The second panel that day on the new Hollywood Studio was moderated by Peter Broderick, who coined the term “hybrid distribution,” and he introduced a number of filmmakers and professionals who have taken back the means of distribution and are using the internet in some fascinating ways. First up was Marianna Palka who wrote, produced and starred in the film GOOD DICK. It was an official selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and produced for around $200K, but like Timoner, she was dissatisfied with the low distribution offers she received that came nowhere close to repaying the production costs. After consulting with Broderick, her team raised an additional $200K from investors and embarked on their own distribution strategy.
Their company sells DVD’s on their own site via NeoFlix and is represented by Phase 4 for retail outlet DVD sales. They secured a cable deal with Showtime, VOD on Time Warner, and the film and soundtrack are available on iTunes. To build an initial audience, which was deemed to be college students, the team used the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) to book campus screenings. This non profit organization also paid to bring the filmmakers in for Q&A sessions after the screenings. The word of mouth after these screenings helped in the sale and rental of DVD’s.
Next up was Thomas Mai, CEO of Festival Darlings, who was once a foreign sales agent but now helps independent filmmakers to position their projects at film festivals and distribute online. He pronounced a sobering statistic “Nine years ago, it was possible to make 100% of your budget back on the front end of a distribution deal. Now it is only possible to make about 2% back on the front end of a distribution deal. The rest has to be made up with different, little streams of money over a long period of time instead of trying to make more money for a short time.” He urges filmmakers to connect with audiences early, especially for films with social causes like many documentaries. He recommends teaming up with organizations that will rally around the film, not by providing funding but by providing audience and access to their mailing lists. “You want to encourage them to speak on your behalf to their members, hold screenings for you, showcase your project in their newsletters. That is an audience you don’t have to buy through advertising or seek out for yourself one at a time. They can provide that exposure for you,” said Mai.
Overall, Mai sees this as an exciting time to be an independent filmmaker. “Everything is global, there are no borders online. There are no release windows online. You can control all of your rights and structure the distribution strategy that suits your film best.”
The next panelist was Nonny de la Pena, a Senior Research Fellow in Immersive Journalism at USC Annenberg School of Journalism and a documentary filmmaker who has created two installations on Second Life for films on Guantanamo Bay Prison (Gone Gitmo) and MAUERKRANKHEIT/WALL SICKNESS (WallJumpers). Her descriptions of creating this virtual world in Second Life where avatars can come into the “prison”, have a hood placed over their heads, and then find themselves a prisoner who can see and hear actual footage of life inside of Gitmo was absolutely fascinating. With a budget of only $2,000, de la Pena tells transmedia stories that parallel what her documentaries tell, but in immersive ways for the viewer. Her WallJumpers installation parallels the story of people who jump walls that society has created to separate cultures and beliefs such as the Great Wall of China (a skateboarder jumps over it) and the Mexican border wall in Tijuana (a person shoots himself out of cannon over the wall). The Second Life avatars can mimic the experiences from the documentary. If you would like to take look at this work, links to them are found on this page.
In conclusion, Broderick reminded filmmakers that they are not just trying to build an audience for one film, but for the filmmaker on future projects as well. His examples were Robert Greenwald(IRAQ FOR SALE, WALMART:HIGH PRICE OF LOW COST) and Frannie Armstrong (AGE OF STUPID) who have both built up a large following for themselves and their films. He also warned, in reaching out to a community, the filmmaker needs to understand that it isn’t a door that can be easily closed. When the audience becomes involved in the process, they must be continually and meaningfully engaged. Do not forget about them because not only can they be the greatest allies, but they can become the most vocal critics.
This day invigorated me to see the possibilities available to the creative and well prepared filmmaker. Understand that plans must be made and in place before the production process and that production is only the first step, not the last, in having the project seen and you are well on your way to a successful film.
