Switching off DIY, Switching on Direct Distribution

Switching off DIY, Switching on Direct Distribution,

For more information, visit: Nayan Padrai on “Why We Call It DIRECT DISTRIBUTION Instead Of DIY”

Check this out:

"Marketing

• Marketing and distribution strategy: Matthew Cohen Creative
• Trailer: Zealot
• Key art: XL
• TVCs: Kinetic Trailers
• EPKs and Music Videos: Dreamline Pictures
• Online marketing team: Brigade Marketing
• Publicist: PMK*BNC
• Music publicist: Flipswitch PR
• Media agency: Callon
• Social media marketing: Advantage and Naqeeb Memon – who worked on Mooz-lum
• Online Sweeps: CFA Promos
• Website: Design Mechanics

Distribution
• Theatrical booking service: Alerion Services
• Foreign territories: Cinemavault
• VOD and Digital Downloads: Gravitas Ventures and Warner Bros Digital Distribution
• Home video: Viva Pictures
• Soundtrack: TuneCore and CDBaby"

That's information you'll find in the read.  More importantly it's an outline of what a distributor might have to go through to properly cover the map for an independent film.

It's absolutely important information to the general cause because so much has to be demystified just to consider success in the market place.  It's not all luck.  A lot of it is directly dependent on the decisions specific people make on what they do about and for your content.  

For those of us new to the industry it's not uncommon to naively cater to the idea that you have a film and you submit it online or at festivals and the rest takes care of itself.  But other people have to contend with all this when they see your film and consider the buy.  You're hoping for the magician to approach you and make your dreams come true, but what about their process and their agenda?

Once you make it yours, you realize there is no magic.  There are markets and there are workflows and there is a process that is harnessed by deadlines and skilled, committed individuals not unlike yourself and your crew.

And they require money to do their work.  That's money you normally don't have.  Just like the money for that steadicam you decided to pass on to get the job done in black.

Alleviating your dependence on skillsets outside of your income range is par for the course on indie cinema.  You thought it was ambitious to form a production company.  But you only matter if you can get reliable distribution and so forming that too becomes a sometimes necessary endeavor of obvious value.

Not everyone can afford to do it.  The writer of this article had extensive marketing experience before he pursued film and realized distributing it was mandatory.  He had to fund-raise for that mission as well.  The good news is that the information he provided is one less research hurtle many of us would have to take.

At the end of the day it's about piecing together the list of action-items that creates a formidable entry into the market and then executing.  There's no such thing as luck, just opportunity exploited with maximum efficiency.

Let's get what we came for,

C.M. Sanchez III