My husband and I recently delivered our second feature film to our distribution company, and boy did it feel good to pass it off to someone else. Our sleepless nights were over . . . for a moment.
When I was telling this exciting news to a friend, he asked, “so is your job done now, are you guys finished with this film?” I laughed and said, “our job is never done.” Yes the hard drive containing all our work for the past year and half has been passed off, but as independent filmmakers our job is never done. Now on to the next phase, marketing our film. Once we get a release date, our job will be to tell people to go see our film. Sending out press releases to bloggers and websites to help spread the word.
Even though the distribution company will put money into marketing the film, no one will work as hard as we will to spread the word, fill movie theaters and sell out DVDs.
Our first feature film, “Home Sweet Home” was released June of 2013. To this day we are STILL out there spreading the word, because, it’s our movie and ultimately up to us to be its biggest champion. You cannot rely on anyone else to do it for you.
I bumped into Bryan Stumpf, who writes reviews for the horror website “The Slaughtered Bird”, at a premier the other night. He mentioned that he wanted to see “Home Sweet Home”, and I jumped at the opportunity to have him review it. I personally delivered to him the only copy we had left.
It was worth it. The review was the best we have ever received, and this comes a year and half after the film was released.
This is one of the reasons it is so important to be fully and completely passionate about the project you decide to invest your time into, because you will be working with it, well, forever!
It’s also important to work with a team that is equally passionate about the project, so that you know everyone involved will be right along side you spreading the word about the film.
The marketplace is flooded with films, and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. As DVDs are becoming obsolete, and VOD is taking over, the hustle required for an indie filmmaker grows even greater.
But your dedication, drive, and pure passion will push you through the endless hours of promotion. And let’s face it, if you aren’t passionate about your film, then you won’t put in the hours it takes to gain the awareness of the masses. And in turn no one will ever know about your film.
So my biggest advice to Indie Filmmakers is be your project’s biggest fan, because your job is never done.