ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years ago - Dan Selakovich

While I know nothing about the UK market, I don't know how any indie distributor stays in business.

Here in America, you have the problem of theatrical chains completely obliterating indie theaters. It basically works this way: an indie theater has to show a number of big studio films during the year to stay in business. But studios block those theaters because a chain has more clout. Recently, Brian Cranston had to shut down his theater in Palm Springs, CA, because of this practice. His theater screened many foreign and indie films, but they didn't have the pull of a studio film. He needed those larger films to make ends meet. Unfortunately he was cut out by the larger chains, and the theater closed. Is this practice illegal? Yes it is.

I tend to think VOD distribution is nearly pointless because of the price point. People can pay $15 to watch a first run film in their living room. A bargain if you can get half a dozen friends over for movie night. The problem is that people are used to getting something for nothing. With a couple of clicks, you can probably get that same film off of a pirate site. Pirate sites are pretty slick now, and look much like a Netflix with first run features. A friend of mine subscribed to a pirate site, not realizing it was a pirate site. He couldn't understand why Netflix couldn't get these films that appeared before a theatrical release on his favorite VOD site. I had to break the news to him that these were stolen movies. How can a small distributor compete with that? To put this into perspective, pirate Kim Dot Com made nearly 1/2 billion dollars off of stolen work before he was finally shut down. That's a lot of money that didn't go to legit sources of distribution. And that's just one site. There are thousands. Yes, I did say billion.

Finally, the ad budgets of indie distributors are near nothing. I can't help but think of the Polygram model. They made low to mid budget films, but poured money into promotion, much like the Hollywood model. Their ad budgets could easily be 2-3 times the budget of the film they were promoting. It worked fabulously. Unfortunately, they were bought out by a light bulb company that didn't understand the film business. Now it takes the audience to search out these films. They don't pass before our eyes with zero effort. Even something as simple as newspaper listings of movies is dead here now. Not too long ago, I could open the L.A. Weekly and see all of the movies opening that week. Now I must make an effort to look up what's opening at each theater. The internet is specific. Yes, you can find what you're looking for, but can you find that diamond that you're not looking for? It's great that I can buy a specific book on Amazon. But in a book shop I may stumble across something I didn't know existed.

Finally, I think movies should be priced based on budget. A small indie might be $7 and the latest Star Wars, $18. I really think people would take a chance for $7 if they're standing in the multiplex trying to decide which film to see. Then, if a particular films has legs, bump up the price a bit. But this will never happen, and indies will never have a good shot at getting a theatrical release.

We're just going to have to four wall our films, kids, and be our own distributor.

9 years ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

The integrated distributors don't do massive volume, they pick up a film or few a year. Picturehouse are now owned by Cineworld (who to their credit are keeping the programming pretty much intact), so at least they do have some clout, and it's not the sorry position Dan describes.

I do know there are some incredibly questionable people in the sales/distribution space, and frankly you'd find picturehouse/AE at the more honourable end of the business.

9 years ago - John Lubran

'It's an I'll wind that blows no good '

Structural changes that undermine established methodologies relied upon by current players are bound to be financially traumatic in the short term. There used to be a good trade in urn an livery stables. Things move on and the decentralisation of media monopolies through the Internet is inevitable. It effects everything from democracy and law through the empowerment of knowledge to how our socio economic systems work for the benefit of of far more of us than was hitherto possible. There's going to be more opportunities for more film makers. The real costs of production, marketing and distribution are going to reduce dramatically as the next wave of creative, inavative and entrepreneurial film makers learn how to adapt.

9 years ago - Matthew Prince

Alieve Mine - I read that ICT article and it was right about one thing, how Amazon selects other books and movies for you. I used to love their Listmania system which allowed users to curate their own lists of favourite and recommended stuff. You could always find some gems and rare finds in these lists. Books you didn't know existed and great one-off albums. But they scrapped it in favour of Wish Lists. Shame...