Category Archives: Monetize Video

Product placement for the rest of us

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You need some sunglasses, shoes or scotch whisky for your up-coming film.

You could go out and buy it, or you could jump into the world of product placement and get it for free.

Once only the purview of Hollywood or network TV and large advertising agencies, product placement is now within every production’s reach through Brandplacer.com.

It’s the brainchild of Murray Ashton, who says:

“Brandplacer aims to disrupt the product placement marketplace by simply making it available to everyone anywhere. I launched Brandplacer to change how productions worldwide (big and small) connect with brands, products and services through product placement from Hollywood to the local community.”

As Brandplacer.com continues to build its — brand — the service is free to both brands and filmmakers. Currently there are 28 brands and 12 productions listed. Brands include products ranging from sunglasses, shoes and scotch, to underwear and beer, among others. Productions range from theatre to shorts to features and hail from New Zealand, USA, the UK and India, to name a few countries.

The website has already facilitated successful brand placements.

My take: I had a similar idea six or seven years ago, so I’m happy someone has taken a stab at making it real. In my opinion, Brandplacer.com could be huge, listing thousands of brands and thousands of productions. It truly could be “product placement for everyone.” If you own a brand, consider signing up to get it placed today.

Disclaimer: I have a production listed on Brandplacer.com: my feature U.S. 66.

Feature costs no longer matter

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The Wrap has a fascinating guest blog from Joshua Caldwell about his first feature, ‘Layover.’

The angle is that they made it for $6,000.

Having worked on bigger budget films, Joshua relates how he decided he could make his film for much less.

“…my thinking flipped from ‘I need a lot of money’ to ‘How little can I get away with?’ I had everything I needed to make a film: actors, cameras, locations, editing systems, and so on. I thought back to an idea I had about a young woman stuck in Los Angeles on a layover and thought it might be a concept easily executed for very little money.”

He goes on to reveal his approach:

A. Modular Storytelling. Craft a story that can be scaled up or down depending on your budget.

B. An Appropriate Camera. Sometimes a DSLR makes more sense than a RED.

C. Great Sound. Record clear sound. Get good music. Mix them well.

Joshua concludes:

I believe that we have to think more like YouTubers. We have to:

1) Cultivate an audience by creating and delivering consistent content. Doesn’t have to be every day but say bye-bye to spending four years focused on making and selling only one movie. Your audience won’t remember you.

2) Make that content at a responsible budget level so that a ROI is possible through direct-to-customer distribution on a network you’ve built by building and rewarding your audience.

The current state of indie film is in flux and there are new and every growing opportunities available if you’re willing to move beyond the traditional approach and think differently.”

My take: At this point, the financial cost of movies should not be news. Everyone should know you can make a film for next-to-nothing or for millions. (Count the number of people in the credits to get a good idea of the size of the budget.) Beyond cost, insiders can readily calculate the value of the film. This attaches dollar amounts to all the donated services and equipment, multiplied by the evident quality of the film (what it looks like and, more importantly, what it sounds like.) Nevertheless a film is only worth what it can be sold for. This is the territory this blog covers; who is your audience today? Once upon a time it was a distributor in each of many well-defined windows. Today, who knows? We’re still coming up with a new model, even as the old model clings on. ‘Layover’ is going the direct-to-viewer route, using Vimeo On Demand and Gumroad. Lots of other models exist. What’s working for you?

Your film has many price tags

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Marc Schiller of Bond/360 thinks you should price your independent film differently depending on the platform and the time since release.

He lays out his strategy in ‘How Much Should I Sell My Film For?’ on  Medium.

Keeping your conversion rate between two and three per cent is key, he says.

“Conversion rates are never static. And because of this the price of a film should also never be static.”

Sell on your website to your core audience. But don’t overlook the iTunes and Netflixes out there:

“The benefit of having your film in the marketplace and supported with promotion is that your film can now be discovered by those who may not have known about it. A significant amount of sales of independent films happen specifically because they are found and discovered in New Releases, Top 25, etc. In addition, many of your core want to purchase on iTunes, not your website. The biggest mistake a filmmaker who is selling direct can do is to try to divert sales from iTunes so that the film is purchased on the website. Rather, they should be doing everything in their power to get their film into the Top 20 of its category so it can be discovered by others. This increase in sales is worth every penny of the commission the retailer takes.”

My take: excellent advice, backed up with concrete figures. Thanks for sharing!

Mid-2014 trends in the indie film marketplace

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Marc Schiller of BOND/360 has just released ‘An Analysis of Internet Trends in 2014 for Independent Films’ on Medium.

Main chapters comprise Commerce and Marketing while headings include:

  • Digital Revenue For Individual Films In Traditional Marketplaces Is Falling Rapidly
  • Niche Content Is The New “Mainstream”
  • Methods Currently Used By International Sales Agents Are Creating A Steep Decline In Revenue and A Steep Increase In Piracy
  • The Days Of “Free” Marketing On Facebook For Independent Films Are Over
  • Today, The Best Social Media Marketers Are Designers, Not Curators
  • Smart Filmmakers Are Realizing That The Key Value Of Crowdfunding Sites Is To Build Community, Not Raise Money
  • Publicity Alone No Longer Sells Movie Tickets

The insights are many, including:

“Today, the reality is that most independent films, even highly successful ones in the United States, have very little to no distribution in the majority of countries around the world…. Up to 40% of the audience that is following an independent film on Facebook is most likely living in a country where the film will never be released…. This has led to an increase in piracy that is not based on a desire to steal the film and watch it for free, but rather based on a the lack of availability when the global word-of-mouth is at its peak.”

And:

“More than any other platform that have preceded them (including behemoths like Facebook and Twitter), Kickstarter and Indiegogo create the most important and impactful communities for creators on the internet…. Those that have skin in the game (i.e. are “invested”) are the most important and loyal fans a filmmaker will ever have in their career.”

My take: this makes fascinating reading. Required reading. More by Marc to come.

Top VOD Platforms for 2014

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Short films have always been a tough sell.

In the past, specialized distributors might take them on for institutional or foreign markets. Perhaps they might get bundled into feature-length anthologies. But the money never seemed to flow back to the filmmakers.

In short, short films were destined to remain in the art realm. Starving artists practiced their craft, never expecting to be compensated for creating their art.

Now, however, we are witnessing the emergence of a new model. iTunes has paved the way, proving that the public will pay for music, track by track. Video On Demand may be the equivalent mechanism for the independent filmmaker.

VOD lets filmmakers exhibit their films directly to their audience, at a price they choose. It promises to be the means of monetization for indie films of all lengths and genres.

Douglas Horn has researched the top five VOD platforms. He scopes out the problem, charts the top five and reviews their services.

My take: well worth the read! I’ll be following his real-world tests. Good luck, Douglas!

VHX Out of Beta

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VHX is out of beta, and has lowered their fees to 10% plus 50 cents per transaction.

“Anything that used to be sold on DVD can be sold on VHX. Our platform works for a lot more than just film and TV. Faith, fitness, lifestyle, education… the list goes on. VHX also works for organizations both big and small: individuals, distributors, studios, networks, and more. Make a site, sell your work, and own the relationship with your audience. VHX is the technology platform that lets you run your own iTunes or Netflix. Your digital copies replace the old physical, anywhere in the world.”

Of particular note to international filmmakers, VHX will pay out through PayPal.

Nofilmschool has a very nice summary of all the direct distribution players here.

My take: I applaud any service that helps filmmakers interact with their audience. VHX keeps the costs down, which is appreciated. Nevertheless, we can’t ignore the law of supply and demand: supply is way up, diluting demand. Therefore, increasing demand remains filmmakers main task, one that traditional distributors and exhibitors once fulfilled. Unfortunately, the market is still fragmented with no clear winner. Selling on your own website is like creating your own market: be prepared to create your own demand too.

Yet another reason to choose Indiegogo

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Crowd-funding is a lot of work.

First of all, it’s a full-time job creating and maintaining your campaign. (Forget for a moment the all the work of putting your project together and then actually making it.) Now you’ve got to fulfill all those perks you promised your backers.

Indiegogo wants to help you.

“Today we’re launching our Film Fulfillment Program, which will provide Indiegogo campaigners streamlined access to free or discounted rates on film distribution and fulfillment services with our program partners, VHX and Yekra.”

Check out VHX and Yekra to learn more.

Then see the special deals Indiegogo has brokered for you. Sign up through the links at the bottom of the page.

My take: kudos to Indiegogo for smoothing things out for indie filmmakers!

Indie Koala shows the way

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From Canada’s capital comes a bold adventure in indie self-distribution.

It’s called Indie Koala.

“We are three Ottawa independent filmmakers who are passionate about making, watching and promoting indie films and indie filmmaking and we started this service in April 2013 because we couldn’t find a site that was artist-run and was a one-stop-shop for local independent content.”

Taking their cue from the belief ‘Think Global, Act Local,’ three Ottawa filmmakers have created an online exhibition space for independent films, boot-strapping VimeoPro‘s pay-to-rent capability.

Nevertheless, the majority of their shorts are free to watch.

My take: kudos for b(r)anding together!

The new 10 commandments of low budget filmmaking

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Elliot Grove and the Raindance Film Festival have issued ten new commandments of low (no) budget filmmaking.

They are:

  1. Thou shalt have a fantastic screenplay.
  2. Thou shalt understand keywords and SEO tools.
  3. Thou shalt secure some development finance.
  4. Thou shalt spend proper time in pre-production.
  5. Thou shalt understand the shoot and exploit it to maximum advantage.
  6. Thou shalt not fix it in Post-Production.
  7. Thou shalt clear all music in your film.
  8. Thou shalt prepare professional publicity and marketing materials.
  9. Thou shalt use film festivals to launch your film.
  10. Thou shalt create a distribution strategy.

See the annotated version.

My take: I can get behind all of these except number nine. Seems to me that’s really part of number 10. Not having much, if any success, at film festivals, I’m not convinced. I guess what I really need is a paid-for-performance film festival agent. Any suggestions?

Does your film have a clean Chain of Title?

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If you’re selling your movies already, stop reading.

If you want to make money from your films, see below.

The film business is ultimately a business. Stop thinking only about actors and directors and start thinking about accountants and producers as well. Actors and directors need good scripts, whereas accountants and producers need good products.

Yes, your sellable film is a product.

Not only does it need to be a damn fine film, it must have a “clean chain of title.” Title simply means ownership. The chain are all the creative people who’ve helped you along the way. You document their agreement and the terms of their involvement in contracts.

And there are a lot of contracts:

  • Writer Option Agreement
  • Crew Agreement
  • Actor Agreement
  • Location Release
  • Composer Agreement
  • Etc., etc., etc.

You need these agreements to get Errors and Omissions insurance.

Why do you need E&O insurance?

Distributors and television outlets want to know that they’re not going to get sued when they show your film.

Want to know more? Want free resources about Chain of Title? See Jordan Clark’s Chain of Title campaign on Indiegogo.

My take: kudos to Jordan for getting this rolling. Keeping your chain of title clean is just plain smart.