I posed a question to myself because I keep hearing about how these highly successful, supposedly low to no budget films utilized low-no budget marketing methods to achieve their success. Is it really possible to market a low budget film with no noticeable marketing budget?

This weekend I have been putting together case studies on 2 films that are often used as examples, What The Bleep Do We Know (2004) and The Blair Witch Project (1999). Both are universally regarded as examples of using online and word of mouth marketing techniques to create awareness and generate sales. Were they really low budget? How much did they spend on the production and marketing of the films versus the return?

I started with What The Bleep because I am going to see another filmmaker this week to talk about his film with a spiritual theme and I wanted to come up with some ideas ahead of time that we could start thinking about using. At least he hasn’t started on production yet, so this is an excellent time to consider the marketing and come up with a budget and strategy.

For those who don’t know the film What The Bleep, it is a hybrid documentary which combines documentary-style interviews, computer-animated graphics, and a narrative story that proposes a spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness. The plot follows the story of a deaf female photographer; as she encounters emotional and existential obstacles in her life, she comes to consider the idea that individual and group consciousness can influence the material world. Her experiences are offered by the filmmakers as an illustration of the movie’s thesis about quantum physics and consciousness. The 2004 cinematic release of the film was followed by a substantially changed, extended DVD version in 2006. *info courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

Now, this “low budget” documentary was made for roughly $4 million and an additional $2.5 million was spent on marketing it to a very niche audience. Worldwide, both theatrical and DVD sales, the film has grossed almost $16 million and counting. So take the production budget and add an additional half for marketing! In studio numbers, $6.5 million is low budget, but to most filmmakers I know, it is the end number they are hoping to make!

The producers of What The Bleep did initially use a variety of grassroots methods to spread the word about the film because they couldn’t find a distributor. These methods included self funded screenings, using their Ramtha School of Enlightenment connections for attendance, contacting every spiritual chat room and message board they could find online etc. They also hired a marketing company to organize further screenings, design and print posters, fliers, postcards, hired people to distribute them, entered small spiritual film festivals and won several prizes. They were rejected by all of the major film festivals in the world. Ultimately, they were signed to the Samuel Goldwyn Company for theatrical distribution and Fox for DVD distribution. I am sure the marketing budget went up significantly from there.

Now Blair Witch.

Figures vary, but the official production budget number released by Artisan was $350,000. Ok, that is low budget especially given that the return worldwide was close to $258 million! Marketing figures are imprecise but it has been said the filmmakers spent at least $15,000 for their website. That was a lot for the late ’90’s but they sure got a bang for the buck. The site featured all kinds of footage, “old” newspaper clips of the legend, “diaries” of the filmmakers featured, “official” police interviews about the missing filmmakers and a general blurring of the lines between fiction and reality. Very creative and effective. The site went live a year before the release of the film and 2 months before the release, MTV had devoted a whole show about the proliferation of fan sites that had sprung up on their own devoted to the film. A documentary about the Blair Witch Project was aired on Sci Fi channel and on Bravo and trailers were run on IFC. The doc must have cost additional money to make. Time on these channels must have been paid for as well. Also, they hired Louise Levison to write their business plan, so that was an initial expense. Campfire was hired for a viral marketing campaign, but it is unclear if that happened before or after distributor Artisan took over. Even so, the filmmakers have to take the marketing spend out of their cut so, in essence, they paid for it.

What I am getting at in this query is that while there can be a low budget approach to marketing a film, the “extremely low budget success” film does not exist without a firm, focused marketing plan and budget to go along. These films did not rely solely on the marketing talents of the producers (who knows if they had that kind of background previous) or on using free labor like film students and friends. Professional talent was utilized and paid for regardless of how much money was spent on the methods.