I am looking for a legitimate distributor to submit my feature film. It premiered on Dec 8 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We have been approached by a company who has no significant track record:( We've submitted it to another company that's established but we're waiting to hear back. Just wondered if anyone could offer sound guidance regarding other distributors.
Distribution : Legit & Fair by Denise Treadwell
Legit & Fair
Other topics in Distribution:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
1 person likes this
I'm an attorney and I get a lot of work from people unhappy with their distributors. There are a lot of shady ones in the business, and studios have created a system involving under-reporting of foreign sales so that they can claim that on paper they made very little money, so it is a problem for both high budget and low budget films, Another problem is people thinking they will make more in profits than they are entitled to- but to make a movie, you need distributors and advertising who can run costly campaigns. Netflix only pays about $1,000 for a low to medium budget film so don't expect to be paid just because your film is on Netflix. US Theatrical is no longer the primary source of income for a film, so it costs more to get your movie an international audience. The definition if distribution has changed, which also complicates things. Will they get your movie in US theatres? foreign theatres? DVD? Cable? Digital? for IPads? Netflix? Film Festivals? etc. One film can have multiple distributors. Find out in which ways they distribute the film and make sure that you are not barred from making it available through only certain markets. You may have national theatrical distributors, foreign theatrical, foreign DVD, US DVD, the digital market, services like Netflix, and distributors for cable tv. My one piece of advice if you want a good distributor is to get E & O insurance, or at least get all the signatures so the that the distributor can get E and O without a problem. Some distributors will pay for your E & O but they need you to keep track of all the releases and other documents so that getting E and O isn't a problem. But if you have E and O in the first place that makes things easier for a distributor. One last thing- get Gross Points, net points means not getting paid.
Thank you so very much for lending your expertise. Being new to the industry (film), it boggles my mind how much that I don't know...WoW! I've been in theater (writing and producing) for 13 years and only in the film-world for about 2. This is a whole different animal!!! I'm still struggling to learn the filmmaking lingo:) But thanks to forums like this and people like you, maybe the big bad wolf (industry crooks) won't get me on my way to grandma's house (a ligit distributor). Again, thanks.