How Media Promotes Film
There are a number of ways to promote films through media, many of these incur little or no cost and involve online strategies such as Social media (Facebook, fan pages and Twitter) video marketing, advertising (Facebook, Google), Integrated partnerships, Social Plug-ins and Forum Marketing.
A
good way to promote a production using
social network media sites is to run a teaser campaign before the production is
completed across as many of these sites
as possible - create a hash tag on Twitter for the production, use Facebook to post images of those
appearing in production filming and editing, create a dedicated channel on You
Tube, use Linkedin to create a company
page for the production company and use Pinterest for creating boards for
each stage of the production thus bringing the production to the
attention of people that may visit one site but not another. As well as linking
all the sites together this campaign
would follow in journey style in all
aspects of the production,
pre-production, production and
post production this would have
the affect of engaging the target audience
and causing a hunger to view
the finished production.
An
affective media strategy used to promote films is the trailer and is often the
first choice when promoting a new production to its target audience. Usually released
long before the actual release of the production, these trailers are
meticulously edited to give the target audience a taste of the forthcoming
release of the production while leaving
them wanting see more of it.
Around
about the same time the trailer is released
a web site should be unveiled that allows visitors
to view multiple versions of the trailer, view behind-the-scenes footage, read
a synopses of the production, download
cell-phone ringtones and desktop wallpaper,
even games related to the
production and chat room forums.
In recent years film production has
undergone vast changes. With the use of open source software and the drop in
the price of equipment resources that were only available to large studios with
big budgets are now available to small filmmakers with limited budgets.
Once a trailer has been produced there are a number of online strategies that are available to promote it - amongst these are:
Blogger Outreach
This influential blogger promotes your film and is a quick way to create an interest in the production, where you can pitch to bloggers that could write to your target audience. For example, if the production features traveling circus folk we should consider reaching out to circus blogs or if the production features a new music band trying to make in the music industry we will to get the production promoted by new band bloggers similarly if the production features vigilantes we may need to get promoted by people that blog about crime.
IndieGoGo.com
If the production needs funding then the trailer could be submitted to IndieGoGo.com. IndiGoGo.com is a website that tends to attract filmmakers and fans of indie films. In order to get the most cash behind the production you need to give people an incentive to donate to your production such as a mention in the closing credits or meeting them and introducing them to the crew and people involved in the production and may be giving them a small part in the production. The more creative your incentives are the more money you are likely to attract.
Film Forums
One of the best ways to get more people interested in the production is through forums. Forums like IndieTalk.com are great ways of people looking to talk film. If you contribute insights to other production team’s questions and issues you'll be rewarded with traffic to your production. There needs to be a link to your trailer as your forum profile signature.
It helps if you're part of the community before you start pitching your film. You need to spend some time before your release date contributing to the forum so that when you do make your pitch, so there will be response to the production.
When the date of release date for the film becomes nearer production companies try to ensure that there is favourable press coverage in newspapers, magazines and on radio and television shows. A frequently used publicity ploy is the press junket.
At these junkets, entertainment reporters journalists, and critics are invited to a special location for a period usually no longer than a weekend, consisting of interviews with the producers of the film and the main people appearing in it (stars) The directors, screenwriters and stars are placed separate rooms and the reporters are go in one by one to ask their questions. These junkets are highly controlled environments and are usually attended by a publicist at any interviews who ensure these interviews never stray from positive promotion with the interviewee sitting in front of a poster of the production so this image is relayed to the target audience an reinforces in the audiences mind the connection between the interviewee and the production.
As the release date for the production draws closer the promotion machine swings into all-out publicity blitz. Bombarding the public with so many images and promos centered around the production that it turns into a "can't miss" event. Producers will cover buses and bus shelters with huge ads, place billboards in every cancelable location around the city, place full-page ads in major newspapers and magazines, the stars will show up on all of the major talk shows and trailers will run on TV.
The Internet provides a prime spot for these publicity blitzes. Producers can place interactive ads on the social network sites and other sites visited frequently by their target audience they obtain this information by completing market research. They often release behind-the-scenes clips, bloopers on these social network sites such as YouTube. They sometime release clips so potential audiences can create their own trailers.
How
media how can influence public opinion
Media and image are a very powerful tool used to great
affect by producers to promote their films. Because many of the potential
target audience are dependent
on these media sources for information and up dates on their fields of interest. These media
outlets such as television, radio, websites and newspapers have a
narrow message which can be etched
in the minds of the potential target audience. They give biased options and
interjections that strongly inference how a production or the people in it are
perceived, for example our main idea for the documentary is about a
traveling circus. Over the past few
years travelling people such as gypsies and others have been portrayed
negatively in the media often failing
to present the other side of the story. Constant
bombardment with this advertising, images, options and stories can force the
public to conform to the desired message
and evoke feeling of hate, us and them, nation pride and patriotism.
In our production one of our aims is to try and convey a more positive message about circus folk without appearing to be biased in our approach to the subject and of course their good and bad aspects to all ways of life which we plan to show in the production.
By Patrick Reilly.
