From Scott Kirsner’s ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field about digital strategies for social issue filmmakers.
1. Start a blog or create a bare-bones website to generate awareness of what you’re up to; this can be a way for potential collaborators, sources, funders, and DVD-buyers to get in touch with you early on.
2. Participate and post in existing online communities related to your film’s topic.
3. Maintain a database of everyone who you’ve interviewed or who has offered help during production, so you can let them know when the film is finally finished.
4. Consider ways to allow interested parties to get involved with your filmmaking process; some filmmakers have “open-sourced” their research, having others contribute by shooting far-off locations and interviews, and even some editing.
5. Think about posting some clips/excerpts from your rough cut on video-sharing sites to begin building an online presence for your film. Provide links back to the film’s site or to your blog.
Showing posts with label social issue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social issue. Show all posts
05 June 2010
Top Five Marketing and Promotion Strategies
From Scott Kirsner’s ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field about digital strategies for social issue filmmakers.
1. Leverage the lists and websites of membership organizations related to the topic of your film to communicate with viewer who may be interested in seeing/purchasing it.
2. Connect with bloggers who cover the issues in your film, offer them interviews, review copies of the DVD or embeddable clips from the film.
3. Collect email addresses (and ideally zip codes too) from the visitors to your film’s website; you can notify them when the film is playing in theaters or on TV, or when it becomes available on DVD or as a download.
4. Post clips on video-sharing sites or social networking sites, with links back to the film’s main site; this can help introduce it to new audiences.
5. Consider allowing internet users to remix or “mash up” parts of your film, or create their own trailers for it. This adds their perspective to the work and, ideally, helps it reach a broader audience.
1. Leverage the lists and websites of membership organizations related to the topic of your film to communicate with viewer who may be interested in seeing/purchasing it.
2. Connect with bloggers who cover the issues in your film, offer them interviews, review copies of the DVD or embeddable clips from the film.
3. Collect email addresses (and ideally zip codes too) from the visitors to your film’s website; you can notify them when the film is playing in theaters or on TV, or when it becomes available on DVD or as a download.
4. Post clips on video-sharing sites or social networking sites, with links back to the film’s main site; this can help introduce it to new audiences.
5. Consider allowing internet users to remix or “mash up” parts of your film, or create their own trailers for it. This adds their perspective to the work and, ideally, helps it reach a broader audience.
Top Five Distribution Strategies
From Scott Kirsner’s ITVS Digital Initiative: Report from the Field about the digital strategies for social issue filmmakers.
1. Make sure DVDs are available when audiences are most interested in the film: during the theatrical run, during festival screenings and at the time of the first TV broadcast.
2. Consider producing at least two versions of the DVD, at two different price points: one for general audiences and a second version for educational/group use, with discussion guides and supplemental material.
3. Carefully evaluate distribution offers that wrap up digital rights with theatrical or home video rights. What will the distributor do in the near-term to generate revenues with those rights?
4. Focus digital distribution efforts on outlets with already-established audiences (such as Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com’s Unbox); if working with a newer outlet, negotiate for premium placement on the site and additional promotion.
5. Whether selling DVDs or digital downloads/rentals with a business partner, insist on regular reporting of sales figures and the ability to audit them.
1. Make sure DVDs are available when audiences are most interested in the film: during the theatrical run, during festival screenings and at the time of the first TV broadcast.
2. Consider producing at least two versions of the DVD, at two different price points: one for general audiences and a second version for educational/group use, with discussion guides and supplemental material.
3. Carefully evaluate distribution offers that wrap up digital rights with theatrical or home video rights. What will the distributor do in the near-term to generate revenues with those rights?
4. Focus digital distribution efforts on outlets with already-established audiences (such as Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com’s Unbox); if working with a newer outlet, negotiate for premium placement on the site and additional promotion.
5. Whether selling DVDs or digital downloads/rentals with a business partner, insist on regular reporting of sales figures and the ability to audit them.
25 May 2010
Random Connections
A few additional resources and connections gathered while at Hot Docs:
HotDocs Library
A wealth of Canadian documentaries you can watch online. In the youth zone be sure to check out the top shorts made by youth. Plus special sections for educators (including downloadable resource packages) and an industry corner where you can see the industry sessions held at HotDocs Film Festival.
Shooting People
An international network for independent filmmakers.
Arts Engine
Connects media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues.
Ideas from Cinereach
An assortment of articles, panels, case studies, useful links and more.
DocAgora
An open sapce to consider new forms, new platforms, new tools and new ways of financing creative and socially engaged documentary media.
HotDocs Library
A wealth of Canadian documentaries you can watch online. In the youth zone be sure to check out the top shorts made by youth. Plus special sections for educators (including downloadable resource packages) and an industry corner where you can see the industry sessions held at HotDocs Film Festival.
Shooting People
An international network for independent filmmakers.
Arts Engine
Connects media makers and active audiences in order to spur critical consideration of pressing social issues.
Ideas from Cinereach
An assortment of articles, panels, case studies, useful links and more.
DocAgora
An open sapce to consider new forms, new platforms, new tools and new ways of financing creative and socially engaged documentary media.
The Advocacy Part of It
Who carries forward the social issue once the film is done and the filmmaker may be moving on to other projects?
There are two models. One is that the filmmaker is very involved in the outreach part of it. But that is not necessary. You can build partnerships with other people who are passionate about the issue that will carry on that agenda. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
After completion of the film Budrus, we built up partners that were advocacy oriented. (We didn’t use them to help fund the film because we didn’t want to build expectations of what editorially is going to be in the film.) Disparate groups are now using the film as a way to talk about non-violent resistance — from political activists to religious organizations both Muslim and Jewish. (Julia Bacha, Filmmaker, Budrus)
Here are some social issue sites related to documentary:
Active Voice
Putting a human face on public policy. Using film, television and media to spark social change.
Witness
Basically a socially relevent You Tube for human rights. Their tagline: See it. Film it. Change it.
MediaRights
An online database of films that are socially relevant. Become a member and have your film listed. Find potential collaborators, funders and outreach partners.
Samara
Their purpose is to educate and help cause change. Their current project does something nobody’s ever done before — conducting exit interviews with outgoing Members of Parliament in Canada with the idea to gain vital information and feedback on how best to improve the experience of current and future PMs.
ViewChange on LinkTV
A digital media hub that highlights progress in reducing hunger, poverty and disease in developing nations by harnessing the power of storytelling.
There are two models. One is that the filmmaker is very involved in the outreach part of it. But that is not necessary. You can build partnerships with other people who are passionate about the issue that will carry on that agenda. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
After completion of the film Budrus, we built up partners that were advocacy oriented. (We didn’t use them to help fund the film because we didn’t want to build expectations of what editorially is going to be in the film.) Disparate groups are now using the film as a way to talk about non-violent resistance — from political activists to religious organizations both Muslim and Jewish. (Julia Bacha, Filmmaker, Budrus)
Here are some social issue sites related to documentary:
Active Voice
Putting a human face on public policy. Using film, television and media to spark social change.
Witness
Basically a socially relevent You Tube for human rights. Their tagline: See it. Film it. Change it.
MediaRights
An online database of films that are socially relevant. Become a member and have your film listed. Find potential collaborators, funders and outreach partners.
Samara
Their purpose is to educate and help cause change. Their current project does something nobody’s ever done before — conducting exit interviews with outgoing Members of Parliament in Canada with the idea to gain vital information and feedback on how best to improve the experience of current and future PMs.
ViewChange on LinkTV
A digital media hub that highlights progress in reducing hunger, poverty and disease in developing nations by harnessing the power of storytelling.
Storytelling vs. Advocacy
Is there a place for films that don’t have an overt social agenda? Or is everything becoming advocacy-driven?
We’re looking for good filmmaking and it’s not necessarily always advocacy-oriented with a big A. It can be just finding within a film the opportunity for certain kinds of lessons. Good storytelling is good storytelling and it can meet people in many different places. That’s what we’re really looking for. (Orlando Bagwell, Ford Foundation)
We see filmmakers as the storytellers, the ones who make the product that get the people excited. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
Even if you may get some feedback about why aren’t you making this more clear, more overt, in my experience in the long-term everybody has come around. Every funder who at first may have been wanting us to take a stronger stand on something has seen that the impact is much stronger if the storytelling is the driving force of the film. And that is it’s character-driven and about the experience of individuals, that’s what is ultimately going to touch audience members. Not the exact pitch of what you want them to do afterwards. People are not going to respond as much to that as being emotionally carried through a story. (Julia Bacha, filmmaker, Budrus)
We’re looking for good filmmaking and it’s not necessarily always advocacy-oriented with a big A. It can be just finding within a film the opportunity for certain kinds of lessons. Good storytelling is good storytelling and it can meet people in many different places. That’s what we’re really looking for. (Orlando Bagwell, Ford Foundation)
We see filmmakers as the storytellers, the ones who make the product that get the people excited. (Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program)
Even if you may get some feedback about why aren’t you making this more clear, more overt, in my experience in the long-term everybody has come around. Every funder who at first may have been wanting us to take a stronger stand on something has seen that the impact is much stronger if the storytelling is the driving force of the film. And that is it’s character-driven and about the experience of individuals, that’s what is ultimately going to touch audience members. Not the exact pitch of what you want them to do afterwards. People are not going to respond as much to that as being emotionally carried through a story. (Julia Bacha, filmmaker, Budrus)
Social Issue Doc Funders
An inside look at what a few of the foundations and funders are looking for (straight from the people who run the programs). Cinereach looked particularly interesting to us because of their interest in more subtle storytelling versus in-your-face advocacy.
Ford Foundation
Orlando Bagwell, Director, Freedom of Expression—Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program
• We want good narratives. We want films that can have impact.
• The filmmakers are the storytellers. We link you with others to help do other parts like the web part or the social issue action. We build a connected community.
• How do you want to move people? Ford Foundation wants to know and to be active in how you do that, finding strategic partners.
• Interested in using narrative to try to move people to take action about things they care deeply about.
• Interested in how media and documentary can become a critical part of the Foundation’s vision for social change.
• We’re trying to provide a connected community of all our grantees, not just the media ones, but the social justice grantees also. The media work is the one area in our foundation that is underlying all other parts of the foundation.
• We want filmmakers to be filmmakers. We fund Sundance, ITVS, Active Voice, Witness. We bring them to the community of all the people we work with. The idea is that we want to bring you, the filmmaker, to a connected community that is going to serve what you do. We don’t expect you to do it all yourself.
Cinereach
Philipp Engelhorn, Executive Director and Co-Founder
• We are a grant-making organization that funds social issue documentaries done in an artful way. Less advocacy-based, more subtle storytelling. Often allows both sides of the issue to embrace the film. Did Jesus Camp.
• We tend to get involved early on in projects.
• The questions we ask when considering a project: What is the filmmaking craft? Is the story being artfully told? Is there a real passion from the filmmaker? Is it going to be entertaining? Is it a great piece of filmmaking? That’s our top criteria. And then we look at the issue being addressed. We favor story over message, character over agenda, complexity over duality.
• One of our projects, FilmAid, was working with refugees to help them make their own films. We did not mandate what the films were about. We just provided some training and let them create. Then we had a film festival in refugee camps, and the films also travelled.
Sundance Institute
Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
• We look for quality of storytelling, potential for social impact, the creative vision of the filmmaker, track record. We don’t look at distribution strategies.
• Sundance’s mandate is still to support feature-length cinematic storytelling. They we partner with other foundations and organizations to work on other aspects. The inter-connections with the foundation community are very strong. Starting to get in with one entity leads you to introductions and relationships with others.
For more funders, check the helpful lists at Cinereach and at DocAgora.
Also check the Foundation Center, Arts Engine and Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media.
Ford Foundation
Orlando Bagwell, Director, Freedom of Expression—Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program
• We want good narratives. We want films that can have impact.
• The filmmakers are the storytellers. We link you with others to help do other parts like the web part or the social issue action. We build a connected community.
• How do you want to move people? Ford Foundation wants to know and to be active in how you do that, finding strategic partners.
• Interested in using narrative to try to move people to take action about things they care deeply about.
• Interested in how media and documentary can become a critical part of the Foundation’s vision for social change.
• We’re trying to provide a connected community of all our grantees, not just the media ones, but the social justice grantees also. The media work is the one area in our foundation that is underlying all other parts of the foundation.
• We want filmmakers to be filmmakers. We fund Sundance, ITVS, Active Voice, Witness. We bring them to the community of all the people we work with. The idea is that we want to bring you, the filmmaker, to a connected community that is going to serve what you do. We don’t expect you to do it all yourself.
Cinereach
Philipp Engelhorn, Executive Director and Co-Founder
• We are a grant-making organization that funds social issue documentaries done in an artful way. Less advocacy-based, more subtle storytelling. Often allows both sides of the issue to embrace the film. Did Jesus Camp.
• We tend to get involved early on in projects.
• The questions we ask when considering a project: What is the filmmaking craft? Is the story being artfully told? Is there a real passion from the filmmaker? Is it going to be entertaining? Is it a great piece of filmmaking? That’s our top criteria. And then we look at the issue being addressed. We favor story over message, character over agenda, complexity over duality.
• One of our projects, FilmAid, was working with refugees to help them make their own films. We did not mandate what the films were about. We just provided some training and let them create. Then we had a film festival in refugee camps, and the films also travelled.
Sundance Institute
Patricia Finneran, Managing Producer, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
• We look for quality of storytelling, potential for social impact, the creative vision of the filmmaker, track record. We don’t look at distribution strategies.
• Sundance’s mandate is still to support feature-length cinematic storytelling. They we partner with other foundations and organizations to work on other aspects. The inter-connections with the foundation community are very strong. Starting to get in with one entity leads you to introductions and relationships with others.
They fund, present and promote documentaries and dramas on public television and cable and innovative new media projects on the web. Their tagline: Diverse stories. Independent filmmakers. Award-winning documentaries. On TV, online and in communities.
Also check the Foundation Center, Arts Engine and Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media.
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