Author: Nico Meissner, Griffith Film School, Australia
Published: June 2016
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijmcf.3.1.05
Citation: Meissner, N. (2016). A Story in the Making: Storytelling in the Digital Marketing of Independent Films. IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication & Film, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijmcf.3.1.05
Abstract
This article examines how the story of the making of the independent Spanish feature film The Cosmonaut resembles traditional narrative structures and story elements. It relates the ongoing sharing of the film’s production process, and argues that this sharing provided the basis for the film’s audience-building. Independent films no longer have to be standalone products that are marketed only after their creation. Related events or products allow the story of the making of a film to transcend the film’s temporal boundaries and even the limitations of its medium. The paper concludes that telling the story of a film’s making while it happens (a) helps to create communities and audiences, who (b) individually experience the making of a film and (c) view a film merely as an end-product while “watching” takes place over an extended period of time. Such ongoing storytelling allows continuous audience growth that helps the filmmaker to self-distribute.
Keywords
The Cosmonaut, independent filmmaking, storytelling, audience building