Something that has really gotten my goat lately is this pervading attitude that traditional distributors are bad for you. There’s a whole bunch of people out there trying to tell you – “don’t give away all your rights to some distributor…keep control of your rights and self-distribute so the money comes to your pocket, not theirs.”
I have a couple of problems with this….
First and foremost is the fact that some filmmakers just want to move on to their next film and not spend the next two years (at least) trying to market their DVD and push it out into the marketplace. You’re kidding yourself if you think it will take anything less than that… and all that to sell maybe a few hundred DVD’s? One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that if you sell your own DVD you’ll be able to sell a few thousand units. Do you know how difficult it is to sell even 1000 units of a DVD?
Yes there are exceptions out there but if you dig around for the back story (there’s always a back story!) you’ll find in most cases those filmmakers had extremely large existing audiences and/or marketing budgets.
I’m working with a client right now who was offered a traditional distribution deal. The deal is decent, but for various reasons she probably won’t make more than a couple thousand bucks over the course of the next two years with it. But that’s OK with her because she’s not interested in marketing her film for the next two years...she wants to move on to bigger opportunities! And this brings me to the second problem I have with self-distribution…
Like it or not the industry still rewards traditional distribution deals. What does that mean? Well if your goal is to become a working director/writer/producer and move up the ladder and make bigger and bigger films, then from a positioning standpoint it absolutely looks better to say your film was distributed by XYZ ‘known’ distributor, rather than saying you self-distributed it. I know many of you don’t want to hear this but it’s the truth.
So this same client I was referring to above – she was MUCH more interested in positioning herself for a future in this business, and therefore made the decision to take the traditional deal, forego ‘controlling her rights’ (do you really care about that ultimately?) and spending the next 2 years pushing the film, and is leveraging the traditional deal to move on to bigger and better opportunities.
Sometimes I wonder why people get so defensive about traditional distribution deals and how you’ll ‘never make any money from it’ and ‘they’ll control all your rights’…..well guess what: I know very few people making money from self-distributing their DVD’s and they’re all slogging away to try and market it to the same couple thousand FB fans who are tired of hearing their sales pitch!
So here’s my advice – self-distributing your DVD’s is a decision you should make very early on so you can spend a year or longer building up an email database of potential customers – much like Daryl Roberts did with his movie America The Beautiful – he spent an entire year touring the country with his film, collecting email addresses and building up his email database before launching his DVD. Not many filmmakers are prepared to give up their lives like that and spend the time and money necessary to build up an audience.
The bottom line is this: don’t kid yourself into thinking self-distribution is the way to go for everyone. Number one it depends on your goals and if you want to move into making higher budgeted films in the future. It also depends on whether you have the resources (time and money) to self-distribute your film effectively. Don’t delude yourself into thinking “oh I’ll sell DVD’s from my website and sell 1000 units and make some money” because that is much much harder than you think….
Thoughts? Comments? Am I full of it? Look forward to your opinions below…..
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I think in all cases, filmmakers need to think like marketers. Whether you are distributing yourself (yes, you need a following/budget and ideally both) or going traditional, I believe the overriding goal is to think who is going to be interested in your film and to market accordingly. If a distributor is largely vested in sci-fi and action adventure, that love story might not be the best pitch. The one thing I do is send out press releases early in the process. They help generate buzz and the oh so important press. Even a small mention is a mention.
Mark the point is that some people want to hand off the film and move on….so no not everyone needs to care about marketing. Leave that to the distributors (in this case) and move on to a bigger opportunity. There are opportunity costs (time) in pushing a film that will ultimately not yield much… that is if you have bigger things in the pipeline to begin with!
The one comment in this blogs intrigues me, “she’s not interested in marketing her film for the next two years…she wants to move on to bigger opportunities!” So many film makers are looking for investors to fund a “calling card” film. If you get money to make your film from investors you better be ready to work your ass off to promote and sell the film. This is a long term partnership – seven to ten years. We are now making this an important part of the contract to finance or co-produce a film, or if we are funding your “calling card” film are you willing to commit a percentage of you future earnings.
This is a very good point and why I said if you plan to self distribute, you want to accept the realities of that from the beginning of the process. Also in this case, she was working with investors who weren’t planning on recoupment…. so it didn’t matter. That’s the other factor here — what are your investors expectations/goals? Not always are they to make a profit or even recoup (some want to record a loss!)
Must be very careful with IRS and SEC, the intent of any investment must be to make a profit. That has been my experience when dealing with how we present investments relating to film. I think the big difference here is the difference between an “investor” and someone who believes and wants to help the film maker (Family and Friends). The second should not be taking write offs. My humble opinion – I am not a lawyer, I just played one on television commercials.
I agree with Ken. As a matterr of fact, I even bristle at filmmakers looking for “investors”, when they really mean “Donors”. When they have no intention of realistically making any profits, they are simply stealing from those they call Investors. Let’s be honest… Ask for donations with no expectation of a return on any investment when you really just intend to make your personal calling-card movie. “I hope we can make some money” is dishonest.
Agreed!
It comes down to two points of view. Are you making a movie for (1) profits, or (2) the artistic accomplishment of it? If it’s for the fun of it, the art of it, the message of it…wonderful. Just don’t pretend it’s also a business venture when you have to real plan to make a return on the business investment. Make the movie, Hand it over to a distributor. Go and makie another movie. Just hope you didn’t lie to a bunch of people telling them it was an “investment” when you should have made it very clear it was a “donation” with no expectation of a return.
If you intend the movie to be a business product… That’s a whole differrent thing…One few filmmakers know what they’re talking about… and yes, it is a two+ year commitment. If you can’t or won’t do that, don’t talk about “investors”. You’re not being honest.
Absolutely I agree with you Frank!
Agree!
I think you really have to know what route you want to take in this biz before you even start looking for money for a film. I have always said when you are starting out, it really is a calling card you are making. Which in turn, really means you should make your movie with your own money, or very small amounts from crowd funding. People there know you are trying to get a career, whether freelance, diy, both.
But if you take larger amounts of money from investors ($50-$250,000) they should know they are unlikely to see any money back. That’s why I shoot movies for under $5k. I can afford to give them away to build a mail list, maybe do a short tour for mail list, and also go to industry with my film as a calling card, remake potential.
That’s all I hear, holding on to your rights. That’s all very well, but if you are only selling 200 dvd’s, it’;s not really a life. It makes much more sense to make a cheap high concept no budget movie, and give it away for free for an email. That’s my approach.
I am fine with marketing my film for six months solid, but if I am going to sell one product (The film) for two years, it’s makes more sense to get into some other biz where you buy and sell lots of various products to a market. Filmmakers need to think their approach through more.
A combination of freelance, and diy to build an audience personally makes sense to me.
Great post.
David
I like what you say David. The last couple of years have been very discouraging to me (personally) with moviemaking. I see many people here in Northern Calif. that get all giddy with making their movie ( and no more thoughts about what comes next ) only to fall silent after a few film festivals. That’s it.. it now becomes a trophy to their ego sitting up on a shelf. All that effort… all the crafts people’s effort who freely gave of themselves and their work… are just sitting on that shelf. It’s sad.
So I stopped making movies the last couple of years… but I know there will come that moment when I can’t help myself and will want to come back out with a new project. Now I will have to be honest with MYSELF. I’m not looking for a career in LA…otherwise I should have moved there. So my next movies will be for my art… and for the most part, self-funded.
Agree!!
I think you really have to know what route you want to take in this biz before you even start looking for money for a film. I have always said when you are starting out, it really is a calling card you are making. Which in turn, really means you should make your movie with your own money, or very small amounts from crowd funding. People there know you are trying to get a career, whether freelance, diy, both.
But if you take larger amounts of money from investors ($50-$250,000) they should know they are unlikely to see any money back. That’s why I shoot movies for under $5k. I can afford to give them away to build a mail list, maybe do a short tour for mail list, and also go to industry with my film as a calling card, remake potential.
That’s all I hear, holding on to your rights. That’s all very well, but if you are only selling 200 dvd’s, it’;s not really a life. It makes much more sense to make a cheap high concept no budget movie, and give it away for free for an email. That’s my approach.
I am fine with marketing my film for six months solid, but if I am going to sell one product (The film) for two years, it’s makes more sense to get into some other biz where you buy and sell lots of various products to a market. Filmmakers need to think their approach through more.
A combination of freelance, and diy to build an audience personally makes sense to me.
Great post.
David
You mentioned self-distribution via DVD.
There are strategies for getting your indie film onto iTunes .. by exploiting a loophole in the Apple policies.
There’s a discussion of it here: http://bit.ly/uDNvTY
Mac
I have two movies on VOD PPV in the US and Canada with the potential of millions of viewers. One of these movies has two well known marketable actors. It is still difficult to make sales and takes a huge effort to get over the top and make a profit. Don’t kid yourself, if you don’t have a marketing and advertising campaign with some money behind it, you’re in for a surprise if you think the money is just going to roll in. My next movie is going to use the tax incentives and pre-sales with a good sales agent which I now have.
Hi Charles, thanks so much for sharing your experience with us here on IFB. And keep us posted on the next film!
Thanks for sharing Charles. I would love to hear about some actual numbers someday if you were so inclined. I realize that is very proprietary information, but your experiences are also very “real world” and valuable.
With my first film, Never Say Macbeth, we took a deal with a traditional DVD distributor. We saw some money, although not much. The value came from the places they were able to get us – iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, video stores, and some internet-based VOD platforms. And since there was a DVD release and the movie was really available through normal channels, we were able to get 6 Rotten Tomatoes reviews (all fresh). But now with my new film, Desperate Acts of Magic, I am not sure if I would take the same deal. The video stores are gone. Netflix takes very few indies. You can get on iTunes a variety of ways. Of course, a deal with a big distributor who can get us in theatres or onto cable VOD has appeal. But what is the upside of going with a traditional DVD distributor when DVD is going away?
Hi Joe, thanks for sharing your experience. To answer your question, the upside of going with a traditional DVD distributor at this point is that DVD is still the main revenue source for independent films believe it or not. Also, like in the example I gave above, if you’re at the point where you want to move on from the film and on to the next, then going with a distributor could be the right choice for you (like I said, some people don’t want to spend another 2 years marketing the film…there’s opportunity costs to that in addition to hard costs).
It is possible, as a filmmaker, to consider hybrid distribution models – so intelligent investors know you’re serious about profit – without getting tied up personally for two years. You budget up front for it, the marketing & distribution and the corresponding personnel. When the time comes you can oversee, while still moving on to your next project.
A film business, if that’s what you want, can’t be a one man show anyway. I think it’s really just a matter of how in-house you’re going to keep it. Surely, any legitimate business will want as much revenue as possible flowing through their own organization.
Using money to fund a calling card is an entirely different proposition – especially on paper. I wouldn’t know how to write a ‘business plan’ for a calling card project.
Matt,
Specifically what kind of hybrid strategy are you referring to? Bottom line is that if you’re going to hire personnel to carry out your self distribution marketing, it will probably cost you more than you can end up making (at least in the theatrical sense).
Stacey
Hi Stacey,
I’d call any combination of ‘traditional’ mixed with ‘DIY’ a hybrid strategy. And for us, ‘DIY’ means hiring the right personnel (such as the growing PMD position being spoken of).
In terms of cost versus profit, it seems that the indie ‘producer’ isn’t doing so well ‘traditional’ or ‘hybrid’. The sales agents and distributors are probably seeing the greatest revenue flowing through their organizations; not the producers.
Being that sales and distribution isn’t rocket science, why shouldn’t producers (as business owners) grow their businesses in that direction?
Thanks for the informative blog and surrounding community.
Matt