The Guerrilla Rep
The Guerrilla Rep
  • Home
    • About
    • In the Press
  • Blog
  • YouTube
  • Projects
    • Cicada Moon
    • Film Insight
    • Events >
      • Producer Foundry >
        • Producer Foundry Pitch Workshop
      • Archieve
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Submit
    • Early Stage
    • Completed
  • COVID-19
    • COVID-19 News/Affects
    • COVID-19 Resources
  • Home
    • About
    • In the Press
  • Blog
  • YouTube
  • Projects
    • Cicada Moon
    • Film Insight
    • Events >
      • Producer Foundry >
        • Producer Foundry Pitch Workshop
      • Archieve
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Submit
    • Early Stage
    • Completed
  • COVID-19
    • COVID-19 News/Affects
    • COVID-19 Resources

The 5 Windows of DIY IndieFilm Distribution.

6/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Not every film is well suited for traditional distribution. Most market distributors have a saying for what they’re looking for, “Bullets and Babes.” So if you’ve made a film that doesn’t fit the hot genres and doesn’t have any notable talent, you’re going to need to plan your distribution carefully. Luckily, there are tools that can help you make the most out of your DIY distribution. Here’s a top-level view of them.

Window 1: Promote and get Partners to help you

Whether we’re talking about traditional distribution or self-distribution, phase one is always to spread awareness of your film. It’s generally best for this to start in the early stages of making your film. However, it’s never too late to get started.

First seek out partners with expertise in traditional distribution, online marketing, and festival promotion. They can help you minimize costs and maximize your efficacy. They’ll also help you build and engage with your community.


Once your film is completed, you should start submitting to smaller festivals and those that fit whatever niche your film falls into. If you made a film about environmental issues, there are a lot of green film festivals, including the SF Green Film Festival. If you happen to be an Asian American there are festivals that were created for you as well, including CAAMfest. If you made an LGBTQ film, then there are quite a lot of festivals available to you. If you’re in SF, the big fish is Frameline.

No matter what, make sure to submit to your local festivals. You can start a loyal fan base and grow hometown recognition by submitting to these festivals. Often, they’re easier to get into. This is less true if you’re in San Francisco or a major hub. If you are, you might want to target the newer film festivals.

These festivals won’t do much for you in terms of traditional distribution. The only ones that will are the top tier festivals, I.E. Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and perhaps SXSW. If you can get in to any of those, then your chances for traditional distribution go up substantially. Although, it’s not likely you’ll get in. Here’s a chart on Sundance submissions vs. screenings
Picture
Picture
Photo Credit the Independent Film Database 
​
​Feel free to submit to the next top tier festival that’s coming up. The submissions are not incredibly expensive, and if you get in the career boost is substantial. Since they require premier status, you might even want to hold back accepting a place in any of the other festivals. That said, if you don’t get into that first one don’t wait for the next one. Start taking festival spots, once they’re more than a year old, they’re a lot harder to sell. Films are not evergreen. ​

Window 2: High Touch PPVOD and DVDs in Store

​As soon as you get into a single festival, get your film on Ingram Entertainment, VHX, and Vimeo On Demand. There will be an up front cost for most of those. Potentially as much as about 300 to 500 USD All in.

Vimeo On Demand and VHX are VOD platforms that recently merged. I prefer VHX, but we’ll see what happens in the coming months after the merger. They’re both 90/10 splits, with the 90 going to the filmmaker. Vimeo requires up front fees, VHX currently does not. That said, they’re not available on as many platforms as accessible as something like iTunes or google play. Additionally they’re not great about helping with Marketing. But retaining the 90/10 split is much better to earn some money for your creation. VHX also lets you keep track of people who buy your video and even add their emails to your list.

Ingram Entertainment is a DVD wholesaler. It’s the platform used by booksellers large and small, as well as many other brick and mortar content selling businesses. You’d be surprised where you end up with your content on Ingram. *COUGH*

This window should be done concurrently with the first window. When your project gets into a festival, make sure to call local DVD retailers and bookstores to let them know that your film is in a local festival and they can get your DVD on Ingram. Make sure you include local stores with your DVD on your handouts, as well as the VHX and Vimeo URLs. You’d be surprised what support you can drum up. You could include a QR code, but hardly anyone uses them.
​

Window 3 –Broad TVOD

About 6 months after your initial VOD release, towards the end of your festival run you should consider hiring an aggregator and getting your film on iTunes and Google Play. Depending on which aggregator you use, you may want to do Createspace yourself, since it’s relatively easy.

It’s nearly impossible to get on iTunes without an Aggrigator. You’ll want to pick your aggregator carefully, since some of them will have connections to get you on Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Occasionally Netflix.
Make sure you do your research on aggrigators, and understand what they charge. Here’s a great start on that from NoFilmSchool.

http://nofilmschool.com/2016/02/whats-aggregator-and-why-do-you-need-one-release-your-film-online

Window 4 — SVOD

After about 6–9 months on it’s time to boost your brand by getting your film on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Fandor [My favorite] and some others. You won’t get much money for this, but you will get a lot of visibility. You’ll need connections through an Aggregator or a sales agent for this one, as they don’t take open submissions. Additionally, this is far from guaranteed, they generally only take 1 in 10 of films they’re pitched.

The real point of this is to build your brand for your next film. If you want to build to something better, telling investors your last film is on Netflix helps them understand that you are experienced and tested.

Window 5 — Loss leader

Once your licenses expire from the SVOD period, you should consider giving the film away for free on your website, and perhaps even youtube or regular vimeo. This window is likely to be 3–4 years after release. Personally, I prefer giving away streams in exchange for an email. This will help you if you want to crowdfund a movie, or when you release your next film for windows 1 and 2.
Picture
Self distribution is exceedingly hard to do well.  It's not uncommon for filmmakers to spend more on agrigation than they make back in sales.  If you want to maximize your chances of success on self distribution, you'll need a marketing plan and some allies.  I'm offering a FREE Strategy session to help you figure out how to go about getting those things in place.  Click the link below to book yours today.  
Book your FREE Strategy Session Today!
Picture

Check out my Book for more on Distribution.

Picture
If you’d like to know more about distribution and how to use film markets, check out my book on Barnes and Noble and Amazon

It's the first and so far only book on Film Markets, used at 10 film schools nationwide.  

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
What is a Producer's Rep anyway?
Picture
What's the difference between a Sales agent and a Distributor?
Picture
Indiefilm Distribution Media Rights
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    My name is Ben, I'm an Entrepreneur, Producer's Rep, and Author.  I'm the founder of Guerrilla Rep Media, Co-Founder/CMO of ProductionNext, and founder of Producer Foundry.  Together, the organizations seek to help make filmmaking a more economically sustainable endeavor.  I am dysic, I have capitalization issues, and the blogs are often unedited. opinions all my own.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Join my Mailing List for FREE Resources!

    I'm happy to offer a FREE Resource Package to anyone who joins my mailing list.  You'll also recieve monthly digests of my articles and other valuable resources.
    Sign Up!

    My Books

    Picture
    Find it at
    Your Local Library
    Books Inc
    Barnes and Nobles
    ​Amazon

    Audiobook Free through Audible.com

    Picture

    Available exclusively through Amazon.com​

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    February 2015
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    Affiliates
    AFM
    Aggregation
    Angel Investing
    Angel Investment
    Audience Engagement
    Branding
    Business Plan
    Business Planning
    Career Growth
    Community
    Contracts
    Crowdfunding
    Data
    Deck
    Distribution
    Distribution Agreements
    Distribution Deliverables
    Distributors
    DVD
    Email Marketing
    Entertainment
    Entrepreneurialism
    Executive Summary
    Film Budgeting
    Film Distribution
    Film Festivals
    Film Finance
    Film Financing
    Film Industry
    Film Investment
    Filmmaking
    Film Marketing
    Film Markets
    Film Money
    Financing
    First Feature
    Genre
    Grants
    Grantwriting
    Hustle
    Indiefilm
    International
    International Sales
    Look Book
    Markeing
    Marketing
    Marketing Materials
    Packaging
    Packaging Documents
    Physical Media
    PR
    Press
    Producer's Rep
    Publicity
    Sales Agency
    Sales Agents
    Screenplay
    Script
    Self Distribution
    Short Films
    Social Media
    Staged Financing
    Studio
    Tax Incentives
    Technology
    Terminology
    Transparency
    Venture Capital
    Waterfalls

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Services

Menu

Contact

Copyright © 2019 Guerrilla Rep Media.  All rights reserved