Filmmaking Stuff Filmmaking Stuff provides resources for independent filmmakers. The website includes articles on how to take a story idea from script to screen, including articles on scriptwriting, producing, finance, shooting, editing, directing, marketing, distribution and how to build an audience. Filmmaking Stuff also has articles detailing how to make money making movies – including interviews with Hollywood Producers, Directors, writers and other filmmaking professionals.

With the demise of traditional DVD distribution, you as a filmmaker are responsible for your audience. Why? Because your audience is your business – and without an audience you will have no movie business.

Having an audience database for your movie is essential.

Whenever I give talks, I make people repeat this aloud. This gets a few chuckles, but kidding aside – this is important stuff for any filmmaker.

Building Your Audience Database

As a professional filmmaker, you need to build a database of people who know you and know your work. But don’t let the word “database” throw you off. A database doesn’t have to be complex. At the miminum, it is simply a list of the names and emails of your subscribers.

Once you have this info, you can easily generate personalized email, letters and phone calls to your audience. And having a list allows you to directly promote your current movie project or an upcoming movie project.

Tools For Building Your List

Most of your list building efforts will happen online. So you need hosting for your website. And I suggest you go with a company that allows you to easily set up a WordPress powered website. That way, you’ll be able to grab a copy of the fully optimized WordPress Template for Filmmakers.

But let’s face it… Even with the greatest movie website on earth – The truth is, most of your movie website visitors will NOT buy your movie on the first visit to your site. Think about it. Most people are busy.

So in addition to marketing your current movie (and all of your future movies), you will need an easy way to capture and collect visitor email addresses. I recommend Aweber as an easy way to build your audience list.  And after you grab Aweber, I suggest utilizing this tool to increase subscriber opt-ins.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Filmmakers often utilize film festivals as a way to get their work seen and hopefully sold. And while acceptance to top-tier festivals is super exciting – the reality is, many filmmakers do not get in.

As a result, many of these semi-dejected filmmakers take a shotgun approach to their festival strategy. They start applying for most every regional and local film festival, everywhere. And aside from outlandish application fees, upon arrival to these festivals – instead of  meeting a bunch of VIP acquisitions executives, most second tier festivals are populated by a bunch of other desperate filmmakers shoving postcards in your face, eagerly advertising their screening times to, well, other filmmakers.

Sometimes this includes free beer. (Most times not.)

While having delusions of distribution grandeur is still part of the film festival fun – with the demise of DVD distribution, and the odds that you won’t get into Sundance – it is vitally important that you create a film festival strategy PLAN B.

What is a film festival strategy PLAN B?

Simply put, if you are serious about making your movie profitable, YOU are now responsible for marketing, promotion and distribution of your movie. And inline with this strategy, you must view regional and second tier festivals as an opportunity to build your audience list. But instead of handing out postcards to other filmmakers, your marketing strategy will be smarter.

Here are five tips on making film festivals relevant to your movie business:

1. Write a press release specific to the festival and then distribute to the local press. This also involves picking up the phone and personally inviting the press to attend your screening. Many festivals will have a press list. You can use this – but I would also advise conducting additional internet searches for other press outlets.
2. Many local towns have a filmmaker community. Reach out to them. If you are traveling, it’s great to have someone to pal around with. The secondary benefit to this is, many of these same people will have relationships with the festival staff – always good to know people on the staff.
3. If the festival allows it, see if you can take several clipboards into your screening. You’ll want to collect the names and email addresses of each viewer and get their permission to email them. Later you will enter this data into your audience list.
4. If your film website does not include a blog component, add one. Then update frequently. Add pictures and video. Let the world know your movie is screening. People like this stuff.
5. And finally, most regional festivals have panel discussions with industry experts. Make sure you attend these. Take your business cards. And then try to build relationships with whomever is on the panel. (And as a side note, if you know anybody looking for a panelist – I suggest inviting Jason Brubaker from Filmmaking Stuff? Just sayin’)

Out of everthing I mentioned, the most important strategy for your movie and your modern moviemaking career is grow your own fan base. This way, when you focus on building your audience list, you stress a lot less about the traditional distribution deal you may or may not have received at one of the notorious festivals.

So yes. Film festivals are still relevant. They offer a great way to source an audience for a minimal marketing investment.

Also, I’d like to thank one of our filmmaking stuff readers named Michael for this question. If you would like to get on the filmmaking stuff VIP list, click here >>

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Quiet please…we have speed…ACTION!

A new website is being launched today that will help take filmmaking out of Hollywood, and put it into the hands of everyday, creative people so that they can combine their life’s ambition of being a filmmaker with owning their own business.

makeyourmovienow.com is the brain child of Jason Brubaker, a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker and an expert in Video On Demand distribution. He has hosted another filmmaking website, Filmmakingstuff.com for years and is taking his experience to the next level.

“makeyourmovienow.com is focused on helping YOU make, market and sell movies more easily,” he says. “The ways movies finally make it to market has changed. makeyourmovienow.com is specifically designed to help grow your fan base, build “buzz” and create community around your title.

“If you want to make a living making movies, you need to realize that your library and the subsequent audience you source (over your career) are your major assets. And, as a result, your most important filmmaking focus (aside from doing good work) is to acquire and keep a customer,” he emphasizes.

For filmmakers in need, makeyourmovienow.com covers the four key areas of film production: screenwriting, film financing, filmmaking and distribution.

Tell your filmmaking friends!

Posted under FILMMAKING

CLICK HERE to download the 25 part, how to sell your movie checklist - Image via Wikipedia

If you’ve made a feature film, congratulations! As an independent filmmaker, you’ve just accomplished a feat that many find impossible. You’ve put together a cast and crew, refined your script, found some financing and in the process, you’ve even figured out how to ignore all your significant other’s not-so-subtle hints that a career selling life insurance wouldn’t be that bad.

But behind all the excitement, you and I both know there is one nagging question on your mind. And it is the same question asked by every independent feature filmmaker. You’re wondering: “How am I going to sell this thing?”

That is a good question. And if you’re crossing your fingers for a huge paycheck and a three-picture Hollywood deal, what I’m about to tell you is going to be very different than what you had hoped for.

Thanks to technology, any person with a thousand dollars can grab an HD camera and create a backyard indie. And while this does not guarantee quality, it does create a market flooded with cheaply produced movies. Couple this with a decline in traditional sales channels and your odds of finding a profitable deal have become increasingly challenging.

For most filmmakers, this revelation comes as a shock. After all the work you put into making your movie project a reality, the prospect of putting a no-deal DVD onto a bookshelf and failing to get a return on investment is discouraging. And if it wasn’t for the internet, I’d probably tell you that a career selling life insurance wouldn’t be too bad.

But I have good news! Like you, our first feature was met with empty distribution promises and crappy deals. So by necessity, we started selling our title on Amazon as both a physical DVD and a video on demand download. At first, none of the producers liked that idea. I mean, even if a traditional deal sucks, at least there is still validation of seeing your title on the shelves at the local video store…

Then we made our first sale. We thought it was an anomaly. How could we possibly make money with our movie? We had no stars. We had no formal distribution. And most people on earth had never heard of our title (including you.) But then we made another sale… And then a third… And then a dozen…

That was 2006. Since that time, our movie has sold in ways we never imagined. As a result, every four months I get a nice check. And while it’s not enough money to buy my retirement, I can’t complain.

This success was enough to convince me that making money as an indie filmmaker is no longer about the BIG pay day. These days filmmakers need to create good work, find their target audience and focus on selling movies consistently over time. As a result, I now believe the modern moviemaking model is to eventually create multiple streams of movie income.

For many filmmakers, this sort of talk might be crazy.

Think about it. In years past, filmmakers only self distributed their movies when they had to. It wasn’t a choice! But these days, filmmakers can choose to self-distribute, because 9 times out of 10, making your title available on Amazon and iTunes and other popular VOD marketplaces can potentially pay more than a traditional deal. Because a deal that pays zero is not a deal. (Of course I’m expressing my opinion.)

The following “How To Sell Your Movie” checklist will provide you with a broad overview of how to market and sell your movie without the middle-man.

This checklist should be considered a good start – but many of you will want further information. For that, check out: www.HowToSellYourMovie.com

Wherever I thought it would help, I’ve mentioned partner companies and affiliates. This means, if you follow my suggestions and use one of these services, I’ll get a commission. The folks I mention are good people. And you can ignore my links at will. I won’t be upset. But if you like this checklist, tell your filmmaking friends to check it out!

That said, let’s get started!

How To Sell Your Movie – Check list

1. Create a website specific to your movie. Go to www.MovieSiteHost.com and grab hosting for your site and reserve your domain name there. When you purchase your hosting, a domain name is usually included in the purchase price.

2. Branding is the marketing equivalent of matching your belt with your shoes. Don’t make your marketing complicated. Make sure your colors, logos, posters and fonts are consistent.

3. Most filmmakers make a crazy website with all sorts of bells and whistles. Your website should be simple. You should have a trailer, an about page, a buy now button, links to your social networks and an audience list.

4. Out of everything I mention, getting people onto your audience list is most important. An audience list will allow you to collect a name and email address of your visitor. To build an opt-in list, which is FREE for the first 500 subscribers, check out: www.AudienceList.com

5. Take a moment to think about your target audience. Hopefully you have a marketable hook for your movie, and a plan for reaching your target demographic. If not, figure it out!

6. Get your movie selling as a Video on Demand rental and download. To do this, upload your movie to the many VOD marketplaces, such as iTunes, Amazon and NetFlix. For an easy way to accomplish this, try www.MovieSalesTool.com

7. You can sell DVDs too. Amazon’s Create Space makes this easy. And even though it’s more expensive, I advise you to stay out of the shipping business. Let CS manufacture your DVDs and fulfill your orders on demand. This way, you can focus on increasing your sales, as well as your next movie projects. Not shipping.

8. Your trailer is your sales tool. Upload your trailer to YouTube as well as other, popular video sites. Make sure your trailer mentions your website. Put your focus on optimizing YouTube. Why? Because YouTube is both a social network and the second largest search engine on earth (also owned by Google.) It’s worth it!

9. Write press releases related to the availability of your movie. Include back links to your site. Send the release out via one of the online press release submission sites. In addition to this, don’t be afraid to call magazine editors and journalists who write for your target audience. As they say, if you don’t ask – you don’t get!

10. Join online forums related to your target market. Create a profile, complete with a signature link to your website. Now, whenever you join a conversation, you’ll spread your links.

11. Just because you’re in a forum doesn’t mean people care about you or your movie. If you join conversations without adding value – or if you become one of those spam happy people who talk about your movie and fail to add value to the discussion, you will be seen as a spammer.

12. If the idea of contributing to forum conversations annoys you, then just pay for advertising on the site. The whole point is to increase awareness of your movie and get prospective audience members to your site.

13. Create a facebook page, a Twitter account and join the popular social networking sites. Again, you’ll want to build a fan base for your movie. And to manage it, try www.Ping.Fm This tool allows you to update all your social networking sites at once, which is cool!

14. The purpose of using social networks is to connect with your target market, spread word about your movie and once again, lead people off the networks and onto your Audience list.

15. The reason you can not rely solely on social networking for your audience list, is because many of those sites have gone out of vogue. I lost 10K “friends” on one of them. As a result, I estimate this tip is worth $100,000.00.

16. Additionally, have your webmaster put a button on your website so people can tweet, bookmark, and share your movie website with friends on their social networking sites. (Can you please click the tweet button at the top of this article?)

17. If you have the budget, purchase some offline advertising in publications related to your movie. To find related publications, go to a book store and look for magazines. Also, try Google.

18. All of these methods are intended to get people back to your website. The purpose of your site is to get people to watch your movie trailer and click the BUY NOW button. Anything that distracts these visitors must go!

19. You’ll soon realize that most people will not buy your movie on their first visit to your website. If they don’t click, then at least try to get them to opt into your audience list. Then you have a chance of getting them to buy later.

22. Out of all the people who click the BUY NOW button, many won’t buy. But some will!

23. Consider using that money to purchase more advertising and then repeat the cycle. The goal is to keep investing and reinvesting the money until you produce a self sustaining machine.

24. Sales will tend to level off after a few years. This is the normal. When this happens, find some other filmmakers with a movie geared towards the same target audience. Offer to promote their movie to your audience list. If these other filmmakers have an audience list too, ask them to promote your movie. Be willing to pay them a cut of your profits.

25. Time for your next project. But unlike before, you’ll have a strong mailing list at your disposal. And as a result, you can now ask yourself the following magical questions: “How many VOD downloads do I have to sell to recoup my investment? And how am I going to sell them?” Answer those questions, and you’ll also be talking the talk with your investors.

Once again, if you liked this check list, you’ll love my latest action guide:

>>> www.HowToSellYourMovie.com <<<

Happy Filmmaking! (And tell your friends!)

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

If you are subscribed to the filmmaking stuff podcast, you probably already know my thoughts on movie distribution. In a few years, I believe that VOD distribution will be the primary method by which movies will be seen and sold.

With this belief, there will come a day when there is no delineation between your TV and the internet – which means you’ll be able to upload your feature into popular marketplaces with the ease of uploading a movie to YouTube. And while your ability to tune into the iTunes or Amazon on-demand channel on your TV is not yet a reality, I believe that science fiction will become science fact sooner than we think. And this innovation, no matter how subtle, will put the last nail in the coffin for traditional distribution.

So we may as well get ready for the new world of distribution right now…

Here is what Modern MovieMakers can do to prepare for their filmmaking future:

Even now, traditional DVD distribution is deteriorating. And with the rise of VOD marketplaces, old-timers are trying like crazy to make sure that traditional, global territories remain safeguarded by pre-existing, DVD territorial bounds. The problem with trying to fit  VOD into the same “box” as DVD is, video on demand marketplaces are bound by the internet, which doesn’t have boundaries.  This is potentially bad for traditional distribution. But it’s great for modern moviemakers. Why?

You no longer have to worry about preserving the old ways of doing things, including asking some 3rd party to give you permission to sell your movie.

With all these changes in distribution, as a filmmaker, getting you movie seen and selling is still one of the biggest challenges you face. That’s why I created my latest product: How To Sell Your Movie. This step-by-step action guide shows you how to market and sell your movie in popular marketplaces such as Amazon and iTunes. Additionally, I show you how I lost around $100,000 dollars with our first feature and how you can avoid my mistakes.

While creating community around your title, building buzz and increasing your fan base is both challenging and fun, a lot of filmmakers have no idea how to get started. In this regard, one of your first steps is to determine if your movie is ready for the marketplace. (Do you have all your paperwork and errors and omissions insurance? Are you ready to get your movie seen and potentially selling?)  If so, I am announcing a new service. OK. I actually wrote about this service a few months ago. But now it’s a bit more refined. So if you have a movie collecting dust on some bookshelf, and the title is currently not selling, listen up:

Aside from my How To Sell Your Movie Action Guide, I have also created a business relationship with Distribber. [In full disclosure, I receive compensation from the company for movies I get into the system. So conduct your independent research.] With all of that said, I first found out about distribber when I was trying to find a way to get my movie onto iTunes.

In addition to iTunes, distribber allows you to get your movie seen and selling in most of the popular VOD marketplaces, without the middle-man (and the creative accounting that typically goes with traditional deals). And distribber stays current with emerging VOD marketplaces. For example, if some new iTunes competitor emerge, you can rest assured that the Distribber folks are already out there, working to make the pipeline available to filmmakers.

But the best part is compensation. Unlike deals with a traditional distribution company,  distribber is transparent. While the other folks take a huge chunk of your ongoing, back-end profits, distribber merely charges a one-time, upfront fee. Once in the system, filmmakers are then able see their earnings from all market pipelines and withdraw money as needed. Additionally, filmmakers aren’t locked into some outrageous, exclusive contract. So if you want out, you can get out!

My referral link is: www.MovieSalesTool.com – But if you don’t like the idea of me doing business like this, then check out the basic link: www.distribber.com – but do check them out.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

While this chart represents iTunes song sales, it is clear that the sale of VOD iTunes movies are on a similar trajectory. Image via Wikipedia

Thanks to HDSLR technology, any filmmaker with passion and a story can make a feature film. And unlike years past, these backyard indie filmmakers are not prohibited by cash or creativity.

Yet despite this movement, many of my high profile “professional” friends in Los Angeles, have made a conscious effort to ignore the rise of backyard indies. Why?

Because inexpensive HDSLR filmmaking doesn’t count!

I mean, with these movies, common questions asked by Hollywood hot-shots are: Who signed the SAG agreements? Who contacted the Unions? Who notified the MPAA that another movie will need to be rated? Who paid enough people to call this a “real” feature film?

Nobody.

Guess what? Audience word-of-mouth doesn’t care if the movie was an official union indie or a backyard indie made for pocket change. And thanks to the demise of traditional distribution and the increased market domination of iTunes, Amazon and Netflix, the big difference between a $10,000 back yard indie and a $2,000,000 dollar indie isn’t the budget, it’s which filmmaker gets the most clicks on his or her “BUY NOW” button. And to break even on a 2M feature, the filmmaker is gonna need a lot of clicks!

As a rough example, to recoup 2M dollars, the filmmaker will need to to sell (roughly) 200,000 video on demand downloads at $10 a pop. These first sales will cover the 40% cost allocated to VOD providers (the real winners here), after which, the filmmaker will still need to sell an additional 200,000 downloads to repay the investors.

400,000 VOD downloads x $10 = $4,000,000 minus $2,000,000 in VOD fees = the initial $2,000,000

Meanwhile, the filmmaker with a backyard indie only has to sell 2000 VOD downloads to recover the initial 10K costs.

While nobody wants to make movies for pocket change, many filmmakers still believe we can somehow continually produce unprofitable (movie) products and expect the money and the subsequent jobs to keep rolling in. And unlike years past, filmmakers can no longer approach investors with the cliche pitch: “Filmmaking is a risky investment – if we are lucky, we might win Sundance and get a deal.” Now, with transparent distribution options availabe to all filmmakers, that line of give-me-money reasoning is reckless, no longer applicable, and in my opinion, unethical.

Aside from the initial challenge of sales and marketing, the ripple effect reveals an even greater conundrum: How will you raise enough money to pay your cast and crew AND still pay back your investors? I mean, what’s the new sweet spot? How can we once again make independent filmmaking profitable?

“SO NOW THAT I CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY MY CAST AND CREW, WHAT DO I DO?”

Here is the Jason Brubaker model on how to save the movie industry. Ready?

To survive in this ever changing world of indie filmmaking, we have to change our strategy. Instead of making that one big awesome indie, we now need to focus on building a genre specific movie library and spend all of our downtime building a ginormously targeted audience list.

Step 1: Find your top-ten closest filmmaking collaborators. Form a company.

Step 2: Write a business plan, but instead of putting all of your focus on making one movie, concentrate on making 3-5 feature films.

Step 3: Make sure that you include a sales and marketing plan. To do this, take your proposed budget for all movies and work backwards. And start asking yourself, “How many downloads do we need to sell to recoup our investment?”

Step 4: In this model, instead of paying freelance day rates, you’ll have to hire long term employees and provide each with a salary and back end points (sort of like stock options) on each title.

Step 5: When the title wins, you all win. Over the years, your titles will add up. And the real compensation will come back in the form of residual movie income.

While this is not a fully refined model, it’s a start. It’s better than ignoring the fact that backyard indies are being sold right next to Union Indies as well as mainstream Hollywood movies. This is a time of change. This is the indie movie distribution equivalent of the automobile replacing the horse drawn wagon.

You can choose to ignore this movement, and you can probably succeed for a few more years. But there will come a day when all entertainment will be on-demand and cheap to consume. The question is, will you ignore the backyard movement and continue to play your distribution lottery ticket in hopes of winning the dream deal, or will you  join the movement and help us filmmakers figure out a way to make indie movies profitable?

- – -

Jason Brubaker is a Hollywood based Independent Producer, PMD (Producer of Marketing and Distribution) and an expert in digital self-distribution. He is focused on helping you make, market and sell your movies more easily by growing your fan base, building buzz and creating community around your title. To learn more about Jason and grab over $100 dollars in FREE filmmaking Tools, CLICK HERE

Posted under FILM FINANCING

Early in my filmmaking career, I made a lot of mistakes – Many of these mistakes are attributable to a real lack of advice from people with experience. The following video featuring Quentin Tarantino, offers great advice to new filmmakers looking for guidance. (And for those of us filmmakers who have produced a few features – This is still great advice!)

In addition to the filmmaking advice offered in the video, here are 5 things you can do today to accelerate your filmmaking career:

1. Write down your filmmaking goals. What do you want to accomplish in 5 years? Be specific.
2. Who do you know who knows someone working in the movie industry. How will you contact that person?
3. Plan at least one short project you can do each month. Examples would be: music videos, short movies and action sequences.
4. Set up a profile at YouTube. I believe YouTube will become a major outlet for your eventual feature films. You may as well start building a fan base now.
5. Set up filmmaking page on FaceBook – And then join us at FILMMAKING STUFF FACEBOOK PAGE
   

Keep in mind the movie industry is changing. In the past – in order to create your own movie business you needed a gazillion dollars and a traditional distribution solution. But those days are almost behind us. You must now think of your movie making as a global business. You no longer need to ask permission to become successful.

If you want to make a movie, make it! Then build a life-long fan base that will enjoy and pay for your work.

- – -

Like this Filmmaking Stuff? Tell the word by tweeting or giving us a thumbs up or leaving a comment.

Posted under FILMMAKING

YouTube has a new Rental Service for Indie Filmmakers Image via Wikipedia

If you’re one of the many independent feature filmmakers who is trying to navigate the ever changing world of digital self distribution (so you can still make a living by making independent movies). . .

I have an AWESOME solution for you.

And No. I’m not talking about iTunes and their snobby indie movie selection mechanisms. Nor am I talking about Hulu’s wonderfully new nickle and dime subscription service (I say that with sarcasm.)

But RATHER, I am referring to an even bigger player. One that can’t be ignored.

YES! I’m talking about Google. Specifically, I’m referring to YouTube and their new movie rental service, called (not surprisingly) YouTube Rentals. This is the latest pay-to-view solution to hit the indie filmmaking world (and in my opinion, one of the most exciting!!!)

With YouTube Rentals, filmmakers will be able to upload your movie and expand your reach. And this amazing VOD outlet will provide filmmakers with an awesomely cool new way to generate revenue – on one of the most popular video streaming sites in existence.

Here are 5 reasons why Indie Producer Jason Brubaker thinks YouTube rentals is cool:

1. Familiarity – Most people are already conditioned to watch YouTube videos.
2. Community – Your fan base can subscribe to your profile, get updates, make comments and tell you how much they love you or hate you.
3. Trust – People trust YouTube. This increases the odds that people will make a purchase with their credit cards.
4. Marketplace – Like iTunes and Amazon, you already have a gazillion people on the website. Just being at the party increases your odds for revenue.
5. Communication – When you make a movie, how cool will it be to email your list and say “check my movie out. It’s on YouTube.”

So if you’re interested in making your content available for rent on YouTube, you can find more info by following this link: YouTube Rentals

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Netflix is Now Available for Indie Filmmakers on The iPad. This Image via Wikipedia

A few years back traveling the festival circuit with a newly produced movie seemed to offer and air of excitement and promise for a great career making movies.

If you think about it, as a filmmaker, getting a movie financed and actually produced was (and still is) an incredible achievement. However, as you probably noticed – things are changing quite a bit in the world of distribution.

And while it would be nice to get a grandiose distribution deal, or even the validation of seeing your movie somewhere in the local Blockbuster, the reality is – this will probably not be a reality for many filmmakers.

However, if you’re ready to face the future of independent movie distribution, you’re in good shape. With the release of the iPad, and the new NetFlix application, we now have clear indication that Video On Demand has arrived in a majorly portable way. And while many of you will argue that the iPad is not the most ideal way to watch a movie – few of us can argue that the future of movie delivery has arrived.

Check out the following iPad clip featuring the NetFlix application:

So as movie distribution becomes more and more portable, what is a filmmaker to do? Here are five digital self distribution tips I have for you:

1. Know your target market. Just because there are more tools that can instantly deliver your movie to millions of people doesn’t mean every one will like your movie. In fact, only a small percentage will. Your job is to find that small percentage and market accordingly.
2. Build a fan base. Over time, having a few thousand people on your mailing list who like your work and are always up to date on your productions will help you sell more and more movies. Think of bands building a fan base. You have to do the same thing.
3. Stick out from the crowd. As you can guess, the market will soon be flooded with a whole ton of movies. This doesn’t mean every movie is worth watching. In fact, you will have to figure out a way to make your movie better. What is your unique hook?
4. Don’t be afraid to make people hate you. Seriously. There should be two types of audiences for your work. The audience that hates you and your work. And the audience that loves you and your work. Anybody in-between will not be profitable.
5. Your website is a hub to help your prospective audience find your movie, buy your movie – or at least get on your mailing list. Make this easy for your prospective fan – or suffer the loss of independent movie revenue.  And please, please, please ask for the order.

And in case you’re wondering how I learned this stuff – Like YOU, we got a few bad deals and a lot of rejection with our first feature. But thankfully, digital self distribution allowed us to find our audience (In an AWESOME way!)

As a result, our first feature is still selling like crazy over the internet – And believe me, waking up with an email that reads “You Got Money!” (without a middle-man) goes really well with coffee. In fact, it goes a lot better than the months I spent watching our first feature collect dust on a book shelf.

So, if YOU have a feature film that flat-lined, don’t worry! Your time to resurrect your title(s) is coming! Stay tuned – in a week or so, I will have a digital self distribution surprise for you. . .

ALSO: I am gearing up to share my digital self movie distribution tactics all over the country. So if you know of a workshop or a festival that could benefit from this kind of information, let me know.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION