IF HOLLYWOOD CAN'T, HOW CAN YOU?: Shall We Play A Game?

Go to this site: www.cloudmakers.org and click on the links to the left labeled "BEAST ARCHIVE". Now as an individual site, they make no sense. Together, they make a fascinating game to promote the film Steven Spielberg film "A.I". It is an interracial web (no pun intended I swear) of sites that the user has to find the clues in to solve the mystery of who killed a scientist in the movie.

Now this game was designed by Microsoft and of course cost FOX a bunch of bucks, but think of time the members at Cloudmakers spent playing this game. There were at least 200 articles written about this game and the web (pardon the pun) it spun. This game generated interest in the film. While you don't need to make a game this complicated for your movie, your web site needs to be amazing. It needs to draw buzz and interest. It is your responsibility to make sure people come back daily, even hourly to your site. You need to make this film seem so amazing, that they have no choice but to buy it. Here are some tips for you, if you need more, just search google and see what other people are doing!

1- Get a web site address that is easy to remember and unique. Try to stay away from anything not .com, anything with a hyphen, and no longer then 20 characters, as it will make it even harder for people to find your film. I personally am not a fan of soandsoTHEMOVIE.COM. But that might just be me. Give your site personality!
2- Buy this film! That is the point of making your movie isn't it? Well then make that the point of your web site. Make it easy for your visitors to buy your film. Sounds like a no brainier, but you would be shocked how many people make it really, really hard for people to buy their products.
3- Send your friends to send their friends. In Hollywood they always talk about viral marketing which really means grass roots. You want people talking about your film, so give them a place to talk about it. Put message boards on your site, make E-cards of your film for people to send, images, cast information.. EVERYTHING. Put everything about your film on that web page
4- Make it fun. If your film is a thiller, Action, Adventure, make a page that reflects this.
5- Don't wait for your film to be finished to make the web site. Get the web address from day one. Blog, take pictures, let people into the experience of the film. They will be attracted to it. Especially if it is interesting (cops came to the set, car blew up, robbery scene turned out to be a real robbery)
6- SEE THE LINK TO THE CLAIM BELOW!!!This film was released in 2001, but i remember going to that site EVERY DAY! Why? Because they gave such a detailed look into the production of the film, it was incredible. They had a virtual tour of the set, a diary about principal photography with the call sheets and everything. There was Drama over the name of the movie, the location, the weather. I was entrenched. DAILY!


Some Examples of cool things out there:

Serenity From Universal Studios
The Claim From United Artists
Mist A simple, but cool indie film site
Westender A simple, but informative indie film site. Check out the journal