Once there's a formula its DED
I try to follow all the going on's in the world of COUGH "independent film"... seems like theres a lot of checklists and stuff about what your supposed to do to promote a film... when in reality the checklists were made after the fact by looking at what successful campaigns done DID... and when those promo campaigns were done it was probably something new... like they didn't follow any checklists... So who are all those checklists and crap for? Probably people that will pay $1000 to go to some "independent filmmaking" seminar or some shit... there's a lot of people making a lot of money off of wannabe filmmakers who have convinced themselves that they need to attend all these seminars or buy all these books or whatever to be "successful" I think that its just another form of procrastination...
NOW since the world is so connected and information is so easy to share and spread amongst millions of people I think if you as a filmmaker spend all this time and energy trying to set up all the sites for your film and like contact all these people online to promote that its a waste... BECAUSE if you do your job right TODAY your film will promote itself.... its not about being found anymore... people can find anything EASILY but why would they want to? And once they found then what? Oh yep here's some mediocre film thats doing everything its "supposed to do"... tite.... Ok back to facebook...
ALSO what ends up happening is it takes away from the actual film... the filmmakers get caught up in the promotion and distribution and the film is an afterthought... I've seen lots of really smart people talk about all the ways they monetized they films and got into played here and there and were paid this much money blah blah but the film itself was mediocre... an afterthought ....it was mere "content" shudder... now for a lot of those people thats ok with them... they make "content" which they try to get to market as fast as possible and maximize its income... BUT its because its all PUSH PUSH by them and USUALLY they tie the film to some real world "cause" to piggyback theY way into already established groups... now thats all fine as a business model BUT the fact is that what they are making does not cause any wonder or awe... there's no magic in it... and shortly after its initial exposure it will be forgotten and they will do it all over again with another film and "cause" this is just a trend I see in "independent" filmmaking... Its working now for a lot of people but I don't see it as a way to rise to the top...
So I believe if you do your job as a filmmaker and create something totally unique, powerful and extraordinary the film will promote itself... people will share it and spread it using all the tools that are now in idle hands... I mean you can probably contact 500-1000 people in the click of a button right now right? But why would you? "HEY check out this mediocre indy film that looks like a third rate version of X Hollywood film!" or "HEy check out this trailer for this new Hollywood movie which is already pasted all over the place and has 10 websites with all the information, iphone apps, and crap I would never want" NAH we won't do that.... The value is in scarcity as many have noted... WE want to have something no one else has or knows about... we want to be the first to bring something to light... we want to surprise people, shock them... At least thats what I think.... Its like everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder in a small room but there's nothing to talk about... as a filmmaker YOU HAVE TO GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT....and if you do and it sustains a conversation you will be successful... thats how I'm approaching my new film...
As of right now I don't even have a website for HSM ^ ^ There's virtually no info at all even though its 6 months from completion... any other film would have a site and a facebook and a blah blah with all the relevant info + images + plus teaser trailers and all that... BUT that stuff kills the mystery, the mystique... How many times have you discovered a trailer or an image from some film and went like "WTF is THIS?!" and then googled it and found the super detailed site and went like "OH...yeh its this film made by this person based on this book...." and then never thought about it again? IF I can't find any more information about it I go nuts looking 0_0 WHAT is this thing?! And my interest continues...I might even ask other people about it.... ya see where I'm going here?
So I'm not going to promote the new film at all myself.... I'm just going to put some stuff out and see what the internetS thinks of it because thats the true test anyway nah mean? NOW someone might say "if no one knows about it, no one will discover it and no one will ever find it" NOW lets use the "If a tree falls in a forest.." example.... If you make a normal film like all before you mainstream or "indie"... yeh you made a tree...and it fell... no one cares.... BUT if instead of a tree its a 1000 FOOT TALL BEHEMOTH SEVEN HEADED DEMON SPEWING ACID FROM ITS EYEBALLS AND SCREECHING LIKE A DEMONIC BANSHEE ON ACID then I can assure YOU SOME MUTHAFUCKERS WILL HEAR IT AND RUN SCREAMING ABOUT IT TO EVERYONE THEY KNOW ^ ^
SO again for SURVIVAL it comes down to one thing... not the promotion, distribution, branding, awareness blah blah... it comes down to MAKING UNIQUE BOLD AWESOME FUCKING AWE INSPIRING FILMS...if you do that in todays internets all the other work will be done for you.
Aight I'm back to animating meh friends.... remember THE SWORD KNOWS!!!
Brought to you by professional weirdo M dot Strange.