It’s a fallacy that I see played out over and over again. I’ve fallen for the seductive charms of “if you build it, they will come”¹ more times than I care to admit.

This is something that I should know intuitively by now. I’ve been that nerd saying that Apple is only popular because they have great marketing. But now that I regularly use Apple products, there’s a lot of functionality there that makes my life easier day to day.

Besides, I’ve learned this during my MBA, and also during all the time that I’ve been working. You can have the smartest, cleverest, most effective solution in the world, and it won’t find any users (or, in our case, viewers) if it’s not marketed properly.

So the problem that I have to figure out is of how to market indie film – of any length – without killing myself in the process. It’s easy to fall into the trap of working to build something without telling anyone about it. But really, even stealth startups have some people talking about it in the background.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it matter? It might matter to all the critters who were living in and off the tree, but other than that? Maybe it doesn’t. Or maybe the role of that fallen tree is to provide the raw materials for new trees to grow.

Maybe all the struggle we’re facing in getting our films in front of a wide audience is just mulch for the success of future films.