Festival Hopes…
Just passing on some cracking advice that my brother found on Ted Hope’s superb blog.
If you do not have distribution, you are not ready to play film festivals if:
* you do not have your trailer made and up on the web;
* you do not have clips selected and up on the web;
* you have not been writing a blog regarding the film for a significant length of time;
* you do not have a plan on how to keep that blog interesting for the next year;
* you do not have a website for the film up on the web;
* you do not have a simple way to collect email addresses for fans;
* you have not set up a way for fans to subscribe to updates about the film;
* you have not joined multiple social networks, both as an individual and as the film;
* you have not created a press kit with press notes for the film;
* you have not identified the blogs and critics you think will help promote your film;
* you have not built a study guide for the film for film clubs;
* you have not mapped out a festival strategy that builds to local releases;
* you have not made several versions of a poster, and have enough to sell & give away;
* you have not made additional promotional items for your film;
* you have not manufactured the dvd, and made great packaging for it;
Obviously he’s talking about feature films though now there are plenty of places a trailer for your short could play it’s increasingly less of a daft idea to cut one together. After all, you don’t want your whole film online until it’s finished it’s first burst of active life but having a tease at the end of a link is something I would have done back when I made them…
Anyway just thought that was a brilliant little checklist for whatever sort of film you’ve made and one that hopefully will stop you drifting around Cannes wondering why you bothered to turn up… Obviously too late for this year 