Feature Film : : Valley of the Sun

Sponsored by Mine: Taken by Katrina

Your movie’s done, and you’ve got your final cut in hand. What’s next? How do you take what you’ve created and get it out into the world? How do you get your hard-earned money back?

You need to distribute your film. Like every other step in this process, it’s not an easy one. Director Stokes McIntyre and I had a conversation about film distribution, and here’s what I’ve come away with:

According to a sales representative whom Stokes met at the Berlin Film Festival, it is important for filmmakers to begin laying the groundwork for distribution before the movie even begins filming. There exists something called a pre-sale deal, where a distribution company (some of the big ones are MGM, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros.) will agree to purchase your movie before it’s even completed, set a deal with you regarding distribution, and pay you a certain amount of money up front, which can be used to help make the film. Be warned, this rarely if ever happens for independent films. It is still important to talk to sales representatives though, in order to let them know what type of film you’ll be producing and when it will be done, so that you’re on their “radar” so to speak. This is what the producers of Valley of the Sun are doing right now.

Hopefully you will able to secure a representative before your film is finished. It is helpful to have this person in place so that when you reach your final cut, he or she will be there to assist you in entering film festivals and marketing your movie. Some film festivals are actually film markets (they will have a festival and at the same time a conference for filmmakers and distribution people—like buyers and sellers, sitting down and working out deals for distribution). Producers of Valley of the Sun would like to hit these festivals in particular—though it is also important to attend regular festivals in order to garner an audience and critical acclaim for the movie.

After having been through film festivals with your sales representative, you reach a point where you’ve either sold your movie or you haven’t. The former option is preferable. Assuming this works out for you, you and your sales rep. try to cut the best deal possible with the distribution company. You want to get money up front, because this may be all the money you’ll see for a long time; you also have to discuss theatrical rights, territories, profit sharing, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Chances are, if you’re a first time filmmaker (heh-hem, Valley of the Sun), distribution companies are going to try and get the film from you for as cheap as possible. So be prepared to put up a good fight. They may offer you less money up front because they want to do a theatrical run (which is cool, and has the potential to make a lot of money back if it’s a success), or perhaps they’ll want to cut you a DVD deal (which might mean more money up front and less exposure). Either way, distribution companies find ways to spend a lot of money as they attempt to market your movie, so it may take a long time for you to see any profit.

Aside from gaining an audience, your other main concern as a filmmaker should be to get your investors their money back. The business plan for Valley of the Sun states that investors will get a 120% return on their investment—if they invested $10,000, they will hope to get at least $12,000 back. Say Valley of the Sun gets picked up by a distributor and becomes wildly successful (it’s possible, right!?)—the investors are the first ones to receive money from the movie, and then people like the director get paid. If the movie were raking in tons of money, remaining profit would be split 50-50 between the investors and the producers.

But say that the worst happens, and no distributors come along to save you. If that happens, you can sell the DVD case by case, try to get a deal with Netflix or iTunes, create a grassroots marketing campaign, or, as Stokes suggests, possibly get in a van and drive your film around to theatres and show it.

The truth is, it’s hard for small filmmakers to make money because the whole process is so exhaustive and marketing costs so much money. That said, it is our hope that we will wish upon that one lucky star, and Valley of the Sun won’t have to rely on a van to get distributed.

Here’s an interesting article I found that speaks a bit about how to get your film on iTunes: How to get your independent film on iTunes.