Appropriate to Sell and Festival at same time?
- Thread starter WideShot
- Start date
Selling it on your website as in selling copies? but you still own all the rights to it correct? Festivals are a great oppertunity to possibly get your movie bought, or perhaps bring it to another level. There is also a big to-do when it comes to licenses pertaining to music. Sometimes you can get deals when it comes to strickly festivals but the second it goes out for distro. you have to go back and pay more money. Now lets say your film does good and a company wants to pick it up, most of the time they will pay your costs. That just has to do with music so i thought i would throw it out there. I would say depending on how many festivals your planning on going to would be your answer. If you are planning on a lot of festivals I would hold off but if its just 1 or 2 perhaps I would go ahead and start selling.
I think it really depends on the festival. If it's premiered somewhere already I don't see how it could be a problem, but if you were trying to get into Sundance or something they might not be to happy about it.
Thank you guys for the replies!
24fps - I should have probably mentioned this is a dramedy short (14m49s) so I'm not expecting to get picked up for distribution. I think its a good idea to re-imburse myself and my co-producer for the small budget we laid out, and to get the movie out there to be seen, so we'll offer it at a low price direct from us, retaining rights. Music rights are luckily licensed under a free license.
I'm not precluding this short from going to a Sundance, Slamdance, Aspen, Seattle, etc... I am very very very proud of it... but I am more of a "lets test the waters" type of guy, so I am starting with other smaller festivals first. Fortunately enough, a special 10 minute 1st cut version was screened at a local festival and it won Best comedy award, so I think there may be some potential there.
Will - That's good advice. I think I will email Sundance directly just because I am very curious, not only for this short but for the feature I'm about to start on. I'll post their reply once I get it so we all can know!
24fps - I should have probably mentioned this is a dramedy short (14m49s) so I'm not expecting to get picked up for distribution. I think its a good idea to re-imburse myself and my co-producer for the small budget we laid out, and to get the movie out there to be seen, so we'll offer it at a low price direct from us, retaining rights. Music rights are luckily licensed under a free license.
I'm not precluding this short from going to a Sundance, Slamdance, Aspen, Seattle, etc... I am very very very proud of it... but I am more of a "lets test the waters" type of guy, so I am starting with other smaller festivals first. Fortunately enough, a special 10 minute 1st cut version was screened at a local festival and it won Best comedy award, so I think there may be some potential there.
Will - That's good advice. I think I will email Sundance directly just because I am very curious, not only for this short but for the feature I'm about to start on. I'll post their reply once I get it so we all can know!
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Wideshot: What kind of music rights do you have? Are you sure they allow for sales? Many times it's easy to get free or cheap music rights to use at festivals.. but that wouldn't cover the sales.
What is the exact wording of how the rights are defined in the contract?
The other thing to keep in mind is that the major fests (Sundance in particular) prefer to do the "world premiere" so if you can get it in there it's worth it.. if not and it does well at a bunch of other fests you could then revisit the idea to submit to Sundance, etc.. and based on how well it had done at the others they might be curious enough to want to throw it into their lineup.
What is the exact wording of how the rights are defined in the contract?
The other thing to keep in mind is that the major fests (Sundance in particular) prefer to do the "world premiere" so if you can get it in there it's worth it.. if not and it does well at a bunch of other fests you could then revisit the idea to submit to Sundance, etc.. and based on how well it had done at the others they might be curious enough to want to throw it into their lineup.
24fps said:
The website is up right now but there is no trailer on it yet, and it is still in basic design. The website will be massively updated soon. If you want to see my cover/poster art and my tagline you can check out :
www.thesoupparty.com
Will: I am using two songs released under http://artlibre.org/licence.php/lalgb.html , and one released public domain. They are all editable, and usable for commercial distribution. I ran into the situation you described in freeplaymusic.com . It is not free... not by a longshot. And the guy in charge is not willing to work any deals at all. That's OK though I can't imagine my short without the music I have now.
Once again, thanks Will!
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Well that's good to hear.. good luck with the festivals and sales!
I have bought a couple of DVD's of films I liked at festivals.
Often the producers say that this is a "preview copy" and I am paying $20 "to cover manufacturing and postage". This is to get around the festivals that don't like self distribution.. (I guess they are worried about the "premiere status" of their entries)
Some festivals are ridiculous with their requirements, I don't think they ought to prevent filmmakers from selling DVD's as well as entering the fests.
Often the producers say that this is a "preview copy" and I am paying $20 "to cover manufacturing and postage". This is to get around the festivals that don't like self distribution.. (I guess they are worried about the "premiere status" of their entries)
Some festivals are ridiculous with their requirements, I don't think they ought to prevent filmmakers from selling DVD's as well as entering the fests.
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