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“It is time to blow the whole thing up.” In September 1960, when those words were lobbed at the world by a New York-centric, off-Hollywood circle of malcontents called the New American Cinema Group, there was no mistaking their radical urgency. Given the cold war times — one of the first large ban-the-bomb rallies had been held in Madison Square Garden some months earlier — this call to annihilation might have seemed tasteless. But for this group, whose numbers included the film critic, later filmmaker Jonas Mekas and the not-yet-director Peter Bogdanovich, the time for a free American cinema, one rooted in personal vision and liberated from censorship and the distribution and exhibition strangleholds, was now.

We can see that independent film has been a rallying cry since the 1960s. Now, in 2010, the tools and networks have converged to truly create the shakeup of the industry needed to put the world of film back in the hands of the visionaries who sweat over each creation. The interesting possibilities here are that only truly creative films will make the grade in this audience driven environment.

Leaving us are the days when studios can shove meaningless dreck down out throats at the theater. Sure, there will always be that demographic, but now other films will be able to see the light of day. Even better, viewers will drive what they want to watch. On one hand, in this day and age anyone can be an amateur filmmaker – the tools are out there and low cost – but not all of these creative visions will be able to grab an audience, or better, keep it.

With more and more mainstream press turning the spotlight on DIY film marketing and sales and indie filmmakers, the time is certainly now to follow that dream and that creative vision. The speed at which the film world is changing is dazzling, and filmmakers should be grabbing on with both hands.

Even if you have attended the workshop before, we work hard to make it new each time, complete with fresh slides and new information, so do feel free to come back for seconds.

We can’t wait to see you there!

(Not for reuse or sale, © Film POP!)

Pivot Point 1: Website

One way to deal with the incredibly fluid tools and the rapid changes in what’s out there to use to market your film is to create what I like to call pivot points that allow you to shift your efforts and attention on a dime if needed. One pivot point is your website. I know that right now blogs are the new hotness, but often, a blog gets abandoned by the blogger. There are many reasons for this – lack of material, the end of the festival circuit, a film out of distribution, lack of time, simple blogger burnout – the list can go on endlessly. Part of making a good pivot point is preparing not only for the shift in tools, but shifts in YOU.

I recommend having a website, in which a blog is embedded, because the website is static. It offers an unchanging spot for people to find out about your film (or you as an actor, or your film company). It gives you a platform for self distribution that is solid, as well as a place for you to put your new media and social media outposts so that people can find you. It also offers you a place to send people from these outposts so they can find out what you are all about – the blog is gravy, an added benefit to the site that you can pick up and play with at will. The website also allows you to change outposts fluidly, and keep your fans in the loop. Not only that, you can use tools like BuddyPress to create communities embedded in your site, if you have a film like Food, Inc., for example, that inspires conversation and sparks debate.

Pivot Point 2: Engagement Platform

By this I mean a tool like Twitter that has proven that it will be around for longer than a few months, and that is experiencing growth (and thus has a modicum of stability in this shifting social world). Having a fluid base for communicating and sharing and encouraging others to share your efforts is key. Make sure to link back to your website, and make sure to have a clear foundation: bio, photo, background with added info, and solid levels of interaction that fit your time and comfort zone. Remember, you may have to abandon this tool you choose, whatever it is, if it shifts in typical fluid social fashion and stops working for you or dies as a platform separately from you! To this end, I recommend using Backupify, a tool that will back up your social media interactions so you don’t lose them if the tool goes away. If your tool gets closed (Yahoo has been rumbling about closing MyuBlogLog, even though it is successful, for example – you just never know), don’t panic! Just move on to the next tool – because this new engagement economy will continue to thrive in spite of the tools, I encourage thinking beyond the tools.

Pivot Point 3: Aggregator

An aggregator is useful on many levels. It can help you see how and where you are talking and interacting if it is self directed, and it can help you follow thought leaders and trench warriors in your industry. By collecting information and sifting through it using the aggregator of your choice, you are able to filter information as it goes out and as it comes in. Many of the best aggregators also are a great way to listen for brand mentions, and to catch new tools as they are on the rise, helping you use those pivot points to do a 180 as needed. I use a few – it doesn’t really matter which you choose. The one most used right now is Friendfeed (recently acquired by Facebook, speaking of ever shifting tools).

Pivot Point 4: Cross Marketing

The fourth pivot point is grounding your efforts offline. The tech set can decry magazines, newspapers, television and more as outdated, passé and dying all they want, and they are right; however, it is a slow, painful and much resisted death. Not everyone is ready or able to move online yet (there is a huge segment of the population that can not yet afford a computer or smart phone but who can and do save up to go to your movie as a means of mental escape), and you need a solid pivot point offline that is tied to your website. This can take many forms, from a weekly coffee date with like minds to continuing to run a smaller sampling of your offline ads and adding in your web presence information to start pulling people online, or even to finding innovative ways to use no-cost phone pole posters and other offline methods to tell people where you are and what you are doing. In the end you ignore the offline world completely at your peril, at least for the next bit of time while the planet catches up to the tech that’s out there.

Pivot Point 5: Time

This is possibly the second most essential pivot point behind your website. How you allocate your time will determine your success in every other aspect of this brave new world of marketing film, and how well you can keep up with and anticipate changes in the tools and techniques. If you don’t leave yourself enough time to interact and engage, to plan for the future, and to maintain these blogs and profiles, you will start to feel like you are drowning in minutia, never to catch up, and you will either burn out and stop, or become so overwhelmed that to blog feels like quicksand. If you can afford to hire someone like Film POP! to help with that, you will be able to focus more on your art, but if you can’t and must DIY – make sure those bootstraps are attached to a clock and block off an hour a day, at least, to make all of this stuff you make online keep breathing life into your marketing.

•••

By encouraging you to think of these things as pivot points, I am encouraging a mind set. This flexible, fluid mindset that is less about entrenching your presence and more about flexible engagement will serve you well on many levels. My being less worried about tools and more focused on movement in marketing, you will find surer footing for success and won’t get thrown off balance by the acquisitions and closings than can be common in a new online world in flux – better able to turn your time online into success for your film.

Workshop: Indie Film Marketing On A Shoestring

In today’s rapidly changing film world, finding and engaging each film’s audience online and offline is imperative. Gone are the days when filmmakers could depend on a studio to do their marketing for them. Filmmakers are true artists, sometimes getting lost in their artistic vision and forgetting to save time, money and energy for reaching and building their audience. This workshop will give attendees the basic tools needed to plan and execute a DIY film marketing campaign from the ground up using social media, new media, content generation and offline integration.

Workshop Length: Half Day (1:00 – 5:00)

Location: Studio 99 Nashua – REAR ENTRANCE

(DEMAND YOUR LOCATION)

Cost: $99 per person + Ticketing Fee

Agenda

1:00 – 1:50 Laying A Foundation

The tools needed for effectively building an online and offline profile to launch a film’s campaign, including pointers on time management. Includes social media tools and best practices, plus offline integration tips to maximize digital marketing efforts.

1:50 – 2:40 Ready, Set, ACTION!

Tips on online content generation, optimizing content for the internet, audience engagement, building a fan base and methods for putting a film campaign in motion.

Afternoon Break

2:50 – 3:40Tracking Your Success

Advice and tools for measurement, analysis, and analytics to see where and how each online campaign is finding success. Tips on how to adjust as a campaign matures to get the most out of marketing efforts.

3:40 – 4:30 It’s OK To Make Money

How to start using these new platforms to generate financial investment in a film and find distribution avenues. How to leverage each social network for donations, micro-donations and demand for film screenings. Tips on generating flexible revenue streams and finding new paths to distribution.

Final Q&A

This workshop brought to you by Film POP! Reserve Your Seat Now!

*NOTE: If you need to pay cash at the door, contact the event organizer for details*

Read more about the workshop by clicking this link.