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.

Hulu Image via CrunchBase

The other day on the Film Distribution Group on LinkedIn, I got into a discussion about the wonders of distribber.

I thought some of the points may be useful for your own movie distribution strategy. I have edited and altered the original conversation to keep it anonymous.

Also, in full disclosure, I am sponsored by distribber. This means that I get paid to promote. So do your own due diligence prior to utilizing any services mentioned here.

Here is the film distribution discussion:

Q:  How is MovieSalesTool different than a traditional distribution “middle-man”?

A:  Most traditional “middle-men” lock you into an exclusive deal. So even if the deal turns out to be less than promised, as a filmmaker, you’re stuck. Distribber is non-exclusive. You can leave any time.

Q:  A sales agent only makes money on the back end. With distribber, you pay money upfront?

A:  Correct, each digital marketplace has various fees. Without looking at the FAQ page, I believe iTunes is $1295 for standard def and you get that money back minus $39 dollars if your movie is not accepted. You can also access Hulu for less than $800, which is a great deal for filmmakers. Past that, each outlet, like cable VOD has a separate charge.

Q:  It seems like a lot of services are focused on making money based on a Filmmaker’s desire for distribution.

A:  This is why the distribber model does not take revenue off the backend. It’s a one time, upfront, done deal.

In regards to your comment about services making money – There is a whole independent film history of filmmakers getting royally screwed by traditional DVD distributors who held the keys to the kingdom. Now that distribution sales channels are less discriminatory, I would say that we have entered an era of transparency.

Q:  Many aggregators keep the gatekeeping model alive and well. And because of this, many indies are still shut out from access to popular marketplaces.

A:  Yes. Many traditional distributors are playing aggregators – but it is not the same game. The internet has fragmented traditional, physical retail sales channels. And with companies like distribber, filmmakers now have easy access to the popular marketplaces.

Q:  Amazon allows filmmakers to get into the market, without scraping up the money required by distribber.

A:  In terms of paying money upfront, if that is the only issue – then I have 2 questions:

1. Do you think your movie will make less than the required $1295 on iTunes? If so, then distribber may not be a good fit for the project.
2. Since distribber is owned by IndieGoGo, you could always do a crowdfunding campaign to cover the distribution gap.

Special thanks to my LinkedIn friend Elizabeth for the questions.

Yes filmmakers. The world of distribution has changed. This is an awesome time to make, market and sell movies. If you are looking for a system to help you get into the action, check out The Independent Producer’s Guide To Digital Distribution.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Twitter for Filmmaking Image via Wikipedia

The whole world of movie distribution is changing. This is important because the success of you movie depends on distribution.

Given the deterioration of DVD sales channels, to become successful as a filmmaker, YOU are now responsible for sourcing, engaging and selling your movie to your intended target audience.

In this filmmaking article, I decided to share my most frequently asked movie distribution questions:

Q: What about Facebook and Twitter?
A: Essential, but only part of the strategy. Even if you had a gazillion followers (which you probably don’t), it is very difficult to convert these folks to paying customers.

And if you don’t even have a Twitter or facebook page for your movie, then you will have to invest quite a few months of Twitter time, to build relationships, community and authenticity with your audience.

Q: What about my website?
A: Firstly, stop building stupid, complex flash websites. 1999 is over. And we have entered into an era where fresh, unique, interesting and SEO friendly content is king.

Figure out your website objective. And make sure your site works!

Example?

In the festivals it is OK to have press kits and behind the scenes stuff. But when you start selling your movie, your objective changes to a BUY NOW mentality. Monitor your stats and then eliminate all pages that distract your visitors.

No website? Visit my affiliate www.MovieSiteHost.com and reserve a domain name and hosting. (Disclaimer, this is an affiliate. They pay me.)

Q: Audience List building?
A: Building a list of people who know you and like your work is essential for your current movie and your long term success. As you were reading this article, you probably saw a pop-up where I offer you a ton of free stuff – for the price of your email address.

This is one of the ways I build a list. Feel free to study what I do on this site, then copy this filmmaking list building strategy for your own movie website.

Here is how you do it. And yes, as a disclaimer, I get paid to promote just about everything including the following recommendations. But these are the exact tools I use. So why not?

1. Reserve your domain address and hosting for your movie and your movie company. There are about a gazillion web hosting companies. But I use Bluehost for everything. You can find out more here: www.MovieSiteHost.com

2. After you have hosting, I recommend installing the WordPress CMS to handle your movie websites. Why? With MovieSiteHost, installing wordpress and having your website is only takes a few clicks. (Note: If you are not using MovieSiteHost, you will have to check and make sure your hosting company can handle WordPress Installations.)

3. Once your site is up, you can add your trailer and also, create a blog to tell people about your movie. Having frequently updated, fresh content will aid you in search engine optimization.

4. Ask people to become your eMail pal. For this, I use two tools. Firstly to manage my ever growing email database, I utilize aweber. Here is my affiliate link – www.AudienceList.com. Why? It’s more professional to send movie emails from a 3rd party email company with a good reputation, than your gmail account. Plus, there a few SPAM requirements you need to follow. Aweber is very strict in helping you adhere to SPAM compliance.

Once my audience list account is set up, and because this is a wordpress site, I am also able to easily plug-in a tool (which you probably saw a minute ago) called pop-up domination. (Yep. I get paid to promote these guys too.) And this tool has dramtically increased my subscriptions. You should use something similar on your own movie website.

5. The most important tip to remember is this (say it out loud 100 times): “My audience is my movie business. Without an audience, I have no movie business!” Seriously. You are responsible for cultivating genuine relationships and sharing as much value as you possible can with your audience. Treat them like gold!

Q: I don’t get social media. I just want to make movies. How much do you charge to do this?
A: First of all, I am not cheap. Sourcing an audience is tough work, time consuming and potentially expensive. This is why studios spend a gazillion dollars on marketing! But assuming your movie is still playing festivals, you have a well defined target audience (you do know your niche, right?) and you have some buzz – then that makes my job easier. But still not cheap.

Modern Movie Marketers (and people like me) usually charge between $10,000-$25,000 dollars for a 3 month strategy. Most of that money is used in marketing efforts. And most marketers make very little profit. So with that said, if you are creating a marketing budget, you need to know that marketing is not magic, it’s not a science, and while it’s essential, it’s not cheap.

And let’s be very frank. Most filmmakers don’t have that kind of money.

So here is an affordable alternative. I recommend simply grabbing a copy of the Independent Producer’s Guide to Distribution. You can find the movie distribution action guide here.

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via Flickr

Most filmmakers have no idea how to optimize their movie website. Most filmmakers have no idea what the word optimization means.

As traditional distribution sales channels erode, replaced by various internet marketplaces such as Amazon and iTunes, it has become essential for filmmakers to increase traffic to their website.

The first thing I suggest is to reserve your domain name and get your site hosted at a reputable company. My partner movie site host is a great for this. But there are others too.

Once your site is hosted, I recommend forgetting HTML and instead opting to set up a wordpress site. WordPress is a content management system. The reason why I prefer this type of setup over HTML sites for movies is ease of use. If you know how to send email, you know how to update the content on your website.

Here are examples of wordpress websites for movies:

• Career Courier The Movie
• Toxic Soup Movie
• Special Dead Movie

In all of these movies, you’ll see a very similar theme. The sites are simple. Some people might even argue that they are too simple. But this is incorrect. These sites are designed to optimize conversions. When a visitor comes to the site, we don’t want them to get lost.

Instead, in the case of Special Dead, we want the site to say:

Attention Zombie Fans Seeking Good Zombie Movies!

Special Dead  is a must see movie about zombies attacking a camp…

If you check your stats and see visitors are getting distracted by pages that don’t lead to the sale, you must get rid of those pages, or optimize them to continue the funnel process.

Related articles

• How To Create a Filmmaker Website (filmmakingstuff.com)
• Internet Marketing For Filmmakers (filmmakingstuff.com)
• What is Your Filmmaking Niche? (filmmakingstuff.com)

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Like it or not, many social networking sites run the risk of going out of vogue. So as a filmmaker, if you are working to build a relationship with your audience – From day one, you will want to migrate your fans off the social networking sites and get them into your own email, mailing list.

For this, I recommend using a reputable third-party email marketing service such as www.AudienceList.com.

In full disclosure, the company does pay me to promote, but it is the company I utilize for my own business.

With this tool, as soon as you sign up for one of their inexpensive accounts, you can easily create ways for your movie fans to connect with you. For an example of how this works, STOP: If you would like over $47 dollars in useful filmmaking tools for FREE, sign up below:

If you just clicked that link, you probably got an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Assuming you clicked, you were then redirected to a “Thank You Page.” And on that page you were able to download all sorts of premium filmmaking tools, for free. This is what legitimate email marketers call the “double-opt-in” process.

While I am obviously utilizing list-building to create a more meaningful relationship with filmmakers (and YOU), this model can be (and should be) applied to your own movie business.

The major difference between email marketing and traditional movie marketing methods is that members of your target audience find you, and give YOU permission to email them. This is important, because unlike traditional movie marketing methods, with email marketing, you will only communicate with people actually interested in your movie.

To make this easy, your audience list is simply a collection of email addresses. Most filmmakers will also collect the person’s first name with the email address so that they can personalize the email. So instead of saying “Hello Zombie Movie Lover”, you can say “Hey, Jason!”

While I usually stick to just collecting a name and email address, www.AudienceList.com also makes it easy to collect information such as the address and phone number of your site visitor. While this extra information may help refine your  marketing strategy – the truth is, most of your movie website visitors will not take time to fill out an extensive opt-in form.

An opt-in form is a little box that asks visitors to provide you with their name and email address. Here is an example:

With services like www.AudienceList.com, as soon as your visitor opts-in, the contact information is added to your database and managed for you, automatically! These subscribers are now part of your “list,” and you can email them with updates, deals and movie festival screening times – to name a few examples.

The other week I gave a talk at the UCLA film school. And someone asked me why I emphasize audience list building so much – So this is important. Given the disruption to traditional distribution sales channels, building an audience list for your movie and your career might be one of the most important decisions you ever make. Why? Because regardless of how the independent movie industry changes, one constant will always hold true. YOU will need to get people to sit down and watch your movie, and hopefully pay you for this privilege. www.AudienceList.com can help you get started.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Filmmakers need to source their target audience. Image via Wikipedia

Given the erosion of traditional movie distribution sales channels, as a filmmaker you must now find your target audience wherever they hang out and then get them to know you, know your work, and hopefully pay money to watch your movie.

In the past, filmmakers never had to worry about sourcing an audience because the entire movie industry operated like a big factory. Filmmakers made the product and the distributors sold the product through theatrical and DVD distribution. But as a result of the internet and enhancements to video on demand technology, distribution has been disrupted and the old model has been forever screwed up.

So now, if you want to succeed as a filmmaker, it is not enough to simply get you movie into iTunes. I mean, anybody can do that. What you also need to do is have a killer website, attract your target audience, and then get them to take action.

While it’s nice to believe that all website visitors will automatically buy your movie, the truth is, most visitors will not buy your movie on the first visit. For starters, they don’t know you. And they probably don’t know anything about your movie. So your job is not necessary to focus on the sale, but rather, focus on opting them into your audience list.

There are many ways to create an audience list. But unfortunately, most of the methods are crap. In my career, to save money, I have tried forgoing using a reputable email marketing company, and opted instead for one of the popular social networks. For awhile, this was awesome – even thought it took years, I had 8000 “friends” and one one of the sites… But then that site went out of vogue. As a result, my sourced audience was useless.

To avoid the same fate, I HIGHLY recommend that you use a reputable 3rd party email marketing company to manage your audience list. While there are some great companies out there, over the past three years, I have utilized a service called Aweber. This is a reputable email marketing company… [and yes, they DO pay me to promote - so conduct your own due-diligence.]

But the reason I promote this service over other services is this: Aweber adheres to Spam Laws and requires “double-opt-in.”  This means, after your visitor opts-in, they get an email asking if they’re sure they really want to hear from you.  And because of their business practices, Aweber is respected by email service provides – like Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail- which helps avoid spam filters. Additionally, as part of the service, you are able to set up something called a sequential email auto-responder. An auto-responder allows you to pre-write and create multiple emails for your audience.

So let’s say you were trying to sell your Zombie movie. After the opt-in, your first email could tell your audience more about your movie. And over the following weeks, your subsequent emails could then provide more and more value to your prospective customer – the result of which compels your fan to BUY NOW.

Once your prospect makes a purchase, you could automatically migrate this person to your customer list. And once this fan is in your customer list, you could then promote another zombie movie (from another friendly filmmaker). And because you “sourced a zombie audience member,” the odds of getting a second sale are greater.

Most filmmakers don’t get excited about the wonders of sourcing an audience. But again, most filmmakers do not realize we are in a new era of independent filmmaking. The good news is for you is, with a website, some creativity and an email marketing mechanism, you can start sourcing your audience TODAY.

If you would like to find out more about email marketing and how this can help you with your own independent movie business, you can get some FREE information below:

Happy Filmmaking!

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Image via Wikipedia

I love Kevin Smith’s attitude towards modern movie distribution. If you’re like most independent filmmakers, what Kevin was able to accomplish from his days of Clerks has been amazing. Back then, he not only dreamed the Sundance Dream, but he realized the dream.

The Sundance dream is the idea that you will make your movie, get into Sundance, sell your movie and live happily ever after. As I have been telling you all along, the demise of DVD sales channels, replaced by ever evolving VOD marketplaces are impacting Filmmakers everywhere.

These days, if you are going to make movies and profit, you must now view your independent movie business in ways akin to how any business owner handles their business. You must source and grow your own audience list.

In the following video Kevin Smith shares his perspective on modern movie distribution and how the brave new world is impacting indie filmmakers.

Please feel free to comment.

Posted under INTERVIEWS

DVDs are going the way of the 8-Track Image via Wikipedia

With video on demand distribution and the emergence of several new VOD aggregators, independent movie distribution has become non-discriminatory. This means ALL filmmakers can access the marketplace without asking permission.

While this is exciting, it now means the market is flooded with content. Couple this paradigm shift with the demise of DVD sales channels, and you’ll find many traditional distributors are now offering VOD deals to unsuspecting filmmakers, in the hopes something sticks. While these deals hardly every include any upfront cash advances, filmmakers are usually attracted to the silly promise that these distributors will get their titles into iTunes.

But you don’t need those people. With companies like distribber YOU can get your movie onto iTunes without the middel-man.

And as my friend Jared says, anybody with a HDSRL camera can make a back yard barbeque look cinematic. Granted, this technology doesn’t automatically create good cinema – but it does flood the market with competing product.

What this shift represents to filmmakers is in ways akin to what happens when widget factory owners suddenly find themselves in the market, competing with sweat shop labor and cheaply produced goods of a comparable quality.

As a result, the widget that once sold for $100 dollars can no longer compete. And taking this a step further, if your widget company cannot make enough sales to be profitable – my question is:

What happens to the widget factory workers? Do they get pay raises or do they get laid off?

The good news is competition, technological innovations and change has impacted most every other industry since the beginning of capitalism. And despite these challenges, history is full of entrepreneurial innovation – stories of people who have rode the waves of change and prospered.

I believe independent filmmakers can do the same.

What we are facing as filmmakers is no different than any other business. In fact, I would say that we have just stepped into the era of the mini-studio. Filmmaking has become the next small business.

So how do we compete?

Posted under FILM FINANCING

Image via Wikipedia

As a filmmaker, you are expected to make a product (your movie). The money invested to create your product should be less than the eventual sales of your product. If you can not figure out how to achieve this goal, you do not have a business. You instead have an expensive hobby and probably a good demo reel.

There are a lot of filmmakers who attempt to raise money without first considering how their movie will recoup the initial investment. These filmmakers say things like “I have a vision” or “I’m going to make this for the love of filmmaking. Then I’ll get into festivals, get noticed and garner a great distribution deal!” And while it is true that passion, tenacity and blind optimism play an important role in getting your movie produced and seen and hopefully sold, this alone is not enough to drive the masses to your screenings.

This happens in Hollywood all the time. A filmmaker creates a typical business plan that focuses on film festivals as the most viable distribution strategy. And played out, the filmmaker gets the money, hires a crew, makes a movie and then enters the festivals. But months after wrap, well into the festival circuit, these filmmakers realize that the market has changed. The days of awesome DVD acquisitions deals and huge upfront advances are over. And when the last frame flickers off the silver screen, these filmmakers take their dashed-dreams back to their day job.

The veterans of the industry tell us that all this distribution deal disappointment is a result of improved technology. They optimistically tell us that our lost DVD revenues will be recouped by Video On Demand. Some refer to this as simply a market correction, implying that someday, somewhere, someone will figure out how to once again pay the big bucks for movies. But this is a pipe-dream.

Here is the flaw. Most filmmakers depend on DVD distribution for a return on investment. And with deteriorating DVD sales channels, filmmakers are currently left with iTunes, NetFlix and Amazon as the most prominent VOD sales options. My question is this. Who on earth is going to pay a major advance to get your movie into a marketplace that YOU can easily access without the middle man?

This approach to the marketplace changes everything. Your business is no longer dependent on production and capital gains. Nope. These days, the focus for the filmmaker lies in creating multiple streams of movie income over the long term. And if you want to make a living making movies, you need to realize that your libary and the subsequent auidence 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.

Like it or lump it, filmmaking has become a small business. The same rules now apply.

- – -

Jason Brubaker is a Los Angles based independent filmmaker and an expert in Video On Demand distribution. If you are one of the many filmmakers seeking movie distribution, you might want to check out The Independent Producer’s Guide To Distribution.

Posted under FILM FINANCING

As a feature filmmaker, one of the biggest problems YOU have is finding a traditional distribution deal (that actually makes sense) for your movie. With each passing day, we get closer and closer to a world where DVD sales channels are being replaced by video on demand. And while we are not there yet, after spending the greater part of last weekend watching streaming content on NetFlix and Hulu, I am now of the opinion that the days of DVD distribution are numbered.

As a result of this evolution, filmmakers need to quit relying on outside 3rd parties to source an audience and distribute independent movies. From now on, you need to start thinking about your movie business like any other small business. YOU will create a product, YOU will distribute your product, YOU will market your product and YOU will sell your product.

While this seems easy for some modern moviemakers, what I am suggesting represents a total paradigm shift for others. Not everyone reading this will agree with me. That is OK. But for those of you eager to embrace this brave new world of independent moviemaking, I have provided the same seven steps I use to promote my own movie business.

When applied, it is my hope that these steps serve as a nice foundation for your own VOD marketing strategy. To find out more, just   click:

Step 1 – Sharpen Your Hook

Step 2 – Target Your Target Audience

Step 3 – Get Into The VOD

Step 4 – Create Your Movie Sales Funnel

Step 5 – Refine Your Trailer (And Promote It)

Step 6 – Increase Targeted Web Traffic.

Step 7 – Leverage Your Following.

If you would like more detail on any of these steps, I have created a product that includes both an action guide and Mp3 Audio. You can learn more about it by going here: www.HowToSellYourMovie.com

Posted under DISTRIBUTION

Jason Brubaker Got Punched-Out!! (Wii)

When I published my article on leveraging VOD sales to finance your movie, I had no idea that a simple internet marketing formula for filmmakers would be such a polarizing issue. I can’t tell you how many Los Angeles based movie producers responded negatively through email.

One guy even told me my grammar sucked.

So to clarify, I was not trying to ruffle any feathers. I was simply applying a standard internet marketing ROI formula to a product available through video on demand. Nothing more.

All of this was based on the premise that selling movies on the internet is no different than selling any other downloadable product (where you are lucky if you convert 1%)

This is based on experience. I learned how to market and sell movies on the internet when our first feature did not garner a traditional distribution deal and we ended up selling on Amazon. Back then I personally knew a bunch of filmmakers in a similar situation – all had titles but no deal. Since that time, even more filmmakers have flooded the market with titles. Couple this with the decline of various DVD sales channels, and suddenly a crappy $25 backyard indie can now share virtual self space with $25M movies.

For those of us who produce features without any sort of pre-sales, instead of telling prospective investors “If we are lucky, we might get into festivals and garner a distribution deal.” We can finally reach our audience without asking permission. And to me, this makes the indie movie business like any other small business… Produce a product and then market, sell and distribute your product.

This said, I totally agree with one of the readers who said my equation for returning a 1M dollar budget was preposterous. He was right. Anybody who thinks you can magically generate the mass amount of sales needed to recoup even a 1M dollar investment without a substantial outlay of cash towards advertising is mis-guided. Which is what those formulas reveal.

I wasn’t trying to present an indie movie panacea. We are all trying to find profit in business competing with (what I think is the indie movie equivalent) of sweat shop labor produced goods. So in terms of the person who said I’m trying to seduce “starry eyed producers,” I would say that finally having non-discriminatory VOD sales channels like Amazon, and especially iTunes finally gives us producers something to get excited about.

Whether or not we can find the marketing formula to justify our budgets remains the ongoing challenge. I for one am working my butt off to find the balance between budget and the amount of marketing needed to recoup the money – and hopefully create an ongoing stream of revenue.

My model of moviemaking isn’t for everyone. In fact, many of you have great relationships with distributors and are still making money in DVD and theatrical. Awesome! But if you are a filmmaker still relying on the “Sundance Dream” to recoup your budget – or if you are a filmmaker with a title collecting dust in your bedroom closet, I hope my article offered a little optimism.

At the same time, feel free to share your own thoughts on VOD distribution.

And spelling an grammatical tips are welcome from filmmakers too.

Posted under DISTRIBUTION