Know Your Movie

Redemption

Redemption

Since I have been back to indietalk.com I noticed this forum on distribution. So I decided that perhaps I could contribute some information that would help my fellow filmmakers in their quest to make films that actually see the light of day.

Many of you know my qualifications to speak on this subject but for those of you that don’t I will qualify by saying that my first feature “Redemption” was distributed on home video by Artisan in the United States and Canada. In the last couple of weeks it was sold to Greece and the Netherlands. I will also add that I spent five years at E! Entertainment covering the movie and TV industry, and I directed the DVD Premiere awards for the Reed Business Group(Daily Variety, Video Business ECT).

So to say the least I have had the opportunity to speak to some industry “experts” on the subject of distribution specifically home video and theatrical although I did not mange to make it to the theaters on “Redemption”.

The first step in my mind should be taken before you produce the film, in your development process it is imperative to know or at least have a plan to sell your film. Unless you don’t plan to sell it or you are going to self distribute and you really still need to know how you are going to market your product.

With “Redemption” I knew if I didn’t make the theaters that I still had a chance with home video. I always set out to make the theaters and if I would have budgeted correctly I would have done a two week run in Los Angeles, you can put your film in most theaters around the county for two weeks for approximately $12,000. Ash the director of “Bang” used that formula and got a distributor.

One of the main things that I worked on with the team is having a consistent pitch. For “Redemption” it was an urban “Romeo and Juliet” meets “Boyz in the Hood” meets “Hollywood Shuffle” this immediately puts a sense of the movie in the minds of potential buyers.

Okay so the first step know your movie, next time I will talk about genre and why I believe some of the things you hear are true and some aren’t. Please feel free to ask questions and let me know if this has been helpful or what you would like to hear next. I am not claiming to be an expert but hopefully I am sharing some of my success and other cases my failures so you can avoid them.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Outanding...

Redemption said:
Since I have been back to indietalk.com I noticed this forum on distribution. So I decided that perhaps I could contribute some information that would help my fellow filmmakers in their quest to make films that actually see the light of day.

Many of you know my qualifications to speak on this subject but for those of you that don’t I will qualify by saying that my first feature “Redemption” was distributed on home video by Artisan in the United States and Canada. In the last couple of weeks it was sold to Greece and the Netherlands. I will also add that I spent five years at E! Entertainment covering the movie and TV industry, and I directed the DVD Premiere awards for the Reed Business Group(Daily Variety, Video Business ECT).

So to say the least I have had the opportunity to speak to some industry “experts” on the subject of distribution specifically home video and theatrical although I did not mange to make it to the theaters on “Redemption”.

The first step in my mind should be taken before you produce the film, in your development process it is imperative to know or at least have a plan to sell your film. Unless you don’t plan to sell it or you are going to self distribute and you really still need to know how you are going to market your product.

With “Redemption” I knew if I didn’t make the theaters that I still had a chance with home video. I always set out to make the theaters and if I would have budgeted correctly I would have done a two week run in Los Angeles, you can put your film in most theaters around the county for two weeks for approximately $12,000. Ash the director of “Bang” used that formula and got a distributor.

One of the main things that I worked on with the team is having a consistent pitch. For “Redemption” it was an urban “Romeo and Juliet” meets “Boyz in the Hood” meets “Hollywood Shuffle” this immediately puts a sense of the movie in the minds of potential buyers.

Okay so the first step know your movie, next time I will talk about genre and why I believe some of the things you hear are true and some aren’t. Please feel free to ask questions and let me know if this has been helpful or what you would like to hear next. I am not claiming to be an expert but hopefully I am sharing some of my success and other cases my failures so you can avoid them.
Click to expand...

I hate to be the one to ask... Can you give us any kind of an "idea" about profit if such a thing exists? Also, can you give us an idea what to expect moneywise from any specific market? This is of course, assuming one picks up a distributor.

Thanks for any information you're willing to share... I know I'll be reading everything...

filmy
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Know the Marketplace

Genre

Okay Filmjumper that leads me right into genre and how it can make or break you. First to address “Redemption” and the profit margin, we have to classify it as an urban drama with no “Stars” Brian White is up and coming but at the time he really hadn’t done a lot. I believe at this time his success is helping to fuel marketing.

Now I have been lucky for anyone that has seen “Redemption” it is not a typical urban film. Most true urban films do not sell to Europe, they just aren’t interested. “Redemption” is more artsy and combines a lot of elements. Including and this is just a fact being well made, if the film has huge technical flaws its chances of selling go down dramatically.

Now I am sure that most of you know that horror is the big ticket these days, they sell really well in Europe if you make it for say $200,000 you can sell it or at least a million overseas. Sounds good doesn’t it, just remember that everyone is doing this now which means it is very difficult to break in without the proper elements. I will do some research on this and get back to you guys.

Now what does not sell? Comedy, American humor in general does not translate to Europe or Japan and definitely not Africa. No name dramas have a lot of trouble as well. And the romantic comedy has been beat to death since “Clerks”. But you say you have the best idea in the world and it is a comedy, I would never tell anyone not to do it and of course if you can cast a “Face” a lot of things will change.

So now we have step two, know the marketplace. Do the research, don’t take my word for especially if your are going to get investors to put up money or use your own an realistic assessment of what the market will bear is the best thing you can do for the film and your investors.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Redemption said:
The first step in my mind should be taken before you produce the film, in your development process it is imperative to know or at least have a plan to sell your film. Unless you don’t plan to sell it or you are going to self distribute and you really still need to know how you are going to market your product.
Click to expand...

What would a general plan be like? I mean, you said that you always shoot with the intent of having a theater run, but you sell to DVD market. Is it a tier thing? Like, aim for the top, then if you fall a little short, you're better off than if you had aimed lower. I guess the question I am asking is really, do I think direct to video and plan my production accordingly, or do I think film fests and/or theatrical release and hope that the things I do productionwise will still translate to the DVD market?

Redemption said:
With “Redemption” I knew if I didn’t make the theaters that I still had a chance with home video. I always set out to make the theaters and if I would have budgeted correctly I would have done a two week run in Los Angeles, you can put your film in most theaters around the county for two weeks for approximately $12,000. Ash the director of “Bang” used that formula and got a distributor.
Click to expand...

How does a two week theater run help with DVD distribution? Is it strictly to help sell the film to the distribution co. or is it for the market place?

Redemption said:
One of the main things that I worked on with the team is having a consistent pitch. For “Redemption” it was an urban “Romeo and Juliet” meets “Boyz in the Hood” meets “Hollywood Shuffle” this immediately puts a sense of the movie in the minds of potential buyers.
Click to expand...

Are you speaking of a pre-production pitch to investors or of a post-production pitch to the distribution companies?

Another question: When getting to know the market for the film, should you think more of how to sell it to distributors or how the distributors could market it to the public? Or are those thought processes arm in arm?

Poke
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Now I have been lucky for anyone that has seen “Redemption” it is not a typical urban film. Most true urban films do not sell to Europe, they just aren’t interested. “Redemption” is more artsy and combines a lot of elements. Including and this is just a fact being well made, if the film has huge technical flaws its chances of selling go down dramatically.

Now I am sure that most of you know that horror is the big ticket these days, they sell really well in Europe if you make it for say $200,000 you can sell it or at least a million overseas. Sounds good doesn’t it, just remember that everyone is doing this now which means it is very difficult to break in without the proper elements. I will do some research on this and get back to you guys.
Click to expand...

This is really interesting, because we're told exactly the same thing about the US market, don't do no name social realism, the American's are only interested in Horror.

Most true urban films do not sell to Europe, they just aren’t interested
Click to expand...

I find that really odd, because most of Europe England, Germany, Holland all have thriving art house scenes where good urban films are accepted, there are also a lot of good major arthouse distributors, Artificial Eye and Tartan being the two big UK. I wonder whether this is to do with Europena ideas that there isn't a strong USA arthouse film scene, although films like Buffulo 66 would refute that as an idea.

This is really interesting stuff. We should talk more about this, it may well be that there is a huge gap in both market places.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I am loving this information. Keep it coming. This is all the important stuff they don't really teach in film school. It's one thing to create art, it's another thing to get it out there for people to see.

I was wondering if you could elaborate on one aspect of your initial post here. Say you're working on your distribution plan. You're going to take your film to festivals or try to get a run in theaters. Would you invite the distribution company people to see your film? Can you send distribution companies a copy of your film? Basically what I'm asking is; how do you approach a distribution company about picking up your film?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Say you're working on your distribution plan. You're going to take your film to festivals or try to get a run in theaters. Would you invite the distribution company people to see your film? Can you send distribution companies a copy of your film? Basically what I'm asking is; how do you approach a distribution company about picking up your film?
Click to expand...

I think in the UK it's easier, because all the companies distributors and sales agents are in Soho, London which mean that you can either send them tapes (VHS ironically, guaranteed to play in any machine) or arrange a sales screening. There are a number of small private cinemas in Soho who host showings like that.

Generally what happens though is you identify sales agents, send them tapes and then they show the film to distributors at the various international sales events Mifed, Mipcom etc.

If your film is in a major selling festival (Montreal, Cannes, New York, Berlin) you'd identify distributors who might be interested and send them invitations to the screening. You'd back that up by sending them a tape, after the showing. You send the tape after so that they don't de-prioritise seeing your film in the cinema.

Sales agents and distributors often walk out of screenings, don't worry if this happens, they're just like that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Here in the States the two big distribution conferences are the IFP ones, I believe (correct me if I am wrong those of you who know better). Other than that some of the bigger film fests also serve as a market (ala Sundance). Then there is always the query letter and the obligatory "feature films wanted" ads in the trades.

Poke
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
And can you people discribe what is this typical urban film what type of genre is this???this topic was very healty and interesting...knowing things like US comedy isnt that much attractive in Europe.and i believe we could have know more about different markets.but the topic just stopped here...........thats bad
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The link takes you to Sean A Reid's Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) page... if you'd read it, you'd see that Sean A Reid was the writer/director of "Redemption"

It also tells you that Sean is busy on other projects.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sean is a personal friend... and I know for sure he wrote, directed and produced Redemption... it's his project ... sure other people will have been involved, but Sean is the only one qualified to talk about it. I mean the project is semi-autobiographical.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
clive said:
The link takes you to Sean A Reid's Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) page... if you'd read it, you'd see that Sean A Reid was the writer/director of "Redemption"

It also tells you that Sean is busy on other projects.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top