Hello all,
A long post but if you want a partial case study / distribution insight and a free film to watch before it's official release, read on.
My name is Al Carretta. Since 2010 I've made 13 no-budget indie features (all on Vimeo, Amazon or other distro) and since 2014 I've run the Nightpiece Film Festival in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This August, I made 13th feature Th'Dread Rattlin' on an eight week turnaround to premiere as Nightpiece Film Fest's main feature. Once we'd finished, that was it. No reshoots, no additional scenes; work with what had been shot.
Rattlin' is a psychological, dialogue driven horror about a noise phenomenon that is actually a parasite. There is more to it than that but it's trope laden and darker than you first realise. This was the first horror
I ever attempted and this one has nominal blood.
I make films differently to most. I get lots of criticism directed towards me when people don't understand I'm effectively making templates of products to build a back catalogue and perfect my craft with least risk. I've made 3 features in the past year alone and have literally played with ideas I wanted conclusions on - this is one of them. My films can hit and miss but that's the point of no-budget - you can produce what might be worth developing further.
On 31st October, Th'Dread Rattlin' gets officially released on Amazon Prime and Vimeo on Demand, however, it's also gone through distributor FilmHub.com and is out earlier than planned on various US streaming services.
Any filmmaker can now get to this stage of distribution now but there is a lot of admin involved; about 5 working days if it's the first time you've done this along with overnight uploads on decent broadband. If you want to actually earn anything (as a UK person), as you're dealing with the US you need to fill out the W-8BEN Tax form (Vimeo and or Amazon guide you through this but once you've done this it applies to other sites). Then, you just need a film, a trailer, closed captions (we use rev.com), poster art in multiple formats and clearance documents (e.g. 'I own the film'). Upload everything and you're away....but remember, Amazon pay £0.04p per hour streamed.
Disappointingly, Rattlin' has already been heavily pirated - search Google and you'll see the first 6 pages have various links to final cut. A crappy 480p version of the trailer was also ripped and put on YouTube yesterday - 1.6k views and the usual vitriolic comments but it's out there.
Rattlin' doesn't have a particularly strong film trailer in comparison to my others but I'm running with that knowledge. The pirate leak is an awkward one to pinpoint blame on. The 12GB Compressed Master got ripped somewhere online but with pirates come trolls, IMDb user ratings and non-sensical reviews which are generally of no use to anyone so filmmakers, remember to ignore these as they are opinion not critique. Incidentally, core negativity on my output comes from US based males aged 30-44 and that's reading the stats. These aren't filmmakers.
Total spend on this production was less than £1k and pretty much all of this was performer expenses/refreshments as per our Artistic Collaboration method. Filming started on Tuesday 19th June and wrapped Monday 13th August across 18 ad-hoc shooting occasions, premiering a week after wrap date on August 21st.
The crew on this film was 2 (two); myself and my assistant director Brett Thorne and we followed the indie rulebook to the absolute mark taking advantage of locations such as Hyde Park, London and a gig on Margate Harbour Arm in Kent (UK). Also, I wasn't expecting the UK heatwave which is why so much of the film happens in blazing sunlight - it was easier to use that difficulty than work against it. An extra person would have been useful at points but not essential. The aerial photography was shot early in the morning before one of the final shoot days by the awesome Sendcake Films (Andrew Bruce Lockhart) and the original music score was produced by Bill McGruddy having been started in late Spring/early Summer.
So, behind a rolling edit that keeps the film coming together after every shooting day, above is a very rough outline of how you make and distribute an indie feature for £1k.
You can watch the finished film below. If you like it, please rate it on IMDb or review it if you can be be constructive. There's a lot more than £1k on show here...
720p VIMEO Version
vimeo.com/292587518
password: thdreadrattlin
IMDb
Keep filming!
Al Carretta
Not to be a douchebag but are you making a steady full time lncome from 13 movies?
Not at all! Indie film at this level doesn't make money.
Thank you Al Carretta for the link, will watch tonight!
There are some fascinating elements here Al. Learned much. Thanks!