This is the second and final part of a 2 part post on non-theatrical distribution by Rachel Gordon, a freelance marketing/distribution consultant specializing in the niche and educational usage of documentary films.

Something to be aware of that many filmmakers don’t consciously think about when starting to get their work out is that it will take some time for your film to “hit” a place in the non-theatrical market – often up to a whole year.  You can’t count on this to be your only source of income because, while there are people who have made a year’s salary on one film, that is not the normal shape distribution takes – whether it be partnering with a distributor or a solo journey.

It is absolutely impossible to promise or estimate how much money you will gain.  I get this question a lot and I try never to give an answer because there simply isn’t one.  Some films do better because of controversy or timeliness of their content, others do better because the information they include is unique and nobody else has captured it yet.  There is no way of knowing how a film will fare until you start sending it out into the world.  There is a lot more to choose from than there used to be and sometimes it all comes down to a matter of timing.  The key point being, however, that you have to send out information repeatedly because nobody will know or remember that your film exists unless you tell them.

Educational distribution is a hefty time commitment.  It means researching organizations that might show your film at a conference.  It requires collecting quotes to use in emails and promotional sheets.  It involves taking the time to collect, or buy, email or mailing lists to send out information to parties that would be interested in using the material you have to offer.  It means having the nerve to ask people to be supportive and either provide advice on other people that would benefit from your film, or include a link to your website.

So if it is not easy, why do it?  The non-theatrical world is a wide, enthusiastic, supportive environment for consuming media.  Professors, social activists, non-profit organizations, journalists, etc, talk on listservs every day.  They give each other advice, they program fascinating conferences, webinars and discussions.  They also love media, and they will continue to be repeat customers when they have found reliable sources to obtain it from.  They know as much about a filmmaker’s work as the average film critic in New York City.  Yes, what I just said is true.  Every time I’ve exhibited at an educational marketplace, customers come into my room to specifically view the latest film from one of the independent filmmakers I represent.

Rachel Gordon is a filmmaker and freelance marketing/distribution consultant specializing in the niche and educational usage of documentary films.  Her short film, Loose Ends, is currently at festivals while she finishes writing the feature version of the story about feminine fear of commitment.  She is also in production on a documentary series about alternative medicines.  She can be reached through her website at www.energizedfilms.com

Hi everyone,

I’m Patrick and this is my first time posting on Shooting People. Two weeks ago I was approached by James Mullighan to blog about a self-distribution project I’m running at Met Film. Some of you might know the Met Film School, it turns out we’re actually a group of three companies, Met Film Post, Met Film Production and the Met Film School and we develop, produce and post-produce a variety of feature films and television programs… Bet you didn’t know that!

Well, it just so happens that Met Film Production made a film called Heavy Load - a great documentary about a punk band of the same name. It was funded by the IFC and ITVS in the US and the BBC here in the UK. With TV rights out (UK and US resting with the BBC and IFC respectively) and our international sales with the girls at TVF we found ourselves still sitting on UK and US DVD and theatrical rights. Around the same time a couple of people at Met had also become very interested in self-distribution, especially after hearing about all the neat ways to find niche audiences and aggregate them for effective DVD and theatrical distribution.

Well, it didn’t take us long to figure out what we were going to do with those rights we had laying around the office – we’ll try this self-distribution-thing ourselves! That was back in June. In August we hired Dnyan to help me put everything together and together with Al, who produced Heavy Load, we started our journey in to self-distribution

The idea behind all this is that we believe self-distribution is coming of age and there are some unique films with identifiable core audiences which can be reached much cheaper and more efficiently through social networks, direct online marketing and PR than the traditional posters-on-the-tube approach and with Heavy Load we’re looking to prove this assumption right.

To date we feel we’ve been doing pretty well. We’ve engaged a PR agency and a cinema booker and we’re in talks with DVD wholesalers about stocking our titles on high street shelves. Our website has been updated and will include an online shop to buy directly from us. We’re date mining left right and center and are updating our groups and blogs on Facebook, Myspace and Bebo daily.

Early on we decided that Heavy Load should play in cinemas – even though we’d most likely loose money overall, the press won’t review a straight to DVD film like they do a theatrical one and running the numbers our losses would be minimal considering we’d screen through the digital cinema network at £78 a cinema as opposed to £4,000 per print. As of writing we have a pretty good theatrical run: 2 weeks at the ICA, 1 week at the Empire Leicester Square and another 2 weeks dotted across the country – the full list plus more info and goodies can be found at: www.heavyloadthemovie.com

This theatrical run has resulted in some great PR, two-page spreads in the Guardian, reviews in Total Film, Empire, Little White Lies, a section on BBC Radio 4 and the promise of MTV at our Premiere at the ICA this week.

So for this week its all hands on deck to make sure we maximise the PR from our premiere – luckily it sold out straight away and the gigs we’ve organised for afterwards are also at capacity. Now we’ve just got to entice the press down… free beer anyone?

I’ll be back in a few days and let you know how the premiere went – at the moment we’re looking for volunteers to help out on the day and photographers and filmamkers to take as many pictures and videos as they can and post them online – if you’ve got your own photo or film blog, let me know!

Best,

P

Making Your Media Matter is a conference taking place in Washington, DC February 7-8, 2008 for established and aspiring filmmakers, non-profit communications leaders, funders and students looking to learn and share cutting-edge practices for creating media that matters.

Join filmmakers, distributors, outreach specialists and an impressive cast of media pioneers for a rich day of panels, discussions, networking and keynote speakers on the latest tools and trends in creating and distributing social issue media.

And check out podcasts and Power Point take away points from last year’s Making Your Documentary Matter conference.

The Documentary Filmmakers Group in the UK have a new website called DFGdocs which includes lots of information about training they offer; a directory of British documentaries, directors and production companies; and a resources section containing articles, downloadable contracts and a list of other documentary/film organizations.

Fernanda Rossi, The Documentary Doctor, analyzes a documentary problem every month on Documentary Educational Resources. This month’s issue discusses what to do if you have used different format cameras to make your film. She calls this “irregular camera syndrome.”

From D-Word:

Applying for ITVS? Want to avoid some of the pitfalls? Starting today at The D-Word, ITVS leading executives Joy-Marie Scott, Cynthia Kane, Karim Ahmad and Kathryn Washington join us online to take us through the complexities of applying for ITVS funds. This moderated “ITVS Special Conference” runs from 17th to 22nd December.

The D-Word, co-hosted by founder Doug Block in New York, Ben Kempas in Munich and John Burgan in Denmark has been hosting documentary discussion forums online since 1999. Membership consists of more than 2000 professional documentary filmmakers from some 80 countries  around the world.

As well as the regular discussion boards, The D-Word holds a series of moderated online conferences with guest experts in the field. These week-long discussions cover the art, craft, business and social impact of documentary film.

For more information, join us at www.d-word.com

Here’s some more useful information from The Media Conference held in London earlier this year. This panel discusses how to work with non-profits, NGOs etc to create sustainable impact with your film.

Key Points

• The filmmaker should form strategic partnerships with relevant NGO’s early on in a film’s production to devise a long-term strategy of how best to maximise the film’s campaigning potential and resulting impact.
• Any broadcast dates or film festival screenings should be identified as key strategic moments for rallying around the issues covered in the film.
• NGO partners can use films to campaign by hosting informal screening parties – in café’s, town halls, anywhere with a TV – where the relevant issues can be discussed afterwards and, if the tools are provided, people can immediately take action.
• Similarly, documentary films are an effective way of reaching a young audience and can be packaged as an educational resource and distributed amongst schools.
• Celebrity endorsement is often a necessary evil to get press attention but should not be relied up on as a long-term strategy

Listen to these clips from the Adventures in Online Distribution panel from The Media Conference held by Britdoc earlier this year in London.

Key Points:

• Online distribution models remove third party gatekeepers, connect the filmmaker directly with the audience, giving them the freedom to decide when the film is released on a global scale.
• Partnering with grassroots organisations to access their databases is a great way of connecting with the right audience. These people can be your film’s distributors and marketers, for free. These databases can even be used to fund as well as distribute campaigning documentaries.
• Social networking sites like MySpace (with over 190 million members) are a great way to spread free word of mouth marketing.
• There are now dozens of websites where you can upload video, Current TV, MySpace, Reeva, etc all with something different to offer but it is important you read the terms and conditions, especially with regards to rights.

FourDocs have a series of very useful video guides to shooting, editing and uploading a short doc. While you’re there check out their awesome online archive of classic  docs. I recommend This Is A True Story by Paul Berczeller, The Lift by Marc Isaacs, Divorce Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto, The Dinner Party by Paul Watson . . . oh there are lots of gems in there, too many to name here. Check it out.

The Producer’s Institute for New Media Technologies is 10-day residency run by BAVC in San Francisco that teaches documentary filmmakers how to adapt their socially relevant work for delivery across different digital platforms from web to video. The institute will take place from May 29th to June 8th 2008 and the application deadline is February 1st 2008 so check it out now as it sounds like a great way to learn more about harnessing emerging technologies to tell your stories and reach people in new ways.

There are some online resources from this year’s institute that you may find useful if you are developing your own website and want to learn more about design and authoring.