Yes DIY Distribution Is Time-Consuming, But Indie Filmmakers Who Just Rely on Distributors and Package Their Film with Stars These Days Go Broke

There are "experts" who will tell indie filmmakers to only make movies with name actors because that's what sells. But what these experts don't tell you is that, without more, these deals (in 2009) rarely get the investors their money back.
Traditional distributors want genre and stars, but they aren't paying enough for investors to recoup. Maybe a better way of putting films together and marketing them is to rely on the Internet and Do-It-Yourself techniques.
Although he means well, I think Florida-based Sales Agent/Producer Rep. Russell Hess doesn't understand the new rules. The deals Russell wants filmmakers to make 1) work best with films that ape studio pictures (e.g., not truly independent films, but low-budget genre pictures with stars) 2) won't provide enough for an independent filmmaker to pay his or her investors back and 3) will only make money for Russell and the distributor, leaving the filmmaker and the investors at a loss.

Stars Don't Matter This Summer

Further evidence that star-power doesn't matter and Internet buzz does, was mustered in this LA Times article on June 29th, 2009.

Here is how we are building the world of our story online:

Each character in our film script will also have an online presence. This means a complete history online based on their unique stories. In most cases, each fictional character will have (at a minimum) an email account and a social networking presence (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, etc.).

The social networking presence of each character starts with a detailed biography that builds upon the information in the script. For example, Adele is a 17 year old. So her Facebook profile reflects all the information we have from the script (date of birth, town where she grew up) as well as information we will pull together from the real world (e.g., high school she would have attended, likes, dislikes, etc.).

Based on the online profile, one of our online confederates will pose as each character, seeking out friends for that character that lend credibility to his/her life (e.g., individuals who graduated from a Dayton high school in the same year that Adele would have attended will be asked to be her friends on Facebook).

To facilitate the creation of blogs (that will eventually start reporting on the activities of these characters), we have:

Created One Central Entity

i.e., SarasotaBloggers

Created an Email Account For that Central Entity

i.e.., sarasotabloggers@gmail.com
phone: 941-306-1380

Our Next Step:

Have the Entity Create Blogs That are Related to Our Film's Themes

e.g., a blog that reports on the music scene in Sarasota (hurryupanddiesarasota.blogspot.com)

a blog that reports on missing or exploited children, etc.

Storytelling and Our (Unique?) Approach to Marketing Our Mystery on the Internet

Our story is about an underage runaway girl who is being sexually exploited somewhere in Florida.

When we are ready, our story will appear with video and other posts indicating that a real-life mystery is unfolding in real time (over a few days). Our plan is to reveal exciting elements of our story online as if they are clues in a real-life mystery. When the interest in that story is peaking, using the unique form of viral marketing described below and elsewhere on this blog, we'll make our DVD available for sale. Basically our task as DIY marketers is to build interest in our film by exciting an audience online that is trying to solve (what they believe is) a real mystery.

Our immediate task (and continuing for the year before our story begins to unfold online) is to create an online presence for the characters in our story. When the time is right, these characters will play a part in alerting existing online communities (e.g., by making posts on existing blogs or websites) of developments in our story. We'll also use aggregators (both real-life existing Social Media Power Users and bloggers we've created) to initially report and then fan the flames of our story.

If we do our job well, the attention we get a year from now (because our online elements are provocative and compelling) will lead to online sales of DVDs from a website we run (or license). The online part of our story will be available for free, but anyone interested in the 90 minute film or the behind-the-scenes footage will have to buy or rent a DVD. We are budgeting such that DVD sales alone should be sufficient to cover the cost of production and to pay our investors a profit. Our hope is that we create enough interest online and in free publicity about our project that a theatrical deal (for traditional distribution of the film in theaters) or a TV deal emerges. If we create that level of interest, the discussion about the role of the media in spotlighting certain missing children (while ignoring the rest) will become part of the marketing for our film.

To create a flurry of activity a year from now that is supported by credible online information, the online work for our film (i.e., creating a web presence) has already started. We are some 8 months before production of the fictional film elements. And close to a year before we announce that Adele is missing. At the moment that Adele's disappearance is announced, we must have the DVD ready for sale. But long before we have the 90 minute film, we are creating people and blogs online and doing other tasks that will support the online search for Adele one year from now.

According to our plan, we have already started to create identities for the characters in our script online. This means, that every character in our fiction film will soon have a complete identity online, just like a real person. Because our film is a mystery, we are seeding the Internet with people and clues who will play a part in our story. In the next month we plan on having all the characters in our story online. We'll also have bloggers (other new characters we've created) who are writing themed blogs, that (when the time is right) will begin to aggregate content about our mystery online. Our plan is that these blogs will have enough of a following that our story (including video clips and text we've created as well as links to the online information we've been seeding on the net about our characters) will cause the story about our mystery to become viral at a time of our choosing. We realize that characters of our creation will need some help in getting attention. We will post elsewhere on this blog about how real-life Social Media Power Users might play a part in spreading the word about our project.

At the point when the online search for Adele begins, the audience for our blogs will become aware of video elements (and all the other information about our mystery) we have seeded online. We hope that our video elements online will be so compelling that some of them will become viral. If we succeed, within a limited amount of time elements of our story will reach thousands online. At that point we must be prepared for media attention, when our online efforts will inevitably be exposed as a hoax. At that point we'll make our DVD available for sale.

The Old Paradigm: And Why We're DIY

10 years ago, how did a cash-strapped filmmaker draw attention to their independently financed film?

Stars?
In the old paradigm, independent filmmakers could make inexpensive films with name actors and hope for a sale to an established distributor. Back in those days, a star's image on the poster was enough of a marketing hook to guarantee at least a small advance from one of the companies that "acquired" finished films for distribution (e.g., a company like Miramax might pay the filmmaker an "advance" for the right to distribute an independently financed film with a big star).

Festival Success?
In the old paradigm, filmmakers could take their films to a festival where all the potential distributors would then see the film for the first time and bid to acquire it. If the film had commercial potential (for example, won an award voted on by the audience), a cagey filmmaker might spend long late hours negotiating for an advance from Miramax or Fine Line in a heated auction atmosphere.

In the old paradigm, stars or success at a festival (or both) could start a bidding war. The producer (or his representative) would play distributors off against each other aiming for an advance that was large enough to pay back the film's investors.

Of course, an auction was not a sure thing. It required several elements:
1) a star who had agreed to work in your film for very little money and/or
2) a film that played well in the festival setting and
3) more than one buyer willing to bite.

If those elements were in place, established distributors were prepared to bid up the "acquisition" price of a film, sometimes paying advances which paid back investors and even left the filmmaker with a little profit. Those days are gone.

Today, even if you're lucky enough to get the attention of two established distributors, the advances offered for a 20 year all-media deal rarely top $50,000. The companies with enough money and experience to market your film have learned that:
1) stars don't guarantee profitability and
2) festival success doesn't translate into box office and
3) getting into a bidding war can lead to overpaying for a film and
4) it's a buyer's market.

In a world where almost 10,000 films are submitted to Sundance each year, filmmakers know there are probably a dozen other films just like theirs looking for distribution. And the distributors have learned there is no need to pay more than $50,000 in advance for the rights to distribute a film.

When a distributor is offering to spend millions marketing your film, a filmmaker these days is inclined to jump at a distribution deal, even if it means telling the investors "I couldn't get your money back."

This state of affairs (where most filmmakers don't get distribution offers, and those that do are being asked to settle for far less than what their movie cost to make) has led to an explosion of DIY (do it yourself) distribution. Today, most independent filmmakers are realizing that the Internet (with low costs and enormous reach) is the marketing tool and distribution method that provides their best chance of recouping their investor's money. And, for now, the best way to use the Internet is to DIY.

Marketing A Film: The Old Way

Ever since Jaws grossed over $7 million on just 409 screens on a June weekend in 1975, the measure of the marketing success for a feature length film has been Box Office Gross for the opening weekend.

Today films produced in Hollywood are judged by their ability to bring in customers during the all important first weekend. The Box Office Gross for the opening weekend is a key measure of success in large part because that figure is used as a predictor of the total revenue that can be earned by that particular title. For example, future revenue from pay-per-view, DVD release, sale to cable outlets, international rights, etc. are all predicted based on the first weekend in the theaters.

Studios routinely spend tens of millions of dollars in the days just before a film opens in theaters, all in a concerted effort to maximize interest in the target audience.

The intense push to goose the opening weekend revenue has given rise to a secretive research business that attempts to quantify the anticipation for a particular title. The studios pay a division of Nielsen Entertainment known as NRG for "tracking" which measures audience "Awareness" and "Interest" in their films (via surveys of likely moviegoers conducted by telephone in the days leading up to a film's theatrical release). Based on NRG tracking, the studios can adjust their spending or their advertising in the final days before a film hits the theaters and they can even decide to move the release of a film if the race to be first choice has apparently been won by a competitor's film.

Marketing a film so that it becomes the first choice of a target audience on a particular weekend can be a hugely expensive exercise. In 2007, the last year for which data was released by the 6 major studios, the average cost of marketing a studio movie was just under $36 million dollars.

Here are the methods typically employed by the studios to market their films:

Television and radio
Advertisements on broadcast television and radio.
Publicity: Appearances by stars on television talkshows, entertainment news programs, etc.
Paid broadcasts: For example, airing a behind-the-scenes documentary.
Trailers in movie theaters and on DVDs.
Print Media
Paid ads in newspapers and magazines.
Publicity: Appearances by stars on magazine covers and in print articles
Merchandising
Promotional giveaways: For example, drink cups at fast food chains
Co-branding that links ads for a product with a film's release.
Outdoor and Other Advertising
Billboards
Posters
In theater Cardboard Displays (known as Standups)
In Theater Ads
Trailers and behind-the-scenes shorts
Internet
Websites
Viral marketing

Making A Feature Length Film For Today's Convergent Culture

Young filmmakers today are starting their professional lives just as a tide of user-generated content is rapidly changing how motion pictures are being told, produced and received. Making feature length films for this new world, where theatrical distribution is no longer attainable for 99.97% of the films being made, requires a new approach to film financing, filmmaking, film distribution and film marketing.

This blog is being written by filmmakers who are making a feature length film for somewhere close to $50,000. The idea is to make a feature length film and pay back our investors.

In documenting our journey, we'll cover a great variety of subjects:

We'll discuss equipment with a special emphasis on the lower cost HD cameras and the tools that are revolutionizing production and post.

We'll also cover the skills any filmmaker should know, with a special emphasis on the screenwriting principles that will distinguish our film from the thousands of others out there today.

We'll also discuss how stories are being told across multiple platforms and how we propose to tell our story.

And how to use existing content (like music or a logo) without breaking the rules.

And we'll devote considerable attention to marketing and distribution for a world where making and distributing motion pictures is no longer a centralized business.

Here is a video clip that sets the scene for the emerging world of convergence media:

In July 2009, Henry Jenkins will leave M.I.T. (where he founded the Convergence Culture Consortium research group in the Comparative Media Studies program) to become Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Prof. Jenkins is also the author of several books, including Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture and What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic.