On Baseline Research Blog is an article entitled “DIY Doing You In” (thanks to @Shanipedia for tipping me off to it). The author, Jeremy Juuso, states:
to have a decent shot at breaking $1 million in lifetime box office, your Q2 specialty film needs to open at better than $15,000 per weekend venue. The bad news is, if you’re engaging in a self-release or service deal, this will be a very tall order, as only 5 such films in all of 2009 managed to open so.
We just got this press release from IndieGoGo and it sounds like a great thing. Users will now have access to the iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix distribution platform. Exciting development indeed.
The acquisition enables a full range of project execution tools for IndieGoGo members.
Berkeley, California, March 15, 2009 – IndieGoGo (www.indiegogo.com), a fundraising platform, announced its acquisition of Distribber (www.distribber.com), a digital distribution service. This acquisition enables IndieGoGo to offer clients a full range of tools for project execution – from funding to distribution.
It was a busy week. Jeff Lipsky, distributor turned filmmaker, has returned to his distro roots and wants to work with you! I got an email from him and have been meaning to post but my To Do List is a bit unruly. I need an extra hand. Now I was beaten to the punch, but better late than never.
Jeff’s email states:
Again today we have a guest post from Mynette Louie and Tze Chun, the producer director team behind CHILDREN OF INVENTION. The film opens this weekend in New York and their whole journey through DIY/DIWO distribution has been fascinating to watch and a learning experience for us all. They have been truly brave and really generous sharing a lot of information along the way. I really love this film and truly admire both of them. Please support their film.
Yesterday they shared their Top 10 Reasons Why They Turned Down The Distribution Offers They Received. Check it out.
Top 10 Things We’re Glad We Did
1. Didn’t take an all-rights distribution deal. For reasons enumerated above, but most of all, for freedom!
2. Played as many film festivals as possible, and traveled to as many of them as possible. We were one of the smallest films at Sundance. It’s a great festival to premiere at, but the press does give most of the attention to the star vehicles and bigger films. So, it was really over the course of the entire festival circuit that we got our buzz, awards, and reviews. It was also great to interact directly with audiences, who essentially act as focus groups for your film. We were able to discover what people respond to in the film, and which demographics respond best. Building a relationship with your audiences is really important.
Today we have a guest post from Mynette Louie and Tze Chun, the producer director team behind CHILDREN OF INVENTION. The film opens this weekend in New York and their whole journey through DIY/DIWO distribution has been fascinating to watch and a learning experience for us all. They have been truly brave and really generous sharing a lot of information along the way. I really love this film and truly admire both of them. Please support their film.
Tomorrow they will share their Top 10 Reasons Why They Are Glad They Turned Down The Distribution Offers They Received. Stay Tuned.
Top 10 (alright, 11) Reasons Why We Turned Down 8 Distribution Offers
1. Couldn’t get straight answers about revenue projections, accounting and recoupment. Why this is bad is self-explanatory.
2. Term was too long. Yes, it’s a lot of time and hard work to self-distribute, but we could always choose not to exploit some distribution channel if we figure it’s not worth it. We can’t, however, choose to get out of a 10 to 25-year deal. And if we did a 25-year deal, we’d probably be in old-person diapers by the time the rights revert to us. And that’s just sad to think about.
I got an email from those merry pranksters. I was inspired by the cut of their jib and sent them some money.
A labor of love to produce, and distributed in a unique partnership with Shadow Distribution (The Lost Boys of Sudan, The Weather Underground), The Yes Men Fix the World hits corporate America where it hurts, and has huge potential as a public education piece and a powerful rallying cry for progressive activists and organizers. Unfortunately after a hugely successful opening weekend in New York, and inquiries from new theaters across the country, the film’s marketing and outreach budget (never much to begin with) is almost completely tapped out! There is no budget for the 10-15 new film prints ($1200 each) that theaters want, nor for the basic advertising (another $15,000 at least) to make the film work in each major market, and in smaller cities too.
The Yes Men need your help to get the film out to cities and towns large and small across the land, where the hope is to reproduce the kind of raucous, people-powered reactions that have been typical of screenings in New York. Here’s how you can do that:
One: You can loan money to their distribution and audience engagement effort, to be paid back when proceeds from the retail DVD start rolling in next year. To take this route, please email invest@theyesmen.org.
Two: They’re putting Survivaballs up for adoption. For just $1,000, you will become the proud parent of the world’s stupidest costume. The Survivaball you own will be deployed in direct-action protest all across America, and then in December will go to Copenhagen to push world leaders to do something smart about climate change. To adopt your own active ball, please email adoptaball@theyesmen.org.
Three: You can buy a film print ($1200) and loan it until the theatrical run is finished. To help out this way, please write invest@theyesmen.org.
AND you can also just donate money, or buy posters, t-shirts, Reggie candles, etc. here.
The DailyKos had a good post on them here.
Eugene at Indiewire caught the essence of the public conversation I had with Thomas Mai of Festival Darlings to kick off the IFF at TIFF the other day. I particularly like the photo, so check it out here.
