Today’s guest post is from attorney Steven Beer. Steven’s contributed to HFF/TFF before, and was one of the original Brave Thinkers. With Sundance around the corner, Steven offers some perspective of a question on many filmmakers’ minds.
To screen or not to screen for distributors prior to a festival premiere? This question often plagues producers in the months prior to festival season. Hypothetical Scenario: Shortly after you receive an invitation to premiere your film at a prestigious film festival, an established distribution executive calls to request a screener. She congratulates you and says that she has heard wonderful things about the project. Sadly, the acquisition executive reports that her company may not be able to attend a festival screening due to schedule conflicts. If you screen the film for her company before the festival, however, the company may be able to make an offer and announce a deal at the festival. What does a producer do?
In the past, cynical producers and their representatives viewed such requests as a professional seduction and respectfully declined. Conventional wisdom discouraged filmmakers from screening their film prior to a high profile festival premiere for a variety of reasons. Nothing compares to the satisfaction derived from screening a well crafted film in a state of the art theater — the optimum venue for which the film was created. After pouring vast sums and sweat into producing a film that was created for the big screen experience, who can blame filmmakers for resisting requests to distribute DVDs before their premiere. Invariably, producers prefer to showcase their projects to acquisition executives in adrenaline-charged premiere screenings brimming with enthusiastic audiences. Given this scenario, one can appreciate the cardinal rule against pre-festival screenings.
The traditional way of thinking is beginning to give way, however. [...]
Today’s guest post is by Orly Ravid of The Film Collaborative (TFC), the first non-profit, full service provider dedicated to the distribution of independent film. Orly was featured as one of HFF’s Brave Thinkers Of Indie Film, 2010.
* This is part 1 of 3 parts to this Sundance focused blog.
* Part 2 will be written during the festival.
* Part 3 will be written in the aftermath of the glow of the fest.
If I were a filmmaker going to Sundance, and let’s say that I had a film with no recognizable press-generating cast that would be attractive to a distribution company for a large MG… What would I do? Seriously, I asked myself that question. And I realized how tempted I would be, even I, to find some sexy publicists and rockstar agents or sales company so that I could get the hot sexy sale at Sundance and make all my dreams come true.
What can a distributor do for you that you cannot do yourself with just a little bit of money, not even a lot, and some low fee consultation? And above all, what are you giving up by not building community for your film before and during the fest, instead letting other people run your show, potentially losing out on the momentum of the festival?
Let’s look at some films from Sundance last year that were in this position and the routes they took and what they may have netted. These are films that cut distribution deals of some kind and got less than wide releases from their distributors: [...]
DIY Chronicles: THE WAY WE GET BY (Part 3 of 5): Going Local and Maximizing Your Distribution Window
Today’s guest post is the third of five from filmmakers Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet concerning their experience making and distributing THE WAY WE GET BY.
The students at Harvard Business School realistically saw no way for us to do a theatrical run without a significant investment in film prints and print and advertising. But they noted that by leveraging our POV broadcast with a DVD release, we could feasibly make our first real revenue stream. That coupled with a strong educational and community screening plan showed that there was perhaps some hope of making a living. However, they all agreed, it was going to be A LOT of work.
The one date we knew we couldn’t move was our broadcast. The Way We Get By was going to be a common carriage POV Special on Veterans Day (November 11). We knew we had to come up with a strategy to market and promote the film leading up to the broadcast and direct our audiences towards the DVD. [...]
If only 30% of people’s online time is spent viewing content, then there is real hope for indie film. The other 70% of users’ time is spent in search and social. We know that people not only want to discover stuff (like great stories and films) but even more so, they want to talk about it.
One way to define Film is as the transformation of leisure time into intellectual capital and then into social capital.
The question all filmmakers need to ask themselves is what can we do to get the others to talk about film more. How can we improve the conversation people have about film? We have the tools. [...]
I love that the Tribeca Film Festival has facilitated an immediate VOD launch for some of the films premiering there this year. This is a key step in freeing festivals from their geographic limitations. With the collapse of print and the firing of local film critics, festivals have become our most vital curatorial voice. Whether we like this or not, it is the time we are living in, and it requires festivals to aggregate their audiences and expand their base; that is if they really want to help film culture grow and deepen, which I thought was their mandate (maybe that no longer is what it about; maybe it is now, like everything else, primarily financially motivated).
Unfortunately though the VOD experiment as currently structured (or at least as I understand it) is not the distribution or marketing solution for filmmakers that is necessary. I worry that the lack of prior promotion,non-existant window, and filmmaker-led marketing will lead Tribeca’s bold step forward to mirror the popular (and negative) wisdom that came from the Sundance YouTube experiment (i.e. Fail!). This is totally avoidable. We already have better answers. [...]
Part Two left with my cliffhanger. Zak & Kevin have come up with several answers to the questions (along with raising the bar for whatever you’d call the quick release group discussion centered around a common event). Watching this I was very won over by Sultan Sharrief ’s efforts. I sit with so many filmmakers who remain willing to put their trust in the old way of getting stars and expecting them to bring out the fans, finance, and distrib’s appetite. It is very refreshing and inspiring to see folk like Sultan Sharrief accept the world as it really is and not let it stand in the way of their creative efforts. And thanks to Sabi Pictures for helping to spread that energy and reality. Check out their whole series if you haven’t. You will be glad you did.
NEW BREED PARK CITY – Exploring The Solutions, Part 3 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.
When you think of it, why has it taken twenty years for the filmmaking community to take advantage of a location specific event like Sundance, and gather together people to discuss what it going on in our community at this time? Zak and Kevin at Sabi do it so well, here’s hoping that other festivals recognize how this type of film can launch their festivals to the next level and should employ these guys to make these films regularly!.
Oh, and since I forgot to post Part Two, here it is:
NEW BREED PARK CITY – Exploring the Solutions, Part 2 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.
You can also see Part One here, or check out all of Sabi Pictures posts on Vimeo.
Today we have a guest post from Jon Reiss announcing his generous offer to do some free consulting for filmmakers with features at Sundance.
As some of you might know, one of the reasons that I wrote Think Outside the Box Office was after those first Filmmaker articles I wrote in Fall ‘08 about my experiences distributing my graffiti doc Bomb It, many filmmakers contacted me to help them with their films. However they were all broke, as most filmmakers are. The book started as a brain dump so that I could share my experiences with others. I figured people could at least afford $20-$25. (After many requests the book is now available as a PDF from my site for $14.95)
But filmmakers still need individual advice; how to apply the new distribution and marketing models and landscape to their specific films. And unfortunately since filmmakers in general are not saving money for distribution and marketing, they are still broke.
So I wanted to do some kind of community consulting “event” at Park City this year. I thought about sitting in a coffee shop for 2 hours a day and having online sign ups for 20 minute sessions (I still might do this if enough people request it).
However, Lance Weiler asked me to do a live consulting session at the Slamdance Filmmaker Summit (Saturday January 23rd) with two filmmaking teams one narrative/one doc. Anyone in Park City can attend and it can also be live streamed (along with the rest of the Summit that I recommend you all check out).
I’ve decided to expand this to 10 more feature filmmakers from either Sundance or Slamdance. I will provide 45 minutes of consultation by phone or Skype before the festival begins and 45 minutes during the festival. This can be used in any way the filmmakers want, from helping to devise a complete DIY scenario, to getting my opinion on any deals being offered.
For selection any interested film should email me by Thursday January 14th by noon at reiss.jon@gmail.com. Send me what you have eg synopsis, trailer, website, plans you have in mind etc.
I will pick the films and announce them by Friday January 15th.
For any other Sundance/Slamdance filmmaker not chosen I will be reducing my consulting rate before and during the festival from $75 an hour to $50 an hour. This rate will apply even for the chosen films if they want to go beyond the first hour and a half.
This site could not have been built without the help and insight of Michael Morgenstern. My thanks go out to him.
Help save indie film and give this guy a job in web design or film!
