My buddy’s brother made an amateur film called Crackass: The Surrey Movie. Just a guy with a handycam and a group of do-anything friends. The movie’s not going to win any big awards, but along with some truly disgusting Jackass-style stunts, there is some real value to it from a documentary perspective.
So how do you sell a flick like this anyway?
Well, here’s one of the things he did. Figuring that his old highschool was a good targeted demographic, he called up the school and announced that he was going to be there at a specific time on a specific day selling his movie. Then he called up the local TV news channels and the local newspapers and told them too.
Oh, yeah … and the other thing he told all of them was this; as a publicity stunt for the event, he was gonna have a stunt guy there set himself on fire.
All the Forces Collide
So the next day the police come knocking on his door. They’ve been hearing some big concerns about his little stunt. He assures them it’s not going to happen (he never had any intention of doing it in the first place), and that’s that.
The day of the event, he shows up (off school property of course) and is greeted by the police, a couple fire trucks, and a cast of media sharks … all of which drew the attention of the kids coming out of the highschool.
He sold a couple dozen DVDs and t-shirts that day. And got some (more) media coverage.
He sold them at pubs, at parties. He even held a screening of the movie at a local pub and sold tickets to the event. Guerilla marketing works. It doesn’t require a budget. It just requires your imagination.
And the guts to do what most people won’t.