FD’s Synopsis Golden Rules:

• Length: keep it neat and tidy for your EPK: no less than 1 page, no more than two.
• Style: Third person, present tense
• Characters: Make sure each of your major characters gets his/her own logline: a brief introduction of identity & motivation.
• Dialog: Pep up your synopsis with your most genius dialog lines. Sometimes the best person to tell your story are the characters inhabiting it.
• Subtext: Unlike screenplays, your synopsis can allude to your allusions. Give your readers a taste of the tropes, themes, and connotations they can expect in your movie.
• The big reveal: Feel free to reveal your ending and the lesson your characters learn from it.
• Think cinematically: Go big or go home. Make your synopsis sparkle, crackle, and pop. The more special the synopsis, the more likely your EPK recipients are going to review your movie.

Directors Statement

A director’s statement exists to help people understand your movie. It’s primarily used as a supplementary marketing ingredient – but no EPK will succeed without one.

In your statement you want to cover:

• The roots of your project
• Why this project is important to you/your crew/the audience
• Why you are qualified to tell this story
• Who you are inspired by and why
• Any relevant production/post-production realizations
• Your core hope for the audience’s response

Never assume your reader has any background information about you or your project. In this task, you must create a summation of your whole project from start to end. Be concise, be precise, and feel free to evoke imagery to help transport your readers to the universe your piece inhabits.

Cast/Crew Bio

This is simple. Assemble your core team’s bios and their relevant links (IMDb, website, headshots) and lay them out attractively. A great tool for doing this is Canva, a tool like an idiot’s guide to graphic design that helps mere mortals design beautifully laid-out work.

Online Screener

You need to make it as easy as possible for the press to view and review your movie. There are a few services to host your screeners, but we prefer Vimeo: it’s incredibly easy to share your copyright-protected movie using their service. (Before you send anything out, make sure you own the copyright!) Simply password-protect your screener before you share.