"Corrado" - A production blog

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Standard distribution models will continue to work for the less than one percent of the commercially viable movies produced; but for the thousands (and potentially millions) of movie makers whose movies will never see the light of the theater projectors, the only ray of hope I see is the Internet.

As for artists who wish to use film as their mode of expression, the standard distribution model is a death trap. What's fascinating about Corrado is that this is how the game should be played in order to have a chance at a standard distribution model.

You've shown us how to make a commercially viable movie that has a chance at being picked up by the standard distributor. What Zack has pointed out is that the model works only if a movie maker knows someone. "It's who you know, not what you know," is the saying that has held sway in Hollywood since the beginning of the movie business.

I was once walking the halls of the AFM with a film in my pocket. I met a distributor for whom I'd done some editing. He asked me if I'd been making any movies lately. I said, no, but that I was developing a quality project, a beautifully written screenplay. He said for me to forget the great big projects, just make an action movie.

I interrupted him, "I don't want to make a piece of $hit."

He said, "Why?! Give us $hit, we know how to sell $****."

As you say, Adam, I'm not saying this about anyone's project here; but this is what we've all been dealing with, those of us who want to make a good movie, whose ideas of a good movie are not exploitation films, but art films and films with "redeeming cultural values."


Also Brandon mentioned that the domestic market is a whole other ballgame, and I agree. But I agree with you that the foreign market is the only predictable marketplace for indie movies. In the domestic market more than anything else it's who do you know, and you started out with at least a couple of distributor contacts. Maybe I got it a little wrong; I thought you had the deal in your pocket. The two gentlemen were going to take your movie around and pretty much guaranteed you distribution.

Now, you're thinking of the wider potential for your movie. If doubling your money and your investors money is below your expectations for this movie, then by all means go for a bigger deal. Of course, everyone who's read this thread is hoping you're going to score big. Nobody in his right mind wants you to fail, because we're all in this together.

You're our Spartacus.
 
I would keep my mouth shut if I actually found it, but even with my above average Google skills I couldn't fine anything. So I certainly think you did a good job of not giving away anything.
 
I have only read up to page 6 out of the >100 pages of this thread and I want to say that, after a couple of years lurking dvxuser, I just signed up to thank you taormina for writing it.

I have a friend that is one of the "do your own feature film dreamers" type that is just going to love it (after I translate it for him :)

I also want to say that what I feel separates most of these "dreamers" from "doers", topically enough, is not having enough start-up money to do things on their own like you did.

My friend would do almost exactly what you have done, except choose a more marketeable genre film for our smaller (foreign) market and probably skimp on the name-actor as it is not as important in genres such as kids/teen films. Also distribution in our smaller market is a different ballgame.

But he hates rentals and overpriced gear so much he is willing to rent entire workshops to build his own cranes etc rather than paying over the roof for one (rent or buy). We are well aware of the risks of "proven" equipment over "home experiments" and have the time and energy to take the risk. So far it's worked better than expected. Hooray DIYers. Boo overpriced manufacturers (save your maketing $$$, sell a better product for less money and customers will come, such is the beauty of mouth-to-mouth and the internet).

He was very close to start a feature on a $200k budget for which production was basically ready-to-go for this summer, but failed to raise half the funding. So now we've decided to pursue a less ambitious project over the next year. I'm helping him doing the main exec./line producer work while he does the writing/directing.

Dreamers and doers are often about $200k of "expendeable money" apart from each other. $25k to buy/build equipment, $125k for doing a decently produced film (and yes, a few rentals) and $50k to live on while this whole thing unravels and money is, hopefully, recovered. Or at least to fall back onto if the whole thing ends up a financial fiasco.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the thread. :bath:
 
Hey man! Long time no blog on here, I just thought I'd add a right on to what you said about making a product which is marketable from the start and not just artistic. It is in my firm opinion that before you begin shooting your film you need to have a distrobution plan in place. I'm not saying that you need to have a distro deal but you need to know what you can recoup REALISTICLY before you make your product. Because your film is a PRODUCT as well as ART. I won't even begin thinking about making a film that I could not at the same time understand as a saleable product. Keep it coming baby, I can't get enough of this blog!:thumbsup:
 
filmman said:
Also Brandon mentioned that the domestic market is a whole other ballgame, and I agree. But I agree with you that the foreign market is the only predictable marketplace for indie movies. In the domestic market more than anything else it's who do you know, and you started out with at least a couple of distributor contacts. Maybe I got it a little wrong; I thought you had the deal in your pocket. The two gentlemen were going to take your movie around and pretty much guaranteed you distribution.
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All true... however, I think if you target a specific niche genre you can do pretty well domestically, providing you have a quality film...
 
What's even more disturbing is what one of the distribs said to me:

"Everyone can be a first time filmmaker, but there are very few second time filmmakers - you know why? Because all these firs timers went and burned their money guy with a film they couldn't sell. They knew some guy as a kid back in Cleveland who made a lot of money and loaned them $500K to make a movie, a movie that didn't sell, they couldn't pay him back, and that pretty much killed their chances of making another flick"

Very interesting quote. Considering how hard it was to get to this point, I can imagine how hard it would be to do it again if I "burned my money guy".
 
By the way, I really want to make an art film. Really. I'm planning to do it after about 5-6 films that had decent returns and made money, so that if it bombs, I still have a decent track record.
 
That totally makes sense, and I've known some who that's happened to... I blame the investors most of the time... they have to know the director, or producer can make a quality product... that's why getting funds for that first project can sometimes be difficult, but if it's a success, the funds come way easier...
 
as many of you know, my bread and butter is producing behind the scenes docs for the studio's DVD and Blu-ray titles and promotional pieces for theatrical marketing. just finished work on The Happening. this line of work puts us in direct contact with each of the studios' top home video and theatrical distribution execs and their teams. and the consensus there is that digital technology and the internet is changing the model of distribution. basically the notion is that what was once a top-down model, is in the infancy of being flipped on its head... i'll explain...

universally the studios are preparing to embrace the coming changes. they've learned lessons from what happened to the music industry. currently the scenario was distributors chose the content for an audiences (top-down) based on broad appeal, limiting the choices in the market. but they see that the emerging technology is such that digital distribution over the internet, to your DVR (Amazon Unbox), and the inevitable merge of internet and television will create a bottom-up scenario where audiences will be able to choose and define the content they want to see. they all believe Blu-ray will be short lived. for this reason the studios, as I said, have told me they are quote "scrambling" to define how to manage their own catalogue titles in a world where an audience starved for meaningful content defines who the major players in the marketplace are.

you can see it coming. in baby steps. all next generation HD televsions are being designed with broadband access built in. Toshiba will be the first. a quick google serach will reveal a slate of companies developing the cutting edge of streaming HD technology.
 
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taormina said:
I was told yesterday in my distrib meeting of a decent horror film made by two brothers for $60K. No one was in it. It was such a good little movie that it was picked up by a major distributor..Lions "cough" Gate.... and they were given a $350K advance beside their distrib deal. Pretty awesome hey? You know why? They went out and made a sellable little movie with no frills. I supposed to keep the name of the film to myself, but I can tell you they did this deal last year.[/B]
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Any idea when it will be released? With a backstory like that I'd be very interested in seeing it.
 
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