breaking down the myths of success
"Myths and legends die hard in America." Hunter S. Thompson
Make a great independent film.
Get into a top tier festival.
Sell to a great distributor.
Rinse and repeat.
In 2024 it is clear that this myth works for the very few. Yet the system is still set up to service this with the way festivals work, and the way sales agents work etc. That seems to be what filmmakers are led to believe. Recognizing this and not putting this path on a pedestal is important and ultimately only step one. The next step is easy…recalibrate the plan. Go into the financing phase of your project knowing you’re not pitching the big festival sale as the path. Then comes the tricky part. What data can you build a distribution plan around and therefore set a realistic funding target for the project in the first place? We need the data fast.
- how much revenue can a filmmaker led theatrical bring in? and what is the budget to run that?
- what revenue can you generate through community, impact and other non-theatrical screenings?
- as you split rights and sell in a bespoke way across mediums and around the world what revenue can you generate? Where is the Etsy for film?
- where is your audience, how do you reach them and what spend is allocated to support achieving that?
These are some of the data points. We’ve had box office numbers, case studies and sales estimates / reports in the past but these are mostly pre-pandemic, pre-streamer takeover data and we need fresh intel. A good read is Entertainment Strategy Guy’s dive into how theatrical plays in the subsequent life of a film’s release with post 2020 data. Do you have any reading suggestions?
Let’s find ways to collect and share this info. Essentially let’s build a financial recoupment model that producers can stand behind and give funders the confidence to champion filmmakers and stories with their dollars. This is the beginning of another piece…for now though…
I look back at the myth I laid out at the beginning and here’s what I came up with as I build future projects.
Think about the audience
- who are they? how large is the core audience?
- where do they consume stories?
- and how do you reach them?
Will the story resonate with them and get them to spend money (and time) to watch?
Who are the specific funders who will resonate with this project and in particular how can we find funders that aren’t the usual suspects who are pursued by every other filmmaker out there? In other words be specific about the audience AND be specific about the funders as well.
Create a budget, financing plan and 3 options for distribution that we can stand behind. None of us want to have to do this but the key is that our budgets need to include line items for any needed expenditure to make those 3 distribution options happen.
Build a relationship with the audience as you bring your film to life.
Make a great film and execute the plan.
Lead the distribution you want your film to have.
When I say I'm thinking about the audience, I'm doing it in the abstract. I have ideas of who these people are but I actually don't have solid data of how many people there are out there and how to reach them like I assume marketers who sell X, Y, Z commercial product must do. Siri, Alexa et al are listening to me all the time and serve up online ads to me instantly after I have a conversation (or search) about the right dog food I need. Where is that for filmmakers? And can we afford it or create a business model where the reach is successful enough that you can pay for this magical marketing wizbang? I see plenty of instagram ads served to me about the right Japanese silhouette pants I might want to buy, how do they find me? and more importantly why don't I get that many social ads for the latest Ladj Ly or Alice Rohrwacher film to go watch?
To the silicon valley folks out there, are you listening? I think there's still enough revenue to be made in the indie (aka non-dependent) film biz for you folks to come help us make it happen. I'm excited to try the emerging Jolt platform (from the brains behind Impact Partners) with the next film and see how that can be part of a path to success.
Since the beginning as a producer I've been working to find a way to get a film made (aka funding) that is non-dependent of the traditional studio gatekeepers. I've done studio financed projects too, about 35% of projects and those are mostly doc series. Yet when it comes to distributing a film that hasn't been the case, I've been dependent. I've in most cases worked with a traditional distributor and been dependent on them to find the audience and get the film out there. Great in cases, ok in others and not so good in plenty. In the last twenty months much of my thinking revolves around filmmaker led distribution, which in a simplistic way might sound like a less stigmatized way to say self-distribution or DIY distribution...and it is. But it's more then that. Whomever your distribution partners are (and you have to work with people, you generally can't actually do it yourself entirely), you the filmmaker should be leading and not simply handing off and moving on. If I'm coming into it knowing this (and even fundraising with it in mind) then I'm just more empowered to be leading. I want to come in with a similar mindset whether I'm working with an all rights distributor or I'm putting together a crack team of marketing, distribution and audience finding ninjas. I’m about to be a first-timer doing a service deal with a doc (future posts to come about that experience). So let’s see how that goes.
People like Peter Broderick, Ted Hope, Brian Newman, Show & Tell, Jon Reiss and others have been saying this for some time and I've linked to a post from each one of those folks you can read if you haven't already. There's much more in their newsletters to enlighten us all.
So this is the start for me on here. Some of the what's percolating in my brain. How are you thinking and building that plan towards a convincing path to financing and distribution. What can we add to the list above?
p.s. if it's not obvious already this substack is not just about sharing ideas and engaging a community, it is also about audience. Part of the reason for the substack is to find you, the audience for my past, present and future work. I'm thinking about how I find you and how to have a direct connection. So hello, drop a thought and cheers to connecting.
