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.
