Hello beautiful people!
Let’s get distributed!
At some point in your content-creation career, you’re going to want to get distribution for your amazing production, take your baby to festivals, enter a contest, or at the very least want to get your on-brand scene up on IMDb. Today’s the day we’re going to get going on how to make that happen!
First things first: If you have upper-tier dreams for your creation, be sure you read the fine-print on everything from the SAG-AFTRA contract in use for the project all the way down to the TOS on the websites of the contest, festival, or distribution entity you hope your baby will someday call home. The last thing you want is to finally get to that crucial moment at which you’re finalizing paperwork about selling your creation into next-tier status and learn you messed it all up by having uploaded a portion of it to your Facebook page months before.
The details to look for not only include what sort of social media presence your footage or even stills can have experienced but also whether actors are paid (and how much) upon distribution. On that, there are some contracts for which you’re not only stepping up that deferred pay minimum rate but also movin’ on up to full SAG-AFTRA scale (+10% for talent agencies) and residuals! For every actor! If this isn’t in your budget before you agree to the check you’ll receive from the distributor, you could end up losing money for selling your baby. Ack!
When you’re looking at festivals, be smart about your submission deadlines (don’t wait ’til the last minute! Much of festival programming is done very early on in the submission window; plus it’s cheaper to submit early bird sometimes), consider the “Big Fish, Little Fish” concept, and dig in on the wonderful (yet somewhat dated) information shared by content creators at various tiers in a piece I did on distribution here. While there are “the bigs” of festivals (Sundance, Cannes, SXSW, TriBeCa, Venice, Toronto, etc.), I will caution you about leading off with ambitions at that level unless every element of your production (from cinematography to costumes and from scoring to poster art) is so on point that you are fairly certain you’re a slam-dunk there. Be realistic about the peer group in these festivals that host premieres of studio-produced projects.
We get tied up in this for the same reason we look to the top-tier stars (or did before enrolling in Get in Gear for the Next Tier, of course, in which you’ve learned better) as examples of what our career trajectory may be like rather than looking at our very-next-tier pace car and incrementally working our way up from there. It’s like wanting to land an agent from “the bigs” when you’ve not yet booked a co-star. You know how to recognize the very next-tier level fit with ALL things now, right? Because you’ve been working this muscle.
I recommend you check out this list (sourced from Eventival) as well as sites like Submittable, FestHome, Short Film Depot, and of course Film Freeway to really get an idea of some of the festivals that are out there — many of which may be a much better fit for your project than any of “the bigs”! If you’d rather pay someone else to curate the festivals and submit your baby for you, check this service out.
Consider the brands and tones and vibes in which the various festivals specialize. Find out which ones are Academy qualifiers if you believe your short film is strong enough to get shortlisted for a nomination. (This, by the way, is an incredibly political process I’ve helped clients through in the past. It’s exciting and amazingly tough work involving major campaigning, but of course, everything at the higher tiers involves a greater degree of hustle than we’re used to when we’re hustling at the tier at which we’re comfortable.) Study what gets bought where (and by whom). Track patterns!
Watch the credits and those closing vanity cards in everything you consume and begin noticing what a Lionsgate acquisition looks and feels like vs. something from Mar Vista. (Two of many distributors of teeny indies I’ve been hired to cast over the years.) Again, everything out there has its own brand, style, vibe, texture, and feel to it and your job as a storyteller includes knowing where your stories were born to fit in! There’s usually a healthy, regularly updated list to start with from AFM here, if you can’t even imagine where to begin. Think outside the box, though, if you’ve never really felt like your creation would get bought by a major distribution entity! That may not be its best home! Remember that there are buyers out there putting microcontent on in-flight channels, in buses and trains, on gas pumps, at grocery store checkouts, within smartphone games and apps, and of course all the various digital content providers that are hustling to increase their market share over traditional cable and network television by packing in the available content for subscribers: iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Twitch, HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max, Playstation, Disney+, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Roku, Facebook, YouTube Premium, EKO, AwesomenessTV, Peacock, Crackle, Discovery+, Epix Now, Showtime On-Demand, Vimeo On-Demand, and on and on and on.
Again, be sure you read all the fine print in contracts with any of these venues, because you want to be sure you’re getting the best deal for your creation and for everyone who helped make it happen! Same for any contests you may enter — many have exclusivity clauses that could make it so you can’t even use the footage you created on your reel once you’ve entered, much less try to sell it anywhere, so take heed! And of course there are contests that begin long before you’ve shot a frame (at the script level) and, again, that fine print can be intense! If you lock up your screenplay with Amazon just by submitting it to their latest contest and then your agent tells you Netflix wants to meet about developing it, you could find yourself in a bind that — while most would describe it of the “quality problem” level — outright sucks, as far as having your hands tied goes!
Today’s work: Do a little watching, show bibling, and Googling! Spend some time poking around the sites of distribution entities, contests, and festivals to find out — just like we did on Day 35 about the networks and their styles — which feel like a snug fit for the kinds of stories you were born to tell as a content creator! If you have zero interest in ever creating your own content beyond the occasional self-tape or maybe a little scene for your demo reel, this homework will still serve you because you’ll get a sense of which distribution entities line up with the projects in which you’ll star when someone else produces the goods! And knowing you’re a Touchstone actor, for example, is valuable brand awareness no matter what!
There’s a lot to this so don’t be overwhelmed! Just look at it as another opportunity to study this beloved industry of ours at a level most never consider is a part of their job. Good! By making it a part of YOUR job you feel more at home when you’re in the right rooms — and learning to not beat yourself up about not getting into the wrong rooms — you get that glorious edge so many say they’re seeking. Further, you’re more interesting to talk to in every meeting with every agent, casting director, producer, showrunner, writer, director, or fellow actor because you know more about the world of entertainment as a whole — and that, my friends, goes a long way in being a differentiator! When you’re a business person — not just a craftsman — you become exponentially more valuable to the industry and its buyers.
Damn. So good!
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
