Curious about real VOD (Video On Demand) numbers? I’ve been getting asked that question a LOT lately and so I want to try and showcase some filmmakers who are actually generating revenue from VOD platforms, and hopefully give you a few tips along the way

This first case study I unearthed is from Ryan Barton-Grimley on his film THE TRUTH. You may remember Ryan from the case study I did with him a few years ago called “Packaging Indie Films”, and then the follow up we did last year called “The Truth: 2 Years Later”. (if you haven’t listened to those yet I highly recommend them!)

Anyway, Ryan went on to get distribution for his film THE TRUTH (both foreign and domestic) but the biggest revenue stream for him turned out to be VOD. This is becoming true for many filmmakers and sometimes comes as a bit of a surprise, but it’s always welcome!

So in preparation for today’s Virtual Seminar with Michael Murphy of Gravitas Ventures (VOD aggregator), here’s a little VOD progress report from Ryan to give you some real world context. I’ll continue to collect these VOD case studies and certainly if you are a VOD success story, please email me and let me know!

Oh, and if you’re looking for additional resources, here’s a previous interview I did with Michael Murphy from a couple years ago talking all about VOD called “Making VOD Distribution Work For You”.

And now….enter Ryan:

What’s the name and website of your film?

“THE TRUTH” www.thetruthisalwayscomplicated.com

What’s the budget range of your film and which ‘names’ are in it?

$500k. John Heard, Brendan Sexton III, Daniel Baldwin, Erin Cardillo

How did VOD distribution fit into your overall distribution plan for the film?

It was a minor part of our plan going in. At the time it was untested, seemed like a long shot, but DVD distribs seemed to be going belly-up all around us, so we went for it and made all our other deals around it.

How did you go about getting VOD distribution – did you work with an aggregator and what kind of deal did you make?

We worked with Gravitas Ventures

Once your film premiered on VOD how did you drive sales?

We used Facebook and Twitter and hoped for the best.

What range of revenue have you made so far with VOD and what are you projecting will still come in?

We’ve made about 75K including our Netflix streaming and are hoping for another 15K or 35K if Netflix streaming reups our film. (editors note: Ryan is the rare case of an indie getting paid an advance from Netflix for streaming rights – this certainly had something to do with the fact that he had name cast in his film).

Any mistakes you made along the way in terms of VOD distribution or things you would do differently next time?

Nope, it was the only part of our deal that we got right. I guess I could have paid for PR to spread the word more, but not sure if that would have made us more real money in the end.

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So there you have it! Comments or questions for us? Just post them below. I look forward to hearing how YOU’VE done with VOD!

In last week’s post I talked about Finding A Producer For Your Film, but what if you’re like me and you ARE the producer of your film – not the writer looking for a Producer, but the ‘buck stops here’ one responsible for raising financing for your film Producer?

Well I wanted to share with you some things that I’m focusing on right now with my own projects and hopefully it will help others of you out there too. To refresh your memory on my story and how I got here – I’m a former foreign sales agent turned Producer. I’ve Produced in the past and have now come full circle after several years on the sales side of things. I have to say, I feel very lucky to come back to Producing after my experience in sales – not least because I now have all the necessary relationships with buyers to pre-sell my movies. Prior to being a sales agent I worked in the Talent Agency world, so I also know how to package my projects with talent without having a stitch of financing in place.

The winning equation that’s really working for me right now is this:

Relationships with buyers + Packaging talent = A killer combo!

OK enough about me – I just wanted to give you a context of where I’m coming from. I’m not a Producer coming up through the ‘creative’ ranks per se….. I’m a producer coming up through the sales, financing, and packaging ranks.

So what am I focusing on right now?

A Diversified Portfolio – Web, TV, and Film … yes, all at once

Several Irons In The Fire – 6 projects on the development slate? Check. Out to multiple talent at once? Check Check.

Letting Go – I think perhaps the most valuable quality a producer can have is the ability to let go and move on when something doesn’t work out. There’s always the next project!

What about you? What keeps you sane as a Producer and what are you choosing to focus on right now?

The second Micro Budget Case Study in our series is Chad Haufschild’s WAKE THE WITCH.  Similar to our first case study, the WAKE THE WITCH filmmakers also took advantage of traditional distribution deals to pursue profitability.  However because they operated on a lower budget ($10K vs. $65K), WAKE THE WITCH has already achieved profitability, which is awesome!

So for now I’ll turn things over to Chad who was kind enough to write up a summary of his process. We hope that others can benefit from his journey with WAKE THE WITCH and if you have any questions for us, please put them in the comments section below. 

Enter Chad….

In 2008, Unfiltered Entertainment, Inc. produced a horror movie titled “Wake the Witch” for $10K.  Financing was raised from a generous group of family and friends. By late 2009, “Wake the Witch” post production was completed.

In early 2010 “Wake the Witch” was picked up by Gravitas Distribution for Video on Demand, Blockbuster streaming and Amazon streaming.  In the summer of 2010 Eagle One Distribution picked up “Wake the Witch” for DVD distribution in the U.S. and DVD/digital distribution in the U.S., UK and Ireland.  In early 2011 Eagle One put “Wake the Witch” on iTunes worldwide which put us in nearly every English speaking country, and then in late 2011 Gravitas got “Wake the Witch” a 2 year Netflix streaming deal for $15K.  

Thanks to our distribution deals, Unfiltered has been able to pay the original investors back.  As the distribution dollars continue to trickle in we hope to recoup enough to give some return to the cast and crew, as well as put some aside for a future film.

How we did it:

1) We did our research. We knew the horror genre has a ravenous fan base, doesn’t require name actors and is willing to look past low-budget production quality – all perfect for a micro-budget film.

2) We planned for distributor needs.  That meant having a professional photographer on set taking scene stills and behind the scenes photos.  Making sure all our legal paperwork was in place.  Having a professional graphic designer design the poster and DVD elements.  Setting up a website with cast and crew bios, plot synopsis, a from-the-set blog updated weekly, behind the scene pics, etc.  Building a press kit.  Being stringent about avoiding copyrighted music or products.  

3)We promoted the technology.  First we focused on making the absolute best use of all our tech – cameras, lighting, audio, post-production software.  Then we promoted the tech we were using in web forums.  Finally we reached out to the companies that made the hardware and software we were using, thanked them, shared our experiences and offered to promote their products in press releases and articles.

Wrap Up:

Distribution money continues to come in from “Wake the Witch”.  Meanwhile, Unfiltered has moved on, completing production of another micro budget horror in 2011, “Blood Rites”.  Post-production is almost complete and we are planning to reach out to our “Wake the Witch” distributors with the new movie in March of 2012.

We’ll do a few things differently this time.  We originally planned to self-distribute “Wake the Witch” and had set up on-line stores to sell DVDs before we got on VOD. That actually hurt our VOD deal, as the larger cable companies prefer pre-DVD releases. For “Blood Rites” we’ll be ready to offer them that exclusivity. 

Our on-line promotion (social media/press releases/articles) for “Wake the Witch” really started when we got the VOD deal. This time we’ll do that work beforehand to build an aware fan base that will be looking for the movie on VOD.

It’s certainly not easy and definitely requires a committed team, but the “Wake the Witch” experience has taught Unfiltered Entertainment that micro-budget films can be financially successful. 

Wake The Witch links:

http://www.unfiltered-ent.com/

http://www.wakethewitchmovie.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wake-the-Witch/

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Additional Resources:

Steps To Getting Your Micro Budget Off The Ground (Part One) – CLICK HERE

** Upcoming ** Steps To Getting Your Micro Budget Off The Ground (Part Two) – CLICK HERE

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Any questions or comments? Just post them below!

Got a Micro Budget Success Story you’d like to share? Email me and tell me about it!

I’ve been promising you guys for a couple weeks that I was going to come up with some Micro Budget case studies – basically to showcase some of the filmmakers who are experiencing success at this budget level (success being defined as getting distribution for their films, achieving profitability, or both).

If you attended my Virtual Seminar last week on Micro Budgets, you know how important genre, cast, and budget can be even at this level (by the way Part 2 of the Virtual Seminar will take place on Jan.23 where I’ll be talking about financing, production, and distribution). So these case studies here on the blog will hopefully show you how to put everything into practice – also what works, doesn’t work, and what everyone would do differently next time.  Reading case studies like this are a great way to shorten your own learning curve!

So without further ado, I’ll introduce you to our first case study…. Gavin Rapp and his film TRAPPED. Take it away Gavin….

What is the name and log line of your film?

TRAPPED

The suicide was easy, getting away with everything else could be murder. . .

What is the website for your film?

www.wintermorningpictures.com

What is the budget of your film?

65k

What ‘names’ were in your film if any?

On our first feature “Trapped” we worked with Corbin Bernsen and Tom Atkins.

How did you finance your film?

With Equity Investments. Our investors get 90% back of everything we make up and till the recoup 110% then we split the ongoing profits 60/40 for us for perpetuity our investments was all Equity, and we also took advantage of the PA tax credit as well. (which was a lot of work)

How are you distributing your film?

We went the traditional distribution route and didn’t get any advances for our deals (we have a U.S and Canadian distribution deals). The deal with our distributors is that they get 25% each for any sales, and they also get to recoup P&A and expenses incurred for the sales over each quarter then we get the rest (which isn’t much). We signed  5 year deals, we have 3 more to go. Our distributors said it it usually in the 3rd year when we should start to see a profit on the sales then the rights come back to us which we will then keep and sell on our own through our website and “CreateSpace”

Why did you decide to do traditional distribution instead of self-distribution right away?

we thought about self distributing vs. traditional and wanted to see what if anything we could learn by going the traditional route first since we had a couple distributors interested. We sold about 500 copies of the movie on our own before we got the distribution option, and decided as a team to go for it to see how it would play out. That way we knew both sides of our options, we knew how to distribute and promote on our own (which is a heck of a lot of work, and we didn’t budget enough on our first feature to really promote it ourselves ), so when presented with an option to get into all of the Big Box retailers, even if for a couple of days, and then have an option to get “Trapped” onto cable and VOD we decided to go Traditional. 

How did festivals play into your distribution strategy?

We didn’t really do to many festivals. We didn’t have the money. We had a premiere in Pittsburgh and were in a local theater for a weekend. (which was very hard to wrangle as well. No theaters played dvd’s so we had to transfer everything to DVCAM and then go spec out theaters to see how the film would look on the big screen. Sometimes we couldn’t even see the picture. Then we’d have to go back to Final Cut to turn up our brightness on the whole movie, and then get a DVCAM tape made again and then go back out to theaters to test it again. That took months. 

What are some of the obstacles (if any) that you encountered and how did you overcome them?

It seems that in making movies on whatever budget scale, everything and anything can be an obstacle. It all matters on how you look at your situation. After making 2 indie features I have become accustomed to the landscape of production. It is always a pressure cooker. You never have enough time, energy, or money. I can say that I learned to delegate and hold responsible the people we work with. My first feature I was answering every last question from everyone, and I feel that the production suffered because of that, i.e. , when’s the food coming to the set, who’s getting it, where are the bathrooms, so and so can’t get a ride to the set today can you give them a ride, and on and on.  I feel that with an extremely small crew of 4, I was overwhelmed. On my second feature, I made sure we had a few more experienced people on set to distribute the workload, such as a 1^st AD, and a couple more grips, and we added additional responsibility to our production manager. With a total of 5 to 6 people working it was a big help and enabled me to concentrate more on the performances and specific shots I needed to get from our 2 sometimes 3 camera set ups.

What were some of your biggest mistakes or wastes of time/money?

I can’t name any really big mistakes we made on this feature. We had everything mapped out and had weekly production meetings to help us stay on course.

What resources or tools did you find most helpful during production, post, and/or distribution?

I would have to say our resources were both people and technology. A lot of local folks love to help out artists especially movie-makers. We would find out what locations we would need, and then would offer locals a chance to be in the movie as an extra. We had people offer places of business to shoot in, period cars, clothing, etc all for free. On the tech side we shoot HD and use our laptops with final cut, to edit the picture. All of which is pretty affordable.

Did you recoup your investors’ money?

We have made some money back but not break even yet.

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I shot every weekend for two months. Which is a real drag. I also work full time at FedEx as their multi media specialist. So needless to say it was a grind. I don’t really want to do that again. I would rather shoot straight through 26-30 days and be finished with production. I would also make sure that you have an agreement with all named actors to be at the premieres. We didn’t do that, and Corbin and Tom were “busy” and didn’t show. I won’t do that again. . .

What are your next steps from here?

Thanks to your insight and posts on your website Film Specific about distribution and sales agents, we were able to send out screeners and Trapped was picked up for distribution.. Since we went with a traditional type of distribution we will just have to wait it out and see what happens. We are supposed to be on VOD and Cable this year. So we’ll see if that happens or not. It is a long, slow process.

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Thanks Gavin for sharing! Any questions for us? Just post them below in the comments section. And if you have a Micro Budget success story that you’d like to share, please email me and let me know.

For many of you, selling your script to a Producer is your primary goal in the business. Maybe the thought of independently producing it yourself is unappealing (especially the part about finding money!)….or you’ve ‘been there, done that’ on a previous project and want to move up the ladder now …. or maybe you’re just not a producer at all, and want to focus on writing and/or directing as the main focus of your career.

Whatever the case may be, you don’t have to feel ashamed! Just know what your goals are from the outset and proceed accordingly

In the case of FS Members Alejandro Seri and Johnny Silver, they worked on their project FINAL GIRL for a good couple years before finding and attaching A-list producers Prospect Park. You can read the Variety press release here. For them, selling their script up the food chain was an ideal scenario for a variety of reasons.

Because I know many of you are in a similar position and want to get your script set up in 2012, I asked Alejandro to recount his journey to us here in IFB, in hopes that it will inspire some of you to follow in their footsteps. Check it out below and feel free to ask us any questions you have below in the comments section.

Timeline for FINAL GIRL

• In early 2009, Johnny Silver, Alejandro Seri and Stephen Scarlata take a close look at their screenplays and realize that it is time to diversify the slate from the quality character-driven festival fare and high budget action scripts they had written up to then.  In order to jumpstart their writing careers, they decide to go for a logistically simple, low budget genre film with a hook.  They start developing the female-driven Thriller, FINAL GIRL.  Drawing from his music video career, Johnny is to produce while festival-winning feature director, Alejandro, is to helm.  At the time, Alejandro was still working as the Marketing Director at Final Draft.

• Some months later, FINAL GIRL was accepted into the 2009 NALIP Latino Producers Academy (LPA).  Johnny Silver attended solo as attached Co-Writer/Director Alejandro was homebound expecting the birth of his son.

• Johnny receives mentoring from Stacey Parks at the LPA in New Mexico.  Her suggestions include marketing advice and possible distribution strategies.  What also comes to light at this lab is making a more realistic adjustment of the budget considering the possible distribution returns in today’s marketplace.  Stacey hammers home the idea of approaching the business of producing FINAL GIRL with innovative marketing strategies in mind.

 • Johnny and Alejandro become members of Film Specific, following more of Stacey’s advice and become inspired by other members’ success stories.

 • Johnny, Alejandro and Stephen rewrite the script so they can execute it as a contained film for a $250K budget.  Johnny & Alejandro are still attached at this time to produce & direct, respectively.

 • Heeding Stacey’s advice, the filmmakers create their marketing & distribution plan.  Alejandro enlists Maria Banos to create a poster and artwork.  He utilizes his background in entertainment marketing to create copy.  The three writers develop a bible for a web series called THE SEEDS which would follow FINAL GIRL’s characters in their early years and show how each developed into the archetypes they would become in the feature project.  They also developed some social media marketing schemes.  The plan is to begin pre-marketing the project before the feature is even shot.

• Johnny and Alejandro are accepted into the NALIP Latino Media Market to pitch FINAL GIRL to development execs, agents and managers.  The filmmakers take the conference by storm, armed with a full size poster, lobby cards and enough cash to buy plenty of drinks at the hotel bar.  They tackle each pitch starting from a business discussion.  They lay out their marketing plan first, then distribution expectations.  The execs eat it up, commenting on how refreshing it is to meet with screenwriters who are also business men.  The marketing plan leaves such a great impression, that even when the execs were not looking for material like FINAL GIRL; they want to develop relationships in order to find other projects to work with them on.  After the pitch sessions, the two block off a corner at the bar and start the real networking with the folks they met earlier.  Many of these executives, producers and managers remain part of their growing “sphere of influence” today.  That conference was the tipping point.  It was the moment they knew they were going to make this film and their careers happen.

• Stephen’s solo project, JODOROWSKY’S DUNE, gets announced at Cannes and in the Hollywood Reporter.  The Sci-Fi doc focuses on the story of cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempts to film Frank Herbert‘s novel Dune in the 1970′s, one of cinema’s great “films that never were.”   This documentary starts getting attention, which only helps in opening doors for FINAL GIRL.

• Alejandro then submits his award-winning road film script, GRAIN, to the Sundance Producers Lab.  The quality, Latino-themed writing sample has been instrumental in opening many doors for Alejandro, winning him contests, readings, and fellowships.  They put together an impressive industry table read for GRAIN, which continues to buildup their Rolodex.  The GRAIN screenplay catches the attention of producer Marco Torres, a former MGM exec.  Impressed with the package for GRAIN, Marco stays in touch with Alejandro and Johnny and promises to do what he can to help them get their careers off the ground.

• True to his word, Marco calls some months later to see if the writers have any low budget Horror or Thriller scripts.  They send FINAL GIRL over and it gets a raving reaction the next day.  Johnny, Stephen and Alejandro meet with Marco and repeat their marketing plan pitch.  Three days later, Marco options FINAL GIRL.

• Marco goes to work for Rob Carliner (CRAZY HEART) and Prospect Park (WILFRED) as a development exec.  FINAL GIRL gets leaked to ICM, causing a stir.  Agents have been hustling, looking for the right project for celebrity fashion photographer-turned-director, Tyler Shields.  He reads it and expresses interest.  Prospect Park presents the writers with the opportunity to sell the script, but with Tyler directing and Marco and Prospect Park producing.  Alejandro and Johnny decide to step down from these positions, but remain as writers.  Within a matter of weeks, the producers find financing through Studio City Pictures.  ICM negotiates the deal for the filmmakers and in early December the deal gets announced in Variety.

• Phones have been ringing ever since and the writers are now working on getting their other Thrillers, Action-Adventures and Dramas set up.

• While following Stacey’s great advice did not lead them to exactly the scenario they originally imagined for ourselves (producing & directing), Johnny and Alejandro are now getting the film made by the producers of award-winning films at a much bigger budget.  The promotional opportunities that will come from making a film with such seasoned vets are incomparable.  Stacey’s marketing advice is what helped them garner the industry’s attention by showing execs that although they are filmmakers and artists, they were prepared to be fiscally responsible.  Turning over every rock and submitting to various labs and fellowships helped them grow their network.  Having a great writing sample in GRAIN helped open the doors for their other projects.  All of these efforts taught them a valuable lesson – a filmmaker must use all resources at his/her disposal to make the miracle of film happen.

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So what about you? Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below!

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…..

Well folks I’ve been pretty quiet here in IFB since AFM and for good reason. I’ve been hustling with follow up and trying to get actual deals signed. You see, getting ‘interest’ in your projects is one thing, but closing an actual deal is something else entirely.  I’m happy to report though that since AFM I have heard from several clients specifically that they have long form agreements on their desks ready to sign (distribution deals, one screenplay option, and several pre-sale contracts). As for me, I’ve got 3 or 4 deals in the works as we speak so I’m very happy about that but still hustling every day nonetheless….

One of things that I’m noticing is that these days you need to be a lot more flexible and definitely more creative in your thinking when it comes to deal making. For example, terms of a contract may not be to your liking but as a new Producer or Filmmaker you need to realize that at this stage in your career, you’re not going to get the best deal on the planet in terms of money and control. You’re just not. So you must go into things knowing that these initial deals are about making a name for yourself and developing a track record so that hopefully you can leverage this for bigger future deals down the line. And always (I mean always!) invest in an experienced Entertainment Attorney (not attorney who ‘dabbles’ in entertainment) to review your contracts and fight for what’s ‘realistically’ yours….

What about creative thinking? Well I can tell you that I’m in the middle of a few deals right now where flexibility is certainly the order of the day. For example,  budgets, deal terms, and financing plans are subject to change at any time (and usually do). When one part of the financing plan falls through, time to get creative. Go with the flow and be ready to pounce on Plan B when Plan A falls through. My advice to you is never stop just going going going at it and you’ll find that solution.

One other thing to keep in mind … and I know I’ve said this before but you definitely want to have several irons in the fire at once. Five or Six projects on your producing slate is not too much – you’ll need it. Yesterday I was bummed out for a minute about something not working out on one project, and ten minutes later I got an email about something going through on an even bigger project on my slate. I wasn’t bummed out for long because with all the projects I’m juggling, there’s always something happening.

So what about you? What type of creative thinking have you found working well for you these days in your deal-making? Please comment below…I’d love to hear from you on this!

And for FS Members... if you missed my AFM Wrap-Up Seminar where I went over all the new trends in marketplace, you can catch the replay RIGHT HERE. There’s also a killer AFM round-up written by a Sales Agent which in my opinion is quite *illuminating* to say the least. You can catch that write-up in the FS Forums HERE.

Well, AFM just wrapped up and what a great market it was! For me personally I had a few extremely productive and ‘quality’ meetings (my theme this year was quality over quantity) that lead to almost all of the projects on my slate moving forward in one way or another. Good times!

But you may be wondering what my overall insights are from the market right? Like what were some of my major take-away’s and A-Ha moments. Well I’ll be going through my full analysis next week in a Virtual Seminar for Film Specific members, but in the mean time I’d like to share with you the following notes below… (taken directly from my notebook by the way that I carried around everywhere with me!)

Stacey’s AFM Insights…

• If you’ve got the goods, you’re not going to have a problem getting financing! There’s plenty of money out there circulating right now…

• If you run into financing road blocks, lower your budget…

• If you’re going for the bigger budget indie with name talent, then start with Pre-Sales – all other financing will be easier to come by after that…

• No matter what budget you’re making your film for, who the target audience is still needs to be made abundantly clear…

• Don’t make things more complicated than they are! Get some private equity, add a few pre-sales, get some gap… and lower your budget if necessary to make it all work!

• When trying to package your film, focus on creating a network of relationships you can leverage since gaining access to managers and agents is all about relationships…

• If you’re pitching a ‘branded’ project or one based on source material (like a book or graphic novel) – what is the level of awareness that is already in place?

• Before approaching a packaging agent at one of the major agencies, be sure you have at least 1 element in place in order to get their attention (that element could be name cast, director, or producer)

• Remember that when going the packaging route it can take years before your project gets off the ground – so be patient…

• A Producer who knows how to package their own projects is in very high demand right now!

• If you’re a new Producer and can’t make headway or are facing road blocks and catch 22′s, then go get an experienced Producer or EP on board that has the relationships in place that you need. Don’t be afraid to partner and collaborate with someone else until you make a name for yourself…

• Add value to your project by shooting a sizzle reel or have previous work to show your talent – this will help get potential partners interested in working with you…

• Relationships, relationships, relationships! It’s the most important thing to getting your film off the ground – work on building key relationships and you’ll fast track moving your project forward…

• As a new Producer optioning source material is a great way help get your foot in the door when you’re first starting out – everyone’s looking for a ‘brand’ to go on…

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So what about you? For any of you that attended AFM, what were your major take-away’s? And what was your experience at AFM like in general? Please share below!

In the 4th installment of our “Myth Busters” series, we’re going to look at another case study of packaging a sub $1 million budgeted film. Let’s face it, when you’re first starting out you have the double whammy challenge of putting ‘name’ cast in your film, but also you have to keep a modest budget since you don’t have the track record yet to justify bigger budgets. I get it.

My client Traci Dority found herself in this same situation. For her first writing/producing effort she knew that in order to make a film that would have any kind of ROI (return on investment), she needed to mitigate investors’ risk by packaging the film with name talent. And thus began her journey to take the ensemble cast project “Nuclear Families” and start getting talent attached to the roles…all without any financing in place.

What I like about Traci’s strategy is she is going after supporting roles first, in order to create that much needed momentum with the project, build up some credibility before approaching the bigger name 2 lead roles she has in mind. Bigger budget films employ this strategy all the time – package lesser name talent first to build up the project a bit, and then go after the bigger name leads. It works!

So check out this interview with Traci below and then let us know if you have any questions by posting them in the comments section below….

What is the name and log line of your film?

Nuclear Families – A romantic comedy about a 30 something Public Relations executive, Tiffany Townsend, who finds love despite her very large, very messy step families where she is the common denominator – its Nucleus. In the vain of Meet the Parent’s and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

What is the website for your film (if you have one)?

www.nuclearfamiliesthemovie.com

What is the budget (or budget range) of your film?

$850,000

What is your current financing plan?

Private Equity, Pre-sales, and state tax incentives.

What is the packaging strategy for your film and what have you done so far?

We are currently reaching out to talent. We are concentrating on the supporting roles. Nuclear Families is a character driven, ensemble screenplay so we are in the fortunate position to have strong supporting character roles. We have successfully attached Michael Dudikoff and have interest from another name actress, whom we are currently negotiating. We have gone only after actors who have managers and have not attempted to get the romantic leads attached. We feel once we are fully funded we will be able to go after bigger names for the lead roles.

What are some of the obstacles (if any) that you’ve encountered and how have you overcome them (or not!)?

1. The first obstacle has been not knowing/understanding more about every aspect of the budget. As a producer, I think it is critical to know where every dime is intended to be used. I have had to spend a lot of time educating myself on all aspects of production so I have a better understanding of what is a reasonable and realistic cost for each aspect.

2. Finding an attorney who isn’t cost prohibitive for my budget level, but who still wants to be part of the team as a collaborator – not just one who delivers boilerplate documents. I’m testing the waters with one now – TBD.

3. Getting my logline right. When I first started pitching, I felt most people didn’t understand the concept until I mentioned that the parents in the story had each been married four times. I still feel my logline is too long.

4. Finding investors – need I say more?

What have been some of your biggest mistakes or wastes of time/money so far?

Being afraid to talk to everyone in my Rolodex.

I wasted a lot of time and money pre-qualifying people. You never know who people know and/or who is going to be willing to help. Be respectful, be willing to return a favor, but Call everyone!

What resources or tools have you found most helpful during this process?

The Film Specific Website is a wealth of knowledge and literally my first stop when I want a quick answer, Stacey Parks is amazing as a consultant, Dallas Travers Career Coaching helped me a lot with how to reconnect with old contacts and how to appropriately develop new industry relationships, Michael Elliot Media does great Pitching workshops. There are several book resources I reference regularly: The Reel Truth, by Reed Martin; How Not to Write a Screenplay, by Denny Martin Flinn; The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers, by Thomas A. Crowell, Esq.; Small Message, Big Impact, by Terri L. Sjodin.

If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Slow down! Trust that your project will come together at the perfect time. I was so anxious to get moving that I made some bad judgments. Unfortunately, most were about people because if I needed something, I jumped at the first person put in front of me. Always remember, this is a business and the people that work on your behalf are your responsibility. They impact your production company’s brand and reputation in the business. I have learned to take the time to check references and be very specific about my needs.

What are your next steps from here?

We are continuing with talent attachment conversations, initiating director attachment, prepping for AFM and fundraising, fundraising, fundraising.

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So let us know what you think and if you have any questions by posting them below…. and thanks for enjoying the Myth Busters series!