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Welcome to Atomic Studios!
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Marketing/Distribute: Looking for Film Buyers? 5 steps to secure distribution for your indie film...
Looking for Film Buyers? 5 steps to secure distribution for your indie film
Copyright © 2008 Daniel Lafleche
So, you have an indie film and you want to find distribution.
Never have so many options for distribution been available; never has it been so confusing to decide what is right for you and your film. The industry is experiencing a transitional moment; everyone knows online downloads are the future, but nobody knows exactly how it will play out. As well, distribution has gone online too, offering a plethora of choices for the indie filmmaker and producer. What to do, what to do.
This article is the first of a 5-part series that looks at all of the avenues open to you as a filmmaker and distributor. We'll offer some tips on how to find your film a home.
Regardless of your film's ultimate destination, your goal is to find a license buyer for your film. Who are film buyers? We're talking about broadcast TV (cable, satellite, and terrestrial), home DVD companies, VOD service providers, and mobile content providers.
Let's start this series by examining the psychology of this rare and overworked professional. Here are five things you should know about Film Buyers and 5 tips for putting the best face of your film forward.
1. Film Buyers want a 'story'. This little bit of terminology here might create some confusion. We're not talking about the plot of your film or the subject matter of your documentary, but a story that will sell the film--on paper. You should be doing everything in your power to create that story. To do this, you have to distance yourself from the film you know and love and ask yourself: What will sell this film to somebody who does not know and love it the way I do? The answer to this question is the 'story' you will use to sell your film.
The most obviously valuable raw material for a sales story is...star power. Film stars often fail to attract their audience, but nothing makes film buyers feel more peaceful than the presence of some known names in the mix. If you are bereft of any bona fide name power, do not fear, you have other options. Festival play and any press generated are also incredibly important. You should be knocking yourself out to find some kind of festival and press exposure for your film. Even if it's not a top festival or a top publication, festival and press play will take your film from having no story at all to having a first chapter. Hype is over-hyped, but your film is going to look more valuable to buyers if it has a story. If you can say, "This film already had some exposure. This film has been reviewed. This film has played at a festival. This film has a response. This film has an online presence. This film has the beginnings of an audience or a niche audience," then you have a story buyers will want to cuddle up with.
If you are looking for ideas you should check out the industry trades. Look at how distributors market their films, and figure out how to do this on a small scale. You want your story to be a comfortable and familiar one. "But my film is original, beautiful, heart-breaking, unique...and my marketing must be the same," you say. This brings us to the next point...
2. Film Buyers think in dollars, not passion. When selling your film, don't rely on your own enthusiasm and passion to make the sale. Again, channel your enthusiasm into a narrative the film buyer can understand, a narrative about how and why this film is going to attract people to it. Has this genre of film had any recent notable successes? Does your film intersect with any issues or topics that are garnering attention? Save your passion for your filmmaking, and focus your remaining energy into crafting a professional marketing campaign and learning the highly efficient language of film buyers.
3. Film buyers are overextended, have short attention spans, and don't want to waste time. Film buyers are professionals. Hook them fast with a comprehensive one sheet (or sell sheet). The circumstances in which you are pitching your film are going to vary, but one thing that everybody will need at some point is a one sheet as part of their promotional package. Here is the crucial thing: your sheet should be short and to the point. This sheet is a cliff notes to the strongest features of your film. Do you have a few positive reviews? Great, use them in the press kit, but on the one sheet just use the best line from each one. Do you have some seasoned talent? Stick their names on the one sheet with 1 or 2 of their best-known films, but save full biographies for later. Any film can create a ton of paperwork, but nobody is going to go through it all. Don't bury the selling features of your film and assume buyers will get to it. With that in mind, don't assume a buyer will watch a screener. Most buyers accumulate hundreds and hundreds of screeners every year and many of these remain unwatched. Save your screeners for buyer's who show interest, or even for buyers who you have a good feeling about.
4. Film Buyers want to work in their comfort zone. To save your time and your buyer's time, you should always do research beforehand, especially if you are making the first move. Are you targeting a buyer that makes sense for your film? Why do you think so? What else had this buyer/company done that makes you think the company is right for your film. Again, these points can be, if not part of your one sheet, an introduction to the story of your film. You will look professional and on the ball, you will stand out if it seems like you have done the research and are personally addressing a buyer's specific skills, past successes and proven strengths.
5. Film Buyers are freaked out. By and large film buyers are a worried bunch, cowering in the ruins of the decimated music industry and wondering if their business is going to disappear out from under their feet. Film and music are different animals, and the future of film in the era of online exhibition is still not completely foretold, but the mood is certainly wary. The film industry is in transition and everyone is handling it in their own way, some better than others. You'll see conservative streaks, but also canny entrepreneurs looking to exploit the changing terrain. Overall, though, most buyers want to minimize advance spending. This practice, in itself is not suspicious, but for your own protection do your homework and make sure you are dealing with a reputable company and a company that is in a stable financial position.
Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading
multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. Daniel has over 25 years
experience in film distribution, combining film and video licensing with
internet media. IPEX TV specializes in helping indie producers and film and
video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out to international
film license buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv
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Posted by admin on Friday, March 14 @ 02:56:27 MST (74 reads)
(comments? | Marketing/Distribute | Score: 1) |
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Marketing/Distribute: Who is the most independent filmmaker friendly distributor in 2008?
Who is the most independent filmmaker friendly distributor in 2008? The answer might surprise you.
Copyright © 2008 Daniel Lafleche
Overall, film sales were down at Sundance 2008. And documentary titles accounted for about half of the distribution deals made this year. However, the real story for deal-making at Sundance may well be that Sony Pictures Classics, the bright-eyed indie wing of the 400 pound gorilla that is Sony Pictures, single handedly kept the festival a viable market for scrappy indie films in competition.
Sony Pictures Classics does not have the success stories of, say, Fox Searchlight Pictures box office bonanza LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Purchased at Sundance 2006 for a record-breaking $10.5 Million, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE went on to gross close to $100 Million and won 2 Oscars. Smart buy. Smart marketing. In contrast, SPC purchased JUNEBUG at Sundance 2005, which earned next to nothing but did prove to be Amy Adam's breakout film and earn her an Oscar nomination. SPC's continued determination to acquire at Sundance is all the more remarkable for its past failures to capture the crossover success that Sundance legend lives one.
Just look at the breakdown of Sundance 2008 deals. Of the 9 feature films, 6 deals were made for distribution in the US. (1 of the deals was by United Artists who purchased the remake rights for the Spanish film TIMECRIMES, but have no plans to distribute.) 2 of those 6 films (HAMLET 2 and HENRY POOLE IS HERE) played in the Premiere selection. So, of the 121 features in competition, 4 found a home, and for 3 of them that home is with the SPC (FROZEN RIVER, BAGHEAD, as well as THE WACKNESS).In many respects, SPC is keeping film acquisition alive at Sundance, choosing to shop the lesser know films and purchasing in quantity (all were had for around 6 or 7 figures), rather than looking for the headline grabbing big money deal. Indeed, I find it quaint and almost touching the way SPC handles Sundance. Its choices seem bracing and risky, even if they may be due to its buying strategy of avoiding bidding wars and looking for asking prices to drop as the fest wears on. Bottm feeders SPC may be, but that does not change the fact that it is willing to court the wallflowers of the festival that nobody else wants to take for a spin, including this year's Grand Jury Price winner FROZEN RIVER.
On paper this film has nothing going for it. Star power that falls well below your average TV Movie Of The Week (and that's Network TV); a downer subject that lacks sexy topicality -- illegal US border crossings from, wait for it, Canada. It's a nutty move, as are their two other fest buys. THE WACKNESS got some festival buzz, but nobody was willing to go for the mat for it, perhaps because it clearly doesn't have a chance of becoming the next LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (although we should never underestimate the nation's love of the Olsen twin). SPC is making smaller deals for smaller movies to do, probably, small business. I sort of love it; I like the "think small" attitude towards independent film. After all, isn't that the point, rather than go after the one Indie film that has a chance of crossover success, Sony is taking up a few wild cards and one day, they will make it to a theatre near year—if only for a week. I think if the Independent Spirit Awards had an award for Film Acquisition this year, it should go to SPC. The company's gamble on niche markets, on the oddball, on the rag-tag underdog has exactly the wild Indie spirit that the most successful Sundance films routinely champion--and that the biggest Sundance deals routinely lack.
Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading
multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. Daniel has over 25 years
experience in film distribution, combining film and video licensing with
internet media. IPEX TV specializes in helping indie producers and film and
video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out to international
film license buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv
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Posted by admin on Friday, March 14 @ 02:53:27 MST (108 reads)
(comments? | Marketing/Distribute | Score: 0) |
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Marketing/Distribute: Five E-mail Marketing Mistakes
Five E-mail Marketing Mistakes that Film Producers and Distributors Need to Avoid
Copyright © 2008 Daniel Lafleche
E-mail marketing is tough. A study by Forrester research shows that while 83% of companies attempt e-marketing less than 5% are successful. What's the secret?
There's no secret, per se, but film and video distributors targeting license buyers need to be informed about all the potential pitfalls. A good e-mail marketing campaign demands research, strategy, patience, a smooth follow-up process, and a little high-tech. It's hard to know where to begin, and it's natural to be afraid of making a major mistake and alienating your potential buyers.
On the other hand, a good e-mail campaign has proven time and again to be the most cost-effective way to market, and in the film and video licensing industry, it's becoming a standard and expected practice. Take some time to analyze what needs to be done, let your creativity and passion for your material inform what you do, and you will reach the film/video license buyers who are searching for the kind of content you offer.
To help get you started, we've put together a list of five easy-to-make e-mail marketing mistakes, and How to Avoid Them.
MISTAKE #5: - E-mailing directly from Outlook This is a very basic mistake.
A lot of distributors use "Blind CC" to send to multiple addresses—this is the trick where you send an e-mail to yourself, and put all the other addresses BCC. This is a convenient way to reach a lot of people without revealing your whole e-mail list to every recipient (which is what happens when you CC), but these *****bersome BCC messages are red flags for mail server spam filters. Not only is your message likely going to get blocked, but your entire IP address might be blacklisted. This means that you will never be able to send ANY message to this address again, unless you contact the hostmaster who blacklisted you and beg for forgiveness.
Tools like Listrak, Campaigner, and ExacTarget solve these problems and elegantly handle lists with thousands of names. These services all charge a monthly fee. PHPList and OpenEMM are powerful OpenSource solutions, but require you to provide your own tech support.
The biggest advantage of these tools: they track the e-mails you send. Who opens it, who deletes it, who sends it to a friend, when, and where. You'll need this data to do follow up, segment your lists, and to tweak your campaign.
MISTAKE #4: - Websites are not doing follow-up for you.
When a user clicks on your perfectly composed e-mail they need somewhere just as professional looking to go next. An ideal e-mail gets the reader to click quickly. A landing page (a specially designed webpage for e-mail campaign clickers) doesn't need to be elaborate, but at the very least it should act as a sort of digital sell sheet, offering the extra information a potential buyer needs and makes it clear what they need to do to take the next step. Add an easy to use 'send us a question form' or invite buyers to sign up to a newsletter and suddenly a passive e-mail recipient has become a real prospect.
MISTAKE #3: - Not segmenting your mailing lists.
It's tempting to blast one e-mail to a thousand names, but all marketing gurus insist on targeted delivery. 'Segmenting' your e-mail list means nothing more than dividing it into logical groups and sending different e-mails to the appropriate segment.
Personalizing your e-mails through segmentation can double click-through rates, and becomes more important as you move through the sales cycle. And by personalization here we're not talking about sticking the prospect's name at the top of the e-mail (though that is a nice touch). We're talking about changing the content, sometimes very slightly, to help make your property immediately relevant to the prospect.
In future articles, we'll be offering more tips on how to segment your lists.
MISTAKE #2: - Underemphasizing your categories, and overemphasizing your brand.
Film and video content license buyers receive dozens of marketing e-mails everyday. To cope, buyers have developed methods to sort and evaluate new titles very quickly.
What's the first thing a buyer notices when they first encounter your property?
Unfortunately, it's not your brand. A lot of distributors send out e-mails emphasizing their company logo and profile. While a good brand may help get your e-mail opened, it's not going to help you make a sale. Buyers specialize in different categories and genres. They know how to sell that category, where to sell to that category, and who will buy it.
You need to help buyers understand your title in terms of their favourite categories.
Segment your e-mail list by preferred category and you will have accomplished the single most important thing to successfully winning a buyer's attention. For independent producers and other rights holders without any brand recognition whatsoever, this is probably the most important marketing advice you will hear.
MISTAKE #1: - Not delivering value to your audience with your e-mail.
The best way to reach a buyer is to give them tools that will help them 'sell' your title to their buying team. Buyers need to understand all the opportunities your title offers. Slotting your property into a category is an essential first step, but you can do much more.
This is a big topic, but the idea is very simple: use the web to show your buyer the audience which already exists for your property. Do your homework, and find ways to position your title on the web where audiences live and breathe the category you are selling. Fan sites, social networking sites, online film festivals, and film/video sites can all take their place as virtual counterparts to tradeshows, press releases, and traditional film festivals, all working as venues to showcase your title. By creating this context, you help buyers understand how to position and make sense of your property. It is this context which you will try to communicate in your e-mail.
In conclusion, E-marketing takes time, effort, and experience. Many distributors fear that e-mail marketing is too aggressive, and that it basically amounts to spamming. If done improperly, this fear is certainly justified. The key is to be in your e-marketing campaigns what you are in the rest of your business life: a consummate professional, whose primary interest is in helping your clients succeed.
Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading
multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. Daniel has over 25 years
experience in film distribution, combining film and video licensing with
internet media. IPEX TV specializes in helping indie producers and film and
video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out to international
film license buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv
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Posted by admin on Friday, March 14 @ 02:38:39 MST (59 reads)
(comments? | Marketing/Distribute | Score: 0) |
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Marketing/Distribute: Make Sure You Know These Nine SEO Recommendations
Film/Video Distributors and Producers: Make Sure You Know These Nine SEO Recommendations
Copyright © 2008 Daniel Lafleche
When most people talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) they tend to talk about getting more traffic to their website. Everyone wants more traffic. Right?
If you are like most film and video distributors, you care less about volume of traffic and much more about quality of traffic. The goal is to get the right people visiting your site. Can SEO do that for you?
Search Engine Optimization is about helping people who want to find your site, find your site. Optimize your site properly, target keywords intimately related to your business, and the high quality traffic will come.
By making a few technical improvements to your site right now, you can help search engines like Google and Yahoo understand and 'respect' what your site offers and then pass the good word on to the thousands of film and video license buyers who use search engines every business day.
Maybe a buyer only remembers a few words about a title they saw on the back of one of your sell sheets. Good SEO practice makes it possible for license buyers to find you using even the sketchiest keywords.
We've put together a checklist of nine very basic things you can do today to make sure your website is search engine friendly. Give your site an SEO tune-up, work hard posting keyword rich content, and you will be amazed how fast you can 'own' a set of keywords related to a film/video content category or genre. This means that whenever, or wherever, a buyer searches for content related to your business, they'll find their way to your website.
This checklist is just as essential for film and video distributors as it is for indie producers and film festivals wanting to boost their exposure. Everyone can benefit from these best practices.
9. Have you announced your site to the major search engines?
Search engines can't find you if they don't know about you. The first thing you need to do (once you finish reading this article) is to make sure your website is submitted to the major search engines.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you do this manually. We don't recommend that you use auto-submitter websites that promise to do this for you. Get off on the right SEO foot and do the submitting yourself.
Check out the IPEX TV blog for an article about submitting your site to search engines.
8. Did you add your sitemap?
A sitemap is a simple document placed at the root directory of your site and informs search engines which pages on your site are available for searching. It's like one of those big maps you see at audiovisual content tradeshows: but this one is for your website, and search engines love it.
7. Do all of your web pages have titles?
At the top of your browser window (on the same level as the close, maximize, and minimize buttons) you will find the title of the page you are viewing. This is some of the most valuable real estate on your site. If the only thing in this space is your company name (or worse, it just says "Untitled"), you're wasting a great opportunity. Use this space to attract search engine attention to specific keywords by writing unique page titles for every page on your site. The trick is to write a page title that is keyword loaded, but still seems natural to your actual visitors. Don't make these titles too long, but do make sure that the keywords you use in the title appear again in the body of the page. You'll be amazed at what an improvement this can make to your search engine results.
6. Do you have your 'alt' attributes defined?
When a programmer adds an image to a website, he or she uses an HTML code called the 'img' tag.
< img src="sell_sheet.jpg" alt="Sell sheet, one sheet, cinefiche" / >
The 'alt' attribute (sometimes, mistakenly, called an 'alt' tag) allows you to specify some text that the browser will display in case your image is missing. In this example, an image of a sell sheet is 'tagged' with some words describing it (alt="Sell Sheet, one sheet, cinefiche"). This may not seem like a big deal, but these 'alternate' labels are necessary to help search engines understand the content of your page. Search engines cannot read images, so it's important that you help them out by specifying in the 'alt' attribute what the image contains.
5. Have you gotten your link out there?
Are you a contributing member of Wikipedia and/or the IMDb? Find places on these sites where it is appropriate to submit links. If these links make sense within the community, they offer better exposure than money can buy.
Add some of your best pages (not just your site) to social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, and myYahoo.
Get your friends involved. Link to their best pages, and ask them to link back to you.
4. Do you have any content?
Wooops. So, by now you should have a site that's pretty well technically optimized and search engine friendly. But do you actually have content people are searching for? For film and video distributors, getting your catalogue titles and old sell sheets on your site is an excellent step to getting keyword-rich content online that will be relevant to a wide variety of film and video content license buyers googling for new titles.
3. Have you prepared a list of keywords you like?
Put yourself in the shoes of your audience for a moment, and imagine sitting down to your favourite search engine. What are the search terms your audience is most likely going to use? Will these search words lead them to your site? Now, imagine the search terms they might use to find your competitor's web site. Make a master list of all these keywords, and decide which keywords you want to 'own'. This list is going to be your guide to the search engine friendly content you create.
2. Do you have a blog?
Getting your catalogue titles online is great, but it's very important to have a site that is up-to-date. A lot of people in the film and video distribution industry see a corporate blog as more of a hassle than a help. But blogs are quite simply the easiest way to keep your site fresh, get lots of sexy text for search engines to search, and interact with your clients. Indie producers and film festivals have been quick to understand their value—learn from their example. The best blogs are an appealing mix of industry news and personal observations. Use your blog to keep your clients up to date on your company, showcase new titles, and share interesting ideas.
1. Have you started already?
The good news about SEO is that it's never too early or too late to start. Don't for a minute think that you need a checkmark beside all 9 of these items before you can release your site to the public. And there is no need to do them in order.
Daniel Lafleche is the COO of IPEX TV, the leading
multiplatform B2B Film and Video online marketplace. Daniel has over 25 years
experience in film distribution, combining film and video licensing with
internet media. IPEX TV specializes in helping indie producers and film and
video distributors take advantage of the web and reach out to international
film license buyers. You can learn more at http://www.ipextv.tv
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Posted by admin on Friday, March 14 @ 02:34:57 MST (85 reads)
(comments? | Marketing/Distribute | Score: 0) |
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Pre-Production: Craft service and Catering
1. This is often where the most money is spent in the indy film making world but for good reason.
2. A well fed crew is usually a happy crew even when the hours are long.
3. At the same time nothing will piss off an entire crew faster than the lack of food and/or drink.
4. Having decent food on set somehow subconsciously tells the crew that you care for their health & well being and they will often show their appreciation by complaining far less and staying focused on the task at hand.
5.A respectable Craft service/Catering would include a decent breakfast served a half hour before call time, a well proportioned lunch approximately six hours after call time and something as cheap as pizza at or around the 12hr mark if the show run past the wishful 12hr day
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Posted by admin on Wednesday, November 21 @ 01:19:49 MST (137 reads)
(Read More... | 862 bytes more | comments? | Pre-Production | Score: 0) |
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Pre-Production: Try to book flat rate locations
When possible shoot your film in a location that does not charge by the hour. Behind overtime to the crew this is the second fastest way to tank your production. An unexpected thing will always happen on a shoot and “being on the clock” is a guaranteed way to unnecessarily increase "on set "pressure, forcing you to delete shots and sometime even scenes from your script. This is another case where you need to inspect things like furniture, floors, walls, and write down and point out any broken, scratched or damaged items to the location manager so that you are not charged for the item after the shoot. The trick that location owners use is they wait until almost all the crew has left then they find the producer and tell him or her that the item was broke or damaged during the shoot. With almost no one to ask about the incident in person there is not much left for the producer to do but take the owner word for it. Keep an eye out for wet, muddy, or soiled entrances. A common trick that a location owner will use to get a “free” carpet cleaning is to wet down, mud up or soil the entrance of their location knowing that most crew will forget to wipe their shoes at the door tracking whatever dirt, mud, and even oil all over the carpet.
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Posted by admin on Wednesday, November 21 @ 01:18:01 MST (191 reads)
(Read More... | 1291 bytes more | comments? | Pre-Production | Score: 0) |
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Pre-Production: Beware of production insurance scams
“Insurance companies” that offer you a co-production type of insurance are almost always scams that do not pay out on big loses leaving you completely responsible for the loss & damages. It is completely against any insurance policy to up sell an individual production insurance policy to another production company. Stick with solid insurance companies like Dewitt Stern of CA and Truman Van Dyke Co and stay completely clear of companies like Signature Insurance owned by a Kelly Rubin who left me and my client out to dry with over $13,000 in unpaid loss & damages.
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Posted by admin on Wednesday, November 21 @ 01:10:07 MST (144 reads)
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Pre-Production: Be careful of the crew you hire
1. Keep in mind that you are not asking for favors when you are hiring crewmembers. They should not have any problems with you asking for proof of skill level or a reasonable flat day rate.
2. Nothing against a good crew but if you want to make it to the editing room do not make overtime deals with crewmembers. Unless you are rich, overtime can tank a small production.
3. A whinny complainer type crewmember is like a cancer on set. When at all possible eliminate these bad seeds ASAP.
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Posted by admin on Wednesday, November 21 @ 01:05:26 MST (128 reads)
(Read More... | 549 bytes more | comments? | Pre-Production | Score: 0) |
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