It's a minor miracle getting any feature-length film made, especially an independent one, and it's an even larger hill to climb to secure distribution so your Story can find it's audience. That's why I'm spending the week in California. In addition to meeting with Danielle and Jay to flesh out the storylines for BN 2 - "Serenade" and BN 3 - "Heartlight", I'm also hard at work making contacts and laying the groundwork with industry execs and distributors at the annual American Film Market (www.AmericanFilmMarket.com ). Setting up and executing strategies to attack the 2011 film festival circuit and securing a distribution deal of some sort is a priority at this stage of the game and something often overlooked by indie filmmakers until after their films finish post-production...but it's essential to begin with the end in mind. Throughout the entire process of writing the screenplay, casting the roles, selecting the songs and pulling together my production team and shooting schedule, I never lost sight of the marketing side of the equation and the daunting task of navigating through the Hollywood maze to give "Beautiful Noise" a fighting chance to be seen around the world. And just when my due diligence on the subject started to turn my dream of a major theatrical release into chasing windmills ala Don Quixote, along came my indie film guru, Edward Burns, to pull me out my temporary funk and show all of us how to complete the mission of getting our films out to the public and make money in the process. As noted in earlier posts, Ed Burns is not only one of my favorite actors, but he's also one of the primary catalysts who inspired me to move forward and make my movies regardless of the budget resources available at any given moment. Ed's first film, "The Brothers McMullen", was made in 1995 for $25,000, went on to become a darling of the Sundance Film Festival and took in over $10 million at the box office and millions more since then from DVD, pay-per-view, cable and other ancillary revenue streams. Not a bad return on the investment, right?
Fast forward to Today. Look how the landscape has changed with regard to how people watch movies. All the different platforms, from Netflix to cable On-Demand to DVD to ITunes and yes, your local cineplex - there's a myriad of ways films are being delivered to global movie audiences. So, indie filmmakers like me need not be frightened by the task of fighting through the Hollywood studio film distribution system because the need for content is overwhelming and the opportunities to get our films directly to the people who want to see them have never been better. But first, you must - as 'Yoda' Burns preaches - fall out of love with a theatrical release and make your movie with a new mindset. You want to see your movie on the big screen? Take it to film festivals and work your ass off to set up special screenings around the country; then follow Ed's lead and embrace the new distribution model he's trailblazing. If your film is strong enough it always has a chance to be picked up by studios looking to fill their distribution pipeline to go with their mega multi-million dollar spectaculars...but the point of making "Beautiful Noise" and all my upcoming films is to have them be seen - one way or another - by the public, to entertain and ultimately to turn a profit for me and my investors so I can keep making films the way I want to make them! This is what I do now and it's what I'll be doing for the rest of my life...so to create momentum and maintain longevity in this business it's critically important to get with the new program.
And exactly what is the new program? Below are a few key excerpts from an interview Mr. Burns did recently with Michael Tully of HammertoNail.com. Read and learn:
Mike Tully: "In 1995, back when the independent film world was in a (seemingly) much more stable place, Edward Burns burst onto the scene when his debut feature The Brothers McMullen won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. After being picked up by Fox Searchlight, this tiny $25,000 movie with no stars went on to make ten million dollars at the box office. In the annals of American independent film history, it’s one of the great rags-to-riches tales. Fifteen years—and many films—later, Burns has returned to his roots by making another 25k feature, Nice Guy Johnny. This time, however, rather than holding onto the crumbled dream of the specialized theatrical release model that he himself participated in, Burns and his team have decided to forge a new path. This week Burns, in partnership with Cinetic’s FilmBuff, simultaneously released Nice Guy Johnny on iTunes Movies, Nationwide Video On Demand, DVD, and other digital platforms. By both returning to his micro-budget roots and embracing the role of spokesman for this burgeoning distribution platform, Burns has become an unexpectedly inspiring role model for all aspiring indie filmmakers..
Edward Burns: I remember when we were at Tribeca, and John Sloss, who has this new venture called FilmBuff, who is our distribution partner with this film...gave me an argument, but not so much for Video On Demand. Maybe five years ago, I had this movie called Looking For Kitty. And the movie got one tiny, tiny distribution offer from THINKFilm. It was one of those no advance partnerships, and we had made the movie for a quarter of a million dollars. John said, “Look, you’re gonna sell the movie for nothing and they’re gonna own it, just so you can satisfy that part of your ego that wants the film to be released theatrically.” He goes, “If you were to just go straight to DVD, you could make your money back. And maybe make some more money.” At the time—this was maybe ’04 or ’05—my ego wouldn’t allow me to do it. So, we sell the film to THINKFilm, get no money, we’re supposed to have a partnership, and we’ve never seen a red cent from it. Years later, when we’re presented with the same kind of offer for Purple Violets, now iTunes is up and the iTunes movie site is in their infancy. And we thought, “Look at how bands are delivering their music directly to their fans. Maybe there’s a way for us to try and do that with the film.” And we did. I don’t have the numbers exactly right but I think it was like a nine-month exclusive window for iTunes. And we did surprisingly good business there.
...Flash forward three years later to Nice Guy Johnny. Two different things happened. We knew what we could make at iTunes even if we didn’t have the kind of “stars” and well-known faces that we had in Purple Violets, which certainly helped. So we said, “Let’s just think the lowest possible number we can do on iTunes. If we’re even gonna entertain theatrical, someone needs to beat that number.” But we never even got there, because John then said to me, “Remember back to Looking For Kitty. This is the moment. We can sell your film for theatrical distribution, and you’re gonna open up on four screens in New York and LA, like you did with Looking For Kitty, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that if this company has enough money to market the thing, we might make an impression, and you can expand to the next level of a platform release. If we do well there, maybe, maybe you can go on and expand fully.” He said, “Or, you can release your film onto VOD and be in 46 million living rooms, in that moment when you’re doing all of your press.”...As my producing partner says, “There’s nothing special about a specialized film release.” We just thought, we’ll take our film and we’ll do the most aggressive film festival tour we’ve ever done. And that’ll satisfy the need to see it in theaters, sit in the back row with an audience, hear the laughter, and get the thrill of theatrical out of that. But financially, it just made absolutely no sense to try and sell the film to an audience theatrically. And those were all of the things that played into embracing this model...
...We knew that we could make a film for $25,000. We did not want to deal with any interference. We wanted full creative control. We wanted to make a film that, when we were done with it, we felt great about it. But also, we did not want the pressure of having a financier look at us and say, you know, “What happened to my three million dollars?”
...The other thing is we’re, I don’t want to say 100% certain, but we’re 99.9% certain that this new model that we’ve created is gonna keep us in business. The fact that we can make these movies at that number, a lot of people ask, “Well, how do you do it for $25,000?”...We just formed a collective and everyone on the crew and the post team owns the movie. So, in success, we’re all gonna be able to pay our bills, and then hopefully make some money on top of that. But we know that we’re gonna make enough where we get to do another one of these next year...There are certain screenplays that I have that I know I need to put on the shelf indefinitely, because I want to spend the next couple of years pursuing this uber no-budget model and ride it for as long as we can.
...On this film, the thing that’s cool is we were independent of any sort of influence through the production. And now, we didn’t sell our film; we licensed it to FilmBuff. We still own the film and because of that, we are in charge of—granted, we don’t have a marketing budget—so everything is being done by us. We’re doing our own Facebook and Twittering. We made our own posters. But it’s our poster that we made in house. All of the trailers, my editor and my post-production supervisor, we made them...And, you know, there are plenty of sites that will put your trailers up for free. So, when it’s your baby and you’re doing all that work, it’s much easier to get excited by it.
...One of the cable providers, Comcast, has really warmed to the idea and they’ve even started something called the “Indie Film Club.” The idea is, if you don’t live near an art house, let our On Demand channel be the art house in your living room...There’s even a group, a website I just got involved with called On Demand Weekly, and they’re realizing that people are starting to get their heads around the idea that VOD should be a destination as opposed to an afterthought. We have no idea, quite honestly, how well it’s gonna work, but I bet you three years from now, this is the norm.
So, if you're an indie filmmaker, or aspiring to become one, my best advice is to Google Edward Burns and read everything you can about this new distribution model. If you're a potential investor and want to get in on the ground floor of my "Beautiful Noise" franchise and other films in development with our Sarasota-based Midnight Pass Productions company, contact me on this website. You'll be pleasantly surprised to learn how a very small investment can possibly reap a nice return for you, given the low-budget financial model and production/distribution process employed. And if you're simply a casual observer or fan of the upcoming Beautiful Noise Trilogy, then keep checking back in to this blog - 'cause I'm telling it like it is as I continue down the road that winds up with the release of "Beautiful Noise".
Steve
