PMD Post

In this day and age, marketing a film is more important than making a film. The days of writing a script, making the movie, and hoping to get into festivals still exists, but is different. You cannot make the film, THEN think about the marketing. It has to be as dominant on a filmmaker's mind as the film itself. The trouble is, it is a more work than most are capable of. It is hard enough to run the marathon of film directing, now we are asked to find the sponsors for the run ourselves instead of training. You can see the effect it has on the films today, a lot of which are marketable ideas without any redeemable craft. This is where a dedicated Producer of Marketing and Distribution is almost as vital as the Producer themselves. So much time, energy and thought goes into the marketing of a film, which is a totally separate activity from the making of a film: the power of a film lies in the experience, whereas the power of a campaign lies in sellable moments within an experience. If I were to hire a PMD today, these are the things I would want to talk about:

1) The first thing I would do is talk about what this film has that no other film does. Those things would be a) a unique limitation of one main actor in one location, b) the use of the digital image and social media within the actual narrative, and c) that the film is the first Binaural horror feature ever made.

2) I would take these elements of the film and create a general marketing and distribution strategy. This is a film made for at-home computer viewing, which plays into the films themes of isolation. We would talk about doing a standard festival run, and then self-distributing the film online in binaural form. The best element the project has is the binaural angle, as it is the most marketable.

3) Then we would talk about fundraising, using Kickstarter and playing up the binaural aspect of the film by posting a video of the opening scene in Binaural sound.

4) Next, we would talk about our audience. The viewing audience for horror is huge and diverse, as pretty much everyone watches the films, but that isn't the kind of audience we need AT THIS POINT. We need horror fans who are interested in upcoming projects. I would then tell the PMD to make a list of popular horror websites and send out press releases about the upcoming fundraising campaign. They may be so interested in our project they post about us.

5) I would also have the PMD do some research on the best distribution methods at our disposal.

6) We would then gather all of our assets (poster designs, trailers, scenes, etc...) and create a marketing schedule for the release of materials.

7) One of the most important tasks would be to update the social media websites daily, and I would make the PMD an admin on all the pages. We need content content content every day.

8) We would talk briefly about the print campaign, with posters at various locations around our city. If it is in enough places, it might spark interest.

9) I want to have public screenings of my short film, Séance, with special "binaural booths" where people can watch to opening scene with headphones in the dark.

10) With Facebook, I would have the PMD create pages for every character in the film, and have the actors post regularly, in character. 

11) We would discuss any viral marketing strategies, such as ghost videos on Youtube as ads for the film, and perhaps start a blog by the characters living in the house documenting their sightings.

12) I would ask for a list of festivals that INTERIOR would thrive in and have enough publicity to help spread the word when the film is finished.