There are so many options nowadays for filmmakers with completed films. For example, you can easier then every before approach domestic distributors directly, hook up with a foreign sales agent to exploit your film’s rights overseas, upload your film to internet VOD platforms, self-distribute your film into theaters, and so much more, including doing a combination of all of the above. But with all these options comes even more confusion! Over the last couple of weeks I’ve gotten more Consulting requests than usual, everyone in the same predicament of – I have a completed film but don’t know which direction to go with it. I call it Distribution Overwhelm.
So here’s my thoughts on this topic – there are many many ways to skin the distribution cat these days and no one way is right. But, you must think critically about which platforms are right for YOUR film. Meaning….. every film is different and thus will require a unique distribution strategy. Just because you’re in awe of someone’s results self distributing their film, doesn’t mean you can replicate their success…nor does it mean that self distribution is right for YOUR film. Because maybe the results you’re witnessing are the direct result of things going on behind the scenes like a really big marketing budget, or an entire team of people promoting the film online, or a really hungry target audience that has been cultivated and aggregated over several months. Bottom line is, with results of any kind, there’s always more than meets the eye.
On the other side of the coin, just because you hear about such-and-such film getting picked up for such-and-such acquisition price by a traditional distributor and your film happens to be similar to theirs, doesn’t even remotely guarantee that you’ll be able to get the same kind of price for your film. Because what most people don’t take into account are the credentials behind some of these films (and the filmmakers) that get acquired for these acquisition prices. That’s one of the biggest faux pas I see filmmakers make actually — thinking results are typical and therefore relatable to THEIR film.
So what strategy IS right for your film then? Like I said, every film is different. So when thinking about what type of distribution strategy to pursue for your project, take into consideration the following and try and answer these questions:
• Does your film have a distinct target audience to market to (critical if you want to pursue any type of self distribution) and where can you go to connect with them?
• Have you already started aggregating your target audience? If so, how?
• Are you planning to submit to film festivals? If so, what is your bigger strategy around that?
• Would your film benefit from a platform theatrical release? If so, do you already have an adequate budget set aside for that? If you don’t, can you raise more money from investors or sponsors?
• Is your film better suited to go straight to DVD in the traditional sense (carving out the rights of course to sell DVD’s off your own website)
• Do you want your film represented to foreign distributors at Film Markets like AFM, Berlin, and Cannes? If so, what is your plan for getting there?
• In what order do you plan to release your film to take best advantage of all the platforms available?
• and the list goes on…..
As I’m sure you’ve already figured out, determining what to do with your finished film these days can be overwhelming. Mostly because there are so many choices and directions you can go (plagued by choice?) and order in which you can do them.
I’d love to hear your thoughts though — anyone in the position of having a completed (or near completed) film and wondering which way to go? What are your plans for your completed film?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a documentary that I just released in may 2010 called Outside My Window Documentary. I started out with a trailer on YouTube http://youtu.be/CKz-yFcZDu0 with 1,052,557 views so far it is also available for rent on Youtube.com and for sale at amazon.com as well as my own website http://www.firstmind-ent.com/ I have decided to spread out my distribution opportunity by applying for distribution with several companies so far until yesterday I’ve been getting the sorry not interested please submit more films in the future. Recently I discovered a company willing to give me a digital distribution agreement so that a start.
Since I’m following more the Roger Corman model of “small is beautiful”, my company has become a releasing partner with the new YouTube Rentals platform. This is a first step in the every evolving internet digital release concept. There will be many more companies that will be offering similar opportunities in the very near future. I have producer friends that have actually turned down distribution deals in favor of this internet trend. Once they ran the numbers, they believe that they can potentially generate more income from something like YouTube Rentals than the upfront money from the small distributors…and as we all know, that will probably be all the money they will ever see from them.
Bottom line…Many of us are focusing on internet streaming AND retaining the rights to our movies.
Just thought I’d share my distribution experience. I completed my low budget feature, “L.A. Proper” (http://www.vimeo.com/12222119), in 2008. The movie won the Heineken Red Star Filmmaking after screening at a film festival in Los Angeles at the Beverly Center, and I was profiled in Variety and on IFC.com (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid10791390001?bctid=1743188546).
However, I was unable to land a distributor. A few months passed and I decided to recut the movie. I received positive responses to everyone I showed it to, so that gave me the confidence to embark on the path of self-distribution. I held screenings/parties for the movie in Los Angeles and on the East Coast and began selling the DVD from a blog. I also set the movie up to be purchased via VOD on Amazon and Indieflix. My sells were not particularly strong, but the founder of a small distributor on the East Coast happened across an interview I did for my hometown newspaper and requested a screener.
Two months later I had a distribution deal with an advance equal to 60% of the movie’s budget.
What I learned from this experience is that we must do whatever we can to get eyeballs on our work. Looking back, I regret not having DVDs to sell during festivals. In the future I will consider going “day and date” with my work. In other words, if I’m lucky to get into another festival, I will plan to have DVD and VOD purchase options available during the festival to take advantage of whatever buzz my screenings might create.
Just thought I’d share my distribution experience. I completed my low budget feature, “L.A. Proper” http://www.vimeo.com/12222119, in 2008. The movie won the Heineken Red Star Filmmaking after screening at a film festival in Los Angeles at the Beverly Center, and I was profiled in Variety and on IFC.com (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid10791390001?bctid=1743188546).
However, I was unable to land a distributor. A few months passed and I decided to recut the movie. I received positive responses to everyone I showed it to, so that gave me the confidence to embark on the path of self-distribution. I held screenings/parties for the movie in Los Angeles and on the East Coast and began selling the DVD from a blog. I also set the movie up to be purchased via VOD on Amazon and Indieflix. My sells were not particularly strong, but the founder of a small distributor on the East Coast happened across an interview I did for my hometown newspaper and requested a screener.
Two months later I had a distribution deal with an advance equal to 60% of the movie’s budget.
What I learned from this experience is that we must do whatever we can to get eyeballs on our work. Looking back, I regret not having DVDs to sell during festivals. In the future I will consider going “day and date” with my work. In other words, if I’m lucky to get into another festival, I will plan to have DVD and VOD purchase options available during the festival to take advantage of whatever buzz my screenings might create.
Thanks everyone for sharing your comments and experiences!
@ Johnny and @ Frank, I look forward to hearing how You Tube rentals works out for you guys, especially revenue-wise. Is that your main revenue stream right now?
@ Barry, what a great success story getting picked up for traditional distribution after all that! Do you mind saying who the distributor is and what the release plan is?
Stacey*
Thanks for the article. This is exactly how I feel and its a little bit of paralysis by analysis. I completed a raunchy, young male comedy called “Thrust” in 2008 and it got a pretty good response from appropriate crowds at a few festivals (trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxCpYEBeOA).
Unfortunately, the search for a sales agent was fruitless from the start. However, I work for a distribution company and realized the costs to distribute my no-budget film don’t add up to getting a distributor. E&O insurance is a few thousand bucks alone plus the creative and master delivery.
Without name talent or a following I was staring at no advance, no marketing support and little sales. So essentially I’d be spending $5-10k out of my pocket to maybe see a few hundred bucks in royalties over a few years. Being on the inside, even that paltry result rarely happens.
Now I’m looking at self-distribution and creative marketing techniques. But the work ahead is daunting which is why this article hits it on the nose with all the options available. It doesn’t matter if your movie’s budget is $50 million or $5,000, you have to be smart about risk. You can’t just throw 5 times the production budget at marketing hoping lightning will strike.
At the no-budget level you’re asking yourself how much of my valuable time and personal savings am I throwing into this and how much money will I make. I’ve come to the conclusion that the money I spend is not just to sell units but to establish my credibility as a filmmaker so people might recognize my name and I can get phone calls returned and take meetings on a bigger project. Thinking big picture. I have to look at it like its a marathon, not a sprint.
…..Just because you’re in awe of someone’s results self distributing their film, doesn’t mean you can replicate their success…HERE IS A GREAT BOOK I FOUND http://www.marketingmovies.net/chapters/chapter-12-prints-ads-funds/
Our first feature, Diary of a Bad Lad, is performing very strongly on the UK DVD market; and we have a deal for two more films, with our second, “Tash Force” being released before Xmas.
We only got to be in this position by doing (and continuing to do) a heck of a lot ourselves – and if we hadn’t received an offer we’d have been mad to refuse, we’d still be “self-distributing” like mad.
Along the way we discovered that some of what we’d done had been major mistakes. There are far too many lessons for me to write here, but I did put them altogether under the title, “Postcards from the Edge”, on my blog at http://www.pleasedsheep.com
Best wishes from the writer/producer
@ Jon, thanks for posting your experiences on your blog. Here’s the exact thread I found in case anyone else wants to check it out. Good stuff!
http://www.pleasedsheep.com/forums/blog/8/entry-105-postcards-from-the-edge-lessons-learned-from-producing-‘diary-of-a-bad-lad’/
Our first feature never garnered a deal. But we had a great hook that were able to leverage. We never wanted to self distribute, but once we figured out our strategy, I can’t think of two many reasons why a traditional deal would make sense. It is very empowering to know that you can make movies and make money making movies without the middleman!
Our first feature never garnered a deal. But we had a great hook that we were able to leverage. We never wanted to self distribute, but once we figured out our strategy, I can’t think of too many reasons why a traditional deal would make sense. It is very empowering to know that you can make movies and make money making movies without the middleman!
We all like to think our film has an audience that is dying to see it. But distribution – even self distribution – doesn’t look easy. Think about some of the shady characters you’ve met who call themselves “distributors” or “sales agents.” Could they write, direct and produce a good film? I doubt it. But let’s be honest, will we be any better at their job then they would be at ours? I sure hope so.
Currently trying to raise money for feature length film to be shot on film (16mm in Super16 format). When completed, we intend to finish out onto digital video media, DVD disks. We intend to release the move ourselves in cinemas throughout the United States and Canada. One of our ultimate aims is to establish our new motion picture distribution company.
I love this topic. thx! =D
I am currectly filming my first movie “Foot Soldiers”. Even before I started filming and during pre-production I began to reach out to what I think is my target audience, i.e. mentorship organizations. “Foot Soldiers” is about the relationship between a mentor and his mentee. I plan to four wall in select urban cities, have the DVD available for purchase then, to sell it via my website, Amazon, CreateSpace, and hopefully in bulk to the mentorship organizations and with their help to their members. I intend to enter it into urban film festival in Atlanta, NYC, LA.
The very thought and planning that goes into self-distributing a film can be overwhelming. You would think that after going through the tedium of creating a feature-length film something as simple as putting the movie in the right hands should be a cinch… As I start to look towards my next film one of the daunting truths is that I have to make sure that as an independent filmmaker my pictures must have a great hook. I have to combine this absolute with the type of quality that I demand from myself as an artist. We’ll see… as for now just check out my trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0joAG1YF_II
Thank you so much for putting this topic up for discussion. Being a writer/director/actor I have been learning about the business as it comes at me and going through pretty much everything everyone has listed before me, especially now. Discussing with my acting studio they always say create the trailor before creating the actually film so if any major company is interested you can get paid for the filming and distribution, and if not then film and head to the festivals. I know a trailor needs to be made for distribution purposes to attract interest to see if someone would want to distribute the film. What factors indicate that a film should go theatrical release or direct to dvd? Also how do you go about doing either? What do you think is the best distribution process? If one is to go direct to dvd, what are some of the better companies to go to for distribution? In concerns of going international, how do you go about international distribution and film festivals? And when going to film festivals, what should be in the mind geared towards distribution if accepted? My apologies for all the questions, my company and myself really appreciate the feedback and guidance!
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