Self-Distribution Secrets

No distributor? You're not out of the game yet.

by Dov S-S Simens | Published June 30, 1998

Moviemaking Advice From Dov S-S Simens
America's #1 Film Instructor

This is the fourth of a four-part series on dealing with film distributors. Part I was “Distribution Patterns: How to Re- lease” (MM#25). Part II was “The Distribution Deal” (MM#26). Part III was “How to Select a Distributor.” (MM#27).

You’re a moviemaker. You got the script, found some bucks, shot the movie, swear it’s great. Now you’ll take it to a festival to get a distributor and practice your Oscar speech.

That’s the game plan, anyway. But what happens when you do everything right and no distributor, not one (that’s correct, not even a company that specializes in foreign sales to Pakistan and Yemen) has made you an offer. There’s been a lot of talk. There’s been a lot of interest. But no cash. What are you going to do? It’s been shopped. Miramax and New Line both tell you, “wonderful production value.” They “love it” and “can’t wait to see your next film,” but right now their ’98 slate is booked. What are you going to do now?

You have 3 choices.First, admit that you made a piece of crap and go to med. school. Second, get a nickel-dime video distributor, take the box with your name on it and hustle your second project around to a new group of dentists for financing. Third, persevere and self distribute. (Before taking this route, however, consider the immortal words of Kenny Rogers: You have to know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.)

Let’s discuss self distribution for a filmmaker who has a 90-120 minute feature film that’s played at a couple of festivals, won a couple of awards, had some good interest but got no distribution offers.

Hopefully, you understand you’re going to spend another 12-18 months on this project. Thus, to maximize revenues, if there are to be any, you must first understand “sequencing,” which is the maximizing of revenue from all the global markets. It follows this sequence:

1st Theaters
2nd Pay-Per-View
3rd Video
4th Pay Cable
5th Basic Cable
6th PBS/TV
Bonus Foreign Markets

1ST: THEATRICAL RELEASE: If you can book your film in the top 20 markets (NY, LA, Chicago, etc.) with at least 1 print in 1 art house theater for 2 weeks with corresponding publicity and ads, you will have created a product that the audience believes has a perceived value of $8.00 (ticket price for a movie). Even if people don’t attend, this will trigger sales to the ancillary markets. Theaters to look for are national chains similar to the Landmark Theaters. Examples are Laemmle Theaters (Los Angeles), Film Forum (NYC), Dobie (Austin), Brattle (Boston), Key (Washington, D.C.), CineMagic (Pittsburgh), Angelika (Houston), Roxie (San Francisco) and the Music Box (Chicago). To book you will probably get a percentage deal (25-35% of box office) or a “house-nut” deal, where the theater owner takes out his expenses first, then splits. Another method is called “4-Walling,” where you literally rent the 4 walls of the theater, place your ads, sit in the box office boot, pray, and keep all the money for yourself. Spending 1-3 weeks in each city with a total of 5-7 prints could easily take you 12-16 months. But you now have something that’s worth $8.00. Bottom line box office gross could be $200,000-$500,000.

2ND: PPV: Depending on your theatrical exposure, you can now sell the Pay-Per-View rights to companies like Spectradyne, SelecTV, and RequesTV, who will split 50-50 with you on distribution revenues from hotel/motel travelers ($6-$7 fee) and home viewers who dial cable operators ($3-$4 fee) after hotels and cable operators take out their cut. Bottom line could be in the neighborhood of $20,000-$50,000.

3RD: VIDEO: This could be wonderful revenue. Assuming your film has been booked in theaters and video renters have seen the newspaper ads but did not attend the movie when it was in theaters, they are now curious about seeing it at home for a rental fee of $2-$3. Let’s assume there are 25,000 video stores who each purchase only 2 cassettes each from a video distributor at a fee of $99. You will gross almost $5.0 million. If, at the low end, 1 out of 5 stores orders only 1 cassette priced at $24.95, the video distributor will gross $125,000. Thus, video sales could range from $125,000 to $5 million depending upon the theatrical exposure and word-of-mouth of your product when it was in theaters. The national organization for Video Stores and Video Distributors is the VSDA (818-385-1500). Start calling. Bottom line: $125,00-$5 million.

4TH: PAY CABLE: Your best sales now will be to the cable industry, but specifically to those channels that program mostly movies. For our purposes, movies are defined as “those things that you see in newspaper ads in the entertainment section.” The pay-cable buyers are HBO, Cinemax (owned by HBO), Showtime, The Movie Channel (owned by Showtime), StarZ, Encore (owned by StarZ), Disney and Playboy. Disney and Playboy don’t pay big dollars. Thus, there are only 3 cable networks who will give you $100,000-$1,000,000 for a limited theatrical release. They are HBO, Showtime, or StarZ. Good luck. Bottom line: $100,000-$2,000,000.

5TH: BASIC CABLE: Although pay cable pays the most, the likelihood of getting a sale to one of the big 3 is not good if you haven’t had your film in at least the top 20 markets. However, you can get basic cable sales of $25,000-$150,000 from basic cable networks that cablecast films that have no theatrical release but have been award winners at festivals. These networks are the Independent Film Channel, Bravo, Sundance, TNT, TBS, USA, A&E, etc. Bottom line is usually $30,000-$150,000.

6TH: PBS/TV: The most prestigious sale will probably be to PBS. Although the money is not great ($425-$550/minute) it could still garner you an additional $25,000-$60,000 and massive credibility. Thus, get the Public Broadcasting Directory ($15 from Corporation of Public Broadcasting) and contract stations. You will either get a “lead” or “presenting” station (see directory above) or a regional network, such as CEN (Central Education Network, Des Plaines, Illinois) or PMN (Pacific Mountain Network, Denver) or SECA (Southern Educational Communications Association, Columbia, South Carolina), etc. Bottom line: $30,000-$60,000.

BONUS: FOREIGN MARKETS: Be- sides America, think globally. Thus, you would like to sell, (the correct word is “license”) your film to other nations or territories. There are approximately 35 nations (Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Ecuador, Israel, etc.) or territories (Middle East, east Africa, Benelux, Scandinavia, etc.) around the world that can afford to pay you some money for the rights to market your film in their nation for a period of 4-10 years. To reach these international buyers you will attend 1 or 2 of the 3-5 film markets (AFM, Cannes, MIFED, RAINDANCE & IFFM) that take place each year and make an arrangement with a foreign sales company which will represent your product for a fee of approximately 35 percent. Bottom line: approximately $50,000-$500,000.

It appears that everything depends on you taking your film, with a couple of awards, and making it into a movie. This means paying for prints and newspaper ads. This is called the P&A budget. A 35mm print is $1,500 each from your lab if they did the initial answer print. If you are 16mm and need to do a blow-up it could cost an additional $35,000-$55,000.

You will need $75,000 to $150,000, minimum, to achieve a limited release and some national exposure to trigger the video, cable, PBS and foreign sales. Your P&A budget includes (A) Prints, (B) Publicity and (C) Advertising.

Prints are $5,000-$10,000. Publicity will include posters ($3,000), press kits ($500), publicity photos ($500), flyers ($500), VHS cassettes ($750), ad designs ($500), 35mm trailers ($5,000), publicists ($5,000), etc. Another $15,000-$20,000 and advertisements (1-2 column inches per day in 150-250 newspapers for 2 weeks) will run an additional $50,000-$100,000 for a grand total of $75,000-$150,000, for the possibility of grossing $555,000-$8,260,000.

Well, moviemakers. You’ve made your celluloid baby. Spent your money. You’ve taken it to a couple of festivals. Won a couple of awards. Have no offers, but a lot of pleasant talkers. If you have a minimum of $75,000 and 18 months, then self distribution is possible. But be sure you know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em. Happy moviemaking!

QUESTIONS FOR MR. HOLLYWOOD

Dear Mr. Hollywood,
I am working on trying to produce my own script and I think it’s important to have at least one name actor in the film. I know if I send my script to an actor’s agent they’ll realize I’m an indie filmmaker and will probably trash my inquiry, thinking their actor is too good for any small-time film. If they do take any notice, they’ll want to see budgets, etc. and again see I’m small time. How do I bypass an agent and get an actor interested in my project?
- Stymied in St. Louis

Dear Stymied,
So you discovered the hard reality that agents won’t help first-time moviemakers, for they know it’s a low-budget film and their 10% of that low budget isn’t worth the paper or the phonecall. However, you’ve got one of those moviemaker Catch 22s. Can’t get financing without a name and can’t get to the names because the agent won’t give you access. So how do you get to a name is the question. Answer is: “Who you sleeping with lately?” or “Know anyone who’s sleeping with anyone lately who would like to be an Associate Producer?” Although I’m joking there are actually numerous true stories based on the above two scenarios that have gotten stars attached to projects. However, you’re in Missouri and the only celebrities there are the Budweiser Clydesdales. And I assume you’re not trying to remake National Velvet. Thus, a secret way to circumventing agents who won’t help is through hiring an established casting director. Hire a casting director (Casting Society of America, 606 N. Larchmont, LA, CA, 213-463-1925) for a flat fee (they usually charge 10% of the above-the-line cast budget) to set you up with four to five 5 lunches. Then it will rest on your presentation and your script…Let’s do lunch!

Dear Mr. Hollywood,
In 1989 I moved to the Northwest to work for a software company that has since done extremely well. I managed to get into the stock at a good time and now find myself with some disposable income. I’ve been thinking about doing a movie. Maybe my biography. I’m much too busy to do this myself, but can I contract with someone to write and film the story I want to make?
- Signed, Micromogul in Washington

Dear Micromogul,
Another geek with money living up in Bellvue. So you want to do an ego project about yourself and you actually think that the world wants to see your story. Well if you have the money to spend and want to go forward the best way to get an undiscovered writer with talent is to go to your local film and screenwriting co-ops. Washington has the 911 Media Arts Center (117 Yale Ave N, Seattle, 206-682-7422) and query the Seattle/Washington Film Commissioner (Suzy Kellett, 206-464-7148) for names of talented undiscovered writers. You’ll pay $600-$800/week for 5 weeks and you’ll only spend $3,000-$4,000 for a first draft. Since you’re wealthy, go for a pro. Pick a TV series you like and get the names of a couple of staff writers who’d love to write a feature film. You’ll be paying Writer’s Guild minimum which can cost $35,000-$55,000 for a treatment and 2 drafts…Happy writer-hunting.

Dear Mr. Hollywood,
I can’t seem to find any information about the video-to-film transfer systems. I called one place and was told they could transfer a videotape with an S-VHS format as long as there was 340 to 400 horizontal lines of resolution, which my system does provide. I called another place and was told the S-VHS format was a horrible format for a video-to-film transfer and that Betacam was the best format. The second gentleman suggested that I go out and buy a $30,000 Betacam video camera. I would appreciate it if you could find out what video formats work in the video-to-film transfers, the cost of video-to-film transfers and if there are any procedures that would aid in this kind of transfer.
- Signed, Muddled in Michigan

Dear Muddled,
First, to find information about video-to-film transfers, call the two labs (DuArt in New York, 212-757-4580 and Foto Kem in Burbank, 818-846-3101) that specialize in the process. Finally, stop listening to those two gentlemen who don’t know much. S-VHS was used on the movie Hoop Dreams which was transferred to 35mm and projected in theaters and made money. Next, stop thinking Betacam and $30,000. Digital is the word and it appears that the best, least expensive digital camera is a Canon XL1 which costs about $4,500. Which means you can rent it for $300-$400/week. Now stop worrying about which format to use and get your stage friends to get the great script and shoot it on tape (digital or S-VHS) if you have less than $10,000, in 16mm if you have less than $50,000 and 35mm if you have over $120,000...Stop over-thinking and follow the MovieMaker slogan - just shoot it! MM