5 Mistakes that cost filmmakers TENS or HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars

Film Distribution is a weird and wonky system full of highly specific jargon and terms of art that are meant to be difficult to understand by its very nature.  I’ve already written several blogs on the basics of how these agreements are structured in a way that a person who is not a lawyer should be able to understand. However, even if you gain an understanding of this wonky system, there are a lot of things that can really hurt your film’s bottom line.  Some of these things could even erase any profits you might have otherwise seen.  Here are 5 mistakes I’ve personally seen filmmakers make that have cost them a minimum of 5 figures per filmmaker.  

Not Fully Appreciating Exclusivity

Managing the rights of an independent film isn’t easy.  There’s a lot more to it than uploading to Amazon and expecting a few million hits.  In fact, making your film available on any wide-scale platform is going to make it nearly impossible for a sales agent to sell whatever territory the film has already been exploited in.  Even if you take the film down, you’ve blown exclusive deals, and those are the only deals that pay anything notable upfront.  One of the first things a territorial distributor does is to google the film from their home country to see where it’s currently available.  If they see it’s available in their territory, they decline.

I’ve lost multiple territorial sales for multiple filmmakers due to someone prematurely exploiting a film in a certain territory without letting the sales agent know about it.  Don’t be one of those filmmakers.

To be clear, films are not evergreen and there will come a time when the smart play is legal wide aggregation in order to cut losses from piracy and build your notoriety in those territories in order to better sell future work.  That time starts at the earliest 2 years from the market premiere of the completed film.  If you do it too much faster, you could be leaving significant amounts of money on the table.  

Sending Screeners too early

Most of the time a distributor, sales agent, or even producer’s rep will only watch a film once.  Additionally, they’ll only watch the first 5 minutes of it and if they’re not hooked, they won’t keep watching.  I’ve seen many distributors walk out of buyer screenings around that mark.  There’s very little you can do to prevent this from happening entirely.  Even though a strong hook in the first 5 minutes will help lessen this happening, buyers are busy people with too many films to watch so you won’t be able to fully prevent it due to shifting market demands and mandates. 

What you can control is how early you send out your film.

In general, it’s unwise to submit anything aside from the final, finished cut of your feature film.  Distributors and sales agents get a lot of submissions, and often won’t watch with the eye of what the film could be, only what it is now.  While they may give you some leniency because they know it’s not finished there’s more than likely going to be some degree of subconscious response reminding them that they weren’t big on the film when they watched it.  That will manifest in several ways, nearly all are bad for the filmmaker. 

Dropping promotional assets too early.

It’s totally natural to be excited when you get your new promotional assets like your trailer, your poster, box art, or anything of the sort.  When excited, I’ve seen many filmmakers run straight to social media to show off to their friends.  This is unwise.  

Distributors use poster drops and trailer drops to get press coverage in the trades to grow awareness of the film on a global level.  If you just put it up on Facebook, we can’t get the same drop in the press.  Your friends will be more impressed if you drop an exclusive from BloodyDisgusting, Collider, or /film to show off your poster, trailer, or exclusive sneak peek.  In general, it’s always wise to ask your distributor if you can show off their work to your social media contacts, if they say they’re looking to get an exclusive, hold off and check back in a week or so for a status update.

Making the wrong Genre

I know, I know this one has been beaten into the heads of most independent filmmakers.  There’s a reason for that though.  The sad fact of the matter is that not very many people watch dramas without names or high-level accolades.   A bad horror movie is an easier sell than a great drama.  If you make a drama, without recognizable names you’re only likely to make money in your home country, and at least in the US, you’re likely to make significantly less than you would have made if you made something like a thriller.

One suggestion I often give on this front to filmmakers who are still in the script stage is to consider telling the same story in a different way while emphasizing suspense over emotion in order to make the film into a thriller instead of a drama.  You’re going to make a lot bigger splash with a thriller than a drama, and if all other things are equal in terms of cast and production quality, you’ve got a much better chance at recouping your investment.  

Pulling their film without a plan.

Sometimes you have to take your film back from a distributor.  There are a lot of sharks out there and there’s a good chance you’ll need to exit a distribution agreement at some point in your filmmaking career.  Generally, when it’s time do to this you will have a very good reason to do so.  That being said Just because you’ve taken your independent film down make it as though it was never there.  If the film is taken down, platforms often won’t put it back up through a different distributor, meaning you’ll be in a rough spot to get it back up.  

This is not universal, but it is common that once a film is taken down its exceedingly difficult to get back up.  To be clear, if your distributor or sales agent is in breach of contract you may not have a better option than to take your film down.  You just need to be aware that you might have some trouble putting it back up, and you won’t make any money from the film in the interim.  

As I said at the top, this all gets wonky really quickly.  It’s more than most filmmakers can really take in over just a few times sitting down at their computer.  That’s why Guerrilla Rep Media offers FREE monthly content digests delivered straight to you as part of our Indiefilm Business Resource pack.  It’s easy to sign up and once you do you’ll receive a monthly email full of useful educational content completely for free.  Additionally, you’ll get lots of other goodies like a free e-book, free white paper, investment deck template, festival brochure template, and more.  Sign up below.  

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The Underlying Cause of Many Issues Facing The Indiefilm Industry.

As an independent filmmaker, you probably didn’t get into the game to sell widgets or do insurance paperwork as your primary 9-5.  As such, it’s completely understandable that indie film producers wouldn’t really consider the distributor’s perspective when making their independent films. Filmmakers got into the industry to make movies, which is an all-encompassing goal in and of itself.

Speaking from the other side of the negotiation table, there’s an issue that most independent filmmakers just don’t consider when they’re setting out to monetize their work.  That issue is around the uncertainty of market demand that really only matters at least three years after you write your script, as well as the uncertainty that requires distributors and studios to plan for the inevitable unpredictability of that faces the film industry and likely always will.

This article is meant to outline some of the issues associated with uncertainty for those creatives so that they can better account for it down the line.

Content is King, but only if it’s good

For a long time, I thought that the saying content is king was primarily a platitude said by speakers at conventions to keep filmmakers making films.  Obviously, distributors need films to sell in order to run their business. What most speakers leave unsaid is that there is such a gargantuan dirth of under-monetized independent film out there I thought it was something primarily meant to keep the film buyers in a superior position so they could get away with some of the shenanigans we all know independent film distributors and sales agents for.  Having led a distribution company for a few years, I can say that both I and the speakers who say content is king on stage were wrong.   Content is king, but only if good.  

Well-made, engaging, commercial films will get distributors fighting for the right to distribute.  Bad films will get bad deals which means the filmmaker is unlikely to ever see a cent.  Unfortunately, the same is true for good films in a non-marketable genre, or with a hard-to-define audience.  

Only about 1 in 10 films makes money

After having released many movies, I can tell you from experience that only about 1 in 10 films will make enough money to cover their budget over the course of a 7-year term distribution agreement.  I know that’s a rough pill to swallow, but you should know it going in. About 20-30% of the others can make a meaningful portion of their budget back over the same time period if they’re working with an ethical sales agent or distribution company.  The rest will get little to nothing back. Again, all of that is assuming you have a distributor or sales agent who actually pays you and is transparent in their bookkeeping, which is rare.  This basic reality of the business influences many more choices made by your distributor than you may realize and greatly informs the business model and operations of distributors.  

Nobody can pick winners all the time.

In the words of William Goldman, nobody knows anything.  Having said that, I think Goldman’s statement is overly broad.  I think there are so many factors that weigh on a single film’s success there’s absolutely no way that even the best distributor or analyst in the world could Plan for and create hit after hit. Pixar did in their early days, but they also had a functional monopoly of hot new technology and the finances and resources of Disney, so it’s not exactly a realistic use case for those of us operating on the independent side of the industry. In the world of distribution, if you get about half of the acquisitions you make to over-perform expectations you’ve done extremely well and you would be inducted into the hall of fame if we had one.  On average, the best of us only get around 35%, but even if you get around 25% you’re still doing pretty alright and will likely keep your job.  

This functionally means that even if your sales agent or distributor is being entirely genuine about their expectations for the film there’s at least a 50% chance they won’t be able to live up to their most optimistic projections.   Again, I don’t mean this as a slight to those of us who work in acquisitions.  There are so many variables that are impossible to predict.  One example of such unpredictable complications (at least for the time) would be the initial release of The Boondock Saints hitting theaters the same week as the Columbine Shooting in Colorado.  While mass shootings are sadly a near-daily occurrence in the US in 2023, Columbine was one of the first of its kind.  Due to a fear of inadvertently endorsing vigilante justice, most theaters that were set to play the film dropped it. For a while this made The Boondock saints was one of the biggest box office bombs in movie history.

There’s no way a studio executive, writer, producer, or anyone involved in the release of this film could have predicted that, and as a direct result the film massively underperformed.  Since it was a pretty modest budget for the time and the film found a second life as a cult classic it’s likely it remained as big a flop as it started.

Granted, this is an extreme example, but it is indicative of the butterfly effect that can cause even the best film with the best team to underperform.  

Producers can’t always be relied on to help market their work.

Marketing a film is expensive and time-consuming.  If you don’t have a big name to help you make a big splash, you’re going to need to help your distributor spread the word about your movie if you want it to find success.  There are so many films released on a weekly basis that without the filmmakers helping to push the film to rise above the white noise caused by the glut of feature film releases the film doesn’t stand much of a chance of finding an audience.   Unfortunately, not all producers can be relied upon to help market their own work.  

Even at this late date, many producers feel that it should be entirely on the distributor to make their film a success.  After all, isn’t that what their commission and their fees are for?  While I can understand the sentiment and I even agree that most distributors should do more to earn their commissions it’s not as simple as it sounds.  Independent Film Distributors have a lot more to do than it may initially appear. Delivery to each platform is extremely time-intensive, and we also need to handle a lot of regular pitches, shifting mandates, filmmaker relations, investor relations, buyer relations, press relations, and a whole lot more.  If you work with us to make our job easier, you’ll get more meaningful attention paid to your film as we won’t have to spend time identifying and engaging with the core audience. 

In the end, if you won’t promote your own work, how can you expect anyone else to? For more, read this blog.  

RELATED: Why you NEED to help your distributor market your film (If they’ll let you)

A known cast helps everything, but the competition is fierce, and not everyone is honest.

In general, the best way to rise above the white noise created by the glut of independent films released on a regular basis is to attach a star to your film.  I know, I know.  Everyone says this, and it’s both hard and expensive.  While it’s not as hard or expensive as you may think if you do it properly, it’s still outside the reach of most sub-100k feature filmmakers.  If you do get a celebrity attached to your feature film, you’ll almost certainly get a lot of distributors coming to you in an attempt to procure the rights to your film.  

Unfortunately, a mediocre genre film with a B list name in it is more likely to garner a decent return than a great film of the same genre without a name in it. Of course, exceptions exist but it is a key indicator that’s likely to lead to success.

The issue here is that while you may be able to get multiple distribution offers for your film, not all of them will be companies you want to work with. Most sales agents and distributors will do whatever they need to in order to get the film from you.  After they get the film, whether they even live up to their own contract isn’t a guarantee. In most cases, it’s exceptionally difficult to get your rights back.

The outcome?  Consolidation and risk aversion, Exploitation of Filmmakers, or sales agents make their own micro-budget content.

There have been massive industry-spanning consequences resulting from the high level of uncertainty coupled with dwindling revenue from physical media and transactional video-on-demand sales.  Many of the resulting decisions that have led to extreme consolidation of the industry are made simply out of a need for the sales agent or distributor to make payroll, although often those issues extrapolate into something else.  Additionally, almost all of them are bad for filmmakers. 

The most obvious example of negative consequences for filmmakers is the fact that many contracts are structured in a way that exploits filmmakers by passing through disproportionate risk and falsified expenses.  This is covered across the internet so I won’t go too far into it here.  Additionally, in the last few years, the industry has been consolidating into the hands of fewer and fewer companies.  This leads to less competition for acquisitions, which means lower payments, less transparency, and an explosion of growth in the exploitation mentioned above.  Simply put, when there are fewer companies who can buy your film, they don’t have to do as much to get it.

Given all of this uncertainty, sales agents and distributors are less likely to acquire content outside of the standard genre fare they know they can sell.  This means newer voices and content are likely to get lost in the shuffle.  In order to combat this, some sales agents have started their own production lines to develop content that fits the needs of their buyers.  The most notable recent example of this was Winnie The Pooh, Blood & Honey Which was made by ITN Studios.  ITN was a distributor and sales agent for quite a while before Stuart decided the best move was to create a bespoke model for his buyers.   It worked wonders and many sales agents are following their example.

The problem with the direct production model is primarily that it creates a new kind of competition for filmmakers, and could quite easily mean that the traditional method of acquisition for independent films is disrupted in a way that leaves independent artists completely out in the cold.  

Again, all of these issues are greatly influenced if not caused by the issue of uncertainty of the independent film industry. Uncertainty faces every industry, but the level of it is significantly greater than in most other industries outside of early-stage high-growth startups or perhaps certain types of small businesses. However, there is one thing that is certain for filmmakers. If you sign up for my Newsletter you’ll get my independent film resource package which includes an independent film investment deck template, festival promotional brochure template, monthly content digests segmented by topic, a free e-book, white paper, and more!  Click the button below to add it.

Thanks for reading, more next week, and please share this if you liked it!

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The 5 Pervasive Issues Preventing the Emergence of New US Film Hubs

If you’re a filmmaker, you probably already know a lot of other filmmakers in your area.  If you don’t, you should.  That’s one reason why film community events are absolutely vital for the independent film industry.  It’s far from the only reason that communities of independent filmmakers are vital for your success as an independent filmmaker.  

I’ve been involved with a few film community organizations ranging from Producer Foundry to Global Film Ventures, and even the Institute for International Film Finance.  I’ve also spoken at organizations across the country.  From the experience of running more than 150 events and speaking for a few dozen others, I’ve noticed some commonalities across many burgeoning independent film communities, so I thought I would share some of my observations as to why most of them aren’t growing as quickly as they should.  Without further ado, here are the 5 pervasive problems preventing the growth of regional film communities.  

Lack of Resources

It’s no secret that most independent films could use more money.  It’s true for film communities and hubs as well.  In general, most of these community organizations have little to no money unless they’re tied to a larger film society or film festival.  Unfortunately being tied to such an organization often prevents the work of community building due to the time and resources involved in the day-to-day operations of running a film society or the massive commitment that comes with running a film festival.  

Compounding the issues with a lack of resources is that a community organization built to empower a regional film community isn’t something that you could raise equity financing from investors.  Projects like this are much better funded using pages from the non-profit playbook.  There are organizations looking to write grants specifically for film organizations seeking to empower communities.  You can find out more about the grant writing process in this blog below.

RELATED: Filmmakers! 5 Tips for Successful Grantwriting.

While local film commissions do provide some support to locals, their primary mandate is generally built for a different purpose that I’ll discuss in the next of my 5 points.  

Most tax incentives emphasize attracting Large Scale Productions, not building local hubs

Most film tax incentives are heavily or sometimes even entirely oriented on attracting outside productions as a means to bring more revenue to the city, state, region, or territory.  This is understandable, as many film commissions or offices are organized under the tourism bureau or occasionally the Chamber of Commerce.  Both of those organizations have a primary focus on attracting big spenders to the local area in order to boost the economy.  

RELATED: The Basics of Film Tax Incentives

This mandate isn’t necessarily antithetical to the goal of building local film communities.  There is nearly always a local staffing requirement for these incentives, and you can’t build an industrial community if no one has work.  Some of the best incentives I’ve seen have a certain portion of their spending that is required to go to community growth, as San Francisco’s City Film Commission had when I last checked.  Given that the focus of the film industry is focused on attracting outside production, there is often a vacuum left when it comes to building the local community and infrastructure as a long-term project.  

Additionally, given that film productions are highly mobile by their very nature using tax incentives to consistently attract large-scale projects is almost always a race to the bottom very quickly.  If a production can simply say to Colorado that they’ll get a better deal in New Jersey, then the incentive in Colorado fails its primary purpose.  Eventually, these states or regions will continue a race to the bottom that fails to bring any meaningful economic benefit to the citizens of the state.  While the studies I’ve seen on this often seem reductive and significantly undervalue the soft benefits of film production on the image and economy of a state, the end result is clear.  If all states over-compete, eventually the legislatures will repeal the tax incentives.  After that, outside productions will dry up.  

When this happens, local filmmakers are left out in the cold.  The big productions that put food on the table are gone, and there’s no meaningful local infrastructure left to fill the void that the large studio productions left.  

Creating a film community is a long-term project with Short Term Funding.

It takes decades of consistent building to create a new film production hub.  People often have the misconception that Georgia popped up overnight, and this isn’t true. While the tax incentive grew the industry relatively quickly on a governmental timescale, I believe the tax incentive was in place for nearly a decade ahead of the release.  Georgia’s growth was greatly aided by local Filmmaker Tyler Perry’s continual championing of the region as a film hub.  

Most of the funding apparatuses available for the growth of film communities are primarily oriented toward short-term gains.  That makes long-term growth a difficult process, but if cities and regions outside of NY, LA, and ATL are to grow it needs to be a part of the conversation.  

There are some organizations out there pushing to build long-term viable film communities outside of those major hubs.  Notably, the Albuquerque Film and Music Experience has a great lineup of speakers for their event in a few weeks.  I’m one of those speakers, so if you’re in the area check it out, and check out this podcast I did with them yesterday.  

It’s hard to bring community leaders together

As I said eat the top, I’ve been involved with and even run several community organizations.  One consistent theme I’ve noticed is that most community leaders are very reticent to work with each other in a way that doesn’t benefit them more than anyone else.  This means that one issue I’ve seen consistently is that while there are disparate factions of the larger film community throughout most regions it’s nearly impossible to bring them together to build something big enough to truly build a long-term community. 

Most filmmakers and film community leaders are much happier being the king of their own small hill than a lord in a larger kingdom.  

Filmmaking is a creative pursuit, and it requires some degree of narcissism to truly excel.  This is amplified when you run a local film community.  Sayer’s Law states: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics because the stakes are so low.” If you replace the word “Academic” with “Filmmaking” can be said for the issue facing most film communities. Call it Yennie’s Law, if you like. #Sarcasm, #Kinda.

I discussed this in some detail with Lorraine Montez and Carey Rose O'Connell of the New Mexico Film Incubator in episode 2 of the Movie Moolah podcast, linked below.

The industry connections for large-scale finance and distribution generally aren’t local.

If you’ve read Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant’s book Writing Movies for Fun and Profit you’ll already know that LA is the hub of the industry, and if you want to pitch you need to be there.  Given the fact I live in Philadelphia, I believe it should be fairly clear I disagree with the particulars of the notion the overall sentiment remains true.  Also, if you haven’t read it click that link and get it.  It’s a great read.  (Affiliate link, I get a few pennies if you buy. Recommendation stands regardless of how you get it.)

If you want to make a film bigger than at most a few million dollars, you’re going to need connections to financiers and distributors with large bank accounts.  You can find the distributors at film markets, but all of the institutional film industry money is in LA.  While you may be able to raise a few million from local investors, it’s really hard and it is an issue facing the growth of independent film communities nationwide.  

Another issue is around the knowledge of the film business and the logistics of keeping a community engaged and organized.  While I can’t help too much with the latter, I can help you and your community organizers on the knowledge of the film industry with my FREE film business resource Pack!  It’s got a free e-book, free macroeconomic white paper, free deck template, free festival brochure template, contact tracking template, and a while lot more. Just that is more than a 100$ value, plus you also get monthly content digests segmented by topic so you can keep growing your film industry knowledge on a viable schedule.  Click the button below!

As I said earlier, I’m speaking at AFMX this year.  If you like this content and you’d like to have me speak to your organization, use the button below to send me an email.

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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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Commercial Doesn’t NECESSARILY Mean Crap

Everyone has seen at least one bad movie in their lifetimes.  They’ve probably seen more than that.  However, unless you also work in film acquisitions or have done first-round review for film festivals you have not seen as many bad movies as those of us who do those jobs have.  That’s for the simple reason that any movie you have seen out in the wild had to go through someone like us.  There’s a narrow exception for self-distributed content that is generally limited to silos on Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) platforms and some easier to access Advertising Supported Video on Demand (AVOD) platforms, but in general, unless someone with the power to act as a gatekeeper for film festival programmers or independent film distributors has given it the go-ahead, the general audience won’t see it. 

This functionally means that anyone who works or has worked in these positions, myself included, has seen a Jurassic park sized pile of poopy submissions.  Which is to say that we know the milieu of a crappy film.  We can, and frankly should talk about the flaws inherent to the current system of gatekeeping, and how sometimes gatekeepers don’t know the difference between a revolutionary piece of cinema and more of the same old skeet. That conversation is beyond my personal scope to change it alone, especially not in a single blog post.  Instead, this blog is an examination of how to avoid getting lumped in with the pile of crud we constantly reject.  The basics are really easy to sum up:

Commercial Films Get Selected.

I don’t think I need to tell you why sales agents and distributors are drawn toward feature films that they deem commercial.  They’re all business people, and if they don’t think they can make money with a project they won’t pitch it up the chain to their bosses and generally won’t take it out if they are the boss.  Sure, there are exceptions here, but when you’re spending two, three, five, or even ten years making something you don’t want to bank on getting lucky at the end of it.  If you make a commercial film in a known genre, your road to getting that film seen is going to be a lot easier.  

Related: What Distributors Mean by Genre

While this is obvious for indie film sales distributors, you may not be familiar with the fact that most festivals make a similar calculation.   There’s a pervading assumption that film festivals focus solely on the art, weeding out the diamond in the rough to give emerging independent voices a leg up.  There is at least a bit of truth in that, and in general film festivals will focus significantly more on art than sales agents.  What that assumption ignores is that most festivals also need to pay their bills, cover the expenses of their year-round staff, and overall build their brand so they can attract bigger new releases.  This means that nearly every festival is also concerned about filling the theaters for the films that they select.  Many if not most festivals also program with something of an eye for whether a film will have a life outside of their own screening as it grows their own renown.  In short, festivals also care whether your film is commercial.  

Dramas Don’t Sell

What mat makes us scream, gets our heart pumping, and brings us to the edge of our seats tends to be pretty universal for us as a species.  What makes us emotional, or what makes us laugh isn’t nearly as universal.  This means, that dramas and comedies tend not to export outside their country of origin unless you have a few big stars in them or they serve as a once-in-a-generation breakout.  This is why those of us who work behind the back office tend to refer to those genres as regional films.  

Speaking as a distributor, even domestically it’s really hard to get people to pay attention to an independent drama without names in it.  It doesn’t matter how well made it is, if it doesn’t have a name people would often rather re-watch a Marvel movie than watch an enlightening indie drama that helps us better understand the human condition.  I want to be clear here, I like those movies.  I think we need more of them out there in society.  However, if they don’t make money and make it hard for programmers to fill seats, it’s hard for us to focus on them when there’s so little profit margin for most independent film distribution companies. 

If People Don’t See It, Your film has no impact.

If you want to make some revolutionary avant-garde piece, you’re going to have an uphill battle to get people to see it.  If your work is about your strong and uncompromising vision and the statement you need the world to know, you could be doing yourself a disservice by focusing solely on the packaging you put your messaging into.  Auteurs don’t get discovered as easily as they used to, and there’s such a glut of content it’s nearly impossible to have the impact you most likely desire without traditional distribution infrastructure behind you.  Of course, there are exceptions, but they tend to involve years of building your own audience which can detract from the work that drives you to the point of burnout if you’re not careful.  

Instead of banging your head against the wall trying to make your film exactly as you want to, you should consider boiling down your message to its core and then creating a story that fits into a strong, marketable genre in order to at least plant the seeds of your message for when you come back to the message film you initially needed to make.  It could likely be a faster path to your end goal and will help you combat the issues inherent to my next point. 

Tastemaker Fatigue is Real. 

We as tastemakers, programmers, gatekeepers, buyers, distributors, and whoever else needs to review unreleased movies often have limited time and mental energy to get through our stack of submissions that piles much higher than you would ever expect if you haven’t seen it in person.  First-round programmers at most of the top 10 major film fests have to say no to at least 9 out of 10 submissions.  This means that they look for any possible reason to say no and when they find it, they put it on the poo poo pile.  

Even if it makes the most timely possible statement and would get programmed if you don’t know somebody who can get you to a final stage programmer directly, the odds are not in your favor.  The only way you can get an advocate like that is if you’ve been in the festival before or you attract a talented producers rep or distribution executive to champion your project.  Generally, for those people to be your champion your work needs to be commercial.  

Commercial doesn’t mean Crap

So what am I advocating for here?  Do I want you to make the same old bloody, gore-y, craptacular boobfest of a horror movie?  No, I’m not saying that.  Well, unless you want to.  If you do, it will get distribution, I might even help.

Defalcating Dung beetles!  I just went against my own point for a shill and a bit.  Let’s try again.  

The commercial doesn’t NECESSARILY mean Crap

No one will tell you that every overtly commercial film is a masterpiece of cinema.  There have been quite a lot of major blockbusters that turn out to be stinky bowel movements.  What I am saying is that if you have a message you want to get out to the masses, one of the best ways to do that is to insert that message into a broader story that meets genre guidelines.  Bryan Singer’s X-Men has strong undercurrents of self-acceptance and coming out in a time where that wasn’t really acceptable in a movie targeted at Teenagers.  James Cameron’s Aliens is an Allegory for the War in Vietnam, and Stanley Kubrik’s The Shining is a tale of the fate of indigenous people and the increasingly aggressive subjugation they faced.  

I doubt anyone out there would say that those movies or those messages would be considered shitty examples of cinema or messages, and almost anyone would consider them strong examples of highly commercial genre films.  But that’s just one executive producer’s opinion.  If you want more of my opinion, you should join my mainlining list via the button below.  You’ll get monthly content digests to help you continue to learn on a manageable schedule.  You’ll also get a FREE e-book, white paper, and some really useful templates to help you finance your film. Check it out via the link below. 

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Why there’s more to vetting investors than Net Worth

I live something of a public life, and as such I try to keep tabs on what comes up when people google my name.  I generally do a thorough search on myself about once a month.  A few months back I found a link from a site that specializes in estimating the Net Worth of celebrities and other people in the public eye.  They estimated my net worth to be about 12 million dollars. As much as I’d like to tell you that’s true, it’s not.  At least not yet.  So here’s why you should be careful in trusting Net worth estimates.

Edit: This site has taken down that page, and while I thought I had screencaps, I don’t.  

If you want me to invest in your movie, read this

I have a feeling posting something on my film services site that says I’m worth 12 million dollars is going to get some investment inquiries, so let’s get this out of the way before we continue.  

I don’t personally invest in projects beyond recoupable distribution expenses.  If I do early-stage fundraising for clients, it’s only AFTER I’ve worked with them and developed a working relationship with them.  That being said, I get the distinct impression a lot of people just skim my articles.  So I’m including a big button below that links to my official policy on investing in people’s projects who contact me cold via social media.  Those who skim my articles probably won’t like it, but I have to find some way of dealing with the near-constant bombardment of investment inquiries.  Click it, you might get a laugh.

In the rare cases I do act as a conduit for investment, equity investment is never the first money in.  It’s often not the last money in, but it’s definitely not the first.  If you’re looking for me to invest in your film, it’s probably not going to happen.  I’m more likely to help you set up your investment documents.  

Related: The 9 ways to finance an independent film.

Net Worth isn’t as important as you may think.  

So getting back to the meat and potatoes of the article.  Net Worth probably doesn’t mean as much as you may think.  The way Net Worth is calculated is pretty simple, you list your assets and calculate a value (Home Equity, Stocks, Bonds, Other investments) , then you list your liabilities (Debt of all kinds) then you subtract the value of your debts from the value of your assets and you’ve got a net worth.  

The important to realize about this is that the majority of the assets I listed above aren’t what investors would call liquid capital.  That means that in most cases, only a small portion of your net worth is spendable.  There are ways to liquidate such assets without selling them, but that generally requires some level of loan and implies interest.  For a bit more on that, check out the blog below.

Related: One Simple Tool to Reopen Conversations with Investors

So let’s look at my net worth as an example.  First off, I have no idea where they got the 12 million dollar number.  Even by the most generous valuations of my assets, it’s off by at least 3-4X.  But even going with that generous valuation of my assets, most of that would be tied up in equity between Guerrilla Rep Media and ProductionNext.  There’s not a whole lot I can do with those assets to liquidate them.  Even if I could, it’s unlikely I would as I don’t think the asset is completely mature, and selling off shares would be unlikely to help me.  This is actually a pretty common problem for investors and High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) and it’s something you should be on the lookout for when you’re vetting your investors.

Related: 5 Steps to Vetting your investor

It’s Not Money until you can buy beer with it

I’m quoting someone, but I’m not sure who.  But in essence, just because someone has a high net worth doesn’t mean that they’re going to be willing or even able to invest in your project.  If someone derives their net worth from owning a couple of multi-family homes and drawing income as a landlord, then even if their net worth is several millions, their assets are tied up in real estate and harder to access than you might think.  

The only metric that really matters when courting an investor is how much investable capital they have at their disposal, and that’s a very different metric than their net worth that’s harder to pin down. 

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed this blog, I’d recommend you check out my mailing list for monthly blog digests., a free investment deck template, a free e-book, white paper, and a whole lot more.  Click the button below for more information.  

3 Things Every New Film Investor NEEDS to know

I write a lot about the film business with filmmakers as a target audience.  However, in my non-educational content job, I have to interface with film investors on a fairly regular basis.  This blog is adapted from one such situation where a first-time film investor had a lot of impulses that might actually hurt their film.  The response got rather lengthy, so I asked my client if he minded if I adapt it into a blog.  The client didn’t mind at all, so now I can share the insights with him with significantly more people.

With that in mind, here are 3 things that every new film investor should know. 

1. Films are not evergreen.

Once a film is more than a year past its initial release, it loses a significant portion of its perceived market value.   Buyers just won’t touch it.  You released the film this year, so you have a bit of time, but that time is not infinite.  This means that negotiations around a minimum amount of money over time is not always productive, as it will likely be out of the highest actual period no matter what happens.  Often, even if you get the rights back, the film will have been so heavily shopped no one will take a look at it anyway.

This is a mistake that a lot of filmmakers make.  Unfortunately, you do not have all the time in the world to shop for your film.  Eventually, you’ll want to make sure you get it out there, even if it’s at something of a loss.  If you want longer, it’s unlikely that your prospects will get better.  

Of course, I want to be clear that you shouldn’t take any old deal as soon as it’s offered.  It’s just important to remember that barring some incredibly specific extenuating circumstances,  your film won’t be worth as much next year as it is now.  Your Also, if the distributor or sales agent is in clear breach, you should still try to get your rights back. 

2. Generally, films take a few markets to make a cash upfront sale, and the pay chain is absurd.  

It often takes a few in-person touchpoints before the sale is finalized.  While I’m going to be pushing for a quick sale, sometimes it takes a while for the money to come through.   

Further, you should remember that a lot of time it will take a while for those payments to trickle through to the producer.  I’ve outlined the issue in detail in the blog below, but to give you an idea, an MG-oriented sale will likely have something like 10% due on signing, 40% due within 30-90 days from notice of delivery, and the remaining 50% due prior to release or within 30 days of release.  Also, most SVOD sales in the US pay out a set amount of time after the beginning of the license period.  

Related:The problems with the indie film distribution payment system.

3.  No one likes dealing with inexperienced people with huge egos.

If you’re an accredited investor, you’ve probably dealt with this issue on the other end.  You likely have money due to your own entrepreneurial endeavors, a high-paying position that likely required you to employ other people, an expansive portfolio of investments that may have required you to interface directly with other entrepreneurs, or some combination of the above.  

While the primary goal of any film production should be to get all of your money back, the industry is incredibly specialized.  Nobody likes being told how to run their business by someone without much experience in the driver’s seat of this highly specialized industry.

It’s important to remember that once you get to dealing with more powerful members of the industry, trying to throw your weight around to get a better deal isn’t likely to break in your favor.  Unfortunately, most good sales agents or distributors will just decline to take out your film, and the less-than-good ones who remain will find legal ways to avoid paying out as long as possible if they pay out at all.   

This industry may be in a period of upheaval, but currently, sales agents and distributors still hold a lot of power.   So if you want to make a profitable film, or a widely distributed one, you’re going to have to take some time to understand the common industry practices.

It’s incredibly difficult to negotiate with someone when you’re at a massive informational disadvantage, and more than likely you will be at an informational disadvantage purely by the nature of the specialization of the film sales and distribution industry. 

If you want to lessen your informational disadvantage, you should sign up for my mailing list to get monthly blog digests segmented by topic, you’ll also get a free film business resource pack that includes an ebook, whitepaper on the macroeconomics of the film industry, an investment deck template, and a whole lot more!  Click the button below to grab it.  

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The Basics of Financing your Independent Film with Tax Incentives

Most filmmakers simply chase equity in order to finance their films.  However, most investors don’t want to shoulder the financial risk involved in a film alone.  That’s where tax incentives for independent film can come in and help to close the gap.  But proper use of tax incentives for independent film financing is somewhat complicated.  Here’s a primer to get you started.  

Cities, States, Regions, and countries can have tax incentives

First of all, it’s important to understand that most forms of government can issue a tax incentive.  In the US, the biggest and best incentives generally (but not always) come from states, however many cities, counties, and regions may supplement those incentives with smaller Internationally, many countries also provide some level of subsidy.  

Europe Tends to provide better tax incentives than the US.

From the standpoint of the federal government, most European countries are much better about independent film subsidies than the US.  Most of the time, these incentives take the form of co-production funding, but it’s relatively common for film commissions to provide grants to help promote the arts among their citizens.  

This is particularly notable given that citizens of EU Member States can strategically stack incentives in a way that the majority of your film is financed via government subsidies.  If, like me, you are based out of the United States, that’s just not possible due to the structure of most tax incentives.

There’s normally a minimum spend. 

Especially in the US, there’s generally a fairly hefty minimum spend to qualify for a tax incentive.  In some states that spending can start around 1 million dollars for out-of-state productions.  Some states offer a lower cap for productions helmed by residents of the state.  

There’s generally a minimum percentage of the total film budget needing to be shot there.

Most of the time you’ll only be eligible for a tax incentive if you shoot a certain percentage of your film or spend a certain percentage of your budget in a given territory.  These can vary widely from territory to territory so look at the first place. 

It’s normally not cash upfront

Unless you’re getting a grant from whatever film commission you’re shooting in, you’re probably just going to get a piece of paper that will state that you will be audited after the production and paid out according to the results of the audit.  There are generally a few different ways that a tax incentive can be structured, but we’ll touch on those next week.

You need to plan for monetizing it.

In general, you’ll either end up selling the tax incentive for a percentage of its total value to a company with a high tax liability in your state, or you’ll have to take out a loan against your tax incentive in order to get the money you need to make the film.  Both of these incur some level of cost which is different depending on which state you’re shooting in.  

For example, Georgia and Nevada both have transferrable tax credits.  Due to the large amount of productions going on in Georgia on a pretty much constant basis, the transferrable tax credit often monetizes at around 60% of face value.  Nevada on the other hand has relatively few productions and many casinos that have very high tax burdens.  As a result, the tax incentive in Nevada tends to monetize at around 90%.  That said, there is presumably a more tested, experienced crew in Georgia than in certain parts of Nevada, of course, the film commission will tell you differently. 

Not everything is covered

Not every expense for your film is covered.  Exactly what is covered can vary widely from state to state, but in general only expenses that directly benefit the economy of the state are covered.  There are often exceptions.  One common exception is some mechanism to allow recognizable name talent to either be included in a covered expenditure or at least exempted from minimum thresholds of state expenditures.  

Most of the time, high pay for above-the-line positions such as out-of-state recognizable name talent or directors are not covered covered by tax incentives.  However, there are a few states that allow it.  I talk a lot about it in this Movie Moolah Podcast with Jesus Sifuentes, linked below. 

Related Podcast: MMP:003 Non-Traditional Investors & Maximizing Tax Incentives W/ Jesus Sifuentes

Not every program is adequately funded

Many film programs have a “cap” If that cap is too low, the money can be gone before the demand for the money is.  Some states have the opposite problem.

Communicating with the film commission pays dividends long term

In general, the film commissions I’ve talked to are extremely friendly and easy to talk to. However, many times these commissions lose touch with the filmmakers they’re supporting shortly after they shoot.  This isn’t necessarily a good thing, as most film commissions have significant reach into the greater film community and other aspects of local government.  If you make sure they stay up to date as to what’s going on with your project you may find yourself getting help from unexpected places.

Also, if this is all a bit complicated, you should check out this new mentorship program I’ve started to help self-motivated filmmakers get additional resources as well as get their questions answered by someone working in the field.  It’s more affordable than you may think.  Check out my services page for more information.

If you’re not there yet, grab my free film Business Resource package.  It’s got a lot of goodies ranging from a free e-book, free white paper, an investment deck template, and more.  Grab it at the button below.

Finally, If you liked this content, please share it.

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How to Finance your Documentary

It’s hard to find reliable information on film financing.  I’ve written a fair amount about independent film financing for narrative projects.  Since writing those blogs and doing numerous presentations on the topic, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how to finance documentaries.  Since I haven’t seen a good guide, I thought I’d write one.  Here’s a step by step guide on financing documentaries.

1. Establish a deep connection with the audience that cares DEEPLY about your message.

Authenticity has been become incredibly important in all aspects of making your living as a filmmaker, journalist, or content creator of any kind.  As documentaries are primarily message films, authenticity and accuracy are even more important than they would be in your standard genre picture.  A deep understanding of the subject matter you’re tackling is absolutely vital for documentaries, as documentaries tend to rely much more heavily on word of mouth and community involvement than traditional narrative films.  

The primary goal you should have when establishing yourself within this community is to speak authentically about the community in your film. By doing this, you will most likely also establish credibility with the audience that is most likely to shout about your film when it comes out.  As a bonus, through the process of establishing a deep connection with the subject matter, you are likely to find good subjects to interview for your documentary.   

2. Get a fiscal sponsor

A fiscal sponsor is a non-profit organization that can extend its non-profit status to your simple for-profit entity allowing you to take tax-deductible donations, which can greatly help you raise donations from friends, family, and even certain crowdfunding platforms.  They’ll normally take a fee of between 4% and 9%, but they’ll increase your close rate dramatically.  Additionally, unless you are a non-profit, you’ll most likely need a fiscal sponsor in order to apply for grants.  

3. Apply for relevant grants

Next, you should start applying for grants.  You don’t need to limit yourself to filmmaking grants, you can also apply to grantors that tackle the subject matter you’re planning on documenting.  So long as those foundations and grantors back projects to build awareness there’s a good chance you’ll be eligible for those grants.  I wrote another blog with the help of one of the fundraisers for Slamdance a while back, you’ll find it below.

You should start applying for grants once a month as soon as you can.

Related: 5 Rules for Grantwriting.

4.  Confirm one high-profile expert in your field to give yourself legitimacy

Now it’s time to start shooting your film.  Confirm an interview with an expert, possibly using the connections you’ve developed back in step one.  Otherwise, reaching out to universities that have programs related to your subject matter is a generally good bet.  Most of the time, you shouldn’t need to pay the academics or many of the other experts who might be interviewed for the documentary. For them, it’s good press to build their legitimacy and public profile.

5.  Prepare a crowdfunding campaign

This is another reason Step 1 is to ingratiate yourself in a community.  If you’re a known entity in that community, your chances of success are much better and the amount you’ll be able to raise is much higher.  While this is harder than it once was, it’s nearly impossible if you’re not an established part of the community.

Here’s a blog on a crowdfunding timeline.  

Related: Crowdfunding Timeline for Filmmakers

6. Get a few more experts in your network to give interviews

Ramp up your production and get a decent portion of the film shot and start to find the narrative throughline for the finished piece.  You will want to start charting this path as you shoot, as it can help guide you through future interviews or even re-interviews if you can.  

7. Launch your crowdfunding campaign. 

You do that after the first expert as if you’re doing it properly, you should be able to use a portion of the interview as an immediate delivery once the campaign closes.  If you have multiple experts at this point, you’ll have some degree of legitimacy that you could turn into a short as one of the major funding levels.

Even after you raise the money you need for your main round, you should continue to apply for grants on a monthly basis.  The reason n why will become clear later. 

Here’s a blog on the dos and don’ts for pushing your movie on social media.  I wrote it after a few too many people sent me auto DMs.

Related: 5 Dos and Don’ts for Selling Your Film Online.

8. Get a few higher profile influencers in the documentary.

If you get a few subjects in the documentary with some degree of a following, it will likely help boost the visibility of the documentary once it’s getting ready to come out.

9. Release regular updates on social media

If you make sure to release updates and engage with your following on the goings on of the documentary you’ll be much better able to keep in the consciousness of your community which will make a rather large difference when it comes time to distribute your project.

10. Make sure you keep your backers informed.

Take what you’re doing on social media, and give more depth and detail as to the goings on of the project, as well s content to the people who have supported you financially. There are a couple of ways you can do this, the simplest is to continually communicate through whatever platform you originally crowdfunded through.

11. Keep applying for Grants, but now focus on finishing funds.

Applying for grants isn’t something you should have stopped doing, but at this point in the cycle, you should be applying for grants to finish your movie rather than develop or shoot it.  If you’ve consistently been applying all this time, you’re more likely to succeed at this point as you may well be starting to re-apply for the same grants you didn’t get last time.  

12. Launch a secondary crowdfunding campaign for finishing funds

This is part of why you’ve continued to stay in touch with the people who backed your first campaign, as it’s much more likely they’ll come back for your next round if they’re happy with your communication skills as well as the progress you’ve made.  

13. Ramp up the content you’re releasing

Before you may have released photos from interviews on social media, and teasers to your backers.  Now you may want to release teasers on social media and short interview clips to your backers.  You don’t want to release anything that will give too much away, but you want to build buzz and have a deep engagement with your backers.  You want them to feel like they made your movie possible.  In a very real way, they did, and they may have gotten you to the finishing line. 

14. Apply for impact grants

Impact grants focus on getting the film out and into the world.  They cover things like festival submission, travel, and other costs related to marketing and distribution.  You should start applying for these grants when you hit picture lock.  

NOW THAT YOU’VE FINISHED MAKING THE FILM…

15.  Hire a publicist (If you can)

Publicity isn’t cheap, but it is one of the best ways to build both the profile of your film and of you as a filmmaker.  Getting press early on will help you in the next parts of your process.

16. Apply to festivals

Now that the film is done, you should start applying to relevant festivals.  If you’ve already gotten some press coverage, you’re more likely to get in, however, the time your publicist will be of the most use is during your festival rune.

17. Get a Lawyer, and get them to do an E&O Coverage letter.

If you didn’t already have a lawyer, get one now.  A lot of lawyers will do some pro-bono work for documentary filmmakers as a public service, so don’t hesitate to ask.  Along with being a steadfast advisor, they’ll also have the ability to write a fair use clearance letter which will enable you to buy E&O Coverage if and when you need it.  Also, you should really have a lawyer on call when you move on to step 18. 

18. Get a producers rep, or sales agent and distributor

Finally, you should make sure to start reaching out to producers reps sales agents, and distributors as soon as you can after submitting to festivals.  Some of us can help make sure you get into bigger and better festivals, but any reputable person with these titles has a much better chance of getting you a profitable distribution deal on platforms 

After the success I’ve seen from one film I both repped and distributed film Queen of the Capital, I’ve recently started putting a greater emphasis on documentaries, since my direct contacts in that area have grown significantly.  You can learn more about Guerrilla Rep Media Services film below.

Thanks so much for reading, if you liked this content, please share it.  Also, join my mailing list for some great resources including a festival brochure template, ebook, and a whole lot more.

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What you CAN and CAN’T negotiate in an Indiefilm Distribution Deal

A HUGE part of my job as a producer’s rep has been to negotiate with sales agents and distributors on a filmmaker’s behalf.  While I happen to think my contracts are exceptionally fair, most filmmakers tend to do some level of negotiation.  However, others can overplay their hands and lose interest.  I’ve checked up on some of the ones that did, and they didn’t make it anywhere.  So, no matter who you intend to negotiate with here’s a list of what tends to be possible to negotiate.  

One thing to keep in mind is your position as a filmmaker.  Distributors tend to have more power in this negotiation.  Filmmakers do still have power, as you own your film, but it’s important to keep in mind that in many circumstances, they’ll have significantly more options than you will. 

It’s also important to note that these contracts are only as good as the people and companies you’re dealing with.  So vetting them is important.  The link below has more information on that.  

Related: How to vet your sales agent distributor.

There are of course exceptions to these rules, but you knowing the general rules will help. Those exceptions are directly tied to the quality and marketability of your film.  

What you CAN negotiate

These are things you CAN negotiate, within reason.

Exclusions

Distribution deals are all about rights transfers and sales.   In general, you can negotiate a few exclusions to keep back and sell yourself.  It’s important to note that you shouldn’t try for too many of these though, as the distributor needs to be able to recoup what they put into your film.  Here are some of the common ones

• Crowdfunding fulfillment

• Website sales

• Tertiary regions the film was shot in.  

In general, all rights are given exclusively, but crowdfunding fulfillment might need to be carved out so you can fulfill your obligations to your backers.  I’ve never had trouble with this one.  

Generally, it’s wise to retain the right to sell your film transactionally through your own website using a platform like Vimeo OnDemand or Vimeo OTT.  Distributors tend not to utilize these platforms, so they generally won’t have an issue with it so long as they get advisement on release timing AND it’s only available on said platform transactionally.  That is to say, people must pay to purchase or rent the film.

If the film was shot in a very minor territory like the Caribbean, Paraguay, parts of Africa, or maybe parts of the Philippines, it might be possible for you to retain those territories and sell the film yourself.  Be careful with how many of those you do.  

Marketing Oversight (Home Territory)

Pretty much no matter what territory you’re from, you have some pretty meaningful ability to negotiate additional marketing oversight.  This is not an unlimited right, however, and it’s common that final say will remain with the sales agent or distributor.  It’s important to do your diligence on how they’ve used that oversight in the past.  

Term (To an extent)

If a Distributor or sales agent brings you an agreement with a 25-year term and no MG, walk away.  If a Distributor tries to get a 12-15 year term, try to get them down to 10.  That’s the industry standard for what we work on. 

Exit Conditions (to Some Extent)

You need to make sure that you have aa route out if things go sideways.  In general, you need a bankruptcy exit, and I would push for an option to exit on acquisition of the distributor, or if a key person leaves.  

What you CAN’T GENERALLY negotiate
(but should probably look out for)

Here’s what you generally can’t negotiate.  There are exceptions to how much you can negotiate this, but no matter what these are things you need to fully understand.  

The Payment Waterfall

I wrote about the waterfall fairly extensively in the related blog linked below.  The biggest issue is that most distributors start taking their commissions BEFORE they recoup their expenses.  I understand how and why they do it, but it’s generally not the best.  

The biggest negotiation you MIGHT be able to get is what’s known as a producer’s corridor, which effectively helps you get a small amount of money from the first sale.  Generally you’ll be placed (essentially) in line with the distributor or sales agent, which means it will take significantly longer for them to recoup their expenses.  That said, any way you slice those numbers, you still get paid more.  

Related: Indiefilm Distribution Payment Waterfalls 101

Related: The Problem with the Film Distribution Payments  

Recoupable Expenses

Recoupable expenses are money a distributor or sales agent invest into the marketing of your film.  They generally have to get this back before paying you.  The exception above is notable.  Generally, there is little ability to negotiate this but you should make sure you get the right to audit at least once per year.

Related: What is a Recoupable Expense in Indiefilm Distribution

Payment Schedule

The payment schedule is how often you receive Both a report and a check.  In general, they start out quarterly and move to semi-annually over 2 years.  There are exceptions, some of my buyers report monthly.  However, in general, after 2 years most of the revenue has been made, and the reports will continue to get smaller and smaller. 

DON’T EVEN BRING THESE ONES UP

These are issues you just can’t bring up.  The distributor might walk away if you do.  

Their Commission

Don’t bring up the sales agent’s commission.  You probably don’t have the negotiating power to alter it beyond the corridor I mentioned above.

EXCLUSIVITY

I wrote a whole blog about this linked below, but the basics of it are that we’re essentially dealing with the rights to infinitely replicate media broken up by territory and media right type.  The addition of exclusivity is the only way to limit the supply, which is the only reason the rights to the content have any value at all.  

DIRECT ACCESS TO THEIR CONTACTS.  

These contacts are generally very expensive to acquire, and the entire business model of the sales agent or distributor relies on maintaining good relationships with them. No distributor is ever going to give this to you. They’ll get very annoyed about you even asking.   

Thanks so much for reading!  If you think that this all sounds like a bit much, and would rather have help negotiating, check out Guerrilla Rep Media’s services which include producer’s representation.   your film using the button below. If you need more convincing, join my email list for free educational and news digests and resources on the entertainment business which include an investment deck template, a contact tracking template to help you keep track of the distributors you’re talking to, and a whole lot more.  

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7 Things I Learned as CEO of a US Film Distributor

If you’re reading this, you might already know that I founded and lead a company called Mutiny Pictures.  That company has since sold to Bayview Entertainment. Given I’ve been a producer’s rep for quite a while, I thought I was prepared to step up to leading a team to take films to market directly, I found that while I was up to the task there was still quite a lot of personal growth involved for myself and every level of the team. This is to be expected out of any new venture.  Here are some of the biggest things that I personally learned throughout running a US Distribution company.  

(Almost) Nobody pays on time.

Filmmakers often complain about Sales agents and Distributors not paying on time.  While it goes without saying that there are a lot of shady, dishonest sales agents and distributors out there, I was surprised exactly how few reputable companies did not pay on time.  Given that when it comes to film distribution and international sales all stakeholders are part of the same waterfall or pay chain, if one stakeholder is paid late that eventually means that the filmmaker is paid late. We can’t pay you money we don’t have.   

So if you’re a filmmaker reading this, you should know that just because your sales agent is late on their reports doesn’t mean they’re not being honest with you.  It also doesn’t mean that they’re the reason you’re being paid late.  It’s entirely possible that possible their vendor, supplier, or other provider hasn’t paid them yet. 

That said, they should still communicate with you about when this is happening, and if they’re paying late you should still be tracking it as much as you can.  

Analytics and Reporting really, REALLY suck at every level of the distribution.

Given I do other forms of online and affiliate marketing and used to run marketing for a tech startup, I was utterly flabbergasted by the utter disgrace that is analytics around digital film marketing.  In most industries related to digital marketing, the insights are nearly immediate.  However, If you deal with a servicer or aggregator, they often won’t give you any level of real-time insight.  The best most do is once a week, which is nearly meaningly when it comes to agile marketing practices.  

I did find a workaround for my clients, so I’ll share it here.  If you’re a filmmaker and want better insights, sign up for the Amazon affiliate program and use those links to your film to market it. This is less about the few extra cents you get from pushing your work and more about real-time sales insights.  It can cause some issues around online postings and social media algorithms though, so it’s not a perfect system.  I’d love better suggestions in the comments if anyone has any.

Insurance and legal paperwork are way more of the job than you realize.

This wasn’t exactly a surprise.  At its core, film distribution and international sales are businesses based almost entirely around tracking rights and trading signatures on paper.  is entirely about buying and selling intangible rights restricted by non-physical attributes like territory, right types, region, and other highly specific terms of art.  It’s easy to mess this up, so it only makes sense to have solid insurance coverage.  What I didn’t expect was how many hours in my standard week were around litigious paperwork around insurance, compliance, reporting, and proposals, as opposed to growing the business. 

Additionally, you as a filmmaker will need to provide a lot of insurance paperwork.  

You have to pitch earlier than you think.

If you want to have a film on all major TVOD platforms, you generally need to have them pitched/placed 5-6 months ahead of the date.  You can do it in 3 months on a rush job.  This was surprising given I submitted my first book for publishing less than 3 days before it was available on Amazon.  If you sell to an SVOD outlet, they normally require delivery at least 3-6 months in advance as well, and they’ll either pay over the course of the license or a set period after the license begins.  

Payouts take longer than you think.

Reporting is one thing, payment is another.  Most platforms only pay quarterly, and they pay 30 days after the end of the quarter.  There has recently been an additional 90-day delay that was initially for COVID, but that seems to be less of an issue than it used to be.  Additionally, they won’t pay for partial quarters, meaning if you launched in February, you won’t get any data from a lot of platforms until August or even November. If there’s a service involved, you might get an additional 30-day delay.  

This makes it really hard to run a business, and the only thing you can really do is use a different aggregator or servicer.  You can supplement this with direct vendor payments from streamers and physical media outlets, but those are only getting more difficult to place.  There are very few companies that are occupying the servicer or aggregator space in the market, and unfortunately, the ones with the greatest physical reach tend to also have the worst reporting timelines.  

There’s a great amount of room for an aggregator with fast recording and greater ability for brick-and-mortar physical releases.  However, given the rapid decline of physical media, there might not be time for such a company to access that window before it closes forever.  

The industry still operates on a tentpole model.  

The sad truth of the matter is that on the ultra-low budget scale, only about 2 or 3 in 10 movies make money.  If your sales agency or distributor is made up of really good curators, you might be able to get that to 4 or even 5 out of 10.  If you’re hitting that high, most industry people will be amazed.   If you’re running a distribution company, this means you either need to be exceptionally picky and run a very lean company, or you need to take everything you can and see what sticks.  I’ve written another piece on this going into more detail. 

Producers get in their own way a lot.

I said earlier that it’s no secret that there are a lot of shady sales agents and distributors out there.  That said, not all filmmakers are saints either.  Some filmmakers are a complete joy to work with, but others will second guess everything you do and think that the only film that you should ever focus on is theirs.  

I had a filmmaker say precisely that to my face.  We got tons of press for this person, but nobody wanted to watch it and the film tanked.  When this filmmaker wasn’t getting the returns they expected they started taking up a ton of time in angry calls and emails.  This reduced A LOT of my available time to actually get their film out there, which further impacted the returns and became a vicious cycle.  

Marketing a movie is best when it’s a partnership between the filmmakers and the distributor.  In general, you should discuss when you’re making any level of announcement with your distributor so that it can make the biggest possible splash.  It’s generally unwise to drop assets like posets and trailers without talking to your distributor, as you may ruin potential exclusive press drops.  Worse, if you put your film up in various territories through self-distribution channels, it could cost you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.  Even if you can take a film down, most buyers won’t want it if it’s already been placed on any platforms in their region. I could go on about this for a while, so I’m going to leave it for another blog.  

This is a collaborative process, so they’re definitely give and take, but keep in mind there’s probably a reason you didn’t self-distribute and instead decided to work with your distributor.

In the end, this is a relationship business.  If your distributor likes you, they’re more likely to go the extra mile for you.  That’s a reality of human nature. If you want your distributor to like you, you might want to grab my free IndieFilm business resource package as it’s got lots of goodies to help make marketing your movie easier for all involved.  The resource pack got templates for contacting distributors, and tracking that contact so you don’t bug them, an e-book on the film business, and a whitepaper on the metrics of the film industry.  Plus, you’ll get monthly content digests to help you better understand the industry in a manageable way and occasion updates on new releases, courses, workshops, and announcements from Guerrilla Rep Media.  Check it out below.

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How COVID-19 Affected the Indie Film Industry

Many Filmmakers, like everyone else affected by COVID-19, are itching for some level of a return to normalcy.  Unfortunately, like many others think that there may never be a full return to normal.  It may well end up as a pre-COVID and a Post COVID period.  Similar to how the world changed before and after the great depression, 9/11, The internet, or World War II.  Societal traumas tend to leave lasting scars, and that tends to effect the market as a whole and certain industries in meaningful ways.  So let’s look at what one executive producer thinks is likely to happen in the film industry as a result.

2023 Update: I put some self-reflection on this blog commenting on how I think my predictions were, and adding more context to what’s happening in 2024 and beyond.

1. The Majors will bounce back quickly

Historically, the film is industry mildly reversely dependent on the economy.  It remains one of the cheapest ways to get out and one of the best ways for families to bond while in isolation.  The most unpredictable part about this recession’s likely impact on the film industry is the much greater presence of free or cheap entertainment options available right now as compared to the past. 

In any case, A significant amount of the pain that’s likely to be felt from this crash is going to be on the lower end of the spectrum.  Right now many of the major studios are already gearing up for their next projects since the projects they have will either be released ahead of schedule while people are quarantined or they’ll need to find alternative release plans. 

2023 Update: This was right. The majors bounced back quickly. They may not bounce back as quickly from the strikes though.

2. Freelancers will be hurt in the short term.

There’s no sugarcoating this.  Freelancers are going to be hurt in the short term.  Government stimulus may help, but won’t solve the issue.  If you’re in a position to help out by hiring someone to help with your web maintenance or other jobs they can do in isolation, you should do so. 

As this crisis continues to drag on, it’s really important we band together as a community and help each other to get work made, even if it ends up making many of us less money than it normally would. 

2023 Update: I was wrong, it wasn’t just freelancers that were hurt. As Aide dries up we’re likely to see a lot more pain on the lower 3 quintiles of the economic spectrum. I think this will hurt the entertainment industry as we’re a mass-market product that still only makes significant margins from transactional sales. I’m not sure film is still reversely dependent on the economy, and I’d write a blog about it if someone comments.

3. SVOD Surge

Given people are going to be locked at home with less money than normal and lots of time, we can expect to see viewership and subscriptions to Subscription Video on Demand platforms go up significantly.  Not all of these new subscribers will cancel when we return to the new normal.  I’m not the only one seeing this, it looks like development and acquisitions are on the rise form many of these people. 

It’s very possible that the balance of power between distributors and creators could see a minor shift in the coming months as distributors are going to need more content and the current embargo on production in many states, regions, and territories might cut down on the glut of content that’s been driving down acquisition prices recently. ​

2023 Update: The consolidation in streaming platforms ended up keeping license fees for the major streamers as low as they were pre-pandemic. It’s unlikely that trend will get much better any time soon.

4. AVOD Surge

Given the general financial issues that were facing the majority of Americans prior to this recession, many may seek to cut recurring subscription services.  This may well give rise to AVOD platforms like TubiTV and PlutoTV.  I bet Fox is really happy that they bought Tubi right about now. 

2023 Update: This was very much true, but the amount of consolidation in the AVOD space is looking like there will be a royalty cut due in part to advertisers tightening their belts. This will cause a lot of problems for indie productions.

5. TVOD Plummets

Transactional VOD hasn’t been healthy for quite a while.  If people are hurting for money, it’s unlikely they’ll continue to buy movies one at a time when there are so many films that are available for free or with a low subscription cost.  This might not happen immediately, but as the crisis wears on and belts get tighter the TVOD crunch might well continue to worsen. 

2023 Update: This one was right on the money. IT’s a rough time for micro-budget films outside of SVOD and AVOD.

6. ​Presale Surge

Given that we’re likely to see a surge in demand for content right as equity markets are drying up we may well see a surge in presales from distributors in order to fill the gap.  This is somewhat speculative, but there is ample historical precedent, most recently in 2008 after the economic meltdown.  However, it should be noted this can only go so far given production embargos. 

2023 Update: Presales did surge, and they’re still growing for small and midsize films. I’m negotiating a few right now.

7. Theaters may fold at a high rate

Theaters have been in trouble for quite a while.  Independent theaters have been very hard hit, but even giants like AMC may end up closing many of their locations instead of re-opening them.  The possible Amazon Acquisition of AMC is really quite interesting for the entire landscape. Drive-throughs also seem to be seeing a bit of a resurgence.

​2023 Update: Some indies folded, the chains largely survived, although some smaller chains took a haircut. Luckily, theatrical exhibition is still around.

8. Rise of legal simulstreaming

People are feeling lonely and isolated.  Film is an inherently social medium.  Given we can’t go to the theater as we did before, we might end up seeing the rise of simulcasts for consumers to watch content with their friends.  This is something that happened with the Netflix computer App, and Alamo Drafthouse starting virtual streamings limited to certain territories is quite an interesting development. 

2023 Update: Sadly I was wrong about widespread simulstreaming, but I am aware that it happened with families via zoom a lot at peak quarantine.

9. Death of DVD greatly Hastened

It’s no secret that physical media (DVD/Blu-Ray) has been in trouble for a while now.  Now that it’s been confirmed COVID-19 can live on plastic (like a DVD case) for several days, I can see consumers being even more hesitant to buy movies like this when there are so many options available on Streaming for free. 

2023 Update: I was right about this one, although there’s a bit of a nostalgic re-emergence of rental stores going on so there may still be a very limited niche market for physical media.

10. Easier Microbudget sales for a time.

I’ll end on a cheerier note for Most of my readers.  Acquisitions seem to be picking up since so many catalogs are being watched much more quickly than originally expected.  This spells an opportunity for many filmmakers.  

2023 Update: It was easy for a little bit, but the WGA (And probably SAG) strike may still represent an opportunity for micro-budget filmmakers. That said, I stand in solidarity with the Union and I think the cause is just, but I don’t really think micro-budget films are similar enough to be called competition, so let’s get those low-budget films out there so we can swell the ranks of the guilds.

If you want someone to help you sell your movie, track down a presale, or strategize how to market your movie Check out Guerrilla Rep Media Services below.

Also If you’re not convinced about Guerrilla Rep Media Services yet, grab my Free Film Business Resource pack for an ebook, a whitepaper, an investment deck template, and a whole lot more.

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Filmmakers Glossary of Film Investment Terminology

Last week I laid out a glossary of general-use film business terms, but the blog ended up a bit too long and dense to be a single post.  So, I broke it into two.  Last week was the basics of business terms, this week is the next level, and focuses entirely on investment terms.  Some of these may seem tangential and unnecessary, however if your goal is to close an investor, you’ll need to thoroughly speak their language.  If there’s something you don’t see here, check out last week’s blog here. I’m not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice, and you should have a solid attorney on your team before trying to close an investment round. With that out of the way, let’s get started.

Capital

While many types exist, The term most commonly refers to money. 

Liquid Capital

Money that can be spent immediately, or near immediately.  Non-liquid capital would be considered something like real estate holdings which would first need to be liquidated in order to sell. 

Principle

In finance: it’s general the initial capital investment or the remaining balance on a debt. 

Interest

A percentage fee is added on to the principle of a loan or line of credit.

Compound interest

Interest on the principle of the loan and interest.

Simply: interest on interest.

High-Risk Investment

An investment where an investor may lose most or all of the money they put in. Independent Films are always high-risk investments

Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC)

The main financial regulatory agency in the United States.  It oversees most forms of investment.

Accredited Investor

A person of means who is generally considered to have enough business know-how to appraise an investment, pay someone to appraise it for them, or who wouldn’t be completely destitute from taking a high risk-gamble.  As of the date of this publishing, according to the SEC the investor must meet either (NOT both of) the income or net worth requirement in order to be considered an accredited investor.
​
Income Requirements
1.If filing individually, a person must have made 200,000 USD a year for the past 2 years, and be likely to do the same this year. 
2.If filing Jointly, a household must have made 300,000 USD a year for the past 2 years, and be likely to do the same this year. 

Net Worth.

The investor or household must have 1 million dollars in net worth OUTSIDE of their primary residence. ​

High Net Worth Individual (HNWI)

Outside the obvious, this term is generally a financial industry term for accredited investor

Edgar Database

A database of high-risk investments maintained by the SEC that is only accessible to Accredited investors and licensed brokerage or investment firms.

Financing Round

A round of financing or funding that is large enough to take an organization or project to the next major milestone.  For how this works in film, check out the youtube video I’ve linked below, and the blog linked below that.

Related Video: The 4 Stages of Indiefilm Financing

Related Blog: The 4 Stages of Indiefilm Financing

Business Plan

A document written by an entrepreneur or filmmaker outlining their investment.  In the film industry, this document will also often educate the investor on how the industry functions as a whole.  This document is also known as a prospectus, but that term is not as commonly used as it once was. 

Private Placement Memorandum (PPM)

A document that’s filed with the SEC for investors to consider investing in your project.  Frequently an attorney will base this document off of the filmmaker or entrepreneur’s business plan.  In most cases, a PPM will be registered with the aforementioned Edgar database for a modest filing fee. 

Pro-Forma Financial Statements

Financial documents consisting of an expected income breakdown, cash-flow statement, and top sheet budget to be invaded in the business plan and function as the basis for many of the financial sections of other documents

The Three points above are heavily outlined in my business planning blog series.

Related: How to write an independent Film Business Plan (1/7)

Backed Debt

A secured loan backed by something like a tax incentive or pre-sale agreement.

Unbacked Debt

An unsecured loan, or debt without backing.  Generally very high interest.

Financial Gap

The space between what you are able to raise and the amount you need to finish your project.

Financial Markets

A market where stocks, bonds, derivatives, or other securities are bought and sold. Common examples in the US would be the DOW and the NASDAQ.

Film Market

A convention where films are bought and sold primarily by sales agents and distributors.  For more, check out the link below.

Related: What is a film market and how does it work?

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The total value of all newly finished goods in a given country during a set timespan.  Most commonly calculated on an annual basis.

Recession

A macroeconomic term signifying a period of a significant decline in economic activity.  It’s generally only recognized after two consecutive quarters of down financial markets. 

Depression

A severe recession that lasts longer than 3 years and corresponds with a drop in GDP of at least 10%

Bull Market

A market that’s strong and growing. It’s called a bull market as the upward trending graph looks like a bull nodding its head according to some people on Wall Street.

Bear Market

Yes, I spelled that right.  It’s a financial market that’s going down, or staying stagnant.  The name comes from a bear swiping its claws down.  Probably the same wall street guy came up with it. 

Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this, please make sure to check out last week’s general financing glossary, as well as my glossary of distribution terms. Also, please share. It helps A LOT.

Filmmakers Glossary of Business Terms

Additionally, make sure you grab my free Film Business Resource Package to get a print ready PDF version of all 3 glossaries.

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Filmmakers Glossary of Film Business Terminology.

A colleague of mine asked me if I had a glossary on film financing terms in the same way I wrote one for film distribution (which you can check out here.)  Since I didn’t have one, I thought I’d write one.  After I wrote it, it was too long for a single post, so now it’s two.  This one is on general terms, next week we’ll talk about film investment terms. As part of the website port, I’m re-titling the first part to a general film business glossary of terms, to lower confusion on sharing it. It’s got the same terms and the same URL, just a different title.

Capital

While many types exist, it most commonly refers to money.  

Financing

Financing is the act of providing funds to grow or create a business or particular part of a business.  Financing is more commonly used when referring to for-profit enterprises, although it can be used in both for profit and non-profit enterprises. 

Funding

Funding is money provided to a business or non-profit for a particular purpose.  While both for-profit and non-profit organizations can use the term, it’s more commonly used in non-profit media that the term financing is. 

Revenue

Money that comes into an organization from providing shrives or selling/licensing goods.  Money from Distribution is revenue, whereas money from investors is financing, and donors tend to provide funding more than financing, although both terms could apply.

Equity

A percentage ownership in a company, project, or asset.  While it’s generally best to make sure all equity investors are paid back, so long as you’ve acted truthfully and fulfilled all your obligations it’s generally not something that you will forfeit your house over.  Stocks are the most common form of equity, although films tend not to be able to issue stocks for complicated regulatory reasons and the fact that films are generally considered a high-risk investment.

Donation

Money that is given in support of an organization, project, or cause without the expectation of repayment or an ownership stake in the organization.  Perks or gifts may be an obligation of the arrangement. 

Debt

A loan that must be paid back. Generally with interest.

Deferral

A payment put off to the future.  Deferrals generally have a trigger as to when the payment will be due.

“Soft Money"

In General, this refers to money you don’t have to pay back, or sometimes money paid back by design.  In the world of independent film, it’s most commonly used for donations and deferrals, tax incentives, and occasionally product placement. It can have other meanings depending on the context though.

Investor

Someone who has provided funding to your company, generally in the form of liquid capital (or money.)

Stakeholder

Someone with a significant stake in the outcome of an organization or project.  These can be investors, distributors, recognizable name talent, or high-level crew. 

Donor

Someone who has donated to your cause, project, or organization. 

Patron

Similar to donors, and can refer to high-level donors or financial backers on the website Patreon.  For examples of patrons, see below. you can be a patron for me and support the creation of content just like this by clicking below.

Non-Profit Organizations (NPO)

An organization dedicated to providing a good or service to a particular cause without the intent to profit from their actions, in the same way, a small business or corporation would. This designation often comes with significant tax benefits in the United States.

501c3

The most common type of non-profit entity file is to take advantage of non-profit tax exempt status in the US.

Non-Government Organization (NGO)

Similar to a non-profit, generally larger in scope.  Also, something of an antiquated term. 

Foundation

An organization providing funding to causes, organizations and projects without a promise of repayment or ownership.  Generally, these organizations will only provide funding to non profit organizations. Exceptions exist. 

Grantor

An organization that funds other organizations and projects in the form of grants.  Generally, these organizations are also foundations, but not necessarily.

Fiscal Sponsorship

A process through which a for-profit organization can fundraise with the same tax-exempt status as a 501c3.  In broad strokes, an accredited 501c3 takes in money on behalf of a for-profit company and then pays that money out less a fee.  Not all 501c3 organizations can act as a fiscal sponsor. 

Investment

Capital that has been or will be contributed to an organization in exchange for an equity stake, although it can also be structured as debt or promissory note.

Investment Deck (Often simply “Deck”)

A document providing a snapshot of the business of your project.  I recommend a 12-slide version, which can be found outlined in this blog or made from a template in the resources section of my site, linked below.

Related: Free Film Business Resource Package

Look Book

A creative snapshot of your project with a bit of business in it as well. NOT THE SAME AS A DECK.  There isn’t as much structure to this.  Check out the blog on that one below. 

Related: How to make a look book

Audience Analysis

One of 3 generally expected ways to project revenue for a film.  This one is based around understanding the spending power of your audience and creating a market share analysis based on that. I don’t yet have a blog on this one, but I will be dropping two videos about it later this month on my youtube channel.  Subscribe so you don’t miss them.

Competitive Analysis

One of 3 ways to project revenue for an independent film.  This method involves taking 20 films of a similar genre, attachments, and Intellectual property status and doing a lot of math to get the estimates you need. 

Sales Agency Estimates

One of 3 ways to project revenue for an independent film.  These are high and low estimates given to you by a sales agent.  They are often inflated.

Related: How to project Revenue for your Independent Film

Calendar Year

12 months beginning January 1 and ending December 31.  What we generally think of as, you know, a year. 

Fiscal year

The year observed by businesses. While each organization can specify its fiscal year, the term generally means October 1 to September 30 as that’s what many government organizations and large banks use.  Many educational institutions tie their fiscal year to the school year, and most small businesses have their fiscal year match the calendar year as it’s easier to keep up with on limited staff.

Film Distribution

The act of making a film available to the end user in a given territory or platform. 

International Sales

The act of selling a film to distributors around the world. 

Related: What's the difference between a sales agent and distributor?

Bonus! Some common general use Acronyms

YOY

Year over Year.  Commonly used in metrics for tracking marketing engagement or financial performance on a year-to-year basis.

YTD

Year to Date.  Commonly used in conjunction with Year over year metrics or to measure other things like revenue or profit/loss metrics.

MTD

Month to Date. Commonly used when comparing monthly revenue to measure sales performance. Due to the standard reporting cycles for distributors, you probably won’t see this much unless you self-distribute.

OOO

Out of Office.  It generally means the person can’t currently be reached. 

EOD

End of Day. Refers to the close of business that day, and generally means 5 PM on that particular day for whatever the time zone of the person using the term is working in.  

Thanks for reading this!  ​Please share it with your friends. If you want more content on film financing, packaging, marketing, distribution, entrepreneurialism, and all facets of the film industry, sign up for my mailing list! Not only will you get monthly content digests segmented by topic, but you’ll get a package of other resources to take you film from script to screen. Those resources include a free ebook, whitepaper, investment deck template, and more!

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How to Raise Development Funds for your Feature Film.

Pretty much every filmmaker wants to find money to make their movie.  Unfortunately, many don’t quite realize that in order to raise the kind of money you need to make anything above a micro-budget movie, you’ll generally need a lot already in place.  It’s something of a catch-22.  Investors need name talent to market the film, and distribution to make it available.  Distributors need name talent and a tested team to give any meaningful commitments, and name taken need to know they’ll be paid.  There are ways around all of this, but generally, they require money upfront.  This blog is about how you raise it.

​Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic bullet on any level of film funding.  The best I can do is offer you tools and tactics to use to increase your chances of success.  You will probably need more than one of these tools to get the job done.
​

Don't want to read? Check out the video on this topic below

​Crowdfunding

Let’s get this one out of the way fast.  Crowdfunding CAN be great for filmmakers not only as a way to raise partial funding, but also to engage yourself with your audience and provide market validation for both investors and distributors/sales agents.  That said, it’s not without its drawbacks.  Using crowdfunding as an early-stage race tool can cause your donors to question whether or not you’ll be able to get the whole film done.  If you can’t, it can lead to problems.  (Extra special shoutout to my patrons here, since we’re talking about crowdfunding.)

Friends and Family

I know, I know.  This is the oldest piece of advice in the book.  But, there’s a reason it’s still around.  Your friends and family are (hopefully) among the people who are most likely to back and support you in this endeavor.  If they’re like mine were when I was starting out, while they may be willing to help and actively want you to succeed, they’ll still need some proof it’s possible.  However, the proof they’re like to need will probably be something easier to get than an investor would need. These 

Equity

But Ben, didn’t you just say that you need more in place to get an investor?  Yes and no.  In order to raise a large round, you’ll need a lot in place, but if you’re only focusing on a smaller round you can get by with less.  It is important to properly structure this investment though.  You’ll either need to offer a more substantial stake in the company for the bigger risk taken for investing earlier, or you’ll need to do some other investment vehicle like Convertible debt.

Even at this stage, if you want to raise money from investors you’re going to need to create an independent film investment deck. You can learn more about it in this blog, or you can grab a template for free in my film business resource package in the button below.

Grants

Grants are great in that they don’t require you to pay back the money so long as you only use it for its intended purpose.  They’re not so great in that they generally take a long time to be approved for the money, and you’re generally facing significant competition particularly for development stage grants. 

Soft Costs and Deferrals

This essentially means calling in every favor you have to make sure that you have the best chance possible to succeed in developing a package for your film.  This isn’t going to carry you the whole way though.  Most people who do this for a living don’t work purely on a deferral or commission basis.  I’m including myself in this, although I do defer a large portion of my fees and take on as much as I can on commission. 

That said, while the higher-level connectors, Producers, Executive Producers, and the like are generally unwilling to work on a purely deferral or commission basis, the friends you need to make a great crowdfunding video, concept trailer, or something similar might not be.  Getting their buy-in might help you make it to the next level.
​

Skin in the Game

Finally, we come down to the ever-present fallback of funding the development round yourself.  This is generally the fasted way to complete the round, but it has the obvious drawback of needing deep enough pockets to just shell out and pay the money you need to get it done. 

I know all of this is really hard to grasp, and quite frankly it’s a lot.  While I do consult on this sort of stuff, I’m not cheap. (with good reason.) I try to make a lot of information available through my site, but there are times that you just kind of need someone to answer your questions and re-orient you.  As such, I’ve decided to start a special mentorship group. 

This special training group gets you access to additional content, an exclusive discussion group, and most importantly weekly group video calls where I’ll answer your questions personally, and occasionally bring on people who would also be of benefit to the group’s needs.  Click the button below to go to a form and express interest in this group.  Spots are limited.

Also, don’t forget about the Free indiefilm business resource package to get your free Investment deck template, e-book, white-paper, and more. .

Thanks so much for reading.  Please share it! Also click the buttons below for more free content.

What Screenplays are Studios ACTUALLY Buying?

If you’re a screenwriter, you have two options.  Produce it yourself, or option your work to a producer.  In order to option your work, you need to understand who is going to buy your movie.  Unfortunately, there’s more bad and incomplete information than there is good information out there.  Recently, a client of mine forwarded an email he got back from a contact in Hollywood who worked as a script doctor.  This email epitomized that bad information, so I thought I’d redact any contact information and publish it for others to learn from as well.  (I did check with my client first, and he was good with it.)

Here’s what the script doctor said Hollywood wanted.  Their responses in title, mine in the paragraphs following.

1. Contained Thriller or Horror: ideally one location about 5-8 actors (no A-listers needed). This is most scripts being bought or sold these days.

These are great if you’re producing the film yourself and looking to do it as cheaply as possible.  Films like this can be shot on the cheap, so it's significantly easier to produce them. Given that horror or thriller movies are less execution or name-talent dependent they have a greater chance to sell on the strength of the genre alone. Given that, such producers are more interested in them.  Unfortunately, these are the vast majority of the films made every year that find some degree of place in the market which has resulted in a massive glut in the market and each film makes next to nothing. 

I know this because I've repped several of them.  Most times the script doctors don’t actually know how the producers or production company end up getting paid, as the writers (and ESPECIALLY "Script Doctors”) are paid up-front

More than 20,000 films are made in the US every year, at most 10% of those get distribution to any meaningful degree.  Thrillers and horror films are the only projects that have a chance at getting into that to 10% without IP or Talent, but in the end you still end up competing with 2,000 other films, most of which have better assets and positioning than you do.  This is why I'm increasingly advocating other paths forward.

In general, the only way this is advantageous is if you produce it yourself.  We're doing family films because that's what most every buyer wants right now, and there's an easier pipeline to follow that has a better chance of success if it gets done.  ​

2. Something with an existing IP. A novel, a graphic novel/comic book, a short story, a short film... anything that already has a fan base or following ideally.

This is why I’m currently helping a client option the rights to some books, as it's the most reliable path to success even if its slightly longer path it is a better chance at success.  If you want to get a film made first to make that part easier, it is a viable path.  However, if you want to raise a larger amount of money so your film has a better chance at finding a bigger distributor and bigger audience, then you’ll need some level of recognizable IP.  I heard Brett Ratner say in an interview at AFM several years back that if he was just starting out what he’d do is read voraciously and find the newest up-and-coming IPs.  To option and use to build an audience.  The alternative is to generate your own IP, but that in itself is a very long road fraught with danger, as this video from Lindsay Ellis illustrates very well. 

RELATED VIDEO: HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED IN 10 YEARS OR LESS!

Also: HA! He thinks expanded short films sell.  That hasn't really been true for more than a decade since the amount of ready-to-sell feature films being made has ballooned, in fact, it's almost like features are the new shorts in terms of distribution revenue.  But that's a topic for another day.

3. A specific character piece for an actor looking to stretch themselves. If you’ve got a character-driven piece and can get an A-list actor attached because it is something they haven’t done before, you’re good to go.

I heard this a lot in film school, but the real-world applications are limited.  That is to say, while there is a kernel of truth in this concept, when it comes down to the implementation it's really more a platitude or truism at this point.  There’s a strong case to be made that casting against type has its merit.  The issue is that in general, the only way you can make it work is if you have a direct path to the name talent you want to talk to, and even then you have to get lucky and catch them at the right time. There are reasons I know this that I can’t publicly say…

4. Anything that will do well overseas. With China eating up all of our movies, they need scripts that are, fun, fast, action-packed and translate well and easily (aka not a lot of dialogue).

Again, something of a platitude or truism.  Of course, you have to think about overseas, which is one big reason that comedies and dramas are complete no gos. The books below go into that in more detail than I can in a blog. (yes, there are affiliate fees, but it's only pennies and I picked the books custom for this blog.)

That’s the basics right now. Of course, the caveat is if you write a brilliant script, it doesn’t matter what genre it is, but in reality, your chances of having it made, sold, and even optioned are very difficult roads ahead.

And here's the crux of the disagreement with this script doctor.  The brilliant script isn't so much as a way of breaking through any of the other things you need to be listed above, it's more a prerequisite to succeeding with any of them.  We all hear stories of films making it through the studio system, but these are the exceptions, not the rules.  

If selling your script doesn’t seem worth it, you’ll need to produce it yourself. You’ll probably need money to do that. If you want to raise money, you’ll need a myriad of documents, starting with an investment deck. My Free indiefilm resource pack has you covered with a template for that, as well as a free e-book, whitepaper, and a bunch of other templates too. Snag it for free in the button below. Thanks for reading, and if you liked it, please share it with someone who needs to know about selling their script.

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18 Steps to GROW your Filmmaking from Shorts to Features

Every filmmaker wants to see their work on the big screen.  However, given the state of the indie film theatrical market, very few filmmakers can pull it off outside of the festival circuit.  Especially for their first films.   It requires a lot of skill, and an idea that appeals to a wide audience, ideally an audience you already have an in with.  So how do you scale your films to that point?  Well, this blog can get you started.

In order to get a theatrical run for your film in today’s day and age, you need a distinctive voice, flawless technical execution, great writing, an audience you know how to reach, and some level of recognizable name talent.  But those things don’t come cheap.  Here’s a roadmap starting with what you can start as soon as you finish reading this blog. 

1. WATCH A LOT OF MOVIES.

I know, this is about filmmaking, but in order to develop your voice you need to consume the work of others.  If you consume the work of others, you’ll find things to emulate.  There’s no reason not to do this.  Many professional filmmakers I know try to watch 2 movies they have not seen a week and at least 2 movies they have seen in order to revisit and better understand the craft. 

2. MAKE SHORTS AS QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY AS YOU CAN

In order to develop both your Voice and your skills, you need to churn out some content.  Assuming you’re working full-time, you may want to try to make 12 limited to no budget shorts in a year.  One per month.  This will let you hone your skills and develop your work.  Don’t spend any money on this. 

3. GET CRITIQUE ON YOUR WORK.

The Filmmakers Subreddit as well as many groups on Facebook offer the ability to share your work for the purpose of critique.  Getting critique from other filmmakers will help you both develop your network, as well as your skills.  This can be a tricky prospect, but I've seen some decent feedback happening on the R/Filmmakers Subreddit.

4. SCALE UP FOR A BIG SHORT.

Now that you’ve honed your craft and developed your voice, you should try to make something of a calling card.  This time, instead of spending a month on it, spend 3 months on it.  Limit yourself to a few locations, but get a bigger crew and spend a little money on this.  Continue to grow your presence on social media while you’re at it.

5. SUBMIT THAT SHORT TO FESTIVALS TO BUILD YOUR BRAND.

You need more than rapid iterations to scale your brand.  You also need validation.  Start submitting to local fests so you can attend them and build your network.  As you’re submitting, make sure to continue to build your brand and your engagement on social media.  Do everything you can to get press once you get into festivals.  You probably won’t get major press, but you should definitely reach out to the smaller local papers. 

RELATED - 6 Rules for contacting Press 

6. START WRITING YOUR FIRST FEATURE, WEB SERIES, OR OTHER SALABLE PRODUCT.

As you’re doing this, start fleshing out the concept for something bigger. Something more than skill building.  Something you can actually sell.

7. AFTER YOUR FESTIVAL RUN IS DONE, DO ONE LAST SHORT.

This one is for all the marbles.  Make the short in the same genre and generally same feel as your feature.  It doesn’t have to be a proof of concept short, or the short to get the feature financed, it has to show you can pull off a feature.  Spend between 3 and 6 months making it perfect. 

8. SUBMIT THE FILM TO GENRE FESTIVALS AND BIGGER FESTIVALS.

Now that you’ve got what will (hopefully) be your last ever short, time to start making relevant contacts in the corner of the industry you seek to inhabit.  Submit your film to the relevant festivals, including one or two big ones then finish your big project script.

9. CROWDFUND YOUR NEXT BIG THING.

Yeah yeah yeah.  I know everyone hates crowdfunding.  However, if you do it right, you can fund a large portion of your movie for free, and get a huge piece of validation to help you, close distributors and investors.

10. SHOOT AND EDIT A FEATURE FILM

Expect this to take a year, but make sure you finish it well and in a technically adept way so that you can get distribution.

11. SUBMIT THE FILM TO ALL THE FESTIVALS YOU GOT INTO BEFORE, PLUS THE MAJORS

The reason you did your last two festivals was to make contacts, time to start calling them in.  Submit your film, and travel to all the ones you can.  Only wait for one major before giving your premier to a tier 2 festival. 

12. GET DISTRIBUTION FOR YOUR FEATURE OR WEBSERIES

This product won’t do you much good if no one can buy it.  Distribution is hard though and it helps to have good people on your team.  If you’re already here, check out my submissions portal through the button below.

13. MARKET YOUR WORK

After the festival run is done, make sure you work with your distributor market your movie. If they’ll let you this process will take a while

14. REPEAT STEPS 9-13

Make another feature.  If you can, double the budget.  Go back to the same people you worked with before if you liked them and they did well. ​

15. MAKE A BRAND FOR YOUR COMPANY

You should also consider monetizing your intellectual property in another way, like starting to brand your production company by creating T-Shirts for your crews, and other perch for your friends.

RELATED: 4 Reasons Niche Marketing is VITAL to your Indiefilm Success

16. HELP OTHERS MAKE THEIR FIRST FEATURE

If you want to be successful you’ll need to have a strong network and weird considerable influence.  No one can survive as an island in this industry, and helping others build their resumes and work can pay huge dividends.
​

17. GET AN AGENT, OR REPEAT STEPS 9-13

If you want to scale up, you’ll need help.  An agent can help you immensely.  You’ll need to live in a hub to get one, or at least have a MAJOR win at some film festivals. 

18.  RINSE AND REPEAT STARTING WITH STEP 9. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single roadmap to make this work. No one could give an 18-step process for foolproof success in any industry, and the film industry is particularly tricky.

The best we can do is more a flowchart and a series of steps until you can catch a big break. The real key is making a sustainable life while you wait for that break. It’s not easy, but it can be possible.   

If you liked this, share it. It helps a lot.  Also, sign up for my mailing list to get a bunch of free goodies including an ebook, whitepaper, investment deck template, festival brochure template, and a whole lot more. Get it today!

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How and Why to treat your Production Company Like a Small Business.

Last week we talked about the 4 major types of Media Entrepreneurship, so this week I thought I’d expand on the most common production company that my readers seem to run.  That’s the small production company that they hope to scale into something bigger.  Here’s why your production company is a small business, and how to treat it like one so you can see it grow.

1. ACCEPT YOU HAVE A SMALL BUSINESS

The film is both a business and an Art.  The two don’t have to be enemies and work much better together.  For more on what I mean, click the related link below.  I have a different point to make here.

While this may seem like the goal is to become a more scalable startup, in reality, it’s probably more like a small business that may grow to a medium business in time.  You’re unlikely to be able to use high-growth strategies like Silicon Valley Tech Startups to grow your business from a prototype to a highly used platform.  The requirements are different, and the film is less suited to iterations than software and apps are.

As such, if you’re a filmmaker, you probably have a small business.  Small businesses grow slowly over time by growing their audience and scaling up their offerings as revenue and investments allow.  If you want to grow your production company as you would a small business, start by making one great film and then make a bigger and better one once you’ve found your audience.

2. BUILD & ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

If you want to build a business, among the most important things to have are customers.  For filmmakers, this means having a deeply engaged audience and creating content for them on a regular basis.  Part of that is creating a genuine presence on social media, but the more important part is continually creating products for that audience to give them a reason to keep coming back and engaging with your business. ​​​

3. INCORPORATE AUDIENCE FEEDBACK INTO YOUR WORK

If you really want your audience to keep coming back, it’s important that they feel valued.  Incorporating their feedback into your films can be a great way to greatly deepen your relationship with your audience.  This is something that Marvel has used to great effect.  Half of the Endgame was callbacks to fan-favorite moments from the other 73 1/3 movies in phases 1 to 3.

Some higher-level creators have an antagonistic relationship with their fans.  The only way you can really afford to do this is if you have the backing of a large network to make sure that people can’t forget to come back to your work.  TV Tropes calls this Phenomenon Creator Backlash. ​

4. GROW YOUR SUPPLIERS AND WHO SELLS YOUR PRODUCTS

If you’re a small business in the manufacturing sector (which you’re not far from) you need to make sure your product is available as far and wide as possible in order to continue to expose your work to a new audience and grow your potential customer base.  This means you need to partner with distributors.  Distributors have higher prestige and higher paying outlets than you can get to on your own.  Also, since they have access to those higher-level outlets, you’re more likely to be discovered through them than on other platforms that are inundated with so much content it’s unlikely anyone will discover the work that you didn’t drive there yourself. 

Yes, this will mean that you'll need to make a lower percentage of the overall sale than you would by yourself.  So long as you're dealing with reputable distributors, this is just the cost of doing business.  Publishers sell their books at a 55% discount over retail to bookstores, and most any distribution warehouse for a given good or service will also sell the product at wholesale price and take a cut before paying the manufacturer.  Again, for this to be valid, you need to have honest and accurate reporting throughout the supply chain. ​

5. DON’T FORGET WHERE YOU GOT STARTED

Never forget your early adopters. The people who were with you from the beginning. They can be your biggest supporters and greatest brand advocates if you continue to show you value them. However, they can sometimes be hard to please, as I’m sure I’ll see in the comments.  Both Starbucks and the City of Seattle will never forget that's where the chain was born.  You shouldn't forget the people who knew you when.  

Thanks so much for reading this! If you liked it, please share it. It’s extremely helpful. Also, consider joining my mailing list and in so doing get access to my indie-film business resource package. It’s got an ebook, a white paper, an investment deck template, festival brochure templates, and a whole lot more.

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The 4 Types of Media Entrepreneurship

Traditionally, when we think of entrepreneurs we think of Steve Jobs starting Apple in a Garage, or Jeff Bezos Traveling across the country to raise funds while writing his business plan in the back seat of the car while his wife drove.  However, there’s more to entrepreneurship than that.  Entrepreneurs find new and novel solutions to problems by building organizations despite a huge amount of risk and uncertainty.

Since this month is Entrepreneurship Month on both this blog and the blog I run over at ProductionNext, I thought I’d start out the month with a little of an expansion of Film Entrepreneurship in general.  In this post, I’ll adapt a rather notable post by Steve Blank from a decade ago to the current landscape media entrepreneurs face, as well as where you’ll most likely find those entrepreneurs.

In his post, Steve outlines that there are 4 types of entrepreneurial organizations which are generally accepted as follows small businesses, scalable startups, large companies, and social entrepreneurs.  You can (and maybe should) read Steve’s post before reading this one.  (it’s short)

If you still don’t agree that filmmakers are entrepreneurs, I recommend you read more of my writing on that topic, in particular this blog and this blog.  While I could expand these into how other film industry stakeholders like sales agents, distributors, press, critics, or YouTubers, in the interest of keeping the scope completely addressable I’ll be working with a more traditional indie film archetype. 

Small Business Entrepreneurship Exemplified by Truly Indie Filmmakers.

According to Banks, these are the entrepreneurs who run a small businesses like a bodega or mom-and-pop shops.  They have no intention of nationwide franchises, but they still do what they can to make a living for themselves and their family.  This is where the vast majority of filmmakers are.  They’re the people wanting to do what they love and find a way to get paid for it.

The owner of the bodega must figure out who buys what from them, and the way they stay afloat is through personalized service that creates a deep connection with their customers.  Convenience also plays a factor.  They can’t compete on price alone with the huge multinational chains down the street, so they need to make sure that they offer something that the mega-chain down the road doesn’t. 

In this day and age, the job is similar for indie filmmakers.  We can’t compete with the major studios, but those studios don’t target a small niche, they target everyone who has 12 dollars.  As a result, they miss a lot of people which leaves a hole open for clever filmmakers to establish an audience, keep them engaged, and build a business for themselves. ​

Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship: Best Exemplified by Indie Filmmakers on the Traditional Studio Path.

Scalable startup Entrepreneurs are people like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, or Jeff Bezos.  They start a company from (next to) nothing, and then look to do more than address an existing need, they want to disrupt the entire system by creating a need and then filling it.  In doing so, they become mega-wealthy and change the world. 

Those starting a scalable startup are faced with an incredibly high degree of uncertainty, as well as a long road to profitability.  In general, they need significant outside funding in order to succeed.  Most of the time, they must invent something that can be patented that demonstrates a novel solution to a widespread problem with a working prototype in order to raise significant funding from institutional investors.  After that, they’ll need to take on an experienced team and specialized advisors in or If they have a track record in their industry, it helps significantly.

For filmmakers, these scalable entrepreneurs are those who have already made a successful project or two and are scaling up to make something bigger.  They’ll need to have proven themselves by getting validation either in the form of a huge engaged audience, a hugely successful film, or a Tier 1 festival win just to get their foot in the door.  Once their foot is in the door, they can then seek to raise money using their previous work or a concept trailer to raise the funds to make a much bigger movie.  In order to successfully raise those funds, they’ll need a strong package of people with specialized skills and followings of their own. ​​

Large Company Entrepreneurship: Best Exemplified by Digital Divisions of major studios & networks. 

Large company entrepreneurs are people within large organizations seeking to either create new projects that solve a need that has not yet been addressed by the company that they’re working for.  Sometimes this is achieved by creating a new division, other times it's a new product from an existing research and development division.  

A couple of examples of this would be when Intuit started what would become Quickbooks, as well as many other similar projects like Quickbooks pay, expense tracking, and what would become the among many others.  For the Film Industry, I’d say the most notable recent example would be Disney+, although the digital divisions of every major network would also qualify.  Adult Swim starts new experimental projects like this on a regular basis. 

The challenges faced by large company entrepreneurs outside the film industry are as you would expect.  With a large company comes bureaucracy, bureaucracy tends to move slowly, so adapting to change can be extremely difficult.  Funding also becomes highly political, so it can be difficult to keep projects afloat.
​
For film companies, this is extremely similar.  Much of the top brass don’t want to give up the cash cows they’ve build for risky divisions that will burn through cash and not necessarily make more of it.  Also, at least until recently many of the digital divisions were considered a career downgrade from the more traditional media divisions.  We’ll see if it remains true.

Social Entrepreneurship: best Exemplified by Documentary Filmmakers.

Social entrepreneurs who care more about the benefit of the work than the bottom line.  They don’t just want to change the world, they want to save it.  Think of Tesla, OSIGroup (Makers of the Impossible Burger) or Jinko Solar.  Similarly but on a smaller scale, there’s BiosUrns (makers of a biodegradable clay urn that grows a tree from your ashes.)

Success on this front is hindered due to the perception that it’s not much of a money maker.  It can be harder to find investors as well since you’re specifically saying profit isn’t your primary concern.  Most successful companies started with one idea that they could refine and execute before moving to other ideas that complement the same customer base.  They also are very conscientious about stating that their product does more than they provide whatever it is you bought.  There are other intangible benefits associated with the purpose that customers may consider weighing in their purchase decision.

For film, this is best exemplified by documentaries, but more recently diverse media has also been put into the spotlight in as a similar cause for social change. Documentaries are different when it comes to funding, but when they’re well done there is an addressable audience that’s hard to ignore and easy to convert.  Some movies do tree-planting campaigns with ticket sales as an additional incentive to convert, and most community screenings also benefit a non-profit organization.

Thanks so much for reading!  Let me know what you think of this in the comments, and PLEASE share It helps more than you’d think.

Also, if you would like to know more about the business of film and media, one of the best ways to do so is by joining my mailing list click the button below. It’s got a free monthly digest of educational content, a free e-book, a whitepaper, and some templates to help you raise money and market your film.

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How Independent Filmmakers can THRIVE in the current distribution Marketplace.

To cap off my first-ever distribution month, I thought I’d talk a little bit about where Independent Film Distribution is heading.  Markets are going to be a big center of commerce for the film industry for a few years, but they’re going to continue to wane for the truly independent filmmakers, which means one of the biggest areas for entry for filmmakers is likely to go away.  With the fall of Distribber, and how Amazon looks like it’s going to scale back its filmmaker direct distribution programs there’s only one real path left for filmmakers.  That path is to build an audience that’s highly engaged with your content and distribute not only your film to them but other products related to your Intellectual property (IP.)

BUILD AN ENGAGED AUDIENCE

The first step in this (as I’ve brought up in at least half of the blogs this month…) is to build a highly engaged audience and following.  This is something that Youtubers have become fantastic about.  You have to have lots of touch points with your audience and provide them a perspective that they emote with but can’t find anywhere else.  By that I mean…

Create Niche Content that speaks to an underserved audience

With a massive glut of generalized content, You have to identify an underserved niche and start to make authentic, high-quality content that speaks specifically to a small niche of people.  This turns the old TV model on its head, instead of being a 6/10 for 10 people, you need to be a 10/10 for 2 people, and budget your film in such a way that you can keep your business afloat on the revenue from that much smaller audience.  Luckily, when you do this you’ll be able to successfully sell the film, as you won’t be competing as directly with outlets with huge, bland libraries. 

Think less about the format

Movies don’t just have to be 90-minute feature films any more.  If you can establish a following, keep content coming in the form of shorts, webseries, and features.  Don’t spend more time on them than you have to, but make sure that you continue to release new content to engage with your audience. 

Sell Merchandise

Once you have a dedicated following, think about ancillary ways you can monetize your brand and your content.  Bands sell T-Shirts at their shows as their primary source of revenue, and film trends tend to follow about 5-10 years behind the music industry.  You have to start building ways to monetize your Intellectual Property and your Brand beyond simply selling your movie at 3.99 a pop. 

Community Screenings

Theatrical releases are not cost-effective for many filmmakers.  Instead, you can focus on building community screenings that give your core audience a place to congregate, and if you organize them well they can also be a great place to sell merch. It’s also a great place for you as the filmmaker to Skype in and answer questions directly. 

Create Custom Experiences around your IP

Mark Cuban (former owner of Landmark Theaters and Shark on Shark Tank) is fairly well known for saying this is the future of entertainment.  It’s not always easy for Indies to commute in this space, but if you’re releasing a horror film you might consider a themed haunted house as part of a release or as part of a community screening.  There are other ways to make this work in conjunction with your core IP, but it’s difficult to scale and tends to be a custom solution for each film.

​​Thanks so much for reading!  This blog is something of a mix between a distribution blog and something to make you think a little bit more like an entrepreneur.  If you like this sort of content, make sure you come back in February for Entrepreneurship Month.  If you don’t want to miss it, make sure you subscribe to my mailing list or check out my Youtube Channel.  If you want to be extra awesome, throw me a few bucks on Patreon. Links below.

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