Social Media in Film

How important are social networks to producers and audiences as a form of film promotion?

over the recent decade the use of social media is becoming more and more prominent throughout the film industry. Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are important to both indie film makers and the big hollywood film makers alike. As technology has become more and more advanced and readily available over time, the amount of people actually making films has grown rapidly. People now walk around with a high resolution camera and editing software in there pockets and can literally produce a high quality films wherever they are. Because of this there is so much content available on youtube (300 hours every minute), and this is making it harder to grab the audiences attention. This is not only true for small internet video makers but also big TV shows in the USA. every year of all the new seasons that air on US TV, only 6 manage to survive longer than a year. 

In the marketing Process of a film the social media has become more and more important. One of the first films that tapped into the internets immense power for marketing was Avatar. This film used a lot of web forums to build a devoted fan base even before the film was released. Facebook was used to generate conversations between the fans and there was even a webcast called Avatar Live in which James cameron and the films cast were interviewed and were able to talk to the fans and answer their questions. The Campaign took to MySpace and allowed people to see the exclusive red carpet moments that were filmed just before the premier. Twitter - though it was not as popular as it is today- was use in order to create a buzz around the film. The fans were able to 'tweet to listen' in which they were encouraged to retweet to their followers a link to download the films soundtrack for free. And of course the marketing team took to youtube to show the films brilliantly well put together trailer that got over 11m views. I believe that without the use of social media the film definitely wouldn't have done as well as it did. 

The use of social media in this example was very good for audiences as it allowed them to get a lot of exclusive content and repeatedly view pages that gave them more information on the film. This allowed them to also get together and form a fan base with expectations that the film will meet. Another thing is that some people may feel a personal connection with the film as they are put on an emailing list and can take part in things like the Q&A that was on Facebook. As well as this all of the information is for free, so there are no limitations for anyone that wants to access it. This means that it is able to reach a wide range of people and in this people would more likely listen to each other; rather than a film critic. For producers there a huge amount of benefits to marketing films on Social networking sites. Firstly it can all be put online for free, so there is absolutely no cost put on the budget of the film. Using twitter and Facebook even allow people to do the advertising for you as they share it with each other online.