Can you pre-sell the theatrical premiere screening to finance an independent film?

Can you pre-sell the theatrical premiere screening to finance an independent film?

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I think the idea of selling the tickets to the screening is OK. I think for any film that can't count on investment should be funded from as many places as you can get donations. I don't have any delusions about getting investment. Hell, I wouldn't invest in my feature. All I can do is get donations.

Running the numbers it I'm looking at a minimum of about $45k, minimum location costs, my insurance, shooting 15 days, using only my gear, paying for minimum crew and paying principal actors SAG minimum for an ultra low budget. There are some "fights" and a couple of car/bicycle chases, but nothing fancy. It's about as bare bones as I can imagine. It's still very daunting.

Anyway, if there is some money to make when screening the preview, I'd want it when it I was done. I'm trying not to load anything into the "back end" because, realistically, there won't be one.
 
@Gary, I list the celebrities on the kickstarter. These being people who have read the script and are interested.

@Zaza, I definitely agree and I think ultimately if people want to see your movie, why wait until distribution to let them see it. Let them get a digital download or get them to a screening. At the end of the day it just depends on how many people have an interest in what you're making. If there is no demand for it, then maybe it's not worth the time to make it..unless it's just some really close to your heart.

@hscully, if you can make it work, I say go for it! :)
 
GoodLuck said:
@Gary, I list the celebrities on the kickstarter. These being people who have read the script and are interested.
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I don't think you have a very realistic idea of what one of those celebrity cameos will cost you. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them costs nearly half, if not all, of $10,000.

In fact, to be completely honest with you, your entire Kickstarter page (save for the video which I haven't watched) comes off as kind of naïve.
 
if your basing the exposure of the event around word of mouth of the crew and cast. why not plan a small festival/evening with other filmmakers that want to show their shorts/features with you. the audience gets multiple screenings/Q&As for a small fee $20-$30 and you get more more exposure and more people watching your movie. you can do a double feature or a 6 hour/2breaks every 2hours event. also you have to lock the date of the event before hand and schedule your pre/production/post accordingly.

if it's a genre film that has a wide audience, like horror it could work. what's the genre/sub genre of the movie your trying to make.
 
Pre-sell, a tough thing. But what tools are you giving your "salesman"? Are you giving a completed and polished trailer? Are you giving them scenes outside the trailer for release to selected people ? There are so many aspects to this. It is not just "hey, we got a film over here." there is a marketing machine that needs to be in place, to generate buzz about your film. And to do that, preparatory work needs to be done. Posters, Trailers, Clips, etc. all dedicated to the promo aspect. Without that.......then it is just word of mouth.....and could be lost amongst all the other films out there.

How does your film set itself apart from everyone else? Without knowing this, and taking advantage of it.....well....

You have to have a finger on the pulse of your genre. What do they want? How can you entice them to view it? If you don't knw the genre......start researching it.
 
a lot of Hollywood films book the release date before production starts, it's almost standard practice, same with tv shows.
 
Amr Rahmy said:
a lot of Hollywood films book the release date before production starts, it's almost standard practice, same with tv shows.
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Agreed. But on an "unknown entity" in HW.....how do they maximize that effort? Just an announcement does nothing......and if it does not come to fruition......adds a strike to the Prod. Co. or the responsible party listed for anything in the future. LOL, I follow the trades.....and try to know who I am dealing with..... Not the only one in H-wood that does that.
 
What I am trying to say is not to discourage you nor dissuade you. I am trying to make sure you understand, you are swimming upstream with many other film-makers beside you in the stream. Your goal is to be the one every fisherman wants. And to do that....that is successful marketing of the film. Make it the biggest looking fish/film in the stream.

And that is a tough thing to do. But essential to success these days.
 
Aren't screenings the old brick & mortar method? Wouldn't Youtube + Content Partnership be the way to go now? Doesn't the online-advertising model allow for a more frictionless market? Meaning it connects your content with people who actually want to see it?
 
people might pay for content with a b/c/d list cast on itunes or on demand. but you won't get much revenue from youtube, it's not made for short films or features.

people like to go out on the weekend to an event. and they like to see films on the big screen with other people in the audience. and events would generate much more buzz on social networks(faebook, twitter). and you can invite bloggers and critics to review the movie on their site and facebook and twitter pages which would generate instant buzz to your target audience.

a dvxuser festival, make it happen.
 
Amr Rahmy said:
if your basing the exposure of the event around word of mouth of the crew and cast. why not plan a small festival/evening with other filmmakers that want to show their shorts/features with you. the audience gets multiple screenings/Q&As for a small fee $20-$30 and you get more more exposure and more people watching your movie. you can do a double feature or a 6 hour/2breaks every 2hours event. also you have to lock the date of the event before hand and schedule your pre/production/post accordingly.

if it's a genre film that has a wide audience, like horror it could work. what's the genre/sub genre of the movie your trying to make.
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Hmm, that is a very good point and a possibility maybe on something in the future..since this is already launched. So far one of the biggest deterence has been when is the date? People are interested but they don't want to reserve a ticket when they don't know when the date is, even with us throwing in a digital download. So I think your suggestion of a fixed date might be what could make something like this work and I think it would have a HUGE chance if it was for a short. You know, like 3 months in advance, then go shoot it and deliver on that date. But with a feature you need more time so it's a bit more of a challenge. Can't set an exact date.
 
Gary Huff said:
I don't think you have a very realistic idea of what one of those celebrity cameos will cost you. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them costs nearly half, if not all, of $10,000.

In fact, to be completely honest with you, your entire Kickstarter page (save for the video which I haven't watched) comes off as kind of naïve.
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What's naive about it? Would like to hear it so maybe I can fix it. I put in there any amount over $10k Gary. Obviously you can't get those guys and shoot the movie for $10k, I agree that would be naive to think that..if that is what you mean? But I say in there over $10k, assuming there is just a lot of demand to see the movie and we go well over the amount.
 
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Amr Rahmy said:
a lot of Hollywood films book the release date before production starts, it's almost standard practice, same with tv shows.
Click to expand...

Hmm...I guess that would be interesting. Set the date of the screening exactly on a certain/date and time. I'll have to think about that.
 
Great point Doc, that is probably failure on my part because I should have had more of that stuff done prior. I was hoping the draw would be in the pitch we had and people wanting to see it based on that. Maybe I understimated the draw of mockup posters and teaser clips.

Doc Bernard said:
Pre-sell, a tough thing. But what tools are you giving your "salesman"? Are you giving a completed and polished trailer? Are you giving them scenes outside the trailer for release to selected people ? There are so many aspects to this. It is not just "hey, we got a film over here." there is a marketing machine that needs to be in place, to generate buzz about your film. And to do that, preparatory work needs to be done. Posters, Trailers, Clips, etc. all dedicated to the promo aspect. Without that.......then it is just word of mouth.....and could be lost amongst all the other films out there.

How does your film set itself apart from everyone else? Without knowing this, and taking advantage of it.....well....

You have to have a finger on the pulse of your genre. What do they want? How can you entice them to view it? If you don't knw the genre......start researching it.
Click to expand...
 
ectobuilder said:
Aren't screenings the old brick & mortar method? Wouldn't Youtube + Content Partnership be the way to go now? Doesn't the online-advertising model allow for a more frictionless market? Meaning it connects your content with people who actually want to see it?
Click to expand...

I think that could work but in my opinion there isn't a lot that is more exciting than going to a glitzy premiere with photographers present, people dressed nice, actors and crew (director/others) there. The raw anticipation and excitement of seeing the movie for the first time with others who are just as excited as you are. With possible celebrities walking around also. You then also have the press out. It's a real event and it's pretty much a once in a lifetime type thing. It's huge really and I personally love going to them when others have them. I think in the indie scene it's actually one of the few things most involved in a project have to really look forward to because most indie projects do not get distribution. They don't get put on NetFlix or DVD at Wal-Mart. They sort of reach a very small release/audience unless you can just get some serious buzz with festivals or have some celebrities in your film. It's a challenge I think. Luckily we have some celebrity interest in this project and we're going to give it a shot and I think it will help a lot with distribution. But screenings is a huge perk that I don't think is being fully leveraged when it comes to fundraising. I'm exploring it and maybe it will work out, we'll see.
 
I think this could work. It's putting the power into the hands of the moviegoer. Extrapolated into broader terms, it's giving the ticket-buyers the chance to choose which film should be made in the first place, while ensuring you, the filmmaker, has people in seats long before the film hits the screen. It actually sounds quite efficient. On an indie micro-budget scale, it sounds almost utopian.

I can't wait to see how this turns out for you, dude. Keep me posted.
 
GoodLuck said:
What's naive about it? Would like to hear it so maybe I can fix it. I put in there any amount over $10k Gary. Obviously you can't get those guys and shoot the movie for $10k, I agree that would be naive to think that..if that is what you mean? But I say in there over $10k, assuming there is just a lot of demand to see the movie and we go well over the amount.
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I think you'd be lucky to get one of those cameos for $10k...I wouldn't be surprised if the going rate is even more than that, really. You don't even indicate that you have talked finance or gotten any kind of number on the cost of a cameo from anyone. It's entirely possible that, after all is said and done, your "cameo" is going to end up being someone who was in a scene once with someone famous, like how you push your lead. No one cares if your lead actor shared a scene with Nicholas Cage once...they want Nicholas Cage himself.

And nothing about your 5 REASONS TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT does anything to entice me to donate. Great script? I've heard that same posturing before on another project, one that ended up bombing. Social network contacts? You even list Myspace. Yawn. You can expect actual engagement to be a small percentage of the overall number of followers/likes/ect. so it's not impressive until you're in the millions.

A "Hollywood Level Comedy"? What does this even mean? Do you think, as a potential audience member looking for a movie that looks funny in the $5 bargain bin at Wal-Mart, that he's going to turn to his wife and say, "Look, honey, they screen tested this to an audience before release. It must be good!" No, no one cares. And besides, didn't two levels up you just say you had a great script already? Now you're saying that you expect portions of it to be terrible, so when other people finally get to see it, you'll fix whatever you messed up. Great, that really instills confidence.

Potential for write-ups? So what? People are donating money, not investing. This seems like a point you'd get across to a potential investor who wants to make money on your film (which, BTW, the vast majority of films do not make money). Your leaked audition tapes are averaging a few hundred views at most (and the ones that have far more are setup as "response videos" to scenes from big name movies, so it's a cheat to get views and not based on your own merit), so that's not impressive in the least. You might be able to get a lot of write-ups for your film...but if they are primarily on blogs with viewers numbered in the tens or hundreds, that doesn't mean anything (remember, the percentage of views/likes/followers ect. will be very, very miniscule for actual engagement numbers). The Lots of Public demand item also suffers from the same problem.
 
^Well you're probably right about all that. I can state it but everyone will interpret it how they want and ultimately the proof is in the numbers and people are not pre-ordering. People say they will but they haven't been and so far it's been a failure. I'm a bit beaten down and discouraged and I really thought it had a chance, but it doesn't appear so. Unless something dramatically changes, it's looking like I'll be canceling it in the next few days. I gave it a go and it failed, all you can do is try.
 
Live and learn. Study the successful campaigns to try to figure out what their ingredients were, and what you're missing. I've had 2 failed campaigns so far, but I don't let it get me down. Just keep plowing away. You're the only one who cares about your success, so make it happen.
 
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