content aggregator

My Company iflixtv.com is always looking for great content, including short films.

Mentalcase129 said:

I made an animated feature that has now played at a couple of festivals and won a couple of awards. People seem to be liking it but it's super indie and has no recognizable names attached to it. A bunch of people that worked at one of the festivals told me they thought the film would play well on netflix but I'm also told I need to go through a content aggregator.
Does anybody know anything about content aggregators or have any experience with them and can offer any advice? I'm not even really sure where to begin in this area at the moment.
Thanks,
Dylan

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It'll cost you some money to go this route and there's no guarantee you'll get much Netflix income. And you'll still have to market your film.

Good luck.

When you're searching for a content aggregator, you're pretty much admitting that you're at the end of the life of your film. The theatrical and home video market has been milked to death or is simply non-existant for your film.

From what I've been taught, Netflix don't deal with individuals to buy movies, they only buy them in packages, hence the aggregators. Aggregators put together a package of movies (about 10 to 20 movies per package) that companies like Netflix, Huluu, tv networks etc... buy. Though I haven't seen or heard much about your animated film, the truth of the matter is that you're unlikely to see much money from this, even if you do broker a deal.

There are other aggregators that can also get your film on networks like iTunes and other PPV networks. They usually charge an entry fee and take a percentage on top of that (30-40% can be common).

When talking with an aggregator, it's important to know what you're locking yourself into, particularly in terms of territory, release windows and length of terms and whether each is exclusive or not. It's also worth working out how far their reach are. For instance, If they've only ever done new media releases, there's no reason to also give them home video in foreign or domestic markets. Just food for thought.

It'll help if you learn how distribution works, what they mean when they use particular terms, what questions to ask, what terms you need in your contracts etc... so you don't get screwed. I gather distribution is now about as clear as mud, right?

Good luck!

I'm not totally clear on distribution deals and such, no, but that's largely because I've kinda looked at distribution as a lost cause more or less from the beginning. The movie's animated, it's not for kids, it's black and white, there's no known names anywhere in it's credits. So it's not an easily marketable movie. It started kind of on a whim and then I ended up going all the way with it. For my next project I'll have kind of a different outlook in the distribution end of things maybe but for this one I'm just trying to get it out there in some capacity and I'm not too concerned about really making money off of it. I mean that would be nice obviously if it turned out to be a possibility but I'm not counting on it. Ideally though it'd be nice to put it out in the world through something like Netflix rather than just put it on youtube where it'll be kinda buried under everything. A venue where people go specifically to watch movies is a venue where it's more likely to actually find the audience that will like the movie.

Mentalcase129 said:

I'm not totally clear on distribution deals and such, no, but that's largely because I've kinda looked at distribution as a lost cause more or less from the beginning. Ideally though it'd be nice to put it out in the world through something like Netflix rather than just put it on youtube where it'll be kinda buried under everything. A venue where people go specifically to watch movies is a venue where it's more likely to actually find the audience that will like the movie.

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Usually it's the other way around. First work out whether there is a market for what you're thinking of making. If there is demand, then make it.

Mentalcase129 said:

The movie's animated, it's not for kids, it's black and white, there's no known names anywhere in it's credits. So it's not an easily marketable movie. It started kind of on a whim and then I ended up going all the way with it.

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Easily marketable is a matter of perspective. Who cares about easily really? What's your target market?

Mentalcase129 said:

For my next project I'll have kind of a different outlook in the distribution end of things maybe but for this one I'm just trying to get it out there in some capacity and I'm not too concerned about really making money off of it. I mean that would be nice obviously if it turned out to be a possibility but I'm not counting on it.

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If you prefer to do this as a hobby, that's fine. If not, for your next project, I'd suggest having someone on board who is concerned with making money off it.

Well of course it's usually the other way around lol. Like I said it started as a whim...I had a story idea so I wrote it and started doing character designs and stuff for fun and then ultimately decided to actually make the movie. People seem to like it, it just hasn't had the opportunity to be seen by too many people.

I have somewhat more ambitious ideas for another project and am planning as such. But in the meantime I just wanna see what I can do with this movie since I've already got it.