The Need To Start From The Beginning

Agreed. A theatrical - first release strategy has to justify the expense through careful analysis . Unfortunately, many of our indie film brethren have this "screen it and they will come" attitude. This has probably been born out of the press's listing of box office take without taking into account a studios' actual take v. expense ratios. Many (Most) indie filmmakers think that a theatrical release is license to back the Brinks truck up to their house and unload the cash.

It's an attitude that has driven us to this point of near ruin.

One analogous media we must look at is how inexpensive digital books are going to be / are now the gauge of a book's print run. Fortunately in that medium we have print-on-demand. So IMO the "screening-on-demand" model (Withoutabox / Eventful) should be applied to "motion media." (I can't call it "film" really anymore)

Bottom line: If we are to succeed then we cannot continue think like the studios/ Hollywood (not the zip code, but the attitude). We have to be better and play a different game.

Bill; you are certainly correct that the expense and coordinated effort of a theatrical release is prohibitive unless you have a fan base, but I wonder if showing the film in its entirety is the best way to build that. It's certainly not the only way; fans who have been hearing about a film for a year or two and FINALLY get to see it might also flock to theaters, whereas many filmgoers might see the film in a theater listing and say "oh yeah, I saw that already. What else is playing?".

One thing we certainly agree on; whether and when to do a theatrical release is definitely a complex choice.

Also, the problem here is that the author pre-supposes that going theatrical FIRST is the right strategy to obtain the most money from a distribution plan. You need a rabid fan base first before you can justify the expense and coordinated effort of a theatrical release. That means cultivating an audience who have seen the film (festival, dvd, download) and love it so much they want to see it up there on the big screen.

Theatrical needs to be the final link in the distribution chain.

Couldn't agree more-what a great model-self-produced distribution. Vertigo Films in UK does pretty well on some level being a vertically integrated company. Perhaps convincing the financiers to finance a percentage of distribution costs at the point of financing the film and continuing to work ways of driving budgets down would be a good start. I am already looking forward to that day and only hope that I am still making films then!!