overall awareness of your product, and yourself as a baker. *****

That’s called believing in your product, and as a filmmaker, it’s your job to make sure you only work with people who believe in your product, otherwise you’re gonna end up with burnt food at some point along the way.

- I need to get more coffee

More soon,

Todd

*** I lied. It can hurt if the festival is in a market that you plan to screen at later. Independent film audiences are small, and you’re gonna need that ticket revenue when your film plays theatrically later, so beware of festivals that cannibalize a given cities art-house audience. That said, there are plenty of anomalies. Examples include SXSW, which runs in Austin while UT is on spring break, thus leaving a large audience available for a future screening, and True/False in Columbia, MO seems to somehow aid in audience building for it’s films (I lived in Columbia for 6 years and still don’t understand how this works, but for some reason films that play T/F do incredibly well when they come back and play the Ragtag during their theatrical run).

**** This guy would do if the Let’s Paint TV guy is unavailable. Talk about focus.

***** I am eating the most delicious double chocolate cherry cookie right now.