Getting your films on Netflix

M

Mickey Munday

Well-known member
anybody had any luck with getting their films on netflix? do they even accept indie films?

i just thought of this not too long ago and sure some of you have already explored this possibility. any thoughts?
 
Netflix does not accept direct submissions from filmmakers or production companies. They rely on a select few "aggregators" to provide films. your best option is to contact New Video and get the ball rolling there. NV takes 15% of the sales to Netflix.

The way it works is NetFlix will buy DVDs at anywhere from $3 to $10 each. $6 or $7 is the average. No per rental royalties are paid.

NetFlix Instant Streaming will pay a one-time licensing fee for a one-year term. renewable at the end of that year.
 
I wonder how many discs it takes for Netflix to fulfill a low to small demand across the country, 1,000 - 5, 000? Let's say 3,000 at the average price of $7 per disc, that's a $21K revenue. New Video takes 15% of that is $3,150 leaving $17,850 for the filmmaker.

Unknown are fees for graphics and artwork, and other deliverables as well as the price of making the 3,000 discs - most likely via a replication process rather than duplication which is more expensive. Netflix and such seem like additive distribution means rather than primary when looking at the numbers depending on what you consider to be a profit for making the film in the first place. As more content is done via a subscription model, the higher revenue generator of per view/sales is going away - and how you license the content becomes very strategic in how to maximize the revenue and make a living as a filmmaker, and not as a hobby.

Interesting times.

Michael
 
initial orders for an indie by Netflix, I've been told, are usually in the ballbark of 500 dvds. some have been hit up for additional orders later.

mickey, I will be going through an aggregator in the summer, when we release our films.
 
hey zak sounds like you already have your plan laid out. so are you pushing your features or everything at once through an aggregator?

also, have you already exhausted traditional distribution methods by going through a sales agency or company like Lionsgate, etc?
 
the plan continues to evolve, but generally speaking, straight-up traditional distro doesn't work for low budget indies unless you like throwing money away. instead, we've opened our own distribution company, CINEFIST, and are embracing a hybrid model of new and old, but more importantly, cutting out as many middle men as possible. :)
 
that's good enough thanks for that. i agree about traditional distribution not working for low budget indie films.

in terms of traditional distribution in general, if you're selling your films yourself through a website (like netflix, amazon or your own website), does that mess up the possibility of getting your film distributed through a bigger company like lionsgate or anything like that being that it's already out in the streets so to speak?
 
yes it does, but the bigger companies are not offering much money for indies with no names attached anyway. advances at this level are in the ballpark of $0 to $30,000. which gets eaten up pretty quickly by the cost of deliverables. and you don't own your work anymore. in the long run, it's not worth it. imo.
 
This is stuff I learned from filmmakers on panels at a variety of festivals. Don't know if there is one standard list but I'll put it this way. Imagine needing a master for every possible format from a 35mm print for theatrical down to VHS dubs (which you'd be wise to negotiate out of the contract, they don't need them, but will ask for them).
 
For worldwide on my last film it was a 1080p/24 master. 24 protects it for a DCP. Then I had a 1080p/23.976 and a 1080p/25 HDCAM SR master struck from that. From those a NTSC & PAL letterbox and NTSC/PAL anamorphic. For sound, I needed the stereo master and the 5.1 master, all the stems for each for each of the frame rate masters created, 23.976, 24, and 25.

The above masters also included the textless master (just picture). In many cases this can be done by adding the textless portions of the film with matching timecode at the end of the masters. This way foreign markets can translate titles as needed for local distribution (see spot dialog following).

Then you need both a subtitle track for the NTSC and PAL rates: timecode + dialog as well as a spot dialog list which is almost like a subtitle track but includes the character's name that said it - this is used for distributors that wish to dub the dialog track. The spot dialog also lists all credits timing and content. Then is using any music, timing, title of song, owner, publisher, portion of song and number of seconds used. For an example, see the ASCAP form on their website.

Those were hard deliverables - in addition they appreciated any artwork, behind the scenes footage, graphics and stills I had available. This can give a distributor a head start in many cases. I went so far as actually encoding the picture with very high quality encoder to the different video standards to give them a leg up.


Michael
 
It can be anywhere in the $10K to $20K range depending on how many of those deliverables you need to get done and by whom. The mixes for example for two separate dedicated mixes - not just a fold down of the 5.1 into a stereo. Then taking all of those stems and making new 5.1 BWF that have the matching timecode for the PAL and NTSC with all their respective durations. The audio is actually more work than the picture. Picture is ensuring you have your text and textless masters from a 1080p/24 master output as 23.976, and 25 including tape stock etc. I then brought the PAL and NTSC picture back into my system to ensure my audio conversions were done correctly for all stems and master mixes and remained in sync. For the PAL, there was also a pitch correction of .7 semitone to compensate for the change in pitch when doing the 4.1% speed up to 24fps.

So the costs are spresd out between the sound mixer and the facility wth the HD gear for picture conversions. I negotiated the sound deliverables as part of the master mix -

I did all of the subtitles and spot dialog list myself within my Avid Media Composer since I can track all the timecodes needed for deliverables within the same timeline 23.976, 29.97 and 25. Using the SubCap AVX plug-in I could export as a TAB file with timecode, had an engineer friend write a conversion script to recalculate timecodes and reimported into my PAL project to ensure subtitle sync. Same for NTSC from the 24p master. Then that same tab file fed an excel spreadsheet where I added the character names for each line.

Filmmakers tend to forget the deliverables side of things once a distributor is interested (beyond, the rights and clearances, etc.) How you do your final mix, and how you set up your final sequences will make the process more or less difficult - adding cost if not planned for.


Michael
 
And I have heard of films losing the distribution deal because they could not meet the deliverables requirement... keep that in mind when you are in post.

Michael
 
@ zak and michael - have either of you guys explored getting your films on comcast on demand or know anything about that process? i have a few facebook friends i notice that are advertising trailers for their films and some of the projects dont even look like they've been shot in HD. do they pay out?
 
I have not - I suspect a similar licensing deal as with Netflix - a one time pay for a period of time. This too, would be one of the licensing agreements made as part of a distribution deal. All of it can be sliced up and sold - in addition to foreign and domestic you have theatrical, DVD sell through, DVD rental, download, streaming, mobile, broadcast, cable, etc. My last film even had stage rights sold where Italy will be remaking it as a stage play - premiere to be held in December 2010... Managing all of this can be daunting - I have a sales agent managing all of that for me in exchange of a %.

Michael
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top