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. [...]
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.
And didja notice? Liz’s film “Animal Kingdom” won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. Way to go Liz!
Please, let me know what you think about what we are discussing.
Sit down, pour yourself a glass of wine, eat a chicken wing, and join myself, Christine Vachon, Jonathon Schwartz, Thomas Woodrow, & Liz Watts discussing how to survive as a producer in this day and age.
To me, the filmmaking community (the artists, the business folk, the curators & promoters, the appreciators & fans) have to embrace that we are in a seismic shift to an artist-centric collaboration with the audience and away from the corporate controlled supply & attention. This requires a redefinition of cinema by its creators to embrace the discovery, engagement, presentation, promotion, & appreciation processes as much as we do development & production. We have to erase the lines between between art & commerce and content & marketing. We have to stop thinking of films as singular objects and refocus on how they are bridges for the ongoing conversation we have with audiences. Specifics like VOD numbers are important, but we miss the point if we don’t look first at the big picture.
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!
