Approach to Hike up your ShortFilm

Top Creative ways to Promote your Short-film

To start with, let me you give you a glimpse of what short films are. Going by the name, short films are actually short, unlike the normal standard films released on every Friday, because their duration is around 40 minutes or less  and with a subject and a theme running throughout the passage of the film. The basic purpose why short films are produced is that the makers, who are generally people who want to showcase their talent of movie making and video making, want to deliver a certain message to the audience. Most of these films are made with a very low budget or zero budget and are launched in film festivals and functions with the help of non-profit organisations and sponsors.

There are many types of short films. Some of them include horror, science, fiction, comedy, documentary, student films, action, animation and experimental. All of us know that the film makers have indeed a lot of things to be paid heed to. In todays era, apart from writing, making, shooting and directing a short film, it is also very essential that its marketing and promotional activities are carried out in the right manner. There are many ways in which a short film can be promoted to the target audience.

Now that the film is made, the first and the foremost thing to do is to come up with a gripping  and jaw dropping teaser. A teaser should be one that will not only inform the audience about the upcoming film, but also attract, influence and force the people to watch the film. Launching a teaser is a very crucial step in the process of promotion. There are many go-to-places where the teasers can be launched. There are certain classic platforms like Youtube and Vimeo which has millions of viewers and teasers on these websites will attract a huge customer base.

After the teaser task in done, the next thing to be done is to come up with a mind boggling trailer. The trailer can be launched and promoted just the was as the teaser was done. The trailer should be a head scratching one. Not literally, but definitely a head scratching one!

Socialising means profit-earning! Socialising the short films on social websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will do the needful. Uploading and making viral short clips of the film over WhatsApp and others will increase the horizon of the target audience. The people related with the film making process can engage themselves in a whole lot process of sharing and hash tagging. Another aspect of socialising is blogging. Blogging on the right platform with the right news is a very good promotion medium.

Why not go among the public and then promote a short film? There are many festivals, school and college fests, and programs going on in a city which attract a large crowd. Putting up banners, distribution of pamphlets and related  goodies, talking about it to the people are hectic ideas indeed but definitely the ones that will pay in the long run.

Let us go a bit formal! What I am talking about are press releases and publishing articles about the short films in newspapers and journals. The only thing to keep in mind is that the press release should be very tempting and should have a magnetic affect. This is a very attractive tool to attract the audience.

On a personal level, emails can be sent to the people. This requires a huge database of email ids which can be collected. But, this task can also be outsourced to another company which deals in these activities.

There are a lot of online film websites. The short films can be submitted to these online sites. This way will show-off the film to an even greater audience. The basic motive behind this is that the greater the places where the film can be seen, the better it is.

Apart from these, the short films can also be submitted to the television channels and cable shows. These have to be done after the film is released. This will increase the viewers list.

These are some of the most creative ways in which a short film can be promoted. The only mantra behind all of these is that the most unusual ones go the most noticed. Thinking out of the box does give profitable returns.

-SURYA AGRAWAL