Category Archives: Monetize Video

Distribution lessons learned the hard way

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Avril Speaks, writing on Dear Producer, shares her recent experience with the distribution of Jinn by Orion.

“I recently had a conversation with a friend who used to work in distribution and she said, ‘Distributors make money off of your ignorance.’ Truer words have never been spoken.”

Avril shares these lessons:

  1. Know, Show and Prove: Every filmmaker should have an idea of what they want to happen to their film after it’s completed.
  2. “Meaningful Consultation” is Meaningless: Once you turn over your film to the distributor, it is theirs and they have the right to do with it and package it however they please.
  3. Day and Date Releases Aren’t What They Seem: Know that the focus for day-and-date releases is more on VOD than it is on theaters, which means that if you had high hopes for a theatrical presence, you might need to rethink your expectations and your marketing strategy.
  4. Negotiate Delivery: Do not sign a contract without seeing the deliverables list first.
  5. Speaking of Delivery: Your distributor will have lots of demands that are difficult for you to achieve with limited resources (which is why I advise you ask for a portion of your MG upfront).
  6. Minimum Guarantee: Ask for a portion of your MG to be paid upfront so that you can pay for delivery expenses.
  7. “Let’s just finish the film; if we get a distributor, we’ll let them handle everything else.” Your distributor will not pay for your music, they will not pay for your clearances, they will not throw you a party, they will not handle all of your marketing and press needs.
  8. Reach Out: Find yourself a community of producers who can help you walk through the process.

My take: it seems if you have a year or two to invest in your brainchild, self-distribution is an option to seriously consider.

||Superwoman|| brb???

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CBC Arts correspondent Eli Glasner reports that Canadian Youtube star Lilly Singh is taking a break. Appropriately, she made the announcement on Youtube:

Understandingly, she wants to prioritize her mental health. She is:

  1. physically, mentally and spiritually exhausted
  2. not happy with her current content
  3. confused by constant Youtube algorithm changes, and
  4. busy with her production company and other commitments

She says she will be right back but needs this break for her sanity and happiness.

Singh was 2017’s highest paid female Youtube star, earning $10.5M and tenth place. She was third on the list in 2016, earning $7.5M.

My take: clearly celebrity takes a toll. Being at the mercy of your platform must be difficult too. One day, your formula works. Some technological tweaks later, it doesn’t: it’s not you, it’s Youtube. Happened to me when Google tweaked its search algorithm and we disappeared off the main page for our search term where we’d been happily ensconced for a decade. Poof!

Facebook reach no longer organic

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Chris O’Falt, writing on IndieWire, exposes the new reality at Facebook: you might not be reaching the folks you painstakingly attracted to your pages anymore.

He interviews a number of independent filmmakers and reports:

“Facebook first announced its reemphasis on ‘friends and family’ three years ago, when Facebook first started to ‘throttle’ fan and community pages for nonprofits, films, and other organizations…. Today, Facebook film and nonprofit pages are virtually cut off from their followers, with independent filmmakers forced to pay to ‘boost’ posts to reach the followers they once reached organically through likes and shares.”

He goes on to say social media consultant Dor Dotson suggests that filmmakers should:

  1. leverage in-person relationships
  2. maintain an email list
  3. diversify platforms and
  4. experiment with micro-targeting

My take: Dor’s advice is great! I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences with Facebook. Has organic reach worked for you in the past? Do you find you need to buy ads now to get the same reach? How much are you paying? Have you explored other platforms? And most importantly, do you have your own opt-in mailing list?

Google and Facebook take lion’s share of global advertising

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CC BY-SA 3.0 Nick Youngson

Sara Fischer reports on Axios that Google and Facebook are booking “83% of every new ad dollar,” at $80.8B and $36.3B this year respectively.

These are huge percentages of the global advertising spend:

“Google’s ad revenue is roughly the same as all print ad revenue globally and Facebook’s ad revenue nearly topples all radio ad revenue globally.”

Related: the world’s biggest advertisers with country and category breakdowns.

My take: I was curious if this is a case of growing the market or of dominating the existing market. I think it’s a bit of both. Certainly mobile is where it’s at right now.

Streaming strengthens

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As Netflix releases the first trailer for its most expensive movie to date at San Diego’s Comic Con ($90 Million USD for Bright, starring Will Smith), CMF Trends explores the flourishing streaming world:

They claim one out of three homes are watching Netflix every night; one out of six are watching Youtube; and one out of 25 is watching Amazon.

“In 2016, the consumption of audio and video content amounted to 71% of evening online traffic on fixed broadband networks in North America according to Sandvine. This proportion has doubled in the past five years…. The spending shift towards streaming services can also be observed in Canada, where spending on Internet access has been higher than spending on cable TV subscription since 2015.”

The cost of all that content is exploding on an upward curve as well:

For instance, prices paid for comedy specials have doubled:

My take: I’ll tell you what drove us to Netflx: TV commercials. We didn’t mind appointment viewing for the new shows we liked but the commercials became too intrusive for all but live events (like sports and award shows). And on Netflix, if the story really grabs you, you can binge watch multiple episodes.

Indie distribution strategies

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Ben Fritz reports in The Wall Street Journal that Video on Demand Gives Low-Budget Films Wider Audience.

The sub-head continues: Amazon and Netflix can widen movies’ reach. Just don’t expect big box office.

“Indie movies have become marginalized at the box office. Most rely exclusively on VOD rentals to make their money and use short runs at a handful of theaters to generate reviews.”

He outlines three ways independent filmmakers can distribute their work:

  1. Sell the movie to a digital distributor who then releases it on tVOD platforms (upfront payment, few stats and complex accounting)
  2. Launch on sVOD services like Netflix (one payment and no eyeball stats)
  3. DIY and release on Vimeo or other outlets and do all the marketing yourself (nothing up front but full stats)

The first is closest to the old film distributor model. The third is the method that most fully embraces the potential of the new economy. However, it requires the most time and energy.

My take: which model you choose might depend on your audience. For instance, if your film is mainstream, you might be tempted to look to Netflix. However, if your film is purely indie, Vimeo might be better suited. The real problem, of course, is getting noticed. How to stand out in a crowded pond. Discoverability is the main challenge for every project and filmmaker.

Netflix lunch boxes coming soon

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Bloomberg Technology recently published Netflix Plans New Toys, Merchandise Based on Hit TV Shows, by Lucas Shaw.

The article links to a Netflix job posting that seeks “someone to take on the responsibility of creating an end-to-end strategy and executional plan for merchandising and promotion of the Netflix brand and/or content.”

The emphasis seems to be squarely on promotion rather than profit:

“We are pursuing consumer products and associated promotion because we believe it will drive meaningful show awareness/buzz with more tangible, curated ways to interact with our most popular content. We want licensed merchandise to help promote our titles so they become part of the zeitgeist for longer periods of time. Last but not least, merchandising and promotion will be used as a marketing tactic to capture member demand and delight our member community.”

Netflix has already beta-tested merchandising with it’s hit show Stranger Things. You can buy 46 Stranger Things items, from Hawkins High School iron-on patches to jewellery to t-shirts.

Shaw concludes with a nice quote from Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos:

“We don’t want to make any shows to sell toys. What’s really important is there’s a marketing component that comes with toys. Kids carrying the backpack sells the show.”

My take: back in the day, this was called merchandising. It’s still that but the goal is now becoming more about marketing. The next level, of course, is transmedia, in which the story continues on in the real world, in this case, via stuff. Think comics and board games, for instance. Secret decoder rings?

Seed and Spark wants Canadian features, series

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Seed&Spark, the indie crowdfunding and streaming platform, believes independent films require the seed of an idea and the sparks of human and capital investments to bring them to life. Based in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, they’ve recently turned their gaze north, to Canada.

Caitlin Gold, Acquisitions & Programming, explains:

“I’m most interested in acquiring features and series with at least one season completed. ALL filmmakers are welcome on our platform as long as they can demonstrate how their project is inclusive, and representative of the diverse world we live in. We are particularly interested in working with female filmmakers, people of colour, minorities, the LGBTQ community, etc. ALL stories matter. Later this year, filmmakers in Canada will be able to crowdfund with us as well.”

I asked Emily Best, Seed&Spark Founder and CEO, how their expanded focus on Canada came about. She replies:

“The credit belongs to ‘Storypreneur’ Annelise Larson. I met her a few years ago at the Vancouver International Film Festival where we were both tasked with guiding filmmakers to good distribution outcomes and we discovered we share a brain about building audiences. She is working on helping me open Seed&Spark’s crowdfunding platform to Canadian filmmakers and in the meantime, we’re programming a channel of Canadian films together.”

I followed up with Annelise Larson for the full scoop:

“When I first heard of Seed&Spark I was a fan of the concept, a crowdfunding platform for filmmakers by filmmakers. In my work as a digital strategist and teacher for media storytellers I instantly recognized the potential, but was disappointed it was only available in the U.S. Emily and I had an online acquaintance for a couple of years and then met in person at VIFF in the fall of 2015 when we sat on a panel about digital marketing and distribution. We realized pretty quickly we were brain twins, finishing each other’s sentences and nodding in vigorous agreement when the other was speaking. Early last year when Seed&Spark launched their streaming platform to compliment their crowdfunding platform, I knew this was something Canada needed more than ever. Emily and I both share a passion for supporting filmmakers and independent, diverse voices. We believe in the digital opportunity to help them have sustainable creative careers and want to support that whenever we can. Seed&Spark is such a fantastic, empowering model, and recently supercharged this by incorporating a dashboard interface that gives its filmmakers access to audience data that is a little mind blowing. Canadian filmmakers and storytellers need Seed&Spark. We thought a great way to begin would be to get Canadian content for the streaming platform in time for National Canadian Film Day on April 19, 2017. This day promises to be the biggest film festival in the world ever with hundreds of screenings across the country as well as online. Seed&Spark hopes to be part of that story, supporting Canada in its celebration of its 150th birthday. I hope it is just the beginning of the Canadian Seed&Spark story.”

My take: If I had a Canadian feature or web series, I’d jump all over this. It promises to be a great introduction to the Seed&Spark community, with the potential to become a funding source in the future. This is some of the best news to come out of America lately.

Cinema not dead, just bloated — Schrader

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As quoted in the Independent while talking about his new film Dog Eat Dog, Paul Schrader asserts:

“Don’t confuse the multiplexes with cinema. The multiplexes have run their course. That’s a 20th century phenomenon that has gone. But there is still obviously a lot of audio-visual entertainment – there’s a tsunami of product. You can’t really say cinema is dead. If anything, it is bloated and overpopulated at the moment. Cinema had a magical deal with capitalism for 100 years. If you’ll pay to see it, we’ll make it for you. Movies are now like painting, literature or music. What percentage of musicians make a living? Three or four per cent? We are now getting to that point where only maybe five per cent of filmmakers make a living.”

He continues:

“The reason I am doing press and going to festivals is to be number one VOD on our opening VOD weekend. If you can be the top VOD film at the (opening) weekend, then you make money. That’s where the economics of a film like Dog Eat Dog lie right now. You’re never going to make money theatrically.”

My take: It’s rather sobering to hear this from Paul Schrader, the man who wrote some of Martin Scorsese‘s best films, including Taxi Diver and Raging Bull. But it’s hard to argue with him that clicking on the top of a VOD queue hasn’t replaced queuing in line under a cinema marquee.

CMF lists support for Canadian exports

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Amidst a background of reflection on Canada’s cultural place in a digital age, the Canada Media Fund has published a list of federal and provincial support for audio-visual exports.

The 10-page PDF list 6 national and 19 provincial programs, ranging from 1 in Yukon to 4 in Ontario.

For instance, Telefilm Canada‘s International Marketing Program:

“…seeks to support the marketing of Canadian feature length and short films that have a huge potential for success. Supports the international promotion and marketing strategy for Canadian productions officially selected to be presented during a recognized international festival. Nature of the assistance: Non-reimbursable contribution that can reach 100% of eligible costs, up to a cumulative maximum of $40,000 per eligible production.”

My take: as we look beyond our borders, this is handy information.