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The Director’s Chair Issue #122 – September 8, 2011 (Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul)

Things I learned while co-writing “Selling Your Film Without
Selling Your Soul” by Sheri Candler.

Some may be aware that I have co authored a book that is about
to be released in a couple of weeks. It is a book of case
studies on recent independent films that have taken the road
less traveled to the market and the cases run the gamut
regarding subject matter and genre. Few of these films took
the tried and traditional route of selling all rights to a
distributor and hope they treat you well, pay a good upfront
minimum and send regular revenue checks and accounting
statements.

Most used either a hybrid approach to distribution (retained
some ownership control over their work by splitting up rights
with the most qualified distribution partners and reserving
the ability to sell it themselves), a DIY approach (did not
sell any rights to the work to outside distributors and have
complete control over selling it directly to audiences) or
distributed it for free using the global internet. They also
used online tools and grassroots efforts to reach their target
audiences rather than over reliance on large advertising and
publicity budgets to get attention.

Though I didn’t write all of the chapters, I was part of the
vetting process in choosing the cases. One of the main
qualifiers was the ability to report numbers. We felt that
there have been many books devoted to film distribution theory
and deal brokering, but not many that dove deep into the
revenue results and the budgets those results were based on.
We were determined to get that information out as it is most
useful in making business decisions for producing a film.

This resulted in many cases refusing to participate from the
beginning or dropping out at the last moment, leaving us
scrambling to replace them. I am proud to say that we believe
we have accomplished our goal or providing independent
filmmakers the world over with a useful resource about the
current landscape of film distribution on which to base their
business decisions.

Without further ado, here are 5 things I learned while writing
this book

1) Myth and secrecy are rampant in the film industry. No
wonder no one knows the true state of the industry or what to
base their decisions off of! Filmmakers won’t talk (or their
investors won’t let them) about how much is spent making their
films because they are trying to get a sales agent or
distributor interested in buying it and paying as much upfront
as possible, but how can anyone possibly know what is
achievable and what is fantasy?

Secrecy in the industry is probably not really a revelation to
you, but by holding back information in the hope of sales that
mostly aren’t materializing, it keeps anyone from really
knowing what budget level films should be made at if
recoupment is part of the plan. Solid decisions, both by
filmmakers and by investors, can’t really be made if no one
knows the truth, both about the budgets and about the profit.

2) A realistic budget level for indie films. In order for an
indie film using a hybrid or DIY strategy to see recoupment
and possibly more, the production AND marketing and
distribution budget must stay low. Based on our case studies,
that number is below $200,000. Films that went over this
budget level were far less likely to recoup within the first 2
years of release, none of the cases over this amount in the
book have recouped in full yet.

3) Marketing and distribution are the production’s
responsibility and must be part of the budget. Many of our
cases did not plan or budget for taking on this expense from
inception and were caught in that familiar scene of thinking a
distributor would be found and scrambling to make a plan and
raise more money to implement it when low offers or no offers
materialized.

Over and over again our participants noted they could see now
why it was important to think about this work, they remarked
on how big of a job this is and that they would need to get
some help on board much earlier in the process, and why a
clearly defined audience was important to maximizing their
efforts at reaching them.

4) Financial gain is not always the main goal. This was
particularly true for the subjects of my chapter who are using
file sharing sites to distribute work. Most of them were first
time filmmakers and mainly they are interested in reaching the
widest audience possible for the least cost and building names
for themselves that could be used to get attention from the
industry. Publicity and word of mouth play a huge part in
this. Most of the time when filmmakers say they want to reach
the “widest audience possible” what they mean is they want to
make the most money possible.

Those 2 things do not always go hand in hand and it is
especially so for complete unknowns. For filmmakers who have
very little financial resources to reach wide audiences, it is
better to spend as little budget as possible to make the
content and spend a lot of time engaging with audiences and
figuring out how to cost effectively distribute the work.

5) The importance of research before you sign with anyone.
With the internet as pervasive as it is, there is no reason
not to do your due diligence before you sign a contract,
including research on sales agents and distributors. Don’t
just rely on a company website to inform you of their
reputations or a few media write ups of some well known films
they handled. Really take the time to contact a cross section
of their client accounts and see if you are getting the clear
picture.

You should also know what all the terms of your contract mean
and don’t be rushed to sign because your big premiere is
happening. If you have someone on board who is solely
responsible for the marketing and distribution of your film,
have them get samples of contracts and really understand what
you will be agreeing to, what you can negotiate, how you can
terminate if the agreement isn’t being followed and how to
protect yourself should the company go bankrupt.

I am proud to say that I believe we have accomplished our goal
of providing independent filmmakers the world over with a
useful resource about the current landscape of film
distribution on which to base their business decisions. I
can’t wait for everyone to read it.

Copyright (c) 2011 Peter D. Marshall / All Rights Reserved