A Bit of Distribution Talk

Eyo, what’s up? It’s Luis, your local shithead filmmaker. 

You’ve either subscribed to this to get updates on my no-budget feature film “Granada” and ideas for the business side of independent film, or I added you cause I thought you might be interested. If not interested, no worries, just hit that unsubscribe button at the bottom.

If you don’t know about my film, here’s a quick little pitch:

Granada is a no-budget feature film that centers around a man who, after becoming increasingly paranoid of the outside world, sets up secret cameras all around his town, and then around his city, and eventually, the entire world.

I’m shooting the whole thing with a phone, and am also receiving footage from anyone who’s interested in sending me some. Check out my instagram if you’re interested in getting involved and featured. Whatever you got works!

Alright, let’s get into this.

General Updates on Granada:

I’m shooting the film. I shot a good chunk of footage while visiting family in Puerto Rico, and now have to shoot the “voiceovers.” 

This is a bizarre project, reason being that there’s not a set script, and there probably never will be. The project itself is based around a weird unorthodox structure. It’s what allows the film to be as cheap as it is. Without this structure, the film would grow too big, too expensive, and way too complicated. 

It’s also left the film without a solid concept, which has led me to have to change it a bit to fit a more sellable idea. 

For now, I’m still receiving footage from all of you, and will continue to add it. 

I’m currently writing the whole story, and attempting to find a more coherent structure to stick to. 

I’m behind on my self-imposed deadlines. I wanted to finish this thing by April, but am now realizing I might finish it by May, if not later. 

Sucks. 

To Be Done:

• Finish writing entire outline with outlines for sections

• Open LLC

• Creat backlog of social content for marketing purposes

• Begin recording voiceovers

While writing, I’ve been procrastinating by doing extensive research on the independent film market, and have created a set of goals to go along with it.

I’m gonna be talking about my approaches in this. Today, we’re talking a bit about distribution, since it’s what I got most knowledge and professional experience with. 

Let’s Talk About Distribution:

So I shouldn’t be thinking about distribution right now, because that shit is so fucking far away. Like I don’t even have 20% of the film edited so why am I thinking about distribution?

I’m procrastinating. 

Anyways, lemme fill you in on what I’ve learned cause this shit’s fascinating.

There are hundreds of distribution companies in North America. Most of them are fucking garbage. 

I put them into three categories:

Prestige:

• Kino Lorber

• Oscilloscope

• MUBI

• IFC Films

• Utopia (growing fast recently)

Boutique:

• Dedza Films

• Factory 25

Bargain Bin:

• Gravitas Ventures. 

Here’s how I’d describe them:

Prestige: These are the top of the top. They pick up more than 10 films a year and distribute them. The only reason I’ve mentioned these is that I’ve personally interned for them and know the work they put behind them or I’ve been following the companies themselves and seen the weight they pull. These films always get a theater release and get solid marketing and PR campaigns. They put the same amount of work into every release and hope that each of them works well. Essentially, you’re in good hands. While your film might not succeed with them, (because let’s be honest, this shit is completely unpredictable) they will give it their best shot to help it out. 

To get to these, you NEED a sales agent. They don’t take films from people without sales agents. How do you find sales agents? You compete in a festival or you reach out directly. Make sure you pick right though, these contracts get messy. 

Boutique: These guys are still good, but they’re tiny. They don’t distribute as many films and they don’t carry much clout, but they do get you in theaters, festivals, and niche streamers like MUBI or Criterion. You can reach out to some of these boutique distributors through email. Will they answer? Idk bro I haven’t tried yet. I do know none them mfs ever answered my emails asking about internships though. I also know that they’re basically run by one or two people.

Bargain Bin: These are fucking trash yo. You remember how I said the Prestige ones distribute more than 10 films a year? Well, these Bargain Bin mfs distribute over 50 films a year. They’re not good for anything. Their whole point is to treat films like content. They’ll get you on Amazon Prime and MAYBE Itunes and Google Play. They won’t care about your film though, they’re just trying to make a profit. All these companies are sketchy as fuck, don’t trust them. If you wanna just get on some TVOD platforms, they will help, but aside from that, they ain’t doing shit for you but take a share of your money. Do some of these work? Of course they do, but then chances of them NOT working outweigh the chances of them working.

So, putting this all together has led me to believe that I only have three options for distribution after all is said and done:

Prestige

Boutique

Self Distribution

I threw in self-distribution in there cause, after further research, it has become pretty relevant. 

In traditional distribution, you sell your film wholesale to a distribution company and license it out for 7- whatever number of years. They usually only buy international rights, so you can only sell it to this company. Most of the time, the acquisition prices don’t go over 6 figures. Most of the MOST of the time, the acquisition prices don’t go over LOW six figures, and these are for high-performing films that do very well in big film festivals, so you can expect what you’ll get for something that doesn’t perform well at film festivals. Not a lot, if anything at all. Actually, it’s rather common to not even get a minimum guarantee.

There are only really about 35 good distribution companies in North America. So if they all reject you, or you get insanely lowballed, there’s not much you can do but self-distribute. 

There’s a path for this though, and it’s this:

• Hire a Digital Marketing team

• Hire a PR Team (optional)

• Get on an aggregator like BitMax or Filmhub

• Release your film on TVOD (transactional video on demand)

• Market it using digital marketing with Meta ads and such

• Release your film on AVOD Platforms (Advertising Video On Demand like fucking Tubi or some shit)

If you keep your budget under 100k, it’s doable to make your money back. (I take it back. Tubi pays kinda well if you get people watching there. Tubi kinda fire.)

If I ever gotta do, or choose to do self-distribution, I’ll write more about it. 

Hell, even if I don’t choose to do it I’ll write more about it. I’m starting to think that it’s important for filmmakers to own their work. 

But here’s the thing:

For any of these to work, I need some sort of clout.

I have zero film clout, so I’m gonna need to do some marketing for my current image as a filmmaker. I’ll talk about that on the next one of these I send. Take care everyone. Lmk if you want any changes to this format.

Shoutout corner:

Shoutout to Carolina, Sormeh, and Sole for sending in some great footage. Greatly appreciated. 

You’ve all shot some really cool locations and scenes. I’ve loved them all so far.

Anyone else who sends me stuff will get a shoutout as well.