As I’ve often said to filmmakers, marketing a film is just as hard as making it.  Those who have worked with me know my determination to market a product. Whether these are magazines, films, or other projects, my goal has always been to relentlessly place a product in front of its target audience for purchase, stream, or participation.  As I’ve also said to clients over the years, it doesn’t matter how great your product is if nobody knows about it; nobody is going to care.

Now more than ever, marketing is vital, particularly in the world of independent film. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, over 9,000 independent films are produced annually. When one considers that the majority are probably looking for distribution, it’s important to have a marketing and communications plan in place the moment a film hits a VOD platform. One avenue of marketing is film reviews, as those are generally widely distributed and are independent of a film’s production apparatus.

I’m pleased to report that Stonegate had a terrific review in Film Threat. One area that this reviewer highlighted positively was the mood of the film. The reviewer also commented on the ensemble nature of the cast, “For the most part, the cast works. Muzzy, Labrie, Casey, and Weatherwax come across as realistic teens and share an easygoing chemistry. McAvoy brings the right amount of menace and guilt to his part. Mark Lund portrays Father Clayton and is fantastic.” While no reviewer is generally 100% sold on all aspects of any film, I would say a movie score of 8.5/10 speaks for itself.

Marketing a film isn’t just something that’s done the first few months after release; it’s something that should be done regularly. Four years after its release on VOD, First Signal continues to perform well on streaming. Our last royalty payment indicated that First Signal placed in the top 6% of all titles released by our distributor.

Naturally, I’m not marketing First Signal or Justice Is Mind as aggressively as I did the first year those films were released. But regular postings, clips, and other initiatives are designed to keep those films in front of their audience. While someone may not watch the film today, at some point, they may come across the film when scrolling Amazon, Tubi, YouTube, or the like and remember seeing it. At that point, they may decide to give the film a chance and stream it.

As for other projects, I have revisited the script for Serpentine – A champion figure skater finds herself in a government conspiracy involving her missing mother and a Cold War mystery that culminates at the world championships in Moscow.  Over the last couple of weeks, I reread Serpentine and made a variety of edits and tweaks.

Once I have a new poster designed, I’ll send the script through the film festival market to see how it performs. For those who follow this blog and my filmmaking work, you may remember that I produced the first ten pages of Serpentine back in 2017 to develop interest in the project. Titled Serpentine: The Short Program, the film can be viewed on Amazon. I must admit, out of all my films, the opening sequence of this short is my favorite.