DIY Filmmaking Sucks

Two simple tricks for using Facebook to do market research for your indie film

In order to get people to see your film, you need to have a target audience and know how to reach (and how to talk to) them.

There are two paths to reach your audience, both of which have a proven track record:

You can study, research and intimately understand your target audience.

    - or -

You can just copy what works from people who've already done it.

I recommend number two: copy what works from people who already know how to reach the same audience.

Who has the time and money to do the type of research needed to fully understand a given audience? Who even among us DIY filmmakers has this training to be a market researcher? (Okay, okay, you should try to do the research nonetheless. It's good for you to learn the marketing skills.)

But, the easiest way to tell your target audience about your film is to copy from the masters.

It's a pretty straight-forward approach. First, you find out what movies (and other stuff) that your audience likes already. Second, you look up these projects and take notes on what works and just do something similar.

Remember, it's not stealing if you don't use their footage, logos, images or text. All you need to do is find out what other films that your audience already likes (and tv shows, and books, and music, etc.).

Most likely, you already are a member of your film's target audience (after all, why go through the painful experience of making a film you're not passionate about?), so you can probably make some good guesses about favorite films for your audience. These are the ones you like most. Easy.

If you're not a member of that audience, or if you just want to go the extra mile (highly recommended) to discover what films your target audience likes, Facebook is your friend.

Here are two tricks on how to use Facebook to do market research on your target audience. It assumes you have at least a few hundred friends on your own personal Facebook page and/or at least a few hundred fans on your film's Facebook page.

Option 1: Your Facebook friends
Use your own circle of friends as a free market research bank.

Since like attracts like, you probably have Facebook friends that are in your target audience too. (If not, well, this won't work.)

- Click on Friends
- Click on Edit Friends (don't worry, we won't be editing anything)
- Click on Recently Interacted to see the other options...
- Click on Search by Interest
- Enter the name of a (major) film that you already know appeals to the same target audience
- You'll get a result of people who say they like that film and are your friends
- See what other films come up often in those people's interests

Now that you have a list of film, check out those trailers (even if the film is old -- see if you can find the trailer online somewhere). Study how they convey the story, the feel of the film and how the marketing for the movie says "hey target audience, this film is for YOU."

Option 2: Your film's Facebook page
If you already have a Facebook page for your film (with a minimum of 100+ fans -- and ideally not just your own friends and family only), you can do this separate cool trick.

- Go to your film's page, logged in as one of the admins.
- Click on Use Facebook as Your Film Name (where "Your Film Name" is, um, your film's name).
- You are now logged in as if you were your film, rather than your own personal account.
- Click on News Feed.
- See the section called "Recommended Pages" on the right of the page? It will tell you a list of other movies, TV shows and other fan pages that your fans like. (Don't bother clicking on "See All" though -- it's best to see the info about how many of your fans like each recommended page -- and you can't see that on the "See All" page unfortunately.)
- Additinally, you should be able to reload the page and different "Recommended Pages" should come up, with the specific number of fans that like those things too.

Keep notes with the films, TV shows and other fan pages that people Like. Obviously, you're more interested in those with highest number of Likes amongst your fans.

Now that you have a list of what your target audience is into, go to these other films' Facebook pages and visit their actual websites -- and study them. Look at how the film sites talk about their projects, the style of design/art they use, and basically how they present themselves to the world.

You'll also want to research HOW these films reached the audience. This will be tougher, but perhaps you can dig around online for articles and discussions about how a film marketed itself (an easy search via Google: "movie name" marketing). Did they just buy ads or did they do local events or did they print up temporary tattoos and hand them out at Comic-Con? See if you can find out more about their marketing and outreach and PR plans.

For films, definitely take a look at their trailers and the posters -- see what elements they use and try to emulate the look. People have one second to make up their mind about a project when they see a poster or in the first few seconds of a trailer. Help them by being similar to what they like already.

And then take your notes and use similar strategies for your film. Basically, create a DIY and cheap version of their marketing plan for your film. Don't steal taglines or images -- just the underlying ideas and strategies: you're not trying to copy WHAT they say, but HOW they say it.

Why does it matter how other films are marketed?

These films (from your Facebook research) have attracted people who are interested in your film (or in things like your film) and if you learn their tricks, you can better attract to your film an audience composed of like-minded people.

While you're at it, why don't you check out the Facebook page for our indie sci-fi film, In-World War, and become a fan by clicking "Like" on our page. Seriously, look at all this free stuff I write for you: my gentle, good-looking, highly-intelligent reader. The least you can do is Like our film's Facebook page. Think of the children.

Secrets of successful IndieGoGo and Kickstarter crowdfunding

At Sundance this year, the DIY distribution guru Peter Broderick hosted a fast-paced overview of successful crowdfunded projects, sponsored by IndieGoGo. For anyone interested in trying to raise funds in small denominations (i.e. crowdfunding), it was a rapid-fire boot camp of best-practices.

Currently, the two most popular crowdfunding platforms for indie films are IndieGoGo and Kickstarter. IndieGoGo has the benefit of being originally focused on indie films, so it's got movies in their DNA. Regardless, these insights apply to whichever you choose to use.

Your video makes all the difference -- make it personal and high-quality.
Whether you use IndieGoGo, Kickstarter or your own website, you should produce a video to introduce people to your project and ask for donations. Even if you only appeal to friends and family, the immediacy and intimacy of a video make a huge difference in the success of a fundraising campaign.

• The key to your success is to make it personal. 
• Put yourself in the video and appeal for people to help you out.
• Don't just post a trailer -- do something special when asking for contributions even if it's just a personal introduction to the trailer!
• Treat the video like a compelling work of art in its own right -- make it clever, engaging, visually stunning and add a soundtrack to affect the viewers' emotions. Basically, make it kick ass so people WANT to watch it and show others.
• Bring on the cast and crew to talk about why they are involved and what the donors' help will mean to them.

Don't recreate the wheel: steal ideas that work
When you're building your crowdfunding campaign, don't do it in a bubble. Study the sites (both IndieGoGo and Kickstarter) and learn.

• Look through IndieGoGo and Kickstarter at the other projects listed -- particularly the successful ones with lots of donors. Learn their tricks (a quick visit to the site came up with this gem immediately: $5 for a Twitter shout-out. Donate $5 and we do a shout-out to you on Twitter. Thank you Pipeline Theater Company's production of the Caucasian Chalk Circle.).
• Set up a wide range of donor levels -- and have fun with the options.
• Study the various videos and see what affects you most as a viewer. Learn what works and what resonates with your personality and the tone of your work. The videos where the filmmakers themselves talk about their projects always seem the most compelling, but if that doesn't work for you, find something that does.
• Sign up for nonprofit fiscal sponsorship of your film, which allows your contributors (in the USA) to get a tax deduction when they give $ to support your film. That might encourage some people who are on the fence to give. IndieGoGo integrates with some of these nonprofit sponsors so it's a seamless experience for your donors. And the sponsoring agencies are often fantastic clearinghouses of info on fundraising and marketing. Examples include the amazing San Francisco Film Society (our fiscal sponsor for our indie sci-fi feature In-World War) and Fractured Atlas, which has a wide array of filmmaker services (including cheap production insurance for indie films).
• Bottom line: Invest the time and careful thinking to do it right.

Create an advisory committee from your target audience
Crowdfunding through your friends and family alone can be quite successful (we've raised about $7,000 in donations without going much beyond people we already know). But the true success for a crowdfunding campaign comes with strangers who you've never met donate to support your film simply because they love what you're doing.

Generally, these types of donors are tough to get, but Peter suggested you build an Advisory Committee for your project of representative individuals and groups from interested communities. Create partnerships with organizations that are a natural fit for the film. Essentially, these are the taste-makers and formal structures in the target audience you're trying to reach. The orgs might include nonprofits, business groups, faith-based organizations, schools, websites, publications or virtually anything that has an audience or mailing list that has excellent crossover with your target audience.

These types of relationships will serve you well during the distribution and marketing of the film, but also during the fundraising stage, they can help as well. By forming an advisory committee of key players you invite them to buy into the project on an emotional level and then you have the basis to ask for a link or shout-out in a newletter or website to support the project through the IndieGoGo page.

Let's be clear: it's very challenging -- if not virtually impossible -- to get strangers to give you money for something that doesn't exist. Even when you're done with the film this can be near impossible to get anyone to pay attention (which is why marketing a film is the hardest part of the filmmaking process).

Generally, only people you know (particularly family and close friends) will donate cash. But by engaging with communities and community leaders in your target audience you're building the audience for the film -- even if it's not finished for years down the line. Eventually, some will end up helping you spread the word, perhaps even co-sponsoring screenings or hosting them outright.

And if you're lucky, you might get some early donors too.

IndieGoGo best practices
One of the IndieGoGo big honchos (didn't write down his name, sorry) shared with the audience the strategies that successful crowdsourcing campaigns have in common (these are the people that make and surpass their $$$ funding goals). If you're considering using IndieGoGo or Kickstarter, use these as your guidelines:

• A length of 50 to 60 days seems to be the sweet spot for successful campaigns. 
• Set a reachable financial goal, rather than something too aspirationally high. It's far better to go over (which happens frequently when the goal is reached) than not reach your goal.
• The rate of giving tends to go up as the amount raised approaches the goal. In other words, nothing succeeds like success and more people give the more people have given. (Consider personally asking some close friends and family to be the first few donors to get things moving quickly to show momentum).
• As Captain Picard always said: "Engage." Interacting with your donors and prospective donors makes a huge difference. Keep them posted, solicit suggestions, respond to questions and find ways to engage with them. This doesn't just apply to fundraising, but cultivating an audience in general. Treat your donors like your inner circle.
• And, of course, make a great video asking for contributions and getting them excited about the project.

Now go out there and make your movie.

(And for more thoughts on crowdfunding, see a previous post about Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and buckets of cash.)

This is part of a special report series from DIY Filmmaking Sucks: DIY Secrets of Sundance. The series covers lessons learned at this year's Sundance Film Festival from an assortment of indie distribution and funding panels, in addition to conversations with filmmakers.

The two most important things in marketing an indie film

It all boils down to a great poster and, above all, a great trailer.
There's a lot of thinking and experimentation going on in the indie and DIY film distribution world, but the most important remain the old standbys: the film's trailer and, to a lessor degree, the poster.

If you have a kick-ass trailer, you're more than halfway home in terms of marketing your film.

After all, if you spend all this time and money making the film and then trying to get people to watch your trailer on YouTube or Facebook or on your website, and the trailer sucks, your movie is screwed. Why would people want to watch a film where the trailer is crap? It just makes the movie look like crap too.

It's the same with the poster. If you spend a ton of money and/or time printing up crappy posters and then go through the trouble of putting them up around town (and shaping the lame design into a website), you've just wasted all that cash and effort. The poster is also the "key art" that is used on websites to represent the film, so in a line-up of movie posters on a random website, if yours doesn't perform, you miss the clicks.

But above all, the trailer is where you seal the deal. It's where a random person turns into someone who wants to see the movie.

What makes an amazing trailer (and a great poster)? That's a topic for a deep dive another day, but for now, these are the key outcomes to measure against:

• Does your target audience get it immediately that this is film for them?
• Does it introduce us to the main character(s) and the main conflict(s)?
• Does it convey the "type" or "color" of the filmmaking: the emotion, audio/visual feel and tone of the film?
• Does it make the audience wonder, "what happens?"
• After seeing it, can someone explain to a friend what the film is about -- ideally a friend who is also in the target audience?
• Does it have a call to action -- letting people know how they can see it, rent it and/or buy it? Or, for an unreleased film, how they can learn more and stay in touch?

Want to see an example of a trailer that works well? After the NY panel, I overheard a two of the panelists talking about the film I Love You Philip Morris. They agreed that the film is fantastic but hugely challenging to market -- how do you convey the quality of the movie given the odd subject? Likewise, they agreed that the trailer was fantastic and was a huge factor in the film's success. Watch it here and as homework, watch as many trailers as possible, especially for films with the same target audience and/or featuring similar genres and subjects.

The great trailer for I Love You Philip Morris:
  

As we start to work on our trailer for In-World War (our indie sci-fi feature), I'll post something about the structure of trailers in more depth.

In the meantime, if you have favorite trailers, please post them (or at least links or titles) in the comments.

This is part of a special report series from DIY Filmmaking Sucks: DIY Secrets of Sundance. The series covers lessons learned at this year's Sundance Film Festival from an assortment of indie distribution and funding panels, in addition to conversations with filmmakers.

Next Monday the final installment -- Week 6: Secrets of successful IndieGoGo and Kickstarter crowdfunding

The secrets of indie film release strategy

Give it to people how they want it
Increasingly, small indie films are being released in non-traditional schedules, mixing up the old standard release roadmap of festival, theatrical, DVD, on-demand, pay TV, free TV (to say nothing of the heresy of giving away the film for free online).

Repeatedly, panelists at Sundance this year echoed this theme: "Different audiences consume content different ways" (as put succinctly by Todd Sklar of RangeLife Entertainment, one of the panelists at the  Distribution panel hosted by the NY Film Office). Don't spend time and money trying to get people to change their behavior -- give it to them the way they want to see it.

For instance, it might make sense to show the film online (perhaps even for free) for an exclusive preview for the right website that targets your audience, in order to build up buzz.

Or, you might want to do a "day and date" approach where you release the film on DVD and on demand on the same day you're in theaters (or even in festivals). However, as another panelist put it dryly: "Exhibitors are not necessarily on board" for day-and-date release or VOD prior to theatrical, so be careful and cognizant of the dangers of releasing out of order. If you're going to piss off the theaters or other distribution partners along the way, be prepared to be shut out of their channels.

But the cost may be worth it. Getting to your audience at the right time, when and how they want to watch your film is crucial. And building buzz is more important than protecting a meager release window that wan't going to make you much money in the first place.

Or maybe you go off the grid completely. Buy/borrow an old VW bus and tour the country for months with the film like an indie band on tour, playing the film where-ever people will let you: libraries, schools, cafes, clubs, bars, maybe even movie theaters. Create your own film festival ("Matt's Wacky One Night Film Festival") and sell DVDs and t-shirts at the shows. That's basically what Kevin Smith is going to do with his new film Red State (which premiered at Sundance this year -- followed by a very inspiring diatribe by Kevin about self-distribution vs. the Indiewood system).

Above all, understand your target audience
Central to these plans is understanding your target audience. Who will love this film? Who will pay for it? And most importantly, who are the raving fans just waiting for a film like yours who will tell their friends about it?

Identifying a target audience is difficult and requires the counter-intuitive skill of thinking small: the best target audiences are tiny, well-defined and almost insular slices of humanity, not large general populations (bad: "college-age guys", good: "college-age guys who play professional poker"). It's a lot easier and more affordable to reach out to a tightly-connected community than a wide general audience (unless you have $100+ million to spend on advertising like Hollywood).

Once you know your target audience, figure out how they watch movies (ask them!) and then create a release plan that caters to their habits and interests.

Also, you should learn what other recent small indie films they like and reverse engineer their marketing and distribution plans. Always try to avoid having to recreate the wheel. Steal the good ideas and build on their success.

What are your ideas for releasing the film? What interesting approaches have you seen other films do successfully? Let us know in the comments.

This is part of a special report series from DIY Filmmaking Sucks: DIY Secrets of Sundance. The series covers lessons learned at this year's Sundance Film Festival from an assortment of indie distribution and funding panels, in addition to conversations with filmmakers.

Next Monday -- Week 5: The two most important things in marketing an indie film

Secrets of Facebook and audience engagement

Audience engagement is key
Why wouldn't you build and engage with your audience? It's crucial to getting traction for people to actually want to watch your film (regardless if via theaters/fests, DVD, on-demand, or even just online for free), but having a large following of engaged fans demonstrates to a wide array of potential distribution and marketing partners that you have a hot property on your hands. Little else will move the needle, in fact (a great film that nobody wants to watch is just a film that no one has seen).

Audience engagement was on everyone's lips this year at Sundance, from the Distribution panel at the NY Lounge to Peter Broderick's presentation at the start of IndieGoGo's party.

If you're wooing sales agents, distributors, co-production partners, investors, high profile PR agents, or other potential distrib/marketing partners such as Netflix, nothing works better than a ton of rabid fans wanting to see the film already.

Measuring audience engagement
How do you prove you have an audience ready to see the film? The stats are on your film's Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube trailer. These are the numbers that matter. For a small no-budget indie, you should aim for 5,000 Facebook friends, 10,000 Twitter followers and at least 50,000 YouTube views.

You got that covered? Is your audience locked in yet?

Actually, these numbers are completely bogus -- I just made them up. But they're definitely in the ballpark for films that deserve a closer look. Showing off your couple hundred Facebook friends or trailer views on YouTube might be worse than not being there at all since it only proves you've failed to reach beyond the inner circle of people you know.

Work that social network
Your Facebook fans and friends are more than just a number; the true power of Facebook is expressed when a social network is galvanized toward a common goal. There are countless examples of this, from the revolution in Egypt to the Double Rainbow guy to the sold-out NYC screenings of our film New York City (back in the MySpace days).

The holy grail of social marketing is going viral: where each person passes something on a crowd of other people and they do the same and so on until seemingly everyone has seen it. Going viral is awesome, but you can't plan for it -- it's almost solely about the content rather than a particular viral strategy (I doubt the Double Rainbow guy had a social media marketing plan).

So while you can't dictate what will go viral, you can create the conditions and get the ball rolling. Or, to keep the virus analogy going: you can't guarantee an epidemic, but you can sneeze a lot in public and stop washing your hands.

On Facebook that's as simple as asking people to view your trailer and post it in their status updates and via Twitter. Or asking them to go to IMDB and rate your film a perfect ten. Or asking all your Facebook fans and friends to put your film into their Netfix queue so Netflix buys more DVDs and pays a higher licensing fee. And then rating the film highly on Netflix too.

Buy ads to build up your Facebook friends
Here's a crazy idea from a guy who hates spending money (since I have so little): buy ads! That's right, Facebook's ad program actually has an amazing microtargeting capability and if it puts your ad in front of people likely to like your film, it's money well spent.

One panelist, Paola Freccero of Crowdstarter, said that for $50/day, a filmmaker could use Facebook's amazing super-targeted ads to get 30-70 new "Likes" each day. Using that calculus, each "Like" will cost you about $1.

Is it worth $3000 to get 3000 new Facebook "Likes" for your film? It's a no-brainer in my view. Those 3000 followers may turn into an additional 300 units sold to Netflix (even at only $10 each, you've basically made your money back), or may be the tipping point that convinces a cable VOD provider to carry your film, or may get you a foreign sales agent to take our movie to Cannes. Or it may convince an investor to take a chance and invest in your distribution strategy.

Yes it means you need to put out some cash. I'm a notorious cheap-skate as a filmmaker. I LOATHE to part with money in making movies. But I learned this the hard way: while it's sexy to say you are doing it all with no budget, you're just holding yourself back.

It's like saying you're going to run the Boston Marathon on your knees. It's certainly possible you could cross the finish line, but it's not very likely and damn will it hurt (and it's also certainly possible you'll never walk again).

Another way to say it: It takes an investment to get a return.

Best way to start is to start small with the low hanging fruit. Should be cheaper too. As I wrote in last year's post about distribution best-practices from Sundance:

Buy ads that target ONLY friends of people that are already fans of your film (via the fan page you can create on Facebook). The ads show up to these friends-of-fans indicating that the friend is a fan already, hugely increasing click-throughs.

We're going to buy Facebook ads for In-World War as an experiment once we have more material to show off (stills and perhaps a trailer). We'll keep you posted. Supposedly, it's pretty damn affordable. Don't believe it? It's the reason why Facebook is worth tens of billions of dollars. A lot of very smart, very rich people are throwing money at Facebook right now, with the success of this advertising approach the key to their massive valuation.

Bribe your friends
Even if you're highly allergic to paid advertising, there's a lot that can be done to grow your Facebook fans. Consider bribing people to recommend your film's Facebook page.

Okay, technically Facebook doesn't like this, so you have to be somewhat sly about it. One panelist at the NY panel at Sundance suggested you reward people for helping spread the word. Example: get 10 friends to Like the film in Facebook and get a free DVD. Reward them for the behavior you want -- and make it fun.

Your turn now
In the comments, please share the best-practices and clever ideas you've seen (or done) to build up an army of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube fans.

This is part of a special report series from DIY Filmmaking Sucks: DIY Secrets of Sundance. The series covers lessons learned at this year's Sundance Film Festival from an assortment of indie distribution and funding panels, in addition to conversations with filmmakers.

Next Monday -- Week 4: The secret of indie film release strategy

Secrets of Netflix distribution and revenue

Increasing Netflix dollars
As I've outlined in a previous post ("Gaming Netflix: how to get Netflix to buy more DVDs..."), the key to increasing Netflix purchases of DVDs (as well as Watch Now licensing fees) is increasing the number of people who have your film in their Netflix queue. This was another thing I heard at the Distribution Panel hosted by the NY Film Office at Sundance this year.

Be sure everyone you know keeps your film listed their Netflix queue and gives you a great rating. Additionally, it makes a difference to have great IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores -- and to be engaged with a large audience of fans.

How Netflix Watch Now revenue works
I asked the New York panel about the revenue model for the hugely popular Netflix Watch Now on-demand service. It turns out that Netflix buys films for Watch Now similar to the way that TV networks do: Netflix pays a license fee to show the film to an unlimited audience during a given period.

How many DVDs of your film will Netflix buy?
Netflix largely bases its purchases on the number people who have the film in their queue. At the NY panel, they said it's about 1/3 to 1/2 that number, but I'm skeptical, since that means they're basing it on pre-orders before the film is available.

Regardless, a common order for a small film seems to be about 1000 DVD units. Don't count on it, but it gives you a ballpark.

Given the death of other DVD sales channels (and other rental outlets), this Netflix order may constitute nearly the entirety of your large-order DVD sales.

That's why the indie film industry is in free-fall right now: our main cash cow (DVD) has dried up. And it's why you probably won't find a distributor to buy your movie: they can't make their money back so they're not buying films.

IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores are vital
It sometimes bears to state the obvious: people pay attention to your scores on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. According to the NY panelists, these scores even play a role in how Netflix determines their DVD purchasing and licensing deals for your film.

Of course, the best way to ensure high scores are to make a great film -- but there's not exactly a clear formula for that (or Hollywood would have bottled it and sold it by the gallon years ago). Another way to look at is this: pump up the ratings however you can (friendly ratings on IMDB can't hurt) and if the scores are low, don't bank on big Netflix orders.

Note: make sure your reviews belong to your film. We had a bad review for a different film (similar title) dragging down our Top Critics score for Quality of Life and had to request it be removed. Watch out for that and go here to contact Rotten Tomatoes if you have the same problem. Watch out for those weeds in your tomato garden.

Caveat emptor, bitches
All of this Netflix purchasing information from the panel should be considered hearsay and is not supported by documentation (and Netflix certainly isn't talking), but with so little public information available on Netflix purchasing and licensing, it does paint a consistent and rational picture:

• The more people that have you in their queue, the more DVDs Netflix will buy and the more they will pay for Watch Now licensing.
• It's standard procedure in the industry to use IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores as cheat sheets to know the quality of a film. The scores may even impact Netflix buying decisions and order sizes.
• Audience engagement makes a huge difference in direct ways (more people will want to watch the film) and indirect ways (the film looks more attractive to Netflix, distributors, exhibitors, potential partners, etc.).

A solid distribution and outreach plan should focus your marketing (and creative) energy in these three areas. Then execute, execute, execute.

And then Netflix will welcome your film with red carpet and rose petals. Maybe.

Share with us what you've heard about Netflix purchasing and licensing policies in the comments. If your films are Netflix, please tell us how many DVDs they bought and how much they paid to license the film for Watch Now streaming. Let's figure this one out together.

This is part of a special report series from DIY Filmmaking Sucks: DIY Secrets of Sundance. The series covers lessons learned at this year's Sundance Film Festival from an assortment of indie distribution and funding panels, in addition to conversations with filmmakers.

Next Monday -- Week 3: Secrets of Facebook and audience engagement

DIY secrets of Sundance and building a team of experts

Another year, another freezing cold, over-crowded Sundance. Why couldn't Robert Redford have fallen in love with Cancun or San Diego? Or even Utah in the summertime?

Instead, we get over-priced, over-booked, blisteringly-cold Park City in January. Yay.

Happily, you don't even have to have gone to Sundance (though you should -- here's how you can go cheaply next year), all the best ideas are right here on this site. Lucky for you I've taken notes and typed it all up. You can just stay there in your comfy chair, warmed by the eco-fireplace. Did I mention how cold and annoying it is in Park City?

Granted, Sundance ended a few weeks ago, but I've been swamped prepping for (and then recovering from) pick-ups for our new sci-fi feature, In-World War. So apologies for the slight delay in getting this posted. Plus, it's taken me another week to write all this up.

As usual, I try to attend DIY and indie distribution and marketing panels, as a way to find out what's working for other filmmakers. The bottom line is that I don't expect a distributor to be interested in buying our film (and neither should you), so we're preparing to do it ourselves.

In my experience, the distribution and marketing phase of the filmmaking process is the most complex, time-consuming and expensive. You can understand why it's a major pre-occupation of this blog. After the exhausting theatrical self-distribution of our previous film, Quality of Life, I wanted to create a place to share with other filmmakers and learn from them. That way, no one has to recreate the wheel.

It's in that spirit that I share what I learned at Sundance this year and bring you the state of the art in DIY distribution and marketing of independent feature films.

And you're not getting the capsule summary. The entire DIY Secrets from Sundance write-up this year runs about 5000 words, so in order to keep things sane and bite-size (more or less), it's broken up into six chapters, organized by general topic, posted each week for six weeks (new chapters each Monday).

This is the first officially serialized special report on the DIY Filmmaking Sucks blog. Exciting! (Not exactly a man on the moon or a cure for cancer, but still pretty major given all the other crap I've got on my plate these days. And hey, it's free, so no complaints.)

These general topics are in no particular order and were culled from a number of different conversations and events, including a distribution panel sponsored by the New York Film Office and another hosted by the DIY distribution godfather himself, Peter Broderick (and sponsored by IndieGoGo). Sadly, I missed the awesome Filmmaker Summit at Slamdance this time. Ah well, there's always next year.

Here are the topics of the DIY Secrets of Sundance series:

• Week 1 (this week): DIY Secrets of Sundance and building a team of experts
• Week 2: Secrets of Netflix distribution and revenue
• Week 3: Secrets of Facebook and audience engagement
• Week 4: The secret of indie film release strategy
• Week 5: The two most important things in marketing an indie film
• Week 6: Secrets of successful IndieGoGo and Kickstarter crowdfunding

Okay, enough with the preliminaries.

Let's dive in and start with the big picture: how do you figure out how to market and distribute your indie film?

Gather the experts
Not surprisingly, the panel of distribution and marketing experts recommended filmmakers gather a team of distribution and marketing experts such as themselves (many were consultants of one stripe or another), rather than try to become an expert in all these areas themselves. Despite the seemingly self-serving advice, they're right. Don't try to recreate the wheel -- find people that have done it before, learn best practices from them and, if you can afford it, pay them to do it for you.

In order to make the best possible film during production, even small indie films like ours use production pros who are experts in their domains: DPs, ACs, location sound recordists, gaffers, etc. We need to think like that for distribution and marketing too.

A great no (or low) cost way to gather a team of experts is to do it stealth, so the experts don't even know they're on your team. Go to panel discussions and public talks -- or listen to free podcasts and read online interviews with the experts. When you get to hear them in person, stand up and ask your questions during the audience Q&A. I got nearly all of the info I'm sharing with you from Sundance in this way.

Afterward, go up and meet them in person. Get their card. Ask them to join your distribution advisory committee.

Twp experts I highly recommend you stalk and try to see in person at panels/events (and read their writings and interviews):

• Peter Broderick
• Jon Reiss

Both of them do paid consulting and if you can afford it, it's definitely worth it. Peter was our distribution consultant on Quality of Life and hugely influenced our strategy and laid the foundation for much of how I think about indie/DIY distribution. Jon is a rising star on the same topics (and is another filmmaker who's worked in the graffiti subculture like us). He wrote a must-read book -- essentially the bible of DIY distribution: Think Outside The Box Office: The ultimate guide to film distribution and marketing in the digital era

Bottom line: do what successful people do and work with people smarter than you.

In the comments, if you went to Sundance this year, let us know what you learned about indie filmmaking, distribution and funding.

This is part of a special report series from DIY Filmmaking Sucks: DIY Secrets of Sundance. The series covers lessons learned at this year's Sundance Film Festival from an assortment of indie distribution and funding panels, in addition to conversations with filmmakers.

Next Monday -- Week 2: Secrets of Netflix distribution and revenue

Panel (and party) at WonderCon

Going to WonderCon in San Francisco next week?

It's like a mini-version of Comic-Con (with a comparatively intimate 40,000+ attendance). It's a great way to connect with fans, if you've got a genre film (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, thriller, whatever).

It's also just a lot of fun if you're secretly a comics geek like me.

Anyway, I'm on a panel of indie sci-fi filmmakers at WonderCon and going to be showing the first sneak peek clip from our feature, In-World War.

Please join us there if you can:

Friday April 2
6:00-7:00pm
Moscone South, Room 232/234
WonderCon San Francisco

Oh, and there's an after-party too at 111 Minna, co-sponsored by leading sci-fi blog io9.

Details on the panel and the party are here.

We're hoping the panel continues onto Comic-Con and beyond, as a way to spread the love for indie/DIY sci-fi filmmakers. So show up and show your support.

And if you are making sci-fi features or webisodes, get in touch about future panels and opportunities like this.

Transmedia for indie filmmakers I: Transmedia 101, ARGs and more

Transmedia describes the way some fictional universes play out over a wide range of stories (and games) in different media.

The classic example is Star Wars. George Lucas (and underlings) created a rich and complex fictional universe which has its well-known movies, but also fed a myriad of other stories with both minor and major characters from the films (and many not in the films at all) to play out via computer games, toys, books, comics, trading cards, fan films, and even a disco hit.

The transmedia concept isn't new, even if the term itself just now is gaining currency. After all, major creative properties in popular culture have been long exploited through tie-ins, spin-offs, sequels, games, radio shows, movies, TV shows, books, comics, toys and a seemingly un-ending chain of other related products and "creative" output. However, studying the phenomenon and thinking deeply about how to play it out across multiple platforms, particularly on the Internet, is a relatively new thing.

And on top of that, it's extremely revolutionary for indie and DIY creators to put such thinking at the center of their distribution, marketing and, yes, creative process.

So it's time to ask yourself: how tranny can you be?

[This is the first of a multi-part series. Rather than kill you with another book-length posting, I though I would divvy it up a bit. We'll see how it works. Let me know.]

I just returned from a fantastic conference at USC (co-sponsored by the film programs at USC and UCLA): TRANSMEDIA, HOLLYWOOD: S/Telling the Story. I was turned on to this event by one of the conference co-directors, the wonderful, widely-respected and seemingly-tireless professor Henry Jenkins (who I mentioned briefly in New indie distribution secrets for activating the audience).

The day was packed: four panels with over twenty panelists -- any of whom would be worth a day (or a whole career) of brain-picking. The panels were highly skewed toward The Industry -- in fact, no one was really working in the DIY mode.

But there was still a lot to gain for DIY filmmakers and other DIY creatives. So, in order to share the pearls of wisdom (as I saw them), I compiled a run-down of the best transmedia ideas and examples.

Here are top three key themes we heard over and over again from the panelists:

1) Authenticity is the key to success.
Keep your transmedia in alignment with the thematic, artistic, experiential and aesthetic core of what you're doing. Don't just make it look like cheap, hack advertising. Make it real, consistent, and richly-detailed -- and stay true to your source material and audience.

2) Engage the audience.
Engagement is crucial. Avoid passive experiences. When you empower the grassroots fans with an authentic experience, they will respond, often creating additional transmedia themselves, sharing with their networks, and further fueling audience growth and engagement. This why the Internet is a natural platform for transmedia experimentation.

3) Good transmedia is (usually) not cheap.
Generally speaking, effective transmedia takes time and/or money to do right -- particularly ARGs (alternate reality games). But when done well, most people agreed that ROI was better than spending on advertising (granted, we were all drinking the Koolaid together at a frickin' transmedia conference, after all). There are examples of low-cost transmedia (I'll give some ideas below).

I'll be writing up my transmedia notes, ideas and other bon mots over the course of the next few days (time permitting -- my notes run on and on, it seems).

Most of these directly relate to transmedia, but there are a few gems included are more general or about other topics related to indie filmmaking too.

What is transmedia?
Originally transmedia was specifically defined as a specific story that played out over many different media (ARGs are a good example of this). However, now the more widely-accepted definition is that transmedia describes any creative universe that spins off stories, games and hybrids of the two (like an ARG) across different media.

What makes good transmedia?
In theory, anything can be the source material for transmedia, but some things translate (sorry) better into transmedia than others. Transmedia-friendly story universes:

• ...have a lot of characters with rich back stories. Examples: Superheroes, ensemble stories, Transformers, Pokemon, etc.
• ... allow different combinations of characters which can produce a large number of stories.
• ...have worlds built more like TV shows (open narratives which have the characters and situations to sustain 5+ seasons worth of stories), rather than films (which have closed narratives generally).

Authenticity
The difference between good and bad transmedia is the same as between good and bad storytelling: authenticity. Don't do hack work in any media. Make it true to the source. Make it vital. Make each piece as strong and thought-through as if it were your last lifework, transmedia or not. 

Wait, what exactly IS authenticity?
Panelist Maureen McHugh of No Mimes Media challenged us to think of authenticity as "novelty in comfortable convention." In other words, authenticity is recognized when something is done in opposition to what is accepted as the-way-things-are -- even if it's a highly artificial moment. Deep thought, that.

Narrative is as important as the product you're trying to sell.
In our case, we're selling movies, which tell stories themselves. But the story about how and why the film was made is crucial to getting people interested. That story itself -- essentially the behind-the-scenes story -- can be played out in transmedia way: a "making of" documentary, video podcasts, blog, online live chats (recorded and archived) and more.

Wrap it all in a compelling narrative hook ("the director was a medical test subject as a way to fund his DIY film"), and you're good to go.

The distinction between pull vs. push media.
Push media is traditional broadcast and film: the industry pushes it at the consumer. Pull media is video-on-demand, remix/p2p culture and the Internet: consumers have to seek it out and pro-actively select to experience it. Make your stuff as pull-friendly as possible; it's where we're headed (we're already there in fact).

As one participant put it: this is the Century of Play, where's the 20th was the Century of Consuming. Or perhaps this is the Century of Pull and last was the Century of Push. And so on.

Think of the media as a social platform.
What are the pieces that people want to play with and share with others? How can you empower them to do so? Can you build a platform to allow the audience to make their own media from/based on yours, to create user-generated content, as a sort of in-law media to your primary material (you know, related to your content by marriage not blood -- hey, I just coined a term!). User-generated content (UGC) that users pro-actively share with others = big win.

Learning from Farmville: build fast and expand it based on real use.
The Game Developers Conference had just ended the week before and the bulging-crotched rock star at the show was a little Facebook game called Farmville. 32 million daily users. 110 million installs (sky-is-falling comparison: 133 million voted in the 2008 presidential election).

The story goes (as related by panelist Richard Lamarchand) that they built Farmville in five weeks and that most of the game was designed after it was launched, based on how people used it.

This was one of the biggest lightbulb moments for me at the whole conference. We can launch something quick and simple and let it grow over time through different transmedia manifestations -- tweaking and improving and growing story, design, technology, and anything based on viewer/user response. Think hard about this one; it might produce your home run.

Some stats about gaming
If you're a filmmaker, you might want to start looking at games (if you're not doing so already). It's a natural fit for a transmedia play and there a ton of indie game developers out there to discuss a partnership. The iPhone and new iPad are fantastic gaming platforms for just this reason.

What's interesting about gaming? Nine out of ten kids under 14 are gamers. In four years (the time it takes to write, make and distribute a feature film), they will be in college, when they'll be interested in the artsy-fartsy DIY films we make.

Ignore the gamers at your peril, fellow filmmaker. And social media games (ala Farmville) are particularly popular among females, which may make you think differently about how to let them know about your film (naturally, that's a tip more for my fellow knucklehead guy filmmakers, since the filmmaker gals already know how to reach their female audience).

ARG? Arrrgh!
ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) are one of the purest forms of transmedia and arguably the clearest example. In an ARG, the "game" is set upon the platform of real life, usually through the Internet. Clues are dropped in real sites. Faux sites are created to look like real sites. People interact via real emails and SMS messages and phone calls from and to the game. People may collaborate (and often cheat) together to try to solve the puzzle and/or find out what's really going on.

Big name ARG examples:

• Year Zero (a Nine Inch Nails album release)
• Why So Serious? (for the movie The Dark Knight)
• The Institute for Human Continuity (for the movie 2012)
• Metachortechs (for the Matrix movies)
• The Threshold (for a Cisco Global Sales Meeting) -- I'm not kidding.

There was some debate at the conference about the (heretofore and still undiscovered) ARG business model. But I'm a DIY filmmaker and so obviously not bothered by a medium that has no chance of making a profit.

Honestly though, I find most ARGs to be cheesy, low-quality, high-volume marketing bullshit emitters. ARGs are a cross between a game and a story (liberally gmo'd with ad agency DNA, more times than not). Even when done by/for someone as cool as Trent Reznor, I must say it it makes me lose a little respect for him: actors playing police raiding a NIN concert and another actor giving an anti-totalitarian lecture to giddy fans. Oh man. We're in Disney territory here, Trent. I'm hope the "buzz" generated was worth it.

Also, ARGs aren't very DIY-friendly. They work best for well-known brands that already have existing raving fans willing to spend a ton of time hunting the Internet for obscure clues.

Here's the thing: let games be games and stories be stories. Mixing the two, as ARGs try to do, most often results in a weak game with a weak story. Weak.

Oh lighten up. ARGs aren't all bad.
I actually think ARGs have a future and a place. when they don't have to be crass marketing gimmicks or agency creative masturbation opportunities (a gig I'm willing to be paid to do, by the way).

So if you're going to go ARG, here are some tips from the conference (and from my own acknowledged anti-corporate bias):

- Many channels. An ARG needs to come through many different conduits: web, email, text, phone, bathroom stall messages, guerrilla video projection, etc.

- Go indie. Turns out, there are indie ARGs such as Sammeeeees and Eldritch Errors: true indie ARGs not associated with the latest Hollywood sequel, climate-changing sportscar or other advertainment opportunity. Aspire to be one of these. Thanks to Geoff May for suggesting these indie ARGs via Twitter.

- Be funny. The most successful ARGs seem to not take themselves too seriously, according to conference co-director Denise Mann, head of UCLA's Producers Program. There's something to be said for a little knowing, ironic B-movie cheese. Even a bad vegan like me can appreciate cheese like that.

- Multiple entry points. Don't assume the ARG audience all start at the same time. Allow people to catch up. The longer an ARG unfolds, the tougher it is to start midway. Plan for those late-comers or you'll miss out on any snowball effect once things get started.

- Different levels of interaction. Not everyone will spend ten hours a day combing through obscure Vatican archival documents trying to piece together your ARG clues (luckily some will, but don't give them your home address (rest assured, they already have it)). Find ways for more casual players to have fun too. And for lurkers to enjoy the ride that the other active players take.

- Let the users build it. A great example of an ARG that tries to make the world a better place is World Without Oil. They built a platform that allowed users to post their own stories around the theme of what happens when the world runs out of oil. In this way, the users basically created the content for them. Don't be afraid to empower your fans.

- It's okay Trent. I still love you.

How to build an audience for your DIY ARG?
Whether you're creating an ARG for ARG's sake or as a way to build interest in your indie film or other project, it all boils down to this: no one knows you, no one cares about your project and you have no money to spend getting their attention.

The answer is simple: think like a DIY filmmaker in self-distribution mode. Oh wait, that's who you are. See, you're already smart enough to handle this challenge.

Basically, you want to find out where your audience is (it should be the same audience as for your film -- after all the point is to build the film's audience) and then find creative ways to invite them to play. This could be odd clues left on appropriate websites. Or it could be straight up "play our ARG" messages on Facebook groups. Whatever.

As with DIY filmmaking and distribution, you need to make your own rules and be fearless.

Part II is coming soon. Stay tuned.

New indie distribution secrets for activating the audience

I just returned from another exhausting, exciting trip to Sundance and wanted to share with you the DIY indie film distribution and marketing tricks I learned.

Things are seriously popping on this topic, so a warning: this is a long post. Get a cup of soy hot chocolate and a danish and get comfy.

I attended four different indie distribution panels/clinics/summits/confabs, in addition to talking with dozens of individual filmmakers one-on-one. Here are the three key themes I heard time and time again about distribution and marketing low budget DIY indie films:

1) Making a film is not enough. You need to become a marketing and distribution guru too.

2) And you need to be innovative and creative about how you do it. Be unconventional while reaching your audience in a way that's both unique and true to the specific audience.

3) The single best way to ensure you'll recoup your production (and distribution) costs is to keep costs low. Very low. We're talking six figures and way under. The vast majority of $250,000 - $5M movies without stars are DOA from a business perspective, particularly if they are not genre films.

So now, low and behold, us DIY filmmakers are the ones making the microbudget films that have a chance of turning a profit, because we're such damn cheapstakes. Aren't we lucky.

Longtime readers know that I've been crowing on for years about how you shouldn't expect anyone to distribute your film for you -- that DIY filmmakers need to be prepared to distribute their films themselves.

This is now conventional wisdom.

That's why we're planning to self-distribute our sci-fi feature, In-World War (currently starting post-production) -- and why we've been blogging (and now tweeting) about the film literally years in advance of the release of the film.

But this year's Sundance made it clear that the bulk of indie filmmakers get it at last and are turning their prodigious creative talents to the problem of distribution. Out of this cauldron of desperation and resulting "no rules" marketing innovation, whole new paradigms and channels for indie film distribution are being pioneered.

It's an exciting time (unless you want to make a bunch of money on your film, in which case, you're still screwed).

If you want to make indie DIY films, you should be paying attention.

I took a bunch of notes of the ideas and suggestions that resonated best for me. These comprised only about 1% of the topics and strategies that were discussed, proving once again that if you consider yourself an indie filmmaker, you should be at Sundance to experience the whole fire hose of indie guts and glory -- and to learn from the others who face the same challenges.

Why recreate the wheel when you can just go shopping at the tire store?

Since you couldn't make it, here are my notes. Steal these ideas for your film's distribution. Seriously.

[BTW, Sundance is notoriously expensive, but you need to go anyway if you consider yourself an indie DIY filmmaker. To find out my tips for going to Sundance on the cheap, check out my post from last year: Secrets of Sundance.]

The must-get book.
Everyone was talking about it. Even when the author wasn't in the room. Buy it now:
Thinking Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era
By Jon Reiss

VOD is where the action is at, increasingly.
In two of the key distribution events I attended, VOD (video-on-demand) was a hot topic for indie distribution. It's increasingly seen as a strong revenue source, if (and this is a big if) you can get your film on VOD systems of the big MSOs (cable operators like Comcast, Time-Warner, etc.). Some quick stats and notes from the VOD world:

• You won't be selling your film directly to Comcast, but instead will go through an aggregator like Gravitas.
• Because of this, expect to get about 35% (at most) of the consumer price back to the filmmaker.
• Over the 18 months of Magnolia's day-and-date VOD strategy (where films are released on VOD on the same "day and date" as they are in theaters), $100,000 is a solid performance though it can be lower or higher, depending on the film. But that's gross, so with the (estimated) 35% cut going to the filmmaker, we're looking more at $35,000 net to the filmmaker if you get on nationwide cable VOD and don't screw up too badly.
• Yeah, that still kinda sucks. Let's hope you didn't pay too much to make the film in the first place. Har har.
• Also, look into Distribber. They are doing some interesting things and seems like a simple way to get on iTunes and soon other sites. And they give you 100% of the royalty (!!!).

DVD is still king.
No doubt, but DVD is dying. But it still accounts for 80% of the "home video" revenues. VOD is now starting to emerge as a factor with 20% of the revenue, but still has a long way to go before it eclipses DVD. Unless you're willing to ignore 80% of your potential revenue, you should plan to release a DVD. There's a lot to be said about DVDs, but it's the last time I'll mention it directly in this post. DVD is so not sexy for us forward-thinking indie maverick rebels. It barely got a mention.

Genre films play well on VOD.
Turns out, when the film has no stars, the audience gravitates toward genre. So, horror does well. As does sci-fi. Am I happy? You betcha.

Getting "merchandised" is the key to VOD success.
"Merchandising" is the term for promoting and highlighting a film (or any product) within the store that sells it. So while it might be great getting your film on iTunes, it's INSANELY GREAT to get it listed as a Recommended Staff Pick. Think of all the people who will be exposed to your film if it's featured in some way like that. That's the difference that merchandising can make. So ask your VOD/digital aggregator and any sites you approach directly: how do we get merchandised to go big? (Same is true for DVD -- whoops, mentioned it again accidentally.)

YouTube is now offering paid VOD for feature films online.
A week ago, YouTube started with a small fistful of recent Sundance films, but are seeking more indie filmmakers to join up for the paid VOD trial. This could be huge and we will soon see some film recoup 100% of their production costs (and then some) from YouTube. Watch for the story of the breakout hit that banks it on YouTube alone.

YouTube vs. cable VOD vs. theatrical.
The cable VOD people don't like you to distribute your film first or at the same time as you're on their VOD system. Yet, it makes sense to offer the film a variety of ways at the same time, since you can better maximize your marketing and publicity window. The best idea comes from Peter Broderick: better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. Just do it, don't tell them and kiss up when (if) they find out. Odds are, you're just another piece on the assembly line to them anyway and no one will notice.  A smart plan might find the film available in a DIY-day-and-date manner: in theater(s), on cable VOD, on iTunes, available for DVD purchase on your website and on YouTube for paid VOD. Plus you'll offer the DVDs and tie-in products for sale at the theater too, after the Q&A. Milk it baby.

Doing your own theatrical.
Self-distributing your film in theaters is not for the faint of heart. I should know since we did it with our previous feature, Quality of Life. However, this is one of the areas where there's a lot of great innovation and creative thinking going on by indie/DIY filmmakers. Basically, the overriding rule here is to be nontraditional. Do NOT simply book a theater and buy ads. Go off the rails.

Do a live event with each screening.
Find a way to wrap in a cool live event with each screening. It could be a party at a bar (co-sponsored by a local organization that ties into the theme of your film). It could be a concert (if your film has a music hook). It could be an art show (if your film has some art component you can exploit). It is more logistics, but if you partner with someone who is trying to reach the same audience and also wants to travel to all these places (i.e. a band on tour), you're golden. Richard Abramowitz said he's starting a distribution company focused on films with strong event tie-ins especially around music, so talk to him if you think this could work for you.

If your film's a comedy, partner with comedy clubs.
This is really brilliant. If you have comedians in your film, why not book a comedy tour with the film tour? They can promote the film and you give them a hook to work with to bring an audience in. Not my idea, but one I'll gladly steal when I do a comedy (perhaps my next film).

Think like a doc: be a cause.
My fellow narrative filmmakers have a thing or two to learn from our documentary comrades. Since docs have no real biz plan outside of a golden-ticket moment on PBS, doc filmmakers have adapted and become adept at activating their audiences in creative ways. Generally, they attach themselves to a cause and make it clear that their film is part of the movement. Anyone passionate about the cause would be remiss if they don't see or buy the film. For many indie narrative films, we can do the same thing and that's what we did with Quality of Life. We focused on the graffiti/street art movement from the earliest phases of writing, kept the film authentic, involved people steeped in the subculture through the writing, production and distribution and then became an iconic film for the movement. Ask yourself: what's your cause?

Find local partners.
Partner with local organizations who are a good fit for your film. The fantastic film Mine by my pal Geralyn Pezanoski is a great example of this. She is partnering with animal rescue and related orgs in order to reach out to her core audience. Better still if you partner with a national organization that has local chapters in most major cities.

Think outside the movie theater.
Theatrical doesn't have to mean traditional theaters or even traditional art house theaters (don't get me started about Landmark Cinemas). Think of other venues to show your film: schools, community centers, art galleries, house parties, pizza joints, even bars. If you want to get crazy and the weather is good, do a guerrilla screening on the side of building in a parking lot -- you might get arrested, but you'd become a legend in that town (if you don't ask for permission, which is an option to consider).

Go on a college tour.
You know who has great facilities for showing films and does so on a daily basis: colleges. If your film has a particularly strong potential with the college audience, consider a screening, panel and other outreach at the National Association of Campus Activities events (both national and regional). These are the people that bring films and filmmakers to their campuses: and they PAY for them. One filmmaker charged each school $1000 to show the film and $5000 if the filmmakers and stars came too. That adds up real quick.

Get off the beaten path in a clever way.
Naturally, we think we want to show our film in the top twenty markets nationwide. However, consider other options. Smaller metros with more conservative populations might be smart places for lefty fare that is too tame for jaded New Yorkers, but like a cool breeze on a hot day for the minority liberals who live these Red State burgs. In that case, look to the South my friends. If you're a Christian filmmaker, Bible Belt exburbs beckon while LA, SF and NYC might be better left to those with fornication and depravity in their films (as for me, I know which opening night party I'd rather attend...).

Tranny is the answer.
Transmedia that is. What is transmedia? Look it up. In short: don't just think of your film as a film. Think of it as a story machine from which you can spin off other stories in other mediums: webisodes, comics, books, music, games and so on. Imagine that you are George Lucas and the only way you're going to make money from Star Wars is by creating a whole huge universe of stuff for people to engage with. Do that with your film and you'll have multiple, content-rich doorways to your film. You'll stop thinking of it as a film. The film is just one output of the story machine. Once you have the audience, serve them other stories from the same story machine. Basically, you're taking a page from Hollywood. There's a reason why we get all these damn sequels. It's because transmedia works as a way to get more dollars fromthe same audience. This is probably the most important idea in this whole long tortured article. Don't ignore your tranny future!

Transmedia gurus and thinkers.
I'm sure there will be others, but these three were mentioned:

• Power to the Pixel: far as I can tell, a "cross-media" consulting company with a blog, events and lots of free goodies and ideas. They're Brits, so everything sounds brilliant, just brilliant.
• Henry Jenkins' blog: a leading academic/fan (an "aca-fan" as he unfortunately calls himself) of transmedia with a fertile mind and USC chair.
• Christy Dena: an Australian of cross-platform, transmedia DNA. Saw her talk via Skype video as part of a Filmmaker Summit at Slamdance and was quite impressed. Her blog has pics from her trip to the last Power of the Pixel event, so you know this community is tight.

Ask your team for tastemakers.
Your biggest asset is your network and I mean "your" in the plural sense: the network for your entire team: cast, crew, caterer, friends and family. This was great advice that I don't do often enough: Ask each team-member: who do you know that other people might listen to? What tastemakers do you know? What about famous people and/or others that people respect -- particularly among your target audience. People will surprise you with the contacts that they have, when asked. Even Oprah has a good friend or two that isn't famous and might make an introduction. What if that friend was your accountant and you never asked?

Facebook ads, targeting friends of fans.
I'm usually 100% opposed to paying for ads, since our precious dollars are better spent on important stuff like food for crew or hard drives. However, this is something worth trying and came as a suggestion directly from the Facebook guy on a distribution panel. Buy ads that target ONLY friends of people that are already fans of your film (via the fan page you can create on Facebook). The ads show up to these friends-of-fans indicating that the friend is a fan already, hugely increasing click-throughs. I haven't tried it, and If it turns out to be a waste of money, well, let me know.

B-side is worth talking to.
B-side has done some interesting thing pairing up music and movies. Our film was part of their MySpace movies/music tour a few years ago. They do a lot of work with film festivals so they have a huge database of indie film goers to pitch to. I have no idea what they are looking for or what their deals look like, but it was mentioned and seems worth exploring. Caveat emptor.

Paramount is making twenty $100,000 features.
No one thinks this will work. But maybe there's something that be salvaged from this announcement: after the success of Paranormal Activity, Paramount has said they will be funding twenty $100,000 films a year. I was one of the few that thought this could work, until I was reminded that Paramount is a union signatory -- they just plain can't afford union talent and crew for that price. Do-oh! Well, regardless, it's worth looking into. I'm not too proud to beg. [And for everyone offended that Paramount would dare to have us artistes work for nothing and then give up no points on the back-end, I say: welcome to DIY filmmaking. Would you rather earn nada with no budget or do it with $100,000 budget? So stop your griping and make the damn movie. You're not gonna paid either way, so might as well take the $100,000 and get the film made. If the unions let you, I mean.]

Want to sell out? Me too.
So I went up to the William Morris Endeavor exec after one panel and asked her how I can get on the pathway to representation. After all, many Indywood movies (i.e. films with real budgets whose names you know) get packaged by the big agencies. She basically said to give up, since the agency is trying to shed clients, not sign more. After further prodding, she said to try to the literary coordinators at the agencies, since they might have time to direct me to someone (who will never return my call). It's worth a try -- my soul is for sale and it's priced to move.

Gang up.
Why recreate the wheel? Find other filmmakers covering similar subjects or in the same genre and team up. Do a roving festival. Share lists. Swap links. Exchange media outlet and press lists. Introduce each other to theaters and niche audiences. Basically, leverage the work you're all doing to raise the visibility for all your films together. I can't believe how hard it is to cultivate an audience for a graffiti-themed film -- but I only had one to give them and I know we could have kept selling them more.

If you're making a science fiction film, let me know.
Along those lines, let's talk. My next film, In-World War, is sci-fi and I want to connect with fellow indie sci-fi filmmakers to strategize and pool our resources. That's how it's done. Email me brant at studiolomismo dot com. No joke. I have some ideas and want to hear yours.

Whew.
Special thanks to everyone on all the panels and events (I couldn't begin to list them all), but above all a shout-out to the guru of indie DIY distribution, Peter Broderick. He was our mentor and key adviser when we distributed Quality of Life and continues to be the high priest at the nexus of this rag-tag band of DIY lunatics.

Last but not least, please add your own wacked-out DIY distribution/marketing idea to the comments. I just spent all night writing this (it's 2:30am), so the least you can do is expel a few characters of snark.