I will start by giving credit right off the bat to my futurist heroes Gerd Leonhard and Seth Godin who spend way more time than I do contemplating issues on the future of the media business and how to succeed. What I get out of their talks and posts has helped me to formulate this post and bring my thoughts into order on how I see filmmakers sustaining themselves in the very near future.

There is a ton of talk right now on how independent filmmakers can sustain themselves by making their films and how independent film can be “saved.” So much talk, without many answers. I felt maybe I should take a stab at providing one. This is purely my reaction to all of this talk and I fully expect that I will be challenged for what I propose. It isn’t going to be palatable to the vast majority of filmmakers or others who profit from their work in the industry.

You can read the full post today on Multihyphenate.

As always, my hero Seth Godin had a great blog post today. It was on the iPad launch and how successful it was in only one day. I loved his points about how Apple accomplished this and how it would work even better for small, more focused endeavors. Like say, indie films…

The tactics for a successful launch as he described:

Earn a permission asset-say what? According to Seth’s own definition, a permission asset is the privilege (not the right) to deliver anticipated, personal and relevant ideas to the people who CHOOSE to get them. Basically, collecting emails addresses and other contact details from people who opt-in to hearing from you and then giving them information about you, your film, and topics that they would enjoying hearing. This is done over time so start doing it as soon in the production process as possible. This is where you are starting to build your connections to your audience.

Don’t try to please everyone-it seems a given, but so many of you still think your film is for everyone. It isn’t and you shouldn’t try to make it that way because you will be unsuccessful at reaching and pleasing everyone. He thinks it is probably the most challenging one to understand on this list. It is ok to have a film that is targeted, it is preferable in fact.

Make a product worth talking about-This should be obvious to most indie filmmakers. Most of your stories are provocative, creative, horizon-expanding. These are inherent qualities in making something worth talking about. Then, you have to get it out to influential people who will talk for you. Which leads us into…

Make it easy for people to talk about you-His example is how Steve Jobs does not have a Facebook page or tweet or have a blog. You’re not Steve Jobs, so I think you should do all of these things, but you can’t be the only one doing it. Make a film worth talking about and let your supporters do the talking. It also helps to have widgets, RSS feeds, social media links on your blog and website, podcasts, YouTube channels. Anything that can be easily passed around.

Build a platform for others to play in- this tactic corresponds well for your affiliates and organizations who might cross promote with you. If you have a way for other like minded organizations to reach your target audience, their target audience, easily, then make it available. This could be via your blog, your social networking pages, your YouTube channel. If you have a film that corresponds to a certain genre, say horror or scifi, enable publications to have access to your audience there and they should give you access to theirs. If you have a cause related documentary, allow cause organizations to speak to your fans and in turn they should give you access to their members. A win win for everyone. And allow your fans to interact with each other. No closed Facebook pages, no closed comment section on your blog, all access enabled.

Create a culture of wonder-I think this point has more to do with creating a cult for your film. It is time consuming and constant maintenance is required to build your audience, your cult, your brand. Apple did not have a successful launch in one day because they hadn’t been doing their tribe cultivation over many, many years.  Of course they did. As many people have been saying recently, being a successful filmmaker is a marathon, not a sprint. You cannot make one film and suddenly have thousands of fans. Well, if you were unknown to begin with anyway. You must build your personal brand, create your own tribe for your work. This will lead people to be curious about you, curious enough to check out your work.

Be willing to fail-A tough one to be sure, but even the most successful studios have failures (sometimes really big ones!). Being bold, taking risks, it is what we indies do and we won’t all be successful all the time. Can you deal with that? You have to if you are going to be bold and daring.

Give the tribe a badge-For Apple, it was having the iPad itself to show off to people in the office. Showing your membership in the iPad tribe. What uniform, badge, symbol of membership can you give your fans? This must be visible and something they want to show off somewhere.

Don’t give up so easy-Many of you will. The ones who can’t see the opportunities for getting your film out to audiences by your own hard work because you don’t want to put in that kind of time and effort. But, the ones who can see them, who will embrace the new models or are willing to forge their own, you will succeed. Apple worked on the engineering of the iPad for many years, longer than most companies would have devoted. If you are to be successful, you have to be willing to put in this kind of devotion and willing to learn many more skills than you thought you would need.

Don’t worry so much about conventional wisdom-His example is the closed system Apple employs because Apple fans like it. It is a stretch, in fact it is one of the reasons I don’t like it, even though I have an iPod that I can only load mp4s from their site on and can’t transfer those songs onto any other devices. But I digress… here is what I get out of that statement. There is so much talk at the moment about what the new model of distribution is going to be, like there will be only one path to follow. I think it is rather exciting that there are no rules, no formal ways of connecting with an audience, no one method of creating content (film, webisode, multimedia, graphic novels, ARG’s, all together!) and making it available only on one platform. While it is beneficial to hear what others are doing and what has worked, keep experimenting, keep evolving, don’t worry so much about the right way to do it. Find your own way.

And when you do, let us know so we can support you!

Once again, I must defer to the wisdom of marketing guru Seth Godin from a post he made this week on his site. I see in the things that he posts many parallels of what is happening in the traditional marketing and advertising space and what is happening in the independent film space. No longer is it the duty of a company’s marketing department to simply find space on media company sites (TV, magazine, newspaper, billboard, websites etc.) to advertise wares. The duty has shifted to creating a company’s own space (websites, social media sites, blogs etc.) on which to engage with customers and build a loyal fan base. No longer are they “renting” an audience on a short term basis, they are building one of their own that is easier to keep and grow than it is to start from scratch when a  new product or campaign comes about. This also has become the duty of the independent filmmaker.

A filmmaker can no longer, nor should any longer, depend on a distribution company (the said media company) to find an audience for his film every time a new film comes out. It is up to the filmmaker to build that audience and keep them engaged with all of his projects, not start over every time a new one is completed. A platform needs to be built in order to nurture, engage, educate and convert an audience to seek out the projects. First set up the platform (website, blog, social media page) and then fill it with people, your people, not rented-for-a-certain-amount-of-time people.

In his analogy, Seth uses authors. He recounts how authors used to rely on publishers to bring them readers. The author gives up the majority of the income to the publisher and, in turn, the publisher brings them the readers. In the traditional distribution model, filmmakers make a film and give up the majority of the income to the distributor to bring an audience. But when an author or a filmmaker builds his own audience with his own platforms, using a publisher or a distributor is a choice not a necessity. If the filmmaker owns his own media distribution channel (on YouTube, Vimeo or any of the multitude of online viewing sites), the majority of the revenue goes to him, not the outside media company. 

Compared to the loss of revenue that ”renting” an audience from a distributor means, building a platform is cheap. Filling it with people eager to hear from you, well that’s the expensive part, mostly in time and effort. If you don’t invest in the platform, you’ll be at a disadvantage, now and forever. To build a loyal and eager following the smart way is to invest in the elements of the platform… a great film with a great story,  a whole business team not just the production team, the online presence  and the systems you need to make it easy for people to find your project and become engaged. And then embrace these people and shoot for 90% of the revenue, not .5%. Good investments are often expensive but worth more than they cost.

I have introduced you to the wise words of marketing guru Seth Godin before. He has amazing insight into the inner workings of marketing strategy and using it to your advantage. He has a book called The Dip which is about quitting. Yes, quitting is a success strategy that goes against everything anyone has ever told you about succeeding. The reason I want to talk about it here, where filmmakers come to read my thoughts and advice about film marketing, is that learning about quitting is a valuable tool to use before you embark on a career in filmmaking, or any career for that matter. I realize that this is not a popular concept, but hear him out.

With the proliferation of digital cameras and tools, the process of filmmaking has become simplified. So much so that practically anyone can give filmmaking a try and the market is now flooded with cheaply made, varying quality films all hoping to succeed. So how does one succeed and stand out from this  pack of new filmmakers? Seth explains that the dip is the barrier that exists to keep the masses out. When you start off being a filmmaker, it is so exciting. You are filled with enthusiasm for your project and you infuse that energy in the people around you so that they are also excited and supportive. Everyone starts out with a full head of steam when they start.

Then comes the part where you have to come up with a great and strong story, raise money,  find crew and talent who are skilled but willing to work for little to nothing. If you get into the production, it is often without a real sense of what is going to happen at the end and all of that enthusiasm starts to wane. This is the dip, the hard part that inevitably comes. The barrier that separates the truly committed and talented from everyone else. Proper planning, a clear determination toward your goal and an amount of research into what successful filmmakers before you have done to survive the dip will help you come out of it. That is what separates the successful from every other filmmaker.

If you are not willing to commit to coming through the dip, do not start. Do not even attempt it. It is imperative that you do not get into the dip and then quit. All of the time you spent at the start will have been wasted and you will never enjoy the benefits that come after you make it through the dip. You could have directed that time and effort into something else more rewarding. Only the focused, prepared and committed will make it through the dip. Everyone else should quit and devote their time to something else that will make them a success.

Here is a short video of Seth Godin explaining his philosophy on quitting and making it through the dip.

I love Seth Godin’s books. He tells it like it is in the world of marketing without all the esoteric BS of a textbook filled with jargon and out of date references. If you don’t know who Seth Godin is, you should check out his blog and buy one of his many books on principles of marketing. He’s a guru.

Anyway, I was reading a post on his blog called How Big Is Your Farm? The reference comes from a farmer’s temptation to spread out too little seed over a very wide territory. The result is that the planting work was time consuming and resulted in very little harvest. This metaphor serves to explain what happens when you have very little marketing budget to spend and try to cover too much territory with it. Work that is labor intensive and the results are poor.

There is a myriad of online media outlets that keep multiplying daily, a vast number of markets to target, and an unlimited number of publications that you can use to get your message out there. You can literally spend an endless supply of time and money trying to spread yourself thinly in every area just to be seen there. But, you don’t have an endless supply of time and money, right? If you don’t have a focus for your film, a target market and a clear plan of action on how to reach them, then you will be wasting your limited resources and accomplishing very little.

First start with a tightly defined target audience and where they are likely to see your message online. For extremely low budgets, only consider one or two audience qualities to focus on and only one or two of the most likely media outlets to use. Then, consistently use them. The more you focus your efforts on these one or two outlets, the more you will cut through the clutter of the other people who use them sporadically. With bloggers and publications, consistently send relevant updates so that the audience you are building knows where to find information on your film. If the publications and social media sites were chosen correctly, you should see a dialog start and it will open the door to a call to action, either screening attendance or DVD sales.