Networking is FREE so use it well if you want to succeed.

For those of you who don't think there is any value to Facebook and other networking platforms.

When it was announced that ZERO DAYS had been shortlisted last week for an Oscar documentary, I posted on Facebook saying how sorry I was that I that I had been unable to release the film in the cinema because of the imminent BBC screening. In the UK you normally must have a 14-week window before broadcast and the original broadcast was supposed to be November, just 9 weeks after I had boarded the film.

Chris Harris the documentary booker for the UK’s No1 arthouse chain Picturehouse, now part of the mighty Cineworld read my thoughts on Facebook and he posted that he would like to help.

Following a quick discussion with sales agents Content Media, the filmmakers and financiers I informed Chris that we were good to go and so he has now booked ZERO DAYS into Picturehouse Central for one week from 6th January. This is now London's No 1 arthouse cinema complex. The BBC will now transmit on 13th January.

This is really excellent because, apart from anything else,  the cinema screening is of the director Alex Gibney’s longer version. Watching this film in a large room and on a big screen will greatly help with the absorption of this very complex, frightening and compelling documentary thriller. 

In the last seven years this is what Facebook has made happen for me –

·      Found me films to work on I did not know about.

·      Found me actors and crew I have employed who I did not know.

·      I have found other people money, distribution, sales and work via friends posts requests etc. posts. I have met so many talented people I would not have met otherwise. Some like composer Chris Barnett have greatly helped my own films.

·      The reading of my many posts pointing out the advantages of the Galway Film Fleadh have resulted in around 100 filmmakers going to this wonderful event over the years, many of whom have secured production partners and funding as a result. Maybe they would have heard about it from others ?

  This is in itself probably the best film networking event in the world. Where else can an ordinary Joe have met the head of United Artists and have a half hour meeting with him, that he has to take, as they did in the past or this year  30 minute meetings with Ted Hope the Head of Amazon Studios ?

·      Facebook has introduced me to thousands of interesting talented people I did not know, some of whom I have met in real life at Cannes, Galway, New York, Sheffield Doc/Fest or just going about my everyday life in London.

·      I have also introduced via Facebook many actors and actresses to the So & So Arts Club which has kick started so many floundering or stagnant careers. Had I not posted about the club many I know would not have joined unless they read or heard about it from someone else, which is possibly if they are networking. It is all about word of mouth. Information is king.

·      As by way of an example- Two weeks ago someone invited me to an event that I would not have heard about if it were not posted on Facebook. A filmmaker pitched me a film that I can greatly help with. They had been searching for most of the year to find someone with my skills that liked their film in production. I love the concept. It might not come to anything but then again it might.

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I am amazed at how just many people in the entertainment industry still do not network and then they wonder why they are not working that much. 

I am the biggest sinner in this area, I was twenty eight years into working as a professional in the industry before I realised that I needed to do this. It help me tremendously. If only I had done it sooner. 

If you are one of them - join something now !!

© David Nicholas Wilkinson. 2016. All Rights Reserved.