The most common question heard by many filmmakers is “how do I get my film on IMDb?” – well it’s actually simpler than you might think!
Below are all the stages for how to get the film on IMDb and then how to add a poster, trailer and change any details:
Getting on IMDb in 4 Steps:
1. Firstly ensure you have an IMDb account – if not just sign up.
2. Then sign up to http://withoutabox.com/ and make sure you link your IMDb account during the setup process.
3. Once complete and on you’re in the account homepage, click ‘Add a Project’.
I’d suggest doing this section when you’ve got a good couple of hours spare since to do this properly it takes quite a bit of time. Ensure to fill in as much information as you possibly can since this is all the information that will appear on your IMDb page – however DO NOT upload your trailer yet! Uploading your trailer now means the trailer won’t go onto your IMDb page, it’ll just go into your Withoutabox project profile. Also at this point it’s worth noting that you’ll want to upload your actual film also, this is what’s known as a “Secure Online Screener”. when the option comes you’ll be redirected to upload the film via IMDb and it takes a few hours to process but once it’s uploaded it’s a MUCH easier way of festivals being able to view your film online so you don’t have to post a DVD every time.
4. Once all of this is all complete, search Withoutabox for any current ‘IMDb Qualifying Festivals’ on the site – https://www.withoutabox.com/index.php?cmd=filmsubmission.allsubmissions&group_id=23
In all honesty, it doesn’t matter what festival you choose here since you’re using this more for the purpose of getting your film on IMDb – so go for one that’s a bit cheaper (in the $20 region). Once you find a festival you’re happy with simply submit your film, pay the festival submission fee, the secure online screener fee (just under $3) and voila! Simple as that. Once the film is received by the film festival (you don’t even need to have been officially selected!) after a few days your film will appear in IMDb with all the details you entered during the ‘Add A Project’ stage.
How to Add a Poster and Pictures to IMdb:
Now you play the waiting game, check back every half a day on IMDb to see if your film appears, then once it does you can add a poster and pictures if you wish. You do this simply by clicking the “Own the rights? Add a poster” button in the top description box.
There’s a $35 fee for each poster you add and $10 per picture you want to add.
Please Note: An issue I had here was once I paid for my poster, I was then unable to upload it – this isn’t a error so don’t panic if the same happens to you. It’s simply because you’ve tried to add your poster too quickly before your film has be finalised and processed for the site. You’ll receive an email with a link to upload the poster/pictures to so you’ll always have the direct link, just simply keep checking this on a daily basis until the options appear and then proceed.
Posters and pictures can take up to 72 hours to be processed so again, please don’t panic if you don’t see any change after 2 days.
How to Add a Trailer to IMDb:
Also once the film is on IMDb you can add your trailer to the title page by logging in to your Withoutabox account then in another tab or window in your browser, login to your IMDb account – make sure that you keep both pages open.
Then in your Withoutabox account homepage scroll to the bottom of the screen and you’ll see “Add Video Free on IMDb Upload | My Videos | Learn More” just click upload and you’ll go to the uploads page.
Here just scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll see an options bar reading “Select Video Type” – just select ‘Trailer’ and you’ll be taken to IMDb where you simply upload the trailer, in a few days it’ll all be linked to the film’s IMDb page.
Unfortunately IMDb don’t have HD playback yet so the best quality you can watch in is 480p – you can still upload a HD file but it needs to be smaller than 2GB and they simply resize it to the smaller resolution for playback.
How to link your uploaded trailer:
Now that you’ve uploaded your video you need to link it to your IMDb page, there are 2 methods of doing this and the quickest method is now written up in our latest blog post here – https://www.aether-productions.com/how-to-get-a-trailer-video-on-your-imdb-page/
If for whatever reason the above method isn’t working for you then there is an alternative, slower method – from practice this takes about 2 months to work so please bear this in mind! But just to be safe and cover all bases here goes:
Firstly log in to your Withoutabox account and then on your main account page scroll down and click ‘My Videos’
You’ll then be redirected to IMDb and all of your videos associated with that account will be visible. Then click the video you wish to make your trailer and it will then show your video info page similar to this:
Scroll right down to the bottom of the page and click ‘How do I report video problems?’
Then from the drop-down wording, click ‘suggest corrections for IMDb title, series or names associated with this video’
This then opens the ‘Submit Feedback’ page. From the first screen. select the option ‘ This video should be assigned to a particular title. ‘ and click ‘Continue’.
Then on the final page just click the option of ‘Another title:’ and from the search bar beside it, search for the film title you wish to add this trailer to. Once you found it, select it and simply click ‘Submit’.
Voila! That’s it, it will now take IMDb a while to process and update this information so please be patient, but after about 2 months you should eventually see your trailer appear on your Title Page.
How to Change Details:
Before doing this my suggestion would be to make sure you have everything on a list that you want to change, it’s quite a long process and the last thing you want to do is submit all your changes and suddenly go “ah dammit I forgot about THIS!” and then have to do it all over again.
But it is a very simple method, you simply go to the film page on IMDb, scroll right to the bottom of the page where it says “Contribute to This Page” and click ‘Edit Page’.
This will redirect you to a page full of options which will allow you to select what you want to change, from here you simply fill in all the details on the next page and it will guide you through everything step by step. Once you’ve completed everything just submit your changes and they’ll be update within 14 days.
Please note that adding a credit is much simpler than if you plan on changing or removing a credit. To remove or change someones credit you have to supply IMDb with a very precise reason for why you are changing or removing the credit, so please bear this in mind and be prepared with a solid explanation since they do check this and if you don’t have a strong enough argument the credit will stay the same.
And that’s everything! We hope this helps some of you out, it’s something we had been trying to figure a simple solution for years and finally here it is! Feel free to check out our Google + profile.
