The Sundance Film Festival is in full swing, some films are being bought and others are not. Understanding the reasons for these decisions is critical for independent filmmakers. Film Independent recently produced a round table that focused on indie distribution. It’s an offshoot from their Filmmaker Forum, which was held over an entire weekend in early October. This discussion looked at the economics of distribution; traditional, DIY, and digital strategies. The panelists also addressed the state of film distribution: past, present, and future. Their goal throughout this series was to give filmmakers the unvarnished truth and to look at the industry as it exists. It was Moderated by: Tom Bernard, Co-President, Sony Pictures Classics. Panelists included: Jonathan Sehring, President, IFC Entertainment, Tony Safford, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Acquisitions, Fox Searchlight, Udi Epstein, 7th Art , Jeff Dowd, Producer’s Rep and Eamonn Bowles, President, Magnolia Pictures.
Tom Bernard/Moderator: How do you see the current economic downturn effecting your buying?
Jonathan Sehring: We’re more cautious, but we still buy a lot. Tom bought a lot. Festival Buying Fever is over. We find that auctions put guys out of business.
Tony Stafford: We look at festivals as a defining bar. Putting a film in front of an audience and critics makes it easier to narrow the field. It is our job to get advance looks at films but is better for the filmmaker to screen a finished film at a festival in front of an audience and critics.
Jonathan Sehring: Getting critical support for your film is far more important today because it is hard for a distributor to raise a film’s profile especially first time filmmakers with films that don’t have a known cast.
Tom Bernard: If your at a film festival without the right professional team it is a recipe for disaster. You need a Producer’s rep and a publicist. You need them to get the money for your film, you must have the right screening spot, materials, stills, synopsis, and you must choose the right festival to premiere.
Jonathan Sehring: You also have to be aware of the the costs involved, traveling, submission fees, preparation, all of these costs add up and are substantial so plan for them. It will cost you $30-50,000 to do this properly.
Tom Bernard/Moderator: How many films did you buy this year?
Jonathan Sehring: We bought 100 films but not all for theatres, only about 25 of those.
Tom Bernard: We bought 20-30 but we buy everywhere all year long not just at festivals.
Tony Stafford: We don’t make offers or deals on a lot of films.
Udi Epstein: We lost a picture we wanted at Sundance but as the release date got closer the original buyer couldn’t get it together so we stepped in after they dropped the ball.
Eamonn Bowles: Magnolia started back in 2001 at the time of 9/11 with just two people. Today we have a team of 28 but we are mostly a VOD company. We buy about 25 films a year mostly at the big 3 festivals: Toronto, Cannes and Sundance, another major sources for us are agent submissions. Since the collapse of the dependents we have done really well. The state of the economy has also meant that there is a more realistic approach to production and distribution costs. Too many of the other players were chasing award releases with pictures that didn’t do business. They may have won awards but they lost money on these films because they spent too much.
Tom Bernard/Moderator: Let’s look at VOD as a factor in the market today.
Jonathan Sehring: Since 2006 we have done theatrical and VOD at the same time. We spend very little on P&A. We own one theatre in New York City. When we started this we could only play 5 theatres in the country including Laemmle, but today most independent theatres are willing to play Day and Date with VOD.
Tony Stafford: There has definitely been a collapse in the windows. The MPAA is even trying to create an official Day and Date scenario.
Jonathan Sehring: We will pay overages on over 70% of the movies that we acquire. We use theatrical distribution to create a connection with an audience that carries through the other markets. We’ve paid over a million dollars in overages. (That would actually workout to only $10,000 a picture based on 100 films acquired, even less if this refers to more than a year’s acquisitions.)
Tom Bernard: You must be an empowered filmmaker. You must understand the options available to you and determine if this type of deal works for you. For smaller films these might be the only deals available.
Eamonn Bowles: If there is no awareness of your film then there is no payoff with direct VOD. We are finally starting to get some checks but this is not a viable business. We recently released Princess in Nebraska in conjunction with the director’s other film which was in theatres. YouTube got several 100,000s of views of the movie and we got a check for $18.00.
Tom Bernard: Piracy is the biggest problem for us in regards to ancillary markets.
Tom Bernard/Moderator: How do you see film festivals in today’s market?
Jeff Dowd: Make sure your film is ready. Don’t rush it for a festival date. If you don’t know until Thanksgiving that you are accepted to Sundance it may be difficult to get it ready in time. You don’t want to make your premiere a research project. You want to present your film in the best possible manner. Take the time to do research screenings to improve your project.
Eamonn Bowles: This is a business of perceptions if your film doesn’t sell after its first festival than it will go down in value. But Sundance isn’t the be all and end all that some people make it out to be. There are other festivals.
Tom Bernard: For certain films that will not get a theatrical release you can use film festivals to get the word out.
Tony Stafford: At Fox Searchlight we release 10 films a year and spend millions of dollars on each one.
Eamonn Bowles: To give a film a legitimate theatrical release the low end costs a 1/4 of a million dollars and the high end could be anywhere.
Udi Epstein: Most self distribution theatrical releases don’t work out well. Filmmakers who think they can do it better themselves are delusional. They don’t know the job and they will most likely fail.
Tom Bernard: You don’t need to pay Peter Broderick for his advice. “He only knows what you don’t know. He doesn’t know what you need to know. He has some of those old indian secrets much like a traveling medicine show”.
The rest of this discussion HERE.
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