7 Steps to Making A Low Budget Film: STEP SEVEN
Is it possible to make a film without funding? Well, I’ve been doing it for over 20 years so… absolutely you can!
But it’s not easy. In fact, the scale of the task is often so overwhelming it puts many of us off even starting.
So here are my 7 Steps to making a film without a budget…
Each step will be a separate post. Today, I’ll talk about sending your film out into the world.
7. Film Marketing
Perhaps the least favourite phase of task of a low budget filmmakers job is the final stage. This phase is selling, marketing or in some way or other getting your film in front of the whole reason for making the film in the first place: the audience.
First, remind yourself just getting to step seven is a huge achievement. So give you and your team some more pats on the back and congratulating hugs.
How often do low-to-no budget filmmakers think about their audience? In my experience, not too often. And I’m probably as guilty as any of this, because it’s actually not that natural to do so.
The reasons we make a film often things like:
- I love films and want to make films
- I have this incredible idea for a movie
- I have this very personal story I need to share
- I want to make an awesome horror/scifi/thriller (delete as appropriate)
- I believe I have a talent for filmmaking so I should express that
- I don’t want to follow other filmmakers, I want to be different
- I want to emulate successful filmmakers, hopefully winning an Oscar one day
…and so on. Notice a theme developing here? The word “I”. So perhaps we should ask ourselves one important question: are we really thinking about the audience?
The Audience
I’m sure I read that Anton Chekhov once said something like, “If the audience don’t like it, get another audience”. My (unreliable) memory believes he was talking about a play he had written which was getting a bad reception (although unless I find that quote I will assume I made it up).
Whether he said that or not, I do like the sentiment. And I think we can approach filmmaking in 2 ways.
- we make the film that we feel passionate about and trust to the fate of the gods that we will be appreciated for doing so.
- we analyse audience trends and try to fulfill the needs of a certain niche, thereby creating a commercial success.
I would say the latter method is how film producers think, while the former method is how everyone else thinks. Is there some kind of compromise between the two?
“We had never heard so much booing. For as long as I remember, no other performance in the history of theater had ever failed so completely. By the middle of the performance, the actors realized that it would be a complete disaster… A few days later, during the second performance of the play, there was a magical change. There were numerous cheers of, “Bravo! Author, author!” And yet, we performed it no better the second time around…” Maria Chitau, who played Masha in the first production of Chekhov’s The Seagull
Did you know that The Shining was nominated for two Razzie awards – Shelley Duvall for Worst Actress and Stanley Kubrick for Worst Director. Some decades later, and it’s considered one of the greatest, scariest horror films ever made.
How you approach your movie is up to you. But note that although audiences’ minds can be changed, in the age of the internet that is becoming a harder and harder task.
If The Seagull had been released on YouTube, dependent on Google’s populist-promoting algorithms for success, would it have been buried after the first performance?
What’s your strategy?
Certainly, you should think about step seven before you approach any of the other steps. What are you going to do with your film once it’s finished? What will be your marketing strategy?
At least have an idea of where you are going, even if it’s not 100% defined in your mind. It will help you to have a goal if you are looking for team members. People feel more confident in you if you appear to have a long term objective (and you’re not just making it up as you go along).
When I shot Third Contact, I was planning on the film festival route to market the film. I tried, with limited success. But that all changed when I turned to online marketing and crowdfunding.
Online marketing
These days, you can’t make a low budget film without considering building your own social media and online marketing campaign.
For whatever reason, the film industry lags way behind when it comes to online marketing. Perhaps that’s because the industry is still dominated by old guys who live in terror of what the internet has done to the music and film industries (not to mention publishing).
For example, movie trailers are still for the most part constructed like trailers made during the golden days of cinema, pre-internet and pre-digital (I too have edited my trailers this way).
In my own experience, it was only once I abandoned my festival plan and took to the internet and social media that things started happening for me.
Want to see some of the documents used during the production of a low budget film? Schedules, location plans, cast contracts and more can be found here: Low Budget Film Production Samples (Patrons Only)
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google SEO
Instagram is made for images (and now video). It’s the perfect place to show off your amazing screen grabs and behind the scenes photos. But do you have an innovative marketing idea up your sleeve?
I used twitter and built my crowdfunding campaigns, cinema on demand and video on demand campaigns. My friend Marc Zammit has been marketing his film on Twitter, whilst crowdfunding and filming. He’s built up over 400,000 followers by dedicating himself to the task.
Online marketing can be very powerful, but very few filmmakers employ it effectively. Surprisingly, many young filmmakers who grew up with social media don’t consider it role to get heavily involved in social media.
How many production companies, funding bodies, film festivals, sales agents or distributors use social media or online marketing to it’s full potential? I would say almost none. Meanwhile, other industries are embracing it and dedicating resources to online marketing.
Be aware, each platform works in a different way and is tuned to benefit different strategies. So learn to use each platform in a way which maximises it’s potential.
For example, I would advise against putting a trailer on YouTube and then sharing a link to it via Facebook or Twitter. Instead, upload the trailer direct to Facebook and Twitter. These platforms are designed to encourage people to stay on them, so they promote uploaded content whilst demoting content linked from outside.
A directly uploaded trailer will have far more traffic and impressions than one linked to.
No budget marketing
You made the film with no budget, now you have to market it with no budget (unless you acquire some funds from somewhere). Really, for those with no budget, online marketing is by far you best option. However, you will need to replace money with time.
With more and more films being made, it’s harder and harder to get your film noticed. Thousands of filmmakers are on social media every day trying to get their work noticed. How is it possible to stand out?
As filmmakers, we now find ourselves in a difficult situation. 20 or 30 years ago, a low budget filmmaker would have got noticed simply by making a feature film. The feat of shooting a 90 min movie on film, getting it edited, scored and so on was far more impressive when you had to edit on a machine that took up a whole room and few people owned one.
Not only is filmmaking equipment and software more accessible, but so is design software. Now almost everyone has iMovie or Photoshop (or something like it). They don’t necessarily have the design skills, but this still means it’s far easier to get a trailer edited or a poster designed.
The result of this is we low budget filmmakers need to compete with others prepared create impressive marketing materials themselves.
Do you have the time and the skills? Or do you know someone else who has and is willing to help you out?
Festivals
Again, you are in a crowded field. Even getting selected for small festivals is not easy. Here’s our guide on how to improve your chances.
Having relationships with festival directors and programmers isn’t going to hurt your selection chances. Recently, I heard a filmmaker say he employed an agency to help with festival submission. By accident he and the agent both applied to the same festival independently. The festival rejected his submission but accepted the agent’s submission – for the same film.
Believing that festivals are carefully viewing and considering each film they receive would be naive. Submitting blindly, especially to the bigger festivals, is almost certainly going to fail.
Marketing your film is even more of a David vs Goliath task than making it. So it’s all about increasing your chances. If you can give yourself an extra 10-20% of getting selected somehow, then it’s worth it.
Festival submissions can rack up costs in submission fees (here at MoMo we only charge a token $5). Considering you made your film for almost nothing, it probably seems unfair you have to pay $100 to submit the film to a festival. Festivals are supposed to be helping us struggling artists right?
Do you need a website?
Might seem strange to ask, having extolled the virtues of online marketing. However, I don’t recommend just creating a film website from a generic template. Instead, think how this website will be used.
Is this just an online presence to send prospective industry buyers and agents? In that case, include materials relevant to the industry.
If you are aiming at your potential audience, there’s now a less clear reason to have a website. Currently, the place to engage audiences is where they gather online – the above mentioned social media platforms, for example. There’s also places like IMDB, Snapchat and Reddit.
Who visits unknown websites these days? I don’t. But I might visit a film’s twitter feed or check it out on IMDB.
Dedicated websites take time and money to create, so think about it before you bother with one. But if you are going to use a website then you need a reason for people to visit. As a potential audience member, why should I click on your site? What’s in it for me?
What’s in it form them?
This takes us back to the start of this post: thinking about your audience.
I mean, why are you here on this website reading this post? Not because you want to learn about my films, but because you want to learn how to make one yourself (most likely). In other words, you are here to get something for yourself.
Therefore, if you think about the marketing of your film in that way, you will have a greater chance of drawing attention to your film.
Why should your potential audience pay attention to your film? Why should they visit its website, Facebook page, Twitter profile and so on? What’s in it for the audience? What will they get?
To see the trailer? Well they already have 10000 trailers they can watch online. Why should they choose yours?
The more reasons you can come up with, the greater the online traffic to your online marketing pages and social media accounts.
The biggest challenge
In today’s marketplace, getting your low budget film noticed is harder than ever. This will be by far the greatest challenge of all. For that reason, don’t be downhearted if you find yourself in a seemingly impossible struggle.
Be aware that 1000s of filmmakers are in the same position. Try to enjoy the challenge with low expectations. That way you can really appreciate any successes that come your way.
That’s it. If you do decide to make a low budget film, I wish you all the luck in the world! Please keep us updated on your progress.
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