📽️ Community Learnings: On distribution control, split rights, marketing ideas to try today, and more
Helpful learnings gleaned from this gorgeous film community.
This is the first edition of “Community Learnings,” Kinema’s monthly-ish round-up of the most helpful insights gathered from attending film festivals and other film community events.
I did consider naming this series Reel Talk, or something cute and branded like that, but unfortunately I also care about being straightforward so sacrifices were made. In this case cuteness. Ok let’s get to it.
Top threads this month
Below is the stuff we saved in Notes—quotes, insights, advice—that we’re still thinking and talking about from the following events:
SXSW (Kinema’s
and Seed&Spark’s Emily Best presented on The Distribution Playbook)The Eno team in conversation with
Owning Distribution, a panel moderated by Karen Chien of
CPH:DOX (
shared notes from her time there and Brian Newman published takeaways yesterday)
Since this is our first round-up, I’ve reached further back in time to share takeaways from events in February and March. I've attributed quotes where I have the notes for them and edited for clarity.
(If I were doing cute names, I had “Quotes of Notes” in mind for this section.)
1. On distribution control
Karin Chien: “It used to be framed as a prize to just give your film over to a distributor.”
“Be wary of platforms that don't give you backend but build their brand off of your work.”
“Reserve some $$$ for potential P&A.”
“Do some 'self-distribution.' Build an audience. Record attendance from screenings, generate a box office estimate, etc. and bring that to your negotiations.”
Emily Rothschild: “The collapsing of windows could sometimes make a lot of sense when people were receiving large checks from streamers…but now by and large it doesn't so you're leaving a lot of money on table, without the opportunity to develop your audience.”
of unseen: “Our film premiered in May 2023. It's gonna be May 2025 and the distribution journey of our film hasn't actually ended yet…I can admit there's all these things that our film continues to be engaged in. And I'm just saying that because I hope that for especially first time filmmakers, or even if you're not a first time filmmaker, I feel like we put all of our eggs in the basket that gatekeepers keep.”Emily Rothschild: “Actually the world can be pretty wonderful when you can own your own destiny.”
2. On split rights
“Carve out rights to do your own non-exclusive things later. Distributors want to take everything. Be mindful.”
Karin Chien: “All rights deals were very common for a long time because it was usually the only way you could get a theatrical release, because so much money was spent marketing theatrical releases to get people to come to the theaters that distributors would need your other rights in order to make back those losses. So it's still a new thing for filmmakers to think about going out on our theatrical separately from the other rights, but it is the way for filmmakers to have the most control and the most creative authority.”
Karin Chien: “The strategy that both of your releases took is that you made choices driven by the values of your film, and that is something you couldn't do, for example, if you turned over all your rights to a distribution partner”
of Union: “We can make values based decisions around how we want to distribute our films now, actually things you wouldn't get with an all rights deal…we were able to really structure our release and think deeply about what are the benchmarks we care about? Who are the communities we care about? And every release was tied back to one of these ideas about what was the essential point and mission of making this film to begin with. That was a really exciting and invigorating model, that wasn't simply about this idea of impact or the social do-gooding…it also generated revenue at times in ways that really surprised us. So, I think this overarching idea that getting back control is empowering financially and ethically was that line for us.”3. On event-izing screenings
“Focus on 'event-izing' 2-3 screenings and pack those instead of striving for the traditional 7-day theatrical run with mostly empty screenings.”
Laura Kim: “We all think our film is universal but the universe isn't going to come to your film. Who is this movie going to play best with? Who is going to give the best word of mouth?”
“Get your audience. Get your reviews. THEN think about awards. People throw away a lot of time and money on awards campaigns too early.”
“Get creative. Only have $500? 'Host' an after-party at a bar around the corner from your screening. Open a $500 tab. Free drinks for folks who mention your film until the tab runs out. Meet those people!”
“Media is accepting new ways of releasing new films. For a long time you wouldn't get coverage for one-off screenings in different cities but that has changed.”
4. On public broadcasting
of Union: “The one singularly most amazing thing about PBS is that it was not about just commercially viable projects, but that there were thinking, thoughtful people programming content that society at large should see across a political demographic spectrum. And yet here we are in a moment where people are trying to politicize that kind of thinking and approach to film distribution.”: “CPH:DOX had a lot of representation from different countries looking to buy. So you had for example the head of UK documentaries and other government representatives looking to buy for their local television stations, like their version of PBS. I hadn't seen that on that scale before. So what's different about the conversations in Europe is that filmmakers are all looking for funding and distribution but in the form of public broadcast, because that's so well supported in Europe.”Brian Newman on CPH:DOX: “People are back to creative financing through cross-border collaboration and co-production. With public broadcasters involved, this is also a mechanism to get more political films made – they tend to be less censorious (usually?)…perhaps there are co-production models to explore within the US, between like-minded State funders, as well.”
5. On small marketing wins
“Filmmakers don't think about marketing until their film is complete. Don't let this be you. Start building relationships with related businesses, creators, and organizations. Those businesses will become marketing machines for your film.”
Monika Sharma: “Create a social media account for your film. You're building a platform, a place to showcase your premiere at Slamdance and so on. Document your journey.”
Imani Davis: “Capture BTS (behind the scenes) moments on set. Use it on social later. On set, capture a 5-sec video clip of the vibe at the very least.”
Imani Davis: “Hot take: stop with the postcards. There are more impactful ways you can spend money and be less wasteful.”
BONUS: On how to think about your time
Sylvia Desrochers: “You did not make a film. You opened a small business. Even if someone acquires your film, think about what you want to do with your small business. You have to open the doors. You have to keep the doors open. If you can't think that way you need to find someone to help do that.”
: “Spend 75% of your time thinking about your film and 25% thinking about the independent film community.”“We have to keep the movies alive! Do something as simple as organizing a movie field trip where you email 10 (or 100) friends to meet at a theater.”
Film marketing ideas to try:
Sharing film (or film adjacent) marketing finds that made me stop scrolling.
Fictional social account: Lumon on Linkedin for the show Severance. Yes, this show had a macro-budget for marketing, but this idea is one that could absolutely be executed well without that studio-moola. What fictional company, person, character could you bring to life, importantly on a platform where your audience most likely is?
Create a challenge for yourself. Then document your progress:
Example 1: Zoya Garg (daughter of comedian Zarna Garg) set a goal for herself. To reach 10,000 book pre-sales for her mom’s memoir. Each week she shares in her IG highlights what she did, what she learned, and what progress they’ve made towards that goal. As a format this is interesting AND there’s a lot to learn from the content itself.
Example 2: Duplass Brothers Productions is doing something similar with their upcoming indie series The Long Long Night by pre-selling. Mark Duplass shares regular updates of this campaign on Instagram. Their progress is also saved to his highlights here.
Supercut of audience reactions: You’re talking to audiences after your screenings already (I hope!). Plan to film their reactions. This cut is so sweet and wholesome.
BTS. But make it a series: Rat Czar, an award-winning web series, posted ‘episodes’ of blooper reels. What video can you share that isn’t from your film? Can you make it a series? Bloopers by episode or character. Notes from each location. Daily crafty walk-throughs.
Joint giveaway with a screening partner (ideally of branded product or something related to your film): an example from The Ballad of Wallis Island.
What’s a recent film or brand campaign that inspired you?
Highlights from “Have You Seen My Film?”:
Where experts share their wisdom on indie film distribution.
Episode 10: How to throw a screening event?
“There’s a lot of psychology behind this. If you watch a film with a group of people that you like, you’re going to like it more than if you were watching it by yourself.” - Carla Santiago, founder and film marketer, at 13:48
Episode 11: Build a film community
“We created a system of donation. The movie was offered by donation including $0…97% of the people wrote $0. And yet with the 3% we were able to cover the budget of the film and have the money to do the next one.” - Maurizio Benazzo, filmmaker, at 6:30
Episode 12: Digital marketing and building big audiences
“Don’t spend on your movie until there’s a clear call-to-action that you can guage against it. Don’t spend to build an audience. Wait to spend until you have a house to fill…but that does leave ideally years to build an organic following.” - Dor Dotson, founder and film marketer, at 11:34
Episode 13: Going direct-to-fans and building your brand
“If you don’t have someone backing [your theatrical release] up with marketing dollars. I just was on the phone with a distributor, and they said if you’re not ready to spend $3,000 per theater than you shouldn’t go theatrical.” - Stephen Meier, filmmaker, at 6:25
Thank you for being here. If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend, and let me know in the comments what else you’d like to see in these film community round-ups.
So great meeting