“Start early, and don’t be shy” in Creating a Buzz for Your Film Social Media Experts told filmmakers at a LA Femme Festival Media Workshop
“I certainly hope you do not have your project finished and now you are looking at social media,” said Social Media Expert Kristina Hughes a two hour workshop on “How to market and sell your film via social media,” at the LA Femme Film Festival this month (Oct 14-17, 2010), Hollywood, CA.
Kristina is the co-founder of Holdon Log – “The Standard in Performer Organizational Tools” (Performertrack.com); the leader in business and marketing products and services for the Entertainment Industry. Kristina’s acting credits include appearances in numerous network, studio and independent projects like Boston Legal, Old School and Green River. Look for Kristina in the soon-to-be-released interpolated rotoscoped film, Helicon and the mega-hit series The Resolve and Vegan 101.
(L-R) Brian Vermeire, Kristina Hughes, George Mc Quade, Amber J. Lawson andGotham Chandna at Social Media workshop @LA Femme Film Festival in Hollywood this week.
“Prior to having your product started or done, great sites that can help you get going,” said Social Media Expert Brian Vermeire. 
“Sites like these allows you create amazing, quick content that looks so friggin professional it’s ridiculous, and it can really make your end product look professional before you have even started edting it. There rograms where you just upload video clips, images, tesxtand then processes on various options Online with hundreds of royalty-free songs to go with them. Your presentations need to be done early and compelling,” noted Vermeire.
Vermeire (AFTRA) wears many hats in the Entertainment Industry as a writer, producer, executive producer, host and actor for various networks/production companies such as FOX, The Disney Channel, The Family Channel, Vin DiBona Productions and HombreTV.
“Sites like these allows you create amazing, quick content that looks so friggin professional it’s ridiculous, and it can really make your end product look professional before you have even started edting it. There rograms where you just upload video clips, images, tesxtand then processes on various options Online with hundreds of royalty-free songs to go with them. Your presentations need to be done early and compelling,” noted Vermeire.Vermeire (AFTRA) wears many hats in the Entertainment Industry as a writer, producer, executive producer, host and actor for various networks/production companies such as FOX, The Disney Channel, The Family Channel, Vin DiBona Productions and HombreTV.
Brian is also a respected stand-up comedian known in the Los Angeles market as the “sharp and witty comedian with a ‘late night-style’ talk show host appeal.” Brian is the CEO of Holdon Log ~ the Entertainment Industry’s number one provider of organizational logbooks and Webware (www.PerformerTrack.com ) for performers. Brian has traveled as a seminar leader or guest speaker for SAG Conservatory, SAG Foundation, The Actor’s Network and Children in Film to name a few.
“The investor in an independent film is you, the producer, and I think that’s why is you’re going to pitch, you’re not going to pitch to the studios, but rather to the people,” said Vermeiere. “ Do the pitch first and start floating idea of this film that you have coming out, and do it in an innovative way using sites and tools at your fingertips Online, and see if people starting say, ‘Wow, this would be awesome, I’d really like to see this film.’
“The best way to get a following on is to provide good content,” said Social Media Expert Henna Merchant. “People are attracted to other interesting people or content. You have to think about the people who are actually using social media. It’s not your grandmother. If you want yourself to spread virally, you’re going to have to touch the people who are most comfortable with the technology, who are influencers. You can filter them out by seeing who’s Online, who has a great following already.
“Websites are dead, it’s really hard to change them, and time consuming,” said Social Media Expert Gotham Chandna Chandna is an International Social Media and Digital PR Guru and the force behind Cloud 21 PR (www.cloud21.com) .
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| Gotham Chandna talks to Actress Yeena Fisher. |
He is currently involved in devising and implementing successful Social Media strategies for clients ranging from Actors, Filmmakers, Fashion Designers, Corporations and Retail establishments. He has been involved in online marketing since 2000, social media and blogging since 2003. He is currently ranked in the Top 100 Digital PR professionals on Twitter.
“I come from a different school of thought, filmmakers’ first step should be social sites starting with Facebook to engage your fans, then twitter.”
Chandna is currently involved in devising and implementing successful Social Media strategies for clients ranging from Actors, Filmmakers, Fashion Designers, Corporations and Retail establishments. He has been involved in online marketing since 2000, social media and blogging since 2003. He is currently ranked in the Top 100 Digital PR professionals on Twitter.
Chandna is currently involved in devising and implementing successful Social Media strategies for clients ranging from Actors, Filmmakers, Fashion Designers, Corporations and Retail establishments. He has been involved in online marketing since 2000, social media and blogging since 2003. He is currently ranked in the Top 100 Digital PR professionals on Twitter.
“I come from a different school of thought, filmmakers’ first step should be social sites starting with Facebook to engage your fans, then twitter,” he said.
“I’m more of a content person, so you need to provide your audience with something that they want,” said Amber J. Lawson, Babelgum.com. “The Paranomal Experience was a good example where the movie folks want a critical mass of media and took it Online. You need to roll out pieces of content of the story that adds value to your audience that you are constantly connecting with.”
“I’m more of a content person, so you need to provide your audience with something that they want,” said Amber J. Lawson, Babelgum.com. “The Paranomal Experience was a good example where the movie folks want a critical mass of media and took it Online. You need to roll out pieces of content of the story that adds value to your audience that you are constantly connecting with.”
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| Filmmaker Evyha Cerhus, France asks panelists questions |
Amber J. Lawson, who manages the comedy channel at babelgum.com and has thus overseen as executive producer comedy shorts by Landline TV, original content like Date A Human.com, and the second seasons of The Crew and Old Friends. Prior to Babelgum, Lawson was VP of Programming at Mania TV and a comedy producer with National Lampoon.
“At Babelgum.com sometimes what we do to support the theatrical release of the film is to do n early prequel in film, a character lead out or build out the story to create a fan base that will be exciting and engage the viewer. There’s more than 800 hours of hand-picked films and film-related programming on the site. Babelgum’s films products feature action and adventure, animation and anime, classics, comedy, clips and interviews, documentary, drama, horror and thriller short films.
Merchant cited an example this example: “For instance the filmmaker of ‘Turbo’, who showed his film at a USC Paramount picture premiere, and he told me that one of his actors, who actually on ‘Twilight’ and he tweeted about Turbo, everyone else on ‘Twilight’ loves this guys and they all started tweeting about ‘Turbo.’ Then he wrote to Gizmodo, because the content of his movie, the nature of the content was very techie with the 3D element, and techies are looking for that kind of stuff and they just start talking about it. Do your traditional PR and write to others, and you can tweet about it, and if Gizmodo tweets about it gthat’s like reaching a chain reaction.”
Henna Merchant is the Principal of Clicked Digital PR and Marketing Communications, an agency that combines digital influence, social and traditional media, public relations, and marketing to produce a persuasive communications mix.
Clicked experience extends across many industries ranging from emerging online technology start-ups to real estate brokers, medical real estate developers, and nonprofits.
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| Henna Merchant, Brian Vermeire, Kristina Hughes, George Mc Quade (center), Aida Mayo and Gotham Chandna |
“All you have to do is ask people and provide them with the components to tweet about you, and because it involves a juana it works,” Merchant said. “You always have to thing about your content, your audience in the realm of what they are tweeting about
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