Chamber005
Carbonite Member
Hi everyone --
People who know me here know that I am like non-stop always talking about marketing (in general but also potential ways to market indie films).
I'm forming an LLC as we speak to work directly with a niche market in the industry: Filmmakers who are making good films but have for whatever reason ended up having to self-distribute.
Up front I'll put a disclaimer that if your film is recently produced, you need to be very careful about self-distribution because it could hurt your ability to gain distribution down the road from a larger company. We want to help the indie filmmaker, not cripple them.
What my company, The Great Independent LLC will be doing is selecting 4-8 films from 4 different genres to promote and sell via our online storefront (all of which is in the process of being constructed along with the LLC). As the independent filmmaker you do not have to have printed your DVDs (CreateSpace models are acceptable).
Because we are building a brand we have to be extremely selective about what movies we take on, but genre does not exclude you, nor does, necessarily only having a collection of short films.
We have a large, established database in which to do our marketing for your film, but in addition to that our plan is to also finance different online marketing strategies including CPC and Video ads, depending on the marketing strategy for a given film.
All payment will be on a percentage basis. Because we are doing the marketing, providing the storefront and site traffic, our charge will be anywhere from 50-60% (after print costs) depending on the specifics of the film and what kind of marketing is needed. (EXAMPLE: a metric for your film might be $19.99 price point minus $3.00 printing cost = a 50/50 split @ approx $8.50 to you per unit sold). Each film will be unique.
One of our long term goals is to be able to create a portal for the independent filmmaker onto iTunes which, as many of you know, typically is associated with an upfront cost when using a 3rd party servicer.
In regards to branding, all artwork, information and overall asthetics of your original vision will be continued through ads and on the site itself. Each film will have its preview available and your poster or box art along with description will appear over an all black background and all sales will be conducted via PayPal.
Because we are a small start-up company being completely funded by yours truly, the marketing platform for the 4-8 films will be a monthly blast of ad and network recommendations regarding your film specifically. (EXAMPLE: Thursday, May 18th is your advertising day. You will be reminded that it is your advertising day and told to inform your network that today is the day everyone should go out and remind people to take a look at your video and, hopefully, pick up a copy because today is your advertising day. Us working in tandem with you using Facebook, MySpace and various other social networking site ads, as well as smaller independent publishers, will hopefully create a "buzz" around your work that can breed additional branding and word of mouth. In the beta stage we would be looking to do this once per month for 12 months to see if the business model is viable and if it can at least fund the cost of its own existence).
Because this is the beta stage I can't offer much in the way of any established metrics, but in the end, if I spend a thousand dollars marketing your film that you haven't been able to find distribution for and over the course of that month I can't sell (in this metric) 120 copies of your DVD, I eat those costs and that's it.
A few things to be completely clear on:
1) DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION! We are not a distribution company. We are promotion and third party sales. I urge anyone with any questions whatsoever on distribution and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in terms of units sold independently to go and check it out for themselves! The last thing we would ever want to do is to sell 2,001 copies of your film which kaputs your chances of being picked up by a major distributor (which it doesn't necessarily, but you need to be educated on this stuff).
2) I'm from the banking and marketing arena. I assist people who are borrowing money and I assist business people who are trying to improve sales. I have never, ever, never sold a single DVD or film -- EVER! There are no proven results in this, there is just me taking my background in business and applying it to the independent film community, filling a niche that I see needs to be filled.
3) I absolutely 100% cannot promise anything in terms of returns. The only thing I can promise is that there is no cost to you besides whatever percentage structure is decided on.
4) To reiterate, I really think this site would best serve the film in desperate need of some CPR and TLC. The film that's already been out there for one year or even two, the thing that just can't seem to find its audience. Those films, if they are indeed good films who just need people to know it exists, I think we can help bring back to life.
5) All branding being equal, worst case scenario you make no money, I LOSE money, and we both gain some quality experience through vigorous trial and error.
6) If the money isn't there, if no sales are being generated, at some point the business model fails and what will remain is the site, the storefront, the network and the encouragement, which, I guess, is still something.
And last, *I* can't do it all for you. This is about me lighting the fire, trying to drive traffic to your product, but in the end you as the filmmaker need to be there with me, pushing the product, asking for help, and getting your name and film out there to as many people as possible even if it means printing out fliers and handing them out to potential customers.
If some of what I'm doing sounds alien, it's because it is -- it doesn't exist in the marketplace anywhere and, in that, I'm hoping that we can fill a void that exists in the independent film community.
PM me with any questions or if you have a film or a collection of short films that you'd like us to review.
Also feel free to use this thread as a discussion platform about the company, but, obviously I'd encourage optimism and quality feedback. Objections, though, are of course welcome. I don't know if all of the films will come from DVXusers, but I spend so much time here, I'd love to see a few of you guys make it!
Thanks!!
People who know me here know that I am like non-stop always talking about marketing (in general but also potential ways to market indie films).
I'm forming an LLC as we speak to work directly with a niche market in the industry: Filmmakers who are making good films but have for whatever reason ended up having to self-distribute.
Up front I'll put a disclaimer that if your film is recently produced, you need to be very careful about self-distribution because it could hurt your ability to gain distribution down the road from a larger company. We want to help the indie filmmaker, not cripple them.
What my company, The Great Independent LLC will be doing is selecting 4-8 films from 4 different genres to promote and sell via our online storefront (all of which is in the process of being constructed along with the LLC). As the independent filmmaker you do not have to have printed your DVDs (CreateSpace models are acceptable).
Because we are building a brand we have to be extremely selective about what movies we take on, but genre does not exclude you, nor does, necessarily only having a collection of short films.
We have a large, established database in which to do our marketing for your film, but in addition to that our plan is to also finance different online marketing strategies including CPC and Video ads, depending on the marketing strategy for a given film.
All payment will be on a percentage basis. Because we are doing the marketing, providing the storefront and site traffic, our charge will be anywhere from 50-60% (after print costs) depending on the specifics of the film and what kind of marketing is needed. (EXAMPLE: a metric for your film might be $19.99 price point minus $3.00 printing cost = a 50/50 split @ approx $8.50 to you per unit sold). Each film will be unique.
One of our long term goals is to be able to create a portal for the independent filmmaker onto iTunes which, as many of you know, typically is associated with an upfront cost when using a 3rd party servicer.
In regards to branding, all artwork, information and overall asthetics of your original vision will be continued through ads and on the site itself. Each film will have its preview available and your poster or box art along with description will appear over an all black background and all sales will be conducted via PayPal.
Because we are a small start-up company being completely funded by yours truly, the marketing platform for the 4-8 films will be a monthly blast of ad and network recommendations regarding your film specifically. (EXAMPLE: Thursday, May 18th is your advertising day. You will be reminded that it is your advertising day and told to inform your network that today is the day everyone should go out and remind people to take a look at your video and, hopefully, pick up a copy because today is your advertising day. Us working in tandem with you using Facebook, MySpace and various other social networking site ads, as well as smaller independent publishers, will hopefully create a "buzz" around your work that can breed additional branding and word of mouth. In the beta stage we would be looking to do this once per month for 12 months to see if the business model is viable and if it can at least fund the cost of its own existence).
Because this is the beta stage I can't offer much in the way of any established metrics, but in the end, if I spend a thousand dollars marketing your film that you haven't been able to find distribution for and over the course of that month I can't sell (in this metric) 120 copies of your DVD, I eat those costs and that's it.
A few things to be completely clear on:
1) DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION! We are not a distribution company. We are promotion and third party sales. I urge anyone with any questions whatsoever on distribution and what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in terms of units sold independently to go and check it out for themselves! The last thing we would ever want to do is to sell 2,001 copies of your film which kaputs your chances of being picked up by a major distributor (which it doesn't necessarily, but you need to be educated on this stuff).
2) I'm from the banking and marketing arena. I assist people who are borrowing money and I assist business people who are trying to improve sales. I have never, ever, never sold a single DVD or film -- EVER! There are no proven results in this, there is just me taking my background in business and applying it to the independent film community, filling a niche that I see needs to be filled.
3) I absolutely 100% cannot promise anything in terms of returns. The only thing I can promise is that there is no cost to you besides whatever percentage structure is decided on.
4) To reiterate, I really think this site would best serve the film in desperate need of some CPR and TLC. The film that's already been out there for one year or even two, the thing that just can't seem to find its audience. Those films, if they are indeed good films who just need people to know it exists, I think we can help bring back to life.
5) All branding being equal, worst case scenario you make no money, I LOSE money, and we both gain some quality experience through vigorous trial and error.
6) If the money isn't there, if no sales are being generated, at some point the business model fails and what will remain is the site, the storefront, the network and the encouragement, which, I guess, is still something.
And last, *I* can't do it all for you. This is about me lighting the fire, trying to drive traffic to your product, but in the end you as the filmmaker need to be there with me, pushing the product, asking for help, and getting your name and film out there to as many people as possible even if it means printing out fliers and handing them out to potential customers.
If some of what I'm doing sounds alien, it's because it is -- it doesn't exist in the marketplace anywhere and, in that, I'm hoping that we can fill a void that exists in the independent film community.
PM me with any questions or if you have a film or a collection of short films that you'd like us to review.
Also feel free to use this thread as a discussion platform about the company, but, obviously I'd encourage optimism and quality feedback. Objections, though, are of course welcome. I don't know if all of the films will come from DVXusers, but I spend so much time here, I'd love to see a few of you guys make it!
Thanks!!