smashedburrito
Well-known member
Congrats, Adam!
Corrado Part II
- Thread starter taormina
- Start date
taormina
Hates to Rent
Yes, they are.
Another interesting topic. I could've negotiated for domestic rights with many of the reps I dealt with. Most companies are willing to split it up for you. I just felt they knew better than I did in this area.
The relationships they have are better than me picking up the phone and calling an acquisitions cerk
taormina
Hates to Rent
Went into Pre-production on Corrado mid February, 2008. Believe me, this could have been accomplished much quicker had I got my **** together.
Yeah, Avi Lerner. What can you do. I was dealing with someone in the office who gave my film to Danny Dimbort, the co-ceo. He passed,according to my source, but I am not sure he ever watched it. Next time, I need to deal with these people directly.
taormina
Hates to Rent
wow man congrats! so basically from here you just sit back and monitor its progress?
if you don't mind could you, or anyone here, explain "performance guarantees, a short term, low fees, quarterly statements" are and why that is a good thing? is this not something to expect as standard? also did you get any advance money upfront? (sounds like you don't want to post the amount if you did so i wont ask)
congrats again man i always like seeing fellow indie filmmakers accomplish their goals
Yes, it's out of my hands now. Which is great.
check out the next post fr a sales agency primer.
Cryogenic Filmworks
Veteran
Congrats on getting Corrado into the distribution cycle. Looking forward to getting a copy.
:thumbsup:
:thumbsup:
taormina
Hates to Rent
Sales Agency and Producer's rep primer
Sales Agency and Producer's rep primer
Here's my take on Sales Agents and Producer's reps. Before I launch into this, let me say that the authority on this topic is Stacey Parks. You can visit her website at www.filmspecific.com . I've chatted with her on occasion, and am a member of her site at the premium level. It's a pay site, but you won't find better info on distribution anywhere. Yes, she is the one who wrote the book on it.
Okay, here are your choices:
Producer's Rep: A smaller company that is more able to give your film the one on one attention it needs in order to sell it as a package to a studio. Typically only handles domestic sales. Commissions in the 10-20% range. Will strategize with you on how best to market your film to entities able to get it a complete buy out. You typically do not license the rights to your film to these people. The terms are usually short (two years or so).
Sales Agent: A usually larger company that is most effective in a foreign sale territory by territory scenario. Will sell your film at film markets and piece by piece until all territories and markets are spoken for. Commissions are in the 15%to 25% range. There is usually a flat fee charged for expenses to market your film that must be paid out of your first gross proceeds. This fee can range from $10K to $70K depending on the agent. They will use this to create key art, trailers, and other materials for you. You will typically license them the rights to the film for a term ranging from 2-15 years.
Two different styles of accomplishing the same goals. For a film that is likely to be bought up in once piece from someone domestically, a producer's rep is generally the way to go. Historically, they've been weak foreign, but that too is changing.
For a genre pic like mine, a Sales agent is usually the way to go, as much of it's revenue is foreign, and duh! you don't have contacts there. Tyipcally they've been weak domestically but again, that is changing.
Some films have both a sales agent and a producer's rep but that's rare.
Either way, you must carefully select who you're going with. You are signing up with these guys for their relationships. Go with a company who has distributed your type of film.
For example, Brandon Rice (hope you don't mind, bro), has a Christian film called No Greater Love that is with the Producer's Rep Carmel Entertainment, who is known for distributing films very much like NGL.
If you want to know more about reps, ask him. He's the meister.
As for sales agents, remember you are signing over the rights for your film, for no money down. It sounds worse than it is, actually it's not bad at all because there are so many provisos that you're pretty well protected.
You have to negotiate everything. Some things to negotiate hard on are:
Performace guarantee: Should the film not pull in a certain amount of money in a certain period of time, the rights revert back to you.
Quarterly statements: You want to keep abreast of what numbers your film is doing, how much money is coming in, from whom, and when. Sales agents like to share this information infrequently. You must force them to give it to you more often.
Low fees: Every sales agent charges a fee. This is because they take your movie on as if it were their own, and they market it, advertise it, make posters for it, and trailers if need be. They fly all over the world on behalf of their films, and this costs money. Still, there is some padding in their numbers. It's a bit of a profit center for them, or at least can be if you aren't careful. So keep this as low as possible. According to Stacey Parks, $30K is about the average with bigger films in the $50K range.
Short terms: Agencies will request fifteen to twenty year terms. Don't go over seven, and that with a performance guarantee so you cna get out if nothing happens. They want long terms because foreign rights in obscure territories take a while to work out. The revenue stream is a long one as the film moves from window to window.
Most of the decisions above are helped by simply going with a big, mature, and reputable company. Pick the wrong guy, and you will never, ever see a dime. Pick the right guy, and it will be like being repped by Creative Artists. You'll get higher offers and more attentions.
Dusty Smith from roadside attractions said that if your film is repped by Cinetic (Perhaps the top of the ladder for sales agents), it's as if you won an award at Sundance, because they are so discriminating in what they pick up.
Sales Agency and Producer's rep primer
Here's my take on Sales Agents and Producer's reps. Before I launch into this, let me say that the authority on this topic is Stacey Parks. You can visit her website at www.filmspecific.com . I've chatted with her on occasion, and am a member of her site at the premium level. It's a pay site, but you won't find better info on distribution anywhere. Yes, she is the one who wrote the book on it.
Okay, here are your choices:
Producer's Rep: A smaller company that is more able to give your film the one on one attention it needs in order to sell it as a package to a studio. Typically only handles domestic sales. Commissions in the 10-20% range. Will strategize with you on how best to market your film to entities able to get it a complete buy out. You typically do not license the rights to your film to these people. The terms are usually short (two years or so).
Sales Agent: A usually larger company that is most effective in a foreign sale territory by territory scenario. Will sell your film at film markets and piece by piece until all territories and markets are spoken for. Commissions are in the 15%to 25% range. There is usually a flat fee charged for expenses to market your film that must be paid out of your first gross proceeds. This fee can range from $10K to $70K depending on the agent. They will use this to create key art, trailers, and other materials for you. You will typically license them the rights to the film for a term ranging from 2-15 years.
Two different styles of accomplishing the same goals. For a film that is likely to be bought up in once piece from someone domestically, a producer's rep is generally the way to go. Historically, they've been weak foreign, but that too is changing.
For a genre pic like mine, a Sales agent is usually the way to go, as much of it's revenue is foreign, and duh! you don't have contacts there. Tyipcally they've been weak domestically but again, that is changing.
Some films have both a sales agent and a producer's rep but that's rare.
Either way, you must carefully select who you're going with. You are signing up with these guys for their relationships. Go with a company who has distributed your type of film.
For example, Brandon Rice (hope you don't mind, bro), has a Christian film called No Greater Love that is with the Producer's Rep Carmel Entertainment, who is known for distributing films very much like NGL.
If you want to know more about reps, ask him. He's the meister.
As for sales agents, remember you are signing over the rights for your film, for no money down. It sounds worse than it is, actually it's not bad at all because there are so many provisos that you're pretty well protected.
You have to negotiate everything. Some things to negotiate hard on are:
Performace guarantee: Should the film not pull in a certain amount of money in a certain period of time, the rights revert back to you.
Quarterly statements: You want to keep abreast of what numbers your film is doing, how much money is coming in, from whom, and when. Sales agents like to share this information infrequently. You must force them to give it to you more often.
Low fees: Every sales agent charges a fee. This is because they take your movie on as if it were their own, and they market it, advertise it, make posters for it, and trailers if need be. They fly all over the world on behalf of their films, and this costs money. Still, there is some padding in their numbers. It's a bit of a profit center for them, or at least can be if you aren't careful. So keep this as low as possible. According to Stacey Parks, $30K is about the average with bigger films in the $50K range.
Short terms: Agencies will request fifteen to twenty year terms. Don't go over seven, and that with a performance guarantee so you cna get out if nothing happens. They want long terms because foreign rights in obscure territories take a while to work out. The revenue stream is a long one as the film moves from window to window.
Most of the decisions above are helped by simply going with a big, mature, and reputable company. Pick the wrong guy, and you will never, ever see a dime. Pick the right guy, and it will be like being repped by Creative Artists. You'll get higher offers and more attentions.
Dusty Smith from roadside attractions said that if your film is repped by Cinetic (Perhaps the top of the ladder for sales agents), it's as if you won an award at Sundance, because they are so discriminating in what they pick up.
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"You have to negotiate everything"...which means it still all comes down to making a good movie that people want to represent; its hard to negotiate if you don't have a product that people actually want. And by good I mean a movie that is both quality and also has the elements that a distrib. needs in order to sell it (and not necessarily in that order).
Looking forward to seeing Corrado Adam. Great job getting to this point.
Looking forward to seeing Corrado Adam. Great job getting to this point.
Mickey Munday
Well-known member
Adam, has the rest of your cast seen the movie besides Johnny and Seizmore? does the cast get a copy of the film when it's done or not until it's been picked up by a distributor?
taormina
Hates to Rent
Yeah, only Johnny and Sizemore have seen it. I thought it was best to wait until the film was domestically available prior to handing out copies to friends, cast, and family.
I'm not really afraid of piracy, but I don't want to help it either. You give it to a friend, he gives it to a freind, before you know it it's on youtube and hasn't been released yet.
And I don't trust the cast with it either, since Actors love to show off and the DVD will be played everywhere even if they don't physically give it away. I'll get a quanitity of the finished DVD from the distributor and give the cast one of those for free, concurrent with the rollout.
mentatDUKE
Veteran
Congrats Adam. This is huge! You've come a long way. Looking forward to the rest of your journey.
taormina
Hates to Rent
Thanks Duke,
One other thing;
I know I've had my spats with some of you here as well as some of the mods, but I wanted to take this time to thank all of YOU for all your support.
This site has been a source of support for me throughout the process. You may think writing almost every day about the process is wearisome; in fact, it's very therapeutic and beneficial to me.
Thank you all again for your support!
One other thing;
I know I've had my spats with some of you here as well as some of the mods, but I wanted to take this time to thank all of YOU for all your support.
This site has been a source of support for me throughout the process. You may think writing almost every day about the process is wearisome; in fact, it's very therapeutic and beneficial to me.
Thank you all again for your support!
Shawn Philip Nelson
Veteran
Adam, congrats man! This is exciting to see the birdie fly!
taormina
Hates to Rent
Hey Yeah,
Most likely DVD at least domestically. I went through the theatrical thing already, and I more or less decided I didn't have the p&a budget to do it right. Plus Corrado doesn't strike me as a grassroots type theater film.
Shoreline wanted to leave theatrical in their contract, though. You never know what could happen I guess.
Most likely DVD at least domestically. I went through the theatrical thing already, and I more or less decided I didn't have the p&a budget to do it right. Plus Corrado doesn't strike me as a grassroots type theater film.
Shoreline wanted to leave theatrical in their contract, though. You never know what could happen I guess.
taormina
Hates to Rent
So I just spent all afternoon sorting through 2000 studio stills of the film. There are another 1000 to go. Whew! Shoreline wants the best ones uploaded to their ftp server today so they can get working on the film right away. The rest I have to include as part of the deliverables.
Lots o' work.
It sure made me miss being on set, some very fond memories and the photos just brought it all rushing back. It was probably one of the best times of my life!
Lots o' work.
It sure made me miss being on set, some very fond memories and the photos just brought it all rushing back. It was probably one of the best times of my life!
Danny & Avi haven't even seen half of thier own movies, no joke. Did you mention a price for it to them?
taormina
Hates to Rent
Didn't even get close to that discussion. Never met either of them (I did meet Avi ever so briefly on the set of Bobby Z). I was going through a "contact" which is why the whole thing sucked so bad.
If I had ten minutes with Avi I'd have a whole slate of films in production.
If I had ten minutes with Avi I'd have a whole slate of films in production.
