Kevin Smith launches Indie distribution

[Mickey Munday]

If you do a low budget feature for say $5,000-$10,000...
And do say 10 shows in smaller theaters at 100 seats a theater, $10 a ticket, that's... 10x$1000=$10,000

If you do a low budget feature for say $20,000-$50,000...
10 shows, 500 seats a theater, $10 a ticket that's... 10x$5000=$50,000

So it's then possible to use his method to recoup all money to your investors. Then turn around and throw it up for sell to distributors domestic+foreign and make a profit. And there is nothing saying you can't try to do 15 shows or try for theaters with 200 or even 1,000 seats. It just depends on how good your movie turns out.

and after the money you spend to market the film plus whatever split you do with the theater (50/50) you're right back where you started or worse in the red. it's easy to just type an example about making a $5k to $20k indie that's going to make 2 to 4 times it's money back and it's another thing to actually do it and do it well.

 

[filmmakerguy]

and after the money you spend to market the film plus whatever split you do with the theater (50/50) you're right back where you started or worse in the red. it's easy to just type an example about making a $5k to $20k indie that's going to make 2 to 4 times it's money back and it's another thing to actually do it and do it well.

Yes, it definitely takes someone with some business sense to pull it off. I didn't say anyone can do it, just gave an example that if it's adjusted down to scale it can work for people who aren't famous like Kevin Smith. No matter what your split, the point being you can still pull back at least 1/5th. I've negotiated splits with theaters before and it's possible to keep 100% ticket sales if you bring in concession sales. At the end of the day, It still comes down to having a good feature film, which most independent filmmakers never will have because most start with bad scripts.

 

[dop16mm]

The key to this marketing plan is social networking. Now obviously Kevin Smith is a brand name and will sell out regardless, but there is no reason why you can't get your actors involved with marketing a few regional shows. In the age of facebook even 'unknown' actors have 1000 friends. Write up reasonable favored nations shared equity contracts and make your actors take some responsibility in the success of the film.

Back when I was doing community theatre, the bigger the cast, the bigger the draw, because cast family and friends were the audience, there is no reason why this grass roots approach can't work for film, now that there is a legit means of spreading the word for free. Now you may not ever make enough for it to become a full time job, but it may be a successful hobby that doesn't cost you anything.

 

[tmnt]

Also we are now lucky enough to have digital projection which could make this somewhat plausible. Wouldn't be an option if you threw film printing into the equation.

 

[Martay]

First, I believe Kevin Smith is including a deal he just made as what puts him fully recouped, not just the road show.

Again, this model is unique in that it's Kevin Smith a 17 plus year veteran with a huge fan following.

Sure, the argument that you can follow this model on a reduced scale but again, without that huge following you still have marketing costs that will undoubtedly have to be incurred with an unknown filmmaker and unknown cast.

-M

 

[Martay]

At the end of the day, It still comes down to having a good feature film, which most independent filmmakers never will have because most start with bad scripts.

Well, or badly rendered films from decent scripts. Again, it will become about awareness no matter the quality of the film. The best film EVER from an unknown still has to create awareness for itself before any recouping will happen.

The audience has to come out and support and that is whether the film is good or not.

-M

 

[filmmakerguy]

"A great film will find an audience." I think that's true. I think it helps if your movie is amazing, but nearly no indies are. Even the ones that get praise like Clerks and El Mariachi weren't that amazing. They were good but still needed more money thrown into them to clean them up. Nobody has really done anything big in a while with no name stars. Unless I'm overlooking someone out there.

 

[FilmBoy77]

Amazing and great can be subjective. I've seen some "great" indie films everybody else praised and I was left scratching my head. I know some Kevin Smith fans who would debate you down for the next 150 posts about the comment on Clerks not being all that great (I am not one of them) and they get violent too lmao.

I think "A great film will find an audience." works a lot better for short films and trailers/teasers that are short enough to be seen on youtube and vimeo for "free" versus a full indie feature that's good or great, but requires people to get up off their #$@ and go to a limited location and pay to see it especially if there's no name actors in it. it's way to easy for the average person to just say "yea, heard it was good...but i'll wait until it hits netflix" not realizing without support it may or may not ever hit netflix.

 

[pirate40]

We are doing something similar but on a MUCH smaller scale. Our film cost ten thousand to make. We did a red carpet event at a local theater and had a local business sponsor the event. That took care of the cost of renting the theater and some advertising. Our profit from that event was $2200. Since then we have done two charity events where we show the movie and split the profit with them. One was at a church and our share was about $1200. And the other was at a community building where we took home about $900. This works out well because the charity or, in the case at the church the money went to help a family who's home burnt down. They pretty much spread the word and fill the house with very little help from us. We only spit the ticket price, they keep concessions, and we keep all the DVD sales.

We have a big benefit coming up to help support a public library, and one to send some kids on a missionary trip. Our movie is not a christian movie, but it is family friendly. Each showing so far has networked into the next, and we have several more in the works. I don't believe we will have any problem getting our money back, and enough to make our second film. The cool part of this is all of this is happening within 50 miles or so, of our house. This is causing a pretty good buzz about our movie locally. We are always getting stories in various newspapers for free. This is almost like a nation wide tour, but its only taking place in three or four counties.