Film Promotion and Conclusion
ONCE WE HAVE EVERYTHING done, we are ready to promote our product. We have been talking about the whole production process, and now we have a final rendered and postprocessed product we want to show the world.
This is a very specific topic because it depends on the size of the project and the funding. For big projects, the promotion starts even before the production does, but for small projects it takes quite a bit of effort to find ways to go to the public.
We have discussed the costs to make even open movies that are almost self-funding projects but this doesn't ensure they will be a success because they are usually seen by a limited audience following the project or those with any kind of knowledge about the existence of the project.
The big studios, the big productions use very different ways for film promotion. They usually invest the same or even more in promotion than in production. The profits will come once the large audience knows about the product and, at some point, consume it.
Anyway, we will make some distinction between the usual ways to promote big or small film productions:
Theater: This is the final target for every film production though not always accessible. It's the golden egg for producers. Theaters require some specific business operations and deals and not all small productions have a financial budget to afford this option.
Anyway, sometimes, the theaters themselves are the ones promoting some film as they did with Blender Foundation films.
It's also possible to incorporate partners funding the film production and include some terms and conditions to premiere at any theater, but again, that depends on the marketing and how the film production has been defined.
Television: This is a very exclusive promotional way that is usually only accessible to very big productions. It's said that Hollywood spends billions of dollars every year per 30 s of TV advertising. But the truth is that has been the more effective way of promotion.
It's also usual that film sequels use this channel for promoting special campaigns that announce the recently created film and televisions incorporate part of the previous film into their daily program.
The open movies can rarely be promoted on television unless they are very strong and are backed by a huge funding program. In such cases, other ways of promotion are also available and will probably be more effective because they are less time and effort consuming.
Internet: Nowadays, the best and most common way to promote film productions is through the Internet. The wide variety of methods available for advertising on the net makes it accessible to a large audience. Small studios have found in the Internet a way to not only promote their small products but also to make premiers or screenings.
Today, it's possible to ask for preorders of any movie that the open source makes. But it's also possible to find specialized websites to promote artistic works. This trying to find the required fundings for film production is an awesome option.
Internet offers a simple way of reaching out to millions of people with a couple of clicks. It also offers specialized websites, as mentioned earlier, for funding or to upload the final movie so people are able to access the film and watch it.
It's widely known that there are campaigns deployed against piracy of artistic works over the net. Of course, we encourage everyone to use the open source and free software because it's a perfect option to extend creativity, to increase knowledge about any topic, and to share products and life.
17.1 Conclusion
Blender offers enough warranties to be part of any studio pipeline for film production. In this book, we have seen how Blender is so versatile from initial processes to the final touch and compositing.
We have seen how Blender provides good solutions for modeling, rigging, animation, or texturing. We even saw how Blender could deal with all preproduction tasks, from scripting to developing concept art. Basically, every step that film production requires is possible and realizable using Blender.
We are not attempting to get rid of the current studios nor do we mean to suggest getting rid of everything else and using only Blender. Established studios have their own internal routines but we are sure they should be thinking about integrating Blender in their pipeline because we are sure they will find it more and more useful every day.
With the latest Blender releases, we are all experiencing some incredible changes because we see how it's improving not only in its user interface but also in its internal features. Motion tracking, particles, dynamics, physics, sculpting, and a lot of new features are being integrated into Blender every day by passionate people working as volunteers or, in a reduced number, as official Blender Foundation's developers.
Happy Blending!