A Matter of Choice will follow non-traditional distribution models, thus requiring a non-traditional approach to marketing strategy. Cross-platform marketing strategies will be utilized to promote the film to the target audience. The film will be promoted and made available through an interactive website with creative commons licensing that will enable the site visitors to download and use portions of the media for non-commercial use. This “mash-up” concept will be a key element to promote the film as well as to stimulate lively debate on the website.
The primary venues for the film will be film festivals, art houses, and live events. The film will be available for streaming on the website. Subscriptions to the site will enable members to access additional media downloads and the ability to upload their mash-ups onto the site for public viewing. DVDs will also be offered on the website.
There will be reviews from site visitors on the mash-ups that will give the authors feedback and will also further stimulate the discussion of the issues. Blogs and links to professional organizations and experts in the fields as well as links to other bloggers will draw viewers from other blogs to the site and increase traffic.
It’s a possibility that advertising space may be made available on the site for authors and filmmakers who produce books and films about related issues. This would create an additional revenue stream as well as traffic to the site.
Distribution contracts with Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and other media providers will be solicited through Distribber, a progressive distribution company for independent artists. The educational market will be solicited for sales.
The transition from traditional all-rights distribution to split-rights distribution is an emerging trend that is expected to be a necessary shift in the way independent filmmakers market and distribute their films.
At the Power to the Pixels Cross-Media Forum 2010 experts in cross platform marketing and distribution discussed the paradigm shift away from the traditional models and toward cross platform models. They spoke of cross platform as a necessity, not merely an option, in the digital age. The panel asserted strongly that those who remain grounded only in traditional models will likely fail or at least reduce the maximum potential of their film.
Based on information from the transcripts of the panel discussion, the marketing and distribution plan for A Matter of Choice will follow the advise from the experts at the forum. According to Blair Witch Project trans-media innovator Mike Mennello, the plan must be specific rather than just a general application to social media or an over zealous plan. Innovation and creative marketing are keys to success. The development of a core audience will be the key aspect of the marketing plan.
To take advantage of any media publicity the film may receive upon release, the film will premier at film festivals that offer the best opportunity to attract the attention of core audience members, film critics and reviewers.
The website will be established prior to the festivals to begin to attract the attention of potential audience members. Scenes from the film will accompany the traditional trailer; this aspect of the website will be crucial to the marketing plan for the film along with the development of the core audience.
Those two elements, the development of a core audience and the availability of scenes from the film, will work in tandem. Following the festival run, the website will stream the entire film.
It is at this point that the development of the core audience and the streaming of the film will meet. The topic of fate and free will is of interest to a wide target audience as well as a niche audience. To reach those audiences the film must first reach the core audience.
To meet this end, the film will be available for free screenings at colleges, universities, libraries and community/grassroots organizations such as those that discuss philosophical issues or research related to the criminally mentally ill. Those viewers along with festival viewers will become the core audience.
The website will offer opportunities for discussion and blogging for viewers. Viewers will be allowed to submit essays for competition. Through social media marketing and live event screenings at colleges, universities, libraries, and community/grassroots organizations, experts in the field from universities and popular bloggers will be invited to submit their entries. This will lend a sense of professional credibility to the film and the website and books/dvds.
The film will offer mashups of scenes and clips where the viewers will be allowed to create their own two-minute multimedia films that they will upload to the website to submit their work for competition on the site.
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