Last week you and I discussed how our process from finished film to finding a distributor did not go the way I’d thought. We ended up at Indierights, and in March last year our film finally dropped on Amazon Prime Video for rental and sale.

Today I want to share the 5 biggest mistakes we made in marketing our film.

Sound fun?

All or nothing doesn’t work when it leads to nothing

I had grand ambitions for our release. I wanted to make a full behind the scenes documentary, host panels, Q&A’s, cut trailers, teasers, you name it. I thought we needed to come out with a BANG.

The brutal truth is all the lofty ambitions turned into overwhelm and frustration. I ended up doing almost none of it.

The hard lesson here is that nothing compounds to nothing. I should’ve adjusted my ambitions and tackled marketing the same way I tackle directing; one thing at a time.

It’s easy to get bogged down be the number of posts and clips and reels you’re supposed to be sharing. It feels like an endless pile of stuff that needs doing.

Instead of trying to make 100 pieces of content, I should have focused on making a piece of content every day. Had I done that over the course of this past year I’d have 100s of things to share.

The same goes for sharing the film with friends and family. Instead of trying to reach out to every single person I know at once, I should have done 1-3 every day.

Accepting that you can’t throw money at this problem, can be a strength if viewed through the right lens. It forces you to be creative and find solutions through other means. Sound like indie filmmaking, right?

Why consistency beats a big launch

We did put in a heroic effort when the film first dropped for rent/sale. For the first 30 days we posted non-stop, messaged everyone we knew, and hustled hard to get press, reviews, and any kind of momentum.

Let me tell you one thing: getting people, even your good friends, to pay to watch your movie these days is brutal. Most of us already pay for access to more content than we can ever consume. Asking someone to put money into your no-budget indie film is a tough ask.

We got burned out after the first month.

Much like crowdfunding, it started to feel like we were on the internet begging for money and attention. We kept posting here and there, but our hearts weren’t in it anymore. As a result we didn’t build momentum, and our efforts disappeared into the void of the web.

What I learned from this is to focus on consistency over huge volume up front.

Here’s what I’ll do the next time I’m marketing a film:

• Set a schedule I can actually stick to
• Try different types of content
• Analyze what works
• Make more of the type of content that works

Prioritizing consistency also gives the film attention for longer, and leaves room for trial and error.

Why we need to change the time horizon narrative

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is right now. Films and filmmaking careers have long lives. We spent 5+ years making Wild Boys, narrowing down the release to a 30 day window is kind of insane.

I’ve had to reframe the way I think about the life of the film, and how it’s a small part of my filmmaking career over the last year. With Wild Boys being my first feature it’s understandable the stakes feel high. Make or break. We poured so much work and passion into this project we were desperate for it to reach a huge audience.

What I’ve learned is most indie films don’t blow up at release. The successful ones often pick up momentum little by little and find their audience over time. Building an audience, both for your film and for yourself is a process that can take years. That feels frustrating when you’re on the verge of releasing your film, without an audience.

But an audience cultivated over a longer period is stronger than one built on a viral hit.

Thinking long term about our films and our careers brings me to my next big mistake.

Why building only the film’s brand is a bad plan

Building only your film’s audience and brand, and not your own, is a big mistake.

The film is only relevant for a short period of time. When you’re ready to move on to the next one, you can’t bring this audience with you if they only follow your film. This means you’ll start from scratch with every new project, and go through the hardest part of audience building over and over; starting from zero.

Social media is the best, cheapest and broadest way of connecting with an audience. It’s been proven again and again that people prefer connecting with people over companies or brands.

You and I’ve already agreed on taking a long term view of our audience building effort, and that’s why we need to put in the effort on building our own brand. When people follow us, we can bring them along our entire journey. We can let them be part of film after film, and all the experiences we share along the way.

Building this kind of relationship over time creates a strong bond with your following, and gives you a crowd waiting to check out your next film.

I’ve resisted this since the dawn of social media. I hate the thought of putting myself on camera, or shining the spotlight on myself. It feels sales-y, and disingenuous. But I’ve changed my mindset around it.

It’s not about me. Or you. It’s about them.

I started asking myself - how can I help? How can my knowledge and experience help filmmakers a few steps behind me in their filmmaking journey? How can my films give someone a laugh, an escape, a good time?

Focusing on the value I can provide to others has helped me see the power of social media in a new light.

I’m by no means an expert. I’m barely getting my feet wet. But I know it’s an important asset for me to build for the future of my directing career. By finding meaning and purpose in it, I’ve become a lot more open to sharing my journey publicly.

Data drove me nuts

As of today Wild Boys is on Amazon Prime Video for rent and sale, as well as a few other rental platforms. It’s available to stream for free on Tubi and YouTube, with ads. All these platforms collects tons of data on our film.

One of my biggest frustrations in this past year has been getting timely access to this data.

They way we’re receiving reports works like this: Reports are created quarterly, and distributed to filmmakers 90 days after the end of a quarter. So for instance, if Q1 ends at the end of March, we get a report around mid-July.

That’s a 3-6 month delay before we find out how well our film has done.

In a world where advertising and social media becomes more and more data driven, we’re driving blind. There’s no way for us to know if a social media campaign, press push or ad campaign has an impact until way after our initiative has run its course.

For my next project I want a better way to know how our marketing efforts are impacting the viewership of our film.

As of today I don’t have a good solution for this problem, but I intend to find one before I release my next feature.

Conclusion

The marketing and distribution of a film is a field of knowledge all its own. And it’s a field all filmmakers will benefit from learning.

Today we discussed the 5 mistakes I made, that I want you to avoid when you release your film:

• Thinking you need to come out with a BANG
• Being inconsistent with posting content
• Having a short time perspective
• Building the film’s brand and not my own
• Not having timely access to the viewing data for our film

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