Stacey Parks, Indy Film Distribution Expert, has sent along a great batch of tips for working things to your favor in finding distro for your indy feature film. For the full case study and interview (from which these tips are culled), head on over to Filmspecific.com and become a member! Great site with lots of very handy resources. Enjoy!
Some of the tips;
1. Track down some potential investors and find out WHO they
would need to have in place before committing funds to you. From
there, you set out to go get THOSE PEOPLE.
2. If you are going direct to the talent agencies and not using
a casting director, then make sure you have experience in SALES
and you don’t get EASILY INTIMIDATED. If so, then find someone
else (another Producer?) to make these calls for you.
3. Not all TV names are created equal! Adam cast several SOPRANO’S
stars in his movie, someone from DALLAS, and it didn’t mean squat
to distributors. The only name that helped him get distribution
was Tom Sizemore, who he cast in the lead role. When at all possible,
use your Distributor contacts to run names by them and see if they
mean anything for straight-to-DVD or foreign distribution FIRST.
4. Take a long term view of things. Adam knew he had a bigger
film he wanted to do after CORRADO, and so focused on building
relationships with agents, and making the best film he could for
as little as possible…making it profitable for his investors
so he could quickly roll into the next film (which he’s in the
middle of casting right now) and LEVERAGE all the relationships
he had made on his first film.
It may be tough out there, and there’s no shortage of doom and gloom and ‘the economy sucks’ news, but you CAN systematically do exactly what Adam did and start building a track record for yourself right now. http://www.filmspecific.com
