by Branden Stewart

You’ve just worked an uncountable number of hours on a project. You slaved over the story, negotiated the contracts, man handled the schedules, and finessed the edit.

Now, you want to get your project seen. But how?

In today’s digital world, there is content blooming everywhere. A constant stream of hours of footage being uploaded to Youtube and Vimeo every hour.

When you want to get your short seen, you have to think creatively.

Here are five tips for getting your work out there, and popular.

1 – Reach Out to Youtubers and Youtube Shows

While this one does require something of a marketing budget, it’s a great way to gain name recognition. When you’re seeking ways to advertise your project, reach out to smaller Youtubers (300,00 Subscribers or Less) and offer to sponsor a video.

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Most smaller Youtube creators are thrilled to have a video sponsored, and will gladly promote your show. Anything from talking about it as an add mid-video to creating an entire video to promote your story.

This will get you name recognition-and it will put you in front of audiences that tend to be the most engaged.

2 – Interview on Podcasts

There are a ton of great podcasts, and a lot of film related shows that air on iTunes and Soundcloud every day.

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Reach out to these folks; ask if they’d be willing to have your leading actor or director on for an interview. This is the closest most indie producers get to the ‘night-time talk show’ rounds that most major companies have actors do.

This also goes hand-in-hand with #1, as a lot of Youtubers also have podcasts.

3 – Opt to Buy Adds on Facebook and Youtube

Instead of spending your hard-earned money on festival entries, focus on getting as many eyes on pieces as you can, which can earn you money to create your next festival entry.

Add buys on Youtube are very successful at racking up a high view count. And since your film will probably be distributed online, the people who watch a lot of Youtube adds are the same people who are likely to watch your film.

4 – Publish Behind the Scenes

When producers ask what tips I have, I always recommend having a friend shoot some behind-the-scenes footage.

Beauty - Behind The Scenes
Behind The Scenes of the short film ‘Beauty’ by Colin Racicot

Putting out a few ‘behind the scenes’ episodes can really create a buzz for your project, as people will be interested in what you’re working on, or what the final product will look like.

5 – Get Better Graphics

Nothing is worse than a bad old VHS movie cover, right?

Taking some high-end shots of your cast and the behind the scenes process, as well as your sets will pay you back in the end.

Having a lot of these photos will let you create a variety of banners, square images, and graphic adds for your project.

Overall, remember that the most important thing when getting people to see your work is name recognition. So push to get it out there in front as many people as possible before your film comes out.