written by: Kelly Calabrese 

You've made it from Withoutabox into the coveted film festival circuit. Now what?

 How do you continue to market your film? To get it seen? To drum up interest? The answer may depend on your ultimate goal but no matter what - you want to keep the buzz going. So NYCastings asked recent film festival attendees to share their marketing strategies with us.

CRAIG ZOBEL

- Director - Recently attended Sundance with his film Compliance

Q: How do you keep the buzz going post festival?

I think that the only thing we can do is talk about why we wanted to make the movie to whoever was interested and hope that registers. This movie is about more than one issue, it is about a lot of human behavior studies. And, in a way, I think it is just important to just keep showing it to whoever wants to see it and then be there to discuss their reactions.

I would like it to have a bigger audience, obviously. Yet I think in some ways what has happened already is what I hoped for. Conversations that were not on the table, are now in people's heads because they saw the movie.

Fun Fact... Since this interview with Craig Zobel - Compliance got picked up by Magnolia Pictures.

GORDON VASQUEZ

- Producer & Social Media Expert - Recently produced the film Huff, and attended Sundance with his company RealTVfilms

Q: What is the best way to keep the buzz going post film festival?

POST FESTIVAL starts with PRE FILM and is a challenge as there is always a drop off after you wrap the film, not to mention the Festival. The Social Media Process starts from the day you are casting – there is a ton of content in the casting process alone and this is the beginning of building your audience with your website/ Blog/Facebook/Twitter. Also important is your photo management as each photo works as a social media soldier when it has been indexed. A good example of this is with our latest film that just wrapped this past December www.HUFFmovie.com –We setup the domain name and posted content while we shot the film. The full website will most likely launch a few weeks after Picture Lock, but the website is only part of the Social Media Frenzy.

Your Facebook page is where you need to get your entire cast engaged in posting updates during the filmmaking process. Each cast member should checkin on Facebook each day of your film shoot and talk about the experience. The MEDIA will pick up on this. Having one media day on set is also crucial.

Get the BLOG community on board and post your pro photos from the set on your FLICKR account. This is also important for your short films – please take a look at our Short Film that is ready for a Premiere www.TheMourningHour.com – from the website you can get to the Social Pages and get all the details. On this particular film we started the awareness process 2 months before we ever shot a frame using a Fundraiser to kick everything off.

PRE FESTIVAL – Every Media contact on the Film Festival master list needs to get a series of tweets from the film Twitter Account and the entire TWITTER community for the festival will be watching. This past January for the Sundance Film Festival the Popular HASHTAG to use was #Sundance2012. So each tweet should contain that particular #tag. A week before the festival I would suggest 20 tweets per day with no more than 1 per hour (one of the popular tools to use is the BUFFERAPP).

DURING THE FESTIVAL – Your cast and crew should be tweeting with the #Tag and also your film #tag as most #tags get indexed in Google and you can create a buzz around your film name #hashtag . Make sure your entire team posts pics using any of the many services available on your smart phone. Also use VIDEO APPS and our favorite is SocialCamApp – again the idea is to engage everyone at the festival during the festival.

POST FESTIVAL – Now is the time to chase down all media on your film as a result of your PRE/DURING Festival. As you get the info TWEET all about it. Post on your Facebook and Tumblr accounts. If you won awards, don’t stop Tweeting about it. Have all your team Tweet different messages using the #hashtag of the festival and your film. Keep tweeting and announce the next festival your film is in and hopefully you score the distribution deal.

For even more social marketing advice visit www.RealTVfilms.com - or follow Gordon on Twitter @realtvfilms.

HUGO ARMSTRONG, DANIEL MARTINICO

- Writers - Attended Slamdance with their film OK, GOOD

Q: What will you do post-festival to promote your film?

We hope to take it around this year. Though, we have modest ambitions. We made it for ourselves so we succeeded in making the film and taking it out into the world. Slamdance seems to be a great place to get a footprint for the film and hopefully that will lead to a solid festival life for the film. We will do local screenings. A deal would be amazing but we don't really care about it at this time. The primary goal is to make the film for its own sake and then share it with people.

CHRISTINA CHOE

- Director - Won Grand Jury Prize for best narrative short film at Slamdance for I am John Wayne

Q: How will you market your short post Slamdance?

Beyond getting it into as many good film festivals as possible, we are in talks with a company for possible distribution. Also, we are looking for as many platforms as possible to screen the short. I am hoping for as much exposure as possible whether that means non-exclusive distribution deals, or some kind of TV/internet exposure like iTunes, or a curated platform like the Wholphin DVD that showcases short films. The film festival circuit is an amazing way to share the film with audiences but the number of people you can reach is limited. So I'd love to find additional ways of getting it out there.

JOSH PAIS

- Actor - Attended Sundance with the film Price Check

Q: How will you keep the buzz going after Sundance for Price Check?

I love supporting the films I am involved in. To keep the buzz going, Facebook and twitter are great resources. It's key to let people know about new films in a way that is fun.

Josh posted a ton of updates during and after Sundance - follow him at http://www.facebook.com/#!/joshpais