The struggle to get your movie seen

T

teto29

Ive been thinking about this for a while. The difficulty to make 'it' out there is so incredibly hard that its even depressing. With online streaming and free movies its gotta be so hard really making a living out of being a filmmaker, let alone an independent one. This frustrates me because filmmaking is one of the things i love most in life. The number of films made every year just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Yea, most of them are crap, but the chances of getting found are very low.
This isnt made to discourage. Quite the opposite. I hope there are some good responses that can lift my spirits up a little. Were here because we love doing this right? No matter what? Im realistic and have a steady job but the dream is to make movies. Sometimes its just hard to keeping looking ahead with the enormous amount of movies out there. Sorry about this guys. Its just been on my mind and feels good to let it out.
 
I'm learning a lesson about the current state of the industry for indies.

When I finished my last feature - in 1999 - nearly every distributor I contacted - no matter how large - asked to view the movie.

Now, none of them even replies to my e-mails, let alone expresses any interest in reviewing the film. And CRIMPS is a far better and more commercial movie than my previous one.

I'm guessing the world of motion picture distribution has become akin to that of screenplay writing: there's just way too much product out there for buyers to review everything that comes over the transom. They're only considering material that comes with a pedigree of some sort.

I don't know that for certain; it's just a guess.
 
2001 Productions said:
I'm guessing the world of motion picture distribution has become akin to that of screenplay writing: there's just way too much product out there for buyers to review everything that comes over the transom. They're only considering material that comes with a pedigree of some sort.

I don't know that for certain; it's just a guess.
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I think you may be right. Maybe they are only interested in safe bets like proven directors, known actors, known writers, etc... I am sure if you had a real strong buzz going about your movie like a strong marketing campaign to get people watching. Maybe had a lot of people view it via festivals and won awards that would help. They are looking for a built in customer base more than likely. They want to make money. If you look at it in their eyes it is all about money and risk. Back in 1999 the competition was far less.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
You just gotta keep the faith that the cream will rise to the top. Work on being the cream.
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That is my thoughts too. Look at films like Fight Club it did not do well in the box office but became a cult classic. If you make a good enough film people will find it if you have it out there where they can find it. Word of mouth advertising is very good if you have a film that people enjoy enough to let all their friends know about it.
 
I hear ya! Lately, I've been having this dream I'm on the side of a desert road selling buckets of sand. Maybe if I have purple radioactive sand that gives people super powers I can get someone to pay $5 a bucket. :lol:

teto29 said:
Ive been thinking about this for a while. The difficulty to make 'it' out there is so incredibly hard that its even depressing. With online streaming and free movies its gotta be so hard really making a living out of being a filmmaker, let alone an independent one. This frustrates me because filmmaking is one of the things i love most in life. The number of films made every year just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Yea, most of them are crap, but the chances of getting found are very low.
This isnt made to discourage. Quite the opposite. I hope there are some good responses that can lift my spirits up a little. Were here because we love doing this right? No matter what? Im realistic and have a steady job but the dream is to make movies. Sometimes its just hard to keeping looking ahead with the enormous amount of movies out there. Sorry about this guys. Its just been on my mind and feels good to let it out.
Click to expand...
 
"making it" (for the purposes of this conversation defined by quitting your dayjob and still being financially secure) in any creative field is now, and always has been a longshot. With the sheer volume of noise being generated (HOW many hours of video uploaded to youtube PER DAY!?!?!) it is definitely harder to rise above the din. But I agree with the others; make the movies you want to see, and make them to the best of your abilities. Then, be your biggest critic and make your next one even better. Then be your biggest fan; talk yourself up, promote the hell out of your films, push any which way you can. It is hard to get noticed, but it can be done (and hopefully all of us can get there if we keep working at it).
 
I just saw "Everything is Illuminated", I don't think I'd ever be able to do a better job of Directing than was in that film. Yet I don't think that film has made a profit. It's made me realize that profit does not depend on the quality of the film. So you can make films specifically to make money or you can just try to make very good films.
 
So true! One of my favorite directors is Thomas McCarthy. His Box Office average is 8 million. That's very poor for a director of movies with theatrical distribution and Academy Award nominations. He's still awesome!
http://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Director&id=tommccarthy.htm

vic3433 said:
I just saw "Everything is Illuminated", I don't think I'd ever be able to do a better job of Directing than was in that film. Yet I don't think that film has made a profit. It's made me realize that profit does not depend on the quality of the film. So you can make films specifically to make money or you can just try to make very good films.
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2001 Productions said:
I don't know that for certain; it's just a guess.
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It's a great guess.

There are so many movies being made now that distributors are drastically
narrowing their criteria and their interest in looking at almost everything.
That doesn't mean a filmmaker doesn't have a chance in hell - it only
means it's much more difficult to interest a distributor than it was 10 years
ago.

I spent three days at the American Film Market last week. It was an eye
opening experience. Knowing what is selling and what isn't helps when
deciding what movie to put time, effort and money into.
 
directorik said:
I spent three days at the American Film Market last week. It was an eye
opening experience. Knowing what is selling and what isn't helps when
deciding what movie to put time, effort and money into.
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It may be way too broad a question for this forum, but I'd be very curious to hear what you learned there.

Several people recommended I take CRIMPS to AFM, but it looked like it was gonna cost over $500 to fly down there and register as a seller. Plus, since I have no idea what I'm doing, it seemed like I might just be flushing that money.
 
directorik said:
It's a great guess.
...

I spent three days at the American Film Market last week. It was an eye
opening experience. Knowing what is selling and what isn't helps when
deciding what movie to put time, effort and money into.
Click to expand...

Could you fill us in on what's selling and what's not? A lot of us would love to know, especially those of us with features attempting to find distro or will be attempting.

Hopefully that info is something that you're able to share with the community!
 
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directorik said:
It's a great guess.

....

I spent three days at the American Film Market last week. It was an eye
opening experience. Knowing what is selling and what isn't helps when
deciding what movie to put time, effort and money into.
Click to expand...

Please fill us in. What's selling? What isn't?
 
I was talking to a DP, and he says that he bought a copy of a movie (don't remember the title). But the director and producer, a no-name, was selling his movie on DVD and marketing it himself. The movie got picked up that way, and got even more distribution by a company. So maybe you sell a significant amount of copies yourself, it will get word out of mouth, and get noticed by the right people?
 
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2001 Productions said:
Several people recommended I take CRIMPS to AFM
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In general it isn’t a good idea to attend AFM as a seller whit one
movie. Of course the producer who sells four or five territories
will say different. But I know from talking to many producers that
the buyers rarely buy one movie from a lone producer. I did,
however, see several booths where that was happening. I spoke to
about five of them and by Sunday none of them had sold a single
territory.

2001, if you had sold even one territory for, say, $1,000 it would
have been worth it. Perhaps you should head down next year not
as a seller but just as a guest to get a feel of how the market works.

This was my 22nd AFM. Limiting myself to movies without name stars
or with only minor names, what was selling this year was almost the
same as the last five. Sci-fi that looks really good sells. There are so
few that the good ones stand out. Horror was way down. Germany,
France and Italy were buying thrillers and gritty crime dramas as they
usually do as long as there is some action. Not for very much - in the
$1,500 to $5,000 range. Asia wants action - action seemed to be
selling well this year to all territories. Family films were doing well with
the small domestic buyers - not so much overseas. I was surprised to
see few Christian films there. I think most are being sold area by area
and on line rather than through distributors. Drama continued to be
a non-seller. Comedies do not translate well so they tend to sell only
to US distributors. And they were selling well this year.
 
directorik said:
In general it isn’t a good idea to attend AFM as a seller whit one
movie. Of course the producer who sells four or five territories
will say different. But I know from talking to many producers that
the buyers rarely buy one movie from a lone producer. I did,
however, see several booths where that was happening. I spoke to
about five of them and by Sunday none of them had sold a single
territory.
Click to expand...

Darn, that is tragic. I was tempted to spend the 300 to go to AFM for a day, but would've been hopeleslsy underprepared even to walk the floor. Maybe next year, but as you say, with more than one feature.

This was my 22nd AFM. Limiting myself to movies without name stars
or with only minor names, what was selling this year was almost the
same as the last five. Sci-fi that looks really good sells. There are so
few that the good ones stand out. Horror was way down. Germany,
France and Italy were buying thrillers and gritty crime dramas as they
usually do as long as there is some action. Not for very much - in the
$1,500 to $5,000 range. Asia wants action - action seemed to be
selling well this year to all territories. Family films were doing well with
the small domestic buyers - not so much overseas. I was surprised to
see few Christian films there. I think most are being sold area by area
and on line rather than through distributors. Drama continued to be
a non-seller. Comedies do not translate well so they tend to sell only
to US distributors. And they were selling well this year.
Click to expand...

That sounds like great news. Thanks for sharing with everyone. This is kind of what I meant by no-names doing certain kinds of content up to a certain standard. I am surprised that Comedy is actually selling to US territories, very interesting.

Sweet deal.
 
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