Let’s stipulate to the fact that the “independent film market” – at least as it’s been since 1994 when it went mainstream – does not currently exist. Studios love franchises and see anything that doesn’t have a kid’s meal tie-in as poison. Those looking to change the DVD business are being hammered by established interests they’re probably about 15 minutes from Stockholm Syndrome. OK. So let’s move on.
The first question likely to be asked at any gathering of independent filmmakers is How can I get funding for my movie?
There are a number of answers to that, ranging from finding corporate sponsors to maxing out your credit cards to using new sites like KickStarter to rack up micro-payments. Figure out what’s going to work for you and, if you’re really passionate about a project, you’ll make it happen.
The second question is How do I make money from my film?
But that’s the wrong question. The actual question that should be asked is How do I effectively market my film?
While sites like OpenIndie are looking to create new distribution models – and more power to them as traditional ones deteriorate – I think the problem is now in distribution but in marketing. And effective marketing leads to return on investment. You can’t simply ask how to make money, you have to ask how to get your product in front of the people willing to spend money on that product to an extent that you make money.
The problem, at least as I see it, is not that there’s no market for independent films. It’s that the existing markets are hard to reach. So a model like the one being adopted by OpenIndie doesn’t really address that since it still requires the movie to be found. That’s not enough. Movies have to find their audiences and compete for the attention of those audiences.
I dig what Arin Crumley and the others are doing with OpenIndie – and how that model is being used by others. But it seems like it’s crowd-sourcing only half the equation.
What I would like to see (and hell, maybe this is something I should just do) is a site that crowdsources the marketing. Specifically, let’s put our heads together and figure out 1) Who the audience for that movie is likely to be and 2) How they can best be reached. Have a movie that speaks to families of migrant workers? Here’s a link to an organization that provides those families with some support. Let’s drop them a line and see if they’d be interested in hosting a screening or embedding the movie’s trailer on their site.
That’s where the key lies and how independent filmmakers will ultimately break through the clutter.
Let’s also be clear that, from a marketing perspective, products and projects rarely if ever get launched before a target audience is identified. But that process doesn’t always work for creative enterprises since you can’t stifle the creative impulse while you dive into demographics. That’s one of the problems weighing down the studio system. But it’s in place for a reason and it needs to be acknowledged that we’re working backwards from the rest of the established industry.
That doesn’t mean that, by harnessing the power of the crowd, it can’t be overcome.
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