Article by; Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria
Movie premiere is a ceremonial event that the filmmaker, the stars and invitees attend in order to draw maximum media attention to the film shortly before its official opening. Though it is a new phenomenon in the north, the trend is different with much attention given to the artistes going to perform on the night.
The problem is not the performance by these musicians at the premiere, but the number that comes to perform is annoying. It turns to be more of a musical show rather than a movie premiere. When this happens, it takes away the shine from the movie which is supposed to be the subject matter. We can still have this musical performance with just one or two musicians or better still, have the musician responsible for the soundtrack of the movie to perform on the night.
With the arrival of the premiering of movies, one would have thought it would help in selling Dagbani movie outside the region, but that is not the case. It is still the same way of promoting and marketing of movies, thus to family and friends. Movie producers need to look beyond just serving the region and go all out to reach a wider audience just like what our musicians are doing. Art is universal, provided your work it is good, people will always patronize it.
I understand that you want to use the musicians to promote the movie, that’s okay, but find a strategy that works for both the people involved in the movie and the musician. Give me a reason why I should come to a watch the movie. What is in the movie that people should spend their money and time to come and watch and not what some musicians will be coming to do at the premieres?
In premiering a movie, a lot of promotional activities should be taken into consideration to reach a wider audience. Some of the promotional activities can involve releasing movie trailer both on old media like television and radio and new media like Facebook, Twitter and, Instagram.
Or better still we have bloggers that can run promotional stories on their site for you if only you contact them. Movie producers here have not capitalized on new media yet. It is hard you see a blogger blog about our movies. Producers still have not realized the importance of this medium. With blogging, it helps to reach a wider audience who are not in your stronghold.
With social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, snippet of the movie can be posted to boast interest, another way is to post behind the scene of the movies just to get interactive with fans and also reach new audience
releasing bits and bits of behind the scenes on all social media platforms to create a buzz about the upcoming release date on the handles of both the producer and the actors, get interactive with fan on social media by posting co-stars talking about the coming movie post funny clips of actors on set to social media platform to wet fans appetite of what they should expect from the upcoming movie and publicity stunt. Trailers.
