Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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Hello everyone!
I came up with this topic, without knowing wich category does it exactly belong, and I understand it's not exactly a main passage in making a brickfilm. But, If you want your film to be watched, it's a neccessary passage. So, as i'm sure I'm not the only one on wondering on what to do, i decided to open a topic about this. The question is: how can we advertise our film, without making it look like a spam, and geting some more views?
This is something I've mulled over for years, and ultimately the answer is to sell out. My Green Lantern video made 230,000 views, well over 10 times more than most of my other videos. Not that I'm saying you have to sell out, but people need to want to watch your animations.
BTW the fact I'm using the phrase 'sell out' isn't meant to sound negative. It's just the only way I could think of expressing it. I'm kind of neutral on that topic.
Hey there LegoStudios I believe this would probably belong to general film discussion, as it's film related and not really post production and if this is the case a Moderator will move it for you.
Now in regards to advertising without spamming, I believe you have quite a few options.
One would be to open a facebook page dedicated to your film(s) and tell people all about it giving them links to your youtube channel.
(In regards to your first option if you already have facebook dedicate a link to all your friends and let them know what the link is for and explain to them what you do let them take an interest in the subject before they get into it! If you do not have a facebook then continue with phase one).
Two would be to start spreading word of your films/work tell your friends, tell your family and let them spread the word.
Three if you have twitter or instagram put it up there as well put in links and explain to people what you do and what your film is about get to ground level and try to form a relationship with the people and your film.
Four youtube is the most streamed for watching videos on the net if your not getting much views it may be cause your not very known if this is the case try to put as many tags in your videos as you can and follow the steps above, spread the links to all different websites don't spam it but praise it.
As what Jampot has said is true ''Sell Out'' is your best chance in succeeding hopefully these steps can help you get there.
I wish you luck brother.
-Rogue
This is something I've mulled over for years, and ultimately the answer is to sell out. My Green Lantern video made 230,000 views, well over 10 times more than most of my other videos. Not that I'm saying you have to sell out, but people need to want to watch your animations.
BTW the fact I'm using the phrase 'sell out' isn't meant to sound negative. It's just the only way I could think of expressing it. I'm kind of neutral on that topic.
I'm kinda confused, what do you mean by selling out? I'm sorry for not understanding that, i'm not english...
Sorry, my bad. By 'selling out', I mean doing videos that are purely designed to gather views rather than designed to show off your skills as a filmmaker. I mean, you can do both, but let's take my Green Lantern video: I only did that to gather views, and didn't put any work into an original story or set-building.
Sorry if that still isn't clear.
I think what he means as in selling yourself out to the people to the community, express who you are and explain what you do and what your videos are about give you title a good description for what the film is about.
Pretty much you have to explain to the viewers why they should watch your film, is it a theme they like is it based on a novel, a book, a film is it a superhero character? Every little description helps and you can easily notice by Jampot's film
Green Latern that he did the method of ''sell out'' notice his title has Green Latern? Which happens to be a DC superhero. So by understanding the basic concept you'd be surprised in how you can control the amount of views a certain video of yours can get but most of all always be truthful about your description and title's as you want praise from your viewers as your viewers become fans.
-Rogue
Last edited by rogue (March 15, 2014 (07:23am))
'Selling out' is probably the only way to get a lot of views when you are still a beginner and you are unknown. The easiest way to get people to want to watch your video is to put something popular in the title. This can be anything that is popular, from Lego or Harry Potter to Call of Duty and Battlefield 4. This method works every time, but it will only work on sites like youtube, where people searching for videos related to something popular will find your video and click on it out of curiousity.
If you're looking to build a following, putting out content frequently is the most important thing. If you can release one (pretty good) film a week, people will want to stick around to see more. If you don't think you can work that fast, stockpile a few beforehand so you can keep to your schedule.
"Selling out" is forsaking all artistic integrity in favour of just making whatever you think will be popular. A video called "LEGO Batman vs. Joker" will net you a ton of views, but you need to question whether it's something you want in your portfolio of work. If you're clever, you can trick people into thinking it's about a boring-yet-popular topic like that. For example, I made a video called Modern Warfare back when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was big, and although it had nothing to do with CoD, it passed 1 million views.
In my opinion, your aim shouldn't be to get a massive viral hit. If you aim to slowly create a fanbase over time, you'll end up with more dedicated followers and more consistent views. Plus, if you aim to study/get a job in animation or filmmaking in the future, being able to show that you made a lot of unique, original films will look very good on you. It's about playing the long game!
I think a bunch about promoting my films, and I seem to be relatively successful since i have a decent number of views.
The most important thing, of course, is to make good content so when people see it they'll want to watch more.
Once you've done that, there are several topics on BiM which allow you to promote your film in a non-intrusive way because it's kinda the whole point of those topics. The frame from your upcoming film topic is a wonderful film, as when you post a frame you can show something which might give people some interest in your new film, you can also put in a few words and tell people more about your film so that they might want to see it when it comes out.
There is also a topic for posting movie posters, so you can make a poster and put it there. I took some time to make a poster for Leprechauns in France to post there, on my twitter, and FB page so that a bunch of people could see it.
If you are making a much bigger long taking project, you might also make a production topic as an update log for your film. I've been doing this for my long Batman film I've been making for a few years now, and I've gotten some useful feedback, as well as spread some word about the film to people.
Those such topics don't seem very appropriate for very short films, though.
An important thing to do, though, is not spoil your film. Don't post spoiler frames or give out spoiler information. You want the jokes to be fun and fresh before everyone sees it. Some people will occasionally make one joke films but spoil the joke in a small bit of promotional material, which kinda ruins it.
I'm very tempted to spoil things about my films, but I try not to because I want it fresh. Unfortunately most of my films involve really weird random humour throughout so I can barely tell people anything about my films. For instance almost nobody really knows what's going to happen in my next film.
It's also important to make your film look good, but not too good. If you oversell it people may be disappointed by the final product.
I'm not good at promoting. So I turned to a few relatively cheap mass-market ad methods. I just advertised in the latest issue of BrickJournal, which should be coming out in days. I was also was going to buy an underground sponsorship on the show The B.S. of A. For $300 they create your ad and it's shown their on national television program. Sadly, the show was cancelled just as I was arranging my TV spot.
Groups. I have a google+ account and ther are groups on G+ where you can post stuff. So I post my WIPs and brickfilms on those.
And get to know good people on sites like G+. I have made and talked to people on G+ and am now good friends with them. And I promote their videos and they do the same to mine.
Also good quality always helps. And a good "poster" for your video is a + too.
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