The movie distribution industry is a competitive one. You’re mentally and physically worn out after struggling and perspiring to finish a movie.
You simply want to take a break and relax, but you are unable to do so because only half of a movie needs to be seen. Enter the world of film distribution now.
For aspiring filmmakers, the world of film distribution can be challenging. To deal with the business side of marketing movies, one must struggle to turn off the creative imagination.
What I’ve discovered the hard way is that a movie’s marketing and promotion come first before its release.
Social media is a cheap approach to promote your movie and build a powerful online viral buzz.
Doing the film festival route is a great way to get your movie in front of spectators and possible movie buyers, but from talking to other filmmakers over the years, it seems that the film festival industry is getting too congested these days.
Filmmaker Wayne Daniells of LiarDice Productions in the UK informed me that his previous visit to the Cannes Film Festival was a merciless feeding frenzy.
There was a surplus of movies, and producers were vying for distributors’ attention.
Wayne concluded by saying that it was a waste of time and resources to pitch his movie there. Other directors who are dissatisfied with the film festival scene and no longer consider it as a good method to achieve movie distribution have expressed the same idea to me.
Personally, I like to ask movie distributors directly whether they’d be interested in receiving a screener. If you have already been using social media to advertise and promote your movie online, it will help here.
Distributors are more keen to buy movies that already have a significant online following.
I’m only opining from the standpoint of a genuine independent film. In the world of movie distribution, studio budget films are a completely other species.
When it comes to movie distribution, independent producers and filmmakers typically incur the risk of making the picture without any firm guarantees of movie distribution in place.
To sell it, they typically have to look about. So far, it has been my own personal experience. I’ve never produced content with a pre-existing movie distribution agreement.
Similar to drafting a screenplay on the go, but for a movie. It is crucial to advertise and market a movie on social media.
Before your movie is even finished, begin. As a result, your movie will have greater appeal when you start reaching out to movie distributors because people are talking about it.
The majority of the films that independent film distributors release receive relatively little marketing.
It won’t be marketed outside of the typical insert in a movie distributor catalogue if your movie doesn’t have any actors or famous faces associated with it.
Hence, once you do acquire a movie distribution contract, you are already helping your movie via marketing and self-promotion.
Let me get back to looking for a movie distribution contract because my thoughts is all over the place right now. Wait on a moment. Right now, a nice Miller Lite would help me concentrate.
Now that is much better. There are several ways to get a distribution agreement for a movie. You may use the funds to go the festival route. At film festivals, deals are made all the time.
But, there are simply too many film festivals. When compared to the amount of movie distributors who release independent films, the number of film festivals is wildly out of proportion.
Many indie film producers find that avoiding the festival circuit works best when they don’t hire well-known performers or are confident that their subject won’t appeal to an art-house audience.
If you decide to completely avoid the film festival scene, hiring a film sales agent is a wise choice. A film sales representative or producer’s rep can help you get your movie shown because they have connections with distributors.
Also, a lot of them can help you get your film published in publications like Indie Slate and MovieMaker to improve its appeal to movie distributors.
They also keep an eye on you when it comes to contracts for the distribution of movies. It might be intimidating for filmmakers to review movie distribution agreements.
There is a lot of “mumbo jumbo” legalese in there intended to lower the amount of money you receive from movie royalties or a basic buy-out of your movie.
It’s simple to be taken advantage of unless you have experience understanding movie distribution contracts. I have the tendency of reading all contracts in their entirety, even when a movie sales agent is monitoring my back like “El Tigre.”
You’ll be astonished by the additional fees and expenses that some film distributors try to hide from a filmmaker in the contract definitions section, of all places.
I once discovered a set rate of $50,000 for marketing expenses in the definitions section with my film sales representative.
Another wise choice is to hire an entertainment lawyer, although doing so is typically out of reach for a true independent filmmaker. Also, in my personal experience, an entertainment attorney is less useful in obtaining a movie distribution agreement or press than a film sales rep.
Actually, that’s not what an entertainment lawyer does. When it comes to negotiating your movie distribution contract, they’re fantastic. Yet unlike a film sales agent, the majority won’t help you close a purchase. Once a transaction has been agreed to, you can invite them in.
When it came time to sell a reality show I produced dubbed “America’s Wildest Bachelor Party,” I had two savvy industry lawyers who kept me from getting burned. They were successful in obtaining a contract that was advantageous to the producer and ensured that I received payment on schedule each quarter. I’m happy I chose them.
If hiring a film sales representative or entertainment lawyer is simply out of your price range, you can still acquire significant movie distribution by working hard on your own.
After promoting and marketing your film online, you should put together a tidy film package to send to distributors. Keep it straightforward by using a DVD screener, one-sheet artwork, a succinct summary, a tagline, and extremely brief biographies for the main cast or crew who have prior IMDB credits.
See which studios are putting out films in your genre to compile a list of potential distributors. Nowadays, it’s rather simple to get contact information online.
For film submissions, movie distribution firms typically feature a contact page. Send your film package in accordance with the instructions. Be patient if you don’t hear back right away because they receive a tonne of film submissions.
Movie distributors go through phases when they actively seek out films to add to their collection and phases where they have everything they require right now. I’ve noted down the buying months.
They will Google your movie as soon as they receive your film package. Being actively marketing and promoting your film online stands out in this situation. Just having a website or blog won’t cut it.
To make your movie stand out in the eyes of movie distributors, you need some press and support from online film bloggers.
In a book I authored about independent filmmaking, I included a chapter on movie distribution. You could use it to get more specific information about movie distribution. Best of luck selling and marketing your film. Read more about torrenty
