Now that it’s September and kids are going back to school, it got me thinking…

Back when I was doing my English GCSE we studied Jane Eyre, How to Kill a Mockingbird and Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. I loved Jane Eyre and Mockingbird and never ran out of things to say in essays. With Bridge, however, I had no connection – I hit my minimum word count and went back to thinking about Lee and Bronte.

Yesterday, I wrote an email about marketing and how it’s all about consistently providing value through exclusive content.

Essentially, the filmmaker needs to connect with their audience in the same way both Mockingbird and Jane Eyre connected with me: by providing value.

This is especially important for independent filmmakers and so much more important than spending a lot of money on a marketing campaign or having millions of Instagram followers.

Think about any filmmaker you love – there’s a connection there that’s got you supporting them and their work often for years! This connection is exactly what you want from your audience and there are three basic things you can do to ensure this and kickstart your film career.

1: New-age Marketing

The first career basic that is key to building this connection is marketing, but not in traditional terms.

Don’t think of marketing as the phase that comes after post-production or a certain ‘work mode’ you can slip in and out of. Instead, let it become intrinsic to you. Think of marketing more as providing value to your audience and building your community.

Start by asking yourself “Who do I want to inspire with my marketing content?” and once you have an answer for this you will be able to plan out inspirational content for the right audience. Good films and filmmakers always come with a community – do you have one?

2: Know you who are as a creator

If providing value and creating a connection is news to you and you don’t know where to start, here’s a tip (and the second career basic!): It all comes back to who you are as a creator.

As a producer, I know that horror is one of the cheapest genres to make and sell. But I have no connection with horror and struggle to develop ideas for these stories.

So rather than producing films that I’d never want people to associate with my name, I made sure that I knew exactly what kinds of films I wanted to make.

I love telling stories about the dreamers that dare to do things differently – the ones who have a unique vision – and I could talk about that all day which means I am also able to sell it.

Spend 30 minutes maximum thinking about who you are as a creator (don’t overthink it!). This is the second career basic: knowing who you are as a creator and being able to communicate it.

Once I figured out who I was as a creator, I cut a lot of projects that weren’t fully me.

Now that I’m in love with everything I work on, I want to talk about it all the time. This is the best thing that can happen to a creator because passion is what matters to people!

When you have a slate and a development process that is 100% you, it’ll be easier to talk about your projects in a non-sleazy/awkward way. 

3: Your Slate

Lastly, you should be able to demonstrate your passion and professionalism as a filmmaker by always having a slate of pitch-ready projects

This doesn’t mean the idea is ready to go into production, but rather that you have enough information to get someone’s attention.

Make sure you have back up ideas and don’t just rely on one project – you never know what the person you’re talking to might be interested in.

If you think that working on more than one project would overwhelm you, think about what your development process is and adjust it so that you can spread your creativity across multiple projects. Trust me, you can!

So, you need your own slate, and you need a development process that allows you to manage multiple projects without ever getting stuck – do you have that?

To recap, the 3 filmmaking career basics that everyone should have are: marketing, knowing who you are and how to communicate that and your slate, and a bulletproof development process that works for you!