How will your amateur film stand out in a crowded market? Boost your community

How do you get your amateur or short film out to an audience and be seen? That’s the question we posed to a buyer at the Clermont Ferrand short film festival

community

Building a community is crucial to a film’s success, a subject that we at Boostyourfilm has been extolling for a while. But we are not the only ones who are passionate about this subject.

According to William Page, the chief executive of Filmdoo: “Not only have you got to be a kickass filmmaker nowadays, you’ve got to be really good marketers.”

Page was speaking at a forum at the Clermont Ferrand Film Festival to promote his VOD platform, which focuses on helping people to discover and watch great films, short films and other content from around the world.

Unlike other VOD platforms, Filmdom is building a thriving global film community that it hopes will empower users to drive social recommendations and to help bring films to their region, many of which are festival award-winning movies that may not have received a traditional mainstream distribution.

Not only have you got to be a kickass filmmaker nowadays, you’ve got to be really good marketers

community

Page says as a filmmaker you now also have to consider yourself a marketer. And to do this, you have to build a community. It’s absolutely crucial, he says.

“When you are thinking of making a film or writing a script you have to ask yourself: who is my community, who is going to watch this movie, who is going to be passionate about this topic, who is this going to appeal to?

“If you are going to have a successful crowdfunding campaign you need to tap that community. So whether it’s Facebook, or Twitter or an awareness group or an issues-based group, it does not matter. As a small filmmaker, it’s all about community. The main objective of a crowdfunding campaign is not to raise money. It’s to raise the profile of the film.

“If you have 1,000 who put money into a film, Page asks, what are they going to do when the film comes out? They are going watch it and then they are going to tell their friends.”

Page referenced a film called Dreaming against the World about the life of Chinese artist Mu Xin.

The makers of this 37-minute documentary came to Filmdoo asking if the Vod platform would put its film online.

They asked for it be streamed for about four or five dollars. Page says he agreed but was skeptical that anyone was going to pay that amount of money to watch this movie. The film was put online and nearly crashed the platform, such was the demand.

Why? Because there was a community of people who were passionate about seeing this film because they loved the artist. So build your community.

Everton Gayle