The 3 Main Independent Distribution Models

We all know there’s more than one way to distribute a film.  What we might not think about is that there’s also a lot more to your independent film distribution choice than the self or traditional binary pervasive across many online forums and social media groups.  Here’s a breakdown to help filmmakers better understand the companies that are involved in distributing their indie films, and the broad business models they operate under so you can make a more informed choice.  

High Touch / Prestige Releasing

What we all want, A24, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, etc.  These are the companies that release at most 1-2 films per month and generally have some degree of limited theatrical baked into the deal.  They give a lot of time and attention to every release, and they’re exceptionally picky about what product they take.  Most of the time you’ll need strong recognizable names or a top 5 world film festival to capture their attention.  Even then it’s far from a guarantee that you’ll be able to attract this level of attention. Sometimes you can sneak in through a sales agent who has a relationship but even then you’ll need a superior product to have a shot. 

The pros of this should be obvious.  Getting a distribution deal from one of these entities is a game changer for both you and your film.  If you can say that a major studio released your last film, you’ll be in a much better position to fund your next film.  They’ll put lots of time, effort, and money into promoting it as well, or at least more than every other type of company on this list.  You’ll probably even get a reasonably sized minimum guarantee out of the deal. 

There are downsides though.  The downside on the filmmaker side is that more than likely the MG is all you’ll ever see.  Even the Blair Witch Project had to go to court with a copy of Time Magazine proclaiming the film to be the most profitable film of all time to receive royalty payments from their distributor.  Unfortunately, most of us are not Blair Witch.  

On the distributor side, this model is extremely risky if you don’t have the backing of another revenue source or deep institutional investment.  Essentially, if you don’t have either of those forms of backing it only takes one flop to through the company into financial disarray.  Unfortunately, this means that we probably won’t be seeing too many companies enter at this level in the near future unless they’re spinoffs of larger tech, media, or maybe even retail companies.  

Hybrid Releasing / Producer Boosting

In this model, the distributor or sales agent relies on producers to handle the legwork on marketing providing assets and support in getting the film out there.  The key here is to view the work as a partnership, with the distributors handling assets, access, and amplification of the producer’s efforts while the producers handle the grind that’s involved with engaging the core niche audience of a film without doubling the production budget in ad spends.  

The benefits of this model on the filmmaker's end are that it allows the distributor to offer a much lower commission and significantly lower recoupable expenses.  If the company is extremely filmmaker-friendly, they’ll also pay out the filmmakers on a distributor gross corridor so that the filmmakers will receive money from the first dollar in.  This is the model I personally developed and implemented at Mutiny Pictures.  We paid filmmakers in line with the Mutiny Commission at the same rate as the Mutiny commission.  The only things that came out first were uncapped expenses for things like DCPs, special delivery costs, and legal expenses.  As such, the vast majority of our filmmakers received a check in their first report.  

For distributors, the upside of this model is that it allows the distributor to run a leaner operation while releasing 2-3 times more films than the high-touch model.  This allows distributors to take bigger bets on a-typical releases as they’re more likely to have their bases covered by the fact that statistically at least 1 in 10 films will break out when they’re properly managed.  A well-run distribution company that’s out of its initial revenue lag will be able to support itself on one breakout every two or three months, so long as they don’t overstaff.  

The Drawback of this is that it’s less likely a distributor or sales agent will be willing to offer a minimum guarantee on this model.  There are a few reasons for this, the primary being that the only companies really pursuing this model are smaller and younger and thus don’t have the backing of a large catalog consistently churning revenue.  Given that situation, it would be too big of a risk for them to offer an MG they would not be able to cover with a guaranteed sale.  The secondary reason may be that if it really is a partnership, filmmakers receiving a check early on may limit their willingness to help promote their own film.  I’ve had that happen a lot.

This model is my personal favorite, but it’s not ideal.  In an ideal world, filmmakers would be able to focus on making their next film after they deliver their first one for distribution.  Unfortunately, that’s not the world we find ourselves in.  

Shlock-Gunning / Aggregation++

Throw it out there and see what sticks.  This would include aggregators, and companies like indie rights or Filmhub, but also could include other indie labels that put out too many films a year with relatively high expenses that don’t put too much effort into selling them.  Basically, they, throw everything at a wall and see what sticks.  

I want to be clear that in the case of some companies like IndieRights or FilmHub, this model is not necessarily a bad thing for filmmakers.  Filmhub would probably not like that I’m saying this, but in general, I use them as an alternative to traditional aggregators like BitMax, Quiver, or even Distribbr.  Of any company on the shlock-gunning list, I’d say my favorite is Filmhub as they’ve found an ethical and economical way of monetizing their wide access to AVOD, FAST Channels, and TVOD platforms.  

The issue with this model is when it’s not properly disclosed.  If your distributor is giving you the high touch or the hybrid pitch but then unceremoniously dropping your film it’s a problem.  To be clear, platforms don’t always tell distributors exactly when a film will show up, so sometimes there’s a bit of this that’s unavoidable.  I would share some names of companies I know that use these tactics, but they can get a little nasty at markets given most companies would take umbrage at this sort of accusation.  One way to suss them out is their volume of releases.  If they distribute more than one film per week, you might well be dealing with a schlock-gunner.  

I might discuss the matter in future unrecorded live streams, and if you want access to those check out my mailing list, Patreon, and sub stack, all linked below. 

Thanks so much for reading, and check back next week for more.

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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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9 Essential Elements of an Independent Film Community Screening Package

If you’re making a film with an extremely niche audience, it can make A LOT of sense to consider hosting some community screenings in place of a more traditional theatrical run. While this tactic is most commonly used for documentaries that have a strong social message, it’s also a tool that can be quite effective when utilized by narrative films targeting a very well-defined niche.  Here’s what goes into the package you’ll be selling to anyone who might want to screen your film.

Essentially, what you’re selling is an event kit that includes pretty much everything that an event organizer will need to create an event around your film so both of you can make money. 

1. The rights to publicly screen the film

You can’t legally screen a film to a gathering of people without a special kind of license.   Many times, this license is more of a handshake agreement, but if you’re doing anything at scale you need a special agreement.  Since if you’re doing this effectively, it’s probably going to be something that’s replicated across many screens across the country, it’s best to plan in advance and include the full license as part of the community screening agreement.

2. Questions to facilitate conversations after the film

Most of the time, the goal of a community screening is not just to show the film, but to build community around it.  Starting a conversation around the film when it’s over can be a great way for people to begin to understand not only the film, but the other people in the community watching it.  As such, providing a list of sample questions to anyone who would be hosting the event is a great way to make sure that the community building around your film is likely to go well. 

3. Art Assets for social media

Not everyone is good at social media marketing.  I would recommend that you create a set of art assets that can be easily modified to include the host and location for each of the following.

• Facebook (general)

• Facebook (event)

• Meetup

• Instagram

If you think I missed one, leave it in the comments. ​

4. A Pricing Plan

If you want to attract good event hosts, they’ll need to know what they need to pay.  Generally, it’s best to structure this as a hard cost plus revenue share, with the potential to add consumables like DVDs to the list. If you do a Revenue Share, you need to insist that you host it through your Eventbrite. 

Another couple of add-ons you could consider is Skyping or zooming in after the screening to take questions.  You could also include the ability to fly out, but that would be a MUCH higher price point that includes travel. ​

5. Easily printable standard page size flyers in both black and white and color

You should include easily printed and customizable flyers in black and white and in color for your event hosts to put up around town and use for promotion.  You do need black and white and color separately, as color is more eye-catching but black and white is more cost effective.  These should be print-ready pdfs based on a template you created.  Here’s an example i made for a masterclass I recently did in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  (it’s a .jpb it displays in this blog.)

6. Easily printable quarter page size flyers

This is the same sort of concept as the full-page flyers but sized so they can be given out or left somewhere. 

7. A Sample Press Release/EPK

This might be the most important item on this list.  One of the biggest reasons that you want to do these screenings is to increase the profile of the film.  If you get a significant amount of local press coverage, you’ll end up getting a significant boost to your SEO.  You should also make sure you include a few quotes from you about the film, and a few images to make the job of the local reporter as easy as possible. 

8. Testimonials

You should get some quotes about your film from any notable person you can that’s seen it.  If you’re past your festival run, you should consider looking at any of the reviews you got about the project. 

9. General best practices for marketing events

Not all community organizations are great at marketing events. So, an electronic file delivery of best practices for marketing a screening like this would be very useful to them.  Having recently worked with a few arts organizations, I wish I had made a template with more detail to better get the word out and get a few more people to show up.  

Thanks so much for reading! Next week I’ll release a blog about how to actually market this package.

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Why Genre is VITAL to Independent Film Marketing & Distribution

This is a topic that’s a little basic, but it’s a fundamental building block of understanding how to market your film. So I thought I would do a breakdown of why genre is so important to independent filmmakers in terms of marketing and distribution.  I do touch on in my book The Guerrilla Rep: American Film Market Distribution Success on No Budget, but even there I only cover it in a sense as it pertains to the market.  Let’s get started. 
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Before we begin, we should talk about what a genre actually is.  At its core, the genre of your film is primarily a simple tool for categorizing how your film compares to other films.  It’s a broad bucket of similar elements that lump films together in a way that makes it easier to sell them and easier to convey the general experience of a film succinctly.  Knowing this will inform everything else on this list. 
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Generally, there are both genres and sub-genres.  Sub-genres can generally pair with any genre, but some pairings work better than others.  Here’s a somewhat complete list of genres and sub genres.  Genres tend to focus on plot elements and overall feel whereas Sub Genres also have more to do with themes or settings.

Genres

• Action

• Horror

• Thriller

• Family

• Comedy

• Drama

• Documentary

Sub-Genres

• Adventure

• Sci-Fi

• Fantasy

• Crime

• Sports

• Faith Based

• LGBT

• Romance

• Biographical

• Music/Musicals

• Animated

So Why is Genre So Effing Important?

Genre provides a general set of guidelines for filmmakers to follow when crafting a story.

Since there are certain elements that are inherent in any particular genre, understanding the tropes of any particular genre can be very helpful in crafting your narrative and in shooting your film.  If you know you’re shooting an action film, then there had better be fight scenes, shootouts, and car chases.  If you’re making a thriller, there should be a lot of suspense.  If you’re shooting a horror, a good amount of your budget will go on buckets of blood.  Knowing the tropes in advance can really help frame your story and what you need to shoot your film. 

Genre categorizes it for potential customers

As mentioned above, genres are simply categorizations of similar elements of a film.  As such, certain viewers will develop an affinity for a certain genre. Some people will like some genres more than others.  Sometimes a viewer will be in the mood for one genre, but not in the mood for another.  Kind of like how sometimes you’re craving Mexican food, and other times you’re craving Chinese.

Genre helps to find an audience for the film

Think of this as the reverse of the point above.  If your film has a well-defined genre, it can be great for discovery by the audience that’s seeking it out.  Again, think about the food example.  If you’re a Mexican food restaurant in an area where the community is all huge fans of Mexican cuisine, you’re likely to do well.  However, if you’re a barbecue joint in a city known for its insanely high levels of Veganism, you might be in for a rough go of it. Of course, this kind of ignores the problem of oversaturation but there’s only so much I can tackle in 600-800 words.

Genre categorizes your film for Distributors and sales agents

Distributors and Sales agents understand the issues above.  In addition, they often build a brand around certain genres so that there’s a high degree of audience recognition from them.  Buyers and distributors often continually serve the same end viewer, and as such their brand is particularly important, and they often seek a similar sort of film time and time again.  Think about the difference between the programming on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, or the difference between Comedy Central and MTV.
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Sales agents generally develop deep relationships with the same buyers.  As such, they become acutely aware of that buyer’s brand, and the sort of content they normally buy.  As such, that’s the sort of content they look to acquire. 

What happens if I cross-Genres?

So this is somewhat beyond the scope of this blog, but it’s a point that should be made and I don’t think I could spend an entire blog on it.  So keep in mind that cross-genre is different than a genre and a sub-genre.  A Cross Genre would be a horror comedy or an action thriller.  Those are two examples that generally work, at least in the right circumstances.  Other genre-crossing like Action Drama or Family Horror probably don’t work so well. 

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about going cross-genre. 

It doesn’t add to the audience it limits it

If you make a film that’s both horror and comedy, it doesn’t sell to people who like either Horror and Comedy, it generally only appeals to people who like BOTH horror AND Comedy.  So instead of expanding your horizons, it limits them.  However, people who like both of these genres are going to be far more likely to really enjoy your film, just because they don’t get as much horror/comedy content as they might like.  That said, getting to these people can be both difficult and expensive. 

If done poorly, it confuses the message.

As you can see from the later two examples above, if you cross genre poorly it can be very creatively limiting.  A horror family movie doesn’t sound like it would be possible to do very well.  I know that Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom had elements of this, as did Gremlins, but The Temple of Doom was primarily an Action Adventure movie, and Gremlins would be very difficult to package in this day and age. 

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9 Things I Learned from my First Theatrical Release

We recently came to the close of the theatrical release of Rockhaven Film’s Goodland.  It played in a total of 7 cities.  This was the first time I’ve been a key part of making a theatrical release work, so I wanted to share some of what I learned along the way.  So here it is 9 things I learned from my first theatrical release.

1. Booking theaters is both expensive and time-consuming

I tried booking a theater here in San Francisco, but in the end, I was unsuccessful.  The only theater that really got back to us would only show the film on a rental, not a revenue share.  We didn’t pay any of the other theaters, and we weren’t going to start in San Francisco. 

If we had paid them, it would have been a bit over 2,000 for 9 showings in a week.  It is possible to get some films in there on revenue share alone, but if you do you often must give up the first 2-3,000 in sales directly to the theater, and generally, that’s about all you’ll make from a screen unless you can really pound the pavement and get press coverage. 

2. Book local theaters, New York, and Los Angeles first. 

This contradicts some of what I just said, but when you’re getting started, the first theaters you need to book are New York, Los Angeles, and perhaps the screen most local to the filmmakers.   New York and LA get you more press coverage and give legitimacy to your theatrical run.  The local screen is generally the easiest to book.

​3. You don’t always need a full week’s run.

We only did 3 screenings in Buffalo, NY, but we still got a decent amount of press and a good amount of social media attention.  Doing 1-3 screenings in a market makes it feel more like an event, and is a great way to build word of mouth about your film.  Even if you can’t book a full week, consider booking a few one-night-only engagements to boost your presence in markets across the country. 

4. ​Often, 1-2 shows a day is easier to sell.

We had 3-5 screenings a day in Kansas City, and it was difficult to drive traffic to any one particular screening.  That includes the screenings we had with Q&As after them.  If you focus on one individual showing a day, it’s easier to focus your marketing efforts, and get those butts in seats for an indie movie.

5. Fewer theaters are independently owned than you think

In attempting to book theaters in San Francisco, I found that only a few local theaters were independently owned.  More theaters than you think are owned by mega chains like AMC, Cinemark, United Artists, and Landmark.  If you’re dealing with these mega-chains, you’re likely going to have to deal with their buyers.  Generally, those buyers will only want to deal with distributors. 
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6. Once a theater is booked you can still get bumped unless you paid the rental fee.  

We booked a screen in New York for the same day we opened in LA.  Unfortunately, we were bumped because Avengers, Infinity War outperformed expectations.  If possible, don’t try to book your indie in May, June, July, August, November, or December.  That’s when Hollywood will be very likely to bump you.

7. Keep Making Noise to fill seats

Once you get your theaters booked, you’re still going to have to drive local people to theaters.  The most cost-effective ways to do this are via local press coverage and social media.  The two work very well together.  Keep your audience engaged by sharing news on your facebook page, twitter, and Instagram whenever there’s news to be had. ​
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Related: 5 Dos and Don'ts for Marketing your Movie on Social Media

8. Press coverage is key: Local Press can be very cliquey.  

Local Press coverage is among the best ways to drive traffic to your movie.  However, it can be difficult to get. 

It should surprise precisely no-one reading this list that some film scenes are very cliquey, and some of those people from the film scenes end up in positions of power at general press outlets.  They may not cover your movie just because you’re not one of the cool kids.  It sucks, but it is what it is.  It would be difficult to change their mind, so just move on to other outlets if that’s what you’re running up against. 

9. In the end, if you've made ANY money you've done well. 

Finally, there’s not really a lot of money in theatrical runs themselves.  There is a lot of additional money to be had in having had a theatrical release.  If you end up getting beyond your distributor’s recoupable expenses, you’ve done VERY well.  The additional money you’ve gotten from these outlets is likely to have a marked impact on your TVOD sales and your SVOD sales price.  I might be making some announcements about how that worked for Goodland on our Facebook page, soon.

I hope this was helpful to building your indie film career. If you’re embarking on your own journey through distribution, you should make sure to grab my FREE indie film resource package. It’s got lots of templates to help you talk to distributors, tools to help you raise funding and even exclusive money-saving resources.

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