Updating the social media face of Upload

The story of Upload Films has taken on a life of its own. As their website notes: “update in progress” in their privacy policy; that may remain a fitting parallel for what awaits them.  In the six years since its creation, the independent filmmaking, production services, and film financing company has turned out a series of films and created a niche within the production services segment of the motion picture industry that belies its young age. There is no greater example of this consortium feel of the company then the dossiers of its six partners. Nick Thurlow, Andrew Mann, Todd Williams, John Portnoy, Jamie Donaldson, and Paul Lee each come from divergent segments of the moviemaking industry. Mann and Lee are have backgrounds in film finance, Thurlow (CEO) and Williams come from a firm background in film producing and production finance, and along with their original partner John Portnoy came from the world of film postproduction and post supervision have all combined to create a dynamic filmmaking enterprise.

In that light, Upload has yet to fully immerse itself in the Facebook or Twitter cultures in terms of daily active social media blogs or networks in relation to their projects. As is generally the nature of the established Hollywood motion picture industry, companies have varying degrees and wide latitude of how deeply or how shallowly they commit themselves to those particular platforms. It is in some ways a love-hate relationship. Whereas social media can be driving forces to promote projects that are in production for better or worse. They can be neglectful of the greater outreach that can be facilitated for their ongoing filmmaking efforts upon that basis.

·        Search engine optimization

·        Landing pages

·        Fresh updates (content and pages)

·        Social media interaction

·        Long-term social media goals and ambitions

These five segments under their overall rainbow of digital marketing as it relates to social media are easily neglected. However, Upload which now can be found in China (encompassing the broader Asian realm), Baton Rouge, Louisiana (covering the exploding feature film industry in New Orleans and surrounding sections of that state), and its birth place of Los Angeles is positioned to fully flourish if those segments are addressed. While currently linked on their website and on Facebook with back links, it will take a broad overall view of all three continents being told in a captive and provocative manner to maximize Upload’s full potential in the realm of not just social media but of promotion as well.

It will be interesting to watch which direction this young company takes as it continues to expand within the independent filmmaking marketplace.