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Truly Free Film

Why Filmmakers Fail

As the manager of a group of 10,000 producers, directors and associated industry professionals, one can’t help but notice certain fallacies coming up on a recurring basis. So I’d like to briefly consider the question, what are some of the principal reasons fledgling independent filmmakers fail?

1. BUILDING IT ISN’T ENOUGH While a struggling artist can get by with little more than a canvas or guitar, film requires an enormous investment of time, money and many. “Build it and they will come” just isn’t enough; it’s perhaps the easy part.

Making films is akin to launching a new product. Statistics show that most fail. “All we need is money” isn’t the answer. It requires a marketing plan.

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Truly Free Film

Forget the BS: Here’s the Key to Twitter Success

By Reid Rosefelt

The Key to Twitter Success 1You’re posting interesting content on Twitter every day. You’re blogging. You’re active in other social networks. You’re doing everything that you’ve been told to do. But you’re getting nowhere.

Maybe you have the wrong goal.

Your Goal is Not to Get as Many Followers as Possible

If you want followers, you can buy them.

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Truly Free Film

What Happens to the Filmmakers Who Can’t Market Themselves?

By Reid Rosefelt

XWhat-happens-to-filmmakersMaking a great movie is hard. Marketing a movie might be even harder.   There are many good movies every year, but there are far fewer well-marketed ones.  The list of people (and studios) who market films successfully year after year is a very elite club.

When I began working as a publicist, most American filmmakers weren’t expected to be able to promote his or her own work.  Nowadays every filmmaker is expected to be able to shoulder that burden.

How scary this must be for filmmakers.

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Truly Free Film

Four Simple Rules for Marketing Your Film (And Why Social Media May Not Be for You)

By Reid Rosefelt

4-Simple-RulesI’ve been a film publicist for 35 years and have worked on hundreds of movies.  Whether a film ended up grossing a hundred thousand or a hundred million, my approach has always been essentially the same.

1) Be Consistent With Positioning

The  most important task for a marketer is to find a description of the film that accentuates its strengths, minimizes its weaknesses, and makes you want to see it.  In the trade this is called “positioning.”