Digital Marketing for the Entrepreneur

As I researched my way to push our company and films through social media campaigns, I encountered the following tools and prospect company services:

1.     There is a website called Buysocialpower.com. If you have the budget and are willing to be a do-it-all-yourself entrepreneur, this website allows you to buy a fan base for Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. You might think, is this organic at all? But the truth is, it is just a lead way. Right after you buy your fans (basically the website connects your social platform’s title page with people in your market place and that would be interested in your product) you still have to do the work of multiplying these fans and maintaining them by promoting your services and products through campaigns and inciting these fans to tell others about yourself.

   Visit their website

Right when you access the landing page, there is a video explaining the whole process of social marketing and how can their company help in giving you that lead way of 1000, 5,000, or 10,000 fans so you can work with a real social media campaign. They have different plans according to the amount of fans you want them to connect to your page and the platform (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) you will be choosing. For the self-starting businessman, I encourage you to check it out.

Now, if you are the kind of entrepreneur who finances his own projects through Indiegogo.com and Kickstarter.com, you may take your project and create an amazing campaigns with stunning artwork, great pitch videos, and attractive pledging offers that will raise the money to push your projects forward. In social media, there are several companies that focus in advancing this craft. Some of them are very independent and others are very corporate. In my research of finding such companies, two entities caught my attention:

2.   Film Marketing Services, LLC focuses in pushing independent films forward through socials marketing, distribution, and event planning. John Gursha, who has been associated with the entertainment industry for over ten years and started his career at the NBC lot with an NBC page in 2001 on the tonight show with Jay Leno, leads the company. If your desire is to let a professional handle your connections as a producer and your social media campaign, Film Marketing Services, LLC is your answer.

Visit their website

 3.     Banyan Branch is a more structured company, which focuses not only on film, but also other products and events. The company works with other companies such as Disney, Porsche, FOX, Microsoft, Paramount, Hartz, Univision, and Gilt Groupe. However, they also have smaller clients like Grasshopper and Clarisonic.

  Visit their Website

In the world of marketing, PR and distribution, social media has become a pivotal elements in today’s modern industries and the world of the Internet. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube play the primary roles in the way we connect across the world.

Artemis: A new director’s viewfinder designed for digital filmmakers

Chemical Wedding has an extraordinary application for directors and cinematographers that indulge in the digital world. Artemis Viewfinder and now Artemis HD bring a whole new world to filmmakers on a budget or simply filmmakers that believe digital is the new way to go in the motion picture industry.  The power of this application consists in this: it allows you to build your set of lenses and equipment while location scouting. However, you don't need to rent a $200 director’s viewfinder, and it gives you the ability to record images for storyboard reference. In the past, cinematographers and directors had to use an eyepiece, which depending on where they set the ring, they could see the way the camera was going to capture the scene. Nowadays, this application allows you to not only capture digital samples with different types of lenses and aspect ratios, but also lets you view the way you would capture a scene with new digital formats such as a Red One camera, a Viper, or the now famous DSLR cameras Cannon 7D and 5D.

What is even more amazing is that the application is now available in the Android Market and Apple Store, meaning you can make use of this great new way to build your scenes either through an iPhone, iPad, or an HTC Sensation. It doesn’t matter. Artemis Viewfinder is $29.99 and its remote version to control it through a secondary device is $4.99. Yes, it can be remotely controlled. Thus, if you have an iPad and an iPhone you can give the iPad to your director and as a cinematographer you frame the shots through the iPhone. Artemis will let you adjust the focal point, aspect ratio, or the focus in order to provide you flexibility with the way you frame your shots. After the work is done, the recorder frames will also capture the information so you can rent the equipment necessary if you with to acquire a desired look. It will even incorporate in the picture’s information GPS data so you are able to remember where you precisely took the shot.

Current supported lenses and formats include:

Standard and Super 16mm
Super 16mm Anamorphic
Standard and Super 35mm
35mm Anamorphic
65mm
35mm Digital (D-21, RED, F35, Genesis)
2/3 " Digital (F23, Viper)
1/2" Digital
1/3" Digital
Canon 5D and 7D

 I encourage all of you who really want to take seriously digital filmmaking and even analog filmmaking to acquire this new application. It will be costly in the beginning, but it will make you precise in your decisions regarding the look you wish to give to your new projects. And don’t worry about new formats or updates. They are all free once you buy the application and have an Android Market or Apple App Store account. Go ahead! If you want to find out more, go and visit Chemical Wedding's Website.