Lights, Camera, Action! Heard these terms before? These are for aspiring filmmakers.

Considered as an art, producers and directors have well defined what film making is.  Lot of technical aspects are involved. It’s a tiring task to make a film. Certain guidelines on film making may definitely result in good films and movies. Students just entered the media industry or freshers may find this useful. Film making being a part of media, its study becomes essential. This area has a lot of scope and demand. The tricks would be as such:

1. Knowledge on camera handling is a basic and must. It’s a process and therefore obstacles if exist can be worked and should be worked out or else the entire efforts would be a waste. Lot of aspects like story, script, sound, music being involved are a must.
2. Not an easy task needs visualization and imagination. Good Stories and script making cant be made just like that.  If the moviemaker is a movie lover and has seen many movies in the past his imagination can be better.
3. Camera angles and direction which is commonly known can be the most common but crucial aspect in film making. For the entire consequence to happen needs patience and technical aspects as in working with softwares and all is time consuming.
4. It’s not in everybody’s ability and requires acting skills and other. Acting also needs to be decent depending on the character and nature of character. Very apt and interesting characters can be portrayed in a movie. Characters can be dull, aggressive, and enjoyable too. Just needs some thinking for the right kind of characters.
5. Recent movies like Delhi Belly and many other such movies have proved that filmmaking needs experimentation. Coming up with newer ideas every now and then can be a better aspect to cinema and cinema can be connected to some extent to filmmaking.
6. There are many such that are to be kept in mind while making a film. Audience research conducted at the beginning might help.
7. Target audience should also be kept in mind while making films for the right kind of audience. This helps in making the film a success and has positive consequencies.
8. Locations can also be the turning point in the movie. Beautiful locations exist and using them for short films is not a bad idea.
9. Some students now are going for a career in film making and various institutes now offermany courses like FTII, Pue ne and NYSA too. Getting one particular more intricate shot riht with the simultaneity of action in one space and time, with no comprise is a super high.
10. Film making encompasses so many art forms, be it literature, poetry, music, writing, acting, design, space, costumes and so many other aspects that you will actually learn a lot about yourself and in turn grow more rapidly than others.

It’s an enriching process it enriches your life. Future of film making will be a lot more global. There are already some glimpses seen of brilliance with movies like 3 Idiots. The newer guys in the film making industry are developing and are giving off small sparks. Our films are going to get noticed by the world. If filmmakers get together and make films that they believe in, money will follow. From the belief t o have fun, more ideas may arrive and improve the present scenario of film making.

Process of film making should be enjoyed. Film makers should not depend on Box office success and critical acclaim while they should have a personal growth. Having an experience in video making would prove to be better for any film maker.

It can also be called as a team effort and just 1 man contributing it would not work. Its also a collective effort and the vision of all members in the team has to be included or else it wont turn out to be a success and would not be that good. Co-ordination from every member of the team is very much essential or else thumbs down.

In our day to day life we see numerous TV commercials. If I ask you how many do you remember distinctly, you might not be able to answer my question. The reason for this is simple as most advertisements are just ordinary and mediocre and they fail to catch the attention of the viewer.

1) Evoke an emotion: Most of the award-winning commercials are successful because they managed to connect with the audience. So whether you shock them, surprise them or make them laugh or cry, the emotions are what will make your ad unforgettable.

2) Don’t try to please everyone: Some businesses make the mistake of trying to appeal to everyone at the same time.  Choose a segment of people you want to reach out to and then craft your message to fit their needs and expectations.

3) Know where to reach your customers: All your branding efforts will be for nothing if your target audience is never exposed to them. You need to know where your target audience is so you can reach them more effectively. Which social networks are they members of? Which magazines do they like to read? Which TV shows do they watch? Which blogs do they read? Knowing all of this will help you reach your target audience in the places they frequent most.

4) Focus on your TG: The first thing that a brand should do is to focus on their target group’s lifestyle. The study of this would make it easy to design ads that are in sync with the TGs likes and choices.

5) Make your name synonymous with the industry: When you think of tissues, you think Kleenex. When you think of soda, you think Coca Cola or Pepsi. When you think burgers, you think McDonalds. You want to create this same inseparable association between your brand and the industry you function in.

6) It should have viral qualities: There is no secret to creating a good viral campaign. But you must make an ad that appeals to the masses and one they cannot stop talking about. If you can do that, then you have a winner of a campaign on your hands.

7) Have a USP: FedEx promises to deliver your packages on time. BMW promises to be the Ultimate Driving Machine. You need to create a unique promise that customers instantly associate with your brand. This promise needs to be something your target audience cares about and something that your competitors can’t offer.

8) Video & Audio: The images and sounds you use in your ads must function in sync. Make sure the images are in accordance with the message and so are the sounds. Make use of colour, celebrities, and/or exotic locations that are backed by catchy jingles, tunes, voice-overs etc.

9) Be consistent: It amazes me whenever I come across a company that has different designs/themes for their website, brochure, business card, billboards, TV ads, etc. Everything should be unified in style and theme. That’s how people will start to immediately recognize your brand

Marketing in its most crude description has meant the art of selling. It is the art of subtle( not any more) persuasion that originally was meant for convincing someone to buy something. Today that definition holds true except that in many cases there is an add on to it. It still involves convincing people to buy something, the difference is, you might not really need it. And that is why it is such an art today- no longer is marketing about telling the audiences about availability. It’s about telling them about the plenty that is available and getting them to choose ‘you’ over the other hundred options. It is precisely for this reason that today there is a distinction between Social Media Marketing or New Age Marketing and Traditional Marketing. In every sense of the term, Social Media Marketing is here to stay.

In the beginning, when marketing was all about telling your audiences about where they could find you, marketing was simple. It was all about getting together a good sales team who would be able to put up an interesting campaign in place along with their partner ad agency, to come up with a catchy snazzy ad campaign that could not fail. Add to this an interesting sales agenda and profits would sky rocket with the blink of an eye lid. But then what happened when Company X had a good marketing team and Company Y had a good marketing team too? Along side came A and B and C… Soon the market was too crowded and standing out was important to survive, to get noticed. It was no more just about letting the audience know that ‘I am good and I can be found here’ it was about telling them how your product was better than the many available in the market. So dawned the age of New age Marketing.

In this form of marketing, no stones are left unturned and no attempts are left behind to capture the attention of the ever elusive ‘Target Audience’. The Consumer here is King and there is nothing that is good enough to win him over. This form of marketing believes in the concept of IMC or Integrated Marketing Communications which involves a heady mix of advertisements, events, blogging, direct marketing etc. it is a lot of everything and everything in a lot. Today products follow us wherever we go. Whether you are traveling in a bus or watching a movie or booking your tickets online, there is always a tiny corner peeking out from somewhere asking you to take notice of it- asking you to pick them over the others. This is Social Media Marketing and it has just begun. For all those who believe that they make their own choices on what they want and what they don’t, think again. Unconsciously if not consciously we are trained constantly to choose a product over the other. We are being bombarded by images and events through varied channels of communication in the media to buy things, things we need, things we don’t need and things we think we need. This is the power of social media marketing.

The power of social media marketing lies in its marriage with media itself. Today the media acts as an agent for marketing in a way. Most newspapers today are just one giant flier- each page devoted to another product or company. One switches on the television only to realize that most channels have hours of interactive TV advertising which run late into the night- and most of the time they even work. Most movies are ‘the place’ for product placement as they reach out to wide audiences. Everything, right from houses to cars and even fridges are shown as a part of a deeper scheme of reaching out to the audience in every possible way.

What this essentially means is that traditional marketing is passé. Not that it did not have its own merits, it cannot exist in today’s day and age. It cannot survive in this world that is fraught with competition and multiple choices. However it is this marketing that has given birth to the new age marketing or social media marketing.

It is to be understood that this new form of marketing has just begun. It is in its nascent stages and has eons to go before it matures. Through IMC, it has only attempted to make a start at the journey that it is on. Not to be misunderstood, this journey is not for the faint hearted. For this new age marketing is bold and forthright and is filled with challenges at every step. And for those who thought marketing was a tough place to be in, this is just the trailer. Social Media Marketing has just begun.