Thinking Beyond the Film

I came across this great article last week (although for the life of me I can't remember where) on the Truly Free Film blog and I thought it definitely deserved a place here, if for no other reason than to allow me to access it multiple times over:

Truly Free Film: The Twenty New Rules

Ted Hope has some great insight about what the independent film producer needs to do just to sell a film these days, and let me tell you, it's a lot more complicated than just making a film.

It all comes down to PRE-PLANNING. I won't summarize the article here, but Ted's point is that "making a film" is so much more than making a film these days. I think especially now, when spending on indies by distros has been dropping steadily, self-distribution may be the only viable option for many indie films to recoup their budgets, making Ted's "rules" all the more relevant.

A couple that I hope to do with Nitecrawlers:

• Collect 5000 fans prior to seeking financing. - Since Mike and I paid for our first movie ourselves, Nitecrawlers will be our first time attempting to raise outside funding. An independent film is a TOUGH sell, no matter how you slice it (Filmmaker: "We've got a 99.99% chance of not getting a distribution deal." Investor: "Great, where do I sign?") When I put myself in an investor's shoes, seeing a pre-established fanbase makes the carrot much more appealing.

• Create enough additional content to keep your audience involved throughout the process and later to bridge them to your next work. - One of my biggest regrets on the first film! Behind-the-scenes video, stills, interviews, a blog (check!), all this stuff should be a no-brainer, and I won't forget it this time.

• Determine & manufacture at least five additional products you will sell other than DVDs. - So important this time around. Even if you get traditional distribution, let me tell you: once you get your advance, you ain't seeing another cent from DVD sales, no matter what kind of backend deal you think you have in place. I've got some cool merchandising ideas brewing for Nitecrawlers that I think will be rewarding for the fans who get on the bandwagon early on.

• Study at least five similar films in terms of what their release strategy & audience engagement strategy was and how you can improve upon them. - I literally spend hours scouring the web and sites like DVXUser.com for films similar in scope to Nitecrawlers (horror-esque genre, sub-$500k budget). Even so, it's hard to ever get the particulars of a distribution deal, which makes it tough to know if a film was able to recoup its budget or not. If anyone has a film like this, or knows of one, and would like to chat about it, reach out to us here! I'd love to trade stories.

'Til next time...

- K