It’s never been easier for low-budget filmmakers to show their work. And it’s never been harder for many of those filmmakers to give up the old ways.
They want to see their movie on a big screen; they want to walk down the red carpet at a premiere; they want to stand at the front of a theater and thank their friends and families and backers.
And if that insistence on a theatrical release slows down the advance of new media and new methods of distribution, so be it.
Unfortunately, this means filmmakers are missing the boat on developments that would enable them to cheaply distribute their films, insists independent film and digital media consultant Mark Lipsky, who runs Insight Cinema and writes the Incite Cinema blog.
"Unless your film has been fully acquired by a well-capitalized distributor (hopefully for more than a token advance), then you’re not only kidding yourself about the value of traditional theatrical, but you’re contributing to the delay in establishing a sensible, vital and self-sustaining film ‘nursery’ online where everyone gets a chance at life and the cream naturally rises to the top,” he wrote in an email to theWrap.
Despite the fact that streaming, video-on-demand and a variety of online and mobile applications are now making it possible for independent films to be seen around world, many of those involved in making and releasing films say the same thing: Filmmakers, even those with the smallest movies, want that theatrical release.
“I don’t know a filmmaker who doesn’t want his movie to play in a movie theater,” says Jonathan Sehring, the president of IFC Entertainment, which handles both theatrical and VOD releases. “But because of the economics it doesn’t always make sense for a distribution company or filmmaker to have his movie released on a big screen.”
Berry Meyerowitz, the president and CEO of Phase 4 Films, says the premiere itself is a powerful lure.
“Especially for smaller films, a couple million dollars or less, a lot of these producers and directors have made them as passion projects, and they’ve secured financing from friends and family and whoever else they can,” Meyerowitz says.
“Even when we explain to them how much it’s going to cost and that we don’t think there’s going to be much of a return, they want that premiere to be able to welcome everyone and have a party afterwards and have a drink and say thank you.”
“For us, theatrical was a deal-breaker,” says Daryl Wein, who directed the micro-budgeted romantic comedy “Breaking Upwards," which was acquired by IFC.
“We were really looking forward to having a theatrical release, but they just wanted to do it on VOD,” he told TheWrap. “The only way that they would agree to theatrical is if we put the $35,000 advance they gave us back into the marketing. So we did that, and we came up with an unconventional marketing strategy, a screening strategy that would target all of our demographics, and an online viral campaign that we did free of charge.”
