Distribution Ben Yennie Distribution Ben Yennie

The Practical Guide to DVD/Blu-Ray Distribution for Independent Filmmakers

Physical media is dead, right? Well, mostly. Although maybe not as much as you’d think.

Last week I examined the rise and fall of physical media for the film industry.  As promised, this week I’ll outline WHY that matters, and the practical aspects of the current independent film industry.  Well, the answer to that (and so many things in both this industry and in life) is that it’s all in how you do it.  What follows is an examination, looking to lend guidance to that question.  Here are the ways you can still make money with independent film.

A disclaimer: a lot of this article is something that filmmakers can’t do themselves, and will require a distributor to help get the film into place. 

Redbox pays up front, most others pay on consignment

There aren’t that many large-scale DVD retailers left.  It used to be that everyone sold some DVDs by the checkout because people would pick them up on impulse.  Now the only places that still retail DVDs in the US are RedBox, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Family Video in the Midwest.  I’m sure I’m missing a few smaller players, but not much beyond that.  

The trouble with this is that while I won’t name names for legal reasons, a lot of the retailers listed above buy DVDs on consignment, not outright.  In practice, this means that your distributor will need to replicate anywhere between 10 thousand and 50 thousand DVDs and then pay shelf rental fees with no hard guarantee that they will get their money back.  Replication at that scale is not horrendously expensive, but even while the per-unit cost of replication is cheap, the sheer number of units means that the distributor will have A LOT at risk. 

Redbox on the other hand buys DVDs outright.  Plus, since they don’t use standard cases the DVD replication tends to be cheaper.  Even with that, they pay pretty well on a per-unit basis. 

Redbox might well be your highest-value single deal

Since Redbox tends to buy anywhere between 10 thousand and 50 thousand units outright, the profit on the sale can reach well into 6 figures.  This is not a small amount of money, especially considering that they do still buy low-budget movies.  By contrast, most PayTV providers only pay low-mid 5 figures. 

If the franchise has strong sequel potential and is brought to Redbox by a distributor they’ve worked with in the past, they’ve even been known to issue a sales agreement while still in development, which can greatly help in financing.  It should be noted that this is rare.

A HUGE Caveat to note here is that both Redbox and most Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) providers only acquire films that have had at least 250,000 USD at the box office. ​

MOD is almost certainly worth doing

MOD stands for Manufacture on Demand. A LOT of the films you see online but not in-store are put there through MOD services. Not all, but a lot. There are some services that are available only to distributors. These services tend to be the widest-reaching MOD providers. However, Amazon’s CreateSpace has recently become a place primarily for Video on Demand and MOD sold through Amazon. Their analytics are great, and anyone can do it.

I have done MOD Distribution for most films I distribute in the US, and most outlets I work with will do MOD for their releases as well. If it’s a theatrical film, and it’s something that has a real chance at getting to one of the major retailers, most distributors work with a partner to get it there. If you enjoyed reading this, you should check out my mailing list and resource package using the other button. The resource package has lots of great templates and additional information, plus you get a monthly blog digest segmented by topic.

Check out the tags below for related content

Read More
Marketing, Community Ben Yennie Marketing, Community Ben Yennie

6 Tips to manage your Indiefilm Facebook Page

Social media is a reality for all of us, filmmakers included. Here’s some tips on managing your facebook presence.

Your social media presence for your company is extremely important.  Likely, the most important piece of it is your presence on Facebook.  Facebook has the largest user base, and if you know how to use it you can tap into a huge part of your target market.  Here are 5 rules that will help you grow your Facebook presence. ​

Focus on a Page for Your Company, not your projects.

When you set up your Facebook page, it’s better to focus on a page for your production company instead of your film.  This way, when you move on to the next film, you’ll already have the audience you’ve created for your film.  You may have to create a page for individual projects, but you should focus on keeping the audience for your company page engaged.

Also, its getting more and more difficult to run a business through a standard profile. You can try it to increase organic reach, but you may end up hurting yourself more than helping yourself.

Always respond to Messages to your page

If you want to keep your reach up, you need to respond to questions and comments that come to your page via messenger. It can also lead to some really notable business opportunities and sales for you. At least, it has for me.

Don’t try to manage too much at once.

Just having a huge Facebook page won’t do you much good.  You have to use it as a way to engage the audience for your projects.   To do this, you have to regularly post content relevant to your target demographic. Finding or creating high-quality, engaging content is a very time-consuming process.  If you want to try to manage too many pages at once, you’re likely to burn out and not be able to continue regularly posting relevant content.

If you let too long pass between posts, your fan base will start to decay.  Further, when next you post, your posts won’t reach as far because Facebook’s algorithm won’t let them.  It’s much better to focus on managing one or two pages at the same time and helping those pages to grow within the platform.

Share useful content to relevant groups

One good way to grow your brand recognition online is to post valuable content to your page, then share it with groups filled with your target demographic.  I do this all the time.  In fact, there’s a good chance that’s how you found this article.  This content shouldn’t just be sales links for your film, it should be free content that provides some value to the group.  You can post the occasional sales link, but you shouldn’t do so more than once per week. 

Related:5 Dos and Don'ts for Selling your Film on Social Media

It’s important that you avoid being too spammy while doing this.  I have a list of 5 groups to share to each of my pages on a daily basis, to help ensure I don’t post to the same group too many times.   It takes some time to set up, but it’s the best way to avoid running afoul of group admins.  That’s not something you want to do. Trust me.  (Sorry if you’re one of the admins I’ve run afoul of, just trooping through this.

Always post videos natively

By this, I mean always upload your videos directly to Facebook, and don’t post a Vimeo or YouTube link.  If Facebook sees that the video is coming from Vimeo or YouTube, it will only get about 20% of the reach.  If, on the other hand, you upload it directly to your page, it will actually get a lot of prioritized placement in the feeds of people who like your content and their friends. 

Don’t put your movie on Facebook, put your trailers there and point to Amazon.

Finally, Facebook video is a great place to post a trailer, but not a great place to post your entire film.  First of all, you won’t be paid for posting your video to Facebook like you would be if you posted to Amazon Video Direct or YouTube.  Second, most people just don’t watch full-length films on Facebook.  They’ll watch videos that are only a few minutes long. 

As such, posting your trailer can be a great way to get extra attention on it, and then you can link off to a place where people can buy it or watch it for free.   Doing this can not only increase the number of people who watch your film, but might even increase your total audience. 

Thanks so much for reading.  If you like this content, you should consider liking my page on Facebook!  Here’s a link.

www.facebook.com/theguerrillarep.

Also, join my mailing list for more indie-film business content, plus a free e-book, template, and more!

Check the tags below for more great content!

Read More
Marketing, Distribution, Film Financing Ben Yennie Marketing, Distribution, Film Financing Ben Yennie

4 Reasons Niche Marketing is VITAL to your indiefilm’s Succes

If you want to grow your career in entertainment, it’s all about audience. If you want a big audience, you need to start with die hard fans. That means you’ve got to know your niche.

Most people don’t plan to fail, they simply fail to plan.  Similarly, most filmmakers don’t think about anything other than getting the film made until the film is completed.  This is a prime example of failure to plan resulting in a failed project.  In reality, you should be thinking about your target market as early as when you write your script.  If this is your first film, you should be targeting a well defined niche.  Here are 4 reasons why.

Would you Rather Watch than Read?  Here's a video on the same general topic from my YouTube Channel.

Niche Marketing Gives you an audience for your film

I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your film is unlikely to appeal to everyone everywhere.  You’re much better off figuring out what parts of your story will resonate with various groups, and focusing your early marketing efforts on them.  It will put your film in front of the people who it will resonate most strongly with, and it will help you rise about the white noise that every content creator must face, especially when starting out. 

It’s also important to keep in mind that just because your film starts in a niche doesn’t mean that the niche is where it will always live.  If you properly utilize niche marketing, it can actually help you break out of the niche and into the more generalized marketplace. 

Niche Marketing Cuts down on your marketing cost

If you do think that you can target everyone, because your film is just that universally appealing then your marketing expenditures are going to be astronomical.  Also, you’ll be competing directly with movies like Star Wars, The Avengers, and whatever the next Pixar movie is.  Unless you’re a studio head, then you can’t afford to win that competition. 

Utilizing proper niche marketing efforts will dramatically cut down on your marketing expenditure since you’ll know exactly who you want to get your project in front of.  Thanks to social media platforms, you’ll be able to target those people directly using smart advertising buys and strong community engagement from an early stage.

Further, if you do break out of your niche, you’ll already have more noise being made about your project so the costs to market it will be much smaller.

Niche Marketing Can help you fund your film

If you start to get involved in niche communities well before you make your film, then you’ll have a community that you can mobilize to help you raise a portion of your funding through donation-based crowdfunding.  To be clear, if you simply post your campaign over and over to the various communities you want to support your campaign.  You’ll have to ingratiate yourself into them well before starting a campaign.

​The Reason that these people may well be willing to support your campaign is that many niche communities are underserved, and want to have their story shared. 

 They want to see more media made about their interests and themselves as a community.  They want their story told.  Many of them, are willing and eager to make it happen.  This brings us to our final point.

Niche Marketing Gives you advocates for your film

No Films can market themselves completely on their own. They need to get a core group of people to help spread the word. Niche marketing can be a huge help for getting the people who are most likely to be your strongest advocates onboard early. As mentioned above, they’re the people who care the most about your subject matter. They’re the people who will seek out your content and show it to your friends because they identify with it so much.

No one can create advocates, you must find them. The most likely place to find them is within the various underserved niches that have plenty of stories that need to be told. 

Thanks so much for Reading. If you like this and want more, check out my FREE Film Business Resource Pack! You’ll get a free e-book on the business of entertainment, a set of highly useful templates, and a whole lot more. Check it out below.

Read More
Marketing, Community Ben Yennie Marketing, Community Ben Yennie

5 Ways to Market Your Movie Besides Social movie

Making. a movie is only the first step. Before you’re done, you’ll have to market it. Here’s a guide for ways to do that besides social media.

There’s a lot of advice on the internet, as well as on this blog about marketing your film using social media.  That’s with good reason, Social media is among the most cost-effective ways to market your project if you do it properly.  Further, it helps you maintain a long-term relationship with potential customers.  That being said, it’s not the only way to market your film.  It might not even be the most efficient way when it’s the only thing you do.  What follows are 5 ways to market your film other than social media.

For this blog, all 5 of these tactics can and should be used in conjunction with each other, and can greatly augment your social media marketing.

Before we begin, every once in a while I’ll take a question I get on Twitter and turn it into a blog.  This question came @AmandaVerhagen a while back, but I’ve not had time to adequately address it until now.  If you have a question about film distribution, marketing, financing, or sales, feel free to @Mention @TheGuerrillaRep and I might just write a blog to answer your question.  

Events

Hosting an event to spread the word about your project can be a great way to build excitement and generate interest in your project.  This can be something as simple as a happy hour at a local bar where you buy a few drinks for strong supporters, or as complex as renting an event space, supplying the booze, and having some people say a few words.  Ideally with entertainment.

What you do really comes down to how much time you have to organize and what your budget it.  The importance of the milestone you’re celebrating also plays a factor, although any milestone worthy of an event is also likely worthy of some time to organize it

Festivals

Shocking, I know.  However what does bear mentioning is that festivals are only as useful as you make them.  Getting into festivals can be a great way to expand your network and grow the reputation of the film, however the effect that will have will be limited unless you learn how to work the festival. 

Essentially, getting into a festival provides you a space where you can utilize every other item on this list to grow your notoriety, your film’s reputation, and your professional network. 

​Flyers/Givaways

​Having something tangible you can give away to people at events in festivals will help people remember you.  They’ll remember you even more if you attach something to the card that has some immediate value beyond the information you’re handing out.  This can be as simple as a tiny piece of chocolate attached to a card, a bottle of hand sanitizer, or even a small bottle of alcohol( if the demographic is right.)

Adding a giveaway will help you stand out in the minds of whoever you give your giveaway to .It’s easy to get lost in a pouch of postcards and flyers, but something as simple and cheap as a piece of chocolate can make all of the difference in how you’re remembered by the event goer. 

​Stunts

Pulling some sort of marketing stunt can be a great way to stand out and attract a bit of press.  Whatever you do, you’ve got to make sure you do it safely though. 

One of the most famous stunts at Cannes was when someone lit themselves on fire (in a fire suit) and then after they were put out, it was revealed to be an attractive your woman in a bikini who starred in the film she was promoting.  Rumor has it the woman later lost that bikini while being interviewed, but that’s another matter.  Also, that happened in the late 80’s/early 90’s, so the culture was different.

Your stunt doesn’t have to be as outlandish as that, but should be as memorable.  If you have a  war movie, you might want to consider throwing toy paratroopers from a rooftop you can gain access to.  If you’re promoting at Sundance, a woman in a bikini making a quick walk through the cold with premier tickets would certainly grab some eyeballs and some attention.  Especially if you can work in a joke about accidentally packing for Cannes. That said, make sure you have a trenchcoat and hot drinks on hand to help her out when she inevitably gets cold.

In any case, the goal of the stunt is to get eyeballs in a safe and legal way.  It’s to help you and your movie be memorable and to ideally attract a bit of the final item on our list. 

​Publicity

​Publicity is almost always the most cost-effective way to spread the word about your project.  However, it’s not always the easiest thing to get.  Generally, you’ll need a relationship with an outlet, something truly eye-catching, or a good publicist to get any substantial amount of coverage.  Sometimes you’ll need all three. 

There are a couple of ways you can disseminate a press release.  PRNewswire.com is relatively affordable, but it’s unclear how much individual press coverage you’ll get out of it.  It does still help with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to at least a degree though.  

Generally, if you can afford a publicist, it’s the best way to go by far.  My favorite publicist is October Coast, they’re very cost-effective for the value they provide. While it’s possible to get big marquee press coverage from October Coast it’s unlikely. This means you probably won’t get you the big outlets like Deadline, Variety, or THR, but you will get dozens of relevant niche blogs. In general, you’ll need a higher-cost publicist, or if you’re lucky your distributor, sales agent, or producer’s rep will handle this for you.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: There may be a few more things I’ve learned from Running Mutiny that I’ll share in a new blog around the efficacy of paid ads and sponsorships. Comment if that’s of interest.

Thanks for reading! If you want more help financing or distributing your movie, the best place to start is my film business resource pack. It’s got templates, an e-book, and a whole lot more to help you grow your indiefilm company and career. Oh, it’s completely free, get it below.

Check the tags below for more related content

Read More
Community Ben Yennie Community Ben Yennie

The Top 11 ways to Support Content Creators as a Fan

We all have people we follow, and we all tend to want more content. Here’s how you can support your favorite creators so they can make it for you.

A lot of what I write is geared towards helping filmmakers better understand how to make a living in film and media.  But without the support of their community, audience, and fans it’s impossible for a creator to make a living.  So this week thought I’d break the mold and write a post for the fans and followers on how you can support your favorite content creators. 

Since money is tight for most people, the majority of this list will show how you can support your favorite content creators without spending any money, or at least money you wouldn’t have spent otherwise. 

This list is Prioritiized by how much they help the content creator.  If you have a disagreement with me on the prioritization, or if you think I forgot one check #6.  Also, YARRR… that be affiliate links in this article.  I practice what I preach. 

With the qualifiers out of the way, let’s get started.

#1. Consume their content

It may seem obvious, but the most important thing you can do to support a content creator is consume their content.  If a content creator doesn’t have people consuming their content, then they don’t have an audience, and without an audience the creation is for naught.

But consuming content differently helps them differently.  If you watch their content through AVOD (YouTube, Hulu, anything with ads) or certain SVOD (subsription Video On Demand) providers like Amazon Prime or Fandor then every view pays the content creator directly.  If you watch it through other SVOD platforms like Netflix, NBOGO/HBONow then that also helps the content creator, but not as directly.

If you have to choose a free way to watch your favorite content creator’s work, then Amazon prime is the way to do it. They pay the best. ​

#2. ​Buy their premium content.

If you really want to support an artist or a content creator, show them buy buying their creations, or subscribing to their patreon.  These channels often give the majority of the sale to the creator. 

If you buy their content on VHX or Vimeo on Demand, they make around 80-90% of the sale.  If you buy is from iTunes or Google play, Filmmakers make significantly less, although both are helpful for different reasons.

I make the most money per copy when someone buys a paperback through Amazon, but my favorite way for people to get my book is through their local bookstore, library, or Barnes and nobles.com.   Even though I make about half as much, if someone requests it then it’s more likely to show up to other local bookstores or libraries and it spreads rather quickly.  Plus, I get warm fuzzies helping support indie bookstores and libraries.  Similar recommendation engines happen with iTunes and google play for videos

#3. Leave a review

Other than consuming content, the best way to support a content creator without spending any (More) money is by leaving a review.  Sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Netflix, Goodreads, iTunes, and more have hugely powerful recommendation engines that help consumers discover new content that rely largely on reviews.

Apart from that, most potential customers will read reviews before buying a product.  Some studies have shown that reviews and recommendations are the primary way people decide whether or not to buy a product, especially younger people.

#4. Join their mailing lis

I know we all get too much spam.  However, if you want to support a content creator who’s work you love, join their mailing list.  *Cough*

It’s the most stable way for them to keep in touch with you.  Liking their Facebook page or following them on twitter doesn’t guarantee you’ll see their messages.  Of course, it’s on them to not get too spammy. 

If they do get too spammy, when you unsubscribe try not to report spam.  Just say something like “No Longer interested.”   Spam reports can really damage their ability to send messages that people actually see, so make sure it’s only used when it’s really necessary.  Like, the exact same message multiple times in a week.

#5 Like/Follow/Subscribe their channels

A follow on twitter, a like on Facebook, or a subscribe on youtube doesn’t have the same impact as joining their mailing list, but it still matters.  It means you’re more likely to view their content, and savvy investors or distributors will ask what their social media presence is.

#6 Share their content

If you like a piece of content, share it with your friends!  There are some very beneficial things that happen when it’s shared that go far beyond whatever friends you share it with seeing it.  If you share a sponsored Facebook post, the ad is more effective and reaches more people without the content creator spending any more money.   Apart from that, sharing content helps it get discovered by search engines.

#7 Leave a comment on their content

Leaving a comment on social media will help with SEO, and if they use a plugin for Facebook comments (Like I Do) it will also help make the most more discoverable on social media.  If you leave a comment on a youtube video, it also helps it be discovered by people watching similarly tagged videos.  The more engagement the content gets, the more people the platform will show it to.

#8 Click an Ad on their content.

If you’re on a content creator you trust’s site, and you enjoy the content, you should consider clicking a relevant ad.  You’d be surprised what it pays.  It’s not uncommon I make more money from a single google AdSense click than I do from an E-book Sale of the Entrepreneurial producer.   That’s right, clicking the right ad can support your content creator more money than spending 2.99 on an ebook. 

Most creators use Google Adsense for ads like this, so you shouldn’t get adware from clicking a reputable blog.  I actually disabled ads on my site, but in general most creators use Google AdSense. If you’re watching something on YouTube, letting the ad play also helps your favorite creator.

#9 Participate in their sponsorships/Affiliates

If you see a link for a product you wanted to buy on a content creator’s site, then you should consider buying them through the links on that content creator’s site.   it generally pays them a bit of money for a product, or a decent amount of money for a service.  Some of the common banners will look like this.

​Amazon is far from the only company to do this, but they are one of the most common affiliates you'll see.

#10 Watch an ad all the way through on their content

If you’re watching a video on youtube and you see an ad that’s about 30 seconds long, you should want to consider letting it play.  The amount of money the content creator if the ad plays all the way through is significantly more than the money they get if you only watch the 6 seconds.

#11 Engage with their social media posts

Sharing, Retweeting, Liking, or loving their content on social media has a huge impact on the reach of a post.  this impact goes well beyond the direct expansion to your fan base.   Engaging with your content creator on social media helps them grow their reach much more quickly.

​Thanks for reading, if you like this post, feel free to share it with your friends, fans, and whoever else.  Also feel free to follow me on twitter, like me on Facebook, or check out my book!

Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this content, please share it to help any creators you follow. Also, as stated above, consider joining my mailing list. You’ll get a free E-book, templates to help you finance or sell your film, and a whole lot more!

Check the tags below for related content.

Read More
Distribution, Film Financing Ben Yennie Distribution, Film Financing Ben Yennie

Black Box - a Call for Transparency in Film

The concept that Film Distributors aren’t telling you the whole truth isn’t unknown. However, the problem is deeper than you may realize. Here’s why.

A Black cube on grass in a yard, with the Title “Black Box” in the upper left corner and the subtitle “An In Depth Analysis of ‘Hollywood accounting” in the lower right corner, and logos for Guerrilla Rep media and PRoducer Foundry in the lower left corner.
Photo Credit thierry ehrmann Via Flickr, Modifications made to add title, subtitle, and logos

The process of Filmmaking has been evolving rapidly over the past decade.  With the massive change in the availability of equipment, negating the need for tapes or stock, and bringing the professional quality down to a price point thought unfathomable merely a decade ago, the barrier to entry for making a film has been almost completely obliterated.  Additionally, education on how to make a film has become widely available, from the massive emergence of film schools to a plethora of information available in special edition DVDs, anyone can learn how to make a film.  However, the same cannot be said for Film Distribution.  Film distribution is still a black box from where no light or information emerges.  There is a very palpable air of secrecy around film distribution, and now that film production has become available for anyone curious enough to seek it, it’s time the same is done for film distribution.

​I’ve always loved movies, and I’ve been making films in some fashion for nearly a decade.  Even though that’s really not that long, I realized that when I started, camcorders were still fairly rare among middle-class families, and far rarer among high school students.  Even the local Access channel worked with three-chip cameras, and those who could afford it swore by the film.  That landscape is now nearly unrecognizable, now every other high school freshman carries a 1080p camera in their back pocket anywhere they go.   This process has been going on for decades, far longer than my personal experience.

​In the 70s, even Super 8 home movies were few and far between.  To make a movie in the 70s involved an incredible amount of time, effort, and skill.  Many learned by trial and error, with limited training and education often in the form of watching the great films of their eras.  In those days, no one went to Film School, because there really weren’t that many of them.  You pretty much had to go to New York or LA.  

Even those who entered the industry in the 60s and ’70s often went to school for something else.  Today, there are 389 Film Schools spread across 43 states, which considerably changes the landscape for Education. 

However the same cannot be said for film distribution.  Despite the fact that technology has evolved beyond what even the most visionary filmmakers could scarcely imagine back in the 70s.  Much of it is still a black box where even the most simple information about budgets and returns are kept largely under lock and key.  Studio accounting and net proceeds are just as secret now as they have been since Jimmy Stewart became the first Actor to be a net profit participant back in the 50s.

Even if you made a film that’s being represented by a distributor, many of them will not share accurate information regarding the returns you’ve made.  A simple balance sheet is difficult to track down, and even if you can get one it’s often hindered by studio accounting, and the breakeven point is never reached, so the filmmaker never sees his or her share in the net proceeds, also known as profit participation.  If filmmakers don’t make money making films, then all they have is an expensive hobby that is unsustainable in the long term.  The problem is so vast that even Star Wars Episode 6 never made a profit.  Even if they can get their first project bankrolled, unless they can make a profit on their film it is unlikely that they will get to make another one.  In the independent film world, most times if the producer never sees their share in the net proceeds, then neither does the investor who footed the bill.

​If the investor doesn’t see profit, then they won’t be an investor for long.  Unlike the filmmaker, most of them won’t continue to do this just for the vision.  The first thing any savvy investor will tell you is that they only invest in what they know.  And while they may now be easily able to find information on the process of making the film, the metrics measuring the performance of independent films are unclear and almost always unreliable.  If an investor can’t decode and project revenue through clearly definable analytics, most of them are far less likely to close an investment deal.  Even if they do invest, if they feel like the distributor is not telling them the whole story, they generally won’t invest again.

If the Industry is to change, new money to enter it.  The old money is tied up in sequel after sequel, and rehashes of old stories.  The movie-going public is fed up with it and want something new, different from the old franchises.  This leaves a demand in the industry for quality content that is simply not being filled to the extent it needs to be.  In a way it’s similar to the ’60s and early ’70s here in San Francisco when Venture Capital was just starting, there are many talented young people with great ideas, but little business sense.

The studios are entrenched in the old ways of thinking, and behemoth companies don’t adapt well to change.  Startups do adapt well to change, and they really can change thought processes through ideas that take hold.  The Film Industry is changing more rapidly than ever before, it will likely be just as unrecognizable in another 5 years as it was 10 years ago.   Anyone can make a movie, even with a small device they carry in their pocket. The old companies and the old money can’t adapt as quickly as things are changing, so logically we need new ideas and new money to enter the industry and shake things up.  

This is exactly the effect that Venture Capital had when the Traitorous Eight left Shockley Semiconductor to start Fairchild, and then left to start other companies that eventually became Silicon Valley.  Fairchild was only able to be started due to a new idea that evolved into what is now known as Venture Capital.  In order to effect change as quickly as is needed, something similar must happen in the film industry.  But Venture Capital can’t enter an industry where the risks are incalculable.  Without a more transparent method of accounting, the risks are indeed incalculable.​

​The industry is evolving more rapidly than ever before. The future is unclear.  It’s a wide-open frontier where anyone can make a movie, even with a small device they carry in their pocket.  The process of film production has moved out from the dark rooms and light-proof magazines of old and exposed for all to see.  It is time for the business side to do the same.  It is time for every filmmaker and investor to have a clear understanding of Distribution.  It is time for daylight to expose the studios’ accounting practices.  It is time for transparent accounting in film.

While there's not a lot an individual can do about the lack of transparency in the film industry as a whole, there are ways that we as individuals can band together to have an impact.  Those tactics are some of what I tried to implement at Mutiny Pictures, and what I address in my content, groups, and consulting. One of the goals of porting over my website was to greatly lessen advertising and sales, but check the links below to learn more about ways you can impact not only your career but the industry as a whole. More details on each of the buttons found below.

Check out free related content with the tags below.

Read More