Today marks the digital release of the much talked about distribution strategy for the Sundance Film Festival selection Bass Ackwards. The film, executive produced by Sundance veteran Mark Duplass and marketing executive Marian Koltai-Levine, produced by Thomas Woodrow and directed by actor Linas Philips, has received an inordinate amount of press attention from the industry trades due to its innovative approach, using a major festival as a launching pad for widespread distribution. With a production budget of only $30,000, Bass Ackwards will be the first film launched straight off of their Sundance Film Festival run. The film’s partners, Zipline Entertainment and New Video, have arranged distribution on various video on demand and digital download platforms, bringing the film into millions of households. While this strategy has been attempted in the past at other festivals [Joe Swanberg’s Alexander the Last at last year’s SxSW with IFC Festival Direct comes to mind], few have received this kind of attention. All eyes seem to be on Bass Ackwards.
The film will world premiere as one of eight films being showcased in the brand new NEXT (denoted by the <=> symbol) section of the Sundance Festival. This program features films selected for their innovative and original work in low- and no-budget filmmaking as a tribute to filmmakers who are not hampered by creativity, but by limited resources. Bass Ackwards tells the story of a man who embarks on a lyrical, strange and comedic cross- country journey in a modified VW bus after ending a disastrous affair with a married woman. The cast includes Davie-Blue, Jim Fletcher, and Paul Lazar.
I spoke with Woodrow about the formation of his strategy and what he would like to achieve.
“Originally, I thought South by Southwest would be the best place to sell a film. We went there last year with True Adolescents and had heavy hitters like sales agent Josh Braun working with us. The film was well reviewed and well regarded, but it didn’t sell. “
“It did not get an offer. The premiere had lines around the block. This proved to me that something must be wrong if a film doesn’t sell with those circumstances. The climate has changed. The way people used to be able to make their budgets back with presales and foreign sales is not happening now. This year, John Cooper [Director of the Sundance Film Festival] said 3,700 were submitted to Sundance. 117 were accepted. Two films last year were acquired during the festival; maybe 10 have since been licensed. As an investor leveraging $100K in a film that has been accepted into Sundance, you have a 1 in 2,000 chance of selling it at the festival. Now, not all people invest in movies for recoupment. They like to be a part of something artistic, something that will live on, with no expectation of making the money back. But I thought, in the current climate where it makes no sense to invest in movies, ‘what if there was a way to make movies and actually make it good with a good story and good actors and monetize it? What if you don’t need Hollywood any more to make it, or distribute it, or to care about it?’ If the answer is possibly, then we are trying to prove it. We might fall flat on our face. There is absolutely no guarantee of success. But if we succeed, we will be proving that theory. “
"The only reason we are trying this model now is because I have the opportunity to do it now, through Sundance. But it could have been anybody. And in the future, anybody can and should try it.”
“That dream is seductive, but has been shown to be unreal, not a possibility. Linas understood this from the start when we talked about Bass Ackwards. If I had proposed to make it and distribute it on YouTube, the answer from him would have been NO. And the other proposal was it never sells and you have nothing. But what if this model is way better than any offer he would ever get. This was something else entirely. I found the right partners which was key. We have signed with New Video to do the distribution of Bass Ackwards and with Zipline Entertainment; we will do Bass Ackwards and True Adolescents along the same lines.”
