Distribution

You're right, Debbie Elicksen. Everything needs a plan. My main goal for November Write Club is finish rewriting a feature script, and I have a plan figured out. I'm rooting for you to reach your goal!

Is the Writers club the same as the Writers Group for stage 32?

I think you're talking about the Writers' Cafes in Stage 32’s Writers' Room, Don Zorbas. They're different than November Write Club.

Darrell Pennington I did for awhile and found it to be a very helpful resource.

Great - thank you for the information, much appreciated.

Luminate, to my knowledge, is a company orginaly founded to track music statistics, moving into film & TV with the participation of Variety. As such it attempts to track industry stats to the extent those numbers are released by the major studios. Most of the stats they claim to track are problematic because they really aren't trackable for a wide variety of reasons. I don't know what actual use it is for contacts beyond what is already in imdb pro or the LA 411. Would someone tell us?

Michael Fitzer well done, Michael. It’s great to hear of your success. Thanks for sharing.

I love how in-depth this article gets, Amanda Toney!

Amanda Toney Thank you for sharing this, Amanda! Your insight into four walling is incredibly helpful, especially for independent filmmakers navigating distribution strategies. It’s inspiring to see how this approach can lead to not only profitable runs but also critical recognition. Congratulations on your feature film hitting theaters this month—wishing you great success with it and let us know how we can watch and come support!

CONGRATULATIONS, Amanda!

Thank you for your insight, Amanda.

I love this Debbie Elicksen, specially for us that are in Europe. :) Thanks for sharing.

Sandra Isabel Correia I was also thinking about you when I shared it. ;)

Thank you, Debbie Elicksen, we’re definitely on the same wavelength :)) We have a fantastic European subsidiary, and this interview highlights it beautifully: Creative Europe MEDIA, the initiative through which the European Commission champions indie creativity across the continent. It’s encouraging to read. Grateful once again!

Great advice. And don't just look up national bodies. Some countries have regional incentives to promote their area as well.

Congratulations on finishing post, Elyes Baccar! Stage 32 has Distribution Education (www.stage32.com/education/search?term=Distribution).

Hit us up with a trailer and logline please. Not all distributors want the same thing. So showing it will hopefully allow people to respond with some great leads.

Elyes Baccar Do you have a trailer of any kind? Show it here!

Have you reached out to any distributors?

A good first step will be to take a look at similar films on IMDb and go to the company credits page. Here you can see who distributed the film and in which territory. For international deals, you may want the help of an international sales agent. This company is usually listed among the distributors, but their territory is "worldwide". By seeing who has sold similar titles you may find partners that know the marketplace for your movie.

Ashley Renee Smith So true. Distribution isn't a one-size-fits-all. I daresay it's marketing and PR too, especially when one uses certain platforms. It's so much fun to see how many more options keep coming onto the scene that allows all of us to get our messages heard in however our art is created.

Ashley Renee Smith For filmmakers, especially those with mid-range indie budgets of $10–20 million, relying solely on streaming revenue to recoup costs is very risky. To realistically recover such an investment, it usually makes sense to secure a theatrical release, as box office returns provide the upfront revenue streaming alone often cannot deliver.

Great share Ashley! One of my early jobs in the industry was in distribution and it was mind-boggling how many moving parts there are to it. Let alone writing a distribution deal!

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg but they do probably have a bigger footfall, Shadow. How do indie producers match that?

Geoff Hall You don't match that, not at this time. You build over time, like any other business in any other market dominated by a cartel or monopoly. Independent producers and platforms must have their own unique style and own unique titles, and should promote them direct to audience instead of giving them to studio-controlled distributors and platforms. That way there's a reason for people to come to them. That's the main reason why the major studios have all retreated from Netflix to their own platforms - you get Disney on Disney, etc. and no longer on Netflix. The logic applies even to them.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg hi again, Shadow. So it comes down to the indie producers developing a slate of projects over time, which creates the ‘house’ style over time. Direct to audience. Where does that stand at the moment? Are there any proven D2A models or success stories out there, that the community here, needs to know about?

This is a fascinating pivot. It feels like Netflix is finally acknowledging that a theatrical release isn't just a revenue stream, but a powerful marketing event that elevates the cultural status of a property. For a finale of this magnitude, putting it in theaters makes it an "event" in a way that a streaming drop alone can't.

Geoff Hall That's a very good question. Yes, there are, but of course we are in a transitional period. It's hard to find actual filmmakers - independent streaming platforms tend to just want to be a Netflix, and of course they can't compete. And filmmakers have over the years embraced the idea that they are just a client for major studios so they don't even think of themselves as entrepreneurs (which in the first 80 or so years of the industry, we all were). However, the transition is being led by individual creators, some of whom are personalities and some of whom I would classify as filmmakers. Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson, both of whom left mainstream and now stream their own brand from their own platform. There is an open revolt by youtube channels who are going out on their own (for various reasons, mostly because they know YT cooks their stats and pays them fractions of the income they generate). Viva La Dirt League, Shawn Ryan Show and a growing list of others. It's a varied group but one thing they all have in common is that they have grown their own audience to the point that they can be heard above the noise. This is the point: they are distinctive and have developed their own brand over a number of years. I don't know of a streaming platform currently that can even do that, outside of the mainstream who of course have the decades of titles in their catalog. Having said that, our FilmPod platform has developed a structure that will do exactly that, with the Digital Box Office structure we developed at IPG. We have several projects on the slate right now which we are growing the paradigm around. Uncharted Freedom is a series that we just finished principal photography on, October 29. We are negotiating now with funders for two features to be produced in-house and two outside productions which we would co-produce.

Ashley Renee Smith When oligarchs and companies monopolize industries and platforms, nobody wins.

Ashley Renee Smith The continued move from cartel to monopoly. No sea changes, just the continued expansion of control over distribution and message which was put on steroids in 2019 when the DOJ set aside the order restraining the MPA from antitrust practices. Fortunately, tech has got to a point where serious independent filmmakers can get direct to an audience without the majors. There are challenges, but those challenges are the same for every entrepreneur in every industry.

*I said 2019 but I actually don't recall the year. It was pretty recent.

Agreed. I have submitted to many film festivals from I was emerging till now and I have been accepted and rejected alike. I have won, been a finalist, semi-finalist and Quarter-Finalist. I have met great people and my work featured all over the world.

Film festivals literally focus on story, talent and quality like you said James Woodland

An interesting article. Two comments: 1. A bankruptcy clause in your distro agreement is unlikely if for no other reason than the distributor themselves will likely have no leverage to put it into their own agreements down the line. 2. FilmHub, while seeming a good way to go, not only DOESN'T market your project, it actively prevents it from being seen by any platform who won't pay them between $6k and $10k to see their catalog (which revenues they don't share with you). Nor do they challenge the numbers a streamer might give them. As FilmHub is an intermediary, you have no way of challenging numbers given to FilmHub which they themselves don't challenge - because your agreement is not with the streamer... Finally, revenue experience with FilmHub reported to the IPG over the last year is less than satisfactory.