r/Filmmakers • u/jnlsgrc • 29d ago
Article Don’t Spend Every Cent on Production!
I work with a lot of indie filmmakers and first timer feature directors and one of the biggest mistakes I see is spending every last dollar on production with no plan for marketing. The reality is it doesn’t matter how good it is if your marketing assets suck. Your poster, trailer, social media presence, etc. We (the audience) can tell you went on Canva and did it yourself!
Sean Baker’s Anora is a perfect example of how branding, poster design, and smart marketing can turn an indie film into a real success. I wrote my thoughts down because I want more filmmakers to realize that having a marketing plan is just as important as making the film itself. Neon spent 18 million on marketing with a 6 million production budget…..you don’t need Neon or 18 million but you do need a strategy.
I’ll share the link to my blog if you’re interested but if you take anything away from this post, as someone who loves cinema and wants to see you succeed, please please please don’t leave your marketing strategy for last minute. You can capture so much amazing marketing material while you’re shooting and you don’t even know it.
Curious how you might be thinking about marketing your projects during production or even in pre-pro.
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u/TurbVisible 29d ago
Pretty awesome mate, I’ve worked with Non-Profits and this is exactly what I’ve been trying to get across.
Marketing for them isn’t as important, because they can’t wrap their heads around it
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u/jnlsgrc 29d ago
Appreciate that! I’ve worked with a few non-profit festivals, and they often need a lot of guidance on marketing. They focus so much on the mission that it becomes an afterthought, but if no one sees their work, the impact is limited. Would love to hear more about your experience!
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u/TurbVisible 27d ago
Indeed, they’d rather die on the “mission” hill rather than creating a tribe organically through a comprehensive and effective marketing plan
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u/Crazy_Response_9009 29d ago
Save some money for post too or your film is going to be unwatchable. Then, spending all that money on everything else is pointless :)
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u/goldfishpaws 29d ago
And pre-production! And catering! And paying crew!
Only slightly kidding, just it's very expensive to make a good film, and getting the balance right is totally an art :)
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u/yeahsuresoundsgreat 29d ago
No, sorry, this isn't the way.
The idea is to make something so good that it gets the attention of buyers and sellers -- and therefore gets to the marketing money.
If you make an amazing indie film. and get programmed in a proper film festival (or sell it at market, see below). you will wake up on the day they announce their festival line-up to 150 emails from distributors and sales agents looking for screeners. it's up to you and your team how you strategize the next few weeks, but ultimately you want to make a deal with one of the roughly 500 companies (which include NEON, A24, etc etc) around the world that have both marketing money and marketing specialists.
What you are talking in this post are called "producer posters" and "producer trailers" -- they are amateurish and usually pretty bad. Not always but usually.
But if you make a film that's good enough, premiere at Sundance, and get in a bidding war between NEON and A24 and CANAL+, you're gonna end up with some serious marketing money at the end of it. For Sean Baker, I believe his first or second got into Slamdance, and he got on the radar at that point. From then on he started financing through pre-sales.
Another way that producers get to proper marketing is taking your film to the market. Cannes. AFM. EFM. many more. all of those 500 buyer/seller companies are there. go to market, bring your film, hopefully you get a bite. This is common for action and thrillers and other films that generally don't go to festivals.
You can do what you're talking about. But why would you want to fight at the bottom for scraps? Put your money on the screen, make an excellent film and try and move up to the real money.
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u/jnlsgrc 29d ago
Appreciate your perspective and totally agree that a great film, the right festival, and smart sales strategy can unlock real marketing resources.
But I’ve seen too many strong indie films get lost because filmmakers assumed the industry would handle it. Even Sundance selections don’t always get the push they need. Having a clear visual identity early on through key art, teaser posters, or social media helps a film stand out before buyers even step in.
Not every film needs this but for those without direct access to top sales agents or pre-sales financing, some marketing foresight can be the difference between getting noticed or disappearing. It’s not about fighting for scraps, it’s about making sure your work gets seen. Appreciate the discussion!
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u/yeahsuresoundsgreat 29d ago
I also appreciate the conversation and certainly understand more of where you’re coming from. I sort of agree. I mean not every Sundance feature ends up with a deal, especially in the last 2 years. however I don’t think it’s because their poster sucks. I think what you’re talking about though is incredibly important, that a filmmaker has to realize they’re manufacturing a product for sales, and they do have to think about how to sell it. One of the things that I’ve seen time and time again is that the filmmaker shows the buyers and sellers HOW to market the film. They provide the hook. I think that’s important, especially with these tiny distribution companies that have no idea why people love your film.
another thing worth mentioning is that these buyers and sellers often have huge libraries and at one time might be dealing with dozens of films and filmmakers, so it’s easy to fall through the cracks, and worth your time to really push whatever vision you have for marketing onto them, they usually hate that, but they will take it seriously.
another thing… Most of these guys buy or dismiss your film on five minutes of watching, that’s the sad fact, they will go to the industry screening and watch all of five minutes, and maybe buy it on that five minutes. or not. And THAT is why a producers trailer, even if it’s garbage, is still incredibly important.
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u/jnlsgrc 29d ago
Same. I worked on a $2M film with an impressive ensemble cast, solid trailer, and great branding, and they’re still struggling to get any deals. They’re now considering a self funded theatrical release. It’s crazy.
One of the first Sundance headlines this year was like “Nobody has bought anything yet.” The market is so unpredictable.
Thats why I feel strongly that if you’re not pushing your vision and hyping the project up and backing that up with a strong branding presence you risk getting overlooked.
And yeah, first five minutes matter. A rough producer’s trailer can still make a huge difference for the right buyer.
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u/yeahsuresoundsgreat 29d ago
Disheartening, I read a similar headline, there are many films in that position, and i think getting worse, last year at the EFM we met with a minimajor at their suite and they had a dozen posters of finished, marquee-cast films... and i didn't recognize one title, they all looked to be in the 2-10m range. all had cast cast. and I haven't seen them since -- these were the films that wouldve filled the bargain bins at Walmart, now where do they go? My own career started when we were shooting film guage, so I caught the height of the DVD era, which created a massive global market. but now, this shift to streaming has bottlenecked distro and destroyed ancillary (like DVD) -- it's a huge problem and only getting worse. The "film bottleneck" use to be the high costs of production, but those costs have now collapsed, you can make an amazing film for peanuts (just ask the guys behind Primer, Blair Witch, Terr2, Shithouse, etc etc)... however the bottleneck has shifted to "how do we sell it? where does it go? how do we get bums in the seats? and eyeballs on our film? and a return on our investment?" There aren't many options beyond a zero MG "sale" to dodgy distro outfits. Hope you guys get something better than that.
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u/jnlsgrc 29d ago
Yeah, it’s tough. The cost barrier has dropped but the challenge now is everything else since there’s so much crowding.
I’ve seen the same thing. Solid films with real budgets and name actors just flatlining.
There’s no easy answer, but I hope more filmmakers start thinking about marketing and positioning early.
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u/Danels 29d ago
This conversation should be pinned up. Thanks both of you for this insight and amazing conversation made in a civilized manner.
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u/jnlsgrc 29d ago
Really appreciate that! As an advocate for design, branding, and marketing, I’ve seen firsthand how getting it right can make or break a project. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer but I’m hopeful conversations like this can help makers and marketers find better ways to get these films in front of the right audiences.
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u/yeahsuresoundsgreat 28d ago
that's a nice thing to say. I think jnlsgrc definitely knows what he's talking about and respect it. And even though we disagree on his og post, I agree that filmmakers have to at least think about (and yes, maybe plan, and ultimately maybe finance if they must) marketing for their films -- four-walling a 2m dollar film is insane, I feel bad for those filmmakers.
If I were to tweak his original post a little, I would only advocate that you have to exhaust chasing buyers/sellers first. I think it's important to put every dime on the screen because I've seen the big EPs come onto the budget and carve out 150k for a Sundance party, insistiing that would be the critical thing the film needs.
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u/Illustrious-Swing493 29d ago
Can you elaborate on “taking it to market”? Sorry I’m new and don’t know much about this stuff.
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u/yeahsuresoundsgreat 28d ago
Yeah i get it, it's confusing until you've done it, and then it's only slightly less confusing.
Consider your film a PRODUCT that you, the creator, contract other companies to help you get to the masses. this is a huge, almost larger part of the industry that is always changing -- a crazy universe that spans the entire globe, every country, every language, with huge companies and big money but also teams of lawyers and every third guy is a con artist.
Here you will find "sellers", which are mostly sales agents and producers (which you are, if you're selling your film),
"buyers", which are mostly distributors, streamers and broadcasters,
and "exhibitors", which is the last part of the chain, the people who show your film.
(confusingly companies are often 2 or even 3 of those things; and confusing things even further, everyone can be a "financier", even selling off territories in the future. A company like Netflix can be all 4 of these things. But all of that is another conversation).
The traditional path is you make your film, and you get accepted to a proper film festival (remember there are only 40-50 or so that count; also remember festivals are a "showcase" for buyers and sellers, not just for the public), and you maybe (but you don't have to) sign with a sales agent (just like actors have reps, an SA is a rep for your film, and will get better deals). and this sales agent then signs deals with distributors (for each territory or sometimes language, or sometimes country), who then signs deals with exhibitors, who then puts it in their theatre, or onto their streaming platform, or onto their traditional tv channel. For a term. And that's the straightforward path. And there are a thousand variations of this path.
In addition to festivals, buyers and sellers meet at MARKETS. Some of these markets are part of festivals (the EUROPEAN FILM MARKET is part of the BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL), and sometimes they're not (the AMERICAN FILM MARKET is just a market). Markets are meetings and a few public screenings, and lots of private screenings and mostly beer drinking and deal making.
It costs money to attend a market, and you have to be accredited, but generally if you have a feature film, they will let you in as a seller.
there, you hopefully wrangle meetings and try and sell your film, or sign with an SA.
The biggest and most important markets are Cannes, then the EFM, then the AFM, and then a few dozen others, which always seem to change.
They're huge. Cannes market (not the festival) gets nearly 20,000 people, Berlin gets nearly the same, the American Film Market gets around 5-7k. Some markets are just for factual films, like Hot Docs, some are just for genre films, like Fantasia.
Sorry man, filled myself with coffee and wrote all that, hope it helps.
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u/owmysciatica 29d ago
First and foremost, make a good movie.
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u/jnlsgrc 28d ago
No doubt! A great film comes first but who’s going to see it if your marketing sucks?
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u/owmysciatica 28d ago
Totally agree! I’m in the middle of post for a movie that is running out of money, but they already spent too much on a really terrible poster and trailer. Let’s at least lock the edit first.
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u/amishjim grip 28d ago
In the film production world, Production costs are only 10-15% of the total budget.
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u/jnlsgrc 28d ago
Thanks for your insight! You’d be surprised how indie filmmakers budget their projects, lol. Where do you see filmmakers overlooking costs the most?
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u/amishjim grip 28d ago
I've worked on all ranges from student to no/low, to most recently with Marvel/Disney. Disney overlooked my whole department on a Christmas movie. I'm a Chief Fixtures Technician, and that is pretty much being responsible for all lighting that appears On Camera, opposed to the lights we use to light talent and sets. Lights on tables, LEDs undercabinet, replacing every fluorescent light on a hospital floor, neon lights and, AND Christmas Lights. Someone at Disney didn't put a Fixtures Department in the budget of a Christmas movie. When they figured it out and brought me on, they didn't have budget for my crew, any expendables or the gear we'd need for each set.....
Where do you see filmmakers overlooking costs the most?
In the most mundane spaces. You have to keep your head on a swivel at all times. When I worked as an Associate Producer for Americas Most Wanted, I had to learn how to save $ every segment for a couple years it seemed. I learned to save a lot of money there because, we'd get a bonus if we came in under budget.
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u/jnlsgrc 28d ago
That’s wild! How do you overlook the Fixtures Department on a Christmas movie? Sounds like you pulled off a Christmas Miracle™ with no crew, no gear budget, and still made it work. The little details add up fast, and if no one’s thinking ahead, suddenly there’s a huge gap in the budget.
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u/FeelinDatYuuuuuuup 29d ago
This is great stuff. Drop that link dude