Evolving out of a recent presentation and interviews with members of Film Independent, leading distribution strategist Peter Broderick has written an important set of guidelines for anyone seeking to negotiate a distribution deal for their movie. Shorter versions of this post have also run on IndieWire and Film Independent, and we’re happy to run the complete post here in three parts on Hope For Film. Read PART TWO BELOW. PART ONE HERE. And PART THREE Next Week.
KEY STEPS TO TAKE
Identify the main distribution avenues in North America and overseas. In the United States there are ten:
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film festivals
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theatrical
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semi-theatrical (single special event screenings on a campus, in a museum, or at a theater)
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cable VOD
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television
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educational
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retail DVD
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direct DVD (from the filmmaker’s website)
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retail digital (iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, etc.)
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direct digital (downloads and streams from the filmmaker’s website)
Overseas, the main avenues are television and digital, with limited potential for theatrical and DVD distribution.
