« Block, Light, Rehearse, Shoot | Main | The Spark… the first and most important step. »
June 07, 2005
Breaking the Mold… indie film distribution…
I’ve been paying close attention to a couple of moves within the indie film distribution world that for filmmakers like us out there, are very significant…
First came the formation of Picturehouse… Picturehouse is a brand new mini-major film distribution company recently formed by HBO and New Line along with Bob Berney and his team from Newmarket Films. Now it didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that now is the right time to form such a company if you have the resources that those three parties have… but what I find interesting is that with HBO in the fold, they are able to pick and chose which films go theatrical and which get shown on HBO… or even both… and possibly at the same time…
And then I saw this…
The idea that Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner hired Steven Soderbergh to direct six films on average budgets of 3-5 million dollars and then distribute them SIMUALTANEOUSLY in their theatres (Landmark Theatres), through their distribution company (Magnolia Pictures), on their tv station (HDNET) and on DVDs (Company TBD, possibly Lion's Gate?) SHATTERS THE DISTRIBUTION MOLD as it is known today. Now what does that mean for us indie folks?… well, right from the start, you get economies of scale when it comes to publicity and advertising which is huge when you’re counting your pennies trying to go up against the big boys with a small film. The jury is still out on if this will work or not but as the window between theatrical release and DVD release shrinks, this is where we’re headed… and with Soderbergh’s talent and Cuban’s money, I wouldn’t bet against ‘em.
I guess my point is that when we talk to investors about our project and how we plan to distribute it, to make their investment back, we make them aware that the indie distribution landscape is changing and that we’ve got be keep our minds open to new and different options when shopping for a distributor for our film.
For another article relating to the changes in indie film distribution go here. EB
Posted by ethan at June 7, 2005 12:50 AM
