Hunter Weeks – Hope For Film

How to Make Money in the Age of Abundance, Part 1

Part One: The Stuggles You Are Facing and How You Can Cope

By Jon Reiss

Since the collapse of the traditional distribution for filmmakers in 2007 we as a community have been struggling to figure out new solutions of how to monetize our work – in other words: how to make money from our content and create a sustainable living. In this two part series I will reformulate and address some of the problems we are facing – but also present some potential solutions for independent filmmakers. These thoughts come from a creating a series of new presentations on Artistic Entrepreneurship over the past year that I presented at the recent SFFS A2E Workshop (http://www.sffs.org/Filmmaker360/A2E-Artist-to-Entrepreneur.aspx) and this spring’s IFP Filmmaker Labs (http://www.ifp.org/programs/labs/). I welcome your comments!

While there were a number of factors that caused an upheaval of the distribution landscape in 2007 and while there have been many positive signs of improvement, filmmakers and all artists still face an enormously changed market for content.

Hunter Weeks On Three Lessons from Three Films

Guest post by filmmaker Hunter Weeks.

I’ve now produced, directed and distributed three documentary films. It’s been exhausting, time-consuming, super-challenging, but all the while, the most enriching collection of experiences I could ever imagine. I don’t know how Ted’s done what he’s done, but I’m pleased to have met him a year ago at Power to Pixel and to now be a guest on his blog.

Yesterday, I released my 3rd film on YouTube free for approximately two days (2711 minutes to be exact). 2711 minutes because the focus of this documentary is about the world’s longest mountain bike race – the Tour Divide – which crossed through 2711 miles of the rugged and beautiful Rocky Mountains when I filmed it. I’ll tell you the path that led to this strategy down below.

With each of my three films, I’ve learned a ton about how to market and distribute independent films (and by that term, I mean truly independent or as I like to say baby indies). I’ve had to learn these things because I’m not part of the elite establishment in film (and with the competition that exists to get there, I’ve found it easier to go solo and build my own audience, thereby increasing my chances of survival and growth within this industry). Looking back on the marketing of each film, I’ve gone away with one key learning from each effort.

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