Distribution
Filmmaking - Distribution
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Distribution Transparency: Four Filmmakers Reveal Their Distribution Numbers, Part One
Alternative distribution models are no longer the experiment, but are now the norm for the vast majority of filmmakers. However because of a variety of reasons, including not least contract obligations and a fear that exposing numbers may not show the filmmaker in the best light, many filmmakers have been reticent to give out the real numbers from their film’s releases. As a result, for last October’s Getting Real Documentary Conference, held by the International Documentary Association, I wanted to create a panel where the participants were required to reveal the data about the releases of their films. I wanted […]
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Beyond London: Alastair Roberts of the Royal Opera House on Live Cinema Broadcasts
One useful maxim in the ever-changing world of theatrical distribution is that transforming your cinematic screenings into a one-time events will help drive people to your film. Likewise, theaters are searching for ways to make their products stand out in a world flooded with easily available content. Among the many solutions to these dual problems is the live broadcast of events to theaters — plays, concerts, and any other type of live performances. Stage productions are obviously among the top purveyors of these broadcasts: the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the National Theatre in London both regularly show their productions in cinemas, […]
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Dan Berger on Why Oscilloscope is Selling Their 35mm Prints on Craigslist
A somewhat unsettling Craigslist ad made the rounds on Twitter on Wednesday night, offering up “indie film prints” for the grand total of $1. The dollar was a placeholder, but the offer was very much real: Oscilloscope was “cleaning (ware)house” and looking to sell 35mm prints of Wuthering Heights, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and a handful of others to the highest bidder. Though the post is now flagged for removal, I reached out to Oscilloscope’s Dan Berger about why the company was trying to find a new home for their own property. Immediately, he assured me that the future availability of […]
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Fandor to Finance Original Shorts Program
Yesterday, Fandor announced the creation of its FIXshorts program, which invited participants in its FIX initiative to submit a budget and proposal for a short-form production. 5 out of the 34 proposals were selected to receive 50% project funding from Fandor, while the other half will be raised on Kickstarter, promoting a “hybrid process to help filmmakers use several modern fundraising and marketing tools to complete and distribute their projects.” Fandor will provide crowdfunding rewards (including monthly subscription trials) and assist with outreach, in addition to ensuring distribution on the streaming platform. The program will run twice annually, with more projects in consideration for support come […]
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Directors and Producers Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein on The Amazing Randi Doc An Honest Liar
I’ve been a fan of Tyler Measom’s work ever since I wandered into a screening of his and Jennilyn Merten’s nail-biting portrait of teen exiles from the FLDS Church, Sons of Perdition, at Tribeca five years back. (The doc ultimately went on to be picked up by the Oprah Winfrey Network for broadcast the following year.) Now Measom has teamed up with producer Justin Weinstein (a scientist turned filmmaker and both executive producer of Ryan Murdoch’s Bronx Obama and writer/editor of Constance Marks’s Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey) to craft another festival success story. An Honest Liar is an up […]
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Is Netflix’s Move Towards Traditional Distribution In Favor of Filmmakers, But Against the Theaters?
The notion of boycotting day-and-date releases seems a bit extreme since it’s a widely practiced distribution strategy for several years running, but that’s just what AMC, Regal, Cinemark and Carmike are planning with Cary Fukunaga’s Netflix-acquired Beasts of No Nation. The exhibitors informed Variety that they will not screen the film for the sole reason that “they do not want to provide screens to films that do not honor what is typically a 90-day delay between a theatrical debut and a home entertainment release,” thus conflating the latter, last step in the release process, with the more preliminary day-and-date. Their reasoning, however, speaks to the […]
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Doron Max Hagay on His No-Budget Monica Lewinsky Web Series, Monica
You would think that the filmmaker behind such razor-sharp, atmospheric satires as Erica Wexler is Online and Perfect Thoughts would go for broke with an unsuspecting subject like Monica Lewinsky, but Doron Max Hagay had other plans when it came to designing his amusing new web series, Monica. “From the outset, I was dogged about not representing Monica’s story merely as satire,” says Hagay, who joined forces with actor Lily Marotta to loosely adapt “Monica Takes Manhattan,” the 2001 New York Magazine profile that detailed Lewinsky’s post-Clinton life in the big city. The first two episodes of the six part series are now available online, with subsequent episodes […]
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Andrew S. Allen and Jason Sondhi on the Relaunch of Short of the Week
“A new way to watch films” is what the venerable platform for short films, Short of the Week, promises in its freshly relaunched edition, online now. Founders Andrew S. Allen and Jason Sondhi have done a top-to-bottom redesign — a clean look that also makes both searching and streaming easier. Indeed, the new Short of the Week acknowledges that a viewer today is as likely to watch a short on a large phone or streamed through a device like Chromecast to a television as on a laptop window. Filmmaker readers should recognize both Allen and Sondhi’s names as the two […]
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From River of Grass to Living Los Sures: George Schmalz on Kickstarter’s New Curated Restoration Initiative
As part of a new restoration initiative, Kickstarter is partnering with various distributors, filmmakers and organizations to raise funds to preserve and proliferate significant and niche films on the verge of obsolescence. The first five projects to campaign through the site are River of Grass, Kelly Reichardt’s wonderful, underseen debut; a Kino Lorber selection of “Pioneers of African Cinema,” presented by DJ Spooky; the German exploitation film Bloody Friday; Living Los Sures, UnionDocs’ update on the 1984 documentary Los Sures; and the VHS ’90s horror flick, Jungle Trap. There are distribution plans in place for all of the films, should the necessary funds come through: Oscilloscope is planning a VOD, DVD and […]
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“I Believe the Most Important Changes Will Come from Women Lifting Up Other Women”: Sarah Hack on Business and Legal Affairs
I’m with a small group of friends for our inaugural weekly movie night. Thinking that a club name will beget commitment, we arbitrarily choose “Zeitgeist.” It’s the first word we see, frozen on the makeshift projector screen. Zeitgeist Films is the distribution company for our opening film, the first in Laura Poitras’ post-9/11 trilogy and a 2007 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary, My Country, My Country. For her film Citizenfour, Poitras is one of two female directors nominated for Best Documentary in the 2015 Oscar race. None have been nominated this year for Achievement in Directing. None have been […]
