Home
/
Editorial
/
Marketing of the Indies

Marketing of the Indies

Published: Jun 16, 2021

These page of Espresso editorials deserves a wide variety of attention. It is one of the most important aspects of Independent Film making. We can talk and talk forever about the methods and value of each niche in showcasing and selling independent films. There as many ideas as there are films partaking in the schemes. If you have other great ideas, besides what you have read here, please leave us a comment.

marketing

“The filmmaker will get better promotion data for the Public Relations professional he employs.”

Billy LAx – Chief Editor

Short films produced mostly by first-time filmmakers are the most exciting marketing efforts in a film-makers career, but often the most frustrating. When a young film-maker finally gets his credit card, favor promised, a low-cost short film made, which he thinks should be a blockbuster hit getting buy-in from his girlfriend and his mother and now, he needs some desperately needed exposure to prove the film festival owners that they are simply wrong in there rejections. Where does he go? To online video platforms of course! Marketing a film via internet platforms seems to be an easy effort as many a director will submit to as many video websites as he can.

The two main ones being YouTube and Vimeo, however, there are other platforms such as Facebook and other social media sites and don’t forget our site here at www.moviesbyespresso.com in which we are planning a dynamic and popular showcasing of first-time movie shorts shortly. But submitting your short for the first time to multiple platforms is probably not the best marketing strategy, even though by using this technique, the filmmaker will probably get amount more views than more thought-out methods. Why? Because the film marketer can control the analytics much better submitting to a single website getting a better understanding of views, likes, and comments. During this period an experienced digital marketer should be employed to drive traffic to the showcasing (our own Zalak can help you with this) An experienced digital marketer will understand how to get more likes and comments within a controlled single video platform. After a couple of weeks, when the marketing information is gathered, then submitting to more platforms may be the suggested avenue.

Two video platforms are mostly used by filmmakers to showcase their films: Vimeo and YouTube. There are great reasons for choosing YouTube and great reasons for selecting Vimeo. This again is where an excellent digital marketing team can help the producer. If the young filmmaker creates an excellent short film, he can submit it to the festivals for recognition. Cannes Film Festival in France gives the award, Short Film Palme d’Or to the best short film. Most other Film festivals showcase short films and award them also. For full-length Independent Films, producers have the same venue of distribution channels that the major studio films have providing the quality is good enough.

For best revenues, professional film marketers should be employed by the production teams. Understanding the venues and timing to release in each venue to maximize profit is essential. One important venue is the film festivals in which all-important ‘buzz’ will entice film buyers. Theater releases should occur simultaneously with the festival releases maximizing foreign sales and domestic sales to Television Networks and online video streamers. Large budget Independent films with large marquee actors can elicit the same domestic Box Office sales as a comparable studio movie.

However, smaller independent films that are good enough to get a theater release at all, can negotiate terms with smaller chain theaters for a lesser release. Most of these smaller releases bring in a small profit to the producers or no profit at all. However, these releases are important for the public relations and marketing campaign which increases the revenues in other venues, such as television, streaming, and foreign sales. Some ‘B’ movies use ‘cookie-cutter’ production themes and are produced one after the other, released in foreign markets or for a cable release. These films use a host of ‘B’ talent and normally occur on a scheduled basis.

CC Bell – Content Writer

Marketing in the Indies editorial!!! billy LAx’s fan favorite. I am honored he gave this one to me. Espresso Films, our company, makes it business as a niche in the Indie Film Marketing with online digital expertise. Our website, planned as the first of many, is www.moviesbyespresso.com We will promote festivals and markets, the films that win awards and some that don’t, Indie actors, directors and producers, as well as those companies that do business in the Indie world. Our designer and developer, Zalak, has a complete plan of websites planned and the social media that is being built under billy LAx is massive. Espresso Films is here to stay.

A vast amount of the marketing takes place at Film Festivals and Film Markets. Unfortunately, for the Indie filmmakers, 2020 has brought a lot of misfortune due to the virus. Cannes in France, the most important international film festival in the world, was all but cancelled and many others have gone virtual. This leaves two important marketing questions for filmmakers: How long will the new way of marketing independent film be necessary? And when and if the virus ends, will the old way of doing things reappear? Most experts think the marketing of Indies will morph into a hybrid of the old way and the new way created from handling the virus.

In any case, the new methods of the virus is probably to the benefit for Espresso Films who makes its business in the online digital marketing business. Billy LAx’s concept did not start after the virus took hold in March of this year (2020) but the increased online necessity of film making is right in the line of Espresso’s business model. Espresso encourages young filmmakers to entertain promotion within Espresso’s significant digital exposure. The company intends to enhance the revenue beyond all previous models of films and now that the Indie film marketing business has gone viral, it is in position to be more confident of its abilities than ever before.

Independent Film Theatrical distribution has been hit particularly hard in 2020. The screenings are down and much of the all-important “buzz” quieted. Particularly with the low budget “Art House” films in which the Festivals and Markets and small theatrical distributions at boutique theaters play such an important role of the financial success of the movie, the marketing campaigns have been hit particularly hard. One positive aspect is that there is nowhere but up to go for the Indie Film markets.

UCLA: Hollywood Diversity Report 2020

Our Editor, billy LAx, has chosen diversity in Hollywood to warrant a single page on our website to post editorials due to it being such an important subject in the careers of many professionals as well as lay working people.

Hello Film world