Marketing Strategy

All films need to be marketed so that people know the film exist and people will watch it. Beneath I did some research on different screenings and different ways to advertise both contributing towards distribution.
Film Screenings
A film screening is simply when a film is shown to an audience. There are different types and stages of film screenings. Below are the different types of film screenings.

Test screening – In this stage the film may not even be completed but is shown to an audience which will give back informal feedback to the creators. A film may go through this stage many times. Test screening audiences may be told not to talk about the film.

Focus group screening – This type of screening is more formal than test screening and the audiences involuntary and voluntary responses are recorded. Audience members may be asked to answer some questions or undergo an interview for them to express their feelings about the film. The audience of a focus group screening may be asked to no talk about the film outside of the screening.

Critic screenings – This screening is for the critics of major film related businesses to see the film well in advanced of the actual release giving the critics’ time to write reviews for the movie. This type of screening is normally invitational. If the creators of a film feel as though their film will get bad reviews, they may opt to not run this screening.

Private screenings – People behind the film such as investors and film crew and even VIP media figures get to view the movie at this stage.

Preview screenings – This screen gives the public a chance to view the film. Sometimes tickets for these screenings are limited in number. Tickets may be given out as prize giveaways on radio or TV shows. The audience is allowed to discuss the film after seeing.

Sneak preview – Sneak previews are normally a couple of days before the actual launch of a film. There purpose is to help create more publicity via word-of-mouth.

After all of these screenings the film is then ready for its general release as long as a film distributor has taken interest.

Advertising Techniques

Stills and Postcards – These images of the films are used for general promotion and can appear in film festival catalogues and film reviews. For our film I will be using a postcode which will feature an iconic photo of the film along with the name of the film “Morbid Lives” and name of the main actor.

Tapes and DVDs – These copies of the film can be handed out to people at film festivals to gain attention and support. If a big film distributor likes what they see, they will be more willing to help support that film. For our film, we will be limited to two to three DVD copies.

Showreel – This edited two minute montage of your work makes it easier for other people to get to grips with your film without having to sit through the whole thing. As our film is already short, our showreel is pretty much our film.

Film Prints – This is normally a 35mm print that the cinemas use to display the film. However, some cinemas may only need a digital format to display the film. For our film, we will be limited to using on digital formats.

Press Kit – This is a full list of all relevant information about the film; such as crew members, website, synopsis etc. This press kit can be handed to industry figures so that they have all the information about the movie. We may want to go for a traditional method of simply placing all the information on an A5 sized paper to be handed to all those that attend screenings. Or perhaps we may want to go for an alternative route to show our creativity. We could possibly place all the information required on a press kit onto sets of rubber gloves.

Trailers and Clips – A small 30 second trailer is good for promotion on a website or through online social networking. Our film is short already; we may want to have a short film trailer which is limited to one or two

Websites – The website itself can be promoted to draw attention to the film. Consumers and industry figures can view the images, the trailer and the poster and read background information about the film all on the website. If needed an online screening of the film can have a password and only selected people can view it. This will help when trying to show a movie to an industry figure who is interested.

Conclusions
After doing this research I feel that either a film poster or film postcard would be a great way to promote our short film. I also feel that having a review in a magazine would do wonders for the promotion of the film. I will create my own poster/postcard and an example of a review.