Film Marketing

Learn how the massive marketing machine works in hollywood and how you can use it to promote your movie.

Film Marketing

Developed by Jason Tomaric, FilmSkills
ABOUT THIS LESSON

Film marketing is the other half of a Hollywood movie's budget. The cost of reaching an audience and getting them interested in seeing a specific title is an art and a science. In this lesson, you will learn how the film marketing machine in Hollywood works and how you can use it to market your movie.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
  • How the marketing machine in Hollywood works
  • How you can effectively plan the marketing campaign for your movie
  • The costs of marketing a film
  • How to find a voice amid other Hollywood movies
ABOUT THE LESSON AUTHOR
Jason Tomaric

Jason Tomaric

Director, Cinematographer Los Angeles, California
Jason J. Tomaric is an Emmy, Telly, and CINE Award-winning director and cinematographer of four internationally-distributed feature films, dozens of national television commercials, music videos, and the largest film training content library in the world, published author of 8 books - used in many top universities, and creator of AccuSkills.com, an industry-changing learning management platform. 
 
Jason has worked in Los Angeles and around the world in over 20 countries. His clients include Disney, NBC/Universal, National Geographic, McDonald’s, Toyota, Scion, Microsoft, and Paul Mitchell, with narrative work screened at Sundance, Slamdance, and South by Southwest film festivals as well as on Netflix and on all broadcast networks.
 
Jason has taught and/or guest lectured at some of the nation's most prestigious film schools including UCLA, Columbia College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, San Francisco State, University of Notre Dame, and numerous film festivals.
 
Jason has written eight industry-defining books, all sold in bookstores, and used in film schools around the world. The American Society of Cinematographers hails Jason's books - "There are no wasted words in Tomaric's tome, which concisely summarizes each facet of the director's craft.  It's difficult to think of a step in the process that Tomaric fails to address." 
 
Jason’s DVD training series on Hollywood film production have trained filmmakers in over 40 countries, with distributors in Europe, Hong Kong, New York and Australia.
 
In 2010, Jason launched FilmSkills, which combines the world’s largest film training video library with his proprietary learning management system.  Adopted by 47 universities within the first year, FilmSkills is now the leading industry-standard training solution for motion picture and television production.
 
In 2015, Jason launched AccuSkills.com, an industry-changing learning management platform that bridges the gap between academia and industry.
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS LESSON
Alexa Amin

Alexa Amin

Executive Editor, Studio System News, and Former VP of Development, Sony Pictures Animation

Alexa Amin is Executive Editor of Studio System News, after having worked as a feature film studio executive since 1999. She most recently served as Vice President of Production at Sony Pictures Animation, where she shepherded OPEN SEASON 2, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, and THE SMURFS, which grossed over $500 million worldwide. Prior to Sony, Ms. Amin was Vice President, Production for New Regency/20th Century Fox, where her films included Mr. & MRS. SMITH, THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX and ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, which also grossed over $500 million worldwide. She was honored as one of the industry’s rising young stars in The Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation to Watch. Mrs. Amin is actively involved in educational causes, including Communities in Schools, Milk and Bookies and Determined to Succeed. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, received her B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and 2 sons.

Barbara Doyle

Barbara Doyle

Chair of Chapman University Film Department
Barbara Freedman Doyle has been active in film production and film education for more than 20 years. She began her film career at Creative Communications, in Boston, producing promotional films for non-profit clients and political campaigns, then moved to Los Angeles where she soon became the Assistant to the Senior VP of Worldwide Production at Tri-Star Pictures. During her five years at Tri-Star she was involved in the administration and organization of over forty feature films.
 
Barbara left Tri-Star to work in production on national commercial spots, music videos, network television movies, and feature films. She was Production Supervisor on television movies for the Disney Channel, NBC Productions, Hearst Entertainment, HBO, Showtime and Hallmark and worked on feature films for 20th Century Fox, Interscope, and Warner Brothers. She was Production Supervisor on the films "Two If By Sea" with Sandra Bullock and Denis Leary (Morgan Creek Productions), and "Lost and Found" with David Spade (Alcon Entertainment).
 
In 1999, Barbara became an Associate Dean at the prestigious American Film Institute. She left the AFI in 2002, and in 2003, while a Chair at Brooks Institute of Photography’s Motion Picture/Video program, she served as Line Producer on the BBC/Granada Television documentary, Martin Scorsese’s British Cinema.
 
Barbara joined the team at MPS Productions in 2003, as Line Producer of the Kaiser film project, On the Same Side. She produces and consults for the company on feature film and documentary projects, and is currently on the faculty at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges and universities specializing in film studies, and is working on her first book, Surviving the Business and Politics of Making Your Feature Film-the Answer Book For First-Time Filmmakers.
Harry C. Box

Harry C. Box

Camera Operator, "Heroes," "Brothers and Sisters," and Author of "The Set Lighting Technician's Handbook"

Harry C. Box has worked in television and motion picture production since 1989. Over the years he has done substantial work as a lighting technician, gaffer, camera operator, director of photography, and as an educator. His recent credits include network and cable television series, such as "Heroes" (NBC), "Brothers and Sisters" (ABC), and "Everybody Hates Chris" (CW). He has worked on major motion pictures, independent feature films, telefilms, documentaries, music videos, commercials, and industrials. Harry has also written "The Set Lighting Technician's Handbook," now in its fourth edition.

Jeff Ulin

Jeff Ulin

VP of Worldwide Distribution, LucasFilm; Former Senior Executive at Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios
Jeff Ulin’s background includes being a media executive, attorney, lecturer, entrepreneur and author. Half of his 20+ years in the business were spent at Lucasfilm, where he headed worldwide distribution for all markets (theatrical, video, TV, online), managed franchise sales for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and oversaw the release of the last Star Wars film Episode III.  He has also served as a senior studio executive, helping manage Paramount and Universal’s overseas video distribution venture; co-founded and ran as CEO animation studio Wild Brain, where he created Disney’s pre-school hit Higglytown Heroes; and navigated the convergence of digital media at Silicon Valley’s most renowned law firm (Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati), where he served as Of Counsel.  Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Jeff currently works as EVP of Autumn Games, sits on advisory boards of media start-ups, and teaches the class Media & Entertainment: Economics, Policy, and Strategy at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.  He is the author of the Variety-endorsed book The Business of Media Distribution- Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World (Elsevier/Focal Press, 2009).
 
Jeff is a graduate of Harvard University and The University of Chicago Law School, and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Kim Adelman

Kim Adelman

Producer, UCLA Instructor
Kim Adelman is the author of Making it Big in Shorts: The Ultimate Filmmaker's Guide to Short Films, the third edition is now in stores. She also reports on short films for Indiewire, co-programs the American Cinematheque's annual Focus on Female Directors short film screening series, and is the co-founder of FFC Female Filmmaking Collective (find us on Facebook). Ms. Adelman currently teaches Low Budget Filmmaking at UCLA Extension. She will begin teaching Cinema Production II at Mount Saint Mary University in 2021. In 2014, she was named UCLA Extension's Entertainment Studies Instructor of the Year. In 2016, she won its Distinguished Instructor Award.
Kyle Bonnici

Kyle Bonnici

Director of Interactive and Publicity, Paramount Pictures, Netflix
Award winning marketing professional with a demonstrated history of working in the entertainment industry. Knowledgeable marketing executive with extensive experience in Production Capture, Photography, AV, Creative, Digital Publicity, Social, Web Design, Newsletter, VR/AR and Content Creation.
Lloyd Kaufman

Lloyd Kaufman

President, Troma Entertainment, Chairman International Film and Television Association
Entertainment industry veteran Lloyd Kaufman was elected chairman of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), the global trade association of independent distributors and producers of motion picture and television programming, in September 2007. With more than 40 years of experience in the world of independent film, having dealt with literally every aspect of the business, Kaufman embodies IFTA’s creative, visionary and entrepreneurial spirit.
Since 1991, Mr. Kaufman has served on and contributed to the IFTA Board of Directors and Executive Committee in numerous capacities. A pioneer in new media who recognizes the value and potential new technology provides to the independent community, Mr. Kaufman is a leading proponent of maintaining “net neutrality” so that independent filmmakers and distributors are not left out of the promise and benefits of the Internet. To that end, he was asked by IFTA’s Board of Directors to help create and chair the Alliance’s New Technologies Opportunities Committee, which explores video distribution over the Internet, telephony, etc. and identifies avenues by which independents may realize new revenue from the emerging media.

Mr. Kaufman also is president of New York-based production and distribution company Troma Entertainment, which he and partner Michael Herz founded in 1974 shortly after they graduated from Yale University. In 35 years, Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Herz have built Troma up to legendary status as a bastion of true independence and a strong consumer brand through a visionary body of work that has had a huge impact on pop culture and today’s mainstream filmmaking. New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick recently wrote that Mr. Kaufman “has been cited as a major influence by Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino and Takashi Miike, among others.” Other writers and directors who have cited Mr. Kaufman as a major influence include Sam Raimi, James Gunn, Kevin Smith and Eli Roth, to name a few. In addition, Mr. Kaufman has mentored many young independent filmmakers and Troma movies or releases have given numerous now-famous talent their first start in the film industry, including Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Costner, Oliver Stone, Marisa Tomei, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Jenna Fisher. Other major figures whose first work appears in a Troma film include Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman and Carmen Electra.
Patrick Falvey

Patrick Falvey

Motion Picture and Television marketing