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How To Effortlessly Build An Audience As An Indie Filmmaker

There’s a busker in Toronto named Steve.

The thing about Steve is that he’s brilliant at what he does. And I mean brilliant. Better than most bands you’ve heard on the radio.

Yet he’s still a busker.

Why?

Does he lack talent? No. Does he lack ambition? Hell no! He’s one of the most ambitious people I know!

So what’s the difference between Steve, and a band that makes millions? (minus the fact that Steve plays Wonderwall every 5 minutes)

It’s the audience. One has one. The other has none.

Busking meme in relation to the Steve person mentioned in the article

But this is exactly what it’s like for your movie.

You can have an amazing film, but if you have no audience, you’ll never get the recognition you deserve.

The question then becomes… how do you go about getting MASSIVE amounts of people to watch your film? And while you’re at it, how can you have THEM spread the word foryou?

If you ask so called filmmaking “gurus” you’d get answers like “you just gotta build your audience bro.”

…But HOW?

HOW do you “build” an audience?

It’s not like an IKEA table. You can’t just go to their warehouse and ask “can you point me to the audience section? I gotta build one.”

Justin Odisho is a YouTuber with over 300,000 subscribers (Updated April 2018, he’s at 500k now!), and we were supposed to talk for 30 minutes… but there was so much to talk about that  it turned into over an HOUR, without either of us even noticing!

What this means for you is that you get 62+ minutes of specific tactics and strategies that YOU can use as a filmmaker today.

We cover things like:

  • 4:19 Specific stats of his channel, plus tactics that triggered his growth right before he became popular
  • 8:34 How making passive income is like a flywheel
  • 9:16 Promoting your work in a non-spammy way so people actually know about you (exact steps)
  • 25:02 “One sentence motivation”
  • 39:52 What three changes grew him to 300k+ subscribersl
  • 48:16 Stop being dismissive, and thinking you know everything; instead become a student of the game
  • 55:15 Fixed filmmakers vs. Forward filmmakers (extremely important if you want to increase your chances of earning a living as an artist)
  • (full list over here)

Just wanted to give you that treat to brighten your day. Because you’re super special. *cue heart warming music*

Hit reply and let me know ONE thing that surprised you. I read and respond to every email.

– Curt

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  1. Another great listen Curt. Thanks for these podcasts!

    What I learned is that I should put out WAY more content than I’m doing, and then see what feedback my audience has, and tailor towards that. (without selling out)