What do you do when the buzz fades?
I’m in a new situation that I’m trying to navigate, and I was hoping you could help for my benefit and the benefit of those who read your column and blog and might find themselves in a similar situation.
I recently wrote and directed a low-budget feature that played at a film festival in Los Angeles. A producer was at the screening, loved the movie, and subsequently got me in touch with several large distributors and top-five agencies who then proceeded to blow my phone up for the next couple of days. She suggested I send out screeners to them, which I did. I even dropped off a screener to an agency I was set to have a meeting with, only to have them cancel the next morning “unexpectedly.” Then I started getting passes, which has snowballed.
It has been a couple of weeks now and it doesn’t look like I was able to strike while the iron was hot. I feel like I’m back to square one. My goals for this movie are to get a small distribution deal with DVD and maybe VOD with a mid-size company that knows how to deal with low-budget movies. My goals for my career are to write and direct my own projects, while supplementing that work with rewrite and punch-up jobs.
Based on the information I gave you, can you tell me: a) what I did wrong so that, should I be in this situation again, I can do better next time, and b) what I should do now to accomplish those goals?
– James
writer/diector, Eastern College
You really didn’t do anything wrong, other than let your expectations get built up too high by one guy. Believe me, I understand how it happens: it’s great when people like your work. It’s exciting when they describe a possible future with meetings and projects and enough money to stop living like a college student.
Enthusiasm is a sugar rush. You really feel it when it’s over.
My friend Aaron Lindenthaler had a film at the same festival (Dances with Films), and while I haven’t gotten the full post-mortem on his experience, I suspect he found a lot of the same reactions. A good response at a festival is gratifying, but it doesn’t translate particularly well to the larger business.
Looking at your trailer, the movie feels like a scrappy college comedy, not unlike Box Elder, the film Todd Sklar wrote about a couple of weeks ago. It’s absolutely valid terrain for a movie, and no one’s allowed to say that there are too many of them. But there are enough scrappy indie college movies that it’s hard to stand out from the pack, and harder still to convince an agency or distributor that you’re worth the investment.
I don’t know how many meetings you had, or how they went, but you were probably meeting with people in their 30’s or 40’s, whereas you’re likely early 20’s, still fresh from the college experience. Your peers are working in agency mailrooms. And they’re who you really want to see your film, because in two years they’ll be junior agents, and you’ll be one of their clients. So if you have any more meetings, try to talk with the guys getting you your Diet Coke. They’re as hungry to make it as you are.
In terms of distribution, I don’t know how realistic it is to be making money off of it. Don’t let that stop you from going after distributors who specialize in indie DVDs and/or VOD — but don’t pin all your hopes on it.
The better goal is to get it in front of as many eyes as possible in your target audience. Todd Sklar and crew are traveling around the country like an indie band, which sounds exhausting. But maybe you can piggyback on someone else’s travel. Does the music in your movie come from a popular local band? Then give away DVDs at their shows. And I wouldn’t panic about it leaking online. Much worse things could happen. In fact, at a certain point you might just want to keep a link to the torrent on your film’s site. 1
Based on its current trajectory, your movie probably won’t end up in Blockbuster. That’s okay. You can likely get it carried by Netflix, which is better in the long tail world.
And beyond that, focus on what’s next. Don’t dwell on what-mighta-beens. The iron was never that hot, and while you’re at square one, you didn’t get sent any further back. You made a movie. Get the most you can out of it, then get cracking on doing the next project.
- Another option: I’d be tempted to find some prolific and well-regarded torrenter and anonymously tip him to where he could find a Quicktime file sitting unguarded on a server. You’ll get better exposure if it comes from someone with pirate cred. ↩
Filed under: Film Industry, Indie, Psych 101, QandA, Sundance
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August 25th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Agree with the torrent idea. Except, rip it to xvid, not quicktime. ;-)
August 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I think John’s absolutely right (and I appreciate the kind mention); the best thing you could be doing with any industry contacts the film nets you is using those meetings to build relationships for your next films. And he’s also dead on about building those relationships with people who are more likely to connect with the film, as they could eventually champion your next script or film down the line. Or they could end up working on your next film. You never know.
As far as DVD goes, I would try to get in touch with someone at Heretic Films (they had a lot of success with Lurking In Suburbia, which your trailer reminded me of quite a bit), or maybe even Anthem Distribution, as they both have good reputations and can get your film into brick and mortar outlets as well as the on-line realm (Netflix, Amazon, etc). There’s plenty of other boutique DVD houses out there, but those are two I consistently hear great things about. There’s also Carnivalesque Films, which is a terrific company run by two filmmakers who’ve self distributed their work theatrically across the country, but also have a retail output deal for DVD. You couldn’t find two better people to work with, but I’m not sure if they’re looking for content right now, and they’re also primarily doc oriented, so who knows.
As far as finding a mid-size company that knows how to deal with low budget films for VOD, I’m not sure one exists yet. Cinetic is far from a mid-size company, but they did just launch a digital rights branch, headed by the wonderful Matt Dentler, so that might be a place to look. There’s also a company called MediaStile, and I know they do a lot of work with iTunes and other on-line outlets and they’re pretty filmmaker friendly, so you might wanna check them out too. All that aside, I couldn’t agree more with the fact that your best option would probably be streaming or uploading it on the website and just getting the film out there to as many people as possible. If the film goes viral, you could leverage that hype to net some underwriting or secure better terms on a future release (Similar to what B-Side Ent. does with some of their films), or you could try to organize some sort’ve pay per click scenario with an advertiser if you were able to get them excited about your film and it’s on-line release.
Doing DVD’s yourself is also a strong option, and you could be selling them off your website at very little cost. The harsh reality is that most people don’t buy movies they’ve never heard of when they’re strolling through Target or Best Buy anyways, so the marketing and distribution costs that come associated with a traditional DVD release aren’t as effective or necessarily even worthwhile if your film doesn’t have any way to separate itself from the pack. Odds are that 90% of the people who buy your DVD are gonna be doing so because you or your team did something to catch their interest. You might as well keep your rights (and your profits) and create a more cost effective and personalized marketing campaign for your film, versus handing it off to a company where it’s going to be competing with all of their other material for time and attention.
And selling DVD’s at concerts that bands from the film are playing is just genius. I’d recommend trying to come up with as many unique ideas like that as you can.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:01 am
You´re absolutely right John,
you make movies because 1.) you want people to watch it and 2.) make money with it. When starting in business (which can take some time as i´m currently experiencing it) you´re goal is to build up a little buzz about you and your movie, the best thing is to go public.
If your first tries to make money from the movie are not that successful you should spread the movie while it´s still fresh. Torrent is a good idea (and i´d also stick to xvid).
The same is more than true if you´re doing short movies, which is not the case here but there is hardly any market for shorts (well except you happen to shoot an independent movie, distribute it and pack the short movie on the dvd as well, right John?) ;)
August 26th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I know nothing about DVD, etc, but I agree wholeheartedly with what everyone has said about the value of the relationships this film has and can net you. Relationships make the world go round, and that’s certainly true in Hollywood.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Hey,
Ryan Reynolds just jogged by me this morning while I was walking to my shitty Non-Hollywood job in Brentwood. He made me feel disgusting, as he was lathered in sweat and muscles, and I was eating a Boston-Cream donut.
Love
John