Questions To Ask Potential Distributors

Seems I get this question from a lot of first time filmmakers facing the daunting task of what to do after you finish your film. The traditional route is to go to film festivals, then seek out a distributor. This is not necessarily the best course of action for every film. But since I have spent the past decade in independent film distribution, I thought I would take a moment to give some quick advice on how to qualify a potential distributor.

We've all heard the horror stories of independent filmmakers that have been ripped off by shady distributors that cook the books, refuse to pay royalties, or charge weird fees with no explanation. I hate these guys as much as you do. They give the rest of us a bad name. If this does happen to you, contact IFTA, the Independent Film and Television Alliance. The alliance is an organization of independent film distributors and keeps track of the different distributors out there. Also check to see if they already have complaints against them.

Since the world of distribution is a closed world, not many people are well versed in all of the independent distribution companies. I've been doing this for awhile and there are new companies popping up every day.

So if you are seeking distribution, or you have been approached by a potential distributor, here are 5 quick questions to ask them:

1. What are some of the other films that they have acquired? Are they theatrical films or TV movies? Are they films similar to yours?

2. Who do they do business with? Do they sell to theatrical distributors, broadcasters, VOD platforms? Basically, you want to know their level of reach. If they can't point to a successful track record of selling films to major distributors or broadcasters, then what makes them think they can do it with your film?

3. Which film festivals/markets do they attend? You want to be sure that your film will get the exposure needed. If they aren't out in the market selling your film, then how do they expect to sell it? Some of the major film markets include Cannes, Toronto, EFM in Berlin, AFM, and FILMART. The major TV markets are MIPTV, MIPCOM, ATF, and DISCOP. Don't think that only TV buyers go to TV markets and vice versa. Broadcasters go to film markets and Theatrical distributors go to TV markets.

4. What type of company are they? Are they a producer's rep, sales agent, or distributor? Typically a producer's rep or sales agent will take a percentage but offer no money up front. A distributor will usually pay a license fee as an advance against sales and take a small percentage of the sales that they do. One is not better than the other. If you are starting out, it may be difficult to get yourself a distributor without a sales agent or producer's rep guiding you through the process. Whatever you do, do not pay a sales agent or producer's rep to handle your film up front. I've heard of some unscrupulous agents charging as much as a $5,000 fee to handle your film. If they think they can sell it, you shouldn't have to pay them. If they are asking for a fee up front, then they think they can't sell your film. You're better off doing it yourself.

5. What sort of marketing presence do they have? Do they have a website with trailers and artwork posted? Do they take out ads in the trades? What sort of an online presence do they have? Do they have a Twitter feed and a Facebook page? Also important to look online to see what people are saying about them.

This is just a start. For a more in depth view of distributors, please check out Mark Litwak's Dealmaking Tips.

Just be aware that if you have a small self-financed film with no stars, that an advance is not likely. When I started out, you could get six figure advances for small films with no stars. Nowadays, that sort of advance is increasingly rare. This is why it is more important than ever to vet your distributor and make sure they are the right partner for your film.

Also, be sure to check out my other post: 10 Tips For Independent Filmmakers Seeking Distribution

Writing, writing, writing.

Haven't been blogging a lot of the past few months, simply due to overwhelming workload. Between working full time and the UCLA screenwriting program, I have very little time for anything else.

But I have gotten a lot done on the writing side. So far I have finished the rewrite of Dead Joan and it's currently out to a couple of people for their feedback. I'm also about 40 pages into the first draft of Run For The Money, a heist movie that I am writing for class. I'd have more written but they only want you to do 10 pages a week, which takes me about two days to write. (Or one day if I am on a deadline.) I also have a sci-fi action film that I started writing over the holidays, I'm about 38 pages into that one. The title is a secret. I'll just call it AFC for now.

My writing schedule is pretty intense. I write two hours a night Mon-Thursday and about 4 hours on Saturday and Sunday, which gives me Friday as my night off if I want it. Although I sometimes write that day as well. This week was a little different. I wrote Friday night and took Saturday off.

I'm really enjoying it. Although I am not sure I can keep up this schedule indefinitely. It's pretty intense. I think taking some time off to do rewriting is probably useful. By this summer, I should have 3, maybe 4 scripts that are completed. Of course, they'll still need to be rewritten. But that's for another day.

Dead Joan

This summer I finished the first draft of a supernatural thriller entitled Dead Joan. I'm currently rewriting the script. It deals with the concept of redemption and being forced to go back and clean up the problems that you have caused.

Some Old Scripts

Just for fun, I thought I'd go back over some of my previous attempts at feature film screenplays. I'm currently doing my first internal rewrite of my latest script and thought it would be fun to go back over what has gone past. So here goes:

1. Down The Road - My first feature length film script. I wrote this in college. It was a road movie and it is embarrassingly bad. I rewrote it several times but it ultimately went nowhere.

2. Reflectors - Kinda of a quirky indie comedy about a love triangle between a guy, a girl, and a male Japanese exchange student. I wrote this during a class I took at AFI. Finished a couple rewrites but could never get the ending right.

3. We Always Lie To Ourselves - A big sprawling film about a group of college students coming to terms with what happened the night before during a raucous college party. I think I wrote this because I had seen Pulp Fiction and was playing with non-linear storytelling. Wrote several scenes and a sprawling treatment. But never finished a full draft.

4. Evil Is Never Fun - Trippy film about a guy trying to find a girl that goes missing after having a one night stand with her. I wrote several scenes but never got past the first Act. I modified this opening for the novel I started writing.

5. The Hunt - Basically two lost souls in the city find each other. Basically Barfly in the 90s. Wrote about 30 pages then lost interest.

6. The Summer Of Our Discontent - A quirky comedy based on a short script I wrote in one of my screenplay classes in college. That short script wound up becoming my short film Coffee. I've still thought about going back and writing this one. Got as far as a treatment and that's it.

7. Glamour - Stupid idea for a film I had about a female singer leading a double life. Never got past a short synopsis.

8. Art Murder Film - Came up with this idea in high school about a painter who kills women and paints with their blood. Kind of a stupid idea that didn't go anywhere.

9. Carjacking Pirates - I still love this idea we came up with in high school about a bowling team called The Pirates that got hit on the heads while bowling and thought they were real life pirates. It was a slapstick comedy about a bunch of pirates that instead of sailing the seas, they would sail the highways and take over other cars. I still think it has potential. Maybe one day I'll write it.

So there you have it. I'm sure there are dozens of other ideas I've had that I've never developed. Just thought it would be fun to list them all in one place.

Am I worried about people stealing these ideas? Not really. These ideas aren't that original. And it's the execution not the idea that counts in this industry.

PS. This doesn't include any scripts I am currently working on. I have probably a dozen more in the hopper, including the one I am currently working on. And there's that novel I've been working on as well...

100 Movies in 2010

I made a point of keeping track of every movie that I have watched this year and where I watched it. Since I travel a lot, I do watch movies on the plane quite a bit. Plus I watched a bunch of movies on Netflix Instant. I made no indication of the quality. I'm not a critic, so I don't do film reviews. Here's the list:

54	DVD
2012	Airplane
A Single Man	Theater
Alice In Wonderland	Theater
All Boys	Film Festival
American Psycho	DVD
Art School Confidential	DVD
Assassination of Jesse James	DVD
Bear City	Film Festival
Being There	On Demand
Best Worst Movie	Theater
Big Fan	On Demand
Bitter Feast	Film Festival
Black Dynamite	DVD
Blade	DVD
BlowUp	DVD
Broken Embraces	Theater
Brotherhood Of The Wolf	DVD
Brothers Bloom	DVD
Bruno	DVD
Cactus Flower	Airplane
Charlie Bartlett	DVD
Children of Men	DVD
Chocolate	On Demand
Code 46	DVD
Contempt	DVD
Creatures From The Pink Lagoon	On Demand
District B13	DVD
Domino	DVD
Election (2005)	On Demand
Everything is Illuminated	DVD
eXistenZ	DVD
Eyes Wide Open	Film Festival
F For Fake	On Demand
Factotum	DVD
Fantastic Mr. Fox	Airplane
Fisher King	On Demand
Funny Games	DVD
Futurama: Bender's Big Score	On Demand
Girl Who Played With Fire	Theater
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo	Theater
Grey Gardens	DVD
Grey Gardens (2010)	DVD
Helvetica	On Demand
Howl	Film Festival
Hurt Locker	Airplane
Inception	Theater
Inglorious Basterds	DVD
Inside Deep Throat	On Demand
Into The Wild	DVD
Invention Of Lying	Airplane
Jules and Jim	DVD
Kick Ass	Theater
Layercake	DVD
Le Samurai	DVD
Lord of War	DVD
Machete	Theater
Maxed Out	On Demand
Mothman	On Demand
Once	DVD
Out At Annapolis	Film Festival
Outrage	DVD
Outsourced	On Demand
Paranormal Activity	Airplane
Paris Je T'Aime	DVD
Parting Glances	On Demand
Peaceful Warrior	On Demand
Plaguers	DVD
Ponyo	DVD
Pop Star On Ice	TV
Pursuit Of Happyness	DVD
REC	DVD
Rock N Rolla	DVD
Running Scared	DVD
Salt	Theater
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World	Theater
Second Skin	On Demand
Session 9	On Demand
Shutter Island	Theater
Sicko	DVD
Sukiyaki Western Django	DVD
The Crazies	DVD
The Expendables	Theater
The Fountain	DVD
The King Of Kong	On Demand
The Machinist	DVD
The Men Who Stare At Goats	DVD
The Modernism of Julius Schulman	On Demand
The Naked Civil Servant	On Demand
The Warlords	Theater
The Wrestler	DVD
Transsiberian	DVD
Trick R Treat	DVD
Tropic Thunder	DVD
Underworld Evolution	DVD
We Live In Public	On Demand
Word Wars	On Demand
Wristcutters	DVD
Zack and Miri Make A Porno	DVD

UCLA Screenwriting

I am pleased to announce that next month I will begin attending the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. It was suggested by my friend Jody Wheeler who has gone through the program. He has since graduated from the MFA program at UCLA and written a script for Regent Entertainment.

I've always been interested in writing ever since I was young. I haven't been as focused on writing the past couple of years. But I've been focusing more and more on my writing recently. Lately, I try to write every day if possible. One of the things I learned in my screenwriting classes at UCSB was to aim for an average of three pages a day, which is entirely doable. I think the problem a lot of writers have is they have an"all or nothing" mentality, saying to themselves "If I don't write 30 pages this week, I'm a loser." By setting your goals too high, you set yourself up for failure. And this consistent writing has been good for me so far. I'm over halfway through the first draft of a screenplay I started writing this summer. I hope to have it finished by the end of this month. If not, it's not the end of the world. I will keep writing until I am finished.

Let's hope that this can take me to the next level in my ability and professionalism as a writer. As much as I love international film sales, I need a creative outlet beyond designing posters and email blasts. Wish me luck!

Modern Nature

I have been reading the book Modern Nature by Derek Jarman. It is basically one year in the life of the avant garde filmmaker told through the diary that he kept one year while living at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness in Kent.

It's not an easy read. But it gives insight into the creative process as well as his obsession with gardening, along with an insight into living under the reign of Margaret Thatcher during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in England.

Like his films, it's not for everyone. But if you have seen his films and wanted to know a little more about his as an artist and filmmaker, or just an insight into the creative process, it's worth giving a read.