How to support your favorite movies, filmmakers and artists when you are broke.

We've all been there. You just watched an awesome film that you want to support. But you spent your weekly paycheck on to much ice cream while watching said movie because you were stressed out and now you gotta budget like there's no tomorrow. While it's true that money will be the biggest way you can financially support your favorite filmmakers and artists, there are tons of other ways to help us out to that don't require a cent. Your wallet can breath a sigh of relief.

This ice cream was an wise investment, into my stomach.

There are usually two main ways to watch a film online. One is to buy/rent the movie on a site like Amazon prime or iTunes, and the other way is to stream it on a ad-supported service like Tubi or Plex. Watching the movie on a ad-supported service can be of great benefit. The benefit being that you can just put the movie on in the background while cooking dinner, cleaning the house, or playing a videogame. This way the film gets more watch time to bump it up in the recommendations and every time an ad break is happening, the film maker is making money. It's a win-win! You can grind your watch time with your favorite movies to help support them.

Other key aspect that is often overlooked are reviews. There are two main database websites that movie goers will check out, which are IMdB, and Letterboxd. Taking a few minutes and leaving a review on the movie greatly helps out us out more then you think. Not only are you leaving feedback for the film maker, but reviews are helping the film get found online. If you leave one detailed review on IMdB, why not cross post it to LetterBoxd and kill two birds with one stone. Reviews can give an film credibility and help to facilitate word of mouth marketing and referrals. If you watched the movie on Amazon or iTunes, consider dropping an review on those sites as well to help impact purchasing decisions. Trust me when I say, when you a leave a review, the filmmaker is most definitely going to read it. So it's also your chance to engage with the film maker as well.

The power of an review can help to launch a film and get more people to see the movie.

Another big way to support us is by subscribing to our Youtube channels and social media accounts. An Youtube account needs 1000 subscribers before it can even be monetized, so subbing to their channel can be a stepping stone to that goal. Commenting and liking the videos on Youtube can go a long way as well. Remember when I said the film maker is going to read those reviews, they will most likely read and react to your comments on Youtube as well. (If they are not already receiving a large amount of comments). Comments go a long way in boosting visibility in Youtube and Google search results. Another way to help videos on youtube is use the same strategy we used earlier with Tubi. By steaming a playlist or long video in the background, you are helping to boost the watch time and stats of the video. So say if a movie has an cool soundtrack, just dancing or studying to the music as you stream the soundtrack on youtube is helping them out.

Of course, a blog post like this wouldn't be complete without talking about sharing. Sharing is caring as they say. But we're not talking about sharing that mouthwatering candy bar on your desk. Keep that to yourself, you've earned it. But by sharing posts or the movie online or word of mouth is an great assistance. Another epic gain you can do is just telling the film maker that the movie made you laugh, smile, or cry. Nothing motivates us more then hearing that. We seriously power up like Mario eating a mushroom.

Oh man, you gotta check out this wicked crazy film I saw!

Now, of course, if you win the lottery and have an extra grand in your pocket that you don't need, sending that to the film maker is going to make them jump through the roof. (Which they will then need that grand to fix that hole) But as you can see, if you have a little bit of spare time you can put that to great use for the film maker and their movies.