The film short I'm co-producing "Accused" is now in post production and during the editing process I've been putting together a marketing plan for promotion, audience building and defining our goals for the project. One thing that has become apparent to me is the need for structuring a "things to do list" in such a way that the basics are locked down, while leaving room for contingencies. In addition, we have been discussing the most effective way in which we can use this production "as a means of advertising", the way that Thomas Mai suggested during my chat with him.

As a result, I have so far researched over 400 film festivals, prepared a preliminary marketing campaign utilizing the web, listed various organizations which may be potential fits for affiliate marketing partnerships and have been thinking about ideas with the potential of being developed into webisodes or other transmedia content. One uncertainty affecting all of this, however, has been time. Until the editing process is complete, we are holding off on making some final decisions in case we chose to pursue a different course of action once we see the finished product.

We have narrowed down our list of film festivals to approximately 50 and are paying attention to details, such as submission deadlines. We want to be sure our project is ready before committing and we also need to gauge which festivals will be best suited to us based on the finished film. These choices in turn influence other parts of our marketing and distribution plans, so we've designed our strategy to incorporate flexibility. This means that while we are moving ahead as originally intended, we can change elements at the last minute if need be. While I'm a firm believer in having an established plan laid out and being as organized as possible, I've discovered it's equally important to have built in options to deal with the unexpected.

Based on what I've learned from this project, there are a few things I will do differently next time. I'll begin earlier and have social media outlets and a website set up and launched once the script is ready and we are in pre production. During the making of "Accused' this would have given us a jump start in finding and building our audience and generating buzz. Integrating marketing plans and establishing checklists are critical to ensure that nothing is overlooked. For example, originally I was supposed to be doing interviews and takng photos on set, which were to be used for online promotion and media kits. At the last minute, I wound up filling in as script supervisor and didn't have the chance to develop as many press related materials as I would have liked. Fortunately, our cast and crew will be reunited again at our upcoming wrap party and I'll be able to fill in these gaps, but next time, I will have a back up plan in place during the shoot in case I'm sidetracked. Also, I'd planned to collect biographies during our first weekend of filming and now I've had to work on this task via email instead, which has turned out to be a slower process involving more follow up. That said, it is definitely worth the effort. The background information we discovered about one actress led to an article being written about our production for an entertainment website.

Taking all these things into account, I recommend preparing a work plan early on, but building contingencies into it that allow for refocusing, should you find yourself off schedule or needing to make changes. With new marketing methods being constantly developed for indies, it's challenging to determine which ones will work best for your film and it could involve a bit of trial and error. Perhaps the best thing to do is follow the old boy scout motto and just try to always be prepared.