What I Put in the HAPTIC EPK - and Why

An EPK can sound more official than it feels when you are making an independent film.

Electronic Press Kit. Press kit. Festival kit. Distribution materials. Whatever name gets used, the purpose is pretty simple: give people the information they need to understand the film, talk about the film, and decide whether the film fits what they are looking for.

That’s it.

Not glamorous, but VERY useful.

When I rebuilt the EPK for HAPTIC, I tried to stop thinking of it as a marketing document and start thinking of it as a working tool. Festivals need clear information. Press needs approved language. Distributors need technical details, rights status, and access points. Programmers need to quickly understand what the film is, what it is not, and whether it fits their audience.

If the EPK makes any of that harder, it is not doing its job.

For HAPTIC, the kit opens with the clearest version of the film’s identity: a queer psychological drama about control, therapy, and the truths we hide from ourselves. From there, it moves into the practical details — title, genre, runtime, completion date, premiere status, country of origin, language, aspect ratio, sound format, captions, and where the film was made.

That may sound basic, but that's the point.

A good EPK should answer the obvious questions before anyone has to ask them.

After the details, I included the logline, short synopsis, long synopsis, director’s statement, production notes, cast, crew, director biography, selected film stills, press access, screening access, distribution information, exhibition formats, technical specs, and contact information.

It adds up quickly, but each section has a job.

The logline gives someone the fastest possible read on the story. The short synopsis gives festivals and press something concise to use. The long synopsis gives more context without requiring someone to watch the full film first. The director’s statement explains why the film exists and how I approached it creatively. The production section gives the film context: first feature, shot in Richmond, microbudget, nine days of principal photography, small local cast and crew.

It's that context that's important.

Independent films are often judged before they are seen. The EPK is one way to frame the film accurately before that happens. For example: The cast and crew sections are not just credits. They make the work visible. The stills are not just decoration. They help people understand tone, performance, and visual style. The technical section is not filler. It tells a festival, venue, or distributor whether the film can actually be delivered in the format they need.

This is where I think a lot of indie filmmakers, myself included, can overcomplicate things.

The EPK does not need to oversell the film. It needs to be accurate, clear, and easy to use.

No invented momentum. No vague “industry buzz.” No festival laurels that do not exist yet. No language that makes the film sound like something it is not.

With HAPTIC, I wanted the materials to feel honest because that is what the film is. It is intimate, character-driven, psychological, and grounded. If the EPK made it feel like a high-concept thriller or a big commercial genre piece, that might get attention for a second, but it would create the wrong expectation and wouldn't help the film reach a wider audience.

The other thing I learned is that an EPK should serve more than one audience without becoming scattered. HAPTIC’s kit is built for press, festivals, and distribution, but those audiences overlap more than people think. They all need to know what the film is, who made it, how to talk about it, and how to access the right materials.

So my practical advice is this: Build the EPK around usefulness, not ego.

Start with the facts. Make the language accurate. Include approved copy people can use. Give them strong images. Make access easy. Include technical information before someone has to chase you for it. And make sure the tone of the kit matches the tone of the film.

The EPK will not make the film better, but it can make the film easier to understand, easier to share, easier to program, easier to cover, and easier to consider - so important for an independent film.

To view and download the full EPK, visit haptic.film and scroll to the bottom of the homepage.