Tag: Harvard Business School

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Truly Free Film

HBS Production Diary Part 2: Breaking Down the Numbers for Independent Films

By Kavita Pullapilly

 

Making an independent film profitable requires finding patterns of success in the numbers. For instance, only nine independent films between 2010 and 2011 managed to break $10 million in the box office without appearing on at least 1,000 screens at their widest release.  These nine films all were either nominated for Academy awards, based on best-selling books or directed by Robert Redford.

A team from Harvard Business School looked into some of these patterns as they analyzed the independent film market and searched for ways independents could be attractive to studios.

Fresh content and recognizable stars are the key to getting those box office tickets, air time, and downloads. And your strategy to approaching the theatrical run can also determine how a film does in other markets. Speaking with industry executives, it seems that a successful box office run is still extremely important in driving revenues in other windows.

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Truly Free Film

Blue Potato — Knowing the Film Market

By Kavita Pullapilly 
 
Following a successful and well-curated Sundance Film Festival, this is shaping up to be a great year for independent films. But in order to be financially viable, significant planning and business strategies need to happen in script development and pre-production to make indie films appealing to the global market. 
 
Last year, award-winning filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly worked with a team from Harvard Business School to develop an innovative strategy for independent filmmakers and studios to work together successfully.  With their new feature film, Blue Potato, Aron and Gita have now begun implementing this road map that will allow both the filmmaker and distribution partner to limit their risk, increase audience reach, and maximize potential profitability.

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Truly Free Film

Blue Potato — Things to Think About Before Production

By Kavita Pullapilly 
 
As most producers know, the battle is won in pre-production.  If you can’t succeed in pre-production, you’re better off not going into production.  There are lists upon lists of everything that needs to fall into place to seamlessly deliver all the logistics, people and resources that will result in the creative vision of your film.

However, for the directors and producers of BLUE POTATO, they didn’t just stop there.  During pre-production, award-winning filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly along with producer Kavita Pullapilly knew that they had to think about the business behind the film and how it would perform in the marketplace. 

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Truly Free Film

Blue Potato – Breaking Down the Barriers of Film Marketing

By Kavita Pullapilly

You’ve heard about Fortune 500 companies signing product placement and marketing deals with big studio movies. But it’s next to impossible to actually get a significant marketing deal on an independent film. Filmmakers Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly’s feature film, Blue Potato,  signed a deal with Terra Chips that will become a game changer for how independent films work with companies to support a distributor’s marketing efforts and increase audience engagement and visibility for the film. This high value deal will not only enhance a distributor’s advertising campaign for the film but open up new lines of marketing exposure that have not been done at the independent level.

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Truly Free Film

Can The Harvard Business School Find The Solution To The Indie Film Dilemma?

By  Kavita Pullapilly

Going into their next feature film, BLUE POTATO, award-winning filmmakers (and past contributors to this blog with a great series of posts “The DIY Chronicles“) Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly wanted to answer a question that all independent filmmakers want to know:  How can independent filmmakers and studios collaborate in a more profitable and cost-effective way to get quality films into the marketplace?

Working with a team from the Harvard Business School, Gaudet and Pullapilly created a strategy to minimize risk, increase audience reach and maximize profit potential for potential distributors for BLUE POTATO. Read about how they developed key strategies for marketing and distribution that makes their film attractive to studio buyers. And find out how they evaluated their film so that they could reduce their financial risk while still accomplishing their goals in production.

“You have to find out what your movie is capable of going out there and making and then make your film for less than that. Set your budget at

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