Short FIlm Promotion research

How are short films promoted?

There are a number of techniques that film-makers use in order to promote their short film. The goal of this is to ensure your target audience knows about your film, to attract attention from across a wide range of possible audiences. Short films are not promoted the same way as feature length films. The main reason for this is money; most feature length films spend a large portion of their overall budget on promoting their film in order to increase the flow of money generated from audiences viewing the film. A shorts film's purpose is usually not to make money, as typically not much money is spent on production. The most common aim for short film directors would be to gain recognition for their work in order to hopefully advance onto bigger and better projects. So short film-makers use a different style of promotion in order to achieve their aims.

The most common and easy way to promote a short film would be a website. A website can be made easily, and can act on several levels to promote a short film. A website can have all the vital information about a short film posted onto it, and can be updated accordingly, engaging the audience with the films progress. The web address is usually included on the film poster or trailer, so the website can be used as an expansive platform that is referred to by other promotional strategies. In a way, a good website will be a good structure in order to build upon promotion more and more. Furthermore, search engines such as Google could include the website under searches for short films, meaning that those seeking out short films to watch or review have a higher chance of finding it.

Another method of promotion would be a trailer. Trailers are not as common for short films as other methods here. Probably one of the main reasons would be that short films do not always follow traditional film narrative structures such as Todorov's theory of narrative, in fact, short films often challenge and oppose traditional narrative structures for effect. Trailers work best when there is a clear narrative structure, as enough footage can be shown to both give some information about the plot and genre, and hide enough information to build audience interest. If a short film uses a more traditional narrative structure, and is not to challenging of traditional film continuity, then a short trailer can indeed be used by film-makers to show their audience a bit about the film, and build additional interest. A big platform for both trailers and short films themselves would be Youtube, as it is very user and audience interactive. Youtube also offers ways or videos being shared on-line, and will group short films together into a series of on-screen recommendations. This is a good method of promotion because it will allow people viewing/who are interested in short films to be able to find our short film in and amongst others of similar genre or relevance.

The method of using a trailer is slightly similar to the next technique; a short film poster. Posters are very common for short films, as they can give the audience a glimpse into the narrative, characters, and the genre of the short film. Unlike trailers, there is little chance that a poster will give away too much of the plot, unless there is a significant twist or revelation that could be revealed in a still image. The power of the poster is that the director can put across only what they want the audience to see, and what might build interest for the short film. Very commonly, posters are still images from the shoot, that show something of significance to the short film. Other times, posters are completely separate from recorded material, but will still hold significance with the short film. They let the audience know just enough about what might be in the film in order to build interest. Posters also work well because they have a wide range of ways they can be shown. Unlike trailers, which are mostly shown on-line or on websites, posters can be put in a wide variety of places, and do not rely on technology. Posters can be put on walls, buildings, handed out, or posted onto short film websites. It is rare that short film posters will be spread as widely as feature length film posters are, however, they are easily accessible to those seeking short films.

The most known way of promoting short films would be appropriate film festivals. Film festivals vary in size and scale, with lots of very notorious festivals, such as Sundance and Raindance, both of which are Oscar qualifying festivals, that have been known to launch directors into more successful work. The way most festivals work is that directors apply and submit their film and/or payment. This can vary depending on the festival but most admission fees are not too expensive. Big, Oscar qualifying festivals may prove difficult to enter for lots of short film directors, however lots of small festivals are very open to directors wanting to show their films. Directors can work their way up, screening their product at more progressively influential and important festivals. Directors can research the festivals they are going to, and find out if there are any significant people also attending. This is one of the best ways to gain attention, as lots of movie critics & bloggers, or media persons will be present at each festival, all of whom will have varying degrees of influence in the media world.