Securing a distributor is the first half whereas filming the actual movie is the 2nd?

Haha

Haha

Good luck with that path, let me know how it works out ;)

If you can get some A-list celebrities in it, you can pre-sell foreign markets, but... that's pretty tough to do!
 
jeree said:
The page tells you why, and it seems logical... its just HOW do you do it, is partly my question...[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
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They always fail on the "HOW" part. And yes, if you put together a package of bankable actors, a good script, with a director whose work has sold before, you might, and a big might get someone interested to sign a distribution deal. But those situations are few and far between for independent filmmakers. Distributors want to see something before a deal is made. Even with name actors and such, a film may still have problems such as poor direction, bad lighting, camera, and composition. Editing and score can be less than desirable.

I am working on a small horror film now with "name actors" and there is no distribution deal until there is something to show. There is a lot of content being made out there and distributors can afford to wait and see what it actually is, before they sign up.

Again, all of this is for indie fimmakers.

Michael
 
Thanks for the informative reply.
So for us Indie Filmmakers, theres pretty much no way to do that?
I mean it sounds logical yes, but what if you DO have a script. That wouldnt be enough for the distributor?
they would need to see a full feautre, or atleast a short movie?

The makers of SAW made a short, and then sent it to the USA and they were given 1.5 million for the movie........
 
So I went to your link and the second line says, "We will examine film financing from the perspective of successful producers.".

A successful producer is someone with a track record of producing highly profitable feature projects. That is obviously not you. Wouldn't it therefore be more logical to study how someone like yourself, who is not currently a successful producer, finance their feature projects?
 
craigbowman said:
So I went to your link and the second line says, "We will examine film financing from the perspective of successful producers.".

A successful producer is someone with a track record of producing highly profitable feature projects. That is obviously not you. Wouldn't it therefore be more logical to study how someone like yourself, who is not currently a successful producer, finance their feature projects?
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I thought that line meant what successful producers did and therefore since that worked for them, why not us... Especially since that site is AIMED at people like US trying to make it into the industry.
But yeah, if they meant it what you said they meant then how do starting filmmakers finance-their-films/look-for-distributors?
 
Well

Well

That's also pretty misleading because it really depends on the project.

The producers of my film are successful, industry producers, having worked in the business for decades and successfully produced quite a few movies. This was their 9th as a team, and the last was a $10 million film with theatrical distribution in place (later this year) and a DVD deal with MGM. But that doesn't mean on a little film like mine that they were going to bother trying to pre-sell it because as was mentioned here, distributions can be patient and wait.

Anyway, I'd rather take the risk myself, but that's just me. If someone told me that I could make a 50% return on investment (billing my time free, so essentially... not actually very good) if I pre-sold rights to a project, or I could finish the project and either lose all of my money or possibly make a very significant return, and most likely somewhere in between, well, I'd roll the dice!

On our film, we had a first-time feature DP (albeit the son of a very accomplished DP) and a first-time writer-director, myself, so I don't think that most distributors would love that situation going into it. Even though for us, we knew we would make a really entertaining, well made film, and we did. On a small movie like this it just makes a lot more sense to go the festival route and screen it for distributors once it's done.
 
JonathanLB said:
That's also pretty misleading because it really depends on the project.

The producers of my film are successful, industry producers, having worked in the business for decades and successfully produced quite a few movies. This was their 9th as a team, and the last was a $10 million film with theatrical distribution in place (later this year) and a DVD deal with MGM. But that doesn't mean on a little film like mine that they were going to bother trying to pre-sell it because as was mentioned here, distributions can be patient and wait.

Anyway, I'd rather take the risk myself, but that's just me. If someone told me that I could make a 50% return on investment (billing my time free, so essentially... not actually very good) if I pre-sold rights to a project, or I could finish the project and either lose all of my money or possibly make a very significant return, and most likely somewhere in between, well, I'd roll the dice!

On our film, we had a first-time feature DP (albeit the son of a very accomplished DP) and a first-time writer-director, myself, so I don't think that most distributors would love that situation going into it. Even though for us, we knew we would make a really entertaining, well made film, and we did. On a small movie like this it just makes a lot more sense to go the festival route and screen it for distributors once it's done.
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Hmm, thanks for this.. :)
im confused, the 50% return would be if you had secured a distributor FIRST right? whereas where you said 'I could finish the project and either lose all of my money or possibly make a very significant return' would be producing it YOURSELF, hence, independently, and if it was a success you have all the rights to it correct?

btw, george lucas is an inspiration to me as well as many people, my question is.... is he an independent producer, or an industry producer? also, he founded a visual effects company ILM.... first of all, how do you run and MAINTAIN a company such as that?
also, in wikipedia, it says he's an independent filmmaker... what's his story? like... the technical aspects of it? has he ever secured a distributor first before makign a film or has he always made the film first....

im still very confused on the filmmaking and distributing process, also all the stuff relating to the film such as rights to merchandising/boxoffice.... BUT im gettign a hang of it so if you feel like you're wasting your time to answering my questions, you're not wasting your time lol trust me... you're probably helping other people as well following this topic :)

also can you start up a distributer company such as universal/paramount/etc etc? cuz pretty much all they do are marketing the movies, and i have some experience with that [internet marketing] nd maybe, if i can somehow lol, i could start up my own distributor company [is that called a studio? lol, anyways], kinda like how george lucas founded ILM

but yeah, this filmmaking knowledge can REALLY help me and many other people...

I'm excited if you have not known that already lmao :) soooo many opportunities here.

EDIT: These questions may be scattered [and it probably is] but i guess you can say i have my reasons, such as I'm a 16 year old kid really wanting success and his only way of making sure HOW is by asking questions and ultimately DOING things properly... if that made sense....
 
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If you haven't already checked out www.filmspecific.com I'd recommend you do. It's run by the lady who wrote the book "The Insiders Guide to Independent Film Distribution", which itself is a great book. She has tons of articles, video interviews, presentations, documents, sample contracts, plans, etc.

If you're serious about the distribution side of film making you can't pass on the $25/mo membership fee.
 
You can't just ask "which actors are bankable" because it depends on the type of film. Does it make sense and make an automatic connection for the audience? If you're trying to promote a shoot-em-up action film, which actor is more bankable FOR THAT PROJECT - Steve Carroll, or Bruce Willis? And if you're trying to promote a screwball comedy, which actor is more bankable for THAT project - Meryl Streep, or Will Ferrell?
 
That's true. But also you can get a lot of actors for a lot cheaper than you might think, it just depends on how badly they want a paycheck right now and how much else is going on. You should never pay an actor their "quote," though, that's something reserved for people with no experience in film who just don't know better or major studios with huge budgets where they know they can't really negotiate an actor's price down. Especially if it's a sequel to a film the actor was in previously, then the actor will get their quote. But in general, if you're putting together a $10 million film let's say, and an actor's quote is $5 million, ha, no, you could get that actor for $500,000 potentially, or at least find an actor who would work for $500,000 and their quote is usually way higher than that. It just depends on the circumstances. The quote is supposed to be well higher than what they actually get paid film to film. It's more like what they would like to be paid ;)
 
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