Distribution
Filmmaking - Distribution
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Jeffrey Travis on Shopping his Economic Thriller at Cannes
L.A.-based independent filmmaker Jeffrey Travis (Flatlands) brought his latest short, Pollution, to the Short Film Corner at Cannes, and he’s using the trip to also look for a foreign sales agent for his new independent feature, Dragon Day. Below he talks about stalking the aisles of the Cannes Film Market, and why he hopes international buyers will warm to a dystopian near-future drama that imagines a U.S. destroyed by a cyber attack from China. Filmmaker: So how has the Cannes Film Market been for you? Jeff Travis: It’s been interesting. Before I knew very little about the whole world of […]
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Jon Reiss Launches the TOTBO System
Jon Reiss has finally realized that the secret to indie-film tutorial success is having a catchy moniker. So, his DIY distribution-and-marketing book Think Outside the Box Office has now birthed what he is artfully dubbing “the TOTBO System.” If you’re a filmmaker, file this snazzy acronymn along GTB, Zen to Done, or 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Oh yeah, and you need a YouTube channel too. Reiss has relaunched his under the authoritative title “TheJonReiss.” Each week he’ll be posting excerpts from his workshops, which I recommend to anyone considering releasing his or her own film. Here he is […]
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Made in New York Program Expands Marketing Credit
New York City’s “Made in New York” marketing credit, which offers NY-shot movies and television productions free, co-branded citwide advertising, is expanding. Now offered to these productions are additional bus shelters, subway advertising and TV spots. Participating projects are eligible to receive the following packages (and, as noted, must pay a very small percentage of their production budget to a New York charity): A production with a below-the-line budget between $5-$10 million: 40 Bus Shelters (4 week run) 500 Subway boards (4 week run) 13,000 taxi cabs (2 week run) City covers cost of producing the creative elements production donates […]
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Sundance Announces New Artists Services Distribution Partners
Four additional distribution outlets — Microsoft Xbox, SnagFilms, Sony’s Video Unlimited Service and VUDU — have joined the Sundance Institute’s Artists Services program, Sundance Executive Director Keri Putnam announced today. “Audiences are accessing independent films via a range of platforms and storefronts, which speaks to the need for filmmakers to make their work available in a variety of ways,” Putnam said in a statement. “Beyond that, the more options we’re able to offer our filmmakers, the better able they are to customize their self-distribution programs and work towards individual goals for their films.” Artists Services is a program helping Sundance […]
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How to Create a Profitable VOD Strategy
This distribution case study of American: The Bill Hicks Story has been previously posted at Indiewire, and when it went up, I quickly scanned it and tweeted their link. But now I’ve actually had time to read it carefully, and it’s a very useful document that deserves its own place on the blog. A Powerpoint presentation prepared for a panel at this year’s SXSW moderated by Orly Ravid, the document walks you through the filmmaker’s DIY theatrical and various VOD and digital distribution deals. There are revenue numbers here, and not just for American, but also other movies released by […]
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Scott Glosserman Discusses Gathr and Theatrical On Demand
“Tipping.” “Pulling.” “Gathring.” Yes, a new tech start-up has entered the independent film space, and with it a nomenclature that speaks to its ambition to “democratize” the business of theatrical distribution. Launched by a filmmaker, Scott Glosserman (Behind the Mask), Gathr offers “TOD,” or theatrical-on-demand, an audience-driven process by which fans request (or “pull”) films to local venues by aggregating their interest and pledging their funds in advance via credit card. When enough fans support a screening on a particular day, the film “tips,” and credit cards are charged. Fans get to see films that might never come to their […]
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Director Jeff Kusama-Hinte on Charlotte
We are filmmakers. We are artisans. Or so we forget. With filmmaking so often abstracted from the actual work of making a film, so enmeshed in conversations about new models and plans and strategies, we sometimes lose touch with what should be the main reason we make movies in the first place: to take pride in works of art made beautifully and with love. It is precisely the love of artisanal creation that is celebrated in Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte’s Charlotte: A Wooden Boat Story, a verite doc chronicling the making of a 50-foot gaff rigged schooner, “Charlotte,” by a team of […]
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Ten Lessons on Filmmaking From Director Abel Ferrara
The original King of Indie Abel Ferrara made a stop at Emir Kusturica’s Küstendorf Film and Music Festival this January to screen his latest film 4:44 Last Day on Earth. The Loisaida-set film paints a picture of addiction at the end of the world, starring Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh. Ferrara felt very welcome at Küstendorf, Emir Kusturica’s wooden village high in the mountains of Mokra Gora. “We just kinda have a connection, other than I look like him,” Ferrera told me of the famed Serbian director, minutes before entering a workshop to discuss the film with students who had descended […]
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IFP Labs: Ten Things Every Filmmaker Should Know About Distribution Deals
I’ll be blogging this week from the 2011 IFP Filmmaker Labs, which are in their third and final session at 92Y Tribeca. This year’s 21 participating documentary and narrative projects, are nearing completion of the grueling post-production process and are now turning their attention towards the marketplace. Things kicked off this morning with a sobering discussion about sales and rights, led by Jon Reiss, co-author of Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul (presented by PreScreen and Area 23, also written by The Film Collaborative and Sherri Candler). Alongside the other lab leaders, Reiss stressed that filmmakers should always use […]
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Joe Swanberg, Factory 25 Announce New DVD Subscription Series
Prolific independent director Joe Swanberg announced today a new distribution plan for his next four films. Partnered with Factory 25, Swanberg is offering fans a four-film, one-year subscription to his work. For $99.95 subscribers will receive a box that will fill up each quarter with not only DVDs but also bonus material, including 45rpm records, photo books and posters. “I’m in the nice position right now of having so many [completed] films I’m trying to get out into the world, so I’m taking the plunge and doing something interesting,” says Swanberg.The four films are Silver Bullets and Art History (both […]
