Distribution : How to get your first feature film distributed? by Daniel Latteo

Hi Daniel, going to the key film markets is the best way, but do it yourself because there are many scam reps that will ask you upfront money and do nothing. You can also contact directly some indie distributors that are friendly if you get some festivals recognition. The third way is DIY which requires a certain amount of expertise, patience and do not expect too high revenues in such case. Best luck

Thank you Gustavo, that was really helpful advice. Is there any other useful piece of advice anybody else can give me. I would sincerely appreciate it. Daniel

We just winged it. But we did travel to Sundance Film Festival a year before we shot. Look and meet the competition. Anyways, our $100K++ movie wasn't good enough for Sundance selection committee. Had to change game plan and we targeted Buyers at American Film Festival. Found some French Buyers and sold off our European rights, got our money back territory by territory.

I just don't know how you will get an advanced $$$$ if you have 0 track record or no Stars. Maybe cast Dolph Lundgren or Steven Seagal. They are still huge Stars overseas.

Yes Dan thank you, As Always tremendous piece of advice. I'm counting on the quality of my script to attract some relatively known Actors; my goal is not to have a stellar cast, but a good and solid ensemble cast. Kind of like Dario Argento had with his Suspiria at the time. Also I have a shooting and production record, of course it is limited and nothing about features films. But I have got my graduation and Master diploma at the London Film School, and I have shot really a moltitude of corporate films, Indipendent short films and docu-series, and I'm still doing it. My short films even made to the National television circuit here in Italy. I mean, I know working on my first feature is a totally different and new animal, but all of this work I have done previously has got to count something in acquiring the things to get the project started. I wanted to ask you something Dan; did your movie hit? Did it fare well in the festival circuit (maybe in some more than Others)? I mean did it act as a good device to jumpstart your filmmaking career? Or was it just good to recoup the money you had invested? Did it make it into wide distribution? If so how did you do it? I would be really interested to know, just to make some kind of personal future projection. Thanks again. I really really appreciate all the help I can get.

it jumpstarted my career in a different direction. I got into music video production; my movie was a coming of age story about a young father who wanted to be a rapper. Folks thought I knew about the music industry but I didn't know shit. Just faked it enough to get work.

I also became an Avid dailies Editor, worked on big TV shows from LOST to feature films for Ang Lee, Michael Mann, Scorsese.... But it's from a tech side, not creative.

I got my $$$ back but it was 3-years of my life. I put in a lot hours. Looking back, I think I made like 10-cents an hour for 3-years!!! I can't advise you how you will do because you haven't shot anything yet.

Finish your script first. It's all talk until you have something worthy to risk big $$$$ and TIME. And you're after a $1m to $3mil budget. Don't know you will raise or pay it back without a theatrical deal. There are lots of broke filmmakers in year 10 of their lives trying to break even on 7-figure budgets.

Great posts Dan MaxXx

The distribution company or aggregator will want to see your film first. When companies actually approach you, be careful. In other words, do your homework before signing on the dotted line. Contact the filmmakers in the distribution company's catalog and ask them what they think of the company. We were shocked to find out that 99.9 percent of the filmmakers we contacted said they never saw a penny!

We decided to go with Indie Rights (Linda Nelson) with our film 3 OF A KIND (http://bit.ly/3ofaKindonAmazon). Our research revealed that the filmmakers represented by Indie Rights gave them high marks - and the filmmakers are making money!

Greg

What was your budget? Daniel is going for 7-figure budgets, don't know how he s gonna get paid unless theatrical run or win some major film festival and sell it to Amazon/Netflix on direct cable

Thanks to all of you. Vital advice. Obviously this being my first time out I'm definitely going for recognition and building a rep for myself. So my main objective is to make selection in the major Festivals in the big circuit. Getting a buzz started and a few people talking somehow. But really, I am open to anything, by that I mean I will not crystallize on only one possible solution; frankly I'm hoping there will be many. I'm majorly counting on the overall quality of my film. Now my main concern is to make something good and distinctive, which will make it possible and realistic to advance some even brash requests and a little imposing. But really credit is everything for me right now. One film which could possibly get me the rights to make another and then another and then maybe a tv series and so on, so forth. Then of course if there is a possibility to sell to a major established company such as Netflix or Amazon that would be fantastic. Actually I'm hoping to have the backing of a studio in the future. I mean starting a career as an Indipendent is all right, but that kind of life drains your energies pretty fast. At least that is what I saw happening to some colleagues of mine. As far as financing is concerned since the subject came up here, yes, I'm willing to try anything, even multiple crowdfunding campaigns. Of course if somebody has done this a few times or has gone through this experience I would gladly hear from him/her and try to make his/her experience mine. Thank you all again. I appreciate the help very much.

Good luck, Daniel. Make your film truly unique and different so it differentiates itself from the rest...like PULP FICTION did for QT at the time.

I just sold my first feature to Gravitas Ventures. We had no distribution deal prior to filming. I was represented by Circus Road Films and they set up screenings and meeting with potential distributors. I was fortunate enough that I had a great crew, some fantastic actors (we used SAG/ULB), great directors and were able to shoot the film in a short time and on budget. Gravitas is a fantastic distributor looking for finished projects. Once you have a deal from them, you may be able to get an Letter of Intent for future distribution which will help in obtaining more money, actors, etc. They, however, will need to see a completed film before deciding on whether to work with you. My film will premiere in the Fall - small theatrical in NY, LA, and then Amazon, Netflix, etc. Good luck to you.

@John what is the title of the film?

I really would like to know more if you can share John about your iter and journey of the making and then distributing your film. Thanks! Dan

I'd like to learn more John Forrest as well. Would you share?

Hi, I am Managing director of 4Digital Media, a UK based home entertainment label with distribution through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for the UK, US, Canada and soon, Australia and NZ. Never make a film before you have spoken directly with a sales agent or distributor. I see too many films that have no target audience, or the demand for the genre has moved on and been replaced by something else. Reverse engineer your films to meet market requirements. To do that you need real market data and sales of comps in your market. A distributor can provide you this invaluable information before you spend the money on making the film. We always start with the artwork, get that right and then check sales of comps, and if they stack up, write the film and then double check the market hasn't moved on before you press the green button.

Thanks Tony. A lot of great advice there. It may be a bit difficult for me to follow that same path, although it's more or less the way I wanted to go. Only thing is, if my script and visuals (storyboard or pre viz) get rejected too many times, and for the wrong reasons, I might try the Indipendent route, counting on my skills and script potential alone, and trying to make something brilliant out of it. Of course having a sales deal or distribution deal secured would be ideal. Thanks again and any other good advice you might have would be appreciated. Daniel

I wanted to chime in to say Tony's company 4Digital Media is a reputable and stand-up firm in my experience. They acquired the UK/Irish rights to a low-budget horror film I did in 2016 (Exorcist House of Evil) and I was very happy with what they did with it. Also their box-art for the DVD was WAY better than the US distributor's version (on the subject of "start with the art.")

Tony's absolutely right, you need to start with the concept and know it's what can sell. And that doesn't just mean "horror" or "action." It means picking a subject within those genres that has "click-value." In other words, how many people out of a random sampling would click on your subject line on a web page just out of interest/curiosity. A known actor has "click value." A known property has "click value." The promise of an experience no one else can offer has "click value." In low budget filmmaking, if you can't afford the first two, you'd better have the third one.

One thing I will also say about distribution is don't be in a rush to sell off World wide rights to an Aggregator just to land a distribution deal. Now that I've had a chance to see how the numbers flow from sales in overseas territories (and who those distributors are in those territories) I realize we could have done a lot better over the deal we cut with our US distributor who also handles us worldwide. We lose 25% on each sale. Granted the distributor goes out and lands those deals through his contacts, but I do believe we could have directly reached out to many of the sub-distributors ourselves with a little more research. And how to do that research? Go to the websites for AFM, Cannes and other film markets and check out their Buyers pages.

Final note: complete M&E tracks (separate Music and Effects tracks without dialogue), encoded subtitle files and a time-coded dialogue list are very important when delivering overseas.

Daniel, a couple things. If this is your first film, surround yourself with people that have already been there. Let them lead you around the issues that you are going to have. Definitely meet with a sales agent or distributor first, preferably multiple ones. You don't have to go to a market to do this. Find someone to work with in your home country. Every country has local sales agents and distributors. I have worked in distribution for 10 years and I still run my own production ideas past buyers first (Hey Tony). Finally, look at the opportunities in your home country. Most countries (not the US) have programs for locals to take advantage of beyond the standard film incentives like tax credits. Quite often this is grant money and other financing aids to help you. And I'll finish with a shameless plug. Please go like my current project at http://www.facebook.com/nanosharks THANKS!

Jon is right. Talk to as may people on the front line asr possible before you make the film but have an open mind and be prepared to change direction of your film if the reaction to you concept isn't well received. It could mean it's not commercial enough for people to want to risk their time and money into it. Just because it's your concept doesn't mean it a good one.

Love that post Jon Bonnell

Yes, thank you for the advice Jon.

That was my plan anyway; it so happened in the past that because of budget restrictions I had to compromise a lot when I got down to form the cast and crew, and sometimes I have hired people in key roles who were youngsters, very passionate and cheap, but definitely without a clue about what they were doing or how to make the director feel safe. Plus some of them just because they weren't bound by a contract they felt at liberty to drop the project at any time and to work on it just on specific days, and not on others. Of course they were my first shorts, but that made me analyze the whole situation of filmmaking from a different point of view, and also made me realize very clearly that there is a huge difference between many self-proclaimed "filmmakers or film people or people passionate about films so much that they want to be a part of films" and the real professionals. I do not want to make the same mistake in my first feature. I would like to surround myself with the right people this time(especially in key roles); experienced people; people who have seen it and done it; people well over my age, but it doesn't really matter, even younger it's ok provided they know what they are doing. In short people who can guarantee both a creative and artistic approach and the overall safety of the final product.

That is why I feel confident that I can ask you, even if this might not be the right lounge to do that, if you know or worked with camera people and DoPs and sound people who could hold their own in an International film project, to be shot between Europe and partly in Usa. I hope to receive answers and some other useful advice. Thank you all. Daniel