Article in Filmmaker Magazine on self-distribution

Zak Forsman

Zak Forsman

Major Contributor
there's an informative article on DIY distribution in the Winter 2007 issue of Filmmaker Magazine with Amber Tamblyn on the cover. it gives a couple accounts of filmmakers taking their films "on the road" from city to city (sometimes town to town), booking theaters, raising awareness, cross-promoting with local organizations, etc. surprisingly, these endeavors can be quite profitable.

anyway, i bring this up because RocketIndie could easily be "phase two" following a successful self-distributed theatrical tour. i've got a lot to think about.

i'll post the article below but it can also be found here with pictures... www.filmmakermagazine.com
 
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Part One
LESSONS IN DIY
Here’s how four filmmakers became distributors to get their films in front of audiences.
Web Savvy BY LANCE WEILER (director, Head Trauma)

HEAD TRAUMA. PHOTOS BY: MARTIN PEPE AND JACK BROMILEY
“Do it yourself” is a simple phrase. Filmmakers have been “doing it themselves” for years, especially when it comes to production. However, the concept of DIY distribution, often considered to be a last resort or even a sign of failure, has recently become a first choice for many filmmakers.

The digital video revolution of the late ’90s ushered in a new wave of filmmaking by making the tools of production accessible to the masses. That democratization has, in 2007, become a bittersweet reality. While producing new voices and stories, it has overloaded the current system, flooding festivals, distributors and theaters with movies. The old adage that quality work floats to the surface is quickly becoming a myth, especially with the thousands of films produced every year.

With so many independent films pouring into the marketplace, how can indie filmmakers hope to break through the clutter and get their work seen? One answer is to build value around films through the Internet. Falling storage and bandwidth costs combined with a boom in user-generated content and social networking sites have created a number of free tools and services that can be used to promote and build audiences for independent movies. Below is a discussion of these new tools, many of which I used to promote my own latest feature, Head Trauma.




HEAD TRAUMA MAKING-OF SHORT AND COMIC.
WEB SITES

For any filmmaker the first Internet marketing material to be created should be a simple Web site. When building a site, create something that embodies the spirit of the movie. Also, make sure the site has hooks to keep the Web audience coming back. For example, when it came time to distribute my feature, everything started with a Web site that reflected the story, mood and style of the film. The site was our anchor point. Head Trauma tells the story of a drifter named George Walker who returns after many years to stake a claim on his deceased grandmother’s abandoned house. Struggling to build some semblance of a normal life for himself, George tries to clean up the place by day. But his nights are uneasy and plagued by troubling visions of a mysterious hooded figure. Despite his best efforts things grow worse as the house is condemned and his nightmares refuse to remain in the dark. To capture the feeling of the movie we designed the Web site — www.headtraumamovie.com — in the style of an interactive comic with a number of things hidden under the surface. Visitors were teased by an immersive experience that told a story.



SYNDICATION

Filmmakers can use syndication tools to reach large audiences with information about their films. Most famously, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice created a video podcast for their film Four Eyed Monsters which has been viewed by over 1.5 million people in just one year. The podcast was syndicated using a RSS (really simple syndication) feed. RSS can be read by feed readers known as aggregators, certain browsers and services like iTunes. But RSS is not just limited to podcasts; it is often possible to pull a feed from your blog. For example, your audience could subscribe to your RSS feed. Every time your blog is updated, they will receive a headline, or the whole blog entry. The updates can be delivered and read by a feed reader or as e-mails by using services like Feedburner, Zookoda or rssFWD.

Syndication allows your audience to receive updates without having to travel to your site or blog. RSS feeds can also be embedded into your fan’s sites, blogs and networking profile pages, which means your fans can “broadcast your feeds” and help amplify your message.



GETTING FOUND

Search-engine optimization is a big business. Firms and consultants get paid large amounts of money to help companies rank higher within Web searches. But there are a number of simple and free things that one can do to help increase a film’s Web site ranking, which in turn makes the marketing materials contained within easier to find.

Since search engines crawl for links, they look for link activity in the form of hyperlinking. Basically, the more a site is linked by other pages the more you, the site owner, link to them and the easier it is for a search engine to find you. One important tool for discovery is keywords and tags. When you prep your site and blogs you can add keywords to the title section of your HTML pages. Tags can be used to identify your media within social and video-sharing networks. These keywords and tags are picked up by search engines, which then direct surfers to your site.

When thinking about keywords and tagging it is important to consider your own searching and viewing habits. Netflix’s recommendation engine, Movies You’ll Love, pulls from over a billion users’ reviews and ratings in order to service each customer with a unique set of movie recommendations, recommendations that account for about 75 percent of the DVDs that Netflix ships in a given month. Although most filmmakers do not have the luxury of such a robust system, one thing is obvious by the Netflix example: the true power of a viewer’s recommendation. When coming up with your own keywords and tags, consider how you might recommend your movie to your friends and embed accordingly.



THE SCATTERSHOT APPROACH

One Web strategy that we used for the promotion of Head Trauma was what we called a scattershot approach. All told, we created and maintained the following 13 domains:

headtraumamovie.com official site
htmob.com/blog official blog
htmob.com/vlog a podcast site called HT radio
myspace.com/headtraumamovie social-networking site
audience.withoutabox.com/users/headtrauma social-networking site for filmmakers
social.indiewire.com/userprofile.php?u=Lw social-networking site for filmmakers
iklipz.com/headtraumamovie social networking site
tagworld.com/headtraumamovie social-networking site
pageflakes.com/lw.ashx Ajax-based startpage
headtraumamovie.suprglu.com Web site that allows you to combine RSS feeds
flickr.com/photos/headtraumamovie photo sharing
youtube.com/headtraumamovie video sharing
del.icio.us/htmob/news social bookmarking site

We hyperlinked between all these domains and, where possible, pulled RSS feeds from one domain into another. We also used an effective keyword and tagging scheme based on a series of terms we felt would hit our target audience. Our goal was to scatter the domains all over the Web, and then by hyperlinking pull them back together again.

Before we started the scattershot approach it was impossible to find our site using Google because the term “head trauma” was so generic. A search would spit out a ton of medical documents and sites but no mention of the movie. But as we built out the domains and interlinked them “head trauma” began to climb within search results and now sits on the first page of a Google search.



DIGITAL SWAG

Movie promotions usually involve swag — posters, T-shirts, coffee mugs and the occasional kids meal. Most swag is well beyond the budgets of the majority of filmmakers, but digital swag is easy, cheap and sometimes even viral. For Head Trauma we adopted an “embed and spread” campaign and created a number of digital assets to help promote the movie.



EMBEDDABLE VIDEO

Thanks to the abundance of free video-sharing sites (YouTube, Google video, MySpace, etc.), it is easy to find places to handle your hosting needs. Once you have uploaded your video, you can easily embed the video into your Web pages. With a little bit of extra work, you can place the embed code right below the video. Then it can easily be copied and placed into other pages.

For Head Trauma, we created experimental loops, behind-the-scenes shorts and two different trailers. Most of the media was open for anyone to take and use, but for certain outlets we created exclusive content. One successful outlet for an exclusive behind-the-scenes short was Amazon.com. We worked out a deal where Amazon would feature the behind-the-scenes short and a trailer for the movie on their main DVD page, the DVD horror page and also give it placement on the sales page for the actual DVD. In other cases we would offer embeddable media to online horror and movie news sites to accompany an interview or review of the movie.



AUDIO PLAYERS

Numerous social networking sites allow you to place audio players into your profile pages easily. Once you have the player in place you can point it toward audio files that can help promote your film. For instance, you can let fans listen to songs from your soundtrack or interviews with your cast and crew.

An option that worked extremely well for us was the creation of our own flash audio player. By using the XSPF (musicplayer.sourceforge.net ) open-source music player, once people embedded the player, which we called HT Radio, into their pages, we could easily update it via XML files. The new audio would then automatically play in all the places that had embedded our player. In effect we created our own broadcast channel, and HT radio players started popping up all over social networking profiles in addition to people’s blogs and sites. As the audience quickly grew listeners started to ask questions and I would answer them “on air.” I even worked out a way to update HT radio from my mobile phone. I could call in from the road and the audio would be automatically uploaded.



GRAPHICS AND PHOTOS

A very simple form of digital swag is banner links. Banner links are excellent tools for social networks because they can be used as a giveaway to fans who can place them in their pages, profiles or within a comment section of a page. For example, we created banners and wallpaper for the film that have been extremely popular within social-networking sites and on portable devices like the PSP. By downloading these simple digital assets, fans felt they were discovering something they could share with their friends and thus increased the film’s exposure.



EMPOWERING YOUR AUDIENCE

The Internet enables filmmakers to build audiences for their work in a cost-effective manner. Over time an audience can grow with a filmmaker and, if cultivated with care, enable the funding and distribution of future work.

One emerging trend is filmmakers using their audience to fund and assist with the distribution of their projects. Robert Greenwald’s work is an example of this new model. For his latest film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, Greenwald and his team at Brave New Films reached out to their audience with a special fund-raising request. Via a mass mailing to their fan base, they asked for donations. Within 10 days they had raised over $200,000. During the production of the movie they turned to the audience to gain their insights on certain topics, and some audience members even assisted with the creation of bonus features that can be found on the DVD. When Iraq for Sale was released earlier this fall, it was available for screenings at house parties organized by audience members. The success of the house parties has lead to the formation of a new division of Greenwald’s company called Brave New Theaters. Brave New Theaters allows filmmakers to tap into a screening system they have created. Filmmakers looking for screening venues and audiences looking for films are paired together in what is becoming a grassroots screening network.

In one final example of what some are calling Cinema 2.0, or open-source cinema, a group called Swarm of Angels (aswarmofangels.com) is harnessing the Internet to raise its own production funds for two feature films. When an individual joins the Swarm for a small fee they become an Angel, a contributor to the project; they have access to everything from script to screen and can vote on key decisions in the film’s production. When a project is finished everyone in the Swarm will assist in the seeding of the film across the Internet for download by all of the members, who are then able to remix the film or use elements of it in their own projects.

In the end, there is no one right way to distribute or market your film. But if making Head Trauma has taught me one thing, it’s not to lose the sense of empowerment experienced during the production of a film when you get to the distribution phase. With the new tools of the Web you do not have to be powerless once you finish.
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Part Two
Here’s how four filmmakers became distributors to get their films in front of audiences.
Logging The Miles BY STACY SCHOOLFIELD (producer, Jumping Off Bridges)

JUMPING OFF BRIDGES. PHOTO BY: MEREDITH VOLK
Self-distribution wasn’t our first choice. Just like every other one of the thousands of indie filmmakers who completed a film last year we wanted a distributor to come to our very first screening at the 2006 South by Southwest Film Festival and offer us a deal we couldn’t refuse. Our film would get picked up quickly; soon we’d have DVDs for sale, along with a cable pay-per-view deal while we were hard at work securing foreign distribution. Our film would be right where it belonged: in front of an eager audience.

That didn’t happen.

We shot Jumping Off Bridges on location in Austin, Texas in the summer of 2005. Inspired by writer-director Kat Candler’s own adolescence, the film tells the story of an adventurous group of four best friends deep in the trenches of adolescence who experience a loss and how that loss impacts their friendship and their relationship with their families. Shot on Super 16mm, the film features actors local to Austin as well as Emmy winner Michael Emerson (now featured on the hit television series Lost).

We can list the strengths of our film easily. Despite an ultra-low budget, the film has high production values. Reviewers have described the performances as “inspired,” “a knockout,” “authentic” and “solid.” Our soundtrack features alt indie favorites Jose Gonzalez, Sufjan Stevens, Explosions in the Sky, American Analog Set, Jeff Hanson and Amina. Critics have said the film is “truly wonderful,” “refreshingly naturalistic,” “a powerful fiction,” “an emotional, smart movie” and “as realistic a narrative portrait of love, death, and human debris as anything you’re ever likely to see onscreen.” Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

We had hopes early on. There were phone calls, e-mails, and requests for screeners. We burned DVDs from my trusty iMac and mailed out screeners along with our carefully prepared press kit. The distributors loved the film, but, they’d tell us, “it’s a hard sell.” “It doesn’t have any stars.” “It’s a downer.” “It’s gonna be tough.” “Foreign is... hmm, yeah, pretty unlikely.” And my favorite: “It’s definitely not theatrical.”


MICHAEL EMERSON IN JUMPING OFF BRIDGES. PHOTO BY: MEREDITH VOLK
The distribution world waits for no one, and we decided we couldn’t wait any longer to get our film in front of an audience. We’d already done the hard work of producing a low-budget indie film — on film — complete with stunts and SAG actors. We had a great festival run, we had some great press, and now we were ready to take our film on a targeted, limited theatrical run.

We started with the basics. Who was our audience? How would we get the film to them and make sure they showed up? While our film has fans who love indie rock bands, Lost or stories of adolescence, we had another audience, too, and they were easier to target. People who have suffered loss, counselors, therapists, people who work in the fields of suicide prevention, mental health and awareness, professors of psychology and social workers all embraced our film. They came to more than one screening, brought their friends and told their co-workers, their clients, and their students about the film. They wanted copies to use in classrooms, in support groups and at conferences. They were an audience we could target and an audience we could get our film to in screenings across the country.

We compiled a list of 20 cities where we wanted to screen the film. We made another list of people we knew in those cities and venues where we might play. We spent the summer of 2006 nailing down dates and venues. Our primary tool was a massive 20-page spreadsheet that cross-referenced cities with indie-friendly theaters, film society contacts, other filmmakers, film festivals and suicide prevention and mental health awareness groups. One page was devoted to a city-by-city list of contacts that included fellow filmmakers, friends, family and anyone we knew there who might be able to help — including some of our ex-boyfriends.

While we were setting up screenings, we were also making changes to the film. We recut and fixed the color and sound. To pay for the costs of the additional postproduction work and the “hold” fees at the venues, director Kat Candler and I led workshops on independent filmmaking in pretty much any town within driving distance of Austin. We also continued to sell copies of our other films from our Web site.

Our indie-friendly venues were creative in the screening arrangements. Some offered reduced rental rates for a percentage of the box office or a stipend in lieu of box office. Some even offered free screening space based on availability. Each week more cities were checked off the list, and by Aug. 1 we’d locked screenings in almost 20 cities.



2006 HIGHLIGHTS

Sept. 13: Broadway Performance Hall, Seattle, Washington We began our theatrical run in Seattle on a rainy Wednesday evening. My friend Meg runs the hall and offered us the space for free. The screening space is top-notch technically, featuring amazing acoustics and a fabulous projection system. After a massive publicity effort, we crossed our fingers and hoped for a good crowd. For this screening, we didn’t officially partner with a mental health organization. There wasn’t time. So while we e-mailed the local organizations, our focus was broader. We were rewarded with a crowd that was small, about 30 people, but interested. They all stayed afterward for a Q&A, and after the screening we had possibilities for three additional screenings in the Seattle area.

Sept. 15 and 16: Southwest Film Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico In Albuquerque we screened as part of a suicide awareness event sponsored by the Agora Crisis Center at the University of New Mexico. Our deal included free use of the theater and a portion of the box office. We had a total of four screenings, with the audience ranging in size from an almost full house on Friday night to four people who attended the 1 p.m. screening on Saturday. Again, we had the right people in the audience and made more contacts for future screenings.

Sept. 30: Historic Guadalupe Theater, San Antonio, Texas In San Antonio we battled an old projection system and bad parking but still had a solid, enthusiastic crowd. We were able to get some local press, and this time we partnered with a local suicide awareness group. We had an amazing panel discussion after the film that went on for over an hour. Panelists included grief counselors, therapists and experts in the field of psychology.

Oct. 3: Alamo Drafthouse South, Austin, Texas We sold out our Austin screening and had to turn people away at the door. We partnered with a local suicide prevention organization, and our postscreening panel included a high school guidance counselor as well as suicide prevention experts and people who focus on grief and recovery. This screening led to a contact with the American Counseling Association and the idea of targeting school districts.

Oct. 5: University of Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama The universities began contacting us for screenings as word spread about the film. The University of Alabama set up an afternoon screening for students and professors, along with support groups, panels and discussions as part of a campus-wide suicide prevention day.

Oct. 6-10: All Saints Cinema, Tallahassee, Florida Kat went back to her college town for screenings arranged by the Tallahassee Film Society. They had a total of four screenings, offering us an advance on the box office. In return, we contacted our usual crew of local suicide prevention and mental health groups, university professors and filmmakers. The screenings were well attended. Jeb Bush even sent a representative. We’re setting up a second run in Tallahassee for early 2007, with several suicide prevention groups and lobbyists for the state of Florida.

Oct. 14: Belcourt Theater, Nashville, Tennessee One of our lead actors, Savannah Welch, grew up in Nashville, so we were thrilled to secure a good rate for a screening at the lovely and historic Belcourt Theater. We put her family to work posting fliers and doing local press, and we continued to contact the universities, film societies and Lost fans. We played on a Saturday afternoon during fall break for the local universities, but we still had an audience of more than 100 people, including college students who didn’t go home for fall break, professors, film buffs and members of suicide prevention groups.

Oct. 14: Rice Media Center, Houston, Texas In Houston, our friends at the Southwest Alternative Media Project (SWAMP) helped secure a free theater, and we partnered with the Houston Suicide Prevention Coalition to arrange a panel afterward. We had a passionate crowd mostly comprised of the Houston mental health community, who stayed long after the panel was supposed to end to ask questions and tell their own stories of loss and recovery.

Nov. 2: Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey Our second university screening actually came about because of our film’s connection to Lost and our lead actor, Michael Emerson. One of his fans heard about our film on MySpace and contacted us for a screening. She was affiliated with the school of social work, so the fit was a good one. They flew Kat to New Jersey for the screening and again arranged a full day of suicide awareness activities for over 130 students, which included discussions with the university counseling center, school of psychology and students who suffered from mental illnesses.

Nov. 3 and 4: Pioneer Theater, New York, New York We arranged our New York screening right after our New Jersey screening so we could save on travel costs. I flew up to join Kat. As always while in New York, we arranged meetings with people for our future projects as well as for Jumping Off Bridges. Our first screening, on a Friday night, was well attended by people we didn’t know at all. We expected to see a few friends but were pleased we could pack the house through our publicity efforts alone. In addition to people who’d heard about the film through the Pioneer Theater, we had university professors and mental health professionals. Saturday night’s screening had an even bigger crowd and included many of our friends but, again, more than a few people we’d never met. The theater is well run, the projection is excellent, and they gave us free popcorn while we sat outside in the lobby during the screening.

Nov. 12: Fine Arts Theatre, Los Angeles, California There are so many theaters in L.A., you’d think it would be easy to book a screening there. Wrong. The theaters are pricey, and many are booked well in advance. We were thrilled to find the Fine Arts Theatre and to learn that they were willing to book us on a Sunday afternoon without any up-front costs for us. The theater is beautiful, and the owner, Michael Hall, keeps it spotless. He took his time on the projection and managed to make the little DVD look like a million bucks on his big screen. We partnered with the Didi Hirsch Community Health Center, an L.A.-based organization that provides mental health services to people regardless of their ability to pay. They arranged an amazing group of panelists and helped us with the publicity. Kat and I attended, making the most of our time in L.A. as we did in New York. Michael Emerson attended also, on his break from the new season of Lost. We had a crowd of approximately 200, not bad for 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon. More important, we had a new friend in one of the panelists, who loved the film and runs a foreign distribution company.

Nov. 15: AFI Silver Theatre, Washington, D.C. This screening was one we’d been waiting for as much as our screenings in New York and L.A. Associate producer Leslie Langee had been tenacious about securing a screening in D.C. She went even further by making a connection to the National Institutes of Health’s “Science in the Cinema” program. There were two screenings: an afternoon screening specifically for high school guidance counselors in Montgomery County, who were receiving continuing education credit, and an evening event that included lectures, our film and a panel discussion — all in tribute to noted psychologist and film lover Dr. Wayne Fenton. The afternoon screening had an educational component, complete with PowerPoint presentation and a detailed discussion about the characters in the film. The evening screening ended with brief lectures by two noted psychologists and a Q&A that went on so long they had to kick us out of the theater.

It’s not over. We’re following up and arranging more screenings that were launched by our early ones. We’ve just screened at the Colville Washington State Reservation as part of a program put on by the United States Public Health Service, which is directly under the Surgeon General’s office, and there are other government-sponsored screenings in the works. We’re also finalizing two screenings for high school guidance counselors and upcoming conventions. Right now, after adding up all the costs for the tour, including theater rentals, travel, DVD duplication and publicity expenses and comparing these costs with our income for box office receipts and rental fees, we’re in the black.

As for distributors, we’re in talks with several who specialize in the educational market with the goal of having a deal in place in 2007. We’ve also seen that our film has the potential to help people start talking about a difficult subject that affects people of all ages, races and economic statuses. Not only is that a big market, it’s one that distributors should note and address; we’re just going to make sure they have the opportunity.

It’s been a tough several months, and we’ve learned a lot. We have a new respect and understanding for distributors. We know how risky this is, we know how hard it can be to reach an audience, and we’ve discovered how to reach ours. It takes an incredible amount of persistence to get an indie film made in the first place, and there’s no reason to back down when the final step, distribution, starts to look too hard. Recently a friend showed us the final version of her social issue–driven documentary. After the screening she sat back and said, “Thank God it’s almost over.” Kat and I just smiled at her, shook our heads and said, “Your work has just begun.”
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Part Three
Here’s how four filmmakers became distributors to get their films in front of audiences.
Eight Miles Outside of Manhattan BY JAY CRAVEN (writer-director, Disappearances)

DISAPPEARANCES. PHOTOS BY: KINGDOM COUNTY PRODUCTIONS
When I finished my newest film, Disappearances, I rushed the print to its South by Southwest film festival premiere, hoping to then launch a mini release to the 24 towns in Vermont that have movie theaters. After all, there were lab bills to pay while wrangling domestic and foreign distribution deals.

The problem was that I couldn’t break the logjam of Hollywood releases. Local movie houses were chockablock full of cars, pirates, supermen and snakes on a plane. Even Montpeliers’ Savoy Theater arthouse was tied up till late July with A Prairie Home Companion and An Inconvenient Truth. I contacted theater owners and argued the case for my widescreen Populist Prohibition-era whiskey-smuggling adventure starring Kris Kristofferson, Geneviève Bujold, Gary Farmer, Lothaire Bluteau, William Sanderson, Luis Guzmán and 15-year-old newbie Charlie McDermott, but the doors remained closed.

That’s when I decided to launch a 100 Town Tour of the state. We needed cash, so while we waited for movie theaters to clear their schedules, we started playing town halls, granges and old opera houses. You can rent most of them for $50 and set up the show in less than an hour. And you take home all the cash at the end of the night.

My two-person staff is no stranger to self-distribution. Immediately after playing the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, we cycled my first feature film, Where the Rivers Flow North, to 212 U.S. venues over 51 weeks, helping to stimulate a healthy video release. But we’d never gone so deep into our home state.

Co-producer Hathalee Higgs and I avoided towns with movie theaters, wanting to keep that market ripe for the fall. Instead, we looked to small towns of 600 or more people. We hired a couple of college kids and my 13-year-old son Jasper in order to keep two teams on the road, full-time, from June 30 to Labor Day. We put 20,000 miles on our tour vehicles: a $500 Saab and my late-’90s Subaru Outback, with 232,000 miles on it.

We learned that, in summer, “every night is Saturday night.” And we played to 18,458 people, many of them blue-collar audiences that would not have seen the film in theaters. We added 2,600 people to our mailing list and grossed $163,264 in tickets, T-shirts, DVDs and soundtrack CDs.

We also experienced odd and wonderful moments that could fill a book. In Irasburg, a farmer arrived on his John Deere tractor, kids rode up on bikes, and a guy and his gal parked their 18-wheeler outside the town hall. In Derby Line we packed the old Haskell Opera House, which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. The screen and part of the audience sat in Canada while most of the crowd watched from seats on the U.S. side of the thick black line running through the hall. I had to assure one woman that she wouldn’t get arrested for sitting in Quebec territory.

Nearby, ushers in spit curls hawked rentals of lavender seat cushions for 50 cents. In the lobby, two guys nearly came to blows over competing claims over whose family was more central to the area’s whiskey smuggling trade. A Quebec newspaper publisher collared me after the show to say I’d violated Canadian law because our portable screen sat on the stage in Canada and we lacked the proper licenses. That felt somehow right, given the film’s outlaw themes.

Each projection team navigated dirt roads over mountain passes to far-flung towns they’d never seen before. Once there, they sized up venues, installed fans and hung black drapes to cut the summer heat and light. Each team carried high-quality DVD projection and sound systems, costing about $6,000. You can find good projectors for less. Quality sound is a must, though; our simple mixer and powered speakers could handle even the boomiest halls.

We mailed 60,000 color postcards to rural box holders, from South Hero, in the Champlain Islands, to Canaan, where moose outnumber people by a substantial margin. Bulk mailings cost 10.5 cents each, and in many towns we could hit everyone for $60.

The 100 Town Tour concept was easily understood throughout the state. Editors, shop owners, town gatekeepers and the general public knew what we were talking about when we called. We knew that to play 100 towns we’d sometimes have to book villages that were only six miles apart. Fortunately, it worked okay. By ganging these towns together we could list them on the same ad or postcard, and audience word-of-mouth helped build support for the next date.

We launched the summer tour with a free two-week sponsorship from Vermont Public Radio that created awareness that helped us all summer. The state’s public television station provided some exposure later in the tour, and they broadcasted our half hour behind-the-scenes documentary. I pitched press releases and photos to every daily and weekly paper and wrote first-person stories when an editor would run one. I wrote about working with Kristofferson; I discussed the uniquely regional and cultural elements I see in the picture; and I recalled how my Texas grandmother helped inspire the character of Cordelia.

When one weekly editor publicly criticized the film’s Western-style violence, I wrote an op-ed discussing larger issues of film mayhem and compared the picture’s themes to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Once I’d written it, I was able to syndicate it to four other newspapers and post it on our Web site. Another piece got picked by the regional monthly Yankee.

The 100 Town Tour prompted me to make a half-dozen tweaks to the film, and it enabled me to experience Disappearances more deeply than my other pictures. As I discussed the story’s metaphors and magical realism with audiences, new insights emerged. I wrote about these continuing discoveries and developed an evolving Director’s Statement, which we handed to audiences and also used to solicit donations and sales.

The Director’s Statements also stimulated people to explore their own thoughts during Q&A’s. In Waitsfield a woman asked, “What does the snow owl mean?” I asked her and others to tell me what they thought. “The owl’s a messenger,” said one. “A witness,” said another. “It’s Carcajou [the feral villain and whiskey pirate] making his presence known,” said a woman in the back of the hall. Then others chimed in. “The owl’s a sign of passage or transition.” “A protector.” “Extinction.” “Death.” A fellow in the second row stood up and said, “It’s just a snow owl, for Christ’s sake.”

“Any and all of those ideas work,” I said.

Since my family didn’t have time for a summer vacation, I slipped in July screenings on Martha’s Vineyard and the Wellfleet Library on Cape Cod. One of the college kids drove to the Cape to grab equipment for his next date while we drove to a film festival in New York. Once word spread about the tour, we received screening inquiries from New Hampshire, upstate New York and Massachusetts. We also discovered film-series programs in small towns, where people book the local school auditorium and mobilize audiences for once-a-month screenings. We’ll continue to book those dates as we launch our national self-release, starting Feb. 1 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge.

While traversing Vermont last summer, I thought about an experience I had at a mid-’90s Sundance Producers Lab in Utah’s spectacular Wasatch Mountains. I had completed the self-distribution of my first feature, Where the Rivers Flow North, and I was hoping to enlist support for my next picture, A Stranger in the Kingdom.

At one afternoon session, panel members included distribution executives for several studio specialty divisions. Panelists described the largely obstructed path for filmmakers to garner support. I raised my hand, and when the moderator called on me I stabbed at a few words describing how we’d successfully taken Rivers to venues across the country, generated terrific press and triggered a substantial video release.

“So what’s your point?” asked the moderator as he reached for a water pitcher.

“We had to do it ourselves,” I said. “That’s my point. With only a small marketing budget and little knowledge of the distribution infrastructure, we played to solid audiences across the country. Can this proven success help us get support for my next film, which will also be based in Vermont?”

One executive nodded that he’d take my question. “You’re talking about a kind of film that doesn’t even register on our radar screens,” he said. “A Vermont film won’t play to urban demographics.”

“How do you know?” I said. “And how can you characterize “a Vermont film” without considering its own merits? And isn’t there a large rural audience out there?”

“Look,” said the distributor. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s a brick wall eight miles outside of Manhattan. And I don’t care what happens on the other side of that wall.”

The executive was talking metaphorically, of course, but our Disappearances 100 Town Tour showed me again what our Where the Rivers Flow North release proved: that there are vital signs of life on the other side of that brick wall.

Hey, I love New York and get a kick out of seeing many studio films. My two sons and I check out the new crop on a regular basis, and we appreciate the full range of indie pictures too. But I also think Kentucky farmer and writer Wendell Berry is right when he laments how America’s hyper-commercialized mainstream marginalizes rural areas.

“The health of the oceans depends on the health of the rivers,” Berry writes in his book The Way of Ignorance. “The health of the rivers depends on the health of the small streams. The health of the streams depends on the health of their watersheds. Natural law is in force everywhere. . . . We cannot immunize the continents and the oceans against our contempt for small places and small streams.”

As in literature, America’s most resonant film narrative can only result by fostering a cultural fluidity that includes and values regional and rural voices — and audiences — and allows them to develop, achieve maturity and be heard in every corner.
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Part Four
Total Control LANCE WEILER talks with Absurda’s Eric Bassert about Inland Empire

LAURA DERN IN INLAND EMPIRE.
One of the highest-profile DIY distribution ventures at the moment is David Lynch’s release of his three-hour Inland Empire. After premiering the film in the Venice and New York film festivals this fall, Lynch decided to capitalize on strong reviews and unexpected Oscar buzz for star Laura Dern and get his film quickly into the theaters. He opened in New York and L.A. in December and, as Lance Weiler’s conversation with Eric Bassett, managing partner of Absurda, the company that works with Lynch on his various ventures, reveals, will leverage the release of Inland Empire into a whole new self-sustaining revenue model for his future pictures as well.

Below is an edited version of their talk, which is available in full as a podcast on workbookproject.com.

Weiler: What led David to decide to go DIY with the distribution of Inland Empire?

Bassett: Well, there were a lot of issues. I guess without getting into every little detail, the main thing was the length of the film. Being three hours long made it, at least in the United States and Canada, very difficult to distribute. We still had offers, but we thought that it would be most beneficial to do it ourselves because we would make sure it was done in the right way and David would be involved.

Weiler: How did you guys go about selecting the markets for the film’s release?

Bassett: Well, David did a big [speaking] tour for Transcendental Meditation, and I had the advantage of seeing the results of that tour. He went pretty much everywhere, [including to] a lot of college towns. So I [selected] the best [towns from that tour]. We were also forced to make the film Oscar-qualified, so we had to go into New York and Los Angeles and do all of the qualification runs and ads and all that stuff in a big hurry in December. So that’s why it’s in New York at the IFC Center right now. We hopped [immediately afterward] over to Boston, again because it’s a college town and they have the historic Brattle Theatre, and killed two birds. And then we opened at the Laemmle Sunset 5 [in Los Angeles] and the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. The other towns are Austin — again, a college town; David’s huge in Seattle, so we’ll be going to Seattle and having a very, very big event there in the middle of January; and then Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., in January. These are all the “event” locations that we’re going to roll out.

Weiler: What do these “events” involve?

Bassett: We rent a theater, David shows up, introduces the film, and does a question-and-answer afterwards. That generates a lot of publicity. We do a lot of interviews with at least the biggest three publications [per city], newspapers usually, and that jump-starts our theatrical release. We come out a few days later at the best possible theater we can get in, which is usually an arthouse theater. And for places where David can’t introduce the film, just because he obviously can’t be in 200 places in six months, we’re trying to set up an electronic webcast so David can introduce the film through the Internet. I’ve been working with the theater owners on that.

Weiler: So how did you start getting the word out about the release?

Bassett: Well, first of all, the fact that people know who David is makes things a lot easier for me. It’s easy to get interviews for David, get on Letterman and Leno and that kind of stuff. That is the base PR for the film, and just about everything else I do for David is [about] leveraging that. Also, Laura Dern’s performance became a big deal and a possible award [contender], which was quite a surprise for us.

Weiler: How are you going about an awards campaign, given your DIY model?

Bassett: One of our ways of accommodating Laura and not spending all of our money involves David going out on [street corners] with a cow, which he has done three times and which has gotten us on the cover of

both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. We rented a cow, a farmer and a street corner. The first one was North La Brea ave. and Hollywood Blvd. — David sat on a director’s chair with the cow next to him and two giant signs. One had a picture of Laura with a sign that said “For Your Consideration” on it. The other one had a saying that referred to cheese and the Inland Empire — it was a riddle-type thing. We weren’t allowed to [issue a press release] — David just wanted it to happen naturally. And it turned out we got a lot of TV crews there. A couple of guys filmed it and put it up on YouTube, and I think we’re up to about 55,000 [viewings].

Weiler: David has a very successful membership site, davidlynch.com. In terms of this new release, how are you guys harnessing the Internet to your advantage?

Bassett: Well, the Internet is a really, really big part, as all do-it-yourselfers know. It’s what makes it possible these days. My initial plan was to have a net to catch all this media, to create a location where people can follow the theatrical release and interact with other fans on message boards and things like that. Inlandempirecinema.com is the site that we’ve created, and it’s starting to really pick up. I hired a friend who was involved with the creation of a company called Buzztone to help me with grassroots online stuff. I created all these banners, and [the online team are] out talking in chat rooms, going to MySpace and Craigslist and creating user groups there. I think there are 3,000 related links to Lynch fans, and I try and make those [fans] our evangelists. I am personally at the events with a little team of mine, and we hand out T-shirts, but only to the hardcore people who are in the rush lines. We tell them about the site, make friends with them and give them as much swag as we can to make them happy so they spread the word. And it just kind of goes like that.

Weiler: Are you also doing any digital swag?

Bassett: Yeah. We made a deal with Revver. And we’re almost done with a video blog like they used for that Lonelygirl15 phenomenon. And one thing I didn’t mention is that we also create kind of a digital scrapbook at all our events. We film David’s introductions to the film, and we always have a two-minute improvisation by a local musician before David introduces the film, and we film that. And then at the end of the film we interview at least three people about their reaction to the film. And then we put all that up on the site. David is very difficult in this area, but I’m persuading him to give us some cuts of the film that we can leak, and also some clues and games. I’m also cross-marketing his coffee line. We have these coffee coasters and they’re branded for the film and the coffee. There might be some clues on them about the film and there may be some winning tickets to have coffee with David and things like that.

Weiler: In terms of handling the other windows of release, are you guys considering other DIY-type outlets, like digital downloads of the movie, or are you just staying with physical media like DVDs?

Bassett: The problem is, this is just a little bigger than a normal self-distribution deal. David is a bit better known, and that creates a situation where we need quite a bit of money [for the theatrical release]. So I made a deal with Rhino Entertainment just for the DVD and leveraged our advance monies [to fund the release]. I know that’s where all the money is, based on David’s sales on Mulholland Drive, for example.

Weiler: Will you be selling the DVDs through your own site as well as in stores?

Bassett: We have some restrictions, but we will be selling [the DVD] through davidlynch.com. That’s one of the things in our contract — we are able to do that. But we also have a really good relationship with Apple Computer, so we’ll be going through iTunes too. Again, that’s a very difficult thing to do and only because David is who he is were we able to do that. And I will personally be [selling] pay TV, TV and all of the other revenue sources out there. Right now we’re just trying to get a lot of publicity and get the film in as many theaters as possible in our six-month window. We’re trying to come out with the DVD in July.

Weiler: What has been the thing that’s surprised you the most about the project in terms of doing the DIY release?

Bassett: Wow. [laughs] I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I had no idea how much work. Some of the surprises have been dealing with the MPAA on ads and posters — having to get approval on all these little details when you have an R-rated film. An enormous amount of energy has been taken up by that. The other big surprise was dealing with an awards campaign, which I never dreamed that we would be doing. We had to retain extra PR people at a large expense, and it’s overwhelming the amount [of materials] that the PR people need. Every interview needs a Beta SP electronic media kit. [We’ve done] probably 100 different screenings for all of the awards to get people in to see the film. I think it’s really paid off because we’ve gotten lots and lots of publicity, but it has completely consumed me and my little staff. So I’m really looking forward to that part being over.

Weiler: Do you guys see Absurda continuing to do smaller films for David this way, the ones that he wants to do outside the system?

Bassett: I don’t think he’ll ever do something inside the system again. This was a long-time goal to do what we’re doing now. And because of the length of this film, and the opportunity that came out, we did it one film earlier in my opinion. I believe that on David’s next film we would have done this no matter what. And for that film we’ll do this for the whole world. We won’t just control the rights for the United States. I’ve been setting up relationships for years on DVD releases around the world. I’m really looking forward to that. Again, it’s an overwhelming amount of work, but I don’t think David will ever use a studio again.
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I've been doing a lot of reading up on the workbookproject..... now rocketindie is in the mix, hell yeah

4 eyed monsters/head trauma = educational

thanks for the post zak
 
and we are live :)

go check it out guys.. sign up and let me know if you have any suggestions on the process.
 
So how do you do it? I mean, how do you put up a movie on your website so people can download it? I'd like to learn how to do this, so when I put up a movie on my website, users can simply click on a link and the download begins automatically. thanks for your help.
 
good to keep in my mind

film distribution treated like an Amway business is very frustrating

I believe there is another way, so filmmakers can spend most of their time making movies rather than finding audiences for their movies

a distribution arm for indie filmmakers: collaboration is useful for releasing movie

this info has been very valuable. thanks, Zak
 
wow. strange to see an old post like this. i've learned so much since reading this article waaaaaaaay back. this was probably my first step toward a whole new way of thinking.
 
I wish you'd expound on that a bit more, Zak, because you have the knack to ferret out the newest trends. It's a gift, I tell you :-)
 
Thanks for the article, very informative. I've heard of 4eyed monster, it's great that such an indie project is starting to get some attention.

I've been working on a similar approach to distribution on a documentary I'm doing. We've found that we can't really get played theatrically, but we can get clubs, universities and highschools to host screenings. Depending on the venue, sometimes we let them do the screening for free, sometimes we're able to get a decent fee. This model has kept us in business, so it seems to be working!
 
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