Our NEW MagazineDigitalFilmNow.com
By Tom Marcoux
Motion Picture Director
Author of "101 Acting Secrets: A Director's Tips for Your Acting, Auditions, Movie Roles and Self-Promotion" (featuring sections on Digital Filmmaking)
John Pierson is the Producer's Representative of SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT (directed by Spike Lee) and Executive Producer of CHASING AMY (directed by Kevin Smith). When I asked John how a filmmaker boils down a feature film story into a short form to transfer your passion to newspapers and distributors, he told me about how he decided to promote the small independent film SLACKERS. John said, "When I really got excited was when I saw SLACKERS. I saw it three times in a row [on videotape at home]. The next day Michael Barker of Orion Classics happened to come over. I said, 'There is something I want to show you now.'" John said that you need to "voice how your film is special, unique and different." He emphasized that you must persist. "SLACKERS was turned down by Toronto and Telluride [Festivals]." He says that now "it is harder to break new ground….Many things seem to be an echo of films before."
Ismail Merchant is a feature film director - and the producer of THE REMAINS OF THE DAY and HOWARD'S END both starring Anthony Hopkins. When I asked Ismail about using passion to get newspapers to give your film great reviews, he said, "It is really about how the audience responds at film festivals." Ismail emphasizes, "Call the New York Times ten times. Call every editor ten times. [Say,] 'It's something different. It speaks a different language.'" He also shared the method of having another filmmaker call and recommend your film. Ismail said, "When I call -- when a filmmaker calls, it makes a world of difference." Ismail takes a contrarian view and says, "I don't subscribe to the term 'art film.' There are films. Depending on the story and images, it is commercial or not. Films must get proper distribution and must be nursed and brought to the attention of the public. You must make a film with a good script."
Ismail mentioned that no one would distribute one of his team's films. He said, "This film should have played forever. It was a film from the heart with brilliant images. We distributed it ourselves. We believed in it. We took a chance…..[What you call an art film,] I call films of substance, intelligent films. We have a uphill battle….I can climb Mount Everest ten times in one day."
INITIAL FILM FUNDING
John Pierson said the initial film funding is "2 degrees of separation. Someone you know or who knows someone. A lot of first time filmmakers go into debt….Filmmakers go through a self-selection process with no one stepping in from the industry - at first."
DISTRIBUTION AND EARNING PROFITS IS ABOUT STRATEGY
John Pierson said that SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT (directed by Spike Lee) began its public life at the San Francisco Film Festival. Immediately, John and Spike Lee made a deal with Island Pictures. Then, they used strategy by keeping a lid on the announcement of the deal until SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT was playing at the Cannes Film Festival.
John Vanco, distributor of GEORGE WASHINGTON (a feature length documentary), said, "A lesson learned from our experiences may be...if a film doesn't have a best foot [forward], you put in one anyway." He said, "We don't have an acquisition department. We let the major international film festivals - Toronto, Cannes, Sundance and Berlin - do the work for us."
Ismail said, "When we make a film, we presale to key distributors... France is an exceptional country. Based on the passion of the French for film, we made six films in France. We got a subsidy from the French Cultural Ministry...[On the other hand] Germany and Japan depend on the US distribution." One distributor said, "We have sold to France for two to three times the U.S. fee."
SELF-DISTRIBUTION CAN WORK
A powerful example of self-distribution is the small feature film THE DEBUT, which could not get a distributor. The producers rented a few San Francisco Bay Area Theaters (known as "four-walling"). Eventually, through entrepreneurial efforts and targeting the Filipino population, they earned $600,000.
A FINAL WORD:
Experts advise filmmakers to study the "business of filmmaking and distribution." It also helps to get an expert like John Pierson (author of Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes : A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema) on your team if possible. In any case, resolve to learn whatever is necessary. The small voice of your soul is calling you to tell a story cinematically (via digital film or otherwise). You CAN do it. Don't rely on the fearful comments of anyone who has not done what you are contemplating. Get the advice of filmmakers who have gone before you.
Our NEW MagazineClick here to visit motion picture "TIMEPULSE"