Adventures in Self-Releasing: Learn from My Mistakes, I Have

by Jeffrey Goodman | Published March 20, 2009

I thought a good topic today would be a discussion of the various mistakes I made along the way. Or what I will do differently the next time around. I actually feel like I have done pretty damn well, given that really this was the first time I have navigated this crazy world. But, there are a few things I’ve learned that I will take into account, and probably even change, for the next movie.

First off—and probably most importantly—next time I will do my HD masters and have a professional DVD from the time of our festival premiere. We premiered The Last Lullaby in late March 2008 as part of the Target Ten Narrative Feature Competition at AFI Dallas. Since then, we have played at 10 other festivals, and I have been in attendance at every single one.

However, at this point, all I have done is put money into making and promoting the movie. And, aside from the Louisiana tax credits my investors are about to earn, the movie has received no money coming back to it. Who knows how many DVDs I could have sold by now if I was selling them after each positively-charged Q&A—or if they had been available on my Website since March 28, 2008?

I’m just taking a guess, but I would say at least 5,000. And at $20 each, with approximately an $18 profit margin, that’s $90,000 my investors would have already seen coming back to them.

So why didn’t we do this? Mostly because my team was still thinking about things in an old way. We can’t sell DVDs at festivals because once we do that, no distributor will be interested in taking our movie out theatrically. And they might not even be interested in the DVD rights since we’ve already begun exploiting that market. All I can to say to that now is, “Wrong.” That’s an old-fashioned way of looking at things. I promise you, it’s out of date. Distributors nowadays want to know that the moviemaker is out there building an audience. Because at the end of the day, the more work the moviemaker is doing to build a core group of support, the more everyone benefits.

That leads me to the next major thing I would change: Next time around, I won’t wait to have our Website up until after the movie is completed. I will have it up while I am raising money and evolve it as the movie comes together. That way, I will have an extra year or two to build interest and our audience.

Same thing with my monthly update list. I will start adding people to the new movie’s list and begin updating them as soon as the money comes together (if not sooner). That’s just another year or two I have to build momentum. So why not, right? And, hopefully, all of the people who are currently Lullaby fans will agree to join this new list as well.

That’s really the secret, I feel. You want to be like Woody Allen or Stanley Kubrick? David Lynch or David Gordon Green? You have to build your audience and know the size of them as you move forward. That way, you can perhaps remain an independent—making movies how you want to make them that actually pay for themselves.

After living in Los Angeles for seven years, Jeffrey Goodman returned to his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana to direct The Last Lullaby. Co-written by the creator of Road to Perdition, and starring Tom Sizemore and Sasha Alexander, The Last Lullaby was filmed entirely in and around Shreveport and financed by 48 local investors.

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adventures in self-releasing afi dallas david lynch hd masters investors jeffrey goodman louisiana moviemaker magazine moviemaking road to perdition sasha alexander shreveport stanley kubrick target ten narrative feature competition the last lullaby tom sizemore

COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by Tony Comstock on 3/20/09 at 4:28 pm

The only thing a distributor cares about is whether or not they can make money off of your movie. Full stop. And take it from someone who knows, if you can sell 5K units yourself, they *will* be interested.

Whether or not they can move enough units to make it worth giving up the $18/piece margin is another question—and the answer to that question is spelled A D V A N C E !

Comment by Digital Film School on 3/20/09 at 5:26 pm

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Comment by Jefrey Goodman on 3/20/09 at 6:31 pm

Hi Tony and Digital Film School,

Thanks for following along. I hope that this continues to be useful and informative. See you next Friday!

All the best,

Jeffrey

Comment by Jeff Hanel on 3/24/09 at 10:33 pm

You came into our school today and and gave a fantastic lecture on your film and about making independent films. It gave me, personally, a great insight into what I have to do, on my own journey, to make the films that I believe in and how to show other people that vision.
You are an inspiration to all of us in the Shreveport/Bossier area who are aspiring to become film makers. Thank you so much.
Cheers,
Jeffrey Anthony Yorio Hanel

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Hi Jeffrey,

Thank you so much for your very kind words! I hope that you will continue to follow along, and I look forward to your work.

All the best,

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Hi Seo,

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All the best,

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Comment by Jeffrey Goodman on 5/19/09 at 6:03 pm

Hi SEO Copywriting service,

Thank you so much for your very kind comments. It makes me so happy that you’re finding the blog useful, and I do hope you’ll continue to read along.

All the best,

Jeffrey

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Hi Nintendo r4 uk,

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Hi Website Link Building,

I agree, too. Each year, I think the internet will only become a more and more important distribution tool for moviemakers.

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All the best,

Jeffrey

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Hi Создание сайтов в Киеве,

Thanks so much for your very nice words! I truly appreciate it and hope that you’ll continue to follow along.

All the best,

Jeffrey

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Hi Lingerie,

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Comment by Jeffrey Goodman on 9/10/09 at 6:31 am

Hi Zen,

Thanks so much for your comments. It’s always great to hear that the posts are useful.

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All the best,

Jeffrey

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All the best,

Jeffrey

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All the best,

Jeffrey

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I have done is put money into making and promoting the movie. And, aside from the Louisiana tax credits my investors are about to earn, the movie has received no money coming back to it.

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Thanks so much, alibaba. I really appreciate you saying that.

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Comment by Search on 8/11/10 at 1:45 pm

This is really interesting Jeff. Accepting our mistakes is a step forward in making a better one. We all learn from our mistakes and from that we create a better one. ;)

Comment by Jeffrey Goodman on 8/12/10 at 8:28 am

Hi Search,

Thanks so much for the kind words. I really appreciate ‘em.

Jeffrey

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Yah man, we all have to experience the lessons along the way. We can only work with the best knowledge we have at the time.

The good thing is we can learn from them and become better.

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Hi george foreman grill and griddle,

I completely agree. Thanks so much.

All the best,

Jeffrey

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Hi onketing india,

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The key is to build the audience, old hat ideas of trying to get the theatrical release first will not work in a world where proven track records sell over new ideas. Once you have a market then you can show your film has value.

Comment by Jeffrey Goodman on 11/10/10 at 9:44 am

Hi Stubby Holders,

Thanks so much for your comment. I truly appreciate it.

All the best,

Jeffrey

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Thanks so much for your post, and kind words. I hope you’ll stop in again soon.

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