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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Start-Up: Post # 42: The Importance of Subtitles & Closed Captions

By Roger Jackson
KinoSmall

Previously: Blockbuster Trends

Many video-on-demand outlets require Closed Captions. This is true in the USA and increasingly elsewhere in the world, for example in the UK and Australia. And while it is not yet a mandatory requirement for all films submitted to Kinonation, we very strongly recommend it, not least because without captions a film won’t be eligible for delivery to iTunes. This has generated many questions from filmmakers, which I’ll try to answer here.

Why Captions Drive Revenue

Only 3 in 1000 people in the US are “functionally deaf.” But 17% of Americans report some sort of hearing impairment, which amounts to over 50 million people. That percentage is more or less reflected worldwide. Closed captions allow those people to enjoy your movie. Big potential audience. BUT – it’s not just about physiological hearing issues. Your audience will often watch films on a laptop in a noisy cafe, or a tablet on a commuter train, or a TV in a bar — or simply at home in the kitchen with the sound of cooking and kids. Closed Captions allow consumers in all these scenarios to watch your film comfortably…and therefore generate revenue for you.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Start-Up: Post # 41: Blockbuster Trends

By Roger Jackson
KinoSmall

Previously: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part II of II

Blockbuster Trends

At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had 9000 stores worldwide. All but 50 of the remaining 350 stores will close by next year. 2004 was a peak year for DVD revenues — close to $30 billion globally. In 2014 it’ll be less than $16 billion and falling fast — certainly VoD has yet to make up the difference. Our investor projections — culled from disparate sources — predict worldwide VoD sales hitting $40 billion by 2024, with DVD (Blu-ray, Ultra HD, etc.) still alive but shrunk to maybe $2-3 billion. Who knows…ten years is a long time, but for sure VoD will have long eclipsed DVD. This is good news for indie filmmakers for the simple reason that those 9,000 Blockbuster stores had limited shelf space, with very little reserved for independent titles. Whereas VoD platforms have, essentially, unlimited shelf space. Meaning more — even most — indie films will

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post #40: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part II of II

By Roger Jackson and Klaus Badelt
KinoSmall

Previously: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part I of II

This is Part II of Expert Tips from composer (and Kinonation co-founder) Klaus Badelt. Klaus has scored over 80 films. His work spans Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Catwoman, Poseidon, Rescue Dawn, 16 Blocks, The Recruit, K-19. And a ton of US and European indies, including documentaries, shorts and even video games.

11. Choosing a Composer

When seeking a composer, you’re actually looking for a “filmmaker” to work on a dramatic collaboration — he just happens to be called the “composer.” The worst thing you can do is to ask for demo music for a scene of your film from 5 different composers. Why? Because creating a score is collaborative and if you ask for demos you don’t learn or experience collaboration with the composer. You’re much better off asking for score examples from their previous films. But your main objective should be to find a composer you trust and like…with whom you can talk story first, music last. A good composer must be, above all, emotionally invested in the story you’re telling.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post # 39: Music for Movies, Expert Tips, Part I of II

By Roger Jackson and Klaus BadeltKinoSmall

Previously: Whatever It Takes

Some directors believe that music is a full 50% of a film. And that there are fundamentally just 3 or 4 “true” creative inputs to the movie — the writer, the director, the composer…perhaps the editor. Whatever the numbers, movie music — that skillful combination of score and song — has the potential to turn a good story into an amazing audience experience. But how do you musically super-charge an indie film when you don’t have the budget to hire a top composer?

I asked Kinonation co-founder — and prolific film score composer — Klaus Badelt.

Klaus has scored over 80 films. His work spans Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Catwoman, Poseidon, Rescue Dawn, 16 Blocks, The Recruit, K-19. And a ton of US and European indies, including documentaries, shorts and even video games.

Here’s what Klaus has to say about making the very best — and most economical — music choices for a film.

1. Composer as Filmmaker

The director-composer relationship is that of two filmmakers. It’s not about musical genres, or instruments. It’s about driving the story and emphasizing characters and creating emotion. That’s the role of music in film.

2. Script

Think about music (both score and songs) at the script-writing stage. Fundamentally, a filmmaker must decide what character development and story arc she wants from each scene. That is, how do you want the audience to feel about this episode? There should be a single, unambiguous answer. i.e. every shot in every scene must have a clear objective in moving the story forward. So thinking about the music at this stage– and making musical choices — actually helps propel and clarify the script-writing process. Deciding where the music in each scene starts — and where it fades — forces you to think with greater clarity about story shapes & arcs.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post #38: Whatever It Takes

By Roger JacksonKinoSmall

Previously: Cutting Checks, etc.

Hot Springs Doc Fest

I’ve spent the past 4 days at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. I’m on the jury for Best Documentary Feature, so I’ve been watching and debating and selecting from a pool of outstanding films. Hung out most nights with the amazing Freda Kelly — secretary & confidente for The Beatles for ten years. Her film “Good ‘Ol Freda” opened the festival to a standing ovation. 

Whatever It Takes

During opening weekend I gave a presentation on VoD distribution & marketing. The underlying message was “do whatever it takes to get your film noticed.” I opened with a story from when I was producing a doc in Saudi Arabia. I desperately wanted to film in Mecca. Trouble is, it’s a closed city — you can only visit if you’re a Muslim, and you have to have proof.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post # 37: Cutting Checks, et cetera

By Roger Jackson 

Previously: Secret 19-Point VoD Marketing Plan, Part III

We want you films

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Kinonation wants your film to distribute to dozens of video-on-demand outlets, with no cost, no risk and 100% integrity.  Click to Get Started.

Cutting Checks

We’re now cutting checks to filmmakers for Q2 2013. Very satisfying. It takes a while, since VoD outlets tend to pay 60-90 days after the end of the quarter that the film made money. And then Kinonation has to process the cash, take our 20% and PayPal the rest to the content owner. Not simple, not fast — but we’re doing it and this month will see payments to some of our amazing filmmakers. How much can you make? It’s hundreds at a minimum if you do nothing or if your film just isn’t very good. It’s thousands if your film is good, genuinely impressive. It is tens of thousands if your film is outstanding. And that’s the bottom line — how do you make your film, and the marketing & distribution of your film — outstanding rather than just festival average? 

New Outlets

We’re busy signing deals with VoD outlets around the world.

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Truly Free Film

Diary of a Film Startup: Post # 36: Secret 19-Point VoD Marketing Plan, Part III

By Roger Jackson

Previously: Secret 19-Point VoD Marketing Plan, Part II

KinoSmall

Before I dive into the final part of the Marketing Plan, a quick Kinonation update. We’re now delivering 3 or 4 films a day to video-on-demand exhibitors. That’s a thousand films a year. Not bad, and we’re just getting started. For me the best part is when people respond to films we distribute. One of the dozens of Kinonation films that went live on VoD in August was “Good People Go to Hell…” It’s an honest, objective and entertaining doc about hard-right Christianity. My favorite online review:  “Great movie. Great education about a world I didn’t know much about. Though I don’t share their views, I love listening to people that have passion for what they believe in.” Kinonation isn’t the director, obviously, but there’s enormous satisfaction from helping filmmakers get their films seen, worldwide. That’s what we do. That’s what we love.

OK, back to the Secret 19-Point Marketing Plan. Here’s 13-19.

13. Mailing List: For indie films, building and exploiting a mailing list can be the single most important marketing action. Why? Because these are the people you’ve already connected with — maybe via Kickstarter, or at a festival screening. They CARE about your film. So you’ll get a high return on investment (in time & effort) from communicating with them. You should start building your mailing list early — at the inception stage of your film project. Collect emails relentlessly — at parties, events, festivals. Ask for business cards, and then be disciplined about adding that name & email to your list. You don’t need fancy software — a simple list in Excel or Word is fine.

14. Google and SEM: I truly believe the holy grail for VoD marketing is effective SEM — Search Engine Marketing. It’s what Wall Street brokers would call arbitrage. The internet just makes it scalable. Here’s an example: your film is on Vudu, price is $5 for a rental. You get 50% of that five bucks — $2.50. So you can afford to spend $2.49 on advertising for each rental, since you’d still make a penny. Obviously that’s cutting it a bit fine, so let’s say you’re OK spending $2 to get $2.50 back. You could do that all day, right? That’s SEO arbitrage, and that’s the Google business model.