How does one distribute their short doc to say Netflix and or Amazon Video etc?

offbeatbryce

Well-known member
Anyway to do this when I'm a small one man operating business? Can I actually get my short 30 min documentary on say Netflix, iTunes amazon video etc and earn money from streaming etc? So far I can't find a way to do this. Any tips?

thanks,

Bryce
 
You can get it on Amazon using Amazon Video Direct. You need some artwork and you have to have closed captioning. You would need to promote it yourself but it plays on there free to Amazon Prime viewers if you choose that, and they do pay you something.
 
I don’t believe they are available for self publishing. I think you need a distribution deal for iTunes. Not sure about Netflix. Any luck at festivals?
 
I'm pretty sure you can't get your movie onto Netflix by yourself. You would need a distributor, and even then they are very selective. I used to work at a film distribution company years ago, and things may have changed somewhat since then, but probably not in the direction of making things easier. It used to be, when they primarily mailed DVDs instead of streaming, they would buy a little of everything so they could be the one place you could find any movie. But now they mostly want you to watch content produced by Netflix itself. If your film makes a big splash at Sundance, however, they might be calling you.
 
I'm pretty sure you can't get your movie onto Netflix by yourself. You would need a distributor, and even then they are very selective. I used to work at a film distribution company years ago, and things may have changed somewhat since then, but probably not in the direction of making things easier. It used to be, when they primarily mailed DVDs instead of streaming, they would buy a little of everything so they could be the one place you could find any movie. But now they mostly want you to watch content produced by Netflix itself. If your film makes a big splash at Sundance, however, they might be calling you.

Did you see that I posted this link? http://moviesonspeck.com this site claims you can submit your film to any streaming service but I'm not sure if it's valid.
 
Submitting and aception are not the same thing. Did you look at the submission guidelines? They get 25% of gross and you get 100% of the net. There is a line from SPEED the PLOW that comes to mind "Two things I've learned, twenty five years in the entertainment industry ... two things which are always true ... one ... there is NO net. And I forget the second one."

There is a reason the site is called "speck". It could be legit but I doubt you ever see a penny and I doubt your film shows up anyplace you can't get it onto on your own.
 
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