I just spent 3 hours driving to North Hollywood with Jess for our first meeting with a distributor, but as I walk in the door of the building I get a call on my phone. Turns out it was supposed to be a phone meeting and the person wasn’t even in the office. Jess had taken the day off to play producer and she didn’t have time for this. She rolled her eyes and grabbed my car keys as I sat alone in the lobby of the building for an hour talking to these guys on the phone.
In preparation for AFM (the American Film Market in Santa Monica), I had spent months researching traditional distributors – those who attended the various film markets and distributed films theatrically and overseas. I sent out onesheets and emails, making calls, receiving rejection after rejection. But this is how I eventually sold Ring of Steel, so I knew what to expect.
My mantra at the time was, “you don’t have to get everyone to like it, just one. The right one.”
This meeting was our first glimmer of hope. It was a new company with an investment banker turned actress turned distributor who frequents the film markets and had contacted us repeatedly about the film. There were enough red flags that my initial response was “no”, but it’s amazing how quickly confidence turns to desperation.
Anyone who has sold a used car knows what distribution feels like. You go into it thinking you’re going to at least make your money back, but by the end you’re willing to sell it for scrap.
Years ago I saw an interview with Kenneth Branagh who was talking about trying to sell his film Henry V. This is truly an amazing film with brilliant acting, but he told a story about wandering the streets of Hollywood like a homeless person with a film can in hand trying desperately to sell the damn thing. I couldn’t believe it.
But now I can totally see it. I had never had to deal with this side of things. When we made Ring of Steel back in the early 90’s, the production company SGE already had a distribution deal with MCA/Universal, so no problem. True, this is a $20,000 film as opposed to $1.5 mil, but how hard could it be?
But the landscape has totally changed since then. Traditional distribution has given way to VOD (video on demand), which is quickly taking over the market. In theory, I wasn’t even supposed to think about traditional distribution since our SAG New Media contract states that our initial release had to be online.
But a year ago, a distributor called us wanting to take the film to Cannes, which was very flattering. We told them the film wasn’t ready, and that it couldn’t be in a festival anyway because of our SAG contract. They told us that it wasn’t a problem. They would release the film on their online channel without any hoopla, which would satisfy the SAG requirement.
In truth, the SAG New Media contract in all its vague-ness never specified what they meant by an initial online release. Does that mean Netflix? Hulu? My personal Youtube page? It was definitely a grey area, and I was willing to take the chance to give traditional distribution a shot since it seemed like the only way to make a profit.
Unfortunately, the few offers we got from traditional distributors (including the banker turned actress turned distributor) were pretty crappy. They wanted a long term 10 year exclusive commitment with $10,000 up front to QC the film (quality control required for various online and foreign markets) and they would take 30% of the revenue after recouping expenses.
First rule of distribution is to never pony up your own money. And I learned the hard way on Ring of Steel what recouping expenses meant when it comes to getting paid. We were supposed to get 1/3 of the gross worldwide profits on that film, but the distributor claimed that they never made a profit, and any money they did make supposedly went into selling the film.
So the prospect of finding a traditional distributor looked slim, but I still wanted to go to the American Film Market. I had been going to AFM for years. I sold Ring of Steel there, had some great meetings, but I’ve never been there with a film of my own. For the first time I considered buying a booth or daily pass – something I had never done before. Maybe even pay to screen the film.
But two weeks before the market, I got a call to work VFX on a film that I couldn’t pass up. Not just because I was running out of money, but because the film was Star Wars. I spent 4 weeks working 14 hours a day 7 days a week on a film that I’m never allowed to talk about thanks to a crazy NDA.
It pained me to miss AFM, but I took it as a sign. Traditional distribution wasn’t for us. And not just because of the crappy deals. Research has shown that folks nowadays won’t go to a theater to watch an indie film. If we really wanted to, we could rent out a theater for a few weeks to show the film, but to what end? What’s more, our film was directly tied into the web series, so keeping it online seemed to make sense.
So VOD… how hard could that be? Unfortunately, releasing a film online was no longer an easy prospect. Just a few short years ago it was no big deal to get your film onto Itunes or Netflix. Now you have to find an approved aggregator to accept your film and pay them thousands to submit your film which may or may not be accepted. Netflix is now the big dog and they know it.
The good and bad news is, online distribution models are changing on a daily basis and there are a million different websites, hosting companies and various strategies. Unfortunately, none of them seem to involve making money.
What’s more, it’s gotten easier for people to make content. The software and equipment has gotten cheaper. Hell, you can now shoot and edit a film on an iphone. So there’s tons of content out there. And making money is taking second place to just getting eyeballs on your film.
So how am I going to make this work? Looks like I’m gonna have to science the shit outta this.
thehuntedtv 