Have critics review your films

This is just a brilliant idea for so many reasons, and it comes from a talented director, David Rountree. It is something he mentioned during a HollyShorts panel, but didn't have the chance to cover in detail why it's a good idea, so let me give it a shot.

1. You get a review - duh. It's on the website somewhere to be viewed. People might bump into it and decide to check out your film. Maybe the reviewer already has a following that will listen to everything he or she says. The information is out there and that's what matters.

2. You might get a backlink. That's right, it had to be said, after all I'm a web guy first and foremost. A backlink is when someone puts a link to your website on their website. Even better if they wrap the title of your project (or your name) in that link - this helps the ranking on search engines and decides on what's a better authority for that keyword. See David's name above linked to his website. That's right. I did it on purpose.

3. The review could be written in superlatives, which can be reused for your website as well. You could take out a quote and put under your film title, update your IMDb project page with the quote and more.

So how do you go about it. Find a film that's similar to yours. Having problems with that? Talk to your screenwriter, or your fans, or if you're on Amazon or IMDB, just look at recommendations on your project's page. Got some titles? Good. Now research these titles and see who has reviewed them. Are they good reviews? Reach out to the critic. Bad reviews? Think about it... are they constructive? If your film is good it might still be worth it.

Okay, so now you have some critic names, possibly emails, mailing address or website information. Email them and ask them if they would be willing to review your film. If so, ask them for their mailing address. Don't be pushy, no one wants to be annoyed with it, but then again, if you already have a mailing address, send a DVD over with a thank you note. Write something along the lines that you respect their professional opinion and would like to get their thoughts on the film. If they're not interested, no harm no foul.

How easy was that? Now repeat the process a few times. Soon you'll have few good reviews and hopefully gain yourself more fans. Now, lather, rinse and repeat for all of your projects


Tomasz Mieczkowski

About Tomasz Mieczkowski

Tomasz Mieczkowski is the co-founder of IADB.com and all of the related websites for film and tv industry professionals.

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