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Social Media All-Stars
Four Case Studies in Social Media Success
L to R: Sebastian Gutierrez directs Rosario Dawson and Josh Hartnett in Girl Walks Into a Bar (2011).
The world of independent movies is changing. Thanks to advances in technology—especially inexpensive HD cameras and the increased availability of consumer-friendly digital editing systems—it’s easier to make movies today than it ever has been before. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, since more movies are being made, distributors are paying less for finished movies.
In the pre-digital world, an independent moviemaker would take his or her film to a festival and hope that a distributor would purchase it for a worldwide release. This model still works… about .1 percent of the time. But what about those whose movies are not among the chosen few? What do we do? How do we monetize our content and help it find an audience?
If you’re like one of the indie all-stars profiled below, you’ll stop chasing that elusive old world model and begin experimenting with new approaches and paradigms. Each of these moviemakers is finding great success by creating new niches for themselves and discovering innovative ways to navigate the new world of independent movies.
Creative Capital
Jocelyn Towne • Writer-Director-Producer-Actor, I Am I
The story of I Am I, about a young woman who unexpectedly meets the father who abandoned her as a child at her mother’s funeral, began over four years ago. With the help of a crowdfunding campaign via Kickstarter, Towne succeeded in raising more than $100,000 to finance the picture. Towne says that she chose Kickstarter over other crowdfunding sites because of its all-or-nothing platform.
“We felt that if we weren’t able to reach our goal we shouldn’t keep the money because we wouldn’t be able to go into production,” says Towne. “There was such a tremendous amount of support and it came mostly from people we didn’t know personally. We used Facebook and Twitter tirelessly to keep spreading the word.”
Towne was aided by a little bit of star power, as her film features “The Big Bang Theory” actor Simon Helberg (who also happens to be her husband).
“Simon had a pretty large Twitter following of about 40,000 to 50,000 people at the time,” notes Towne, “and I strongly feel that we wouldn’t have achieved our goal without them.”
Research also proved key to Towne’s success. “I went to a seminar on crowdfunding, which was very informative,” she says. “I read [Scott Kirsner’s] Fans, Friends & Followers, I looked at every single film project on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo for months. I used Blue Like Jazz and The Price as models. I also studied El Cosmonauta, a Spanish crowdfunding project.”
It was the key lessons Towne learned from looking at other Kickstarter projects that made the most difference. “One thing we learned was to keep our fundraising period relatively short,” notes Towne. “People make their decisions quickly on the Internet, so more time doesn’t necessarily mean a greater chance of success.”
The other constant Towne saw in successful projects was the use of video. “You have to do this,” says Towne. “People won’t emotionally connect to your project if you don’t show them what you’re all about.”
Supply and Demand
Josh Bernhard • Writer-Executive Producer, “Pioneer One”
The idea for “Pioneer One,” a Web series about a Soviet cosmonaut who claims to be from Mars, came to series creator Josh Bernhard at a time when scripted television dramas were a hard sell. Rather than take his chances pitching the series, Bernhard thought the show would reach more people if it was made independently and distributed online. So far, so good.
Since “Pioneer One” premiered on VODO.net, which distributes content through peer-to-peer file-sharing services like Limewire and Vuze, it has been downloaded more than two million times.
“I think the ‘secret’ here is really the network of BitTorrent communities through which VODO distributes,” says Bernhard. “The BitTorrent protocol is a very efficient way of transferring data online, and because of this it was first embraced by pirates. It created these communities based around media—people who shared film and television—and that was where the real word of mouth stuff was going on.”
After releasing his no-budget feature The Lionshare through VODO and seeing it downloaded 100,000 times in less than a month, Bernhard “thought it might be interesting to put out serialized content the same way. Once we released the pilot, people really responded to it. We hadn’t really intended to do more beyond the pilot. But the viewers were there… and we realized that we had created demand for more.”
Bernhard knew from his experience with The Lionshare that VODO was a useful tool for finding an audience. What he discovered with “Pioneer One” was that VODO was also effective in helping to secure fairly significant financing. “We were accepting donations from viewers and a lot of people donated—about $30,000 worth,” says Bernhard. “The pilot cost us less than $7,000, so we realized maybe we’d be able to make more. We shot the next three episodes in one large production block in October 2010, and have been releasing them since December 2010.”
Bernhard attributes a major part of his success to the ability to create different kinds of audience identification. “I think people feel very passionate and protective of the shows and movies they love,” he says, “and by donating to make more episodes of ‘Pioneer One’, they feel connected to the show in a way that you don’t get from traditional media.”
One challenge that has not changed in the new world of moviemaking is in monetizing distribution opportunities. “Truth be told, we haven’t quite figured that out yet,” Bernhard admits. “Since the pilot came out in June 2010, we’ve raised approximately $55,000 from viewer donations alone, and that’s been enough to allow us to continue the production, but no more.”
But Bernhard puts a positive spin on this question of monetization. “We think the value we’re creating right now is in the fan base for ‘Pioneer One.’ Our show has name recognition now, we’ve created a ‘property’ and given it value. We think that in the long run, that’s going to prove more important than whatever money we could be making right now.”
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Blog de diseño on 9/13/11 at 10:18 am
Social media is important, but the most important of all!!
- Comment by Anna on 10/16/11 at 12:17 pm
Social media has also changed the way marketing companies advertise new films.I really like your post and i really appreciate that. I wanted to thank you for this excellent read.I’ll definitely be subscribing to your site.Criticism of Craigslist complain against ebay
This story was published in the Future of Moviemaking 2011 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
New World All-Stars / Four Case Studies in Social Media Success
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