Research: Methods of Promotion

How are short films promoted? 

The most common method of promotion for a short film is submission to a film festival. Film festivals frequently display short films to vast audiences of film lovers, and provide an ideal platform for low budget filmmakers to broadcast their product. Some popular UK festivals include Raindance and Birmingham Film Festival.

However, technological convergence has made room for more innovative methods of promotion. For example, social media alone provides a free platform in which creators can reach a vast audience and interact with them. Many filmmakers also create websites in order to promote their work, which may include trailers and 'making of' videos. Filmmakers may also do interviews for magazines or websites in order to reach out to their targeted audience.

Most short film creators are aware of the small amount of profit they are likely to make. However revenue for these types of films can come from such websites as YouTube or Vimeo through advertisements. Therefore, the basis for promotion of these filmmakers is primarily to share their work, rather than to make money. Due to limited budget, many filmmakers will locally promote their film, through posters and local adverts. This is another cost effective way of reaching out to a wider audience.

In comparison to this, blockbuster feature films have a much greater budget and therefore can experiment with different methods of promotion. The most common method of promotion for a feature film is a trailer. Trailers work as adverts for the film and provide an insight into the storyline, in order to develop intrigue and interest within the audience. Trailers are very accessible through YouTube or other social media websites. They are also shown in theatres, where they can be delivered directly to movie-goers and the film's target audience. Although trailers for short films are sometimes released, they generally do not reach out to a large audience, and are not played in theatres.

Similarly to this, short films and blockbusters both use posters and printed advertising to promote their films, however for short films this is on a much smaller scale in terms of quantity.

One area in which big budget feature films surpass short films in terms of marketing is in promotional tours and large marketing campaigns. For example, for the film 'The Dark Knight', the main actors and director would take part in press junkets, doing interviews and promoting the film. In addition to this a viral marketing campaign was launched, in which a fake interactive newspaper called 'The Gotham Times' was created; allowing fans to receive emails that would slowly remove pixels and eventually reveal the first official image of the Joker. On top of this, big merchandising campaigns were launched with brands such as Burger King as well official merchandise from their own website.

Unfortunately, due to their low budget, these methods of promotion are not available for creators of short films, resulting in cost effective methods of promotion being used instead.