Last Stand to Nowhere - Photography & Marketing
A few years ago my friend Michelle Muldoon had an idea about making a western film, only one staring all women, in roles of strength, with complex characters. Michelle, like myself, grew up watching spaghetti westerns with her dad. There is something so alluring about that time in history. The only wish we had was that women were shown differently. What was their story, wouldn’t it be nice to see that? Michelle developed her idea to remake the classic showdown at the OK corral, but with all female characters. Everyone she talked to about it said they loved the concept and wanted to help. I said to Michelle when you are ready, before you do any fundraising, let’s talk about photos. Boy did we ever! We created a photography plan including how those images could be used on social media to fundraise, create a fanbase and give her a bank of images to use for Last Stand’s festival run . Michelle has had enough imagery to post to social media for 2 years! Her use of photos in social media is the best use of photography I had ever experienced and it worked.
“My lessons learned in making Last Stand to Nowhere are immeasurable. The first one, however, stands out. Pictures tell the story. It's true in film and it's true in the marketing of film, from conception to distribution. The concept photo shoot by WendyD helped me crowd fund my budget, build my film's audience and tell the story of the story we wanted to film. We live in a visual world and the visuals of the journey are more important than ever.” Michelle Muldoon (writer/director)
My advice to film makers is to bring a photographer into your conversations early in your process. You have a film idea and you are starting to crew up, talk with a photographer. I can’t stress enough the importance of having the whole story of your film documented. You are going to be working on this film from concept to distribution for 2-3 years. If you only have a few stills, its going to be hard to keep your fans engaged in the long term. As you enter into festivals, the better your images are the better chance of being seen. The public see a still image before they see your movie, remember that, photos are often the first impression.
With Last Stand, we did a concept shoot at the very beginning. The shoot did many things at once. It brought the actors, director, producers, costume, armourer, makeup and photographer together for the first time. We got to try different looks for the actors, what felt right, we got to discuss the characters more, plus we created the images to be used for the fundraising campaign. Michelle had to opportunity through the images to introduce not only the actors through social media but their characters. We also created the video pitch for the fundraising campaign. all done at one time. We had a blast and it worked really well to get a feel for the production.
Michelle was incredible about posting to social media. We knew our actors (Chelah Horsdal, Luvia Petersen, Johannah Newmarch, Jenn MacLean-Angus, Julie Lynn Mortensen, Catherine Lonsdale, Maja Aro, Frances Flanagan) all had a fan base of their own and we wanted to let them know about Last Stand and get them to engage with us. Those fans, specifically “the Hearties” helped make the fundraising campaign a success. They helped spread the word and some even created fan art! Michelle spent a lot of time engaging with the fans, and they shared Last Stand everywhere. (Artwork below by Desiree Nelson and Betsy)
Last Stand is a western, and that meant the actors needed to be trained in how to handle the guns properly. Michelle found the Thunderbird Fast Draw Club in Langley. Of course that sort of training needed to be photographed! We had a blast, it was another chance for actors, producers and Michelle to connect. Those images provided new, unique material for social media. The Thunderbird Club trained the actors AND they were the background performers on the film, which also made them became part of the social media dialogue with the fans. Thunderbird Thursday became a regular posting theme. During your production process if you are doing any “special” training, or new gear or a special prop, or a new company involved be sure to document and share that! Fans are always looking for those little details about the filmmaking process.
Making a film, marketing it and selling it is a long process and a whole lot of work. Dedication to the marketing side of a films journey is sometimes overlooked, but it can make a huge difference. Michelle’s learning curve with social media was huge, but she engaged, and stuck with it. Her tagging me in the posts got me involved with the fans as well. It was very cool how much they appreciated the photos. Michelle and I talked about it and we decided that on the weekend of filming I was going to dedicate my time to doing Behind the scenes and stills to post to social media realtime, during the filming. we brought in other photographers, Michelle Lamberson and Mavreen David, to do the stills photography. I concentrated on the behind the scenes side of things rather than the stills of the action, including doing some Facebook live videos (check it out) and Instagram live. Again the Fans loved it. It was my goal to show the whole team working to create the film. Every single crew member, all aspects, and share some of that on the day. Later Michelle realized how much the fans enjoyed learning about different jobs of the crew so she did a whole series of posts explaining it all. She’s so clever :)
We are now 2 years later, all of the images created by Michelle L, Mavreen and I, gave Michelle enough images to keep the social media posts fresh and exciting. Every film festival she has attended, she made sure to take photos and post them while she was there. I’m sure she heard my voice pestering her to take them. This journey with Last Stand to Nowhere and Michelle has been incredible. It reinforced my belief in the power of photography when it comes to marketing. View the gallery here
Please browse through the Last Stand to Nowhere social media: Facebook Twitter Instagram
Last Stand to Nowhere is LIVE on Vimeo on Demand as of NOON ET on May 21st, 2020. Rentals are 99 cents USD and $1.99 USD to purchase. Please consider supporting independent film.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/laststandtonowhere
I am available, to consult with you about your film project. I can help you create a photography strategy, and I can help you complete that plan! Shoot me an email wendydphoto@gmail.com and let’s start brainstorming!