Distribution
Filmmaking - Distribution
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Ted Hope Named CEO of Fandor
Fandor, the online streaming service, announced today that indie stalwart Ted Hope would make the transition from board advisor to CEO come January 30th. The appointment follows Hope’s resignation from his role as Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society last October. In December, Hope penned a highly trafficked post on his blog about how he could no longer produce films for a living. The financial imperatives driving the current film production business, he said, would force him to choose quantity over quality. Those who were left wondering what his new day job would be now have their answer. […]
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Personalizing Crowdfunding to Get #STUCK in Theaters
My entire life, all I’ve ever wanted to do was to make movies. After a speedy ten-day shoot, recasting our lead actors 24 hours before principal photography, and the usual financier-disappearing-mid-way-through-the-schedule craziness, my feature debut #STUCK was finally realized… And that was the easy part. The hardest part was still ahead of me: distribution. Thus was born getSTUCKintheaters.com — #STUCK’s unique crowd-funding website to raise $150,000 for #STUCK’s theatrical and VOD distribution. Why go on your own? Why not Kickstarter, and the like? Originally we planned for a more traditional campaign, using an established crowdfunding site. One site actually contacted us […]
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How Much Can Your Film Make From Festival Screening Fees?
Film festival screening fee revenue is often a contentious topic, with festivals arguing the value of community and exposure while filmmakers point to the fact that the regional festival circuit is, for many, taking the place of traditional theatrical distribution. But what kind of numbers are being argued over? The Film Collaborative sends out a regular e-blast, and the most recent tackles just this topic. Gathering data from the films they’ve been involved with over the past several years, The Film Collaborative has determined screening fee revenue ranges based on films’ niches and premiere venues. Yes, where a film premieres […]
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“Theatrical is Still the Event that Brands a Property for Decades of Downstream Consumption”: The Business of Media Distribution Author Jeff Ulin
Jeff Ulin, a former executive at Lucasfilm and Paramount, has spent a big chunk of his career thinking about one of the most vexing issues facing filmmakers and other media professionals today: the problem of media distribution. Ulin has recently revamped the first edition of his classic text, The Business of Media Distribution (published in 2009) with a second edition that addresses many of the radical changes to the media industries that have taken place since two significant events — the economic crash of 2008 and the widespread adoption of digital delivery tools — upset traditional models of distribution, changing […]
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Hal Hartley Offers Ned Rifle Distribution Rights as Kickstarter Rewards
Please see important update at the bottom of this post. Plenty of tech vendors use Kickstarter as a pre-sale market, so why not filmmakers? In a letter to backers of his film Ned Rifle — reprinted here with permission — director Hal Hartley announces the inclusion of territorial theatrical rights as Kickstarter rewards. Pledge $3,000 and take Hungary. $5,000 gets you Finland. And a cool $9,000 gets you Spanish-speaking Latin America. Of course, these numbers are for theatrical only. Hartley is retaining home video and electronic distribution. But, as he notes in his letter, the asking prices are low, enabling […]
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Detroit Unleaded Director Rola Nashef on the Road to Distribution
“We were getting great feedback, and we thought, ‘Okay, it’s just a couple weeks now until we sell the film! It’s going to sell any second!’” Rola Nashef’s reflection on the waiting period that followed the world premiere of Detroit Unleaded at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival is likely an all too familiar affair. For her feature debut, Nashef and her team thought they had hit the jackpot: acceptance to a prestigious festival, attended by buyers aplenty, and rapturous responses from sold-out audiences. However, the realities of selling the film, a romantic comedy with an Arab-American ensemble cast, set […]
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Push Notifications for the People (and Super Fans): App.net’s Broadcast
If you own a smartphone, chances are you’re familiar with push notifications. Popularized by Apple’s iOS 3.0 edition in 2009, push technology utilizes open IP connections to forward notifications from third-party apps to your mobile interface. Formerly reserved for large-scale corporations — The New York Times, etc. — San Francisco-based App.net has created a free marketing channel called Broadcast that democratizes the process of push notification. App.net CEO Dalton Caldwell likens this application to “your own promotional arsenal” for users who already enjoy an active social media presence. News that may otherwise be buried in the barrage of tweets and […]
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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crowdfunding…For the Most Part
The following is a guest post from filmmaker Bryan Poyser, who is currently crowdfunding the road show for his most recent film, The Bounceback. Bryan’s A.S.A. (Air Sexes As) name is “Lunchmeat.” I am currently in the midst of what must be the longest month and a half of my life. On October 4, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a “Road Show” for my film The Bounceback, which will wrap up this Sunday, Nov. 17th. I’ve barely been sleeping, I’ve had depressive lows and giddy highs, nearly all of my pride has been swallowed and yet […]
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Fifth Column Features Launch Pay-As-You-Wish Model
Filmmaker contributor John Yost recently joined forces with Alexander Berberich to launch Fifth Column Features (FCF), a boutique independent film studio and online distribution company. Though the concept may sound familiar, FCF boasts the industry’s first pay-as-you-wish content model, which Yost likens to a barometer for audience commitment. Filmmaker spoke with Yost about what FCF is doing differently, and how, as filmmakers themselves, they are able to prioritize their colleagues’ best interests. Filmmaker: Why do you feel the industry was lacking a pay-as-you-wish platform? Are you operating from a standpoint that audiences are the most valuable entity to an independent filmmaker? John Yost: Pay […]
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ScreenCraft’s Digital Discourse: Build Your Audience Now
“Distributing is easy, marketing is hard.” With that statement, moderator Ryan Koo kicked off the discussion at ScreenCraft’s recent Digital Discourse panel on the future of content creation and releasing. Nestled in the WGAE suite of a Tribeca high rise, the participating panelists included YouTube’s Amy Singer; Erica Anderson, Chief Marketing Director at Seed&Spark; Erick Opeka, SVP of Digital Distribution at Cinedigm; @radical.media’s Adam Neuhaus; and BOND 360 Founder and CEO, Marc Schiller. Chances are, you’ve heard it before: with so much of the independent film world unspooling in a viral sphere at a hair-raising pace, filmmakers must be prepared […]
