FilmmakerIQ.com » Selling Your Film

DIY Film Distribution

John P. Hess — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:00:23 +0000

This presentation is a step by step DIY guide to how Andrew P. Byrd secured distribution of his indy feature, Johnny Appleweed.

DIY Indy Film Distribution Part 1 from B&H Photo Video on Vimeo.

DIY Indy Film Distribution Part 2 from B&H Photo Video on Vimeo.

Copyright Math: Why the MPAA is Full of Sh*t

Dennis — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:30:06 +0000

Numbers don’t lie, lobbyists do. Comic author Rob Reid unveils Copyright Math in this TED Talk, a remarkable new field of study based on actual numbers from entertainment industry lawyers and lobbyists.

Reid’s goal was to capture and represent some of the rhetoric from that past decade and a half in a way that would fill the hall with laughter, even if some of it came at the expense of some clearly ridiculous industry arguments. “Everyone can laugh at silly infographics,” Reid opined while silently crushing the serious journalism dreams of hacks everywhere. “And who doesn’t want to deface a Leave-it-to-Beaver-like Christmas scene with pirate-and-Santa graffiti?”

The brilliance of Reid’s talk is that he thoroughly skewers the content industry’s dubious appeal to quantitative reasoning. We’ve all see the headlines proclaiming huge numbers of dollars, jobs, and patents lost to piracy. The appeal to quantitative measures is supposed to undermine counterarguments by doing two things: slyly stepping into a (pretend) world of objectivity, and raising the alarm with big, scary numbers. It’s hard to look at those kinds of headlines in the same way after Reid’s elegantly hilarious skewering.

Reid’s examination of Copyright Math began when he started working on his soon-to-be published debut science fiction novel, Year Zero, which Random House is publishing in early July (we’ll be reviewing it). Year Zero tells the story of how the toxic legal byproducts of some overly litigious lawyers cause problems that make global warming seem downright cozy. Not to give it away, but could you imagine how pissed off an alien music lover might get if he was sued into bankruptcy for pirating a few lousy Rick Astley songs?

The end of movie theaters?

Dennis — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:48:33 +0000

Movie attendance has been declining, with 2011’s box office the lowest in 15 years. But the trend may be changing. Could the movie theater as we’ve known it survive? Tracy Smith of CBS News considers the prospects.

How New Platforms, Streaming Media Change the Equation for Indie Filmmakers

John P. Hess — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:41:17 +0000

Amanda Lin Costa explores the new methods of distributing films and the myriad of strategies that filmmakers use to get their product to the masses.

Traditionally, there were three main types of distribution for the work of independent filmmakers: theatrical, broadcast and straight to DVD. Most filmmakers hoped for a combination of all three.

But everything has changed. The digital online world has opened up new avenues of distribution including video on demand, live streaming, and mobile and tablet applications.

Indie filmmakers are harnessing these digital forms of distribution to increase their audience and maintain control of their film, but the “how and where” their film is viewed, the financial recovery of production costs, and their eligibility for awards all factor into their choices.

“Every film has its own path,” said director Tiffany Shlain, remembering something she once heard that stuck.

Today, choosing that path is more complicated then ever.

PBS.org | Read the Full Article

Editing SCARFACE for TV

Dennis — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:10:37 +0000

It was Harry Tatelman’s job to convert Universal’s films into television fare by taking out the foul language, and some of the violence and nudity. When he was given the task of editing Scarface’s 160 ‘F’ words along with its other blue content few thought it could be done. But in the end it may be the most creative censorship ever to hit the TV airwaves.

The Strange and Twisted Tale of… The Movie That Grossed $30

Dennis — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:04:24 +0000

Zyzzyx Road is a independent film made in 2006 with a budget of $1.2 million. Even though it stared Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl, it is notoriously on record as the lowest grossing film of all time with a grand total of $30 in ticket sales.

Here is Entertainment Weekly’s in depth piece on the strange and twisted events that led to this disastrous cautionary tale.

”What if they released a movie and nobody came?” read the headline. The story, from the scrappy film site CHUD.com, described a truly spectacular failure — a 2006 thriller called Zyzzyx Road that, despite starring Tom Sizemore and Grey’s Anatomy’s Katherine Heigl, had grossed a grand total of $30 at the box office. ”I was mortified,” says Penney, who, as it happens, had written, directed, and produced the movie in question. ”I went, ‘Oh, my God, this is horrendous.’ I’m reading it and saying, ‘Oh, no. Oh, no! This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.’ I’ve been through a lot of crap in my career. I’ve seen so many things. But this movie is like my baby, and it’s being dragged around in the street with people poking sticks in it. It was brutal. It was ugly. I was reeling.”

Entertainment Weekly | Read Full Article

Finding Real Numbers in Imaginary Movies

John P. Hess — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:51:48 +0000

Getting a filmmaker to divulge the exact cost of a film is next to impossible. The same goes for distributors when asked about what kind of numbers to expect on the sales end. So at “Distribution X” at Sundance, a panel of distributors were asked to give numbers on wholly imaginary movies.

Case study #1: Documentary, pitched by Senain Kheshgi
This documentary is about the case of the 10 Muslim student alliance kids at U.C. Irvine who protested/heckled the Israeli Ambassador at a speech in 2010 and were charged with federal offenses.

Budget: $575,000 (about half equity, the rest non-repayable grants and foundations).
Needs: About $100,000 to finish film.
Distribution: Has a $45,000 deal from TV broadcaster… who also wants first right of refusal on VOD/digital distribution. Unclear whether those are subscription VOD rights or ad-supported VOD rights, or if they can be negotiated.
Status: The film is in rough cut.

Josh Braun
Giving up TV rights too soon for too little money in the US is not advisable A 52-minute TV-version is key; without it, you lose opportunities. Selling for $45,000 and not carving our key digits rights is a bad idea, as it severely limits sales potential and theatrical investment. You can do multiple subscription VOD deals, so as the lines blur between TV and Internet platforms, it will likely be harder to carve out rights. The key to preselling TV is that the sale should amount to at least 50% of the budget.

Indiewire.com | Read the Full Article

Helping Newt “Rebuild the America We Love” for $64 in Royalties

John P. Hess — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:39:00 +0000

by John Hess

When I woke up today it was morning in America, but it wasn’t until the afternoon before I realized I helped create the dawn. That’s when I saw Newt Gingrich’s “Rebuilding the America We Love” ad and noticed those images that all political pundits where dissecting where in part created by me.

Turns out Newt used part of his Tiffany-esque $250,000 ad budget to pay me $64 in royalties for the right to use one of my Stock Videos as a main component in his spot that some are calling “Morning in America 2.0.”

Now my work is being compared to everyone one from David Lynch to Michael Bay. I hope that isn’t what they consider “fair and balanced.”

You may remember this image I posted in a review of the Sony AX2000 back in April of 2010.

Ignoring the bizarre lighting on Newt’s talking-head shot (looks like he’s trying out for “Best Tan” on Jersey Shore) and the fact that its reminiscent of Ronald Regan’s “Its Morning Again in America”, see if you Eagle-Eyed Filmmaker IQ followers can spot it in Newt’s ad:

That’s right, there it is at 0:04.

I also featured the exact same clip in the video review:

Here is the classic Ronald Reagan TV Ad: “Its Morning in America” from 1984.

Now unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your political stance), my small contribution to Newt’s Campaign has not had a positive effect. Since posting the ad on December 5th, Newt’s numbers have been steadily declining…

Perhaps it was because like Newt’s smile that white picket fence is made out of plastic.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond dared ask in this article: “Can you identify all the Iowa landmarks?”

Well Mr. Hammond, the location is Harveston, a man-made lake just under 5 years old in the City of Temecula, CA. The flag from the stock shot is down and winter has stripped the trees of their former lusciousness.

Here is a quick image of myself in the historic spot captured from an iPad. I rushed out to grab this before the sun went down and I left the CF card for my DSLR at home.

How did a clip from a camera review end up in a highly contested Republican Primary?

Well being a starving filmmaker with a healthy appetite, I recycled that footage to microstock website iStockphoto.com – selling it for anyone to purchase and download. (Hint, you should purchase and download as well)

In the year and a half it’s been there the file has done very well. It was nominated and placed in their premiere Vetta Category (translation: Most Expensive) and has brought in about $700 in Royalties.

iStockphoto doesn’t show you who purchased the file, only when, so I’m forced to guess the agency that created the ad purchased it on October 14th, 2011 for which I received a handsome royalty of $64.40.

From a quick shot grabbed with an unfamiliar camera to a brief 2 second highlight in a national political campaign, this little clip has sparked considerable internet commentary.

It was first brought to my attention while browsing Cracked.com in an attempt to avoid doing anything productive when I saw this:

Some more on what the media is saying about the ad.

The ad begins, almost David Lynch-like, with scenes of small-town America, panning in slow motion at times, most effectively, when a large hand is shown in close-up gently sweeping over a wheat field, suggesting a wise farmer — or perhaps the hand of the Almighty himself? — tending to his precious crop. You may not realize it when you watch this unusually evocative image — one of several in the ad — but that’s very likely Newt’s own hand on camera, and the wind-blown golden harvest beneath it is the proverbial “amber wave of grain” meant to symbolize the resurgence of the American heartland, overseen, of course, by the very white-haired shepherd who once angrily shut the entire federal government down.

Huffington Post

It’s an upbeat spot themed on a slice of Americana — some of the shots are reminiscent of the movie “Armageddon”

Politico

Some people say the America we know and love is a thing of the past. I don’t believe that because working together I know we can rebuild America,” Gingrich says in the ad, over video of a landscape and the American flag hanging from a front porch, blowing in the wind.

ABC News

The campaign confirms to CNN that it will spend $250,000 to run the spot state-wide in Iowa, which holds the first contest in the presidential caucus and primary calendar.

CNN

His one-minute commercial will be seen on cable and broadcast networks in Iowa, said a campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond. The upbeat and positive ad features strong patriotic themes, with Mr. Gingrich speaking directly into the camera.

New York Times

Newt Gingrich began this week by releasing a minute-long campaign ad titled “Rebuilding the America We Love,” in which the veteran Republican insists that the wholesome, idyllic, small-town America that we all recognize from movies and advertising still exists. The ad is not terribly convincing, partly because it’s a rather uninspired retread of Ronald Reagan’s famous “Morning in America” spot from 1984, and partly because, while Reagan was talking up the good times, Gingrich is talking down the bad.

Slate

Newt Gingrich has a new ad up, and it’s clear what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to get elected as Richard Milhous Reagan.

Esquire

Gingrich’s ad feels eerily similar to “Morning in America,” the iconic ad President Ronald Reagan aired in his 1984 reelection campaign. Set to an almost identical soft soundtrack, it blends footage of a suburban porch and humming factory, a mountain sunrise and main-street flower shop, as well as a couple of quintessential Iowa scenes: the State House in Des Moines and fields of grain.

Washington Post

He delivers his rosy message over images literally lifted from “America the Beautiful” — predawn scenes of “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountains majesties.

The Atlantic

The spot is being supported by a near Tiffany-esque $250,000 ad buy in Iowa.
Mediaite

The ad itself is well-produced, and captures some of that elusive Reaganian “Morning in America” quality, very obviously the intent of his campaign team.

Hot Air

It sounds like Newt is promising “Morning in America” again

National Review

Where this starts to get weird.

They say imitation is the greatest flattery, but I don’t think that is what these parody and remix creators where thinking. I guess they each owe me $64 now. Oh well, it’s the Holidays I guess I won’t sue. Plus that last guy scares the shit out of me.

Parodies aside, it’s a good thing Newt paid me that $64 and didn’t steal that stock video. Not only because now I can afford healthcare. But because… Don’t Cross Us. Ever. Seriously. Just Don’t.

Past 15 Years of Indie Film Distribution

Dennis — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:05:03 +0000

At the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center indieWIRE Editor in Chief Dana Harris moderates a discussion about the past 15 years of film distribution with (left to right): Richard Abramowitz, Amy Heller, Bingham Ray, Bob Berney, Ira Deutchman, Mark Urman, Arianna Bocco and Jeanne Berney.

How to Make a Living as a Filmmaker

Dennis — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:15:27 +0000

This event was co-sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and the Department of Media Studies and Film at The New School.