Distribution

I look forward to reading and answering your questions about how Film Festivals are run behind the scenes. It’s amazing how the Burbank International Film Festival has evolved since its inception, especially in the direction of its vision; the high quality of its films; the rewarding aspects of the BIFF experience; its biggest challenges; and the feedback from filmmakers. If you’d like more details about any of the above facets of BIFF, let me know. I’d like to know what you want to see behind the curtain.

My background...

Currently run Patino Management Company (IG: @patinomgmt), a full-service Talent Management firm representing Film/TV actors. Began my career as a Talent Agent and became co-founder of the very successful Defining Artists Talent Agency. In my over 25 year career as a Talent Representative, I’ve guided the careers of well-known performers such as Rami Malek, America Ferrera, Kelly Stables, Nichole Sakura, Ayesha Curry, Molly Hagan, Barbara Niven, Kenneth Choi and former Oscar® nominee Patty McCormack.

Produced the action-comedy feature film, “Double Threat,” starring Matthew Lawrence and Dawn Olivieri, which became the sole indie feature amongst Hollywood blockbusters listed in the Amazon Prime “Top 10 in the U.S.” category. Co-wrote & co-produced the Amazon Prime comedy-adventure movie, "Tin Holiday," which was shot in London & Los Angeles. It won BEST STORY at the London International Film Festival. Wrote and produced the Horror/Sci-Fi limited series, "Soul Fire Rising” for TubiTV. Accepted an invitation to Canada where I presented my TEDx talk on “How Fear Can Be A Four Letter Word For Success.” Have been President/Festival Director of the Burbank International Film Festival from 2022-2024 (IG: burbankfilmfest).

Now, this is a very interesting turn of events in the UK. Vue International, a privately owned company, is about to address their supply problem by becoming a distribution company!

Tim Richards, the Chief Executive said that this move into distribution was due to the problems of supply due to the strikes in America. It's in talks with UK-based Producers, to distribute their projects.

Also of interest to them are foreign language films too:

”We’re going to start bringing in Polish films, German films, Dutch films and Danish films as well,” said Richards, talking today at The Leisure Property Forum held at the Vue West End in London. ”We know there’s a market here, particularly this year when there are fewer films being released.”

This looks like a fantastic opportunity for UK Producers.

I wonder how long it will take other privately owned cinema chains to follow suit?

https://www.screendaily.com/news/vue-planning-further-shift-into-uk-irel...?

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/sony-pictures-buys-alamo-drafthouse-c...

What are your thoughts on this?

I imagine there will be some controversy, given the political arena and that the Chinese government will have a say in what content gets published.

Still, the size of the market can't be ignored.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/china-animation-film...

I already know the answer to this without reading the article. Sports is the anchor that keeps cable stations alive.

That said, in Canada, we have 24/7 sports channels TSN and Sportsnet that carry most of the Canadian Football League and NHL games, plus they carry some NFL, MLB, and NBA, among other sports. Some contests might make their way onto CBC but for the most part, Canadian cable requires an upgraded package to the full sports channels to be able to see games.

In Alberta, I get Spokane, which carries NFL Seahawk shows and some games. NBC and CBS will carry some games but for the most part, in Alberta, we have to have Sportsnet to be able to watch our local hockey teams.

In looking at a cable station from morning to midnight, unless it is A&E or any specialized network, there's not much going on except filler and repeat shows. See a discussion earlier in this lounge about news and journalists, because local network news doesn't even guarantee local news coverage anymore.

Sports is a multi-cajillion dollar industry, and big bucks are paid for broadcast rights. The college division I television contract alone is probably worth more than the NBA and NHL put together.

Like the article says: "Removing sports from the ledger puts The Curse of Oak Island and When Calls the Heart in the top two spots, but their viewer averages — 3.14 million and 2.77 million — are less than half of the top sports events."

What do you guys think? Even if you're not a sports fan, do you agree that sports carry the weight for television stations?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/live-sports-dominates-cable...

Hey, All!

There are 2 FREE Stage 32 in-person networking meetups coming up this Thursday, June 13th! I'm including links to the meetup pages for you all below. If you live in any of these cities or are nearby, be sure to RSVP and seize this opportunity to meet with other creatives in person and help build your local creative community!

Austin, TX: https://www.stage32.com/meetups/1980/June-Stage-32-Austin-TX-In-Person-Meetup

Phoenix, AZ: https://www.stage32.com/meetups/1979/June-Phoenix-AZ-In-Person-Meetup

I'm looking into Indie Rights as a way to distribute my film on streaming platforms based on a recommendation on Stage32. I have a few questions about the process.

My first question is in regards to the timing of this process. I've submitted my film into some film festivals, some of which have notification dates around August/September. Should I begin the process with Indie Rights now, or would it be better to wait and see if the film makes into any of the film fests before I start this process? My thought is, worst case scenario, if my film doesn't get into any of the film fests, I'd like to get it out into the world by the end of this year.

Secondly, I found a slideshow on Indie Right's website with the required deliverables. For example, they want you to put their logo at the beginning of the film (amongst other things) which is totally fine. But I also found a more generic Google Doc/submission page on their website. Do I need to update the file of my film before I submit it, or do I go through the initial submission Google Doc with my film file as is and if it gets selected, then do I update the file with the deliverables?

Lastly, my film has a musical element to it, so I was hoping to put the songs that I created and own the rights to on streaming services (Apple, Spotify, etc.) after I find a streaming home for the film. Will I still be able to do this if I distribute with Indie Rights?

I emailed Indie Rights these questions a couple times but haven't heard back, so I wanted to see if anyone on here has gone through the process and could help me out. I've also looked at Gravitas Ventures, which has a similar submission page. Any and all advice would be much appreciated.

For over a decade, we've been watching the demise of the newspaper industry and other mainstream media sources, which are desperately needed in times of conflict, corruption, and holding truth to power. Media companies amalgamating, elimination of local representation, and the 24/hour cable punditry is our current reality. Despite that, we have journalists getting stories out through non-traditional means, like YouTube, TikTok (which our US and Canadian governments want to ban, hmm), etc.

Add the discussion of the changing landscape from the film and television industry and the forgotten source is public broadcasting. This is where you get deep dives on culture, art, personalities, and so much more. I'm not sure what the solution is to save it, but this article reminds us that it might go dark tomorrow.

https://deadline.com/2024/06/tim-davie-alex-mahon-media-telecoms-beyond-...

Would love to hear your thoughts!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/summer-box-office-2-...

Here’s a great article on Indiewire by Brian Newman and his 10 rules for Indie Producers who are wanting to find distribution for their films.

What follows are just my takeaways and thoughts about his article.

1. Streamers rarely show up at film festivals. Don’t bank on going to Sundance and expecting to see them there.

2. Distributors have lost the Pay 1 window. (Note - Pay-One windows are the first exclusive release window, following a film’s theatrical release and a ‘transactional purchase sell-through period’). This, I believe, is happening because many films from the Streamers have no interest in a theatrical release for their productions. It's all about subscribers and not box-office. Anyone else want to chip in on this point?

3. Transactional revenues are down and for docs, they’ve fallen off the cliff – “Most distributors and aggregators will tell you that for docs, transactional has “fallen off a cliff,” which means they can take even fewer of those. This is also because of the next point.” If you are a documentary filmmaker, have you noticed this phenomenon? Is this your experience?

4. Documentaries don’t work theatrically anymore – Should documentary Producers forget about theatrical releases in their distribution strategies? Are there benefits to eventising your documentary release?

5. But theatrical has never been more important, or interesting – “Many of the better and curated arthouses are showing up for STRONG NARRATIVES, and there’s a growing sense that the theatrical window is becoming more important than ever.” (This sense of ‘strong narratives’ rich in social content gives me hope for the making of my film, ‘Seeing Rachel’).

6. Event-releasing is key – “When you event-ise your screening, audiences will show up and that’s especially true for documentary films.” Have you used this strategy successfully for your film? Could you share something with the community about your successes or failures? Note – Four-wall theatre rental is when a production company hires a screen for whatever duration and takes all the box-office.

7. You need to own your distribution, and you must budget for it – Yes, you must budget for it. “For brands it might be about 1/3 to a 1/2 of what they plan to spend on the film itself.” But this of course doesn’t work for most indie films, who would rather the finance went to producing the film. If you are a brand, fine, but if not you must set aside finance for distribution. You need a Plan A and Plan B for the release of your film.

8. If you’re not a U.S. filmmaker, this sounds crazy, but it’s still true – Old-world thinking is that a production company doesn’t need to spend any money on distribution and marketing. “But if you raise some funds, you could do a SERVICE DEAL with a distributor or booker in the US – and keep your rights, get a better release, build a fanbase and audience and maybe come out ahead.” If any of you have examples of service deal that you could share, it would help the community to know how this works. Thanks.

9. This works better if you are making a film for a very specific, sizable, underserved audience – This is all about identifying your key audience and I would suggest that it can work really well if you are making a film with strong narratives and is rich in social content. “It doesn’t matter whether you get into any film-fest, or if no distro buys your film, because you have such a sizeable potential audience that is hungry for your film, that you can go directly to them an succeed.” Note – In other words – BUILD A BRAND FOR YOUR FILM.

10. Luckily, there are new tools to help with some of this distribution and marketing stuff, but you have to use and embrace them – This section alone has given me a lot of tools to consider using for the distribution of ‘Seeing Rachel’. Yes, there’s obviously a lot of prospects for using social media, but it needs a focus and can’t be a scatter-gun approach, hoping to find your audience (which you should already know by this stage). There’s the obvious: IG, TikTok, Letterboxd, but then the less obvious include: Kinema, Artinii, and Jolt (links provided in the article).

Have any of our community used these tools for the release of their films?

Ideas include: getting your cast (and crew) a record simple videos from the set – for use later, or maybe try some of them live. Pre-record intros for a theatrical audience. “Hello [Bristol] and thanks for coming to see our film...” Use authentic voices and not just cheap soundbites.

THE MAIN TAKEAWAY: DON’T PUT ALL OF YOUR FAITH IN SELLING YOUR FILM TO A MAJOR DISTRIBUTOR OR STREAMER; OWN YOUR DESTINY.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/film-distribution-basics-h...

This is an interesting trend from this years Cannes and I wonder if other festivals will follow this pattern. I'm not sure why the big guns weren't so prominent in their buying of films. Maybe someone in the Stage32 community has an answer to that?

"The Cannes 2024 market saw a thrilling revival with nine movies — including four movies in the main competition — selling to specialized distributors in domestic deals. However, this wasn’t exactly a return to business as normal: The buyers weren’t stalwarts like A24, or Focus, or IFC. Instead Mubi, Metrograph Pictures, and Sideshow (in partnership with Janus Films) established themselves as major buyers."

There's that phrase again, 'not a return to business as normal', so is the ghost of the Pandemic, still haunting the minds of buyers?

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mubi-metrograph-sideshow-became-biggest-133000...?