| Festival Publicity |
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| Gabrielle Free | |
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Page 1 of 2 Once your film has been accepted into a festival, the publicity work can be divided into two stages: the pre-festival period and the festival itself. The vast majority of the work is completed prior to the festival. During this period, you’ll need to prepare publicity materials; and contract a publicist who will draft a publicity plan, send out a press release to announce your film’s participation, and begin to arrange interviews and reviews. Once the festival is underway, networking and interviews should be your only priorities.Pre-festival period One of the great misconceptions is that while advertising costs money, editorial is free. It’s not. The costs are less tangible than media buys, but there are hard costs nonetheless. And you get what you pay for. Hiring a publicist You’ll need to hire a professional who knows the festival landscape, has good relationships with the media, and a broad list of contacts. The festival can make recommendations, as can your colleagues in the industry. Find a publicist who is taking on other films in the festival, but not so many that she can’t pay attention to yours. The key is to ensure that your publicist has spread out her films fairly evenly across the duration of the event. Most importantly, hire someone who genuinely likes your film. Your publicist will assemble a detailed publicity plan specific to your film and to the festival that will make your film stand out among the hundreds of others. The festival publicity plan should mirror the goals laid out in your initial plan and take into consideration the vagaries of the festival. The plan will include a strategy to raise awareness of your film prior to and during the festival and a targeted media list. Announcing your film’s participation Find out when the festival press office intends to make your film’s participation public and work within those timelines. Some festivals will want to announce your participation immediately, others will wait weeks or even months. Each festival has its own publicity strategy and your film is now tied to their timing. No matter how eager you and the crew are, don’t leak your good news to the media or to others in the industry. Once the festival sets a date to announce your film, work with your publicist to draft a press release to go out simultaneously with the festival’s own announcement. The festival will likely have a broad media list, but may not target the niche media that could be interested in your film. Further, the festival is likely to announce your film amongst many others; your publicist can focus on yours alone. Your publicist can now begin the work of arranging interviews and reviews both prior to and during the festival. Continued... |
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