I have been doing a lot of research on the combination of my two favourite media: film and Social Media. In this Mini-Series I will introduce you to some of my findings.

Today: Social Media and the Independent Filmmaker. A success story.

Somebody tells somebody, and they tell somebody else, and they tell somebody… it’s called word-of-mouth. Social Media are a fantastic way to promote video content and their creators. Take for example the campaign that Arin Crumley and Susan Buice launched for their film Four Eyed Monsters. They made a feature, entirely funded on credit card debt ($100,000.00), and started a campaign on the net to promote it. Apart from their own website, they have a MySpace page, which was the main catalyst for their online success in the beginning. They showed clips from their 71-minute feature, and fans could comment on their work.

In June this year, Four Eyed Monsters became the first feature to be entirely shown on YouTube. Not only that, Arin and Susan scored a deal with the video community site and DVD store Spout.com, which is giving them US$1.00 for every person who signs up with them via the Four Eyed Monsters website. A week after their film’s release on YouTube in June they had made over US$20,000.00 in referral payments from Scout; at the time of writing this number had climbed to US$44,885.00.

Earning money online isn’t Arin and Susan’s overall goal though; they want to get their work distributed and shown on the big screen, and they are on the best way to doing that. Not only are they selling their DVD on their website and on Spout, they are also using crowdsourcing to get their films screened. Through their MySpace and Facebook campaigns they have managed to get fan clusters in various American cities, and those fans are helping them bring their film to the theatres. They are providing contacts to cinemas, and Four Eyed Monsters is gaining momentum. Whereever the film gets shown – which is usually once a week – viewer numbers are increasing every week of it’s running.

Arin and Susan have also had success on film festivals and the more traditional spheres of promoting and distributing film. They won the Sundance Channel Audience award for participating in the undiscovered gems showcase. They have also been nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards: the John Cassavetes Award for Films made for under half a million and Best Cinematography. Their exposure in these circles was aided by their growing fanbase.

Online film distribution and crowdsourcing do not replace traditional ways of distributing and promoting film, but they are gaining importance. Especially independent filmmakers can benefit immensely from crowdsourcing and building online fan bases, as the momentum they create online spills over to the offline world and has a snowball effect. It is all done by word-of-mouth.

However, this is not just for Indie-filmmakers. Next time: how can and does Hollywood profit from Social Media?