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Self-Distribution Is A Four Letter Word
How hard can it be to distribute a film? Surely it can’t be any harder than actually making it? With the independent mindset that got me to go out there, raise the money and produce A Four Letter Word in the first place, I decided to embark on releasing it as well. Why? Because I’m a control freak, of course! And because it’s important for me to be able to pay back my investors so that I can keep making films. To be able to do that self-distribution seemed like the best way to go.
With my comedy, A Four Letter Word, I was in the lucky situation to receive a handful of different distribution offers for the film. The film has played at over 60 festivals around the world, picked up several prizes and gotten great feedback. So I didn’t think its ultra-low budget of only $125,000 shouldn’t be too difficult to recoup. But the distribution offers I received usually consisted of a low upfront payment and a small back-end participation deal. Once I declined them, the offers got a little bit more creative: A bigger upfront payment (still nowhere near the actual budget for the film) and a slightly higher back-end participation. Or no upfront payment but big backend participation (after the distributor had recouped all of their costs, of course).
The distribution offers were not totally unfair—they were certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Had this been my first film I probably would have gone for it. I know many moviemakers who knowingly accepted much worse deals for distribution, but with the attitude that they just wanted to get their film out there. “I don’t care about the money,” they say. “Getting the film out will help me get my next film made.” And, of course, “I can’t worry about the distribution stuff. All I want to do is make movies!”
All I want to do is make movies, too. In fact all I want to do is write and direct. But since no one would hire me to do that I also had to produce to get my films made. As a producer, I raise money. I promise my investors that they will make their money back. I owe it to myself to make it happen. That’s the only way I will be able to stay in business.
Hence self-distribution.
Theatrical distribution isn’t completely new territory for me. I sold the DVD and TV rights to my first film, the romantic comedy Slutty Summer, to a distributor but I released it myself in theaters. With openings in a total of only four theaters we didn’t make a huge impact on the box office, though the publicity the theatrical release generated did help in raising the film’s profile and in selling DVDs later.
Now, if I made mainstream movies, how would I go about releasing the film? I honestly don’t know. The upside is that you have a huge potential audience, but how do you reach them with a low-budget film without any movie stars? You need to find a niche and then hopefully expand beyond that niche. In my case finding that niche is easy: I make gay-themed films.
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Frantz Hall on 4/04/08 at 11:34 pm
I,m happy for your spirit....Don,t take no for a answer...Keep up the good work !
- Comment by Doris R Clifton on 5/01/08 at 4:51 pm
Hey! Thanks for a nice post, I like your style:D I’ve bookmarked this page, so if others are interested here is the location of bookmark http://www.propeller.com/submit/checkstory
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