How to Create a Low-to-No-Budget Electronic Press Kit (EPK) for an Indie Film

So you’ve shot an independent film—whether feature or short—congrats! But what now? How do you get your film out into the world, and in front of the film festivals, journalists, bloggers, and critics who can help you build an audience for your work?

Whether you’re submitting your film to festivals via FilmFreeway, reaching out to critics to get reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, or sending out releases to get press coverage, you’ll need to have a lot of the same marketing materials ready to go.

No budget left over after your shoot? Not to worry! Read on to learn how you can create an electronic press kit (EPK) for your film for little to nothing, and still attract attention for your work.

What is an Electronic Press Kit (EPK)?

Great question. Essentially, it’s a digital folder of all of your film’s “assets,” including items like your poster and artwork, a one-sheet containing all of your film’s relevant info and links, a press release, bios, stills from the set and the film, festival laurels, reviews, a trailer, and the like. You certainly don’t need all of these to start off with, however, and you can feel free to add to your press kit as time goes on.

The good news is that you don’t need much, or really any, money to create an electronic press kit for your film. Let’s break your press kit down into categories and see how we can create everything you need without breaking the bank.

Poster and Artwork

The most important asset to your film is your artwork—your poster and the images you use on streaming platforms and on social media. These are what will first attract a potential audience member or reviewer to your film, so make sure they’re as eye-catching as possible!

Don’t have a viable poster yet? Check out poster designers online—sites like Fiverr and Upwork offer inexpensive movie poster design. You can also design one yourself if need be using Canva’s Free Movie Poster generator here.

(Be sure to create some images for social media as well that match the different specs for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. These are helpful for posting and also to use as thumbnails for streaming platforms should you distribute the film.)

One-Sheet

This PDF doc, which you can make yourself on Word or Google Docs, has all of the important specs for your film in one place, including items like your poster, logline, short synopsis (more on those below), run time, genre, list of festivals and awards, contact info, and a link to your trailer and social media.

Logline

Wherever you’re marketing your film, from Film Freeway to IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes to your own press kit, you’re going to need a solid logline.

What’s a logline? Think of it as a one-sentence summary that hits on the most important aspects of your plot—your protagonist(s), what they want (goal), what they’re up against (obstacles), and why it matters so much (stakes).

To throw out an example, a logline for everyone’s favorite holiday movie, DIE HARD, could be:

A New York City cop attempts to reunite with his estranged wife at her company’s holiday party on Christmas Eve, only to end up fighting terrorists who take her hostage and threaten to blow up the building and everyone in it.

There’s a hundred different ways this logline could go, as long as the characters, goal, and obstacles are clear, and the stakes are high and relatable.

Short Synopsis

In addition to a logline, it’s helpful to have a short synopsis should you need it for marketing materials, festival entries, etc. (Do keep it short—a brief paragraph or two, and as compelling as you can make it.)

Expand on your logline, but definitely keep the interest up by showing your protagonists chasing after their goals, with more detail about why they’re in the situation they’re in, the obstacles they’re up against, and what’s at stake if they don’t reach their goals.

(Hint: Don’t give away the full ending here. The goal with both the logline and the short synopsis is to pique people’s interest in seeing the film, not to reveal the entire ending. Save that for your full one-page synopsis.)

A short synopsis for DIE HARD might read something like:

New York City cop JOHN McCLANE thinks he’s spending Christmas Eve reuniting with his estranged wife, HOLLY, and their kids, who have recently moved to Los Angeles for a new job. However, a wrench gets thrown in his plans at Holly’s company party, when a band of thieves, led by HANS GRUBER, seize control of the building and take Holly and her fellow employees hostage. Motivated by 640 million dollars’ worth of bonds stored in the company vault, Gruber goes about terrorizing the owner of the company, MR. TAKAGI, to get the code to open the lock. Meanwhile, John has secretly slipped into a stairwell, unnoticed.

John learns that Hans means business when, from his hiding place, he sees him kill Takagi in cold blood after learning there are seven separate codes to unlock the vault, and Takagi doesn’t know any of them. While Hans gets a computer hacker started on figuring out the codes, John wages a one-man war against the thieves, outsmarting and dispatching of them whenever possible, all while taunting Hans over a walkie-talkie. John also manages to get the police and F.B.I. involved, and before long, the media is all over the situation as well. Soon, things go from bad to worse when Hans figures out that the mystery man on the walkie-talkie is John and personally takes his wife, Holly, hostage. Not to mention that John has figured out that the thieves are not only armed and dangerous, but also have a truck’s worth of explosives that can take down the entire building. Now John has to somehow not only free Holly, but also get all of the hostages out before Hans and his crew can follow through with their deadly plan.

(Note: If you’re marketing a short film, a short synopsis is probably all you need.)

One Pager (Full Synopsis – for features)

In your one-page synopsis, you can go into further detail about each act of the film, and give away what happens at the end. You won’t often be asked for this, but it’s handy to have in your back pocket just in case.

A compelling full synopsis for DIE HARD can be found here: https://www.writingclasses.com/WritingMovies/DieHardSynopsis.pdf

(Note how the tone of this full synopsis captures some of the playfulness of the film, as well as the action.)

Press Release

Targeting a press release toward specific journalists, bloggers, and critics who cover independent film can be a great way to start to get the word out about your project.

The site Filmmaking Stuff has some solid info on what should be included in a press release. You can also Google “press release format” for plenty of examples on what a press release should look like.

Bios (Director, Writer, Producers, Cinematographer, Talent)

For your Film Freeway profile page—if you’re submitting to festivals—you’ll definitely need a director’s bio and statement. However, it’s also a good idea to get a bio from your writer(s), producer(s), cinematographer, and lead actors as well—especially if any of them are known in the business. They’re helpful to have as you’re contacting the press to cover your film.

Stills (from movie and from set)

With the quality of smartphone cameras these days, there’s no reason why you can’t get high-quality stills on set for free. So if you can’t spring for a professional photographer on set, then be sure to task a P.A. with snapping some smartphone pics throughout the shoot, including ones of you, filmmaker extraordinaire, in action. If you can afford a set photographer, even for a day, all the better.

As far as stills from your film itself, those are easy enough to quickly grab from your editing software after you’ve edited and colored your footage.

Laurels

Once you start getting into film festivals, you’ll be sent your festival laurels showing your official selection, award nominee, or award winner status. You can simply save these as JPG, PNG, or TIFF files and drag the images into your EPK folder. 

Didn’t get a laurel from a festival you were in? Not to worry. You can create one yourself using Film Freeway’s free laurel generator here.

Trailer

Besides your artwork, your trailer is likely your most valuable marketing tool and a must-have in your electronic press kit. Many filmmakers will post their trailers to YouTube or Vimeo to create an easy-to-access link. Then it's easy to paste that link to your trailer in both your one-sheet and your press release.

FilmFreeway also has a section in your project’s profile page where you can upload a trailer. Some film festivals actually require trailers in their selection process. For my newest short film, I AM THE WARRIOR, a couple of festivals emailed us to let us know we had to have a trailer posted in order to be further considered—and that’s for a 6-minute short film!

The easiest way to go about cutting a trailer is to make a contract with your editor during post-production to not only turn in a cut of the film, but also to cut a trailer from the footage. If you’re past that point and aren’t able to have your editor involved, you can edit one yourself or even plug clips into iMovie’s free trailer generator for a quick trailer on short notice. (Another option is Movavi's free trailer maker, which works for both Windows and Mac.)

Whichever program you use, keep your trailer on the short side: 30-60 seconds. 

Now…to create the electronic press kit itself.

Now that you've got the pieces in place, gather all of your documents in a file folder and compress them into a .ZIP file that can be easily downloaded.

Here are instructions for zipping a file:

Zipping a file on Mac

Zipping a file on Windows

Once zipped, you can upload your ZIP file to a site like Google Drive or Dropbox, where you can then create a download link. Share the link to your film’s website or social media pages, or in emails to the press, for an easy-to-download EPK.

Getting Reviews and Press Coverage

It can be tedious and time-consuming, but certainly not impossible, to get press coverage and reviews from professional journalists, bloggers, and critics for your indie film.

One of the most important sites to get on is RottenTomatoes.com, and, luckily, they have a (very long) list of Tomato-approved critics that you can contact for reviews:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/critics

(Note: When you’re reaching out to them, keep your email brief and professional to have the best chance of getting reviewed. You can also attach your press release as a PDF and/or your press kit as a link, unless requested not to.)

IMDb.com is another important place to get reviews and ratings. As you talk to people about your film, encourage them to rate it or review it on Rotten Tomatoes and/or IMDb to help get the word out.

(Note: Don't worry about not having any reviews in the beginning. Over time, you can collect them one-by-one and add them to your press kit.)

Submitting to Film Festivals

Once your EPK is completed, you’ll have all of the information you’ll need to create a profile on sites like FilmFreeway.com or ShortFilmDepot.com (for international short film competitions). Many festivals, but not all, use one or both of these sites, creating a one-stop-shop for festival submissions, and the more press kit/marketing materials you have available, the better. 

It's a lot of work, to be sure, but it's worth it to take the time to market your film as best you can to the press. After all, you've invested so much time, money, and effort to produce your film! Don't let it sit in the proverbial drawer: get it out to the world. Hopefully, your EPK will be a helpful tool in creating buzz and building an audience for your work.

Wishing you the best in your filmmaking journey!