Build Your Audience, Own Your Future

notes in preparation for my panel in Cannes earlier today.

I am participating in a panel at Cannes today, SATURDAY, MAY 17 at 11:00 AM (Cannes Time, GMT +2). As I write this, it hasn’t happened yet, but as you read this it already has.

The organizers describe it as: “As the independent film landscape evolves, more filmmakers are finding that taking charge of their audience engagement, and often their own distribution, is key to long-term success. This conversation explores real-world strategies for connecting with viewers and building a sustainable career in today’s industry.” In addition to me, the participants are: Lela Meadow-Conner / CEO mamafilm / Co-Founder, The Popcorn List; Richa Rudola / Filmmaker / Cow Heavy and Floral; and it is moderated by Sylvia Desrochers / EVP / MPRM Communications.

I hope you were able to come and join us, but I thought I’d share my notes for all of those of you that weren’t. This is of course not what we will necessarily talk about. I am not a fan of panels, to be honest. I don’t think the group format actually accommodates that transfer of information, but at festivals it is the go-to of presentations. It is just one of the many reasons I think we need a total rethink of festivals. But we will get into that some other day, okay?

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Build Your Audience, Own Your Future

Of course, the first question when it comes to audience building is “why bother?”.

My answer to virtually everything is to encourage us all to think deeply about the world we WANT. Envision it. What does it look like? Who holds power? Who controls media? Who controls the audience? How do you enact change?

Take the time to walk through your own personal utopia and understand what it looks like..

After imagining that fantasy north star of a world we want, we have to hurtle back to the real one. We need to recognize where we ARE and how it works.

Among other things, this is the age of cultural abundance and constant distraction. Remember, those who had the power not only had the initial goal of audience acquisition, but also the business strategy of flooding the zone with shit. Their strategy was the e-shitification with more and more meh. But we are finally aware of that and many are now deliberating choosing to be mindful and opt for quality. That’s this moment. So what are you going to do about it?

For me, and from that beautiful vantage point, a great deal is dictated by The Triangle. Or to be more specific: “The Triangle Of Audience Elevation”. It is the equation for public engagement with cinema. It doesn’t happen on it’s own. If we want to return cinema to the forefront of the cultural conversation – and I do – we need to supply not only both the emotional and intellectual capital, but also a great deal of the connection between the three nodes. But when we do, the triangle will expand as will its capacity and the speed we can move through it. Read the link I shared for more on this, but it is only the start of answering the “why?”.

We all hope our films get acquired by masterful distributors that love our film as much as we do and have as much time and funds in their hands needed to maximize the film’s impact. I wish you luck with that, friend. Over here in the real world, I prefer to be as well prepared for whatever will come our way as possible.

There are two major changes I believe that are going to affect us all deeply in the next 3-5 years. We are entering the Era of The DisIntermediation of All Cultural Industries. That is the service providers in the middle are being recognized as unnecessary and they are be removed. Specialist for each component are entering the field. We’ve seen this in music. We’ve seen this in publishing. And we will see this across the cinema industries. This is the resulting Era Of Distribution As A Service (DaaS). I expect most of us will need to supplement their work conjuring culture and a direct and authentic relationship with those that care for your film will be one of the key ways that is done. This is what building your audience is all about.

This doesn’t mean that traditional distributors will vanish. They are still needed to maximize craft, revenue, and awareness for their “tentpole'“ type picture. After the top five percent of releases, what are the other films going to do?

To a large degree this is already here. We are required to put together the team that will release our films globally. This isn’t a bad thing, as most of these films require bespoke approaches that the large distributors can’t bestow upon even all the films they currently acquire. When you enter this new realm – trust me – you are going to want to have an audience already built for your film… and even more so… your career. You will also see that the work you’ve done doing so, will help generate deals with the companies that remain.

In 2008, the founder of WIRED magazine, Kevin Kelly, wrote “1000 True Fans” encouraging artists and entrepreneurs to build that base of a thousand people who could support with $100 annually for you and your work. In about three years, I’ve built that amount on my newsletter, but granted they pay about half that amount. About 6% of my subscriber base opts in for the paid subscription, with the other 15K choosing to just get the free version. I don’t use any other social media any more other than Substack, and occasionally LinkedIn. Although I had at least 4X the amount of “followers” on other platforms, my reach (unless I paid) was never as wide as it currently is on Substack. I get about 400K monthly views to my newsletter, and the free subscribers grow a little less than a 1000 per month.

In this new DaaS era of distribution as a service, filmmakers, like musicians, are going to need to be on the road promoting their film. There are multiple opportunities to be earning funds while doing this, but a newsletter, is not only a great base of financial support, it is also one for promotional support. The beauty is that your audience going to be growing even more rapidly while on the road — and your newsletter is the tool to do this. Each reader is a potential amplifier in the promotion of your film. It is a virtuous cycle, potentially forever expanding. Let this sink in: when you own your audience, you’ve just given yourself a mechanism of both financial support and promotional enhancement.

But it gets even better. For filmmakers, your audience is who wants you to make films, art, and culture. They become a potential financial partner in both the film you are taking on the road, as well as the next one to come. And it is not just about money; with a strong audience base you will also find future collaborators. And friends.

The truth though is it is really hard to get people to see your film, let alone value it. Really REALLY hard. In the days before the internet — if any of you can remember that time — the marketing experts spoke about how many impressions were needed to convert someone to action. That still holds true. And maybe even more so in this age of abundance. Let’s face it: everyone is overwhelmed. It takes a lot to get people off the couch and out the door. Sure, we don’t want to spam them; but we do want to engage them and start a conversation with them. That’s a bit of an art. But if you have an audience and you are authentically engaged with them, turning them into a community, you are already doing it. And that all starts with having built -- or at least starting to have built – an audience.

The greatest gift audiences bring though is emotional support. You know you are seen and heard and for the reasons you may want to be. They give back in accordance with what you give them. You hear when you connect, and you become better at recognizing when you don’t.

You remember when the musician Prince changed his name to a symbol and wrote “slave” on his cheek? Do you remember what that was all about? That is the inconvenient truth about the cinema industries. It is not just that they want to profit from you. They will always find new ways to benefit themselves over you to the point that is exceeds moral decency. And I am being kind. Read “Chokepoint Capitalism” by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow.

I mentioned earlier how the platforms’ business strategies encourage the creation of blandlameness and meh “content”. But in this coming AI Era, it is going to get worse. There will be no escaping the tyranny of the Slop. The rebel alliance (of which you are part of or soon will be) is the counter balance. You are poet warrior in service of human expression and emotional and intellectual resonance. Your relationship with your audience is the foundation of the resistance to the machines. Seriously. If you care about culture, you need to have an audience and speak to them about what you love.

And in short, you need to build an audience, because you owe it to the rest of us. All culture is built on the shoulders and backs of others. And similiarly, our failure is attributable in part to your shortcomings. This thing of ours works because of your good work and it doesn’t work better because you didn’t do what would have helped us all. If in three years time, you and all your cultural worker buddies all have built audiences of your own, and you decide you want to promote a certain artist or work

I count twenty reasons why you may want to build your audience. Perhaps now is a good time to dive into how you go about it. I mean when Ava DuVernay recognizes it needs to be done, shouldn’t you do the same?

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20+ Suggestions On How To Build Your Audience

1. Once again, think / envision the world you WANT to live in.

Seriously. Spend time thinking of it.

2. Recognize how audiences are built.

Audiences are built by a regular cadence of supply at a consistent quality level, in an environment people trust and want to participate in.