Todd Sklar has finished has Range Life tour has a lot to tell you about what he’s learned. He’s posted it up at the indispensable Workbook Project: Part One, Part Two.
Part One counsels filmmakers to build up their promo content and hold until the key release time. He identifies two main tendencies to the contrary (and explains why you need to avoid them):
- You jump the gun on building buzz and then lose momentum and interest before it’s time to utilize that buzz.
- You jump the gun on your release and can’t support it with the necessary content or resources & planning b/c it’s a full time job just maintaining whatever momentum and interest your gaining from the film’s release.
In part two, Todd expands upon new rules:
- You need to have a solid website 5 minutes after you’ve written the script.
- You need to have a solid trailer 5 days after you’ve wrapped shooting.
- You need to release your DVD within 6 weeks of your premiere.
- You need to start making your DVD 6 hours after you’ve made your final cut.
- You need to do your theatrical release within 2-4 weeks of your festival premiere You need to implement a festival premiere into your release platform, and there’s no better/other way to do it than utilizing it as the springboard for your theatrical release.
- You need to look at the theatrical release as a brand building and audience building campaign and focus on exposure and press secondly.
- You need to be ready to make your next one before your release this one.
- You need to roll with the punches and remember to focus on your planning your work and working your plan.
- you need sell DVD’s during your theatrical release.
Read the posts. We all need to.
