There are four stages of filmmaking which we can divide into four P’s: Preproduction, Production, Postproduction and Promotion. With most nollywood movies, the common problem is that we either do not give the same degree of importance to all 4 P’s or we completely forget about the final P.
If you wouldn’t start shooting your movie without a script (even though I secretly believe many of our filmmakers do this), then why would you release your film without promoting it. I find it hard to believe that at any point in the history of time promotions were unessential, but even if there has ever been such a time, now is definitely not it. In this era of 140-characters, 6 second videos, multiple social media options, and basic tv packages with at least 100+ channels standards, you will get lost in the crowd.
What consists of ‘promotions’?
Anything and everything that gets the word out! It is baffling, especially in this time and age, the amount of movies without trailers on YouTube or film posters that we can find online. Trailers are a basic necessity. In fact, I think I’m reaching too far, SOME MOVIES DON’T EVEN HAVE SYNOPSIS! Sometimes as a blog owner, we ask for synopsis, and we receive a haphazardly constructed vile murder of the English language. If you don’t even have the decency to spellcheck your grammar on the synopsis you’re sending out to promote your own movie….? Where do we start from?
A few things that consist of promotions at the most basic level are trailers, synopsis and posters (at least two of the three are required for a coming soon post on NR).
What are the types of promotions?
Now beyond the basics, a movie can and should be promoted further. This can happen on three platforms: television, internet and one-to-one.
TELEVISION consists primarily of trailers airing as ads on TV stations. You’d have to agree that this is very basic stuff and it would also be much appreciated if your trailer has moved past the yelling “51 Iweka/Pound Road, Aba” voice. Beyond the trailers, there are also interviews of the cast/crew on TV shows and guest appearances on reality shows etc.
Promotions on the INTERNET is multi-faceted, but at a basic level there should be a searchable trailer, synopsis and poster of your movie. ‘Searchable’ being the keyword! If it exists and no one can find it, then does it really exist? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?
It might be prudent to also have a social media page, twitter and/or facebook, for the upcoming movie. It’s one thing to have one, it’s another thing to have a useful one. Ensure that your page is actually interactive with the audience that you seek to reach. Then finally there is promotions on websites, blogs, and other people’s social media accounts.
An easy way of achieving all this is by creating a website for your upcoming movie. It keeps all your resources in one place and blog owners love you even more for it. And if your movie has behind the scenes photos and videos, especially videos, we love you even more for it.
ONE-TO-ONE consists of meet and greets, autograph signing session, trailer launch events and any other thing of that nature.
Whose job is it to promote?
EVERYBODY! If you are on the set of that movie, it is your job! Why? Because promoting work you are involved in is equal to promoting yourself. Unless of course, the work itself is useless and you are trying to dissociate yourself from it, in which case you have bigger problems.
For filmmakers promoting THIS movie makes it easier to promote the next movie. Once you have broken ground and people know who you are, you get to spend less time on introductions in the future. Hence, promotions now save you money and time on promotions tomorrow. Odds are that if your first movie is great, and you did a world of promotions for it, people are already waiting for your next.
How does promoting a movie benefit me as an actor?
Alright, so you have already been paid for this movie, you don’t earn more if the movie makes more, why should you care about the fate of the film? If you are an actor that is honestly asking this question then you are grossly underestimating PR and you need to fix that. What’s the difference between an actor who has made five movies and makes six figures versus an actor who has made 500 movies and makes 4 figures? Audience appeal!
At the most basic level, if you are a lesser known actor in a movie with a celebrity (even if you don’t have any scenes with the celebrity), by participating in the promotions you are creating a mental correlation between yourself and the celebrity in the audience’s mind. I don’t need a prophet to tell me that that is tapping into power.
It is not the amount of movies you have made or how long you have been making movies that matter, it is how many people know your name. Unfortunately, it really is that simple. Of course, this propagates the idea that there is no such thing as bad publicity. But is this not true? So as an actor why are you not taking advantage of this opportunity. Read more about this in our article “Inside Nollywood: Star Power”.
And if you need extra incentive, in many a interview, different filmmakers have gone on record (in varying industries) saying that they do pay attention to actors who participate in promotions of their movies. Think about it, doesn’t every boss want an employee who is not self-seeking but is looking out for the good of the team?
In Conclusion…
We are not saying your movie cannot make it without promotions. It possibly can! But allow us to use a biblical analogy here when we say that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle” than for a great movie with little to no promotions to gain its due. Here on NR we make it our business to find the little speck of gold in this sometimes large bin of dust and do our bit to make others aware of it. Sometimes we succeed but there are still possibly many greats that have fallen by the wayside. Don’t let your movie be one! All hands should be on deck to promote your next film before it releases.
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This article is so apt. In the course of my screenwriting work I ask the client what plans they have for promoting the movie and many of them dismiss it outright. The highest selling films like October 1, half of a yellow sun and 30 days at Atlanta all had effective promotions which spread the qord about the product. One film I have to commend is FALLING. They were everywhere on social media and for this guy who abhores Nigerian romance films I am thinking of seeing the movie
A nice read. Actually the final “P” goes a long way in determining how commercially successful a movie would be; thereby stamping the filmmaker’s name beyond his primary domain. This are the kind of stuff filmmakers and actors ought to be lectured on in workshops but apparently we lack such professional forums.