path to a template?

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

A couple weeks ago my post dropped in on the idea of mapping the ecosystem of the non-dependent film world. Not a new idea from me though interesting to see a similar clarion call being issued by Brian Newman in his weekly newsletter that came out a week after my post asking for the drawing of a new map. Let’s get to it people! Something that will be referenced for sure in creating the ecosystem map is Evan Shapiro’s graphical data dive into the media universe in the UK. I’ll have a standalone post as part of my “resources” format sidebar. But go have a peek at how he visualised the media landscape and do give his Substack a follow.

Back to this piece, which is not about the mapping. It’s about templates. Not a cookie cutter, rinse and repeat, wax on wax off way of a template. Yet what I’m after is a template that filmmakers can use as their guide to audience first, filmmaker led, direct distribution approach. I’m involved in three films in various stages of release in 2024 and they are all different. At the same time I wish there was more cross over, more things I’m doing with one that could happen with the others. Maybe I’m not after a template, I’m looking for a best practices list. A list I can work through as a producer in a choose-your-own-adventure path to find the right combinations of distribution windowing, strategies, tactics etc etc. As I’ve gotten more seasoned in work (aka older) I’ve learned (for me) that making a list is the starting point and for me a list begins with questions.

1. who is the film’s audience and where do they go to watch? are they theater people, home viewing only, do they watch on computers or TVs only, do they use DVD/Bluray still?

2. how do we reach them, how do we engage with them?

3. if we break up the audience into people who will go in person to see the film...

But wait am I asking these questions too soon? As I’m coming up with the list I’m asking myself other things that I need to answer first. The questions above are about research and data, things to help me understand who we’re trying to reach so we can come up with a strategy. So let’s start again.

1. Understand our audience.

2. What are our goals.

3. Build the team. While it doesn’t include all these people every time, they do show up consistently. Distributor, Theatrical booker, Publicist, Social Media team / consultant, Sales Agent, Foreign Sales Agent, Poster designer, A/V asset & Graphic creating person(s), Trailer editor, Distribution strategist, Impact consultant, Impact producer, Coordinator, Cheerleaders, Partners, Advocates, Amplifiers (who am I missing? drop in the comments).

4. What are our deliverables. What do we actually need.

5. The budget.

6. Goals + Budget + Market Forces = Reality.

7. The strategy.

When I hit the word strategy is when I get down and start drawing out (diagram / flow chart style) how I see the release plan playing out, who are the partners who come in to help at different stages and also gaming out where could things change, grow and how to pivot as opportunities present themselves.

8. What are new ideas. How do we experiment.

9. How are we building community and driving the community to exponentially grow our reach and audience.

10. How are we having fun. If we’re not having some fun...what’s the point?

11. What are we learning and how is that improving what we do?

12. I’m a fan of circling back so that first question, at this point what more do we understand about our audience?

So maybe this is starting to look like a template after all. I guess what I asking you all (and myself) is whether this is the path, and if so, what can be added? More importantly we need to get good data on how to reach audiences and calculating the revenue ratio to budget spend. Not that sexy but necessary.

Ok so I’m getting to what I’m looking for. The list is helpful and necessary. It’s a primer. Days of old you’d look at a film you’re doing and you’d think about which distributor is a good fit, the types of films they’re good at putting out. Is this a Searchlight film, or NEON, or HBO, or Strand, or Netflix etc. Since we’re not looking at them any more as Distribution Plan-A, then we need to look at our films differently and think through what’s the primmer for their release.

— who are the go to service deal distributors to consider, who is better at social issue or political or artful/experimental films and so forth?

— do you start at a festival and if so what are the ones outside the traditional big seven (Sundance, Cannes, TIFF, SXSW, Telluride, Venice and Tribeca) that best support this specific film. How long do you go with festivals, when do you fold in community or impact screenings or do you use the festival run to launch your in-person distribution vs using the festival to find a buyer?

— when do places like Kinema, Jolt, Gathr come in the release cadence. what’s the right play with timing your educational distribution?

— how long do you do all the different windows for?

— how do these windows overlap?

— the list continues...

Am I being overly simplistic with wanting a template for this, after all each film is different, not exactly like a snowflake but in the same ballpark so should there even be a template? If I have a US set political doc then this is the default XYZ distribution plan that I use as the jumping off point to customize from? If I’m doing coming-of-age story set in small town America there’s a different default plan. Sounds nice to have that, a blueprint, something you can build on. I’m a yes for a template.

What do you think?