megancole.org

Marketing Your Film Online

How does one effectively utilize the internet to promote and market a film project?

That was the question raised by filmmakers and members of the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada that spawned the workshop “Marketing Your Film Online”, an event sponsored by Telefilm Canada at this year’s St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival that wrapped up this week in Newfoundland.

Pattie Lacroix from Catapult Media in Halifax and I held a panel talk on this very issue for the participants at the festival this year. It was a ton of fun and the people in attendance gained a lot from the session, based on their positive responses in the aftermath. We gave the talk from the perspective on how filmmakers, producers and directors could potentially freely, literally, tap the internet and the many social networks that are out there to explore, to better promote their work. This information on the basics of online social networking can obviously be applied right across the board to just about anyone with something to sell, show or share!

Pattie started the discussion off with an introduction to the next generation of the web: social networks and softwares and how user-generated content effects users today in how people connect and collaborate online, and how the web is more about event driven experiences than about sites.

Before heading off to the East coast, I sat down with the person who first taught me all about this world of social networks and softwares, to formulate the talk in a constructive and useful manner for the specific audience: krug – THE social software guru junkie.

And here’s how that all looked and unfolded in the end:

• Blogging – A general overview on blogging and the importance of linking and tagging. We looked at WordPress, Blogger and Typepad and I quickly walked them through setting up a WordPress Blog – they were amazed at how fast and easy it was to complete.
• Video Sharing – We talked about the YouTube and Revver services, the similarities and differences, and looked at some examples of both. What was nice for all to see was the user-friendly, non-intimidating interface of both sites.
• Photosharing – Flickr – Not only a place to post and highlight anything under the moon for your own purpose, but the connections you make in growing your community and commenting on other photos is priceless.
• Social Bookmarking – delicious and digg – Here is where illustrating the purpose in tagging became prevalent and more understood.
• Event Calendar – Upcoming – Trying to stay “in the loop” is sometimes tough, and the idea of having a site where one can quickly announce or reference city events was an attractive site for this particular audience.
• We also looked at LinkedIn, MySpace, last.fm and zaadz

Case Studies:
I then moved into highlighting several examples to better illustrate how other television and film projects used some of these free social softwares in the past for promoting their work:

• The Inconvenient Truth documentary – used both YouTube and MySpace to create the buzz and promote the issues related to the film
• Snakes On A Plane – The Blogosphere Craze!
• Battlestar Galactica the TV series – The buzz that was created through the Producer’s podcast and blog

The whole talk, with questions and conversations that were generated from it, took up about 2.5 hours – we could have gone all day!

As I mentioned, the info was all really well received and most of the people were truly blown away by the vastness of this space. We, who live in this web 2.0 bubble, can perhaps sometimes take it for granted. There is a whole world out there that knows very little, or sometimes, nothing at all, on how powerful the internet has become, and it felt great to have the opportunity to transfer what I have learned to those people who are open and ready to learn it as well.

Thank-you to Pattie for having the foresight to bring someone like me back to the East to take part in this endeavor. We’re hoping to continue working as a team on more workshops in the future – it was a lot of fun teaching this stuff!

Thanks to Telefilm Canada for sponsoring the event.

Thank-you to Krug for all of your help, knowledge and support, as always!

And a thank-you to Kelly Davis, the festival’s Executive Director, and her crew this year. You did such an outstanding job. I look forward to seeing the festival grow in numbers and participation in the coming years and to hopefully coming back to take part again!