8 Great Ways Make People Want to See Your Indie Film

Audiences decide to see a film well before they even know what the film is all about. Presentation is everything. You must connect with the audience in the first 3 seconds or you have an uphill battle to bring them back on board to see your film. In that crucial 3 seconds, you can push them into thinking "okay, I am willing to watch this." or you lose out.

This article will list several ways that you can connect with an audience, intrigue them, engage them to see your film without ever having to have a conversation with them. This happens all the time, and can readily be seen in video stores where people are browsing for films to watch. At the end of the day, they are saying an hour of their life to make the money to rent the film, and then the time it takes to watch it, is worth your film.

This list was developed by me over the last 10 years as both a filmmaker and a film viewer. I don't have time for crap films. Being asked to watch one makes me angry and I rarely will trust the filmmaker again, especially if the filmmaker has not engaged me. However, a filmmaker that engages me to watch their film allows me to look at a film and enjoy the time, regardless of the quality.

These are not hard and fast rules, they are guidelines, you can use one, you can use all eight. Using them will increase the number of people that are willing to watch your film without you standing there guilting them to watch it. What you are going for is that moment in the video store, or surfing online, when everything connects and they commit to watching your film.

1. cast people that people like to look at
- that doesn't mean "pretty people" it means interesting people
- if you want to know if someone is committed, ask them if they are okay with the fact there is a full kissing scene, on the lips, passionate, in the film....if they say yes, they are in, if they say no, then the audience will never believe anything they do on screen because they will never "be" the character
- it does not matter if there is a kissing scene in your film, if they believe there is, and still sign on, they are in