How do you go about the film marketing for a small film costing virtually nothing. Of course there are all the social media methods discussed one the OFC blog (See our Film Marketing Sectiion)… however, we’ve heard about something interesting that Paramount are doing which is really quite exciting!
Instead of putting all their promotional resources into the film that might not work they have decided to ask film fans, to help market the film for them – much like we are hoping to do with One Fat Cigar. i.e. asking a community of people to help promote their film making friends by inviting them to become involved in the site, be updated on projects even before they launch, and then use this as a springboard for commercial success when the film is ready for release.
Paramount, has been doing something slightly more localised for a film called Paranormal Activity – screening the film in 12 towns – asking fans where to expand it next. Fans entered their postcode to vote for where the film should go and they could then see it in their region. The plan was that if the film gets 1,000,000 hits on the films website then they’ll expand it nationwide. They promoted it through social media channels such as Twitter etc. It did. Easily.
The film is a Horror Movie, so it was screened late night in cinemas, and was very well received much like The Blair Witch Project.In October the film had an $800,000+ box office.
It is now being marketed and screened not just the US, but also the UK. Quite a result for such a small budget movie.
How could something like this work for an Independent Film Maker on One Fat Cigar.com?
We were thinking how we could apply this to One Fat Cigar. We were thinking to do something similar on the OFC website through a regional petition mechanism where film fans can register interest to have the film screened in their region. This has the advantage of allowing you to potentially distribute the film yourself, only paying for a small number of 35mm film prints showing in your local cinemas and then spreading it region by region as demand grows. Fans on OFC can petition to be able to see the film in their area, simply by entering a ZIP/Postal Code or similar mechanism.
Now of course, this isn’t going to work unless you’ve got an awesome movie. But what is you have? This could be an incredible way to market your movie and have distributors biting your hand off.
If you’re not already get signed up to our site mailing list and facebook pages do so – and tell your friends to do so -we’ll need a big community to make this work. If you would like this service added to the One Fat Cigar site please comment below. It won’t be there when we launch, but we can make it a priority for early in 2010 – which to be honest isn’t so far away!
Please mention this to your friends and get them to comment below… the site will be up before Christmas. We promise. Let us know how strongly you feel about this and we’ll see what we can do!
One Fat Cigar – A Post For Film Fans (and why our site is a bit like a Terry Gilliam Movie)
Tags: Film Marketing, independent film, indie filmmakers, Paranormal Activity
(I posted this on your facebook page, but I figured I’d try to spark a discussion here as well)
I have an issue of timing with this scenario. When I first heard of this “1,000,000 votes gets this film in your area!” thing, I thought “Cool”. And then like a week later it was HERE!
In reality, if you do this, you’re gonna get a ton of votes for your movie, and then it’s going to take some time to get that movie to that area. Now I don’t know how long it would take, but I would assume longer than a week. And by that time, you may have lost half or more of your audience because they either forgot, or just have moved on to something else.
This of course, just ONE scenario I made up in my mind. I am VERY intrigued to see it in practice.
Hi Ryan – we think the hope would be that film makers could build up a following during the production process, providing more and more intrigue and insight about the production and during that process fans could then vote as to whether they wanted to see the film (based on the quality of a number of factors such as video blogs/trailers/behind-the-scenes etc.) and when the film is completed you already have big numbers of fans who have heard about your production and voted to see it on a big screen near them.
Because you’re keeping fans regularly updated on your production progress and they can see this on their newsfeed (you’ll see what we mean when the site is up) then not only do you have a potential fan base for this film, but also people who are eagerly anticipating watching it on the big screen!
If they like your movie, will perhaps begin following your next movie. In the same way that we would happily go and watch a movie because we like the director or the actor.
We would appreciate more views on the matter since it will take a bit of time to build it into the site. To make it work we need as many film fans using us (Basic membership is completely free by the way) which means that the community has to help us spread the word in your local area and to your friends and family… our hope is that you will!
It’s a geat idea and something that all independent filmmakers need… YESTERDAY!
Yes! This is a really, really great idea, and I’d love to do this in the next few years. This is such an amazing site, and I’d love to learn how to get more involved with it…this is exactly what film marketing needs! If there’s anything I can do to help you guys, please let me know; what you’re doing is really worthwhile.
Yes, I think offering such a service on the OFC website is a great idea. Please implement it if you can. Thanks for being so interested in, and responsive to, our input. Good luck with everything!
This seems like a great idea, we have a movie we just released, independent, written, directed, cut ourselves and finding promotion is very tough.
http://www.deathography.com
This seems like a great idea, we have a movie we just released, independent, written, directed, cut ourselves and finding promotion is very tough.