The Best Way to Raise Money for Your Film

The buzz is the most powerful thing in Hollywood, its used to make even the most obscure film into a marketing success. Consider The Blair Witch Project, or Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive. Each one of those films would have died on its feet except for the buzz that was created. Remember The Brown Bunny? or E.T.?

The buzz allows you to get people talking about your film, wanting to see it, wanting to know whats going on because they feel that everyone else is seeing it. LOST, X-files, Gilmore Girls, all products of The Buzz. If you want your film to be a success, you must create a buzz about your film, a social awareness about your film.

Using the Buzz will also allow you to raise money for your film. Be aware that you have to be bold to use the buzz and you cannot drop the ball for any reason. Once people lose faith in your buzz, it is desperately hard to get it back. This article will examine ways of how you can build THE BUZZ of your film and raise money for the actual production of your film at the same time. Do they work? In a word, yes. Used correctly, you are actually building a momentum for your film before you have started shooting.

The Presell Buzz
Presell the tickets to your premiere...package it with a DVD of the film to be given on the night of the premiere..let them have a copy of the trailer on the DVD, some little extras, some music, and take their name for the guy at the door and voila, you are getting 20 dollars a pop AND a lot of free publicity....make sure you number the tickets and know how many seats you will have AND make sure to leave a good 50 for at the door...

what? what do I mean free publicity??
easy, here is the conversation:

mary: hey sue, come out with us friday night!
sue: love to but I have tickets to a movie premiere...
mary: bummer cause I wanted to make it a really great night
sue: how about you come to the movie with me and then we can spend some time...
mary: do you have a spare ticket?
sue: yeah, let me call and order one...(cha-ching!)

OR
mary: do you have a spare ticket?
sue: we can get one for you at the door! (cha-ching!)

Or
mary: yeah, I bought an extra one but I am taking Harry (cha-ching!)
sue: don't ever call me again and to make you jealous, I am going to buy a ticket for me AND for Fred! (cha-ching!)(cha-ching!)

oh and make sure if you charge 20 for advanced tickets, you charge 25 at the door for ppl that were slack and waited...

Selling Tickets To The One Time Only Premiere Of Your Film Over and Over Again

>Light and Sweet ProductionsWrote:
>That's a good idea.
>For those of us looking to submit in major film festivals, however, it's kind of >difficult because for many festivals, like Sundance etc. you cannot have >premiered your film anywhere. It has to be a world premiere at that festival.

even easier...just set your premiere AFTER the Sundance and other festivals close...you know well in advance if you are selected or not...and when you sell the tickets, keep telling people "yeah, we've sent it into Sundance but they are so difficult they want the right to world premiere it so we have to wait...but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do to get ahead in this world, right? So is thats two tickets, right?"

remember, if they pre-buy the DVD, they only get ONE ticket to the premiere...why? because you KNOW they will buy another, people are weird about going to the theatre by themselves....
How can you do this over and over? Easy, you have premieres in different cities and thats what you are selling, the opening night of your film in that city.

and save the form letter.....you know why? cause its a marketing tool..once you send it in AND they cash your check then you can put "official entry into [insert festival here]" on the ticket...why? because it WAS an entry...you just can't put "official competition selection"..cause it wasn't....marketing baby, hype is everything but DO NOT LIE...that will bite you in your ass...you can also use the logo of the festival...

now, what do you think people will want to see....an indie film? or a Sundance official entry Indie film....?

secondly, you can also list as "the film Sundance couldn't screen" (why? because they didn't select it to screen)...man, keep throwing that word Sundance around left and right, give people a reason to see your film...

but do not lie....if anything, never ever lie, your reputation is everything in this business and the first lie you tell will follow you around for the rest of your career
cheers
Q