Plant your marketing and distribution seeds at pre-production / production stage. Think about your audience in advance of making your film and think about your title carefully from a marketing point of view too. Do a little research to see if the title has been used recently and might cause confusion with another film currently in the market.

Buy up all related and possibly desired urls and start on the site, draw in traffic and collect names and contact info.  Make sure your set photography is top-notch from a marketing and publicity point-of-view. Start building community around your brand as a filmmaker and the film itself, and possibly even sharing parts of the content with your future audience.

TFC has a marketing services menu that includes options for access to a DIY Marketing Toolkit to guide microbudget filmmakers in their own marketing initiatives.

The quick answer is YES….well, maybe. It depends how sought after your film is, and who is representing your film. If you have a world premiere at one of the top film festivals like Sundance or Cannes or a handful of others, then Festival programmers will request to see your film.

The general rule is if a programmer REQUESTS to see your film and then accepts the film, you can ask for a rental fee (usually between $500 and $1,000 is a good place to start). If you SUBMIT to a Festival, then generally they will not pay you. However, if you are represented by a distributor or a producer’s rep, they may have more negotiating power and be better able to get you a screening fee. ALSO….niche festivals such as Latino Fests, Jewish Fests, LGBT Fests, Asian fests etc. are much MORE likely to pay you fees to screen your film, because there is less product for them to choose from, so they are more likely to NEED your film in their Festival.

My friend and emerging indie filmmaker Zak Forsman writes posts for the Workbook Project  site called NEW BREED. Zak has also made 2 films in the last year called Heart of Now and White Knuckles. He shared his film festival strategy on the New Breed site and I asked if I could reprint it here in case you missed it. You can also follow him on Twitter @zakforsman. If you like what you read, please leave a comment on his site.

The SABI Festival Strategy

STEP ZERO: ASK YOURSELF WHY

Be honest with yourself and ask why you want to do this. It will be a financial, emotional and physical drain to be sure. So you must define your goals and the reason why they are goals. For us, we have solidified our plans to release HEART OF NOW and WHITE KNUCKLES through our own distribution company, CINEFIST. So we are not seeking traditional distribution. And by “traditional” I mean selling the domestic rights for 25 years, for less than $100,000 in advance and a tiny cut of the profit. Instead, we ARE seeking some rather important things to support a direct-to-audience distribution effort:

• To meet new friends, filmmakers, fans and partners
• To garner laurels, prestige, press and reviews
• To announce a platform release to a larger audience
• To make a little $$$ on DVD, soundtrack and merch sales at each screening
• To get additional feedback from audiences

So, what does a modern, forward-thinking festival strategy look like? From the outside, it looks like a bucket full of submission packets amounting to $1500 in fees for 40 festivals. I’ve come to define our festival strategy by working backwards from our direct-to-audience distribution plan. We know we want to begin the latter in July 2010 so the focus had to go toward festivals that would play between now and the end of June. The intent being that if we are accepted, we can incorporate that opportunity into the distribution road map, without relying on it “for direction”.

So how did I decide which festivals to submit to?

STEP ONE: MAKE LISTS

I researched other films and the festivals they played. I zeroed in on two films that I felt shared enough similarities with HEART OF NOW and WHITE KNUCKLES that they could attract the same appreciation for content and form. They were THE NEW YEAR PARADE and MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY.

Festivals that accepted The New Year Parade:

• SXSW
• Slamdance
• Ashland
• Philadelphia
• deadCENTER
• BendFilm
• Indie Memphis
• Lone Star Int’l
• IFF Boston
• Cucalorus
• Temecula Valley
• Vancouver Int’l
• Tofino
• Torino
• Woodstck
• Starz Denver

Festivals that accepted Medicine for Melancholy:

• SXSW
• Philadelphia
• IFF Boston
• Viennale
• San Francisco Int’l
• Toronto Int’l
• London
• Sarasota
• Maryland
• Los Angeles

And I also took a good look at the festivals suggested by Chris Gore as being essential to any festival effort:

• AFI Fest
• Dallas
• Atlanta
• Austin
• Chicago
• CineVegas (on hiatus)
• Denver
• Florida
• Los Angeles
• Phoenix
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Sidewalk
• Wisconsin
• Woodstock

I sought to make one final list of festivals that offered profit participation with the box office grosses, allowing filmmakers the opportunity to make some money off their own content. That list had no entries.

I entered all of this info in a GoogleWave and crunched through the data, noting their deadlines, doing searches on the Without-A-Box message board for filmmaker feedback and reading about each of them on FILM FESTIVAL WORLD as well as visiting each of their official sites.

STEP TWO: SEEK GUIDANCE FROM INTELLIGENT PEOPLE

Guidance came in two forms: from experienced people I’ve met in the last year and from books. My signed copy of THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX OFFICE by Jon Reiss has been a great resource for defining our upcoming distribution endeavor, allowing us to work backwards and plan a complimentary festival strategy. For festival-specific guidance, I picked up the 4th edition of CHRIS GORE’S ULTIMATE FILM FESTIVAL SURVIVAL GUIDE.

In addition, the heads of programming at SUNDANCE and SLAMDANCE both sent unofficial rejection notices that offered personal words of admiration for WHITE KNUCKLES, with the latter making suggestions for festivals that might also be receptive to it. It’s encouraging to know how closely we were considered for those two.

Next, Scott Macaulay of FILMMAKER MAGAZINE was gracious enough to lend his creative feedback and insight as we shaped the edit of HEART OF NOW. When I posted a plea on Facebook and Twitter for east coast festival recommendations, he offered a list for that film specifically.

In addition, festivals that programmed my short film, I F*CKING HATE YOU, fell into heavy consideration due to the existing relationships and friendships we had there. And finally, we’ve received direct invitations to screen HEART OF NOW from some smaller festivals who have been following SABI via Facebook and Twitter.

From those lists I shared above and the cumulative guidance of several people, I was able to identify which festivals would be our primary targets and which would be our second choices, submitting to both sets simultaneously. We made note of the premiere status requirements and the possible conflicts that could arise. A third list of smaller, more regional festivals lies in wait, to coincide with our direct-to-audience theatrical tour and home video releases. Those submissions will be made in the Spring of 2010.

STEP THREE: WHAT TO SEND, WHAT TO EXPECT

I set a full day aside to burn and test each DVD screener and to build out each submission. I use a stack of pre-printed blank DVD-Rs from ARCHETYPE DVD with whitespace for tracking numbers, contact info, running time and other notes. Each packet included the number of DVD screeners they asked for, labelled in the manner they requested, a brief and concise personal letter drafted by me to give the submission a little personality, the Without-A-Box printout, and nothing else. Be prepared for the clerk at your local post office to look at you like your an asshole when you ask for dozens of packages of varying weights to be sent first class.

As for expectations, I’m committed to the idea that a festival run is ancillary to the real objective – to get these arthouse films in front of a paying audience through multiple platforms. So my expectations are tempered. I was about as heartbroken over rejections from SUNDANCE and SLAMDANCE as I would be over not winning the lottery. Which is to say, not much at all really. I’ll save the heartache should we face low theater turn-out, bad reviews, dvd manufacturing delays, getting rejected from itunes, struggles to find a way into cable vod, etc. And I’ll find solace in the knowledge that if rejection or failure didn’t hit in some form, it meant we failed to take the inevitable risk, we failed to experiment as we do with all things and we failed in our attempt to innovate with an evolving model of sustainability – all part of the distribution journey.

Having just participated in an interview on Film Festival Radio that was meant to cover how to “work” a film festival, I realized that a lot of what I prepared to say didn’t get covered. Time ran short, other questions were asked. Anyway, I thought I would share with you the other points I meant to cover in case you are about to embark on the festival circuit. There is a lot to prepare for and here are the questions and answers I wanted to cover.

So why participate in a film festival?

Film festivals are a low cost alternative to booking a screening in a cinema. It may be the only time your film will see a cinema screening unless you find a distributor willing to do this for you. Use a festival as your theatrical release to gear up your DVD sales. I know that most people think that if someone sees your film, why would they buy it on DVD? But it happens all the time, think of how many DVD’s you own that you bought after seeing the film. People who have already seen it and liked it are more likely to buy it. Studios rely on theatrical release to sell their DVD, so can you.

Festivals give you access to your core audience by piggybacking on the marketing of the event in a community. You still have to market your film so that your screening is filled, but you don’t have the total expense of marketing and advertising the event like you would in a self funded screening.

Film festivals allow you to participate in the filmmaker community by meeting other like minded individuals and important people in the industry. You should do as much networking as possible while you are there. It is a time of being celebrated as a legitimate filmmaker. While you may have other jobs to pay the bills, at a film festival, you are known as a filmmaker. They give you legitimacy.

They should be part of your overall distribution strategy. The more audience you gather for your work (and awards too), the better your chances of selling your film through self distribution or finding a distributor who is willing to do a deal with you because you have a provable audience. Even if you don’t win awards, just being an official selection means someone thought your film was watchable. They are a great marketing tool too. More on that in a later section.

How do you choose the best ones for your film?

Do  thorough research about the kinds of festivals to which you should be submitting.  Unless you have an unlimited budget, you need to target and not shotgun because 1)you’ll waste money on submission fees to festivals you won’t get into 2)it is very time consuming to keep up with all the efforts for multiple festivals. For research, you can visit sites like Withoutabox, Filmfestival.com, Britfilms.com or search for genre festivals on Google to find ones that fit your film’s description. Look at the festival’s past lineups to get a sense of the kinds of films they want. You’re searching for a philosophy and a programming style that matches your film and attracts the same kind of target audience you are going for. If the festival you are thinking of applying to does not have an updated website or many press references that cover their previous event, take it as a bad sign. Probably you will not get any promotional activity out of the event for your film either and choose another.

Once you determine your likely contenders, arrange them in order of desirability and time on the calendar. This is going to take a lot of organization on your part as you only have so many copies, especially if they are 35mm prints, and they can’t be everywhere at once. Also, think how much time you have to keep up with what is due when.

Pick the likeliest spot for your world premiere and some alternatives. Pay attention to what the festival rules are for screening, some are picky about premieres or playing their city before the festival. If you are particularly looking for Oscar qualifying festivals for your short film, you can find a list on the AMPAS site here.

What if I don’t get into anything?

You should take a long, hard look at your film. If you have submitted to over 10 festivals with no acceptance, either you are picking the wrong festivals or something is off about your film. It could be too long, need a little re edit. Get as much feedback from outsiders as you can and listen to what they are telling you. DO NOT SEND ROUGH CUTS. It is the rare director that can get into a festival on a rough cut of the film so only submit your best work.

So you submit and get accepted? Then what?

You should have all of your materials together already. Website up, a poster for the lobby, postcards of your film for tables and nearby businesses. Press kits are ok, but most small festivals don’t have a press room so I wouldn’t spend a lot of time on this, nothing fancy and expensive. Use email to communicate with local press. Most festivals will only give you about 3 weeks notice of acceptance so be ready when you get the green light.

Have business cards printed for yourself as a filmmaker and the film. Include all contact details and the film’s website.

You should issue a press release as soon as you are accepted and know the screening time. Further releases should announce any wins, don’t depend on the festival to do this for you.

You should find out who the press officer is and contact them about possible publicity opportunities. Attitudes vary among staff at festivals. Some will bend over backwards to help, others couldn’t care less. If they couldn’t care less, see who their media sponsors are and where the festival is directing their news. Contact the outlets directly by telling them you are participating in the event and want to contribute to any articles they are doing. Have bios and productions stills in jpg form ready for media submission.

You should already have your social media pages in place for your film. Promote your screenings on these for your fans. Add yourself to the event’s social media pages too, if they have them, and post a trailer and info about when your screening is. Really use their pages to interact with the attendees, both other filmmakers and the audience.

Having a trailer is super important. Even if your film is only 4 minutes long, have a 10 second clip or something to send around. Do not load up your entire film on the internet until after it has played the circuit. Some festivals will disqualify for that and Oscar consideration for short films is out if you do that.

Actively seek out potential fans in the community where the festival is playing. You can do a Facebook search or a Linkedin search. Don’t bug people too much, but let them know about the festival and when your screening is and that they are invited. Do not make your pitch too sales-y or like an advertisement. Make it more informational and invitational.

Can I make any money doing this?

It is the extremely rare festival that will pay a screening fee for your film, mostly any screening fees go to a distributor of an already established film just for the prestige of having it. For sure there are festivals that offer cash prizes if you win and offer expensive equipment from sponsors. Some will fly you to the festival and offer hotel rooms.

Also, you can check the policies, but you may be able to sell DVD copies on site while you have that audience in front of you. If not, please direct them to your online sales channels with a special code for discount because they saw you at a fest.

Don’t view festivals as lost revenue because you are playing your film for free. View them as marketing opportunities that are a relatively low cost way for the audience to “try out” your film and for you to connect with your fans.

Today I will be doing an internet radio interview with Film Festival Radio on the BlogTalk Radio network. Check me out here or I will post the mp3 copy on this site if you miss it.

I will be covering how participation in film festivals is good marketing strategy for your independent film and how to get the most from participation. I covered some of this in a post in July when I was marketing LA Shorts Fest, so if you miss it completely, you can access that post.

I’m on in an hour. Join me.

PS: Here is the interview from today

Saturday’s coffee chat at LA Shorts Fest featured guest speaker Kim Adelman, indieWire columnist covering short films and author of the book MAKING IT BIG IN SHORTS. For those who missed the chat, I wanted to cover some of the finer points she mentioned because I think her knowledge can benefit the short filmmaker as well as the indie filmmaker in general.

Her first point was an independent filmmaker has to think of themselves as a studio, just like a Hollywood studio. When you have completed your film, you are opening your doors for business. What do you want to invest your time in? How much time and money do you have to invest in your product, your film? What strategy are you going to develop and follow? I believe you really should decide this before your film is made, but for sure it has to be set when you put it out to market. And then you have to market it.

She recommends starting with film festivals as a means of exposure. You, as the studio, must determine how much money you have to devote to this endeavor. Not only are there submission fees, but travel costs, promotional costs and the time associated with each. While there are a few festivals that pay a filmmaker to travel, most do not. Festivals give your film exposure to a paying audience, give you a chance to meet other filmmakers and people in the industry who could potentially help you in the future, and give you a place to enjoy the atmosphere where being a filmmaker is revered and celebrated.

Some festivals have markets attached. These are the first festivals to consider if you are looking for traditional distribution. Kim suggested that short filmmakers in particular should submit to Clermont Ferrand in France which takes place in January. There is no submission fee and there is a short film market attached. Even if you aren’t accepted for the festival, your film will get into the catalog and screen in the market for buyers. Same for Palm Springs Shortsfest and Worldwide Short Film Festival  in Toronto.  For the feature filmmaker, festivals with markets attached include Berlin (European Film Market is attached, but a separate event), Cannes, AFI (AFM is attached, but a separate event), Philadelphia, PiFan (Korea, for genre films), and Rotterdam.

Kim recommended that you submit to festivals specializing in short films and mixed feature/short films. Shorts festivals give you better exposure if you have a short film because the mixed ones tend to emphasize the features, but being in a mixed festival gives you exposure to feature film producers and industry people who can help you to make your feature which is what short filmmakers usually aspire to do. She strongly recommends that whenever you take part in a festival, you should have your next film idea packaged so that if you meet an agent, producer or distributor and they like your short but want to know what you have planned next and how can they help you, you are ready to present the idea. You don’t want to say “I don’t know” or be scrambling around in your mind trying to formulate a cohesive film idea.

She also warned about spending too much time on the festival circuit with one film. This comes back to the studio thinking. How much time, money and effort do you want to spend on this one project versus the time and money you could spend developing the next one? Too many filmmakers spend an inordinate amount of time on the festival circuit with the same film instead of moving on to the next one. Eighteen months should be your maximum. On the one hand, festivals enable you to meet more people, but they don’t earn you money unless you are selling a lot of DVD copies at the screenings. Going back to festival strategy, identify what it is you are looking to accomplish with festivals. Is it name recognition, showing your filmmaking talent off to agents or distributors, gathering an audience for your DVD sales strategy? Identify when you have accomplished your goal and can move on. 

The next strategy is digital distribution. This is where your film can either be downloaded or streamed online or put onto a portable device such as an iPod or a cell phone. One company that can help you get your short onto iTunes (because iTunes won’t deal with the filmmaker directly) is Shorts International.  iTunes actually gives the short filmmaker a way to make money like there never has been before. There are also revenue sharing sites like Bablegum, Blip.TV, Atomfilms and Metacafe. She cautions that while some money can be made in this process, it is not going to make you rich. It may not even help you break even, depending on how much money you invested in your production. Traditionally, short films were used as calling cards, a way to sell yourself as a filmmaker, not  a way to make money. With the proliferation of digital sites, a short filmmaker can either put their film out there for free and build an audience for their next project that may make money or use these revenue generating sites to slowly recoup some of their costs. Back to the need for marketing, you will only make money on these sites if you can successfully generate traffic and downloads. That takes time and consistent effort. Another company she recommended is a Canadian aggregator called OuatMedia who specializes in the worldwide distribution of short films.

Overall, her statement “You are the Studio” resonated the most. As an independent filmmaker it is all up to you. This is both an exciting prospect because you don’t have to ask any one’s permission to make films and sell them, and a nerve racking one because there is no one holding your hand and guiding you through the process. There is no magic formula that will work every time. Filmmaking is a trial and error process, even for big studios. The path to success is littered with mistakes and poor judgement, but there is no success if you never try.

“Keeping up with a blog can be a pain in the a**.” I hear this all the time from my clients who would like me to take over this job for them. I hear ya buddy. I have trouble keeping up with my own when I have an abundance of work to do for other people.  So, this is my attempt to get back to posting even though I am neck deep in promoting the LA Shorts Fest. It is a long post.

If you are a filmmaker taking part in this festival (or any film festival for that matter), you may be wondering what is the point of putting your film in a festival. It is an expense, especially if you are traveling to attend, and it doesn’t seem like you are getting much in return. If you have read my other posts, you will know that this expense should have been part of your marketing budget.

Some time ago, filmmakers used film festivals to build anticipation for a theatrical run or for a DVD release, collecting “Official Selection” accolades and “Winner” awards along the way. Film festivals served to elevate work worthy of special attention and, hopefully, attract sales agents’ and distributors’ interest. Making a sale moved the work from artistic expression into paying commercial dividends.

Today, that rarely happens to a festival film, especially a low budget one with no recognizable talent attached. With the closing of several high profile indie distribution companies and the scarcity of securing a lucrative deal with the remaining ones, film festivals often provide the only theatrical run a film might see. They serve as a platform release mechanism without the filmmaker making the investment of securing a theatrical screen for the minimum amount of time required by the cinema (often $1K-$4K per screening for a minimum one week run!).

The cost and time spent submitting the film, preparing and distributing promotional materials, duplication of prints in the required format and shipping them, travel and expenses add up. But does it equal or exceed the cost of only one screening in a local cineplex? How many people will be viewing your film if you ran it alone in a cinema rather than running it in tandem with similar films in a festival program? Plus you have the marketing might of the festival running print and radio advertising, garnering online and traditional media attention , gathering sponsors etc. to help attract the audiences. Granted, they are not focused only on your film, but you can get proactive and turn some of that spotlight on your project by contacting the media outlets yourself and offering interviews and publicity materials for them to use. That will only cost your time or the time of a consultant handling it for you.

Festivals also serve as a networking event, a chance to meet writers, directors, producers and actors useful for future collaboration and possibly industry executives involved in roundtable discussions or informal chats. Business cards are a must if you want to be taken seriously as a professional. Parties and receptions are not just a time to let loose and have fun. Work the room and meet as many people as you can. You never know who might come in handy in the future for projects.

Utilize the festival’s social media outlets as well as your own. I have been encouraging the filmmakers involved in LA Shorts to do this, but so far only a handful are taking advantage. Maybe it is because marketing is not on the forefront of their mind when it comes to their film. It should be. Actively seek out people in the communities where your film is screening. It will take a bit of online research on Facebook, Twitter etc. to find these people, but reach out to them and let them know about your film and when and where it is screening. Many online search tools are great for finding your target audience in a certain locale.

You must have a trailer or a clip to showcase. It is not a requirement, but a strong suggestion. I don’t care if your film is only two minutes long, have a 10 second clip that you can spread around the internet. If your film is two minutes long, do not load it in its entirety on the internet while you are on the festival circuit. What is the point of screening it in a festival if audiences can see it for free on the internet? Plus, nomination requirements for certain awards (like the Oscars) forbid you to make your entire film viewable on the internet.

While I am doing my best to pass along publicity opportunities to all of the participants, do not count on this happening at other festivals. They just don’t have the resources and energy to do this. Bigger festivals offer a press room journalists covering the event will stop into and pick up media kits prepared by the filmmaker. Don’t go crazy on the expenses of this activity. For the most part, these fancy folders go in the trash. Contacting local journalists and bloggers covering the festival directly will better attract their attention than your creatively designed press kit.

Be sure to include your film’s website address and contact information in all of your promotional materials. This is especially important if you are self distributing or attempting a hybrid distribution approach. Sales from your website are likely your only method of making money from your festival exposure. If the festival will let you sell physical DVD’s on site at your screenings, use the opportunity and bring plenty to sell. Ask the organizers if this is possible though, don’t just assume it. Perhaps you can offer special pricing to festival attendees or reduced pricing codes for buying off of your website.

Since filmmakers do not have a say on when their screenings will occur during the festival, a midday screening on a weekday will need more  of your promotional effort attention than a screening at night, or on opening night. Think of what incentives you can offer to audiences who attend your screenings. When devising your budget from the start, factor in this expense. It will inevitably happen.

If you are asked to participate in Q&A opportunities, panel or roundtable discussions or to introduce a film block, do it. Exposure for yourself as well as your film will help solidify your position in the filmmaking community and sharpen your public speaking skills (always useful for pitches!).