A Major Breakthrough in Film Marketing
May 31, 2008 by clive
One of the hardest things for a micro-budget film maker to build is a large audience for their movie. So, what if there was a FREE online product, that would not only help you do that, but at the same time provided a full set of FREE production management tools.
Well now it exists and it’s called Movieset.
The brainchild of Colleen Nystedt, a highly experienced industry line producer, Movieset is a site designed to bring fans to your film during pre-production and production.
Basically, once your production is registered with the site, you can upload, trailers, photos, cast and crew info and most importantly day to day “behind the scenes” documentary footage of your film being made.
However, that’s all well and good for the major players, who are bound to use this as a publicity building tool. Who isn’t going to want to see behind the scenes on Clint’s next movie? But, isn’t it going to be the same old story for the indies, who haven’t the name actors to draw people to the fan side of Movieset.
Well, no, because Movieset has is planning to do three incredibly brilliant things with this site… firstly, when the producer side goes live in a few weeks, you’ll able to place your movie into different genre sections… and fans who are interested in say “Horror” will be able to see your production as being a horror film, currently in production; secondly, the site has a strict ranking system… so if your trailer is getting more views than say “Ironman II, attack of the rust monster” then your trailer will be in the prime slot on the front page, with the other top ten; and finally as they site develops into stage two, they are planning to link Movieset into the Facebook social networking site.
This connection of a movie site and a social networking site will mean that when you load all your cast and crew details into your film’s profile, it will automatically link the project to all of their Facebook social network.
In real terms this means there will soon be a way to promote an unknown movie, simply by having a good project, getting new stuff onto your Movieset site everyday… and most importantly, by using “six degrees of separation” viral social networking. In the not too distant future, indie, micro-budget filmmakers will have a level playing field with the majors. If you’ve a great film concept, a kick ass trailer, you make entertaining use of the doco possibilities during production… and, have a well established network on Facebook, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t build a huge fan base prior to release.
Not only that, with the majors using exactly the same site, this also means your film goes into the marketplace with industry awareness. In other words, distributors have heard of your film, before you go to market.
At the moment only the Fan Side of Movieset is viewable, but I got an opportunity to look at the Producer Side at Cannes 08, and the tools available are going to cause major wobbles amongst some of the leading players in production management software.
When the producer side goes live, we will of course let you know and make sure that you’re the first people to get a look inside at all the goodies… and when they go to stage two, social networking we’re going to cover that as well.
In the meantime, have a look at the Movieset Fan Side, join Facebook and let’s bring micro-budget films to the masses.
Very interesting; thanks for bringing this to our notice. I’m in the process of planning an ultra-budget feature-length project for this summer, and I started coding a simple website (containing essential info like stills, synopsis, cast/crew bios, a trailer — the usual stuff), which I planned to direct potential sales agents to; if interested, they could request a viewing DVD. But compared to Movieset, I think personal standalone websites will be pretty much obsolete. It’s the same with festivals: I used to spend ages online searching down all the info, but now I just use withoutabox (it’s comprehensive, embraced by the festivals and so much easier because its integrated). This could be the start of true internet “marketing integration”; maybe they will have relevant links with imdb, you could knock up a behind-the-scenes making-of book on Lulu [print on demand service], which can be bought through Amazon, etc, etc. This could be an endless marketing opportunity for indies.
In agree, I’ve got to say that of all the things I saw at Cannes 08, this is the one that blew my socks off.
I think when the producer side goes live and we’re able to talk more about how that works, then you’re going to be even more impressed.
You have to believe the first thing I did after seeing Movieset, was go and set up a facebook account! LOL
Its another tool, a nice new one at that, but it still leaves the fundamental flaw that all user driven content sites have - its a popularity contest which usually falls to the opinion of the lowest common denominator - stars, T&A, or pushing buttons. It still doesn’t give any $1000 producers of no-name dramas a lot of clout, but it does open another avenue for some hits.
Trevor,
But in many respects isn’t any film that enters the market place entering a beauty contest? We all have to attract an audience, and this site doesn’t remove that aspect of film marketing from us… we’ll still have to create an attractive package.
Now, for sure, in terms of people finding your film via a genre search… then the traditional favorites of T&A and horror are going to score highly. However, anyone who searches for “drama” because that’s their real interest is going to have an opportunity to discover your film.
And, once Movieset bring in the links to the social networking sites then there will be a real opportunity to build an audience for any movie… I really believe this is going to be the perfect tool for boutique marketing.
In real terms, it isn’t going to matter whether you can get your film into the top ten slot or not… what’s really on offer is the opportunity to build a fan base for your particular kind of films. To reach the people who are searching for your kind of movie.
Now, I know there is a market out there for drama… the problem has always been how to reach that audience. It’s one the distribution industry has never been able to solve. I really believe that a combination of this and clever viral marketing via social networking IS the answer so many of us have been searching for.
On top of that, I had an opportunity at Cannes 08 to see where this product is going… and, I’ve got to tell you, the free production management tools alone are going to be a Godsend to any micro-budget film maker.
In the indie scene it pays to be a little cynical… but I really hope you hang in there with this one, because it’s got phenomenal potential.
Amazing site. I saw an interview with jude law right next to an interview with the director of a direct to DVD low budget indie action thing. That’s good stuff!
[...] in your project, knows about it whilst it’s still in production (and read this article on Movieset.com) Get yourself and your film onto Facebook and pimp the living daylights out of [...]