Our marketing strategy - Individual -

As we need to promote and market our short film after it is completed I need to research to find out ways to promote a short film.

The “Short Film Distribution Guide” by Nigel. R. Smith was a source of research to find out ways to distribute and market a short film.

After reading this, I brought together the ideas that have been an inspiration and methods that we could use to distribute our short.

He states thaat there has never been more opportunities to show a short film. By getting on the international festival circuit, through DVD sales, on-line streaming or downloading.

People that we could show the film to, to get feedback and create word of mouth, would be friends, families, enemies and industry figures. We wouldn’t just have to show immediate family, we could give it to the extended family who could pass copies on to their friends. When handing out the copies, we could ask for a contribution towards the film.

Taking the short to a festival would attract attention to the four of us involved as well as the film. With this attention, we could even be nominated for awards which could even result in cash.
We could place the film on the internet either using YouTube, a short film site or even create our own website.

Festivals are a major part to the success of short films. A short film usually has a festival life span of around two years and the net span can be endless depending on the efforts put in to promote the film. The guide states that festivals don’t usually tend to give money but supplies the most appreciative, committed, adventurous audiences who are looking for fresh material, which would be us and the film. We would have to prioritise which festivals to go to; ones that would be most suitable for our genre of film.

People attending the festivals include; producers, distributors, sales agents, talent agents, development executives and other industry personnel who are all in search for new talent with potential. We should have copies on the film with us at any festivals to give to anyone in the industry. Some festivals may even reduce or cover our entry and shipping costs.

If we were to produce our own website, we would have to take into consideration that there would be no financial gain and industry figures may see it. This method of distribution may disinterest sales agents, festivals and DVD compliers as it would be available to people free to watch. It would be a cheap but time consuming way of advertising. Although, we could charge a small amount to view the film.

Other places we could promote the film are through chatrooms, special interest websites, blogs or newgroups. This will allow us to get feedback.

A disadavantage of placing the film on the web would be that it then becomes unappealing to film festivals as if it is on there for free why would people want to pay to go and see it at a festival?

We could screen the film in a set location for people to come and view the film. We would have to consider where to screen, who to invite, how many people are likely to attend and at what time and date. We could either have free entry, charge a small fee or run on contribution from the viewers. To get feedback from the audience we could do a Q & A session or have a book at the back of the location and request any opinions.

The sales of DVD’s could be placed on sites such as eBay and Amazon, through a secure payment method. If we sold DVD’s independently, although it would be cheaper to bulk order the DVD’s, we wouldn’t be sure how many would be sold. If we added extra’s such as interviews with the cast and crew and outtakes, the DVD would have a higher value.

I then went on to research the promotion and distribution of East is East to see how a British film was distributed.

East is East was a British comedy-drama film and was produced in 1999. It had a varied popular cast including actors such as Linda Bassett and Archie Panjabi. The film was about the changing culture within the different generations. It was marketed as a British film and was intended for a wide range of audiences. In the UK, it was distributed by Channel 4 films and in the USA by Miramax, an art-house, independent film distribution company. The film used a low-budget of 1.9 million and including the UK and USA, collected over £10 million. The UK is well-known for doing British comedy and being good for it as other countries are really interested in watching it.

Trailers
A trailer was placed during the breaks of comedy/drama programmes such as Hollyoaks, Frasier and Brookside which was aimed for the younger generation. This was because East of East was of the same genre so the producers felt that this would entice people to go and watch the film.
Another location that a trailer was placed was on ITV, during breaks of soaps as the film included different generations and their opinions on culture. East is East imitated soaps as it was about real life situations like programmes such as Coronation Street.
As our film isn’t a professional production we wouldn’t be able to get a trailer on such channels as where these programmes would be shown. We wouldn’t have the money to place a trailer on TV. Also, as our film is only five minutes long, the trailer would show half of the film, so people wouldn’t come to festivals or such to watch it, loosing viewers.

Banners
Banners were placed on the internet which targeted the keen internet users and gamers. This grabbed the attention of another group of people that the producers thought would be interested.
Advertisements were placed on radio stations such as Capital FM at peak times so the biggest audience possible could hear them. They included 30 second comedy clips.
As a production company with no budget, we couldn’t use these forms of marketing as we wouldn’t have the appropriate money for it. Although, if our film was at a professional standard and we had the money to do it, broadcasting on Capital FM would be a benefit as it would reach all the people listening to the radio at peak times such as when they are travelling home from work.

Articles and adverts
These were placed in magazines such as More, Look and Sugar which was aiming the film as girl teens again getting the younger generation involved.
To gather more middle aged women to watch the film, adverts were placed in OK! magazine which was for the women who like to gossip about the world. East is East would be suitable to this generation as it was a light-hearted film and they could take their friends and families along with them.
To those who liked watching soaps, articles were location in Inside Soap and Time Out.
Promotion also was included through daily national newspapers which were page dominant making people take note of them.
If we wanted to advertise in a magazine we could post it online as it would be free/cheaper to. Ads were shown a week in advance before release which was a reminder for people to book and go and see it.
East is East promoted their film through billboards and bus stops for passing people. We could market a similar way which would be free of charge and would be to put posters around school and on street lamps and posts inviting people to screening. Posters would have to be bold to stand out.

Although East is East had trailers we could only do this if we created a website.

Website
With a website we cost post all the latest news, video clips of the film and making of, interviews with the casts and crews. A disadvantage of this would be again that it would take a lot of time up which we as students don’t really have much of.

Interviews

Linda Bassett who was also in Darling Buds of May was interviewed on GMTV and in the Daily Mail newspaper. As nobody famous is in My Brother Leon, we can’t get attention through this method.

Reviews

An advantage that East is East had was that only good reviews were released. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stop the bad reviews from being made, although posters and the website could include quotes from good reviews.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack including Supergrass’ tracks was released just before the film was shown in cinemas. We only have used 3 tracks in our film, but we could make them available to download through iTunes or the website, maybe even for a small charge.

Festivals

The film was also taken to festivals such as Cannes and premiered at charitable events. We would have to research into which festivals would be most suitable for the film. Although, taking the film to charitable events would be free or have a little charge which we give us a bigger audience in return.