By Roger Jackson
Previously: What You Must Know About Amazon CreateSpace
Ransom Notes
“I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.” So said legendary Madison Avenue ad executive Phil Dusenberry. I think of that quip when I’m asked “What movie subject will make the most money on VOD?” What type of film can you write & shoot quite cheaply – and which can pay out thousands of dollars a month, every month, way into the future? The answer: documentary films that are directly and intensively reflective of the American populace — addressing topics that touch almost everyone.
7 Sins
I believe those topics are food, booze, drugs, cigarettes, fitness, sex, religion. Let’s face it: the average person cares more about these than they care about a lonely main character’s struggle with her identify. I’m not saying don’t produce great drama. But there’s an argument to be made for shooting a provocative, money-making doc and getting it distributed on VOD. And then mining that lucrative vein of gold for years.
Fed-Up with Food Films?
Far from it. Food related movies are perhaps the dominant sub-genre among VOD documentaries. The excellent and (let’s hope) habit changing FED UP is released this weekend. With Laurie David & Katie Couric behind it, the film is set for decent success theatrically — followed by massive and sustained VOD success. This is one in a long line of low budget, highly profitable “healthy eating” films that have broad appeal to a mostly overweight U.S. population. The poster child film is Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. Produced by an Australian, filmed on a micro-budget across America…and masterfully distributed by Gravitas Ventures. FSND is consistently at the top of the doc film VOD rankings — despite the fact that it’s already 4 years old. That level of sustainable success is critical — this film is doing as well today as when it was just released — unheard of for most VOD titles. Here it is among this month’s top Hulu docs — alongside Super Size Me (a decade old.) Other examples of profitable food films? Vegucated, Forks Over Knives, Hungry for Change…there are many more — the key point is they’re all sustainably successful. This opportunity is wide open, it’s not going away…because for the foreseeable future healthy eating will be huge issue in the lives of most Americans. It’s a big, fat, filmmaking opportunity.
Booze
Most people drink. Quite a lot are alcoholics. But the mother lode of docs for drunks has barely been tapped. Sure, we have the excellent Somm about wine experts. And Ryan Seacrest’s Mixology appeals to discerning cocktail drinkers. But where’s the Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead for alcohol. “Drunk, Jailed & Lost My Job” would be simple and cheap to shoot and would clean up in this category. Go shoot a decent documentary feature and Kinonation will guarantee distribution.
Drugs
Kinonation is distributing several pot docs. One of them, the impressive Bad Seed – a tale of mischief, magic and medical marijuana soared on release on Hulu (as many films do) but continues to fly high 6 months later. Why? Because drugs are woven into the fabric of contemporary life, and so films about narcotics have sustainable appeal. The provocative and alliterative title definitely helped.
Cigarettes
There’s a huge opportunity in smokes. Aside from Bright Leaves, there’s slim pickings on the subject. Sure, there are plenty of YouTube public service clips. But there’s no FED UP for the 60 million American smokers. That’s a huge audience if you want to produce “Dying to Quit” or “A Pack a Day But Not Getting Laid.” Not a bad way to kick-start your filmmaking career: spend a couple months making a doc about an important subject, change thousands of lives for the better and generate a passive monthly income in the several thousands…for years to come.
Fitness, Sex, Religion
You get my point, I won’t labor it — all the previous observations apply to the remaining universal categories — fitness, sex, religion. These subjects are evergreen, with plenty of scope for a new angle, they have an easily targeted audience (er, everyone), they’re inexpensive to shoot..and can be highly profitable.
Juicy Profits
If you want to be really smart, make your documentary, distribute to VOD and then create a single product tie-in that your film helps promote & sell. Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead producer Joe Cross does it with Reboot with Joe. He promotes Breville juicers ($100-$500) and gets a cut on every sale — a LOT more profit per film view. Genius.
We Want Your Film
Kinonation wants your film to distribute to video-on-demand outlets, with no cost, no risk and 100% integrity. Click to Get Started.
Next Up: Post # 50: (scheduled for Tues May 19th)
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Roger Jackson is a producer and the co-founder of film distribution start-up KinoNation. He was Vice President, Content for digital film pioneer iFilm.com and has produced warzone documentaries in Darfur, Palestine, Bangladesh and Nepal…plus a reality series for VH1 and one rather bad movie for Fox’s FuelTV. You can reach him at support@kinonation.com.
