To hear the podcast of this post, click here.

Hi, this is Anna from Super Indie Films, and you’re reading the text to our first podcast for independent filmmakers. These first five podcasts are taken from a workshop I gave at the New England Film and Video Festival.

This first podcast gives a little background on where independent filmmaking and distribution are today and why we can look forward to a better market for indie films.

What you’re about to hear includes:

Podcast #1

• Democratizing Filmmaking: The promise of internet video
• What Is Distribution? Let’s get this straight….
• Where Are We Going? Parallels between independent music of the 1990’s and independent film today

Podcast #2

• Four Eyed Monsters – How to Distribute your film

Podcast #3

• A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats – Help sell everyone’s film
• Protect My Film! Why DRM is not good for indies
• Tug of War – The push model (TV) versus the pull model (web)

Podcast #4

• Hi-Def: The relationship between tv, computer video, and hi-def
• Does Size Really Matter? Download speeds and wait times

Podcast #5

• Rate Me, Review Me! The problem of too many options
• The Perfect Match – What to look for in an online distributor
• The Future of Internet Video

So let’s get started with

Democratizing Filmmaking: The promise of internet video

Once upon a time, in a galaxy about 3000 miles to our west (I’m in Boston), was a world where a few people got to make decisions about what films got made and what films didn’t get made. Why was this so? Since the beginning of filmmaking, it has been so expensive to make a film that it was simply impossible for any of us to afford. You had to have a lot of capital, and that’s what we don’t have. But with the introduction of digital video, the price of cameras, editing equipment, computers, and other tools in filmmaking has plummeted. This means that all of us are now financially capable of making movies.

The same is true for the price of distribution. The cost of distribution has also been exorbitantly high. But around the same time, because of the internet, the price of distribution has gone way down. So let’s talk for a minute about what distribution really is.

What Is Distribution? Let’s get this straight….

I have a very specific definition of distribution. A lot of filmmakers think that if they have a distributor, they have distribution! Or if they’ve made a dvd and it’s available for sale on the internet, they have distribution. Both of these miss the main point of what I call distribution, which is that the filmmaker gets to make money.

Distribution is when a large number of people pay you, the filmmaker, money to watch your film.

Now this may be in theaters, it may be through online streaming or downloads, through dvd sales; the specific venue doesn’t matter. What’s important is that these customers are not only paying a middleman, although there may be a midldeman, but that you, the filmmaker, get paid for your work. I’d call an indie film successful if it has made back what the producers spent on it (very few do); I’d call it a hit if it continued to make money after that.

So let’s look back at what I said about the price of distribution. It once was true that people like us couldn’t afford the advertising necessary to get people to buy a film. But now, through the near-magical power of the internet, that cost has gone down. So it costs much less to get people to buy our film then it ever has before. Note that I say less, not nothing — you still have to spend time or money or both, but it is now attainable. And you’ll spend less time and money if you’re smart about it. That’s what Super Indie Films is about.

Where Are We Going? Parallels between independent music of the 1990’s and independent film today

About 10 years ago the independent music industry was in the same position that the independent film industry is today. It had been prohibitively expensive to make albums, but because of digital recording technology it had become financially feasible for regular people to record and produce their own music. Everybody and their uncle was making a cd! But in the mid-90s musicians were still under the impression that the only way to be successful was to get signed by a major label. So there were sites like Mp3.com and others where you could put your music up for free in the hope that some Artists’ Representative was going to be trolling those sites, find your gem of music, and love you so much that they would offer you a contract. I think that this is where independent filmmaking is today. Filmmakers have this dream: that if you have a good film and you submit your film to festivals, then you will get found by either a major studio or a major distributor, and they will do all your marketing and distribution for you.

But what happened in music is that there were a number of forces that allowed musicians to be very successful on their own without major labels. I’ll talk about just two of them. The first was Ani DiFranco. She became an icon for how successful we could be as independent musicians. In addition to being a phenomenal musician, lyricist, and performer she is one of the most savvy business people you will ever run into. She didn’t hire a marketing agency — she promoted herself. Using her own marketing ideas, she became so successful that major record labels would sell their souls to the devil to get a contract with her. But she has never signed a contract because she knows that she can make more money doing it herself and have more control over her music.

The other thing that happened in the mid-90s was the opening of CD Baby, an online store for selling cds. There were other online stores open then as well — I was an independent musician at the time, and I had my cd on four different sites including CD Baby. CD Baby was the only online cd store (except Amazon) that survived the economic downturn of the late 90s. Not only did it survive, but doubled its profits every six months throughout that time. So while other sites were sending me emails apologizing for the fact that they were raising their fees, CD Baby was sending me checks. CD Baby was successful because the founder, Derek Sivers, would send out an email to all musicians on his site every six weeks or so with a new tip on how to promote their music. He might describe how to go on a tour of college campuses, and include a database filled with thousands of names and phone numbers to call to get those gigs; or how musicians could organize their fans into a street team that couldl do all the local advertising for the musician as they were traveling; or how to build a website that would sell more cds. He gave independent musicians all the tools they needed to promote themselves — to be, essentially, their own distributors.

What happened was that independent musicians can now be very successful on their own without a major label. When I say successful they are not all wildly popular millionaires, they’re not all Ani DiFranco, but they can do what they love and make money making music and support their families. And that, I think, is where independent film is going too.

Thanks for reading Super Indie Films first podcast. Our next podcast is the meat and potatoes of this five-part series: we’ll give you an overview of one indie film’s successful marketing campaign and how you can apply those ideas to market and distribute your film.

1. Trackbacks Says:
   March 11th, 2010 at 9:56 am
   • ecommerce

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