I am part of a dynamic production team and we have just completed our debut film. Every filmmaker has a goal of seeking a big distribution or financing deal. After weighing a lot of the odds, we are beginning to think that unless it is a huge deal, we are better off self-distributing. With the ease of youtube, amazon, itunes and the such; what do you see is the big disadvantage of this? Recently read an article about a filmmaker that made $200k in itune sales on a no-budget movie and a dslr camera. Thanks. Here are the trailers of our no-budget film that is premiering on October 7. Yep, we secured a theater and practically sold it out on our own. Official Trailer, "Things Revealed": http://youtu.be/F0ipCsASQ94 Official Trailer, "Secrets": http://youtu.be/OF3f6MCnwRk
Distribution : What are your thoughts regarding self-distribution? by Tina Hobbs
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Depends if you want to spend your precious time distributing your film or making your next one. Realistically if you called up iTunes to apply for them to sell your film in the iTunes Store why would they need your film from you? Look at it from their point of view... you only have 1 indie film on offer. There are bigger production companies who have made several films who can't get their films on iTunes. I think there is a misunderstanding about "self-distribution" - its more like "distribution partner management".
There is a Cool Independent Film Distribution site that is temporarily offering automatic acceptance so you can make money on your Short/Feature Films and Webisodes.The site is: http://myindieshow.com/ Go there and click the “Show Your Show” link at the top of the page. The link to my film on there is: http://myindieshow.com/movie.php?id=9
If you think there is enough of an audience who would pay to watch your short - and I am not convinced there is an audience for pay per view shorts in my opinion unless you had a marquee name - then you are best signing with a company like Distrify rather than some unknown website. With Distrify you can sell your film via Facebook etc and therefore have more chance of fans sharing your links.
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Mine is actually a feature, but my opinion on a DIY distribution model is that it is not an "either or" concept. It's getting your film (especially a short) on as many good platforms as you can. MYIndieShow.com offers non-exclusive distribution.
Axel Harney, thank you for the information. I just looked there. I've just done a few. At least one and maybe 2 won't fit, due to file size limitations. Also, since I'm making the films available for free, I was very glad to see that they have a donation button option. You are right, their concept is real good and I've never heard of them. Do you know others similar?
John, I don't know of what I would call a similar site offering pay per view where u can be up in a day, but if your file sizes are too big, there are many ways to compress the size-probably best to make an mp4.
Thanks all! Very helpful stuff!
Thanks Jerome! Makes perfect sense to me.