Distribution : How soon is too soon? by D. Miles

You should always start looking for distribution as early as possible. Its NEVER too early.

What are you working on? We're looking for content, and if we can have input at the front end, that eliminates roadblocks for us to distribute at the back end. :) Drop me a note and we'll chat.

THREE THINGS TO DO to screw up your chances of selling your MOVIE: 1. Show it or pitch it too soon. 2. Sell off some of the rights or do too many deals to raise capital. 3. Pitch it without a Professional Sales Rep. 1. too soon... your distributor will only get ONE first look.. it better be good. DO NOT, even when begged, show something that has less than final delivery quality, no matter how much pressure you get. start with things like a great script, solid one-sheet and a PROFESSIONALLY made movie poster, a sold website with some background and perhaps some photos, bios, cast info.... anything that will make you look good and offer a distributor or agent information that will help make you look solid. 2. selling rights - once you START doing deals, the more deal you do, the less chance of a real deal later... Make sure when you start to incumber your project with contracts and deals they are smart and well planned...better to do nothing until you get a sales rep on board. 3. Pitch it to distributors on your own... A lot of distributors won't even look at your submission, let alone take time to properly evaluate it unless you have a professional sales rep working with you. i have to disagree with everyone on this one. You may have a great idea, but you need to get a professional Sales rep to work with you and in order to do that you need to have either proof you can deliver ( history of delivery ) or you need to at least convince the sales agent that you WILL be shooting and delivering this film. Otherwise, you're just wasting everyone's time. If you are moving forward and you have financing, at least enough to be believable, then you need to spend some money and/or time on script polish, one-sheet polish, A seriously good professional movie poster. With these you stand a chance of getting a reputable professional sales rep to start working with you, but until you at least have that initial financing to get the project formally rolling you are probably going to do more harm than good by knocking on doors way way to early. the one thing i do agree with is talking to distributors / agents about what they are looking for up front. type of film, style, things their audience might want or not want, so you can do some project tweaking before production.

Alle, Stacey and Georgia make some fantastic points. I would have to agree with most of them. In our firm we focus on smaller films and sometimes we take that shot on a great script, passionate film maker and their solid plan to get the movie made. I have to respectfully disagree with the sales rep. In my opinion, one of the things that sales us on the idea of distributing a film that is not yet completed is the passion of the film maker and in my experience that sometimes gets lost on a sales rep. Again, I mean no disrespect, just for us passion and a solid plan is what we look for.

All great advice! I've obtained an Entertainment Lawyer and we are packaging the project now for () studio. More to come in the following weeks!

Georgia makes some great points, the last of which reminds me why I feel fortunate to have made the decision to spend 20myears in advertising packaging and selling projects before making my own films.