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Distribution Defined

So, you've finished your media project -- your masterpiece. Now what?   Now it's time to use it.   And it's time to refer back to your notes that you created when you envisioned your story regarding your audience, how you will reach them, and how you hope your film will have impact. The most important thing to note is that distribution takes time, so set aside some if you want your story to be seen, heard, used, and even acted upon.

The following is an overview of different types of distribution activities. In devising a distribution strategy, you begin by considering who your specific audience is, and where and how they can be reached, and work backwards from there to determine which of the following activities are most worth your time, energy, and in some cases, money.

Traditional distribution

Traditional self-distribution
  • Have a screening. You can start with your own staff, constituents, students, friends and family. At the end of the screening, ask for suggestions about how to get the story seen. And when you get those suggestions, ask for help! You'd be surprised how many people offer to show the film at another event, organization,class, or group meeting. Consider having a moderated discussion and/or Question and Answer (Q&A) session with the filmmakers and audience. And have copies of the story with your accompanying materials there. Bonus: Make a note of what questions people ask during the Q&A -- these make great additions to a discussion guide, press release, or DVD insert.
  • Get your story shown at other events. Take advantage of the fact that meetings can be boring, and people love to spice them up with media to motivate other organizers and community members. Conferences, community meetings, parties, anniversaries, and even small group gatherings are all fair game. It always helps to have the creator(s) of the story on hand to answer questions, and you can do a Q&A session following the screening to get a good discussion going and open up potential opportunities with audience members.
  • Apply to film festivals. The film festival market can be a time-intensive, expensive, and competitive arena to navigate. But if your film is good, it will get shown. The trick is to do a lot of research about the types of movies each festival shows before you decide to apply. If they show only feature Hollywood movies or narrative shorts, and your film is a short documentary, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. In addition to sending a copy to the festival, you often have to fill out an extensive form, enclose a press kit and still images, and a fee of anywhere from $20 - $60 for each entry. If you write to the festival in advance, and plead your case (especially if the film is a nonprofit production), they may waive the fee. Concentrate on film festivals that are very specifically oriented to your community, area, and topic of focus, and you'll have more luck.
  • Send the story on DVD with each grant application. This is one of the easiest ways to make use of your film. It costs very little, and the benefits are immense. This is a rare opportunity to show your funders (or potential funders) what you really do by showing them the real stories of people you serve.
    Offer a DVD compilation of stories. Once you've produced a handful of short films, they can become even more powerful when offered as a collection. Create a DVD that will play all of your stories, and have several copies made to have on-hand to use as a marketing tool for your organization or issue. If the stories are high quality, you may even be able to ask for a donation or fee for the DVD.

Using traditional distributors

  • A film distributor is an independent company that acts as an agent for a filmmaker (or film production company) to market and circulate a film in festivals, theaters, television, home video (DVD, Video on Demand, Download, etc), and for educational purposes (curriculum tool, conferences, social/cultural/educational organizations, etc.).
  • Educational distributors - release films and other visual programming that can be used as educational tools. They may distribute to: schools, libraries, universities and colleges, museums, media centers, conference programmers, social and health service providers, professional/employee associations, government, community and grass-roots organizations
  • Home video distributors - release films in various forms that can be purchased for home viewing. This includes VHS, DVD, Video on Demand, Internet Download, Pay-Per-View, etc.
  • Television - release films and other visual programming to network and cable TV, public access TV Theatrical - release feature, documentary, and short films to the theater circuit

If you decide to use a traditional distributor, you definitely need to do your research before you approach one. Cynthia Close, the Executive Director of Documentary Educational Resources, suggests you research the distributor's website and consider the following questions:

  • "Look at the titles they present. Do they specialize in a particular genre? (In our case we only distribute documentaries, so don't send us your narrative feature starring Ben Affleck – although, if you made a film with Ben Affleck the distribution would likely be all locked up before the film was finished.)
  • Does the distributor have a content focus? (In our case, we lean towards “cross-cultural” films, films about human rights, the environment, people and places but not historical docudramas.)
  • Does the distributor address a particular market and is it the same market that you think will buy your film?
  • Do you like the way they present the titles they offer?
  • Does the atmosphere they create on the web look like it would be a good home for your film?" (taken from "Letter to a Filmmaker Seeking Distribution": http://aivf.org/08/03/letter-filmmaker) Patrick Kwiatkowski, the CEO of indie distributor Microcinema, suggests that: "Once you do get distribution, limit the rights you give. Don't give everybody the rights for World, DVD, VHS, the next thing after DVD, whatever they will play on the Starship Enterprise. Online companies ask for all of these rights, and yet they are online only. Get nonexclusive rights for a limited time, like three or five years. Give rights to a distributor for what they are good at doing; if they are not working in Europe don't give them European rights. I try to get those rights too -- I am just doing my job, but I know what I'm good at." (taken from " The DVD Isn't Dead...At Least Not Yet": http://aivf.org/08/03/why-dvd-isnt-dead-yet)

Distribution in the new media space

New media self-distribution options
  • Put the story on your own web site.  You can either stream the story from a streaming server, which requires some compression and knowledge, or you can have your webmaster link to a small, compressed version of your story that people can download and view. If you do this, your question should still be, how will people see the story? In addition to just sticking the story on your web site, you often need to send out an email or newsletter to invite people to see the story. In this case, treat the addition of the story to your site as an event in and of itself.
  • Upload your story to online video sites. Youtube.com can be a huge marketing tool for you, but you have to use it effectively. Once you upload your story to a site like Youtube.com, Blip.tv, Ourmedia.org, Creativecommons.org, or Mediarights.org, it's there, but you still have to get people to go and watch it.
  • Video Podcasting: A video podcast is a series of digital video files which are distributed over the internet using web feeds for playback on portable media players (i.e. iPod) and computers. A web feed allows people to "subscribe" to your video podcast and automatically receive downloads of video files that you post. Video podcasting is great for those who create a series of videos or episodes, and for those who frequently post new videos on their site. The most common tool people use for video podcasting is iTunes - where they can create their own podcast and allow people to subscribe. If you create new content pretty often or are creating a series of related episodes, you should definitely consider creating a podcast.
  • Mobile video: Trends are on the rise in mobile phone capability and content. People can now stream and download videos to watch on their mobile devices. Depending on the marketability of your film and how you want people to view it, you can compress your film into a format suitable for viewing on a mobile device.
Using new media distributors
Online pay-per-view / Video on Demand

Video on Demand (VoD) allows users to select and watch films on demand through the Internet. These sites either stream the content allowing for viewing in real time, or users download the content to view at any time. To access videos from many of these sites, users are either required to sign up for a paid subscription or pay a small fee per video. Multiple sites exist today that offer Video on Demand for major feature length films and television shows – such as iTunes, CinemaNow, ReelTime, etc. There are also a select number of sites that include independent feature length films, documentary films, and short films. The submission process varies for each site, but they generally require filling out a submission form with technical details about your film and sending a preview version of the film. Also, compensation for your film varies for each site. Submitting can help increase the exposure and potential revenues of your film. Keep in mind that just as when submitting to a festival, its important to first browse the other films on the site to make sure your film would be a good fit.

The following site provides an extensive list of Video on Demand websites that independent filmmakers can submit their films to (and possibly make money from): http://www.scottkirsner.com/webvid/gettingpaid.htm

Download This: The Future of Distribution is Just a Click Away
This article from AIVF profiles four pay-to-download online distributors (Movieflix.com, EZTakes.com, Jaman.com, and FIlmOn.com) with information about how to submit to each.

Legal concerns in online distribution

California legal guide

The Citizen Media Law Project has a great resource guide concerning legal rights in California including topics in online publishing. It may be a good idea to browse this site before you publish your video on the web. http://www.citmedialaw.org/state-guide/California

FAIR USE AND ONLINE VIDEO

The following link is a code of best practices in fair use for online video developed by the Center for Social Media. If you use copyrighted material without permission or payment in your creative works and publish it online, its important to understand the legal side behind this issue and make sure you are in line with "fair use". http://centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/online_video