5 Mistakes that cost filmmakers TENS or HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars

Film Distribution is a weird and wonky system full of highly specific jargon and terms of art that are meant to be difficult to understand by its very nature.  I’ve already written several blogs on the basics of how these agreements are structured in a way that a person who is not a lawyer should be able to understand. However, even if you gain an understanding of this wonky system, there are a lot of things that can really hurt your film’s bottom line.  Some of these things could even erase any profits you might have otherwise seen.  Here are 5 mistakes I’ve personally seen filmmakers make that have cost them a minimum of 5 figures per filmmaker.  

Not Fully Appreciating Exclusivity

Managing the rights of an independent film isn’t easy.  There’s a lot more to it than uploading to Amazon and expecting a few million hits.  In fact, making your film available on any wide-scale platform is going to make it nearly impossible for a sales agent to sell whatever territory the film has already been exploited in.  Even if you take the film down, you’ve blown exclusive deals, and those are the only deals that pay anything notable upfront.  One of the first things a territorial distributor does is to google the film from their home country to see where it’s currently available.  If they see it’s available in their territory, they decline.

I’ve lost multiple territorial sales for multiple filmmakers due to someone prematurely exploiting a film in a certain territory without letting the sales agent know about it.  Don’t be one of those filmmakers.

To be clear, films are not evergreen and there will come a time when the smart play is legal wide aggregation in order to cut losses from piracy and build your notoriety in those territories in order to better sell future work.  That time starts at the earliest 2 years from the market premiere of the completed film.  If you do it too much faster, you could be leaving significant amounts of money on the table.  

Sending Screeners too early

Most of the time a distributor, sales agent, or even producer’s rep will only watch a film once.  Additionally, they’ll only watch the first 5 minutes of it and if they’re not hooked, they won’t keep watching.  I’ve seen many distributors walk out of buyer screenings around that mark.  There’s very little you can do to prevent this from happening entirely.  Even though a strong hook in the first 5 minutes will help lessen this happening, buyers are busy people with too many films to watch so you won’t be able to fully prevent it due to shifting market demands and mandates. 

What you can control is how early you send out your film.

In general, it’s unwise to submit anything aside from the final, finished cut of your feature film.  Distributors and sales agents get a lot of submissions, and often won’t watch with the eye of what the film could be, only what it is now.  While they may give you some leniency because they know it’s not finished there’s more than likely going to be some degree of subconscious response reminding them that they weren’t big on the film when they watched it.  That will manifest in several ways, nearly all are bad for the filmmaker. 

Dropping promotional assets too early.

It’s totally natural to be excited when you get your new promotional assets like your trailer, your poster, box art, or anything of the sort.  When excited, I’ve seen many filmmakers run straight to social media to show off to their friends.  This is unwise.  

Distributors use poster drops and trailer drops to get press coverage in the trades to grow awareness of the film on a global level.  If you just put it up on Facebook, we can’t get the same drop in the press.  Your friends will be more impressed if you drop an exclusive from BloodyDisgusting, Collider, or /film to show off your poster, trailer, or exclusive sneak peek.  In general, it’s always wise to ask your distributor if you can show off their work to your social media contacts, if they say they’re looking to get an exclusive, hold off and check back in a week or so for a status update.

Making the wrong Genre

I know, I know this one has been beaten into the heads of most independent filmmakers.  There’s a reason for that though.  The sad fact of the matter is that not very many people watch dramas without names or high-level accolades.   A bad horror movie is an easier sell than a great drama.  If you make a drama, without recognizable names you’re only likely to make money in your home country, and at least in the US, you’re likely to make significantly less than you would have made if you made something like a thriller.

One suggestion I often give on this front to filmmakers who are still in the script stage is to consider telling the same story in a different way while emphasizing suspense over emotion in order to make the film into a thriller instead of a drama.  You’re going to make a lot bigger splash with a thriller than a drama, and if all other things are equal in terms of cast and production quality, you’ve got a much better chance at recouping your investment.  

Pulling their film without a plan.

Sometimes you have to take your film back from a distributor.  There are a lot of sharks out there and there’s a good chance you’ll need to exit a distribution agreement at some point in your filmmaking career.  Generally, when it’s time do to this you will have a very good reason to do so.  That being said Just because you’ve taken your independent film down make it as though it was never there.  If the film is taken down, platforms often won’t put it back up through a different distributor, meaning you’ll be in a rough spot to get it back up.  

This is not universal, but it is common that once a film is taken down its exceedingly difficult to get back up.  To be clear, if your distributor or sales agent is in breach of contract you may not have a better option than to take your film down.  You just need to be aware that you might have some trouble putting it back up, and you won’t make any money from the film in the interim.  

As I said at the top, this all gets wonky really quickly.  It’s more than most filmmakers can really take in over just a few times sitting down at their computer.  That’s why Guerrilla Rep Media offers FREE monthly content digests delivered straight to you as part of our Indiefilm Business Resource pack.  It’s easy to sign up and once you do you’ll receive a monthly email full of useful educational content completely for free.  Additionally, you’ll get lots of other goodies like a free e-book, free white paper, investment deck template, festival brochure template, and more.  Sign up below.  

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The 5 Pervasive Issues Preventing the Emergence of New US Film Hubs

If you’re a filmmaker, you probably already know a lot of other filmmakers in your area.  If you don’t, you should.  That’s one reason why film community events are absolutely vital for the independent film industry.  It’s far from the only reason that communities of independent filmmakers are vital for your success as an independent filmmaker.  

I’ve been involved with a few film community organizations ranging from Producer Foundry to Global Film Ventures, and even the Institute for International Film Finance.  I’ve also spoken at organizations across the country.  From the experience of running more than 150 events and speaking for a few dozen others, I’ve noticed some commonalities across many burgeoning independent film communities, so I thought I would share some of my observations as to why most of them aren’t growing as quickly as they should.  Without further ado, here are the 5 pervasive problems preventing the growth of regional film communities.  

Lack of Resources

It’s no secret that most independent films could use more money.  It’s true for film communities and hubs as well.  In general, most of these community organizations have little to no money unless they’re tied to a larger film society or film festival.  Unfortunately being tied to such an organization often prevents the work of community building due to the time and resources involved in the day-to-day operations of running a film society or the massive commitment that comes with running a film festival.  

Compounding the issues with a lack of resources is that a community organization built to empower a regional film community isn’t something that you could raise equity financing from investors.  Projects like this are much better funded using pages from the non-profit playbook.  There are organizations looking to write grants specifically for film organizations seeking to empower communities.  You can find out more about the grant writing process in this blog below.

RELATED: Filmmakers! 5 Tips for Successful Grantwriting.

While local film commissions do provide some support to locals, their primary mandate is generally built for a different purpose that I’ll discuss in the next of my 5 points.  

Most tax incentives emphasize attracting Large Scale Productions, not building local hubs

Most film tax incentives are heavily or sometimes even entirely oriented on attracting outside productions as a means to bring more revenue to the city, state, region, or territory.  This is understandable, as many film commissions or offices are organized under the tourism bureau or occasionally the Chamber of Commerce.  Both of those organizations have a primary focus on attracting big spenders to the local area in order to boost the economy.  

RELATED: The Basics of Film Tax Incentives

This mandate isn’t necessarily antithetical to the goal of building local film communities.  There is nearly always a local staffing requirement for these incentives, and you can’t build an industrial community if no one has work.  Some of the best incentives I’ve seen have a certain portion of their spending that is required to go to community growth, as San Francisco’s City Film Commission had when I last checked.  Given that the focus of the film industry is focused on attracting outside production, there is often a vacuum left when it comes to building the local community and infrastructure as a long-term project.  

Additionally, given that film productions are highly mobile by their very nature using tax incentives to consistently attract large-scale projects is almost always a race to the bottom very quickly.  If a production can simply say to Colorado that they’ll get a better deal in New Jersey, then the incentive in Colorado fails its primary purpose.  Eventually, these states or regions will continue a race to the bottom that fails to bring any meaningful economic benefit to the citizens of the state.  While the studies I’ve seen on this often seem reductive and significantly undervalue the soft benefits of film production on the image and economy of a state, the end result is clear.  If all states over-compete, eventually the legislatures will repeal the tax incentives.  After that, outside productions will dry up.  

When this happens, local filmmakers are left out in the cold.  The big productions that put food on the table are gone, and there’s no meaningful local infrastructure left to fill the void that the large studio productions left.  

Creating a film community is a long-term project with Short Term Funding.

It takes decades of consistent building to create a new film production hub.  People often have the misconception that Georgia popped up overnight, and this isn’t true. While the tax incentive grew the industry relatively quickly on a governmental timescale, I believe the tax incentive was in place for nearly a decade ahead of the release.  Georgia’s growth was greatly aided by local Filmmaker Tyler Perry’s continual championing of the region as a film hub.  

Most of the funding apparatuses available for the growth of film communities are primarily oriented toward short-term gains.  That makes long-term growth a difficult process, but if cities and regions outside of NY, LA, and ATL are to grow it needs to be a part of the conversation.  

There are some organizations out there pushing to build long-term viable film communities outside of those major hubs.  Notably, the Albuquerque Film and Music Experience has a great lineup of speakers for their event in a few weeks.  I’m one of those speakers, so if you’re in the area check it out, and check out this podcast I did with them yesterday.  

It’s hard to bring community leaders together

As I said eat the top, I’ve been involved with and even run several community organizations.  One consistent theme I’ve noticed is that most community leaders are very reticent to work with each other in a way that doesn’t benefit them more than anyone else.  This means that one issue I’ve seen consistently is that while there are disparate factions of the larger film community throughout most regions it’s nearly impossible to bring them together to build something big enough to truly build a long-term community. 

Most filmmakers and film community leaders are much happier being the king of their own small hill than a lord in a larger kingdom.  

Filmmaking is a creative pursuit, and it requires some degree of narcissism to truly excel.  This is amplified when you run a local film community.  Sayer’s Law states: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics because the stakes are so low.” If you replace the word “Academic” with “Filmmaking” can be said for the issue facing most film communities. Call it Yennie’s Law, if you like. #Sarcasm, #Kinda.

I discussed this in some detail with Lorraine Montez and Carey Rose O'Connell of the New Mexico Film Incubator in episode 2 of the Movie Moolah podcast, linked below.

The industry connections for large-scale finance and distribution generally aren’t local.

If you’ve read Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant’s book Writing Movies for Fun and Profit you’ll already know that LA is the hub of the industry, and if you want to pitch you need to be there.  Given the fact I live in Philadelphia, I believe it should be fairly clear I disagree with the particulars of the notion the overall sentiment remains true.  Also, if you haven’t read it click that link and get it.  It’s a great read.  (Affiliate link, I get a few pennies if you buy. Recommendation stands regardless of how you get it.)

If you want to make a film bigger than at most a few million dollars, you’re going to need connections to financiers and distributors with large bank accounts.  You can find the distributors at film markets, but all of the institutional film industry money is in LA.  While you may be able to raise a few million from local investors, it’s really hard and it is an issue facing the growth of independent film communities nationwide.  

Another issue is around the knowledge of the film business and the logistics of keeping a community engaged and organized.  While I can’t help too much with the latter, I can help you and your community organizers on the knowledge of the film industry with my FREE film business resource Pack!  It’s got a free e-book, free macroeconomic white paper, free deck template, free festival brochure template, contact tracking template, and a while lot more. Just that is more than a 100$ value, plus you also get monthly content digests segmented by topic so you can keep growing your film industry knowledge on a viable schedule.  Click the button below!

As I said earlier, I’m speaking at AFMX this year.  If you like this content and you’d like to have me speak to your organization, use the button below to send me an email.

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What you CAN and CAN’T negotiate in an Indiefilm Distribution Deal

A HUGE part of my job as a producer’s rep has been to negotiate with sales agents and distributors on a filmmaker’s behalf.  While I happen to think my contracts are exceptionally fair, most filmmakers tend to do some level of negotiation.  However, others can overplay their hands and lose interest.  I’ve checked up on some of the ones that did, and they didn’t make it anywhere.  So, no matter who you intend to negotiate with here’s a list of what tends to be possible to negotiate.  

One thing to keep in mind is your position as a filmmaker.  Distributors tend to have more power in this negotiation.  Filmmakers do still have power, as you own your film, but it’s important to keep in mind that in many circumstances, they’ll have significantly more options than you will. 

It’s also important to note that these contracts are only as good as the people and companies you’re dealing with.  So vetting them is important.  The link below has more information on that.  

Related: How to vet your sales agent distributor.

There are of course exceptions to these rules, but you knowing the general rules will help. Those exceptions are directly tied to the quality and marketability of your film.  

What you CAN negotiate

These are things you CAN negotiate, within reason.

Exclusions

Distribution deals are all about rights transfers and sales.   In general, you can negotiate a few exclusions to keep back and sell yourself.  It’s important to note that you shouldn’t try for too many of these though, as the distributor needs to be able to recoup what they put into your film.  Here are some of the common ones

• Crowdfunding fulfillment

• Website sales

• Tertiary regions the film was shot in.  

In general, all rights are given exclusively, but crowdfunding fulfillment might need to be carved out so you can fulfill your obligations to your backers.  I’ve never had trouble with this one.  

Generally, it’s wise to retain the right to sell your film transactionally through your own website using a platform like Vimeo OnDemand or Vimeo OTT.  Distributors tend not to utilize these platforms, so they generally won’t have an issue with it so long as they get advisement on release timing AND it’s only available on said platform transactionally.  That is to say, people must pay to purchase or rent the film.

If the film was shot in a very minor territory like the Caribbean, Paraguay, parts of Africa, or maybe parts of the Philippines, it might be possible for you to retain those territories and sell the film yourself.  Be careful with how many of those you do.  

Marketing Oversight (Home Territory)

Pretty much no matter what territory you’re from, you have some pretty meaningful ability to negotiate additional marketing oversight.  This is not an unlimited right, however, and it’s common that final say will remain with the sales agent or distributor.  It’s important to do your diligence on how they’ve used that oversight in the past.  

Term (To an extent)

If a Distributor or sales agent brings you an agreement with a 25-year term and no MG, walk away.  If a Distributor tries to get a 12-15 year term, try to get them down to 10.  That’s the industry standard for what we work on. 

Exit Conditions (to Some Extent)

You need to make sure that you have aa route out if things go sideways.  In general, you need a bankruptcy exit, and I would push for an option to exit on acquisition of the distributor, or if a key person leaves.  

What you CAN’T GENERALLY negotiate
(but should probably look out for)

Here’s what you generally can’t negotiate.  There are exceptions to how much you can negotiate this, but no matter what these are things you need to fully understand.  

The Payment Waterfall

I wrote about the waterfall fairly extensively in the related blog linked below.  The biggest issue is that most distributors start taking their commissions BEFORE they recoup their expenses.  I understand how and why they do it, but it’s generally not the best.  

The biggest negotiation you MIGHT be able to get is what’s known as a producer’s corridor, which effectively helps you get a small amount of money from the first sale.  Generally you’ll be placed (essentially) in line with the distributor or sales agent, which means it will take significantly longer for them to recoup their expenses.  That said, any way you slice those numbers, you still get paid more.  

Related: Indiefilm Distribution Payment Waterfalls 101

Related: The Problem with the Film Distribution Payments  

Recoupable Expenses

Recoupable expenses are money a distributor or sales agent invest into the marketing of your film.  They generally have to get this back before paying you.  The exception above is notable.  Generally, there is little ability to negotiate this but you should make sure you get the right to audit at least once per year.

Related: What is a Recoupable Expense in Indiefilm Distribution

Payment Schedule

The payment schedule is how often you receive Both a report and a check.  In general, they start out quarterly and move to semi-annually over 2 years.  There are exceptions, some of my buyers report monthly.  However, in general, after 2 years most of the revenue has been made, and the reports will continue to get smaller and smaller. 

DON’T EVEN BRING THESE ONES UP

These are issues you just can’t bring up.  The distributor might walk away if you do.  

Their Commission

Don’t bring up the sales agent’s commission.  You probably don’t have the negotiating power to alter it beyond the corridor I mentioned above.

EXCLUSIVITY

I wrote a whole blog about this linked below, but the basics of it are that we’re essentially dealing with the rights to infinitely replicate media broken up by territory and media right type.  The addition of exclusivity is the only way to limit the supply, which is the only reason the rights to the content have any value at all.  

DIRECT ACCESS TO THEIR CONTACTS.  

These contacts are generally very expensive to acquire, and the entire business model of the sales agent or distributor relies on maintaining good relationships with them. No distributor is ever going to give this to you. They’ll get very annoyed about you even asking.   

Thanks so much for reading!  If you think that this all sounds like a bit much, and would rather have help negotiating, check out Guerrilla Rep Media’s services which include producer’s representation.   your film using the button below. If you need more convincing, join my email list for free educational and news digests and resources on the entertainment business which include an investment deck template, a contact tracking template to help you keep track of the distributors you’re talking to, and a whole lot more.  

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7 Things I Learned as CEO of a US Film Distributor

If you’re reading this, you might already know that I founded and lead a company called Mutiny Pictures.  That company has since sold to Bayview Entertainment. Given I’ve been a producer’s rep for quite a while, I thought I was prepared to step up to leading a team to take films to market directly, I found that while I was up to the task there was still quite a lot of personal growth involved for myself and every level of the team. This is to be expected out of any new venture.  Here are some of the biggest things that I personally learned throughout running a US Distribution company.  

(Almost) Nobody pays on time.

Filmmakers often complain about Sales agents and Distributors not paying on time.  While it goes without saying that there are a lot of shady, dishonest sales agents and distributors out there, I was surprised exactly how few reputable companies did not pay on time.  Given that when it comes to film distribution and international sales all stakeholders are part of the same waterfall or pay chain, if one stakeholder is paid late that eventually means that the filmmaker is paid late. We can’t pay you money we don’t have.   

So if you’re a filmmaker reading this, you should know that just because your sales agent is late on their reports doesn’t mean they’re not being honest with you.  It also doesn’t mean that they’re the reason you’re being paid late.  It’s entirely possible that possible their vendor, supplier, or other provider hasn’t paid them yet. 

That said, they should still communicate with you about when this is happening, and if they’re paying late you should still be tracking it as much as you can.  

Analytics and Reporting really, REALLY suck at every level of the distribution.

Given I do other forms of online and affiliate marketing and used to run marketing for a tech startup, I was utterly flabbergasted by the utter disgrace that is analytics around digital film marketing.  In most industries related to digital marketing, the insights are nearly immediate.  However, If you deal with a servicer or aggregator, they often won’t give you any level of real-time insight.  The best most do is once a week, which is nearly meaningly when it comes to agile marketing practices.  

I did find a workaround for my clients, so I’ll share it here.  If you’re a filmmaker and want better insights, sign up for the Amazon affiliate program and use those links to your film to market it. This is less about the few extra cents you get from pushing your work and more about real-time sales insights.  It can cause some issues around online postings and social media algorithms though, so it’s not a perfect system.  I’d love better suggestions in the comments if anyone has any.

Insurance and legal paperwork are way more of the job than you realize.

This wasn’t exactly a surprise.  At its core, film distribution and international sales are businesses based almost entirely around tracking rights and trading signatures on paper.  is entirely about buying and selling intangible rights restricted by non-physical attributes like territory, right types, region, and other highly specific terms of art.  It’s easy to mess this up, so it only makes sense to have solid insurance coverage.  What I didn’t expect was how many hours in my standard week were around litigious paperwork around insurance, compliance, reporting, and proposals, as opposed to growing the business. 

Additionally, you as a filmmaker will need to provide a lot of insurance paperwork.  

You have to pitch earlier than you think.

If you want to have a film on all major TVOD platforms, you generally need to have them pitched/placed 5-6 months ahead of the date.  You can do it in 3 months on a rush job.  This was surprising given I submitted my first book for publishing less than 3 days before it was available on Amazon.  If you sell to an SVOD outlet, they normally require delivery at least 3-6 months in advance as well, and they’ll either pay over the course of the license or a set period after the license begins.  

Payouts take longer than you think.

Reporting is one thing, payment is another.  Most platforms only pay quarterly, and they pay 30 days after the end of the quarter.  There has recently been an additional 90-day delay that was initially for COVID, but that seems to be less of an issue than it used to be.  Additionally, they won’t pay for partial quarters, meaning if you launched in February, you won’t get any data from a lot of platforms until August or even November. If there’s a service involved, you might get an additional 30-day delay.  

This makes it really hard to run a business, and the only thing you can really do is use a different aggregator or servicer.  You can supplement this with direct vendor payments from streamers and physical media outlets, but those are only getting more difficult to place.  There are very few companies that are occupying the servicer or aggregator space in the market, and unfortunately, the ones with the greatest physical reach tend to also have the worst reporting timelines.  

There’s a great amount of room for an aggregator with fast recording and greater ability for brick-and-mortar physical releases.  However, given the rapid decline of physical media, there might not be time for such a company to access that window before it closes forever.  

The industry still operates on a tentpole model.  

The sad truth of the matter is that on the ultra-low budget scale, only about 2 or 3 in 10 movies make money.  If your sales agency or distributor is made up of really good curators, you might be able to get that to 4 or even 5 out of 10.  If you’re hitting that high, most industry people will be amazed.   If you’re running a distribution company, this means you either need to be exceptionally picky and run a very lean company, or you need to take everything you can and see what sticks.  I’ve written another piece on this going into more detail. 

Producers get in their own way a lot.

I said earlier that it’s no secret that there are a lot of shady sales agents and distributors out there.  That said, not all filmmakers are saints either.  Some filmmakers are a complete joy to work with, but others will second guess everything you do and think that the only film that you should ever focus on is theirs.  

I had a filmmaker say precisely that to my face.  We got tons of press for this person, but nobody wanted to watch it and the film tanked.  When this filmmaker wasn’t getting the returns they expected they started taking up a ton of time in angry calls and emails.  This reduced A LOT of my available time to actually get their film out there, which further impacted the returns and became a vicious cycle.  

Marketing a movie is best when it’s a partnership between the filmmakers and the distributor.  In general, you should discuss when you’re making any level of announcement with your distributor so that it can make the biggest possible splash.  It’s generally unwise to drop assets like posets and trailers without talking to your distributor, as you may ruin potential exclusive press drops.  Worse, if you put your film up in various territories through self-distribution channels, it could cost you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.  Even if you can take a film down, most buyers won’t want it if it’s already been placed on any platforms in their region. I could go on about this for a while, so I’m going to leave it for another blog.  

This is a collaborative process, so they’re definitely give and take, but keep in mind there’s probably a reason you didn’t self-distribute and instead decided to work with your distributor.

In the end, this is a relationship business.  If your distributor likes you, they’re more likely to go the extra mile for you.  That’s a reality of human nature. If you want your distributor to like you, you might want to grab my free IndieFilm business resource package as it’s got lots of goodies to help make marketing your movie easier for all involved.  The resource pack got templates for contacting distributors, and tracking that contact so you don’t bug them, an e-book on the film business, and a whitepaper on the metrics of the film industry.  Plus, you’ll get monthly content digests to help you better understand the industry in a manageable way and occasion updates on new releases, courses, workshops, and announcements from Guerrilla Rep Media.  Check it out below.

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How COVID-19 Affected the Indie Film Industry

Many Filmmakers, like everyone else affected by COVID-19, are itching for some level of a return to normalcy.  Unfortunately, like many others think that there may never be a full return to normal.  It may well end up as a pre-COVID and a Post COVID period.  Similar to how the world changed before and after the great depression, 9/11, The internet, or World War II.  Societal traumas tend to leave lasting scars, and that tends to effect the market as a whole and certain industries in meaningful ways.  So let’s look at what one executive producer thinks is likely to happen in the film industry as a result.

2023 Update: I put some self-reflection on this blog commenting on how I think my predictions were, and adding more context to what’s happening in 2024 and beyond.

1. The Majors will bounce back quickly

Historically, the film is industry mildly reversely dependent on the economy.  It remains one of the cheapest ways to get out and one of the best ways for families to bond while in isolation.  The most unpredictable part about this recession’s likely impact on the film industry is the much greater presence of free or cheap entertainment options available right now as compared to the past. 

In any case, A significant amount of the pain that’s likely to be felt from this crash is going to be on the lower end of the spectrum.  Right now many of the major studios are already gearing up for their next projects since the projects they have will either be released ahead of schedule while people are quarantined or they’ll need to find alternative release plans. 

2023 Update: This was right. The majors bounced back quickly. They may not bounce back as quickly from the strikes though.

2. Freelancers will be hurt in the short term.

There’s no sugarcoating this.  Freelancers are going to be hurt in the short term.  Government stimulus may help, but won’t solve the issue.  If you’re in a position to help out by hiring someone to help with your web maintenance or other jobs they can do in isolation, you should do so. 

As this crisis continues to drag on, it’s really important we band together as a community and help each other to get work made, even if it ends up making many of us less money than it normally would. 

2023 Update: I was wrong, it wasn’t just freelancers that were hurt. As Aide dries up we’re likely to see a lot more pain on the lower 3 quintiles of the economic spectrum. I think this will hurt the entertainment industry as we’re a mass-market product that still only makes significant margins from transactional sales. I’m not sure film is still reversely dependent on the economy, and I’d write a blog about it if someone comments.

3. SVOD Surge

Given people are going to be locked at home with less money than normal and lots of time, we can expect to see viewership and subscriptions to Subscription Video on Demand platforms go up significantly.  Not all of these new subscribers will cancel when we return to the new normal.  I’m not the only one seeing this, it looks like development and acquisitions are on the rise form many of these people. 

It’s very possible that the balance of power between distributors and creators could see a minor shift in the coming months as distributors are going to need more content and the current embargo on production in many states, regions, and territories might cut down on the glut of content that’s been driving down acquisition prices recently. ​

2023 Update: The consolidation in streaming platforms ended up keeping license fees for the major streamers as low as they were pre-pandemic. It’s unlikely that trend will get much better any time soon.

4. AVOD Surge

Given the general financial issues that were facing the majority of Americans prior to this recession, many may seek to cut recurring subscription services.  This may well give rise to AVOD platforms like TubiTV and PlutoTV.  I bet Fox is really happy that they bought Tubi right about now. 

2023 Update: This was very much true, but the amount of consolidation in the AVOD space is looking like there will be a royalty cut due in part to advertisers tightening their belts. This will cause a lot of problems for indie productions.

5. TVOD Plummets

Transactional VOD hasn’t been healthy for quite a while.  If people are hurting for money, it’s unlikely they’ll continue to buy movies one at a time when there are so many films that are available for free or with a low subscription cost.  This might not happen immediately, but as the crisis wears on and belts get tighter the TVOD crunch might well continue to worsen. 

2023 Update: This one was right on the money. IT’s a rough time for micro-budget films outside of SVOD and AVOD.

6. ​Presale Surge

Given that we’re likely to see a surge in demand for content right as equity markets are drying up we may well see a surge in presales from distributors in order to fill the gap.  This is somewhat speculative, but there is ample historical precedent, most recently in 2008 after the economic meltdown.  However, it should be noted this can only go so far given production embargos. 

2023 Update: Presales did surge, and they’re still growing for small and midsize films. I’m negotiating a few right now.

7. Theaters may fold at a high rate

Theaters have been in trouble for quite a while.  Independent theaters have been very hard hit, but even giants like AMC may end up closing many of their locations instead of re-opening them.  The possible Amazon Acquisition of AMC is really quite interesting for the entire landscape. Drive-throughs also seem to be seeing a bit of a resurgence.

​2023 Update: Some indies folded, the chains largely survived, although some smaller chains took a haircut. Luckily, theatrical exhibition is still around.

8. Rise of legal simulstreaming

People are feeling lonely and isolated.  Film is an inherently social medium.  Given we can’t go to the theater as we did before, we might end up seeing the rise of simulcasts for consumers to watch content with their friends.  This is something that happened with the Netflix computer App, and Alamo Drafthouse starting virtual streamings limited to certain territories is quite an interesting development. 

2023 Update: Sadly I was wrong about widespread simulstreaming, but I am aware that it happened with families via zoom a lot at peak quarantine.

9. Death of DVD greatly Hastened

It’s no secret that physical media (DVD/Blu-Ray) has been in trouble for a while now.  Now that it’s been confirmed COVID-19 can live on plastic (like a DVD case) for several days, I can see consumers being even more hesitant to buy movies like this when there are so many options available on Streaming for free. 

2023 Update: I was right about this one, although there’s a bit of a nostalgic re-emergence of rental stores going on so there may still be a very limited niche market for physical media.

10. Easier Microbudget sales for a time.

I’ll end on a cheerier note for Most of my readers.  Acquisitions seem to be picking up since so many catalogs are being watched much more quickly than originally expected.  This spells an opportunity for many filmmakers.  

2023 Update: It was easy for a little bit, but the WGA (And probably SAG) strike may still represent an opportunity for micro-budget filmmakers. That said, I stand in solidarity with the Union and I think the cause is just, but I don’t really think micro-budget films are similar enough to be called competition, so let’s get those low-budget films out there so we can swell the ranks of the guilds.

If you want someone to help you sell your movie, track down a presale, or strategize how to market your movie Check out Guerrilla Rep Media Services below.

Also If you’re not convinced about Guerrilla Rep Media Services yet, grab my Free Film Business Resource pack for an ebook, a whitepaper, an investment deck template, and a whole lot more.

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Filmmakers Glossary of Film Investment Terminology

Last week I laid out a glossary of general-use film business terms, but the blog ended up a bit too long and dense to be a single post.  So, I broke it into two.  Last week was the basics of business terms, this week is the next level, and focuses entirely on investment terms.  Some of these may seem tangential and unnecessary, however if your goal is to close an investor, you’ll need to thoroughly speak their language.  If there’s something you don’t see here, check out last week’s blog here. I’m not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice, and you should have a solid attorney on your team before trying to close an investment round. With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Capital

While many types exist, The term most commonly refers to money. 

Liquid Capital

Money that can be spent immediately, or near immediately.  Non-liquid capital would be considered something like real estate holdings which would first need to be liquidated in order to sell. 

Principle

In finance: it’s general the initial capital investment or the remaining balance on a debt. 

Interest

A percentage fee is added on to the principle of a loan or line of credit.

Compound interest

Interest on the principle of the loan and interest.

Simply: interest on interest.

High-Risk Investment

An investment where an investor may lose most or all of the money they put in. Independent Films are always high-risk investments

Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC)

The main financial regulatory agency in the United States.  It oversees most forms of investment.

Accredited Investor

A person of means who is generally considered to have enough business know-how to appraise an investment, pay someone to appraise it for them, or who wouldn’t be completely destitute from taking a high risk-gamble.  As of the date of this publishing, according to the SEC the investor must meet either (NOT both of) the income or net worth requirement in order to be considered an accredited investor.
​
Income Requirements
1.If filing individually, a person must have made 200,000 USD a year for the past 2 years, and be likely to do the same this year. 
2.If filing Jointly, a household must have made 300,000 USD a year for the past 2 years, and be likely to do the same this year. 

Net Worth.

The investor or household must have 1 million dollars in net worth OUTSIDE of their primary residence. ​

High Net Worth Individual (HNWI)

Outside the obvious, this term is generally a financial industry term for accredited investor

Edgar Database

A database of high-risk investments maintained by the SEC that is only accessible to Accredited investors and licensed brokerage or investment firms.

Financing Round

A round of financing or funding that is large enough to take an organization or project to the next major milestone.  For how this works in film, check out the youtube video I’ve linked below, and the blog linked below that.

Related Video: The 4 Stages of Indiefilm Financing

Related Blog: The 4 Stages of Indiefilm Financing

Business Plan

A document written by an entrepreneur or filmmaker outlining their investment.  In the film industry, this document will also often educate the investor on how the industry functions as a whole.  This document is also known as a prospectus, but that term is not as commonly used as it once was. 

Private Placement Memorandum (PPM)

A document that’s filed with the SEC for investors to consider investing in your project.  Frequently an attorney will base this document off of the filmmaker or entrepreneur’s business plan.  In most cases, a PPM will be registered with the aforementioned Edgar database for a modest filing fee. 

Pro-Forma Financial Statements

Financial documents consisting of an expected income breakdown, cash-flow statement, and top sheet budget to be invaded in the business plan and function as the basis for many of the financial sections of other documents

The Three points above are heavily outlined in my business planning blog series.

Related: How to write an independent Film Business Plan (1/7)

Backed Debt

A secured loan backed by something like a tax incentive or pre-sale agreement.

Unbacked Debt

An unsecured loan, or debt without backing.  Generally very high interest.

Financial Gap

The space between what you are able to raise and the amount you need to finish your project.

Financial Markets

A market where stocks, bonds, derivatives, or other securities are bought and sold. Common examples in the US would be the DOW and the NASDAQ.

Film Market

A convention where films are bought and sold primarily by sales agents and distributors.  For more, check out the link below.

Related: What is a film market and how does it work?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The total value of all newly finished goods in a given country during a set timespan.  Most commonly calculated on an annual basis.

Recession

A macroeconomic term signifying a period of a significant decline in economic activity.  It’s generally only recognized after two consecutive quarters of down financial markets. 

Depression

A severe recession that lasts longer than 3 years and corresponds with a drop in GDP of at least 10%

Bull Market

A market that’s strong and growing. It’s called a bull market as the upward trending graph looks like a bull nodding its head according to some people on Wall Street.

Bear Market

Yes, I spelled that right.  It’s a financial market that’s going down, or staying stagnant.  The name comes from a bear swiping its claws down.  Probably the same wall street guy came up with it. 

Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this, please make sure to check out last week’s general financing glossary, as well as my glossary of distribution terms. Also, please share. It helps A LOT.

Filmmakers Glossary of Business Terms

Additionally, make sure you grab my free Film Business Resource Package to get a print ready PDF version of all 3 glossaries.

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Filmmakers Glossary of Film Business Terminology.

A colleague of mine asked me if I had a glossary on film financing terms in the same way I wrote one for film distribution (which you can check out here.)  Since I didn’t have one, I thought I’d write one.  After I wrote it, it was too long for a single post, so now it’s two.  This one is on general terms, next week we’ll talk about film investment terms. As part of the website port, I’m re-titling the first part to a general film business glossary of terms, to lower confusion on sharing it. It’s got the same terms and the same URL, just a different title.

Capital

While many types exist, it most commonly refers to money.  

Financing

Financing is the act of providing funds to grow or create a business or particular part of a business.  Financing is more commonly used when referring to for-profit enterprises, although it can be used in both for profit and non-profit enterprises. 

Funding

Funding is money provided to a business or non-profit for a particular purpose.  While both for-profit and non-profit organizations can use the term, it’s more commonly used in non-profit media that the term financing is. 

Revenue

Money that comes into an organization from providing shrives or selling/licensing goods.  Money from Distribution is revenue, whereas money from investors is financing, and donors tend to provide funding more than financing, although both terms could apply.

Equity

A percentage ownership in a company, project, or asset.  While it’s generally best to make sure all equity investors are paid back, so long as you’ve acted truthfully and fulfilled all your obligations it’s generally not something that you will forfeit your house over.  Stocks are the most common form of equity, although films tend not to be able to issue stocks for complicated regulatory reasons and the fact that films are generally considered a high-risk investment.

Donation

Money that is given in support of an organization, project, or cause without the expectation of repayment or an ownership stake in the organization.  Perks or gifts may be an obligation of the arrangement. 

Debt

A loan that must be paid back. Generally with interest.

Deferral

A payment put off to the future.  Deferrals generally have a trigger as to when the payment will be due.

“Soft Money"

In General, this refers to money you don’t have to pay back, or sometimes money paid back by design.  In the world of independent film, it’s most commonly used for donations and deferrals, tax incentives, and occasionally product placement. It can have other meanings depending on the context though.

Investor

Someone who has provided funding to your company, generally in the form of liquid capital (or money.)

Stakeholder

Someone with a significant stake in the outcome of an organization or project.  These can be investors, distributors, recognizable name talent, or high-level crew. 

Donor

Someone who has donated to your cause, project, or organization. 

Patron

Similar to donors, and can refer to high-level donors or financial backers on the website Patreon.  For examples of patrons, see below. you can be a patron for me and support the creation of content just like this by clicking below.

Non-Profit Organizations (NPO)

An organization dedicated to providing a good or service to a particular cause without the intent to profit from their actions, in the same way, a small business or corporation would. This designation often comes with significant tax benefits in the United States.

501c3

The most common type of non-profit entity file is to take advantage of non-profit tax exempt status in the US.

Non-Government Organization (NGO)

Similar to a non-profit, generally larger in scope.  Also, something of an antiquated term. 

Foundation

An organization providing funding to causes, organizations and projects without a promise of repayment or ownership.  Generally, these organizations will only provide funding to non profit organizations. Exceptions exist. 

Grantor

An organization that funds other organizations and projects in the form of grants.  Generally, these organizations are also foundations, but not necessarily.

Fiscal Sponsorship

A process through which a for-profit organization can fundraise with the same tax-exempt status as a 501c3.  In broad strokes, an accredited 501c3 takes in money on behalf of a for-profit company and then pays that money out less a fee.  Not all 501c3 organizations can act as a fiscal sponsor. 

Investment

Capital that has been or will be contributed to an organization in exchange for an equity stake, although it can also be structured as debt or promissory note.

Investment Deck (Often simply “Deck”)

A document providing a snapshot of the business of your project.  I recommend a 12-slide version, which can be found outlined in this blog or made from a template in the resources section of my site, linked below.

Related: Free Film Business Resource Package

Look Book

A creative snapshot of your project with a bit of business in it as well. NOT THE SAME AS A DECK.  There isn’t as much structure to this.  Check out the blog on that one below. 

Related: How to make a look book

Audience Analysis

One of 3 generally expected ways to project revenue for a film.  This one is based around understanding the spending power of your audience and creating a market share analysis based on that. I don’t yet have a blog on this one, but I will be dropping two videos about it later this month on my youtube channel.  Subscribe so you don’t miss them.

Competitive Analysis

One of 3 ways to project revenue for an independent film.  This method involves taking 20 films of a similar genre, attachments, and Intellectual property status and doing a lot of math to get the estimates you need. 

Sales Agency Estimates

One of 3 ways to project revenue for an independent film.  These are high and low estimates given to you by a sales agent.  They are often inflated.

Related: How to project Revenue for your Independent Film

Calendar Year

12 months beginning January 1 and ending December 31.  What we generally think of as, you know, a year. 

Fiscal year

The year observed by businesses. While each organization can specify its fiscal year, the term generally means October 1 to September 30 as that’s what many government organizations and large banks use.  Many educational institutions tie their fiscal year to the school year, and most small businesses have their fiscal year match the calendar year as it’s easier to keep up with on limited staff.

Film Distribution

The act of making a film available to the end user in a given territory or platform. 

International Sales

The act of selling a film to distributors around the world. 

Related: What's the difference between a sales agent and distributor?

Bonus! Some common general use Acronyms

YOY

Year over Year.  Commonly used in metrics for tracking marketing engagement or financial performance on a year-to-year basis.

YTD

Year to Date.  Commonly used in conjunction with Year over year metrics or to measure other things like revenue or profit/loss metrics.

MTD

Month to Date. Commonly used when comparing monthly revenue to measure sales performance. Due to the standard reporting cycles for distributors, you probably won’t see this much unless you self-distribute.

OOO

Out of Office.  It generally means the person can’t currently be reached. 

EOD

End of Day. Refers to the close of business that day, and generally means 5 PM on that particular day for whatever the time zone of the person using the term is working in.  

Thanks for reading this!  ​Please share it with your friends. If you want more content on film financing, packaging, marketing, distribution, entrepreneurialism, and all facets of the film industry, sign up for my mailing list! Not only will you get monthly content digests segmented by topic, but you’ll get a package of other resources to take you film from script to screen. Those resources include a free ebook, whitepaper, investment deck template, and more!

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How to Raise Development Funds for your Feature Film.

Pretty much every filmmaker wants to find money to make their movie.  Unfortunately, many don’t quite realize that in order to raise the kind of money you need to make anything above a micro-budget movie, you’ll generally need a lot already in place.  It’s something of a catch-22.  Investors need name talent to market the film, and distribution to make it available.  Distributors need name talent and a tested team to give any meaningful commitments, and name taken need to know they’ll be paid.  There are ways around all of this, but generally, they require money upfront.  This blog is about how you raise it.

​Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic bullet on any level of film funding.  The best I can do is offer you tools and tactics to use to increase your chances of success.  You will probably need more than one of these tools to get the job done.
​

Don't want to read? Check out the video on this topic below

​Crowdfunding

Let’s get this one out of the way fast.  Crowdfunding CAN be great for filmmakers not only as a way to raise partial funding, but also to engage yourself with your audience and provide market validation for both investors and distributors/sales agents.  That said, it’s not without its drawbacks.  Using crowdfunding as an early-stage race tool can cause your donors to question whether or not you’ll be able to get the whole film done.  If you can’t, it can lead to problems.  (Extra special shoutout to my patrons here, since we’re talking about crowdfunding.)

Friends and Family

I know, I know.  This is the oldest piece of advice in the book.  But, there’s a reason it’s still around.  Your friends and family are (hopefully) among the people who are most likely to back and support you in this endeavor.  If they’re like mine were when I was starting out, while they may be willing to help and actively want you to succeed, they’ll still need some proof it’s possible.  However, the proof they’re like to need will probably be something easier to get than an investor would need. These 

Equity

But Ben, didn’t you just say that you need more in place to get an investor?  Yes and no.  In order to raise a large round, you’ll need a lot in place, but if you’re only focusing on a smaller round you can get by with less.  It is important to properly structure this investment though.  You’ll either need to offer a more substantial stake in the company for the bigger risk taken for investing earlier, or you’ll need to do some other investment vehicle like Convertible debt.

Even at this stage, if you want to raise money from investors you’re going to need to create an independent film investment deck. You can learn more about it in this blog, or you can grab a template for free in my film business resource package in the button below.

Grants

Grants are great in that they don’t require you to pay back the money so long as you only use it for its intended purpose.  They’re not so great in that they generally take a long time to be approved for the money, and you’re generally facing significant competition particularly for development stage grants. 

Soft Costs and Deferrals

This essentially means calling in every favor you have to make sure that you have the best chance possible to succeed in developing a package for your film.  This isn’t going to carry you the whole way though.  Most people who do this for a living don’t work purely on a deferral or commission basis.  I’m including myself in this, although I do defer a large portion of my fees and take on as much as I can on commission. 

That said, while the higher-level connectors, Producers, Executive Producers, and the like are generally unwilling to work on a purely deferral or commission basis, the friends you need to make a great crowdfunding video, concept trailer, or something similar might not be.  Getting their buy-in might help you make it to the next level.
​

Skin in the Game

Finally, we come down to the ever-present fallback of funding the development round yourself.  This is generally the fasted way to complete the round, but it has the obvious drawback of needing deep enough pockets to just shell out and pay the money you need to get it done. 

I know all of this is really hard to grasp, and quite frankly it’s a lot.  While I do consult on this sort of stuff, I’m not cheap. (with good reason.) I try to make a lot of information available through my site, but there are times that you just kind of need someone to answer your questions and re-orient you.  As such, I’ve decided to start a special mentorship group. 

This special training group gets you access to additional content, an exclusive discussion group, and most importantly weekly group video calls where I’ll answer your questions personally, and occasionally bring on people who would also be of benefit to the group’s needs.  Click the button below to go to a form and express interest in this group.  Spots are limited.

Also, don’t forget about the Free indiefilm business resource package to get your free Investment deck template, e-book, white-paper, and more. .

Thanks so much for reading.  Please share it! Also click the buttons below for more free content.

What Screenplays are Studios ACTUALLY Buying?

If you’re a screenwriter, you have two options.  Produce it yourself, or option your work to a producer.  In order to option your work, you need to understand who is going to buy your movie.  Unfortunately, there’s more bad and incomplete information than there is good information out there.  Recently, a client of mine forwarded an email he got back from a contact in Hollywood who worked as a script doctor.  This email epitomized that bad information, so I thought I’d redact any contact information and publish it for others to learn from as well.  (I did check with my client first, and he was good with it.)

Here’s what the script doctor said Hollywood wanted.  Their responses in title, mine in the paragraphs following.

1. Contained Thriller or Horror: ideally one location about 5-8 actors (no A-listers needed). This is most scripts being bought or sold these days.

These are great if you’re producing the film yourself and looking to do it as cheaply as possible.  Films like this can be shot on the cheap, so it's significantly easier to produce them. Given that horror or thriller movies are less execution or name-talent dependent they have a greater chance to sell on the strength of the genre alone. Given that, such producers are more interested in them.  Unfortunately, these are the vast majority of the films made every year that find some degree of place in the market which has resulted in a massive glut in the market and each film makes next to nothing. 

I know this because I've repped several of them.  Most times the script doctors don’t actually know how the producers or production company end up getting paid, as the writers (and ESPECIALLY "Script Doctors”) are paid up-front

More than 20,000 films are made in the US every year, at most 10% of those get distribution to any meaningful degree.  Thrillers and horror films are the only projects that have a chance at getting into that to 10% without IP or Talent, but in the end you still end up competing with 2,000 other films, most of which have better assets and positioning than you do.  This is why I'm increasingly advocating other paths forward.

In general, the only way this is advantageous is if you produce it yourself.  We're doing family films because that's what most every buyer wants right now, and there's an easier pipeline to follow that has a better chance of success if it gets done.  ​

2. Something with an existing IP. A novel, a graphic novel/comic book, a short story, a short film... anything that already has a fan base or following ideally.

This is why I’m currently helping a client option the rights to some books, as it's the most reliable path to success even if its slightly longer path it is a better chance at success.  If you want to get a film made first to make that part easier, it is a viable path.  However, if you want to raise a larger amount of money so your film has a better chance at finding a bigger distributor and bigger audience, then you’ll need some level of recognizable IP.  I heard Brett Ratner say in an interview at AFM several years back that if he was just starting out what he’d do is read voraciously and find the newest up-and-coming IPs.  To option and use to build an audience.  The alternative is to generate your own IP, but that in itself is a very long road fraught with danger, as this video from Lindsay Ellis illustrates very well. 

RELATED VIDEO: HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED IN 10 YEARS OR LESS!

Also: HA! He thinks expanded short films sell.  That hasn't really been true for more than a decade since the amount of ready-to-sell feature films being made has ballooned, in fact, it's almost like features are the new shorts in terms of distribution revenue.  But that's a topic for another day.

3. A specific character piece for an actor looking to stretch themselves. If you’ve got a character-driven piece and can get an A-list actor attached because it is something they haven’t done before, you’re good to go.

I heard this a lot in film school, but the real-world applications are limited.  That is to say, while there is a kernel of truth in this concept, when it comes down to the implementation it's really more a platitude or truism at this point.  There’s a strong case to be made that casting against type has its merit.  The issue is that in general, the only way you can make it work is if you have a direct path to the name talent you want to talk to, and even then you have to get lucky and catch them at the right time. There are reasons I know this that I can’t publicly say…

4. Anything that will do well overseas. With China eating up all of our movies, they need scripts that are, fun, fast, action-packed and translate well and easily (aka not a lot of dialogue).

Again, something of a platitude or truism.  Of course, you have to think about overseas, which is one big reason that comedies and dramas are complete no gos. The books below go into that in more detail than I can in a blog. (yes, there are affiliate fees, but it's only pennies and I picked the books custom for this blog.)

That’s the basics right now. Of course, the caveat is if you write a brilliant script, it doesn’t matter what genre it is, but in reality, your chances of having it made, sold, and even optioned are very difficult roads ahead.

And here's the crux of the disagreement with this script doctor.  The brilliant script isn't so much as a way of breaking through any of the other things you need to be listed above, it's more a prerequisite to succeeding with any of them.  We all hear stories of films making it through the studio system, but these are the exceptions, not the rules.  

If selling your script doesn’t seem worth it, you’ll need to produce it yourself. You’ll probably need money to do that. If you want to raise money, you’ll need a myriad of documents, starting with an investment deck. My Free indiefilm resource pack has you covered with a template for that, as well as a free e-book, whitepaper, and a bunch of other templates too. Snag it for free in the button below. Thanks for reading, and if you liked it, please share it with someone who needs to know about selling their script.

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How and Why to treat your Production Company Like a Small Business.

Last week we talked about the 4 major types of Media Entrepreneurship, so this week I thought I’d expand on the most common production company that my readers seem to run.  That’s the small production company that they hope to scale into something bigger.  Here’s why your production company is a small business, and how to treat it like one so you can see it grow.

1. ACCEPT YOU HAVE A SMALL BUSINESS

The film is both a business and an Art.  The two don’t have to be enemies and work much better together.  For more on what I mean, click the related link below.  I have a different point to make here.

While this may seem like the goal is to become a more scalable startup, in reality, it’s probably more like a small business that may grow to a medium business in time.  You’re unlikely to be able to use high-growth strategies like Silicon Valley Tech Startups to grow your business from a prototype to a highly used platform.  The requirements are different, and the film is less suited to iterations than software and apps are.

As such, if you’re a filmmaker, you probably have a small business.  Small businesses grow slowly over time by growing their audience and scaling up their offerings as revenue and investments allow.  If you want to grow your production company as you would a small business, start by making one great film and then make a bigger and better one once you’ve found your audience.

2. BUILD & ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

If you want to build a business, among the most important things to have are customers.  For filmmakers, this means having a deeply engaged audience and creating content for them on a regular basis.  Part of that is creating a genuine presence on social media, but the more important part is continually creating products for that audience to give them a reason to keep coming back and engaging with your business. ​​​

3. INCORPORATE AUDIENCE FEEDBACK INTO YOUR WORK

If you really want your audience to keep coming back, it’s important that they feel valued.  Incorporating their feedback into your films can be a great way to greatly deepen your relationship with your audience.  This is something that Marvel has used to great effect.  Half of the Endgame was callbacks to fan-favorite moments from the other 73 1/3 movies in phases 1 to 3.

Some higher-level creators have an antagonistic relationship with their fans.  The only way you can really afford to do this is if you have the backing of a large network to make sure that people can’t forget to come back to your work.  TV Tropes calls this Phenomenon Creator Backlash. ​

4. GROW YOUR SUPPLIERS AND WHO SELLS YOUR PRODUCTS

If you’re a small business in the manufacturing sector (which you’re not far from) you need to make sure your product is available as far and wide as possible in order to continue to expose your work to a new audience and grow your potential customer base.  This means you need to partner with distributors.  Distributors have higher prestige and higher paying outlets than you can get to on your own.  Also, since they have access to those higher-level outlets, you’re more likely to be discovered through them than on other platforms that are inundated with so much content it’s unlikely anyone will discover the work that you didn’t drive there yourself. 

Yes, this will mean that you'll need to make a lower percentage of the overall sale than you would by yourself.  So long as you're dealing with reputable distributors, this is just the cost of doing business.  Publishers sell their books at a 55% discount over retail to bookstores, and most any distribution warehouse for a given good or service will also sell the product at wholesale price and take a cut before paying the manufacturer.  Again, for this to be valid, you need to have honest and accurate reporting throughout the supply chain. ​

5. DON’T FORGET WHERE YOU GOT STARTED

Never forget your early adopters. The people who were with you from the beginning. They can be your biggest supporters and greatest brand advocates if you continue to show you value them. However, they can sometimes be hard to please, as I’m sure I’ll see in the comments.  Both Starbucks and the City of Seattle will never forget that's where the chain was born.  You shouldn't forget the people who knew you when.  

Thanks so much for reading this! If you liked it, please share it. It’s extremely helpful. Also, consider joining my mailing list and in so doing get access to my indie-film business resource package. It’s got an ebook, a white paper, an investment deck template, festival brochure templates, and a whole lot more.

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The 4 Types of Media Entrepreneurship

Traditionally, when we think of entrepreneurs we think of Steve Jobs starting Apple in a Garage, or Jeff Bezos Traveling across the country to raise funds while writing his business plan in the back seat of the car while his wife drove.  However, there’s more to entrepreneurship than that.  Entrepreneurs find new and novel solutions to problems by building organizations despite a huge amount of risk and uncertainty.

Since this month is Entrepreneurship Month on both this blog and the blog I run over at ProductionNext, I thought I’d start out the month with a little of an expansion of Film Entrepreneurship in general.  In this post, I’ll adapt a rather notable post by Steve Blank from a decade ago to the current landscape media entrepreneurs face, as well as where you’ll most likely find those entrepreneurs.

In his post, Steve outlines that there are 4 types of entrepreneurial organizations which are generally accepted as follows small businesses, scalable startups, large companies, and social entrepreneurs.  You can (and maybe should) read Steve’s post before reading this one.  (it’s short)

If you still don’t agree that filmmakers are entrepreneurs, I recommend you read more of my writing on that topic, in particular this blog and this blog.  While I could expand these into how other film industry stakeholders like sales agents, distributors, press, critics, or YouTubers, in the interest of keeping the scope completely addressable I’ll be working with a more traditional indie film archetype. 

Small Business Entrepreneurship Exemplified by Truly Indie Filmmakers.

According to Banks, these are the entrepreneurs who run a small businesses like a bodega or mom-and-pop shops.  They have no intention of nationwide franchises, but they still do what they can to make a living for themselves and their family.  This is where the vast majority of filmmakers are.  They’re the people wanting to do what they love and find a way to get paid for it.

The owner of the bodega must figure out who buys what from them, and the way they stay afloat is through personalized service that creates a deep connection with their customers.  Convenience also plays a factor.  They can’t compete on price alone with the huge multinational chains down the street, so they need to make sure that they offer something that the mega-chain down the road doesn’t. 

In this day and age, the job is similar for indie filmmakers.  We can’t compete with the major studios, but those studios don’t target a small niche, they target everyone who has 12 dollars.  As a result, they miss a lot of people which leaves a hole open for clever filmmakers to establish an audience, keep them engaged, and build a business for themselves. ​

Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship: Best Exemplified by Indie Filmmakers on the Traditional Studio Path.

Scalable startup Entrepreneurs are people like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, or Jeff Bezos.  They start a company from (next to) nothing, and then look to do more than address an existing need, they want to disrupt the entire system by creating a need and then filling it.  In doing so, they become mega-wealthy and change the world. 

Those starting a scalable startup are faced with an incredibly high degree of uncertainty, as well as a long road to profitability.  In general, they need significant outside funding in order to succeed.  Most of the time, they must invent something that can be patented that demonstrates a novel solution to a widespread problem with a working prototype in order to raise significant funding from institutional investors.  After that, they’ll need to take on an experienced team and specialized advisors in or If they have a track record in their industry, it helps significantly.

For filmmakers, these scalable entrepreneurs are those who have already made a successful project or two and are scaling up to make something bigger.  They’ll need to have proven themselves by getting validation either in the form of a huge engaged audience, a hugely successful film, or a Tier 1 festival win just to get their foot in the door.  Once their foot is in the door, they can then seek to raise money using their previous work or a concept trailer to raise the funds to make a much bigger movie.  In order to successfully raise those funds, they’ll need a strong package of people with specialized skills and followings of their own. ​​

Large Company Entrepreneurship: Best Exemplified by Digital Divisions of major studios & networks. 

Large company entrepreneurs are people within large organizations seeking to either create new projects that solve a need that has not yet been addressed by the company that they’re working for.  Sometimes this is achieved by creating a new division, other times it's a new product from an existing research and development division.  

A couple of examples of this would be when Intuit started what would become Quickbooks, as well as many other similar projects like Quickbooks pay, expense tracking, and what would become the among many others.  For the Film Industry, I’d say the most notable recent example would be Disney+, although the digital divisions of every major network would also qualify.  Adult Swim starts new experimental projects like this on a regular basis. 

The challenges faced by large company entrepreneurs outside the film industry are as you would expect.  With a large company comes bureaucracy, bureaucracy tends to move slowly, so adapting to change can be extremely difficult.  Funding also becomes highly political, so it can be difficult to keep projects afloat.
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For film companies, this is extremely similar.  Much of the top brass don’t want to give up the cash cows they’ve build for risky divisions that will burn through cash and not necessarily make more of it.  Also, at least until recently many of the digital divisions were considered a career downgrade from the more traditional media divisions.  We’ll see if it remains true.

Social Entrepreneurship: best Exemplified by Documentary Filmmakers.

Social entrepreneurs who care more about the benefit of the work than the bottom line.  They don’t just want to change the world, they want to save it.  Think of Tesla, OSIGroup (Makers of the Impossible Burger) or Jinko Solar.  Similarly but on a smaller scale, there’s BiosUrns (makers of a biodegradable clay urn that grows a tree from your ashes.)

Success on this front is hindered due to the perception that it’s not much of a money maker.  It can be harder to find investors as well since you’re specifically saying profit isn’t your primary concern.  Most successful companies started with one idea that they could refine and execute before moving to other ideas that complement the same customer base.  They also are very conscientious about stating that their product does more than they provide whatever it is you bought.  There are other intangible benefits associated with the purpose that customers may consider weighing in their purchase decision.

For film, this is best exemplified by documentaries, but more recently diverse media has also been put into the spotlight in as a similar cause for social change. Documentaries are different when it comes to funding, but when they’re well done there is an addressable audience that’s hard to ignore and easy to convert.  Some movies do tree-planting campaigns with ticket sales as an additional incentive to convert, and most community screenings also benefit a non-profit organization.

Thanks so much for reading!  Let me know what you think of this in the comments, and PLEASE share It helps more than you’d think.

Also, if you would like to know more about the business of film and media, one of the best ways to do so is by joining my mailing list click the button below. It’s got a free monthly digest of educational content, a free e-book, a whitepaper, and some templates to help you raise money and market your film.

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How Independent Filmmakers can THRIVE in the current distribution Marketplace.

To cap off my first-ever distribution month, I thought I’d talk a little bit about where Independent Film Distribution is heading.  Markets are going to be a big center of commerce for the film industry for a few years, but they’re going to continue to wane for the truly independent filmmakers, which means one of the biggest areas for entry for filmmakers is likely to go away.  With the fall of Distribber, and how Amazon looks like it’s going to scale back its filmmaker direct distribution programs there’s only one real path left for filmmakers.  That path is to build an audience that’s highly engaged with your content and distribute not only your film to them but other products related to your Intellectual property (IP.)

BUILD AN ENGAGED AUDIENCE

The first step in this (as I’ve brought up in at least half of the blogs this month…) is to build a highly engaged audience and following.  This is something that Youtubers have become fantastic about.  You have to have lots of touch points with your audience and provide them a perspective that they emote with but can’t find anywhere else.  By that I mean…

Create Niche Content that speaks to an underserved audience

With a massive glut of generalized content, You have to identify an underserved niche and start to make authentic, high-quality content that speaks specifically to a small niche of people.  This turns the old TV model on its head, instead of being a 6/10 for 10 people, you need to be a 10/10 for 2 people, and budget your film in such a way that you can keep your business afloat on the revenue from that much smaller audience.  Luckily, when you do this you’ll be able to successfully sell the film, as you won’t be competing as directly with outlets with huge, bland libraries. 

Think less about the format

Movies don’t just have to be 90-minute feature films any more.  If you can establish a following, keep content coming in the form of shorts, webseries, and features.  Don’t spend more time on them than you have to, but make sure that you continue to release new content to engage with your audience. 

Sell Merchandise

Once you have a dedicated following, think about ancillary ways you can monetize your brand and your content.  Bands sell T-Shirts at their shows as their primary source of revenue, and film trends tend to follow about 5-10 years behind the music industry.  You have to start building ways to monetize your Intellectual Property and your Brand beyond simply selling your movie at 3.99 a pop. 

Community Screenings

Theatrical releases are not cost-effective for many filmmakers.  Instead, you can focus on building community screenings that give your core audience a place to congregate, and if you organize them well they can also be a great place to sell merch. It’s also a great place for you as the filmmaker to Skype in and answer questions directly. 

Create Custom Experiences around your IP

Mark Cuban (former owner of Landmark Theaters and Shark on Shark Tank) is fairly well known for saying this is the future of entertainment.  It’s not always easy for Indies to commute in this space, but if you’re releasing a horror film you might consider a themed haunted house as part of a release or as part of a community screening.  There are other ways to make this work in conjunction with your core IP, but it’s difficult to scale and tends to be a custom solution for each film.

​​Thanks so much for reading!  This blog is something of a mix between a distribution blog and something to make you think a little bit more like an entrepreneur.  If you like this sort of content, make sure you come back in February for Entrepreneurship Month.  If you don’t want to miss it, make sure you subscribe to my mailing list or check out my Youtube Channel.  If you want to be extra awesome, throw me a few bucks on Patreon. Links below.

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Can You Get Your Movie on Netflix or Disney+ By Yourself?

At least until recently, a lot of filmmakers assumed that they could get on any platform they needed to be on just by calling up Distribber or another aggregator like Quiver.  With the fallout of the fall of Distribber, many filmmakers are wondering what they can do for distribution.  So, I thought I’d share some knowledge as to what platforms a filmmaker can still get on themselves using aggregators like Quiver, and what platforms you’ll need an accomplished sales distributor, or producer’s rep to get on.

I’m going to break this into general media right types.  If you’re not sure what that means, learn more by clicking through to the related blog below. 

Related: Independent Film Media Right types.

Also, this analysis is based on the US Market

Theatrical

Most distributors just won’t do this for most films, however, the ones that can do it tend to either rent the theaters outright or be extremely skilled salespeople with deep connections to the booking agents for theaters who will book the films on a revenue share basis.  It's just too much work for buyers to work directly with Filmmakers in this fashion.

For filmmakers, the most economical solutions tend to be either paying to rent a theater for a few screens or using a service like Tugg, to have a screening demanded if the film has enough of a following to make it work.  I have my issues with their model, but that’s a topic for a future blog/video. 

Physical Media:

Distributors have a lot more options for physical media than filmmakers tend to.  Some distributors still replicate DVDs on a massive scale, which gives them the ability to get higher quality disks and get them into brick-and-mortar stores like Walmart, Target, Family Video, or kiosks like Redbox.  Many distribution companies also have access to libraries.  Also, Blu-Ray in general is only really available on a wide scale through a distributor.

Even if they use a Manufacture on Demand (MOD) service, they tend to have access to companies who will put them out on the online storefronts of pretty much anywhere that sells DVDs and Blu-Rays.  This is largely due to the fact that those companies tend to only publish catalogs. 

If you’re a filmmaker, you’ll generally be limited to either buying a few thousand DVDs with no guaranteed warehouse solution or distribution network, or you’ll be limited to using something similar to Createspace to put them up on Amazon. While this tends to have the highest margins, it doesn’t tend to move a lot of products, and the quality of the product is generally pretty low. 

Broadcast, PayTV, and Ancillary (Generally Airline)

To get on any network or PayTv channel, you’ll need the help of a distribution company.  Same for airlines.  These entire right types are not generally available to you as a filmmaker. 

Video On Demand (VOD)

For ease, I’m going to break this into a few categories that are generally accepted within the industry.  Those categories are Transactional VOD (TVOD) Subscription VOD (SVOD) and (AVOD)

Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD)

In General, TVOD is pretty accessible to filmmakers on their own.  Filmmakers can pay an aggregator to get you on most platforms for a fee. These platforms include iTunes, Google Play/YouTube, Fandango Now, and many others.  Also, Filmmakers have been able to put their own work up on Amazon Instant video largely for free until recently, although it seems those winds may be changing.  Either way, filmmakers can use Vimeo OTT or Vimeo On Demand to sell the film directly through their website.

There are, however, more than a Few TVOD platforms that only a distributor can access.  These include a subset of TVOD called Electronic Sell Through VOD (ESTVOD) that’s primarily used for paid on-demand offerings of cable and satellite providers, as well as the occasional hotel chain.  The hotel chains VOD offerings have greatly declined in recent years as free WiFi has become commonplace.  Additionally, there’s a service that enables your content to be rented through library systems that are only accessible to distributors with decently sized catalogs. 

Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD)

In order to get on any platform like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO NOW, HBO MAX, or any other major streaming platform, you need the help of a distributor.  Distribber SAID they could pitch you, but that turned out to not be as true as you might hope, and their pitch fee was the size of most commissions a sales agent would take.  Also, their success rate was abysmal for someone charging up front.  This was primarily due to them pitching dozens of films a month, and as such them not getting much attention.

If you want to utilize your SVOD rights as a filmmaker, you pretty much have three options.  Put it on Amazon Prime, (at least for now.) You can start your own subscription service using Vimeo OTT, or try to sell it to people who started their own subscription services that you’ve found.  I doubt those last people will have much money though. 

Advertising Supported Video On Demand (AVOD)

Finally, we come to Advertising Supported Video on Demand or AVOD.  This is an exciting space that’s only recently emerged.  The two biggest players that do it profitably are TubiTV and PlutoTV.  Both of which only deal with filmmakers and sales agents with large catalogs of high-quality, distributable films.  This means they generally only deal with distributors or sales agents.

If you’re a filmmaker, you can put your movie on YouTube in the normal way for AVOD dollars, but it’s generally inadvisable for feature film content.  It’s good for vlogs about film distribution though..,

Thanks so much for reading! 

Educational content isn’t my primary business, the reason I know this stuff is I work in the field. If you’d like to work with me, submit your project idea via the link below. Distribution and brokerage tasks are on commission, earlier stage projects involve some reasonable fees. Also, If you like content like this, you should join my mailing list. It will get you lots of great blog digests of content just like this, as well as notices of major releases from Guerrilla Rep Media.

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Why you ABSOLUTELY MUST Become an Indiefilm Entrepreneur

The concept of filmmaking entrepreneurship has been coming into vogue for quite some time now but has really started to take hold in the zeitgeist of our industry in the last 3-6 months.  The culmination of this was the launch of the Filmtrepreneur website, blog, and podcast.  From Alex Ferrari (Best known for Indie Film Hustle.).

However, Alex is far from the first to advocate for filmmaking entrepreneurship, despite potentially being the loudest voice in the space.  This blog at ProductionNext explores a lot of the most influential voices on this topic. I’m among although I didn’t have the foresight to brand it that way.  I think the reason for this is that more and more people are catching on that if you really want to be an indie filmmaker, the best answer in the current state of the industry is to be an entrepreneur.  Here’s why.

1. You’ve (Probably) got to

If you don’t have the ability to move to New York or LA and network your way into the studio system and don’t want to work for a local TV affiliate, becoming an indiefilm entrepreneur is your best way to make a sustainable living.  Most of us would rather not have a side gig or a 9-5 in order to keep a roof over our heads, but if we don’t build a brand and a company around our work there isn’t going to be much of an option.

In essence, building your brand, leveraging that into a community, and leveraging both of those into creating a sustainable company is your best bet to building sustainable revenue for yourself from your work.

2. There’s no money in MAKING films, only SELLING them.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.  Any accomplished filmmaker will know that you only spend money when you MAKE movies.  That’s fine, and it’s true for almost any product.  However, you can’t pay your bills if all your money goes to buying lenses and camera equipment.

If you get investors, you’ll need to pay them back.  If you put the film on your credit cards, you’ll need to pay those back too.  (Also, don’t do that.)

3. If you want a sustainable career in film, you need to make money

I know I said this in the last point, but you can’t pay your rent with exposure.  You also shouldn’t pay your crew this way. In order to make money, you need to sell your film.  As such, you should consider this from the moment you start writing your script.  You should think about your audience, your marketing strategy, and who is going to absolutely love your film to the point that they annoy their friends because they just won’t shut up about it.  That segues nicely to...

4. The Notion that if you just make a great movie, people will find it is a fallacy.

We all heard it in film school, but while there are a few kernels of truth to it, it’s not even close to true overall.  It’s definitely easier to sell a good movie than a bad one, and word of mouth is still the most effective form of marketing.  That said, quality isn’t the only determining factor in selling a movie.  (Check out the box office numbers for Transformers if you don’t believe me.) Things like Genre, recognizable names, and the amount of publicity you can generate also have HUGE impacts on the salability of a film.

Regarding word of mouth, it’s like a virus.  If you don’t hit a critical mass, it won’t do you much good.  In order to get your critical mass, you need to have a strong marketing strategy and a well-defined target market that is ideally made up of an underserved niche.  The reason for the underserved niche is that it helps make it much more cost-effective to market the film.

Related: Why your film needs a niche market

5. It’s the best (and maybe only) path to true filmmaking freedom

If you want to make the movies you want to make, building a brand, a community, an audience, and a company is the best way to achieve that goal.  If you work up through the studio system, you’re not going to be likely to reach the upper echelons before relatively late in your career (if at all) Even then, you’re likely to be subject to studio mandate which will make it difficult to make the films you really want to make.

As such, if you want to make films that really strike your fancy, the best way to do so is via becoming a film entrepreneur.  I was speaking with Rob Hardy of Filmmaker Freedom about this shortly before writing this particular blog, and that’s a lot of the new direction for his filmmaking podcast, which you should check out.  (I’ve linked it below)

CHECK OUT THE FILMMAKER FREEDOM PODCAST |Apple Podcasts|

Thanks so much for reading!  If you want some help building your company, you should consider hiring a consultant with exits behind them. I’m one of those, learn more about my services in the services button below.  If you’re not ready to do that, check out my free film business resources pack. You get the Entrepreneurial Producer E-Book templates to help you make an investment deck, festival brochure, track distribution submissions, and more. It’s free when you sign up for my email list.

How and Why to Test Screen Your Indiefilm

If you’re a filmmaker who’s got a film that’s nearing completion, you’re probably going to want to get some opinions on it before you think you’re ready.  This involves test screenings.  Given that I’ve hosted a few in the past, I’ve learned a few things that work and others that don’t. 

1. Invite people who aren’t filmmakers

While the very first people you’ll want to get feedback on your cut from probably ARE filmmakers, they won’t be the only people you want to talk to about your project.  Filmmakers tend to understand the process a bit better than a standard viewer and are going to be more able to look past a lack of color correction and audio that still needs work.

However, filmmakers have their own set of biases when it comes to low-budget independent work.  The easiest way past that is to do test screenings for the people you expect to WATCH your movie as opposed to those that helped you make it.  It’s best to wait until the film is nearly done before doing this, as these screenings tend to be labor-intensive and can be expensive.  Also, if you show the film too early, it can negatively impact the press for the film. ​  ​

Generally, I think the time you want to start showing people in the industry is around picture lock.  The test screenings should be done closer to the completion of the film when you think you stand a chance at getting into major festivals.

2. Give out PRINTED comment cards/Sheets at the close of the event.

I’ve done enough events to know that if you give out PAPER sheets for people to fill out anonymously at the event, you’ll probably get around 80-90% of your audience willing to fill them out.  However, if you send a follow-up survey in email, that number is around 10-20%, even if you incentivize them. 

As such, you should make sure you have a single-sided sheet ready for people to fill out at the event.  Don’t make people give you their names, but do ask about their age range and potential ethnicity.  If there are other demographics you plan on targeting, you should also add questions asking people if they identify with any of those groups. 

I’ve added a few templates to my resources section below.

Get the FREE template in my resources section!

3. Ask the viewers to RATE the film on IMDb & give them the ability to AT THE SCREENING

IMDb is one of the earliest places you can start asking consumers to rate your film.  In general, it’s best if you ask them to rate the film at the test screening.  You can set up a subdomain on your site that automatically redirects to the IMDb page.  Then you can use a QR code generator to make sure people have access to it.  Give them time to fill out the form and rate the film between the film finishing up and a Q&A.  The whole process (for both) should take 10 minutes or less, meaning a 15-minute break will also allow people to use the bathroom. 

I believe your film needs to be marked as completed to capture this rating. ​

4. Capture emails to let the beta viewers know when the film comes out.

If you’re a filmmaker, you need to build your email list. (More on that in the related blog below.) You should create a custom tag for people who attend the screening of your film.  If you capture RSVPs of people through Eventbrite, then you can just add that tag when you import them to mail chimp or whatever other mailing management program you want to use. 

Related: Why every filmmaker needs an email list.

5. Consider inviting local press

If your film is gearing up for release, offering press passes to local print outlets, prominent bloggers talking about movies, or other digital creators will probably serve you well.  It may or may not get them to actually come out, but the benefits of them coming.  Just make sure you’re not spammy about it.

Related: 6 Rules for contacting press.

Thanks so much for reading! If this all seems like a bit much, I do it for some of the films I represent or distribute. If you’d like me to consider yours, check out my services page. If you like this content, you should check out my new youtube channel. Also, don’t forget about the templates, ebook, and way more in my resources packet.

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How Filmmakers Can Use Community Screenings to Maximize Impact and Profits

For those of you who are unfamiliar, a community screening model is an alternate version of a theatrical where instead of booking theaters across the country.  There are so many places with high-quality sound systems across the country that it can make a lot of sense to book these secondary locations instead of spending the money to four-wall a theater.  Since we talked about what a community screening package generally includes, I thought I’d go over what it takes to book those screenings this week. 

1. Identify your Target Audience

​As stated above, community screenings are best utilized when there’s already a strong presence of your niche audience gathered around the same geographic location.  This most likely means that you’re going to need to target a niche like the Faith-Based community, the LGBT community, or some other cause-oriented community. 

The Secret utilized community screenings to great effect, as did other documentaries like Food Inc and Forks over Knives.  This tactic is most commonly utilized by documentary filmmakers, as their films tend to attract dedicated niche audiences with slightly more ease than a narrative film would.  That said, if you can build a following for yourself and your film within this niche, there’s no reason that these same sorts of tactics couldn’t work as well. ​

2. Figure out a communal gathering place for them

If your community has a regular meeting place, such as a church, rec center, yoga studio, or other area that has a large screen that can be used to show movies it can be an extremely effective place to start talking to someone about hosting a film screening. 

Even if your film isn’t a faith-based film, some unitarian churches may still be worth approaching.  The biggest downside to places like Unitarian churches, (or general use area like a rec center) is that they don’t always have the same sort of community built around them that places like churches tend to. 

3. Research those community leads lists

Once you find an example community gathering place, you’re going to want to look for similar places around whatever region you’re looking to advertise community screenings too.  I wouldn’t generally say to do a screening at more than one location per city, but since you’re not going to close every place you try, I’d consider getting 5-10 per area you want to screen in. 

​Keep in mind, You’re living in a large, sprawling city like Los Angeles or Denver.  If you are, you might want to consider holding one in different areas of the city.  For Denver, you could consider one in LoDo, one in Aurora, one in Cherry Creek, and one in Highland’s Ranch.  In LA, you could consider one in DTLA, one in Culver, one in Burbank, one in Santa Monica, and one in Westwood, etc.

4. Create a screening package

I covered this last week since this blog was likely to come out long.  Read it below:

RELATED: The 9 Essential elements of an indifilm Community Screening package.

5. Generate marketing materials

The marketing materials I’m talking about are for marketing the people who would host the community screening, not those who would attend.  The materials for those who would attend will be covered in more detail on the expansion of section 4 next week. 
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What I mean here are things like a pre-written email that you can plug some names into and send, a brochure on your film and why it would appeal to both your target audience and the people hosting it, a tiered pricing plan for your screenings that ideally start as a revenue share and go up from there.

6. Sell the community Screening package to them.

Finally, it’s time to dial for dollars and reach out to them. If possible, it will help your close rate immensely to send them the brochure in advance, but that can get a bit pricy. You can try sending a cold email, but it’s reasonably likely that you’d end up in more spam filters than would likely be helpful. I know that telemarketing isn’t fun, but it can be extremely useful in terms of actually moving these sorts of packages.

Thanks so much for reading! If all of this sounds like a lot, that’s because it is! Lucky for you, it’s also a service I offer. Check out the Guerrilla Rep Media Services page. If you’re still figuring out what the next steps are for your film, you should grab my free film business resources pack. It’s got Templates for festival brochures, distribution, tracking sheets, an investment deck template, a free ebook, a whitepaper on the economics of the film industry, and more. Also, you’ll get monthly content digests to help you grow your film business knowledge base on a manageable schedule.

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How to get Short Film Distribution

I get A LOT of questions about how best to make money with short films.  It’s something that I think is inherently appealing to most filmmakers, to start making a little bit of passive income from every project they make.  Unfortunately, while possible, it’s not that easy, and the reasons why are relatively simple.

The root issue of why it’s hard to make money with shorts lies in basic economics.  There are far more shorts created o an annual basis than there is demand from those who are willing to pay for them.  Think about it, when’s the last time YOU paid to watch a short?  When was the last time you WATCHED a short on its own outside of a film festival or before a Pixar movie?  I might be wrong for you individually, but I’d bet that for most of you, there are crickets in the background while you try to remember when it happened.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably more likely to consume shorts so than a member of the general public.  According to the best available estimates I’ve been able to find, there are around 131,000 shorts produced every year in the US alone.  (The source for that is in a whitepaper in my resources section.) There just aren't enough people willing to spend money on these sorts of shorts.  That said, shorts have their purposes.  They can help you network, build your skills, or build your brand.  So with that in mind, here are the 7 ways to.

Also, yes.  I'm aware that there are a few sales agents who license shorts.  However, they're few and far between, and I don't see many people.  flocking to them.  

1. Use it to build your brand and your skills.  

First off, almost none of these ways to make money with your shorts are exclusive.  You can likely use more than one of them at the same time.  In fact, in many ways the more of these tactics you use the better it’s likely to be in terms of building your brand, as in order to have a meaningful brand, you must first have awareness of yourself and your work. 

Part of using your shorts to expand your brand is submitting it to festivals to see if you get in, and attending those festivals to get the most out of it. ​

Skill building is slightly outside the purview of how to make money with your shorts, but since you won't make money from a poorly executed feature, it's worth mentioning.  Shorts are great practice for you to grow your skills in whatever position you want to grow into.  

2. Use as a proof of concept for a feature.

One example of this working is the film Slingblade, which started with Billy Bob Thornton giving a riveting performance as the title character in a single location and largely a single shot.  That short then got into some major festivals, and was picked up and turned into a feature film.   

That said, this is much more the exception than the rule.  Most of the time people try to expand their short into a feature by approaching sales agents or studios, it doesn’t work.  The reason it’s as high as it is on this list is purely that when it does work, the value of it is huge. 
What would mean a lot more is if you can prove that there’s an audience for your work, which really ties back into #1. 

3. Sell it to a shorts program

PBS and a few others have short programs that will actually pay to license your short.  There are also several channels on youtube offering you “Exposure” for posting your video.  They keep the ad revenue of course.  There are brand-building advantages to doing this, as it can expose you and your work to an audience it would otherwise be difficult to reach, however, there’s not as many brand advantages as you might hope there are.  Additionally, you should not give these people the exclusive right to your short under any circumstances.

4. Put it on Amazon Prime and put considerable effort into promoting it.

As we mentioned earlier, it’s unlikely people are going to pay for your short.  #SorryNotSorry.  That said, if you can give them a way to watch it for free, then you might get something.  So you might want to try Amazon Prime. Sure you only get paid 6 cents per hour viewed, but if you happen to strike a chord and get caught up in their algorithm, it can lead to more money than you may be expecting.

Edit from the future: this sadly isn’t possible anymore.

5. Use it as an email capture giveaway.

If you’re starting to get a brand behind you, then you might want to keep some of your early shorts behind an email capture on your website.  This might also be a good place to keep some special features from your feature-length DVDs as few people tend to actually buy physical media anymore.  Using this as an incentive to join your email list can be a good way to grow your email list and expand engagement with your burgeoning community.  That being said, this is generally only advisable if you’ve already got some work and a brand under your belt. 

6. Put it on Youtube and put considerable effort into promoting it.

Starting a youtube channel is quite a lot of work. (I have no reason to know that mind, you) So doing it for a single short film isn’t going to give you a lot of traffic other than the traffic you specifically drive to it.  However, while you’re building a brand, it’s an absolute must to have it easy to find.  Vimeo has a much higher quality player, but the social features on YouTube are better.  That said, there’s not a lot of reason not to do both of them, as well as putting the film on Amazon Prime.  You probably won’t make much, but having it available in multiple places can help you build your brand more than you may think it would. 

7. Get your friends together, license their shorts, and sell your shorts as a package.

A huge drawback to marketing a single shot is the low return for the amount of effort it takes to capture the attention of people considering watching your project. So, it might make more sense to try to package your shorts with others to make the effort more worth your time. That being said, buyers at film markets have less than no interest in anthologies. As a result, neither do Sales agents. So if you do this, you’re likely in it on your own.

Thanks so much for reading!  If you enjoyed this blog, you should consider joining my email list for lots of free goodies including templates, an ebook, a whitepaper, and more. If you’re looking for direct guidance to take your project to the next level, Check out the Guerrilla Rep Media Services page. Links for both of those in the buttons below.

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One HUGE Don't When Dealing with Film Distributors

As with nearly anything in life, there are dos and don’ts when you; ’re dealing with your independent film distributor.  Also as with most things in life, there is (at least) one thing you can do that will irreparably harm your relationship with that distributor and might even result in legal action taken against you.  What is it? Read on to find out.

DON’T GO AROUND YOUR DISTRIBUTOR OR SALES AGENT TO SELL YOUR FILM

Once you sign with a producer’s rep, sales agent, or Distributor for your project, they have the right to negotiate on your behalf.  Many buyers won’t deal with filmmakers directly, so the point of contact will either be your producer’s rep or Sales agent. 

While most buyers will appreciate the filmmakers helping to push the film, they will not be so grateful for reaching out to the buyer directly about reports, or any other form of unapproved contact. 

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t help promote your film in ways that it makes sense to do so.  See the blogs below for reasons why. 

Related: WHY you should help your distributor MARKET your MOVIE

Related: HOW to Best COLLABORATE your Distributor MARKET your Movie

The biggest takeaway for how to market your movie that you can take from the blog above is to only post approved links.  If you’re smart, you’ll also include Vimeo on Demand and Vimeo OTT as a holdback for you to sell the film through your own website.  Distributors tend not to utilize that right, so it’s generally something that you’ll be able to negotiate.  It’s included as a holdback in my standard template contracts for the filmmaker’s country of origin.  I do stipulate that it’s generally subject to advisement regarding the timing of the release.  

Another thing that you should be fine “selling” is whatever you need to fulfill any crowdfunding obligations like DVDs, Blu-Rays, and TVOD Screeners.  Although again, you should make sure to negotiate this into your distribution agreement.  That said, it’s never been an issue, although it might be subject to the same sort of advisement on timing as the Vimeo on Demand example above.

If you distributor does not agree to either of the stipulations above, you should consider walking.  Here are some tips on vetting your distributor/Sales agent, and producer’s rep.

Related: How to vet your distributor/Sales Agent

Related: How to Vet Your Producer’s Rep

The biggest thing you need to keep in mind is that no matter how much you disagree with the choices on artwork and marketing made by the distributor, you should not post any unauthorized sales links.  If you do, you could be putting yourself in a pretty massive legal liability. 
​
This one came out a little short, but thanks for reading anyway.  If you like it and want to see more content like this, you should join my mailing list.  You’ll get monthly blog digests segmented by topic, it’s like a short e-book in your inbox every month FOR FREE! You’ll also get access to my resources packet, which includes an actual e-book, whitepaper, several templates, and more!

Finally, if you’ve got a project you’d like a guiding hand through this process, I offer individual consultation, as well as consideration for my distribution, marketing, business planning, and financial services packets, use the submit your film button.  Thanks, and see you next week.

How best to COLLABORATE with your Distributor to Market your Movie

The Distributor’s job is largely to make your film available for sale and set it up in such a way that people are likely to buy it. Some will work to market your film, but most won’t.  Even when they do market your film, you helping market your work will make the marketing your distributor does much more effective.  However, there are some basic rules that you should follow to make sure everything goes as well.  

Quick disclaimer: This assumes that they'll work with you on it.  that's not always a safe assumption, although it should be something you talk about when you're in negotiations with your sales agent and distributor. 

1. COMMUNICATE with your distributor.

If you want your relationship with your distributor to be effective, then you need to lay out what you would define as success.  You should listen to when they need something from you, and work towards making it happen as quickly as possible.  Do what you can to help them promote your film. 

A lot of the communication with your distributor will likely be at the beginning of your relationship in closing the contract.  You can learn a lot about them through this process, but the most important thing to do before you sign is call 3 of their previous clients.  Here’s a link for more information about doing your due diligence. ​

Related: 5 Rules for vetting your Distributor/Sales Agent

Also, you might want to understand what a film distribution contract looks like to better facilitate that communication.  The blog below may help.

Related: The 7 Main Indiefilm Distribution Deal points

2. Make sure you ONLY sell the OFFICIAL links

Unless you redline the ability to sell your film through Vimeo through your own website, you should ONLY post the official sales links for your film that your distributor will set up.   Even if you have the right to sell the film through your own website, you should still at least occasionally post the distributor’s sales links.  Not only does it help keep your distributor happy, it also makes your film look bigger since its available in more places. 

3. Take as many interviews as you can, and seek them out where appropriate.

If you want to build a career in film, you will need to build a brand for yourself as a filmmaker.  A brand will help you engage with your community, find work, get more sales for the work you produce yourself, and can even help you finance your next project.  Getting Press will help you expand that brand.  It also helps raise awareness of your film, which in turn will help move more units or get more views and can create a positive feedback loop to help you build your career.  In essence, it’s the very definition of a win-win.

4. Keep your social media up to date!

If you’re building your social media right, then you’re going to have an engaged following interested to hear about progress and release updates for the film.  As such, whenever you have reason to update your community you should.  Not only does it help you move units, but it can also help you deepen the relationship with your community and customer base which can in turn help you make future projects more easily. 

5. Use Affiliate programs for better tracking and analytics

As something of a workaround, I use Amazon Affiliates with every film that I have on Amazon, primarily so that I can get more analytics more quickly. If you see Amazon banners on my sites or links from Amazon on my social media, it’s likely an affiliate link. While I don’t see who bought the film, I do get an idea of through which channel the film was purchased. This lets me hone the message for each platform as I can see what works and what doesn’t. I might write a blog specifically about this if someone requests it in the comments or on my Patreon.

Thanks so much for reading! If you want to know more, you should join my mailing list for blog digests of blogs just like this one as well as a great resource package that includes a free ebook, whitepaper, templates, and tons of other resources. That button is right below

I don’t just write about film distribution, I also do it. If you still need distribution, guidance, or sales estimates, documentation, or even just help to make a more marketable movie, for making your film. for your film, you should consider submitting it. That link is below the other button.

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Why you NEED to HELP your Distributor Market your Movie (If They'll Let You.)

If you think your work is over when you finish making your film, and someone will just give you a few hundred grand more than it cost to make it so you can make your next one then you’re in for a real wake-up call.  Sadly, there’s no money in making films, only in selling them, and the work of selling them is no longer solely on your distributor.  Or, at least you shouldn’t count on it being that way.  Here’s why.

But before we get started on that, it’s worth a few sentences analyzing the distribution and marketing are related, but NOT the same thing.  So what is the difference between film marketing, film sales, and film distribution?  The simplest way to put it is that Distribution is making your product available for sale, and marketing is convincing end consumers to buy it.  Sales is the process of getting it to the various distributors.  Now that that’s done, on to the topic at hand. 

Also, before we get started it’s important to note that not all distributors will accept your help.  Some control and participation in your home market should be part of your negotiation with your distributor if you’re dealing with them directly or your international sales agent if you’re not. 

1.More sales and more money for everyone!

If you want to make money from your film and have the distributor keep the marketing for the film intact, you’re going to have to give them a reason WHY they should listen to you.  As such, you’ll have to help push the film out there.  Also, after they recoup the money they put in, you will be taking the lion’s share of future sales, so it does have a dramatic impact on not only how much you get paid, but also how soon you get paid. 

Also: most distributors don’t do a lot beyond the initial publicity push.  If you want to continue sales and generate awareness of your movie, you’ll need to keep talking about it.

2. Marketing your work builds your brand

In the words of Alex Ferrari of Indie Film Hustle, "if you don't think you need a brand as a filmmaker, you're wrong.

​Generally, a brand is defined as every interaction you have with customers or potential customers.  So the first step in building your brand is building awareness of your work.  That means marketing your movies. 

Do make sure not to be spammy or a jerk about it though.  No one likes a jerk.  Unless you’re a wholesaler to the jerk store.  #DatedReferences

Related: 5 DOs and DON’Ts for selling your film online.

3. You’ll get a much deeper understanding of the process

If you want to make a career in film, you’ll need at least a cursory understanding of what it takes to sell a film, unfortunately, there’s no money in making films, only in selling them.  Getting a much better idea of how this process works will make it easier for you to make a salable film in the future. 

4. Helping Gives you a better idea of what’s going on with your movie

One of the biggest frustrations faced by many filmmakers is not understanding what’s going on with their films.  One of the best ways to stay in the loop is to help your distributor with marketing.  This can give you a lot more up-to-the-minute data that you can act on to make better marketing decisions and with luck get closer to creating a positive feedback loop of sales.  Admittedly, in the current system that’s A LOT of luck. 

5.  If you’re putting the work in, your distributor will be more likely to take your requests.

If you’ve got more face time, and your film is performing well, your distributor is more likely to make pitches they might not otherwise make. Part of that comes down to perspicacity, and part of it just comes down to numbers.

Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share it with your filmmaking community on your social media, or drop a comment down below with your thoughts about what you’d like to know about film distribution, grab my free Indiefilm business resources packet for an e-book, a whitepaper, a bunch of templates, and more.

As you may know, I don’t just talk about distribution, I’ve run companies that do it, and still connect filmmakers to the better players in the game.  If you’d like your film to be considered, use the services button below.  That’s my primary business, in fact.

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