Promoting
Your Film at Festivals
by Glen Berry, Film Underground
Adapted from Disc
Makers Ultimate Guide to Releasing Your Film on DVD.
For many filmmakers, acceptance to a top festival
is perceived as a golden ticket to recognition and the elusive distribution
deal. Although an invitation to premiere at a well-known festival
is certainly a great accomplishment, it is also only the beginning
of the most critical phase in a harrowing gauntlet.
Entrance
into the festival is not a victory by itself, but rather an opportunity
to compete with dozens (possibly hundreds) of other films for the
attention of the festival attendees, media and distribution agents.
Anyone familiar with the atmosphere of a top film festival knows the
maelstrom of hype that swirls around the events. Internationally known
movie studios, festival sponsors, distributors, and dot-coms are all
trying to out do each other in a desperate fight to capture a share
of the eyeballs. Given the intense competition, how does an independent
filmmaker make himself heard?
This is the striking question I took with me to the Sundance and Slamdance
Film Festivals in Park City. I studied the guerrilla marketing techniques
of the low-budget productions and noted not only their methods but
also the effectiveness of their from-the-hip marketing campaigns.
Consistency is key
All the marketing materials you develop should have consistent themes,
colors, and designs. Clean designs are so important: be sure to use
white space effectively to draw attention away from the sense-deadening
clutter. Make them professional-looking, and in color. Photocopied
materials are a waste of paper and time, considering the competition.
Postcards
and flyers
Another must-do, these handbills are the name of the game. A few volunteers
in the street pressing them into the hands of passersby is a tried
and true method to pursue. Very few festival attendees will refuse
the handbill, which guarantees (at the very least) a cursory glance.
That cursory glance is all the opportunity you’re going to get
to attract interest, so provoke a response, challenge the viewer,
and spark curiosity!
However you decide to do it, make your design strong and simple. Get
them to turn that card over and read the when and where. Contact information
should be included, as well as the now omnipresent URL. Resist the
urge to billboard the director or producer’s name unless it
is the selling point of the film.
Stickers
This is a tempting and inexpensive method for marketing your film,
but it is risky. Handbills probably won’t come back to haunt
you, but stickers might. All it takes is a few malicious pranksters
to plaster your stickers in the wrong place (festival bus, police
car, etc.) and you could risk being on the receiving end of a vandalism
charge, or at least the clean-up fees.
Posters
Postering was perhaps the most obvious method in Park City and was
the most common element of any of the marketing campaigns. Standard
U.S. paper size (8.5 x 11) was common, presumably because of exponential
expense of printing anything larger.
Distribution of movie posters at Park City centered around the high
foot traffic area of Main Street. That makes sense, but it was surprising
to note how few were posted around the other theatres scattered about
the town.
Don’t buy into the herd mentality of only targeting the well-used
poster boards. Targeting other festival locations as well is often
more effective: you will reach your target audience (film attendees)
and you will not be competing with the vast array of other offerings.
The “saturation distribution” technique of putting up
many copies of the same poster in the same location, usually highly
effective, could actually be detrimental in a festival situation.
The problem here is that in order to cover an entire designated poster
board, one must cover up a number of other people’s posters,
potentially putting you at risk of a negative backlash against your
film.
T-shirts and hats
These promotional items are a bit more expensive, but well worth the
price. Keep in mind that hats may be more popular than T-shirts, depending
on the climate and time of year.
The first item to consider is how to get strangers to promote your
film for you. If you offer strangers something of value that they
can use (i.e., a warm hat at a festival in the middle of winter, instead
of a handbill, sticker or poster), they will be glad to have it. In
doing so, they have become an active participant in your marketing
drive. That T-shirt or hat is part of a living, breathing human being
who is representing your film. It suggests that this particular film
has a fan base and a group of supporters behind it, and that the film
has been seen and liked.
Imagine seeing twelve people anywhere all wearing the same item of
clothing. Your film, your cause, your organization, whatever it is,
it will receive attention.
Marketing teams
This point brings us straight into the effectiveness of dispatching
small groups of people into the street to give away promotional items.
Food and candy are always welcome items for most people, while hot
drinks at a winter festival are very inexpensive and easily win the
goodwill of festival goers.
This may seem ridiculous, but several of the marketing teams I encountered
at the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals could not answer the
question “Where and when is this film playing?” That is
the only thing they should be sure of. It should be indelibly imprinted
in their mind and repeated, mantra-like, to everyone they encounter
as they press handbills into hands.
Get creative
Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. At Slamdance 2000, the filmmakers
of “A Galaxy Far, Far Away,” a documentary on Star Wars
fanatics, dressed up as characters from the Star Wars films and gathered
in the street shortly before the screening of their film.
One of the subjects of the documentary carried a portable CD player,
which was blasting songs from the film’s sound track. The group
of costumed people began dancing to the music, making noise, having
a good time and inviting people to come to the film. This type of
promotion is probably the most difficult to pull off, but if done
correctly, it can become an oft-repeated story that will make your
film stand out from the crowd. The only cost is your pride, but your
ego is sure to be more than compensated by a standing room only screening.
The most important thing to remember is that you can often make the
biggest splash by not following the crowd. As with all marketing,
reaching and targeting your audience – with doses of originality
and creativity – are the keys to success. People in this industry
tend to fall all over themselves in their haste to imitate, so doing
things differently can help you yield the results you’re striving
for.
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