Even ten years ago, ‘show business’ was highly organized. See this excellent report by Strategy Analytics.
But that model has been challenged by the addition of millions of screens, many of which you carry around as phones, tablets and laptops; the explosion of content, made possible by plunging production costs; and the rise of the Internet, acting as the conduit between viewer and media.
Very simplistically, the old, analogue, model was:
- Make the movie
- Sell your movie to a distributor
- Hand it over so they can exploit it in every market through each window.
There is no one new model: everyone is coming up with their own strategy. It’s still the Wild West. What might work for one film won’t necessarily work for the next.
I believe the key elements are: the Internet, content want to be free, people will reward (pay for) excellent content, video, mobile, watch whatever whenever, and on and on.
One major difference with the new model is that there is no middle man required any more.
Very simplistically, the new, digital, model is:
- Make the movie
- Exploit the movie.
The key for me is ‘Audience’ — you want to be as close to your audience as possible. You need to involve them in the project’s journey. The thinking here is the more involved they are, the more invested they are and the greater the chance they will support the project. Support is one or all of: talk about it, invest in it, share about it, rent/buy it.
Who is your audience?
Once you know that you can implement this plan:
MK’s Marketing Plan: use Crowd Funding and Web Presence to connect Audience with Release Platforms.
Use Crowd Funding to build awareness: it’s not about the money, it’s about making pre-sales to your audience: make the $10 reward a film viewing. So you might have a ridiculously low goal and then some stretch goals. The real goal is to sign up fans; any money you make is pure bonus. (You should not count on crowd funding to raise your production budget — make it low-to-no-budget so lack money can’t stop you.)
Create a Web Presence: your project needs an online identity. Website, Facebook page, Youtube/Vimeo space, Twitter feed. Again to attract fans. To disseminate news. To show your crowd funding video, behind the scenes videos, etc.
Choose your Release Platforms: the goal is to make enough more to make your next film so you need both SVOD (think Netflix) and VOD (think iTunes) platforms.
Indie filmmaker Douglas Horn has researched this and chose IndieFlix for the curated browsing space and ReelHouse for a rental/sales platform.
Two last thoughts: theatrical and festivals.
The only thing you could consider with Theatrical is to “four wall” the project if you have a niche audience. If you have a distinct, built-in audience, you could rent a theatre and market directly to them. 100 people at $10 each = $1000, less cost of theatre. See TUGG for a crowd sourced pull theatrical strategy.
Festivals — I have to admit I’m not a big fan. You can spend a lot of time and money submitting. For what? Unless you get into the big ones, maybe a hundred people show up on a Friday afternoon and you win an award. That’s the promise. I think in the beginning your time is better spent working your Marketing Plan. Once you get the ball rolling, festivals will take more notice and then you can get into bigger ones. But thinking festivals will get the ball rolling for you is dreaming, IMHO.
My take: Mark Duplass begs to differ. At SXSW he says submit to every festival under the sun. I think festivals should only be a part of your marketing strategy.