Distribution
Finding Your Target Market (page 2)

The DIY crowd is harnessing the power of the web and doing the heavy lifting it takes to bring their screen properties to market. The best way to do that is to build online communities around original, well-made and powerfully-told screen stories.

If you're serious about selling your film, here are some movie marketing morsels:

• Start a website for your movie with its own domain name. Caution: If you wait until the movie is complete, you'll miss your shot. It takes about six months for a website to attract regular traffic. So, start now. Post a few simple pages at first: pics and bios of principals, the logline, maybe the film's treatment, if you're comfortable with that. Once you're in production, post well-shot production stills with clever captions.
• Spend some bucks on e-mail management software. Users should be able to submit their e-mail addresses so you can generate production updates for list members. If your film is about social issues, consider adding relevant magazines and organizations to your mailing list. Take the time for weekly, well-written episodic updates and teasers on your blog, and mail them to subscribers. Tip: Address your mailings as if they were going to a single user.
• Exchange links with other DIY auteur-entrepreneurs. By striking polite agreements that say, "I'll link to your site if you'll link to mine," you'll increase traffic to your movie's page and watch your search engine rankings go up.

Movie trailers are the most clicked-on content on the web. As you get closer to post production, if not sooner, you will want to post a trailer that runs no longer than two minutes. Check with your internet provider about bandwidth and streaming issues. You don't want to interrupt any marketing momentum by making it painful for your fans to finally watch a snappy, breathtaking preview of your film.

Many of the thousands of movie-related websites were built by enthusiasts and fellow DIY creators. Some will post a banner of your film for nothing. Prepare several well-designed versions, and get them rotating on as many sites as possible.

If you get your film accepted by festivals or if it's showing in theatres, be sure to post locations, screening times and reviews on your website. Mirror this info in mailings to your subscribers.

Check out "watch, rate and interact" sites such as inDplay, B-side, hungryflix and workbookproject.com. These and others that sell premium do-it-yourself content are best bets for marketing your DVDs and DRM-free downloads. Ultimately, what sells your film is its connection with an audience. Know who your audience members are, find them, share your story with them and make sure they know where to find your movie.

Peter Biesterfeld is a documentary maker, freelance writer and Professor of Documentary Production.

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