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Self-Distribution Is A Four Letter Word
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Marketing a film to the gay audience isn’t all that difficult, as I can focus my marketing and advertising on the gay media. Now to actually get the gay audience to show up? That is difficult. Many not so good gay films have been released over the years. It used to be that gay audiences were starved for seeing their own images on screen and would go and see anything. Not so anymore. So we are working on positioning ourselves as the gay film to see in theaters this season.
Except for the media part, what else does a theatrical release entail? Well, booking the theaters of course. Which is difficult. Lots of theaters are weary of self-distributors; they fear the moviemakers won’t do a good job—they won’t put enough money into the release—so they might ask you to four-wall the theater (i.e. putting all the risk on you by having you rent the theater for maybe $10,000 for the week). A better deal is to share in the box office revenue. A big studio might be able to negotiate a 50-50 split for opening week, but you will have tough time getting anything more than 30 to 35 percent (though those numbers can go up if you take in a certain amount).
If your release is a digital one, most theaters will tell you that doing a digital projection means renting that equipment (even if they have it in theater they will insist on a rental fee). This can be anything from $400 a week to $1,000 or more. Of course they expect you to spend several thousand dollars on advertising. You then have to make your posters, postcards, banners, etc. You will need 35mm trailers that can be shown prior to other films. You will probably need to hire someone to deal with press and make sure you get reviewed everywhere, too.
Okay, listing all of these things I’m staring to doubt my decision to do it myself. But hey, even if it all fails, it is still exciting. And for sure one can learn something from it all!
Self-distributing the DVD is a whole other ball game. A game I’m not that informed about at the moment, but that I’m planning to learn more about in the months to come. I do know that I have to design the covers and have the actual DVDs produced. I need to publicize and advertise. I know I can sell the DVD on my own Website, but I also need to get it into stores and on other video selling sites including Amazon.com. For this I’m hoping to get a distributor interested in making a service deal so that the distributor can sell the DVD for me in exchange for a 20 to 25 percent commission.
All this is daunting I know. And it’s not for everyone. But I figured that I have to give it a try. Once my invertors are paid back I will start making a profit, and though distributing will take up a lot of my time, for sure it is time better spent than to take a dead-end job for money between my film shoots. I’m not saying that any of this is easy, but as an independent filmmaker I’m starting to feel that this is part of the job description, and I do intend to have fun every step of the way. Hey, if it were easy everybody would do it! And besides, compared to actually making a film—how hard can it be?
Casper Andreas runs his own production company, Embrem Entertainment, in New York City. He has written, directed and produced three feature films. His second feature, the gay romantic comedy A Four Letter Word, opened at the Chelsea Clearview in NYC on March 28 and will open at Sunset 5 in LA on April 11th (with more cities to follow). Casper will be present with his cast during the opening weekends. For more info about Casper’s films and to pick up a DVD of his first feature, Slutty Summer, visit www.embrem.com.
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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
- Comment by cash wild on 5/22/08 at 3:29 pm
its not good to be a control freak. i should know.
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