DIY Filmmaking Sucks

Alt theater distribution

Most theaters -- including art house theaters -- won't book your film unless you can afford thousands of dollars of advertising to support the opening (tens of thousands in larger markets). Even then it's quite difficult. Indie distributors use the leverage of their future hits to strong-arm theaters to show their programs ("if you don't book this film, we won't give you the next hit we have").

It's ugly ugly ugly for the self-distributed indie film with little or no budget.

It's a major issue for DIY filmmakers -- how to get a film seen in theaters?

Those of us that have self-distributed our films can attest that it's not easy. Without the money for ads or other leverage with theaters, we're basically screwed. Only home videos have a worse chance of getting on the big screen.

Over at Self-Reliant Filmmaking (a great DIY-focused blog), there's been some discussion of creating a theater circuit from alternative venues and film societies. It's a great idea. Why do we have to recreate the wheel each time we self-distribute our films? Better to have an existing alternative circuit that's ready to roll.

Of course, it's never that easy, but with regular Indiewood theaters ignoring us, there aren't many other choices out there.

Check out the original post:
Fresh and Local: Some thoughts on "regional" film distribution

Follow-up posting that continues the discussion:
Notes Towards a Macrocinema Distribution Circuit

For your consideration: Anti-Oscars for DIY films?

The Academy Awards were on last night. What fun. What excitement.

But it's about as relevant to DIY filmmaking as the NASA holiday party.

Technically, we're all filmmakers making movies, right? That's where the similarity ends -- DIY films just don't show up there. Why not? Could it be because DIY films suck?

Or maybe because DIY films don't have the budget or the stars or the Oscar marketing machine that even small Indiewood films have. These days, Oscar campaigns are as well-funded and serious as political campaigns. After all, films can earn 10's of millions of dollars more from an Academy Award -- even a nomination earns more money.

What do little films have?

We have the festivals, of course. These offer jury and/or audience awards. Fests serve a vital role in helping your strong indie and DIY film break out from the pack. After all, without stars or budget, it's just another indie wannabe film with no distribution deal. Fests and their awards help films in similar ways that stars and budgets do: they validate the film as "good" (i.e. worth watching) and thus help build bridges to distributors and audiences.

The major fest awards out of Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Berlin serve a similar function in our little DIY/indie film world as the Oscars do for Hollywood and Indiewood films. But the juries are much smaller and thus more fickle. Plus, they are scandalously biased toward Indiewood films with million-dollar budgets, big stars and/or star directors.

Outside of specific fests, the biggest awards for the Indie film scene are the Independent Spirit Awards (administered by Film Independent, formerly IFP-LA, the same people that put on the Los Angeles Film Festival).

But as usual in the "indie" film universe, Indiewood films mostly dominate the Spirit Awards: Little Miss Sunshine, Friends with Money, Pan's Labyrinth, etc. In fact, just to demonstrate the Indiewood/industry slant of the awards, their 2007 award list includes the helpful breakdown of awards by distributor (as if this was the important horse-race of the competition). Only one winning film was listed as having no distributor.

Again, where are the DIY films? Where are the films made without stars, or for less than $100,000? Where are the self-distributed films (what shows more "independent spirit" than that)?

Here's a major contributing factor: it's the submission fee that scares off a lot of low/no budget films from competing in the Independent Spirit Awards. It costs $300 - $450 just to enter the competition (variable based on early deadline and membership status). That's truly ridiculous.

Why does it cost so much to submit for the Independent Spirit Awards? Festivals generally charge only $50-75 to submit for inclusion. Is it that much more expensive for the Spirit Awards (who only fund and organize one event rather than a whole festival)? Doubtful.

The huge fees smell a lot like country club dues: is your "indie" film rich enough to play in our ritzy Indiewood clubhouse?

Our DIY film, Quality of Life, cost us about $30,000 to shoot. The biggest chunk of that went to film stock and processing (we shot on super16mm). In our world, $400 is a lot of money to spend (over 1% of entire production budget) just to have the CHANCE of winning an award. And given that we didn't have a theatrical distributor (we self-distributed in theaters), we didn't have the inside track of knowing the right people either. Basically, for DIY films like ours, the Spirit Awards are a $400 lottery ticket -- against better connected, better funded films.

So what would you do? We spent that $400 on 5000 postcards to promote our film, instead of submitting our film to the Spirit Awards. At least that investment would have some effect, instead of just paying for an expensive lottery ticket in a competition where the cards were stacked against us.

What's the solution?

We need a high-visibility anti-Oscars awards show for low/no budget films, to help break out films and better get them on the distributor and audience radar. Cash budgets for competing films can't be more than $500,000 (or maybe $250,000). It will take some serious star-power (ironically) to make this anti-Oscar show visible: a Redford or DeNiro (or perhaps a superstar director wanting to give back to the little guys) to make it cool and safe for the industry to support.

Oh, and then a sliding scale for fees, but no more than $50 per film and perhaps free (or very very cheap) for students and $0 budget films (subsidized by grants and sponsors).

And absolutely no Indiewood films. They have Sundance and the Independent Spirit awards and the entire art house industry already.

Us rag-tag DIY films need an awards show of our own too.

Before we get started....

This is the official first post of this site. Woop woop.

We'll talk more later. I promise.

In the meantime, you should get acquainted with our film Quality of Life, if you don't know about it yet.

The film is an award-winning DIY narrative feature film about two young graffiti writers and shot on super16mm for around $30,000. It has a cult following among graffiti writers worldwide and those interested in street art.

Director Benjamin Morgan and I are filmmaking partners. Technically my title on the film is "Producer" but as with many DIY filmmakers I wore many hats (including story co-writer, chief fundraiser, business manager, marketing strategist, craft services, location painter, etc.).

In fact, you should buy it now, directly from the filmmakers. Yes, this is a shameless plug, but it will serve you well. Here's why:

1. Many of the examples and experiences that I'll share on this site will come from writing, producing and/or distributing this film. It will help you understand the references.
2. The Director's Commentary on the DVD is great and really focused on the DIY filmmaking aspects of the project.
3. Buying directly from the filmmakers is the best way to support indie filmmakers since more of the purchase price stays with them. It might be a little more expensive, but it goes to a great cause: supporting the work.
4. DIY filmmakers (and fans) should be supporting other DIY filmmakers. Simple as that. Think of it as your Quality of Life tax.

So get the DVD -- if the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Village Voice and even the New York Post liked it, maybe you will too.

Order here.