Troma to distribute HUNTING CAMP...your 2 cents requested...

John C Lyons

John C Lyons

Veteran
OK so my short film "HUNTING CAMP" (DVX-made) was selected for its 7th film festival, TromaDance, back in January earning its 2nd "Best of the Fest" nod with Troma now wanting to include it on a Best of TromaDance DVD.

A lot of you here know this already, but for those who don't, I had a run of 500 pro-made 2-disc DVD/CD sets of "Hunting Camp" produced and sold them through my website, here on DVXUser, at festivals, other sponsor's sites, etc etc. Those sold-out in about nine months or so. Its been a good run for a first movie and I'm ready to move onto my next projects. While there is some interest still there, I personally don't really want to put the time and $ into getting another 500 sets of the movie made up to sell/push.

So, the contract with Troma (which my lawyer has picked apart for me) basically says that I retain ownership of the film, but they are sole distributers for the next 20 years. What do I get out of this other than the opportunity to reach more people? Well after they make up their production costs on it (which I assume will never happen one way or another) the cut is 10 to 90. So I am not expecting to make any $ on this deal. The reward is basically a 2nd life for this short and for LDP in general.

So I was wondering what you guys think about all this? To me, it's a short, its not like HUNTING CAMP will ever be playing in theaters worldwide and like I said its a year old this month and while it was a great experience I really am ready to make something much better and move on. It's just that 20 years is a long long time.

What would you guys do in this situation? Oh and here's a photo of us and the Troma gang at Sundance (cause we all like pictures), yes they are a VERY friendly bunch:

IMG_4805.jpg
 
I think with a short film, it's about getting it seen, and it sounds like this is an awesome opportunity to get your work out there.

Congrats on your first distribution deal, evern if it doesn't make you rich. :)

Chris
 
Yeah, big congrats man. Just think of how many people never make anything off their stuff. There's only upsides to this. Exposure and maybe even some recouping of costs. Not bad.
-Ryan
 
If this wasn't an option then what would happen next for Hunting Camp? You said yourself you want to move on to your next projects. Let Troma have it and let them run with it. You've nursed it as far as it can go. Cut the cord.

Speaking of cutting the cord. That guy in the photo looks like he needs the cord cut too. Either that or he just stole your wallet.

Good luck and congratulations,
 
Since you've already recouped at least some of your production costs, and since, as you stated, you're ready to let it go, then by all means let it go.

Exposure is a good thing. It may pay off in unexpected ways down the road.
 
Yeah man, having a distribution deal on the resume can only equal GOOD!
It may lead to getting some funding for your next joint.
 
Congrats first of all! I have no idea how all of this really works, but I'm curious...

Do they give you any idea of their 'production costs' so that you can estimate how many copies will have to move before you see anything?

Also, are deals like this negotiable? What if you tried to change the percentage or the length of their sole distributorship?

Not that I think you haven't thought of all of this, I'm actually just wanting to find out for myself :)
 
How are they planning on distributing a short film? Is it part of a package of shorts or what?

Also, I don't want to be the lone dissenting voice, and I REALLY hope someone else speaks up, but doesn't troma carry with it a certain stigma? Kinda like being a porn actor? No one really takes you seriously in hollywood?

Please dont take it the wrong way I figure you want all angles. And dude you're light years ahead of me I could never dream of being approached by troma for one of my movies.

But if you don't think you're going to see any money from it, is the exposure you'll get, the kind you want?
 
Remember John, and Lucidz..... James Gun was a TromaVillian for several yrs before going on to work on movies like scooby doo 1&2, Dawn of the Dead, and recently writing/directing Slither coming out next week, If it's one thing Kaufman has been a stepping stone to a lot of filmmakers
 
I was reading about that Nick, yeah thats quite true. But has he provided such for other people also? Perhaps I'm ignorant of such things :)
 
Tre Parker - Matt Stone, Christina Applegates worked on a Troma Picture, I'm not going to do a ton of research on this cause I don't have the time but here's one from the archives that I caught on Drivein classics a few yrs back staring Billy Bob Thorton.....http://www.troma.com/movies/chopperchicks/ LOL.....
 
In my opinion, it is worth while to do a run of DVDs and have them distribute for ya (PM me John, I have a great production connection I can hook ya up with), but I wouldn't do the double disc of it this time: just the DVD (maybe special features of the music if you want).

Congrats!

Jeremy
 
Congrats man. Take the deal and gett it out there. It is just a short and for a short to get this kind of reconition will set you up good. Good work and lets see what else you can do.
 
Thanks everyone a LOT for chiming in here on this! I will try and group together the questions and stuff into a single post here next.

PK Gillock said:
Speaking of cutting the cord. That guy in the photo looks like he needs the cord cut too. Either that or he just stole your wallet.
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That's some funny shi t! Actually one of them is "jonnothin" from the forum (he and the other dood Kiel are the ones molestering me, they were co-directors of the fest).
 
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TheYankee said:
In my opinion, it is worth while to do a run of DVDs and have them distribute for ya (PM me John, I have a great production connection I can hook ya up with), but I wouldn't do the double disc of it this time: just the DVD (maybe special features of the music if you want)
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Jeremy, I really appreciate the thoughts but I don't know man. I don't want hundreds of DVDs laying around unsold, I live in a small apartment. My goal was to sell 500 copies of a short, and I accomplished that. I will PM you though for future reference on your contact.

lucidz said:
How are they planning on distributing a short film? Is it part of a package of shorts or what?

Also, I don't want to be the lone dissenting voice, and I REALLY hope someone else speaks up, but doesn't troma carry with it a certain stigma? Kinda like being a porn actor? No one really takes you seriously in hollywood?

But if you don't think you're going to see any money from it, is the exposure you'll get, the kind you want?
Click to expand...

Nick Adams and lucidz:

They showed something like 50-60 movies at TromaDance (don't know the exact number) and they picked the "Best of" from these films and are putting them on a compilation DVD. So it won't be the only film on the disc. I have to imagine mine has to be one of the longer ones though at 38 minutes. It's a single disc as far as I know.

To me any film festival is a good thing, and Troma is definitely recognizable to all of us filmmakers and fans of indie, low budget films. So that's definitely a plus no matter what. Nick is right, there are lots of people who got their start at Troma, I find out more all the time.

But on lucidz side, when I was talking with Matt Dillon at Sundance, he was asking about the film and he wanted to know where he can see it, as soon as I said TromaDance he laughed a bit and asked me if it was a horror movie. So there's a bit of a Troma typecast, but maybe it will stick out more on the disc because it's not horror.

jaustere said:
Do they give you any idea of their 'production costs' so that you can estimate how many copies will have to move before you see anything?

Also, are deals like this negotiable? What if you tried to change the percentage or the length of their sole distributorship?
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jaustere,
No prob on the Qs, ask away!

Contract says they are supposed to update me on the financial status of the production costs vs. income each quarter. But again I am not expecting to ever make any $ off the deal.

I am not even going to try and negotiate in this situation. I haven't had any other offers (its just a short) but I can only assume that if I did try and get them to make an exception for my film they would just pick the next film on their list. It's a pretty locked down 20-some pages.
 
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