Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing about and how we used to market movies, vs what works in marketing them now. So to expand on that, here are the most important things in marketing your movie in todays day and age.
Consumer Reviews
It’s been decried as outlandish and treasonous by many studio heads, but among the most important things that filmmakers need to do to make money making movies in today’s market is to focus on getting good customer reviews. The same is true across any consumer product in any industry these days.
People tend to look closely at what other people who bough the product think of it. As such, negative reviews have a hugely negative effect on your bottom line. The fact that the reviews are often tied into various algorithms or listed across multiple platforms generally makes it the most important single factor in how your film will sell. Genre
Genre is still as important as it ever was. It’s a classification of both what you like, and what you’re presently in the mood for. When I watch a movie with my wife, one of the first things I ask is what sort of movie we want to watch, and then we list through a few genres. Not sure of what genre or sub-genre is? Check the links below.
Related: How distributors think of Genre
Related: How distributors think of Sub-GenreProfessional Reviews
The term professional review has become more varied than it used to be. I don’t just mean someone reviewing your film for the LA Times or the NY Times, in this instance, I could also mean The Nostalgia Critic, Lindsay Ellis, MovieBob or any one of dozens of prominent YouTubers. (I understand that a lot of these are more in depth film criticism than standard reviews, but I would lump them in there.) Sites like Bloody Disgusting would also fall into this category.
Traditional Press
Related: 6 rules for contacting pressPoster
The poster for the film will always be important, but given that all of the pieces I’ve listed above tend to either greatly influence search results or Search Engine Optimization for your film, the poster has ended up down there. As I’ve discussed in other blogs, the post needs to be both authentic and eye catching enough to drive the potential viewer to click through to the next stage and find out more information.
Related: The MOST important thing in Marketing your Movie RIGHT NOW.Trailer
On an independent level, unless you can get some press with it, the trailer is most likely going to help convince people to watch the film more than help them discover it. That being said, next to the reviews, this may have the biggest impact in convincing them to watch it.
Synopsis
Finally, people want to know what the movie is about. It needs to be short, punchy, and focus more on SELLING your story than telling it.
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AuthorMy name is Ben, I'm an Entrepreneur, Producer's Rep, and Author. I'm the founder of Guerrilla Rep Media, Co-Founder/CMO of ProductionNext, and founder of Producer Foundry. Together, the organizations seek to help make filmmaking a more economically sustainable endeavor. I am dysic, I have capitalization issues, and the blogs are often unedited. opinions all my own. Join my Mailing List for FREE Resources!I'm happy to offer a FREE Resource Package to anyone who joins my mailing list. You'll also recieve monthly digests of my articles and other valuable resources.
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