Producer Handbook: Marketing Your Film

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MARKETING YOUR FILM

Broadcast & Communications

The challenge of promotion is to generate “buzz” about your program and to encourage viewers, especially those from underserved audiences, to tune in for broadcast. NAPT is dedicated to creating interest in your program among public television programmers (scheduling the broadcast), the press (the broadcast is talked about and viewers tune-in), and targeted and general audiences (the program is watched, discussed, and used).

NAPT handles the public television (PTV) distribution and promotion of your program. PTV promotion refers to all phases of program support from station relations and press coverage to outreach and follow-up. NAPT will work with public television stations to ensure your program’s most effective carriage. The staff will develop a publicity campaign; produce and distribute press materials such as press releases and photo sheets; launch a page on NAPT’s website; and create promotion opportunities. NAPT will also record a podcast with the director or producer for download and streaming on our AIROS.org website.

Your participation is expected and welcomed in developing an effective promotion effort for your program. The final decision regarding promotional activities and materials in support of your program’s public television broadcast is with NAPT. If your program is distributed for the education and home markets through VisionMaker Video, we provide additional promotions, such as postcard mailings, Internet promotions, outreach and reviews in scholarly publications.

The following pages list the materials that will be needed to effectively promote your program and information on how we launch a promotional campaign. Remember, good promotion requires good source materials. Good promotion benefits everyone—producers, programs, festivals, distributors, stations, audiences, and NAPT. It is worth your effort to think about strong promotional materials from pre-to post-production and beyond, to ensure the success of your program.

Photos

One of the first deliverables that NAPT will need from you is a digital and/or print image. Images are a fundamental part of promoting your program to the press, on the Web and to the general audience. We use images for newsletters; all press materials; at www.nativetelecom.org. In short, because we use these images for multiple purposes it is imperative that we receive quality, high-resolution images. Digital images must be at least 3”x 4” with a minimum dpi of 300 saved as a .TIF, .PNG, .JPG, or .PSD. Frame grabs are not suitable. Digital images should be delivered on a CD, e-mailed, FTP'd or uploaded to www.nativetelecom.org. Photo captions and credits must accompany all image deliverables as a separate electronic document formatted for Word (.doc, .docx) or text-only (.txt). Please be sure to clear all image usage for any and all activities in support of your program’s broadcast and promotion. Please note that this also applies to the use of royalty-free (RF) and rights-managed (RM) images acquired through image banks such as Corbis or Getty. You are ultimately responsible for obtaining unlimited promotional rights usage and releases for NAPT.

You are required to submit the following deliverables on behalf of your program:

• One producer headshot. If there is more than one producer or director, all key personnel should be included in a single image.
• Additionally, if there is more than one producer or director, individual photographs for each key personnel are also required.
• One signature image – the one shot that best represents the program as whole.
• A minimum of thirty-six (36) color photographs from the program. Frame grabs and production stills are not acceptable. NOTE: Images should reflect as closely as possible the final cut of the program.
• Photo credit and caption information for each image as a separate electronic document.

Please note that we reserve the right to create materials (postcards, flyers, posters etc.) using your photos to support our communications strategies and will consult with you on this process when appropriate.

Trailers and Promos

In this world of instant audio and video, trailers have become important vehicle in the promotion and marketing of your film, as well as aid you in fundraising.  After a viewer watches your trailer, they should come away with the “I’ve got to see/buy this film!” feeling. As soon as you have a good sense of the storyline, NAPT suggests that you create a trailer to help you with the promotion not only for viewership but raising money for your film. Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. The recommended length is two and a half minutes. 

To assist stations in promoting your film, NAPT require 20- and 30-second promos, depending on the distribution outlet.

Additional Materials

In promotions, less is not more. You are encouraged to submit any additional information including contacts, images, music, video, anecdotes, reviews, etc. that you think will help enhance the success of your program’s publicity strategy, outreach initiatives, station relations campaigns, or website content and design. While these are not required deliverables, NAPT will request the following additional deliverables if needed.

• Filmmaker’s statement – Why is this program important? What does it say to an audience?
• Periodic updates on the subjects featured in your program
• Anecdotal or background information on the subject. Did something unusual, interesting or just plain silly happen during production? Did you keep a filmmaker journal?
• Production and post-production notes
• Recommended clips from the program (with time code) for use in sample reels or previews
• Interviews that you or your participant(s) have done
• Press clippings and quotes from film festivals, community screenings, and etc
• Film festival or other awards and accolades. Please continue to email these throughout the duration of your contract.
• Additional images, audio, or video that you may have or that did not make the final cut.

Crediting NAPT

As per your Agreement, NAPT must be credited on all promotional materials (this includes flyers, postcards, festival catalogs, theatrical press kits, etc). Additionally, the NAPT and CPB logo must appear on all promotional material as well. By properly crediting NAPT and CPB as funders, you reinforce the message that public money is well spent when used to fund and support independent programming. If you or another distributor (besides NAPT) are generating publicity materials (pre, during, or post production), please contact NAPT to determine the proper credit / logos or refer to Credit Specifications in your Production License Agreement.

Example:

• “A Magnificent Obsession is produced by Douglas Sirk for Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT).”
• “A Magnificent Obsession is a presentation of Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT).”
• Include NAPT, CPB logo. Logos are downloadable at www.nativetelecom.org/presskits/logos/

NAPT has the right to review any promotional or publicity materials prepared by you to promote the program for museum, festival, educational or other uses. This is to insure that promotion is well coordinated and the program is represented in a consistent way.

The Web

Once your contract is signed, your program will have a presence on the NAPT website, www.nativetelecom.org. Visitors can search for your show by title, producer name, or category. We encourage you to take some time to visit the NAPT website, which we consider an essential communications tool for the promotion of NAPT and its programs, as well as a resource for producers, educators, audiences and the press.

Press Kit Page

Every NAPT program has a "press kit" page, created and maintained by NAPT and yourself. Your press kit page will include:

• Program title and short description (approved by you)
• Producer(s) name(s)
• Trailer
• Running time
• Press or news release—a synopsis of your film, which includes a statement from you and/or other producers about the film, credits, etc.  An example can be seen on: http://www.nativetelecom.org/for_the_rights_of_all. NAPT can help in the writing and editing of the news release, in addition contact Native and the mainstream press when the film is released.
• Biographies
• Credits and crew biographies
• High-quality still photographs with captions and photo credits.
• Educational or discussion guides—these supplemental tools to help a teacher or viewer use your film as the basis of a lesson or discussion
• Home and educational video distributor information, with links, email and contact information (as soon as you make it available)
• Related links (to your own website or other relevant sites)

Closer to the date of broadcast, we will begin adding the following (as available):

• Accolades – quotes from press or experts
• Awards – from competitions or festivals
• NOLA Codes – for station pickup

Note: To keep your press kit page up-to-date, you must provide us with content such as photos, awards, and distributor information. Distributor information for example, could be a direct link to another e-commerce site (ex. VisionMaker Video), ultimately supporting home video and educational sales.

Searchable Broadcast Listings

Once your program has begun its broadcast license period, visitors can go to http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules/ for information about broadcast dates, stations and times.

Using the NAPT Website to Promote Your Program

You can choose to reach an audience that is already interested in Native media, by having a much larger presence on the NAPT website than just being your Press Kit page and being listed on our Coming Attractions and Program Pages.  You can do this by signing up as a Media Maker at www.nativetelecom.org.

As a Media Maker, you can post blogs, create web pages, upload video, images, audio and other files like PDF versions of press clippings, etc. As you post new items to the site, they will show up on your own profile page under the My Content tab as well as in your own rss (news) feed. You can see examples of this by going to www.nativetelecom.org/media_makers and clicking on the different roles (i.e. Director, Producer, Writer) and then clicking on one of the registered users.

Your content, pages and posts will also show up in the main NAPT News Feeds. Your blog posts will not only show up on your own individual blog page (example: www.nativetelecom.org/blogs/shirley_k_sneve), but will also show up on the main blog page http://www.nativetelecom.org/blog with the title of the blog post showing up in a side column on all NAPT Resource web pages.

Each page or post that you create also has social networking buttons at the bottom that allow you to post the pages to your Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace pages with just two clicks. This will help you in creating once and distributing everywhere.

NAPT staff will also see when you post items to the site. This makes it very easy for us to feature your latest post/content on our main pages, e-newsletter or other areas.

We hope that you will take advantage of this resource. NAPT staff is happy to help you with your posts and how to make the most of the site once you sign up. We feel that this is also a great way to get a web presence for your program out immediately to an already engaged audience that will appreciate your work. It also will help you decide whether or not you want to have a separate website.

Want to Produce Your Own Site, Off-Site?

If you choose to create your own site as a means of getting information out at an earlier date, we can link to your site from our NAPT site. Make sure your website links to nativetelecom.org using an NAPT logo (see nativetelecom.org/presskits/logos/). Please contact NAPT and let us know what you are doing in the early stages of your site development.

Press & Publicity

We want to do everything possible to get the word out about your show and we encourage you to share your ideas about your publicity campaign. Once we have a broadcast date, we will schedule a conference call to discuss your campaign. We will discuss mainstream press, alternative press, ethnic press, electronic press, and talk about how to pitch your program. We are also available to consult with you regarding festivals before your broadcast campaign. We work with the producer to create a broadcast press kit that will generate response from TV critics and feature writers.

Film Premiere

How and when you release your film is an important first step in promotion.

• Be proactive in where you would like to premiere your film. Ask yourself:  What are the goals for this film? Who is my audience? Who are the natural consumers of this film? What is the best way to reach them?  If you can’t answer these questions before you make a film, then there’s trouble.

Some considerations:

• Give back to the community—have a premiere in the area where the film was shot and invite the local press & celebrities to help get the word out
• Partner with an organization with the same mission as the film e.g. Sierra Club or American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
• Film festivals that have a theme or a purpose e.g. the World Wide Short Film Festival in Toronto.
• But before the premiere, have the following supporting materials ready:

1. Press kits
2. Postcards and posters with key art
3. Social networking sites and/or web sites to support the film—Facebook, YouTube, Twitter

Social networking sites

Social networking sites—YouTube and Facebook—are a must.  The NAPT staff can aid in building a page to place your trailers and other information about you and your film to build that fan base.  Your film development can be documented here and messages or bulletins can be sent out to interested viewers, friends or fans when new photos, music or other new elements are posted to keep them in the loop.  Consider adding a personal film blog, as well as add comments or blogs or links to blogs from others associated from your film.  If the network that you are creating a space within has special areas for filmmakers (such as MySpace) or special accounts for producers (as YouTube does) make sure to apply for these at the beginning. Don’t forget to send out messages about the film premiere and other screenings.  Let us know when you create these spaces, so that we can friend, fan or follow you and get your updates so we can repost.  You can also tag us on your FaceBook and twitter posts, so they show up on our pages automatically. If you have questions on how to do this, let us know.

The sites should also continue to be utilized after the film has been broadcasted to update your friends/fans. This can also translate into DVD sales.

Keeping NAPT informed

• We want to know if the press has already approached you and if so, by whom.
• We want to know who in the press is familiar with your work, the work of your cast and crew, pro or con.
• You will need to be available 2-5 weeks prior to the broadcast of your program for interviews. We may request that you be available to travel for a press tour or screening. We also ask that your key participants be available as much as is possible for interviews — so keep in touch with them after the cameras stop rolling.

NAPT needs to stay informed about all press interest in the project. Please notify NAPT if contacted by the press regarding your program. NAPT may be able to offer advice on dealing with the press, give background information on the reporter or send materials on your behalf. If you wish, you may refer all press inquiries to the NAPT publicity staff. We are happy to provide you with advice and expertise, as little or as much as you need, although our primary focus is to support your program’s PTV broadcast.

Unit or Production Publicity

Publicity while you are in production can be valuable to you and NAPT. It creates an early buzz about your show and can generate good will in the community where you are shooting or in the community that your program is about. However, be savvy about the press; if a newspaper does a feature about your show while it is in production, you will probably not get a feature in that paper within the same year.

Remember: NAPT must be credited in all press. We realize that producers can’t control what a journalist writes, but we hope that you’ll remember to mention NAPT when you are being interviewed. In these challenging political times, it is important to demonstrate that independent work has an impact. By letting people know how NAPT was involved in your program, you give us the visibility that will be critical for convincing the public, Congress, and CPB to continue our funding. This makes it possible for NAPT to continue to support other independent filmmakers like you.

Being Strategic about Press Coverage

Maximizing press coverage is critical to the success of the broadcast. Many papers and reviewers have policies of only covering a program once. We suggest a “preview not review” approach for pre-broadcast activities. A preview or blurb letting readers know about your program’s screening at the local museum or festival can be very effective. It can also leave room for the paper to later review your program’s television broadcast, allowing you to reach a much wider television audience than could attend the local screening. We want everyone to know about your program and to watch it on public television. That’s why you made it—and why NAPT funded it. Together, we can secure the best possible promotion for your program.

Festivals and Screenings

The bottom line is that your NAPT production is a television program. In some cases, festivals and certain markets can provide a helpful promotional showcase for your program. They may add to broadcast and promotional possibilities. In other cases, they can damage or endanger press coverage and distribution opportunities. While personally gratifying, festivals and markets are labor-intensive, often with mixed tangible results. There are many types of festivals (large and small, general as well specific in genre, gender, sexual orientation, and/or culture). Each comes with its own set of application procedures, costs, expectations, and benefits. Some NAPT productions have enjoyed festival success while others have not. As with many things, it’s often a combination of timing, production strength, and festival curator support.

The producer is responsible for festival entries and will need to keep NAPT notified of any festival dates. NAPT does retain the right to enter and exhibit productions at film festivals, motion picture, and television markets throughout the License Period. The exclusivity differs somewhat between series and individual shows. See your Production License Agreement for specifics. Experienced NAPT staff is available, on a case-by-case basis, to provide counsel and support for film festival submissions, when appropriate. Remember, NAPT must be notified of acceptance at any and all festivals, and of any awards a program receives. Please note that we create press kits and stills in time for your show’s broadcast publicity campaign. You are responsible for creating and disseminating press materials for festivals. We are available to consult about festival press materials.

There are about 3,000 film festivals in the world today each with special themes or purposes.  Film festivals can also be quite costly, so be strategic when entering them.  NAPT can aid you in coming up with an affordable plan so that time and money aren’t wasted. As with film premieres, have supporting materials ready, such as postcards, posters, etc.

• Native American film festivals: All Roads, American Indian Film Festival, First Nations, Smithsonian, etc.
• Top festivals:  New York, Montreal, Telluride, Toronto, Tribeca and Sundance
• Second Tier: AFI, Hamptons, L.A., Miami, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Seattle, SXSW and Vancouver
• Third Tier: Cinevagas, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, Mill Valley, SlamDance, Santa Barbara, etc.
• Documentary Film Festivals: Hot Docs, Full Frame, InFACT and Silverdocs

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