When making a film it’s very easy to get lost in the creative process… However creators and specially indie filmmakers should be aware that the distribution and marketing process of a film starts in pre-production.
Indie producers are always in the hunt of new ways to profit from their films with the minimum third party involvement, this is because distributors most of the times are looking to take a bigger piece of the pie than the filmmaker. Sad but true. Distributors often used to ask for all rights in all territories, meaning that you were putting all your eggs in the same basket… Usually getting your eggs forgotten and without been exploited at their fully potential.
With the internet, filmmakers have now the access to self-distribute their film on a VOD basis, in a straight forward connection with their audience, not to mention the sales of the dvd on a one-to-one basis. This sounds very exciting, however there are two factors to consider when thinking about approaching this way. One is marketing and the other one is Broadcast opportunities.
Let’s talk about marketing.
Big budget films always dedicate millions to the marketing area, exciting trailers, tv commercials, magazine ads, online ads, etc… There are always ways to involve the brand (film) with marketing strategies to create awareness in the community, indie filmmakers usually don’t have the budget for these type of campaigns and are constantly lacking the financial support that the big studios have.
To market a film yourself, means to use all strategies available for the filmmaker or producer to create film/brand awareness. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, LinkedInd and other social media might be helpful but to engage audience means to give to the audience. When you give important information or perks, you get a loyal audience. When you get a loyal audience, you get people that will talk well about your film. Asking for “likes” on your page is like the popular kid in high school asking for votes… Nobody likes that. It’s like poking someone’s shoulder and asking to see their ID. Anyways. The best thing to do is to invest your time unless you have the budget to hire a Promotions and Marketing professional to work for you. Beside your time use most of the resources you can: your friends, your family, your web knowledge, etc… I also found some good books that discuss this topic in Google. Look for Guerilla Marketing for filmmakers, some good books are:
- Selling Your Film without Selling your Soul
- How to Make, Market and Sell your Film without the Middleman
These ar ejust some books that can give you more light about this topic.
Now let’s move on to the second aspect I find against you while doing VOD distribution… At this point, if your film is on PAID VOD services, you are in a better position than when your film is on subscription based platforms, like NETFLIX for example. Here I’m talking about broadcasting opportunities. TV channels always want to have the exclusive, so if your film is on internet VOD, a cable VOD deal is more difficult to get. If your film is on any territory already been distributed, then is more difficult to give your exclusive rights to show your film. In this area today, TV channels have more leverage since they’re looking for exclusive deals to present your film to their audience. I’m not saying is impossible, bute surely more difficult to get these type of deals.
Now, if you ask me what would be a good way to distribute the film once is done. I would say, try to target the main broadcasters first, hit film festivals that have a good film market, avoid distribution deals that ask for EXCLUSIVE WORLDWIDE RIGHTS unless they’re giving you a good sum of money upfront for your film. And if for any reason you end up with an offer for foreign distribution, go for an upfront fee to this distributor instead of deferred payment since is more difficult for you to control the sales of your film in other countries.
In regards to VOD?
Self distributing via your site could be very profitable if you market yourself well. So start creating audience even before starting production for your film…. Believe me it’s worth it.
Well, those are some random thoughts on this blog post. Feel free to comment!
