self distribution?
- Thread starter Jemshaid
- Start date
You need copies of the movie. Thousands of them.Jemshaid said:
You need marketing: print ads, newspaper ads, a website, posters, press releases.
You need to contact and make deals with theaters, video stores, video-on-demand, pay television, free and cable television. This can be a leasing deal or a profit sharing deal - each theater chain, video store and television station will have their own way of doing business.
Just my opinion, but you should have at least thirty titles do offer.
You can create this business via an on-demand set-up (see CustomFlix). That way you do not need thousands of copies as suggested in another post. DVDs are only made when you sell one. You do need a marketing budget and time however. And you might want to find several other films to lower the total cost spent per title.
I've checked out CustomFlix. For their video on demand service they only offer DVD-R. Not a very stable or professional medium. I'd love to hear some success stories from this kind of self distribution. I imagine it would work if you had a fairly large marketing budget.mbosko said:
I'm not specifically a business man, but I sat next to one in school. And I studied him.
CustomFlix is a dead end for any kind of large-scale distribution; you'd have to advertise to stand out and the price point for profit is fairly high. Being on there sounds cool but honestly, how will anyone decide to spend money on a movie when they don't even know it exists? If people already know about it, you can work that market without an adding a middle-man to eat up profits.
While big-time self-distribution is possible, like any other product the problem is how to sell it. You are competing for consumer dollars, and the consumer in this case is Blockbuster or Wal-Mart, the big boys. The ONLY question they ask is "Will this make me money?" and unless you have a marketable product, they don't care. And marketable doesn't mean a beautiful, moving film, it means a product with a built in audience. That means names stars and titles, advertising, all that stuff, or a strong genre affiliation.
It sounds like you are really talking about distributing your own film or films, not starting a true distribution company on a big scale. Nothing wrong with that.
You can self-distribute outside of the larger chains. Local grassroots stuff will usually result in hundreds, not thousands, of customers but it's better than nothing and it can always lead to bigger things. To really do it right, find a market to target. Advertise if you can. Talk to small record stores, book stores and video stores, art theaters and such, places that understand a small, do-it-yourself product. It's a snap to set up a PayPal account to accept payment on the web.
That's what we do an while it marks us a small time, we ARE small time. I gives us an opportunity to make a little money and do something we'd never have been able to do 5 years ago.
I think its exciting that you can now produce and distribute dvd's for around $1.50 apiece with a relatively small outlay. DVD-R media runs .25 per in quanties of 100, dvd cases about the same in the same volume, printing and mailing add another $1.20 or so. Sell a DVD for $12-$15, you've got a decent profit per sale. Compare that to CustomFlix whose branding probably doesn't really help you move any more product.
With do-it-yourself, you aren't assured the kind of compatibilty of a professional dvd but it's close enough. You're movie can be just as good, you're packaging can be be professional.
Best of all, you get to make movies and people get to see them.
That's my 2 cents worth.
CustomFlix is a dead end for any kind of large-scale distribution; you'd have to advertise to stand out and the price point for profit is fairly high. Being on there sounds cool but honestly, how will anyone decide to spend money on a movie when they don't even know it exists? If people already know about it, you can work that market without an adding a middle-man to eat up profits.
While big-time self-distribution is possible, like any other product the problem is how to sell it. You are competing for consumer dollars, and the consumer in this case is Blockbuster or Wal-Mart, the big boys. The ONLY question they ask is "Will this make me money?" and unless you have a marketable product, they don't care. And marketable doesn't mean a beautiful, moving film, it means a product with a built in audience. That means names stars and titles, advertising, all that stuff, or a strong genre affiliation.
It sounds like you are really talking about distributing your own film or films, not starting a true distribution company on a big scale. Nothing wrong with that.
You can self-distribute outside of the larger chains. Local grassroots stuff will usually result in hundreds, not thousands, of customers but it's better than nothing and it can always lead to bigger things. To really do it right, find a market to target. Advertise if you can. Talk to small record stores, book stores and video stores, art theaters and such, places that understand a small, do-it-yourself product. It's a snap to set up a PayPal account to accept payment on the web.
That's what we do an while it marks us a small time, we ARE small time. I gives us an opportunity to make a little money and do something we'd never have been able to do 5 years ago.
I think its exciting that you can now produce and distribute dvd's for around $1.50 apiece with a relatively small outlay. DVD-R media runs .25 per in quanties of 100, dvd cases about the same in the same volume, printing and mailing add another $1.20 or so. Sell a DVD for $12-$15, you've got a decent profit per sale. Compare that to CustomFlix whose branding probably doesn't really help you move any more product.
With do-it-yourself, you aren't assured the kind of compatibilty of a professional dvd but it's close enough. You're movie can be just as good, you're packaging can be be professional.
Best of all, you get to make movies and people get to see them.
That's my 2 cents worth.
rrk1962 said:
Great post. My attempt with www.KubrickParody.com is to reach a built in audience. If we get a deal on the festival circuit, so much the better - but I'm prepared to self-distribute. Even Sundance films with critical acclaim can get overlooked for distribution. Studio creative risks are at an all time low (to wit, Dukes of Hazzard). I think DIY can often be the way to go. Today you must think about your marketing, and this doesn't necessary mean making it "genre" or basing it on a comic book. If you are in the USA you only need to sell your film to 10k people (in a country of 300+ million) and there are lots different interests people have. Make a film about Tae Bo, for example, and you'll find buyers if it's competently made.
Eventually the studios will wise up and buy more well made $50k-$500k films but until then.. look for more remakes of bad tv shows.
Per
Step #1: Diskmakers will sell you 1,000 DVDs for $2,000 and change.
Step #2: Get a credit card.
Step #3: Buy DVD's
Step #4: Sell them for $10 each to 200 people.
Step #5: Payoff credit card.
Step #6: Do whatever you want with 800 "Free" DVD's of your movie.
If you think you can't sell more than 200 copies, skip steps 1 thru 6 and put film in closet. Then go make a new film that will!
I have done this (or told people to do this) with four differnt films. Worked everytime.
Step #2: Get a credit card.
Step #3: Buy DVD's
Step #4: Sell them for $10 each to 200 people.
Step #5: Payoff credit card.
Step #6: Do whatever you want with 800 "Free" DVD's of your movie.
If you think you can't sell more than 200 copies, skip steps 1 thru 6 and put film in closet. Then go make a new film that will!
I have done this (or told people to do this) with four differnt films. Worked everytime.