Thinking About Distribution, Part1

 
Unless you plan on giving your digital feature film away then you need to think about distribution before you start to shoot it.

First thing that you need to consider in Length. Aim for at least 80 minutes of screen time for a feature. I know that many say that you have to go 90 plus minutes, but that is not a hard and fast rule. Evil Dead 3, Armies of Darkness comes in around 78 minutes. Anything over eighty minutes is good. I saw a very good German horror film at 61 minutes, but that is a one in a million shot. If you are under forty minutes think about Anthology. Do a Grindhouse or a VHS type of film. If you cannot produce more than one film see if you can then partner up with another film maker who has a film of similar length and genre that would combine to form something longer than 80 minutes. If you go over two and a half hours I would suggest breaking it into two parts or editing down. Micro budget epics are rare.

   

 Next think about Genre.

Some Genres are easier to market than others. Horror, Thrillers, Action are easy to market. Comedy and straight drama without a named Star is hard to market. I have seen some great comedies that find absolutely no audience whatsoever. If you are going to do a drama or comedy then you are going to have to start the marketing well before the feature is finished. You are going to have to market the stars and perhaps even yourself months in advance of any release. You will need clips and behind the scene’s footage. You are going to have to go out and find the reviewers and sites that are respected in your chosen Genre and get them to review your work. (Note this works for all other genres as well.)

You should also hold back part of your budget for advertising and distribution cost. Gone are the days of needed to pay for hard film copies of your work, but Dvds cost money to produce. Media packages cost money. Festivals cost money. Press release services and those that can aid you with social media cost money.
    

 Social media and social marketing are going to be a very important part of your distribution plan. The more that you learn to do for yourself the greater share of the return on investment that you will see. The next post will be about different distribution companies for hire and the idea to use Crowdfunding as a distribution avenue.

  

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Talking about Cameras

                Talking About Cameras


    Thank you for returning to my Blog. Trust me we will get our digital feature film made.Each of us who continue all the way to the end of this road will become filmmakers. I will not promise you that you will be great, but I can promise that you will have the tools necessary to finish a project.
    Let’s look at Cameras.  We are going to be looking at a great many cameras over the next few weeks.  For some of you it will be heaven and for others it will be a long trip.
    There are tons of information on digital cameras both online and in books. Begin your search here, but I strongly suggest you look everywhere for the answers that you seek.  Also keep in mind that your next camera is just that.  It is your next camera, it will not be your last nor will it be your only camera.  You will learn from it and grow with it, but you will move on as technology offers us newer and better options. There may be that one camera and or one rig that is your go to rig.  As in if my life depends upon this shoot I am going to use this rig, but you have to start somewhere.
    That is where the good and bad news is. You are going to experiment with many cameras and you are going to work with many people along the way. You are going to love some of what is to come and there is going to be times where you will be seen running and screaming off into the night from a set that you have lost control of.
There will be days where and when you believed that everything went perfect only to find that your camera let you down and that entire 16 hour shoot is unusable.  Be prepared. Grow a thick skin and accept that life is going to be very hard. You may come out the other side to fame fortune and glory, but in the beginning it will seem like ten things go wrong for every one thing that goes right. Most things are difficult in the beginning, but this is why most people never make it beyond the beginning. Like in the movie Carrie people are going to laugh at you, they are going to laugh. They will constantly tell you that you can’t do it while they are sitting around perfecting the art of accomplishing nothing. It will be easy to give up. It will be painful at times to go on, but if you do get up everyday and go on the rewards are truly beyond your wildest dreams.
    Where we are going to start is with the basics.  The Canon hv series of cameras and the added depth of field adapters.  We are going to look at each camera and hopefully at least one short film shot with each camera.  You will find the short films here or in our trailer park.
    This next video is a solid intro to the Canon hv 30 and what exactly is a dof adapter.