Distribution

If you follow my commentary, you know I am absolutely anti-Amazon. Largely due to ab abusive business model which essentially uses independent production which, they monetize only marginally, to bait and switch viewers to mainstream production which they monetize heavily. So independent production effectively subsidizes and leverages marketing for big budget and Amazon itself. That's bad. Their numbers are private and generated in-house, like YouTube you cannot not necessarily trust them (well... YouTube is proven absolutely its stats cannot be trusted. Amazon sells it's keywords and search results, so it's content is not on a fair playing field.... Just plain abusive. Break it up. Entirely.

I was in publishing for many years – small, independent publishing. As with film, the key conundrum for publishing is distribution. You can always make it, but how will they find it and buy it?

The early Amazon years, way back, were great for small publishers. Then they started the strong-arm tactics. It quickly turned into a classic catch-22: you couldn't sell books unless you were on Amazon, but your chances of getting any money out of it were close to nil.

Christiane Lange Yeah, what everyone forgets is that Amazon, YouTube, et al are all private websites following the standard internet business model which is, basically, theft: provide a "platform", get everyone to bring you content for free, monetize that content every way you can for your own profit, don't share any income you are not forced to share. The whole Amazon structure is aimed at analyzing their stats and revising them before showing them to anyone. If you attend the trade/tech shows in Vegas and elsewhere (up to this year of course) you can even talk to Amazon and they will openly discuss that. Key word and search results are for sale (or for rent, rather, to the highest bidder), strategies to switch a purchaser from one listing to another, etc. They tell you these openly because, of course, they are selling these services to outside companies who are willing to pay them. Again, the mass of independent media content of any kind is a bait and switch. Amazon needs to be split up entirely. Won't happen though, unfortunately.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai Amazon bought one of the largest book distributors in the US, Baker & Taylor, which was notorious for late payments, demanding huge discounts, unexplained credit memos etc., and implemented those same tactics, plus added some twists of their own. End result: we would get statements from Amazon where in spite of having sold a bunch of books through them, we apparently owed them money or were owed a fraction of the selling price.

There's always Vimeo for distro. Not as big, so the marketing has to be done by the filmmakers (as they have to do anyway), but so much more control over your projects.

Good question. I am in Greece, and EFM has not pinged on my radar. Other fairs and events seem more prominent, like Cinefondation, the director's showcase associated with the Cannes festival, and other festival labs focused on pitching and funding. This may simply be because the Greek scene is predominantly small, independent films.

Haven't clue but I've attended BFM (Balkan Film Market) twice and was very pleased with organization and offerings. Many European distributors, producers and in general film-makers were present, great place for fund gathering, pitching and screenplay development. I hope will get back on the road again as soon restrictions are over.

EXCELLENT questions, Joe Orlandino! I would love to hear the answers myself.

Absolutely a buyer of services, though perhaps even a joint venturer . As such, I vet the potential distributor exhaustively, for their business history, references, and yes, the personality of the people I am dealing with. All that BEFORE I meet with them. If I do not feel they have the right understanding and passion for their function, there's no point in even talking about product.

Hey, Joe Orlandino! Are you seeking out the distributor through a film festival or at a market? I feel like where you approach them may also influence how you interact with them. Also, you may be interested to know there is a webinar this Friday about how to build a Film Festival strategy during this time of "virtual film festivals": https://www.stage32.com/webinars/Find-Success-Releasing-Your-Film-during... It could maybe help you find that distributor!

Just had my film in one. Fantastic. Fun to see our film on that big of a screen!

We already used them, and didn t changed anything.

Have you looked them up on IMDb Pro? Are you just confirming they are legit companies or are you looking for personal references?

I dont have imdb pro, im just looking for personal references, because a lot of reviewers said bad things about them, that if we make a contract with them we wont see a dime, and all the contracts are between 5 to 7 years on a movie or more, and mostly they only offer 50% of net profit, physhical dvd and blu-ray and merchandise they wont pay anything, that s exploration, when they are only distributing the movie, without being involved in the production.

Just skimming through, there is an excellent webinar on navigating the international distribution market. Definitely worth checking out: https://www.stage32.com/webinars/Shifts-in-Distribution-for-Filmmakers-a...

Great question! I'd love to know as well.