Some executives will attempt to get an early look -- that is their job. The filmmaker's goal is to keep potential distributors intrigued. You can promise to let each see it "as soon as it is finished.

• samsung phone deals cheap.
• running aces coupons.
• coupon for blue freedom dog food.
• Navigation menu!
• 6 Film Distribution Myths You Need to Know!
• taxi for sure groupon coupon hyderabad!

But this will get their competitive juices flowing. Some diplomacy is required to orchestrate a bidding war and not alienate the bidders. You want to firmly push each potential buyer to offer their best terms while maintaining cordial relations with all. Remember, you may want to produce your next project with one of the losers. I have seen filmmakers give away their premier to minor festivals and thereby disqualify themselves from participating in major ones. You can participate in lesser festivals later. There is little reason not to apply to a festival if you think you have a chance to participate.

If you are not accepted, the buyers will not know unless you tell them. Some distributors sell at the Berlin market which has a reputation for showing art films. Distributors are hungriest for product before a rapidly approaching market when they do not have enough new inventory. This is the best time to approach a distributor. Do not wait until a week before a market, however, because you need to give distributors enough time to prepare for it. They may need to create a trailer, one-sheet, poster, screeners and advertising. The bumper editions of the trade papers have an ad deadline that is weeks before a market.

These expanded editions contain product listings by distributor, as well as extensive advertising. The best time to approach distributors is days before a market. Industry insiders know the reputations of executives and their companies. It is newcomers who are most likely to be taken advantage of. Ask a prospective distributor to send you their press kit.

It will likely contain one-sheets from the films they have distributed.

Examine the credits. Track down the filmmakers. If you cannot find them, simply ask the distributor for a list of all the filmmakers they have done business with over the past two years. Call the filmmakers. Ask them specific questions: Did they receive timely producer reports? Have they been paid what they are due?

Did the distributor spend the promotional dollars promised? Worldwide rights mean that the distributor has the right to distribute the film in any country in the world. Some distributors go further and seek rights throughout the "Universe. I once kidded a distribution executive that it was silly to ask for such rights. He conceded that it was unlikely his company would ever need rights beyond Earth.

Several weeks later, however, he showed me a fax he had received from NASA asking for permission to exhibit one of his films on the Space Shuttle. Independent filmmakers frequently enter into more than one distribution deal. Rights are typically divided into two territories: Domestic and Foreign.

Domestic is the United States and English-speaking Canada. Sometimes it may include all of Canada.

“The world doesn’t owe you an audience. You have to build it yourself.”

It may include U. Foreign rights are usually defined as the rest of the world. As a general rule, filmmakers should only grant a distributor rights to territories they directly service. Few distributors, other than major studios, serve both the foreign and domestic market. Even the majors use sub distributors in smaller territories. Nevertheless, distributors often try to acquire as much territory and media as they can. They will lay off rights on sub distributors, and take a fee for serving as the middle man. Most companies that distribute domestically do not participate in international film markets.

If you grant such a distributor worldwide rights, they will make a deal with a foreign distributor to handle international sales. This foreign sales company will deduct a distribution fee for its services, and from the remaining amount, the domestic distributor may take a fee as well. This is not to say that you should never allow a distributor to use sub-distributors.

But one needs to understand the kind of distributor you are dealing with, and how it plans to exploit your film.

Independent film

Filmmakers should always determine which media and territories a distributor handles itself, and which it lays off on other companies. Labels can be confusing. Some distributors who sell films internationally call themselves "foreign sales agents. Most indie filmmakers contract with a foreign sales agent, or international distributor, to take their film to the major international markets. The filmmaker will also contract with one or more domestic companies. If the film does not have any name-actors in the cast, the filmmaker may not be able to obtain a domestic theatrical release.

In such a situation, the filmmaker will contract with companies that serve the television and home video markets. Care must be taken in structuring these deals so that their terms do not conflict. Filmmakers may benefit by contracting with more than one distributor. First, the filmmaker is not putting all his eggs in one basket. If he has one distributor, and it goes bankrupt, all potential revenue is affected. Second, by using different distributors, expenses in one territory will not be cross-collateralized against revenues from another.

When expenses are cross-collateralized, expenses and revenue from different territories are pooled. For example, suppose a film generates revenue of one million dollars abroad.

• coupon for toilet paper.
• openelec cubox coupon?
• Film distribution deliverables list!
• nexcare cold sore treatment coupon!
• Editor's Pick Newsletter.

So on the domestic side of the ledger, the distributor has a net loss. Not only can expenses from one territory be crossed against others, but expenses in one media can be crossed against revenues from another.

Distribute Your Film With Us

In many instances, a distributor will lose money on a picture's theatrical release and will want to recoup those losses from revenue generated from home video and television. Media Media is the means of exploitation. Many motion pictures are meant for initial exhibition in theaters, the theatrical media. The time period, or "window," during which the movie will play in theaters will be short for a flop, while a blockbuster can play for many months. After the theatrical release, a picture may be distributed and exploited in the so-called allied and ancillary markets, which includes home video, non-theatrical colleges, community groups , pay television HBO , network television ABC and television station syndication.

The film may also generate revenue from merchandising, publication of a movie novelization and a sound track album. The nomenclature may be misleading because the so-called "ancillary" media now generate most of the revenue.

Independent film - Wikipedia

In the United States, home video revenues are about five times theatrical revenues. A theatrical release is still primary in one important respect. Although the theatrical release may not generate net revenues - because of the considerable cost of print duplication, advertising and shipping - the theatrical release creates public awareness for the film. It is the engine that pulls the train. When consumers visit video stores, the cassettes they rent or buy first, are the movies they learned about from the advertising and publicity accompanying their theatrical release.

Ancillary media tend to be much more profitable than theatrical media. When a distributor releases a film to television, there are minimal expenses. If you license a film to CBS, for example, the expenses incurred are the manufacturing cost of one video sub-master and expense of shipping it to CBS.

The distributor does pay for advertising, as CBS will promote the movie. Thus, most of the revenue from television licensing flows to the bottom line. Because a theatrical release is often not profitable, and because the ancillary media frequently are profitable, most domestic distributors will decline to acquire only theatrical rights.

They do not want to take the risk of a theatrical loss, without the offsetting revenue that can be obtained from the ancillaries. Consequently, filmmakers need to exercise caution. If they license home video and television rights first, they may find they cannot obtain a domestic theatrical release.

In fashioning a grant of rights clause, filmmakers will want to retain rights to media the distributor will not actively exploit.