Brian Chirls was kind enough to record our panel at the Independent Film Festival of Boston entitled Followers: How Filmmakers are Building Their Audiences Online in the 21st Century. To blatantly copy and subtly edit his blog entry on the subject:
The other panelists were:
Scott Kirsner (moderator) is a journalist and all-around smart guy. He’s the author of two books, Inventing the Movies and Fans, Friends & Followers. He also writes the blog Cinematech. Brian Chirls is an audience/online guru who works on a number of independent film projects. Sean Flynn producer and cinematographer at Principle Pictures.
We discussed a range of topics, including:
- Benefits and pitfalls of social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.)
- Strategies for reaching audiences before, during and after production
- Crowdsourcing to build audiences as well as help production
- How much of your content to post online for free
- Ad revenue models
- Distribution formats (DVD, download, streaming, theatrical, etc.)
- Applying all the above to other media such as music and art
