I was fortunate in that the production company I worked with on two horror movies had a distribution deal with a large studio already in place before we even had the scripts finished. The deal was based on the reputation of the director and on a detailed treatment he had written. Then I was hired to take his ideas and make a completed script. And then we did it again. Eventually both movies were finished and were released worldwide on streaming and on DVD.
having watched a ton of videos on this channel I really appreciate how the interviewer never cuts off the interviewee and lets them talk all the way through. i’ve only seen a handful of interviews on youtube that actually do that
In other words, you need to be treating film production as a continuous series of projects, advancing to the next project as efficiently as possible. This means you need to be capable of paying rent and expenses for at least six months after your first film, and be prepared for that first film to be a flop. Technically, you could have a series of flops through no fault of your own. People like to chase the "next big thing," but you only hear about the successes, not the multitude of failures. So it boils down to having your vision about your film, doing what you can within the constraints of your budget, publishing it, then move on to the next film. Unless you discover that you find filmmaking to be horrible and without joy, which is your warning sign to bail.
Probably it's not that high. The survey is self-selected. That fact introduces a huge margin of error. I speculate that most respondents have had a bad experience, so they are more motivated to respond to a survey like this. People with good experiences, I speculate, have had an experience in line with their expectations and don't think it's special.
Many filmmakers are delusional. They can't see the fact that the movie they made is really bad. Some are straight up unwatchable. But for some reason they have this preconceived notion that the world owes them a favor just because they went through all that pain, hard work and spent thousands to make the movie. It's like I'm obligated to support this guy's awful movie just because of the hurdles he had to go through. I don't. Nobody does. No one forced you to make a movie, you made it yourself. But you can't pass that burden onto the audience for simply your movie existing in the marketplace. Some even go to the extent of hiring a troll army to gather fake raving reviews on Imdb. And then when the reality hits back hard, they blame the sales agent/distributor that something shady must be going on. Occasionally it is but, many times the culprit is your awful movie so accept the facts, stop being a narcissist, learn from your mistakes and move on. On the other hand, the majority of the indie films will generate between $10 to 35-40k during their life span. And the distributors know that their fees and expenses will eat up all of your movie's gross income. So when you sign that contract you're paying their six months worth of rent or their next trip to AFM or whatever. But who's at fault here? They're not a charity. It's shocking I know but they're in this business to make money, not to support your failing filmmaking career. So if you don't want to give everything you make to your distributor, then negotiate your terms. If they think your film's not worth that, then go distribute yourself. But whatever you do, stop being delusional and acting like the victim as if everybody's out there to get you somehow. Grow up and learn to own your mistakes.
You know, most of movies has studios meddling. The best thing I can give you as reference is with Peter rabbit 2 movies where writer doing sarcasm to producer where he wrote producer want shit that not related to main character lore from source material
As much as I enjoy the results of a well-crafted film on my TV or theater, I would hate to have to deal with that industry. It seems that top to bottom, it's infested with purpose-built scams to line the pockets of alot of people.
He starts off sort of blaming the filmmakers. He made excuses for distributors.. Communication is a part of the job. He obviously doesn't want to piss off the distributors.
Let’s give round of 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 to the number 86 which is such an unused and unusual number. (Think about it: when was the last time you said “eighty six” ???
i agree with him. Failure rate and false expectations are huge.
I was fortunate in that the production company I worked with on two horror movies had a distribution deal with a large studio already in place before we even had the scripts finished. The deal was based on the reputation of the director and on a detailed treatment he had written. Then I was hired to take his ideas and make a completed script. And then we did it again. Eventually both movies were finished and were released worldwide on streaming and on DVD.
Yo great work 👍🏾
having watched a ton of videos on this channel I really appreciate how the interviewer never cuts off the interviewee and lets them talk all the way through. i’ve only seen a handful of interviews on youtube that actually do that
More and more producers are beginning to sell independently and more platforms are starting to engage with us directly loosing the middle man.
In other words, you need to be treating film production as a continuous series of projects, advancing to the next project as efficiently as possible.
This means you need to be capable of paying rent and expenses for at least six months after your first film, and be prepared for that first film to be a flop.
Technically, you could have a series of flops through no fault of your own. People like to chase the "next big thing," but you only hear about the successes, not the multitude of failures.
So it boils down to having your vision about your film, doing what you can within the constraints of your budget, publishing it, then move on to the next film. Unless you discover that you find filmmaking to be horrible and without joy, which is your warning sign to bail.
Glen, Thank You Very Much for your Honest presentation.
Can you believe 86 percent of filmmakers don't trust film distributors?
Yes
Probably it's not that high.
The survey is self-selected. That fact introduces a huge margin of error.
I speculate that most respondents have had a bad experience, so they are more motivated to respond to a survey like this. People with good experiences, I speculate, have had an experience in line with their expectations and don't think it's special.
Yes!
Many filmmakers are delusional. They can't see the fact that the movie they made is really bad. Some are straight up unwatchable. But for some reason they have this preconceived notion that the world owes them a favor just because they went through all that pain, hard work and spent thousands to make the movie. It's like I'm obligated to support this guy's awful movie just because of the hurdles he had to go through. I don't. Nobody does. No one forced you to make a movie, you made it yourself.
But you can't pass that burden onto the audience for simply your movie existing in the marketplace. Some even go to the extent of hiring a troll army to gather fake raving reviews on Imdb. And then when the reality hits back hard, they blame the sales agent/distributor that something shady must be going on. Occasionally it is but, many times the culprit is your awful movie so accept the facts, stop being a narcissist, learn from your mistakes and move on.
On the other hand, the majority of the indie films will generate between $10 to 35-40k during their life span. And the distributors know that their fees and expenses will eat up all of your movie's gross income. So when you sign that contract you're paying their six months worth of rent or their next trip to AFM or whatever. But who's at fault here? They're not a charity. It's shocking I know but they're in this business to make money, not to support your failing filmmaking career.
So if you don't want to give everything you make to your distributor, then negotiate your terms. If they think your film's not worth that, then go distribute yourself. But whatever you do, stop being delusional and acting like the victim as if everybody's out there to get you somehow. Grow up and learn to own your mistakes.
THANK you.
You know, most of movies has studios meddling. The best thing I can give you as reference is with Peter rabbit 2 movies where writer doing sarcasm to producer where he wrote producer want shit that not related to main character lore from source material
All the movies aren't bad so there has to be something to the negative attention that distributors are getting.
I wonder if the pandemic has changed the way the distribution business is run?
Yeah. Especially the job searches in the film industry.
As much as I enjoy the results of a well-crafted film on my TV or theater, I would hate to have to deal with that industry. It seems that top to bottom, it's infested with purpose-built scams to line the pockets of alot of people.
It's like someone sold their arts to those money making fast food restaurants
He starts off sort of blaming the filmmakers. He made excuses for distributors.. Communication is a part of the job. He obviously doesn't want to piss off the distributors.
Let’s give round of 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 to the number 86 which is such an unused and unusual number.
(Think about it: when was the last time you said “eighty six” ???