A Complete Guide to Producing a Short Film: Part 5 - Marketing, Festivals and Developing the Feature

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MARKETING, FESTIVALS & DEVELOPING THE FEATURE

Cuddle Buddies: A Short Film Case Study Part 5 - After Post-Production: Marketing, Film Festivals & Developing the Feature

The Fifth & Final Part in a series of articles on how I made my short film Cuddle Buddies as writer, director and producer, from the writing phase all the way through post-production and beyond.

Previous Installment:

Cuddle Buddies: A Short Film Case Study Part 4 - Post-Production

The Short Film

Here’s a link to the completed film, which serves as a great reference and context for all of the posts and discussions previously and to follow.

What is Cuddle Buddies?

Cuddle Buddies is a narrative dramatic short film that is independently produced and character driven. The logline is as follows: Cuddle Buddies tells the story of Lucy, a single mother who works as a professional cuddler in order to support her young daughter and to alleviate the loneliness not only in her clients, but also in herself.

I wrote, directed, edited, produced & colored this film and it very much was a labor of love in the truest sense of the word.

Why a Case Study?

The process of creating this film and seeing it through from the idea phase to the physical production and completion was an extremely difficult process and journey, and there were a slew of pitfalls I only wish I had known before embarking on the making of this film.

I fully realize that filmmaking is very much an art that requires you to learn and make mistakes as you do it, and the doing of it will always be the most essential ingredient and teacher. But if I can shed some light on some things I learned along the way, even if just to function as an educational tool and save any aspiring filmmakers working on upcoming projects, especially short films, the heartache of additional stress in the pre- production and production phases, then I have achieved my goal in documenting the entire production process through this case study.

OK so with that setup, let’s get into the fifth and final installment of this series, which focuses on what happens after post-production is complete, including how to submit to film festivals, how to market your film and develop it from a short into the feature film version to pitch.

After Post-Production…

Now that the film was fully complete, the next step was to figure out how to get the film seen. As they say, making a film is half the battle, and the