Tag Archives: careful you can die from exposure

Indie Films: 4 mistakes to avoid ‘Demystified’

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MovieMaker has released the second episode of Demystified:

In it, Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale continue taking meetings at AFM seeking distribution for their film Souvenirs.

They learn four mistakes that indie filmmakers do from Kristen Stanisz-Bedno of Vision Films:

“Making a passion project and expecting it to make millions; not thinking about your audience when you write the script, when you shoot the script; stills: don’t have you nephew come with his iPhone for twenty minutes on one day and expect to have gorgeous artwork; social media: start it early… [but] don’t use it all now.”

To sum up her advice: “Before you do anything, make sure you get a distributor.”

In a related post, Javier Reyna reveals just how much he’s recouped from SVOD distribution of his film Regionrat.

I won’t steal his thunder, so read his post. He concludes:

“What was my biggest mistake? I made a film for the DVD and BluRay market and Netflix, but by the time ‘Regionrat’ was done, SVOD was king and Netflix, which started this SVOD shit, had less interest in small indie films.”

My take: I think indie filmmakers need to realize their art will no longer be rewarded based on meritocracy, but increasingly only on popularity. Getting attention is your first goal.

A New Release Strategy for your Short Film

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You’re proud of your short film! You want to launch it into the world so you create a release strategy. Typically, it looks like this:

Andrew S. Allen, of Short of the Week, thinks it should look like this:

He’s arguing from a partisan position because he’s part of an online festival that can premiere your short, but I think he make a lot of sense.

He even has survey results and statistics to back up his assertions.

In a nutshell, he suggests:

  1. Create an online + festival strategy. Submit your film to online outlets early.
  2. Secure your premiere with a top tier festival or online site.
  3. Find partners — connect with curators to reach their audiences.
  4. Don’t prioritize money — it’ll likely hurt your exposure.
  5. Don’t sign away exclusivity — hang on to your right to ‘be everywhere’.
  6. Go cross platform and get your film everywhere.
  7. Internationalize your film with subtitles to reach even further.
  8. Compress your release window over days/weeks rather than months/years.
  9. Launch, engage and recalibrate during the week of your release.
  10. Be prepared to pitch your next idea or project.

My take: once upon a time, the mediascape was an orderly grid: on one axis you had ‘windows,’ a hierarchy of platforms (theatrical, pay TV, airlines, free TV, libraries, etc.,) and on the other axis you had ‘territories,’ geographic regions (North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, Africa, etc.) Then along came the Internet that blew away time and space. The ‘Conventional Strategy’ above harkens back to the time of the Old Mediascape. ‘Be Everywhere All at Once’ is firmly rooted in the digital New Mediascape. One great reason to adopt it: you never were making any money from your short, so you might as well get it over with with the BEAAO Strategy and save yourself a couple of years. After all, time is money.