“Rolling the Dice”

Posted by admin on May 31st, 2008 filed in Personal

About two weeks ago I met Mark Joy, a well known actor and producer, I was asking him questions about producing big budget films vs. smaller budget films and how hard it is to line up distribution before you go into production? “Its hard, very hard,” he said, “now, the most you can usually get, even if you have some Hollywood actors, is a first look agreement.” That just says that a specific distribution company wants to see the film first before you shop it around to other companies. So, that answers the question about the scale of a project, there is really no right or wrong answer. However, if you produce a project with an extremely hot A-lister, you can get a distribution contract before you go into production, but that is nearly impossible because even if you have your money on the table, they probably are booked up for the next 5-10 years. So getting a distribution deal is like, “rolling the dice.” Another thing he said that has been sticking out in my mind is, “whatever you do, don’t sacrifice creativity for monetary issues.”

With that being said, I just wanted to write about the biggest problem that independent filmmakers usually run into, which is financing. And to me, this has to do with distribution strategies. Financing is the biggest problem, I believe, because too many filmmakers don’t think about distribution until after they have finished production.  Your distribution and marketing strategy can be the single most important aspect to a film regarding financing and advancing your career as a filmmaker. Without a solid distribution and marketing strategy you are forced to “roll the dice.” Don’t just “roll the dice,” make sure that your spend as much time on your distribution and marketing strategy as you would on your film. The last thing that you want your film to do is to ”sit on a shelf.” Not only is this not going to bring any return to your investors, which will prevent you from financing future projects, but your name won’t get out there and your film won’t be seen. All that blood and sweat for nothing, so plan…plan…plan… and don’t even think about starting a large production without a solid distribution strategy. And by the way…just entering a film into festivals hoping to get it picked up is not a distribution strategy, “roll the dice,” then have a plan to distribute the film yourself!