I’m an Indie Film Maker, How do I make money?
When looking to market and promote your new film, there is always the question of what do I start? Well in this interview I found, Lewis Bostock who is a freelance web video producer and he also co-host the web show The Social Life. Bostock’s view on piracy is one that takes the negative light off of the subject and views it as a way to gain more fans.
For the film Wound which Bostock and his partner David produced. Bostock talks about how before he met David, there was a facebook page setup for the film, Wound that read exactly like that, Wound. Bostock immediately sensed this was a problem and had to create a solution in order to increase the facebook page hits and likes. So Bostock changed the title of the page to Wound-New Zealand Horror Film. Bostock found that by changing the title they were able to double their likes in half the time. So there’s a good lesson to remember Indie Film Makers, make sure your Facebook title gives a little information about your film. (Ex. Title-place and genre)
Bostock goes on to talk about how you interact with your fans is important. Sometimes we tend to want to only read the good reviews and respond to these posts only. Bostock would disagree he believes that we should take in consideration all reviews and take the time to respond whether they are negative or positive reviews. Take the time out to find out what people like about the film, find out what they hated about the film, let them know that you appreciate them taking the time to actually watch your film first off, but also for posting their review, and invite them to continue to review your work.
When the subject of the so-called pirates, “those individuals who steal your content” came about Bostock outlook was a little different. Bostock believes that no amount of legislature is going to stop people from getting their hands on the material they want so badly. Bostock believes we should embrace these individuals and view them as our audience. He believes by getting to know that audience and figuring out the root of the problem they seem to have will be able to put a stop to the piracy problem. Many times the problem is an easy fix we just have to take the time to listen to the customer to figure out what it is they want.
For an indie film maker to recoup some of the expenses Bostock list three things to consider.
1. Have someone who is in charge ofhandling social media and the film's overall marketing and distribution strategy.
2. Use alternative distribution models such as the web 2.0 companies TopSpin, and Moviesparx.
3. Build your own social network very early on. In this industry, it's all about who you know.
As a last comment always keep in mind that guy or girl that is on Twitter or Facebook talking about what they had for lunch, might know the very person that would be willing to finance your next project.
