Short Film Promotion - Keira

From what I have read and discovered from the promotion of the short films I've analysed, the best method to get your film seen is to take it to a film festival (or several, if possible). A few examples are: Edinburgh International Film Festival (Scotland), Sundance Film Festival (Utah, United States), Raindance Film Festival (London, United Kingdom), Cannes Film Festival (France), Cambridge Film Festival (United Kingdom). Submitting your film is a fairly simple process of postal application form, including a certain number of copies. Many people attend these kinds of festivals (particularly the bigger ones such as those mentioned above) and they are always on the look out for new talent. Many now famous directors got their debut this way, including Andrea Arnold, Ken Loach and Danny Boyle.

On YouTube I found what I thought was a useful informational video on how to market your short film, which goes through key points such as 'Get Feedback' and 'Cast Your Net Wide'...

A useful mechanism for advertising a short film is a poster (trailers are unneccessary because they'd give too much information about the film and make it pointless watching it).

However, from my research it seems it is difficult to find many short films that have even posters to promote them. So far I have only found only: This is a very famous fantasy short film from French director Albert Lamorisse, made in 1956. As you can see, the poster is very simple in design and graphics (perhaps due to the time at which the film was made). It could also be due to the simplicity of the plot - it literally follows the story of a small boy (played by Lamorisse's son) who follows a red helium balloon. The bright red colour of the balloon as a contrast to the greys of the rest is enough to draw the audience's attention, and it displays only minimalistic information - the title and the director. This could create enigma and make people who see the poster want to find out the story, or act as a visual reminder for those who have seen it.

Other social realism posters that I found interesting are: 'Fish Tank' - Andrea Arnold - 2008. This again is a simple image showing the main character alone. She is looking out a window which is an iconographic key for longing, as though something is missing in her life. Her costume and makeup immediately indicate socail realsim (as does the cracked wall behind her) because she looks like a stereotypical working class girl, she hasn't been made-up or airbrushed for the poster - she is meant to look realistic and natural (unlike the types of posters you'd get for mainstream features). The writing displays simple information, and in true social realism style, doesn't give any information as to the storyline of the film. The reviews are clearly displayed which is a good way to promote the film as it shows previous appreciation and gives the audience reason to want to see the film. The choice of colour of the text could be representative of the main girl, Mia, being torn between her tom-boy attitude and acting more girly; without directly stating what the film is about clues are being given. The tagline 'Live, love and give as good as you get.' could entice viewers as it may be an attitude many others adopt towards life. In any case, it neatly sums up the main character's motives for the film.

'Sommers Town' - Shane Meadows- 2008: This poster is another example of typical social realism. It displays the two main characters side-by-side (showing their equal roles in the film), looking into the camera (a poster technique that is likely to make more people look). It is in black & white which is representative of the actual film, though interestingly in other versions of the same poster certain parts are in colour. For example, Marek (boy on the right)'s shirt is red which draws the audience's attention and the fact that it's a football shirt might entice certain types of viewer as a suggestion that football is a theme in the film. The top banner line boasts 'From the acclaimed director of This Is England', which will immediately attract the attention of any fans of Shane Meadows' work or, indeed, his first successful film. It also has the same actor playing Tomo (boy on the left) as played the main character in This Is England, which is another audience-attracting mechanism. On this poster the title is the only thing in colour, which focuses our attention. The letter M and the letter W mirror each other, which apart from being aesthetically pleasing could be seen to represent the boys and their somewhat strange attachment to each other. In the background we are allowed to see the location, which appears to be fairly dingy-looking flats - this reinforces the sense of social realism and gives the audience a subtle context for the setting of the film.

When creating our own social realism posters for the ancillary task, these and others will be useful inspiration for ideas and style.

For promoting our film, a useful platform will be social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Millions of people all over the world are connected via these sites and use them every day - particularly our target audience of teenagers. It would be simple and free to start a group to support the film, and to spread the word.

Further websites I found useful on Short Film Promotion are:

For legal information - http://www.shortfilmcorner.com/R%C3%A9glement_us.html

For tips - http://www.filmindustrynetwork.biz/how-to-make-a-short-film-promotion/