We are on the verge of a new film culture and infrastructure.
Over the past years I directed two no(?)-micro(?)-low(?)-budget (what’s the latest on who qualifies?) features and a dozen short films and almost every time I held open community meetings seeking the public’s support. I didn’t think this was anything special but the producers on Free in Deed asked me to describe the rationale for running ‘Open Call Info Sessions’ to the community on low-budget projects instead of traditional ‘closed-door auditions’.
The other day I did it a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything). I managed to answer every question. There were a lot of them. You can find all the answers here. They run the spectrum from favorite color and what I like about being a CEO to how I got started, whacky experiences, and the future of the film business. Please check it out.
If you need a quick fix, here’s how I got started:
Identify the main distribution avenues in North America and overseas. In the United States there are ten:
film festivals
theatrical
semi-theatrical (single special event screenings on a campus, in a museum, or at a theater)
cable VOD
television
educational
retail DVD
direct DVD (from the filmmaker’s website)
retail digital (iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, etc.)
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.
I never had a day like yesterday. It was the first time I ever did a full day of publicity. I started at Columbia University talking about producing to the first year grad film students. From there I went to HuffPostLive and Ricky C show. Check it out:
I lingered there afterwards so I could
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 ONE BELOW. PART TWO Friday. And PART THREE Next Week.
You’ve finally finished your film and have just received your first distribution offer. Now what?
Negotiation is an essential but little understood part of dealmaking. To make fair deals with good distributors, there are mistakes you must avoid and steps you need to take.
I recently gave a presentation on the secrets of negotiating distribution deals to a full house of Film Independent members. My subsequent interview for the Film Independent newsletter evolved into this Bulletin. It supplements my Special Report on festival and dealmaking strategies. It is not a comprehensive guide to negotiating distribution deals but does highlight key dos and don’ts.
Often when I go online to look for a film to watch, I end up feeling kind of dirty. I grow depressed. It is not just about the movies I find (or fail to find), but much more so about how they are positioned. Films are sold online the same way that shoes are sold — in a grid with no community interaction. We create jewels and then discard them as garbage, never unlocking the true power they hold. Granted, this is what we are aiming to change at Fandor, but it is still the state of the land when it comes to online cinema. We can do better.
I don’t like always being sold to — and I don’t know anyone who does. Yet, I feel that my humanity frequently is only acknowledged because I have money to spend. This is how it feels generally when it comes to online cinema. It feels that what is valued most about a film or an experience is its ability to generate profit. We are failing to recognize cinema’s unique attributes, let alone emphasize them to consumers. If we reduce a film’s value down to its potential for consumption will limit the business it can do.
Film is a transformative experience — at least good films are. They change us. They change how we perceive things. They can
