Tim Nolan was speaking at the Pimp My Film’s Website panel. His company, First Born Multimedia, did simply that, pimped out websites for independent filmmakers. He referred to it as a way for them to extend their Web tentacles out into areas of social networking.
The film Marconi Bros. is debuting here at SXSW. The premise of the film is two carpet laying brothers that decide to go into business as wedding videographers. Tim Nolan found the film’s website a month ago and decided to use it as a demonstration of what his company can do in order to enhance a film’s website. As independent filmmakers, Tim Nolan realized the budgets were not normally in place to develop these sites in the early phases of production, but filmmakers needed to be aware of the importance of a Web presence when the time came.
As an independent filmmaker it is important to not put off creating a Web presence for your your film. Embrace the Web as a way to promote your film with social networks and use the Web to your advantage. During the fist couple of stages of production a simple template can be utilized to gain Web presence. But once a film gets closer to distribution it would be recommended to hire a Web designer to maximize a Web presence.
Nolan suggests that during filming extra content can be shot specifically for Web content. Unless it is shot specifically for Web use, it can’t just be “webified” for Web use. Even production stills can be utilized for use on the film’s website.
A good Web presence should include wide screen trailers, bios for performers and producers, press ares and links for social networking sites with embedded tag information for bloggers. The websites should also have a branded feel to it as well. Sell the film as a brand.
YouTube, he stated was a great repository to store your content. it saves money and supplying the space on your own. Besides it also offers an additional layer of distribution for your material.
The panel was geared specifically towards building a film’s Web presence, not towards film distribution. The line filmmakers walk is if they try and distribute independently, they risk not having the film picked up by larger distributers as a conflict of interest.
As far as the social networking aspect of creating a Web presence goes for independent filmmakers Tim Nolan puts it like this: It’s easier to reach 100 people by using 10 people then talking to each person individually.
Jac Malloy