From film festival strategies to theatrical to VOD to online options to finding and securing a sales agent the place to discuss, share content and offer tips and advice on all things related to the distribution process
Before a film gets distribution, before a single scene is shot, before it hits the film festival circuit, it starts with a script and storyboards. Here is one of my storyboards for the film, Classic, written and directed by Michelle Hoffman. When I worked on the film, it was in the early stages, jus...
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Vertical series are exploding across platforms and reshaping how content is created, financed, distributed, and monetized — and yet most writers are entering this space blind. Unlike traditional film and television, the vertical market operates on a completely different economic model, deal structur...
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Reminder you can pre-send your questions for the webinar in the comment section below or email edu@stage32.com
I had a family emergency and missed the event. Was it recorded?
Today, getting your film onto VOD platforms is easier than ever—but turning that access into real revenue is a different story. With so many release options, pricing models, and platform categories, understanding how and when your film appears across windows can make the difference between a title t...
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were there technical difficulties? I haven't been able to get on live.
Sony Pictures Animation has decided not to move forward with Matt Braly's Thai-inspired animated film after two years of development, with the director sharing that the studio viewed it as "not commercial enough to produce." The project, co-written with Rebecca Sugar, was a personal story about a te...
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Sam Rivera Is Sony producing a similar project or releasing one shortly? This smells like a common studio tactic, where they option a property and keep it in development so that it won't compete with...
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I want to look into on deman screens. Has anyone ever tried this strategy for distribution? How well has it worked out for you? What are the keys to success and the keys to failure?
Here is an example of an on demand screen service. https://www.cineminifilmclub.com/ourscreen...
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That’s too bad. Where I live there are 4 chains and two independent theaters! Three if you count the George Eastman Museum. Most are available to four-wall, although some are very expensive.
For those...
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I wish I was in Atlanta. I know they have quite a few independent cinemas that are open to this.
It’s like a four wall release which is very common for indie filmmakers to get theatrical. Depending on how you negotiate box office you’ll have to make sure you can draw up a large enough crowd to at...
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This is basically renting a cinema for a community screening. It works best if you already have a built-in audience (schools, fan clubs, local orgs) who will actually buy tickets. Without that, it's e...
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In today’s streaming-driven industry, great writing alone isn’t enough to get your script read. While talent is essential—and you already have that—access, alignment, and advocacy are what actually open doors. Most streaming executives don’t read unsolicited material; they respond to trusted relatio...
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This sounds like an incredibly practical and timely webinar. You're absolutely right that the gap between "great script" and "executive reads it" is often less about craft and more about navigation, u...
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Some of these leaders are surprising.
Happy Gilmore 2 cost $150M which seems like a deal, considering Electric State cost double and had 1/3 of the viewership / was panned/forgotten within minutes.
Movies like Happy Gilmore 2, Back in Action, Nonnas (great movie), Havoc, and Kinda Pregnant look to be...
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I saw Frankenstein and Wake Up Dead Man, Pat Alexander. They're incredible! I also saw other movies on the list like Havoc and A Minecraft Movie. Incredible movies too! I think it's interesting that a...
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The company reported 325 million paid subscriptions in its fourth quarter across consumer services, which includes YouTube Premium and more.
(https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/youtube-made-more-tha...)...
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it's wild to me that 325M people pay to subscribe to YT when there's so much great stuff you can watch for free, like this 2hr train ride thru Japan video: (https://youtu.be/q8nPaqfRm_c?si=GxfJhHCldkE...
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I feel ya Pat Alexander ! Some people just really hate commercials and are willing to pay. I don't usually stay on long enough to care about the commercials. But the fact that you can stream YouTube f...
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YouTube's everywhere now and there's nothing stopping google from world domination. I saw Delta recently made a deal with YouTube to show YouTube premium on their plane as well. Audiences will watch influencers on the plane now.
Pat Alexander I am really enjoying the train ride. I get that the train wants to go somewhere and has an identity crisis in the tunnel, but how does it grow as a protagonist? I think if the video answ...
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Youtube is the new stage. It allows you to get your content out to the masses without tryig to go through traditional distribution networks. The key is to get following.
You may have seen my latest video in Instagram talking about this but I had five conversations this week with producers and distribution execs who are actively packaging and selling projects right now. A pattern emerged that I can't stop thinking about:
Companies can't just excel in one area anymore....
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I hope we get some insight here.....
Great question Geoffroy Faugerolas While I am certainly biased, for which I make no hesitations, I strongly always advise and utilize my own such advice - know what the project costs to make. Without...
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Geoffroy Faugerolas This has been evolving for the last decade. Vertical integration, IMO is inevitable as the studio-controlled distribution nets dissolve along with brick-and-mortar, physical distri...
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Heya, Stage 32 Fam! I had my first meeting with a ditributor not too long ago - how exciting that a couple of my shorts my find other platforms to live on! But what caught my attention was just how many things they look for as part of those "deliverables".
What's that thing we should ALL have in our...
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Congratulations on having your first meeting with a distributor, Karen "Kay" Ross! An eye-catching poster.
The traditional path to film distribution is increasingly unreliable for indie filmmakers, as the blog post powerfully argues. Gone are the days of making a film first and simply hoping a distributor will handle the rest; this strategy often leads to a finished movie with no audience. Instead, we mu...
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You're right, Sam Rivera. Something indie filmmakers can do is create low-cost marketing campaigns on social media, platforms like YouTube, and websites to build an audience for their movies, like a m...
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Maurice Vaughan hey. how would you go about doing that?
Hey, Tony Bowens. I haven't made a low-cost marketing campaign, but I've seen filmmakers do it. Maybe put a teaser poster and clips on social media. And maybe do a scavenger hunt type marketing campai...
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I think the tools are called email and telephone if I want to involve a distributor. If I am advertising my film myself, it's going to my own site where I make all the money.
Why is that, Mike? The distributor should come to you, not the other way around.
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