What To Include In Your Film's Press & Publicity Portfolio

If you're a student, graduate or freelance filmmaker, you may find that all your focus and energy goes on actually creating your film and you forget about all the stuff that comes after. Maybe you're ready to submit your amazing short into a festival, but you need a press & publicity portfolio to do so.

The good news is that if you've been as professional as possible during production, you will already have the majority of the content you need for your portfolio. It's always best to think about distribution and marketing before and during the production of your project, but let's be honest, us creatives never think about the paperwork.

So for all of you filmmakers panicking about what information you need to gather, here's a handy checklist and a few reasons why you need to include all these extra elements.

• Film title and name of Director - Pretty self explanatory really, you can't market a film with no name! And everyone knows the director is the most important part of the crew (that is, the director likes to think so ;P) 
• Synopsis of your film - People need to know what your film is about, so let them know in a short paragraph. Film festivals will usually use your synopsis when showcasing your film in their own marketing materials as well, so this is usually a mandatory field. 
• Cast and crew bios - They don't have to be pages long, just a one or two sentences about who your cast and crew are and if they have worked on any other impressive projects in the past. 
• Publicity stills and behind the scenes shots - Publicity stills are always handy to have, especially when it comes to making things like DVD covers, posters and flyers. You will usually have to provide a HQ image for film festivals, again for their own marketing purposes. Behind the scenes shots can be very useful for the marketing of your film, but are also handy to keep in your personal portfolio. 
• Reviews of your film - Showcase your film to family and friends or even your local movie critic and get some raving reviews to really big up your project. 
• Length and year of production - Sometimes festivals will have time limits on entries, or both film time and age of the film, so they may ask you for this information off the bat. 
• Funding information - State how your film was funded, was it through crowd funding, self funding or investors. 
• Copyright details - State who owns your film, music, press images and any other media used in the production of the film. 
• Contact details - Email addresses of the producer and director, URL of your production company etc. 
• Any other festivals/awards - Make sure to state if your film has been involved in any other festivals, screenings or has won any awards. Filmmakers love a good shiny award!

You can always add any extras you have that you feel could really make your film stand out from the rest. This is for a hard copy of your portfolio, which film festivals still tend to ask for. However, film is slowly moving into the digital age and electronic portfolios are becoming more and more popular. I will be doing an electronic portfolio post in the near future, but they basically include everything I've listed, in digital form. 

Do you keep your films marketing and distribution in mind during production? Or do you rush the paperwork at the last minute?