9 Careers and distribution

 

Part 1: Where am I going?

1. What’s a career?

To many people, the idea of a career is something that you have for life - you move onwards and upwards towards greater financial and employment security. In the film industry, however, this doesn’t fit. A career in films means a series of jobs, each of them starting and ending with periods of no job in between a mix of employment and self-employment. But it is possible to aim for a situation where you successfully earn a living in films, linking together various skills you have and forming a coherent plan. With this plan you can make the best of your individual talents and where they can be used - all of which will help allow you to make your own films too.

If we use the term career loosely, the closest analogy is probably rock climbing. Forging a career in film is similar in that you know roughly where you want to go — up — and you know the skills to get you there. But each step can be gruelling and challenging because you have to make your own mark and find your own footholds for yourself. So, although the overall route may be clear, the small steps you make along this path may not be easy.

In essence, then, the film industry makes no effort to help prospective entrants into it, despite the seemingly ubiquitous nature of the moving image and the huge industry infrastructure in some territories where jobs are more common. In most places it is up to the individual to adopt an attitude of selfreliance, focus and persistence.

On the other hand, of course, all this talk of making it to the top gives the impression that it is an ‘all or nothing’ industry where you either become a star or you sink. The key to being successful in this industry is in realizing that there are many other levels to it, that opportunities exist right across the industry at every point, from no-budget right up to large features. If you are willing to multiply the possible aims you have - rather than relying on just one, such as making features - then the chances of your succeeding increase.

In practice: case studies

To get more realistic about what kinds of routes we are talking about here, let’s home in on some practitioners who are managing to do what they enjoy and work towards a better future position. All are at the start of their careers, developing skills but also trying to figure out exactly what it is they can offer and where their strengths lie. Names and companies have been changed.

Case 1

Josie is currently preparing a script for a short she has been working towards for six months. She has steadily raised funding for it from public arts agencies and from friends and family, and has been working in part-time jobs since leaving film school two years ago to save money for her projects. Recently, though, she has been working as an editor on several shorts, after a director of a film she edited for no fee recommended her to a friend. Sometimes she gets paid, sometimes not - ‘it depends on the movie and whether it will advance my skills in editing, and whether I like the script’. She also has income from a sideline in web design, having found this easy at college. Lately, this has become a big part of her income and is taking up more time. But Josie finds that she is managing to stay independent, make short movies, though not as many as she would like, and is optimistic about the future.

Next

‘I’m going to carry on with these various strands of my life. It’s tiring but in different ways I am doing what I love to do. If I can get a short into Clermont-Ferrand next year it’ll be a big step forward.’

Case 2

Alex was making shorts while at university but found that he was much more in demand among friends for his skills with the camera. He has just started to get paid for jobs and is thinking of going full-time into camera operating and then making shorts at weekends. He will have more money if he does but is worried about ‘selling out’ or giving up too much time. But being a DoP (Director of Photography) is better than his current job in a real-estate office, which he got because of his IT skills. A year of freelance DoP work and his résumé looks great, and Alex has had one or two returned calls from directors recruiting for larger projects. Against what he expected, his enforced absence from making films as he works on others’ projects has led him to start writing scripts, and spending so much time on sets means he knows just about every mistake directors tend to make.

Next?

‘Save and invest in my own films. I don’t make many now but when I do I’m quick, professional and everyone knows I know what I’m talking about. I’ve got some good contacts through DoP work and think I may be able to get a short sold to TV soon. I am also setting myself up as self-employed now that I am making a regular but small amount from the DoP-ing.’

Case 3

Lola has been making documentaries for some time and at the moment her one-person company, Insight, is loss-making in itself, but she supports it through her work as a video trainer. She organizes networking and screenings events for filmmakers, and has found more and more people want to do her basic documentary training courses. The training is so successful that Lola wonders now and then why she doesn’t just concentrate on this and stop making her documentaries. But Insight has started bringing other filmmakers on board to share the load and has become more productive. Their last movie, which Lola directed after travelling widely, was bought as a shorter version by a US cable channel and they were able to spend the income on issuing a DVD of the full cut. Her latest movie, an investigation into the World Bank, has been funded by asking for small donations from non-governmental groups in the developing world.

Next?

‘Raise funds for a more ambitious documentary. I’m also pitching for a three-minute slot on a TV channel soon because someone had sent the programmer our DVD. I’m getting there slowly - I just don’t know where “there” is yet. But I’ll know it when I arrive.’

What connects these people?

If we look for common threads in each of these cases we can see the kinds of skills and struggles that many filmmakers go through — the conflict between making money and being an artist, the search to find out what particular skills they have, and the need to keep plugging away at opportunities constantly.

Multi-skilled

Each filmmaker is remarkably multi-skilled, able to hop between film skills and less glamorous ones within the working day. They juggle with several tasks at once, running small companies, doing editing or DoP work, developing ideas for projects. In any given week, the ‘to do’ list is rarely focused on just one task. Instead, there are several strands to their working lives demanding attention, sometimes interacting - as when contacts made in a job can help with getting your films seen.

Conflict

In each case also there is a sense of conflict between personal aims and freelance work. Many people just entering the industry experience a slight sense of disillusionment as the scale of the odds stacked against them becomes clear. But this is often accompanied by a corresponding sense of empowerment as knowledge increases about the industry. Freelance work becomes the way to acquire knowledge that can help personal projects rather than an obstacle to them. In this way, any work at all in the film industry is beneficial in some way, not least because of making contacts. So, paid work can directly help personal movie projects.

Knowing your strengths

Another crucial element which contributes to the success of these cases is that they know their strengths and play to them. They may harbour pet projects that don’t seem possible just yet, but they also realize, especially Alex, that their natural talents may lead them to other routes. Alex is clear that he wants to carry on making short films, but knows that if people like his camerawork then he will plough that furrow too. In other ways, too, the other cases use sideline skills such as IT, training or funding to remain independent.

Work in other areas

Each person here also possesses more than one skill area. That doesn’t mean they were born lucky, but more that realism has taught them that a few safety nets are needed, financially. They learned pretty soon that they needed to use all they had to earn income and that using skills that people needed - IT, teaching and so on - paid more than manual work like waiting. So each has purposely developed and worked on skills they might otherwise have neglected. Josie, for instance, may make more money from web design for some time, but it will provide for her real aspirations and give her time to realize them.

Self-employment

Each of the filmmakers above is self-employed to some extent; they make some or all of their total income from jobs they find for themselves. In Alex’s case, he is practically self-employed right now, getting good jobs as a camera operator or DoP, and is able to consider this as a possibly stable source of income. After several months of this kind of work he may call himself a one-person business and formally adopt the role as one that he has confidence he can accomplish. It is common, then, to have a dual status as partly employed, partly self-employed and this may continue for some time, neither job fulfilling your income needs just yet.

It is also common to have two tax statuses - as employed and self-employed. This does get confusing when you have to declare your annual accounts and find yourself sorting through employment where tax has been deducted at source (as long as the job was not ‘cash in hand’ or not declared by the employer) and that where you need to settle the tax yourself.

Taxation

It might hurt to pay cheques to the tax service, but it does pay in the long run to become legitimate early on in your business life. As soon as you start earning for two or three jobs in a row and it looks like this may continue, go through the steps of becoming a one-person business. Keep records of what you spend and what you earn and, if possible, keep a separate bank account where you place a top slice of each job you get paid for. The good sell is that tax people are more likely to be nice to you if you are upfront and honest - for instance, by spreading payments to them from artistic earnings over a tax year instead of all in one cheque. Another good reason is that it is quite unlikely that you will pay any tax in the first two years or so because your ‘start-up’ costs are so large. Just about every spare cheque you get goes into the business in the form of a new Mac, an updated camera, new lenses, cables and so on. Each of these legitimate business expenses can be offset against tax, so you need to keep receipts of each item, even the very small stuff.

The bad sell is that if you get rumbled later in your career that you have not yet declared tax on significant sums, you will get the full force of the bureaucrats coming down on you. You are no longer small fry - the start-up solo business - but a terminal tax dodger. And in any case, an industry where you seek publicity is not the kind to be in if you want to hide your tracks from the tax people.

A final good reason for keeping good accounts and going legitimate is that there is a good feeling if you opt for this professional status. You actually feel more like a genuine filmmaker - you have the business card, the accounts, logo and so on. When times are tough, these kinds of affirmative signs are the ones to keep you afloat and feeling positive.

Checklist

• Contact your tax service - talk to them about getting help with setting up accounts
• Find out what items are legitimate tax-deductible expenses - these stop you paying so much tax
• Keep all receipts and file them
• Be legal about what you earn.

Taxable profits?

The operative word here is ‘taxable’. This means that not all your profits are available for the tax people to get their hands on. So how does this work? Suppose you earn $1000 in a year. You may have spent $800 on equipment and other expenses over that year, so this means that there is only $200 for the tax people to take a slice from. If tax was 25 per cent, then you only pay $50 in taxation. Obviously, figures go up and down according to where you live and most corporate tax is complicated enough to employ lawyers full-time. For emerging filmmakers this is the bottom line, but it is dependent on keeping strong accounts and having records of whatever you spend.

2. Careers: essential knowledge

One look at the story outlines in a recent film festival tells you that filmmakers have their eyes firmly looking outwards at the world. The idea of intense inner expression divorced from reality is not an option for most, as films are seen as essentially a tool for communication. They are a way of telling what happens in the places the filmmakers find themselves - whether this is in the social sphere (how we get on with each other), in the political sphere (what we do to each other), or in the moral or spiritual sphere (what we should do and be with each other). Filmmakers have a lot to say and they want to say it.

In most cases, filmmakers tend to be more attuned to the prevailing zeitgeist than other people, but this has traditionally been the role of the artist for centuries. Art often holds up a mirror which reflects the times, even if this is not at all intentional. Film in particular, perhaps because of this need to communicate above all else, tends to hold a clearer mirror than most art forms, reflecting closely what people think about, what they are scared by and what they aspire towards.

In this section we will see what kinds of areas successful filmmakers are interested in, which inspire films and motivate them to work.

What’s going on in the world?

Successful filmmakers tend to have a close relationship with the world around them. They do this by being at once detached observers and fully engaged performers in the human drama, stubbornly questioning and investigating how people live together in society. The zeitgeist is the current which they tap into.

Zeitgeist

We could define zeitgeist as being the prevailing winds that affect the social, political, personal and spiritual aspects of our lives. It is more than the sum of its parts, however; it is more like an overriding vibe, feeling or atmosphere that is the result of each of these aspects, but is multiplied because of the forms of communication we have. Certainly, a couple of centuries ago it would have been harder to talk about a shared zeitgeist when news from New York took months to arrive in Berlin, if at all. But in the highly talkative world we live in, we now experience rapidly spreading feelings, confined mostly to the industrialized nations but affecting us all.

Zeitgeists tend to change slowly, but occasional events that resonate globally can effect a sudden earthquake in our shared feelings. The 9/11 attacks, for instance, dramatically changed the world in each of the areas that make up the zeitgeist overnight. The destruction of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Russian Revolution could all be said to have had a similar effect. Other events act as a sudden signal to show us something we had not noticed was changing, such as the birth of the first cloned animal in 1996 (representing a new age in science) or the first TV presidential candidate debate in 1976 (representing the dominance of the media in democracy).

The connection between all the major events that happen in the world is that they affect our hopes and dreams, limiting or fuelling them, and - most importantly for the filmmaker - give us ingredients for our nightmares. What we are scared of has long been the holy grail for filmmakers, from Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove (nuclear annihilation), through to The Matrix (computers getting smarter than us). A film that would once have passed unnoticed can become a cultural must-see - purely as a result of its tapping into our fears. It makes good therapy. Directors who have one finger on the pulse of society notice where the times are heading and imagine the worst and best outcomes. In their films they express (temporary) universal truths about us all.

How you get the knowledge

So how do you get this inside knowledge? It comes about in two ways: one formal, the other informal. Making time for newspapers and journals allows you to soak up the daily mood. You start to notice the slow news (the trends) behind the fast news (the events) and they trigger ideas in your mind for projects. There is no need to force this process of absorption and creating - it is usually the case that after a while the zeitgeist seeps into your work. This results in some subtle investigations of what’s going on - such as 25th Hour, Spike Lee’s post 9/11 eulogy to lost time and redemption. It ends up being less ham-fisted than movies that deal with big events directly, such as David O. Russell’s Three Kings, which looked at the 1991 Iraq war.

Aside from straight news, there are also many signs in everyday life that point towards the zeitgeist. Some are in the streets, some on TV, many in people’s dreams - in the form of advertising images, fads or prejudices. Whatever and wherever they are, to the filmmaker they are content, and more importantly they are content that has an immediate audience.

To do

• Watch the TV news — it is the barometer of fear, as Michael Moore points out in Bowling for Columbine. Local news will be more populist and therefore more attuned to what we fear or aspire to.
• Don’t restrict yourself to national news or sites. Read news from the countries in which events happen by looking on the Internet.
• Sign up for real news networks - emerging sites which promote alternative methods of finding out about the world.
• But don’t avoid the mainstream press - read the news weeklies (Newsweek, The Economist, Time) for the status quo viewpoint. This will become the Greenwich Mean Time of your ideas about the world, so you can work out how divergent from this centre - to the left or right - everything else is.

What’s going on in culture?

This is kind of zooming in on a particular part of the zeitgeist, but affects not just the content of films but what form they take.

An awareness of the route that culture is taking can affect every aspect of your films - at its best ensuring that they highlight, and are at the forefront of, cultural changes. Film directors such as Baz Luhrmann or David Cronenberg make movies that seem at once a product of their time and a leap forward within it. Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge used CGI, a frantic editing style and a cultural melting pot of music to accurately reflect much of contemporary video and music - but at the same time looked like nothing seen before.

Each cultural epoch has its own character. If the 1990s were dominated by the ideas of post-modernism and irony (all those references to genres and movies from previous ages and other cultures), then today’s epoch is marked by a change away from this. Post-modernism was useful for the kind of world we lived in then - borders that used to separate different cultures were dissolving and so artists took parts of cultures they liked and fused them with others.

But times change. We have moved into another cultural epoch, which is characterized more by a converging of styles and crossover of technology. For example, video games borrow from cinema, which borrows from comic books, which are influenced by graffiti, which is influenced by consumer branding - and so on. Slicing across these convergent moments are technologies that encourage artistic products to overlap: the cell phone, computer-generated images and the iPod, for instance.

Go to: Chapter 10:2 for more on the place moving images have in our culture.

Absorbing (sub)culture

But why should anyone need to know what goes on in culture and subculture? The answer lies, ironically, in the need for originality. Most filmmakers desire their own personal stamp - a style that is recognizably theirs. This could be expressed in terms of the stories they make and the way they make them - their visual appearance. It could be argued that the filmmakers whose style is most unique are the ones who have absorbed the most from the world around them. They know how to locate themselves within cultural life and can identify where they are different to all the other movies around them. Their own ideas are thrown into relief as they experience those of others, and then see the value in their own work.

Beyond this, a wider range of cultural influences produces a wider range of variables - rather like being able to produce better perfume when you can mix from a thousand very divergent possible sources rather than just ten. As an example, the acclaimed cinematographer Chris Doyle, who photographed Rabbit-Proof Fence, In the Mood For Love and 2046, has arrived at a style that is uniquely his own. Widely travelled on the seas after working on ships, Doyle originates from Australia, found his camera style in south Asia and then found his artistic home, as it were, in the Far East, speaking Mandarin and becoming a sought-after DoP. The resultant style is a mix of something from all his influences, and the strength this uniqueness has given him has led him to question everything about cinematography.

The ability to absorb culture and subculture is one that helps to mould your own personal style. How do you achieve it? No single source will keep you in touch, but a mixture of printed, Internet and media sources should, between them, reflect the ephemeral passing trends as much as the resonant cultural moments.

To do

• Read arts pages in journals and newspapers - try online versions of The Guardian and New York Times. Also try Time magazine for what the mainstream thinks - if Time has highlighted a trend you know it’s the moment you should move onto something new.
• Read blogs and news sites that express opinions, not just facts. It is as useful to know what people think is happening as what actually is happening.
• Argue with friends and other filmmakers. Hone your opinions about everything you see.

What’s going on in the industry?

The film industry is notoriously hard to pin down as it shifts and evolves on an almost weekly basis. One week independents are hooking up with the major studios, then the following week one of those studios gets swallowed by a Japanese conglomerate. Lower down the chain, a tax loophole is closed, certain territories become flavour of the month as shooting locations - Mexico, then Canada, then Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, festivals go from independent to mainstream and then back again changing identities, while markets fall out of favour and new ones crop up. Only the most ardent industrywatcher could keep up with the changes.

Tracking change

For the emerging low-budget filmmaker, whether wanting to work in the multimedia underground or direct a feature, it is much easier to track the changes going on in their own sector. With the web this is easier, since the range of sources and news is huge. Bulletin boards, blogs and news sites spread word of what is shifting before the ground shakes - alerting you to changes in every aspect of the industry. By contrast, film magazines are at least two months out of date by publication and are now sensibly taking a loftier position as notaries of the overall direction the industry is going in.

In terms of your overall career, a knowledge of what is going on in the film industry is the first step to getting involved in it. You can then identify opportunities that could help you in terms of festivals that may take your movie, websites that could advertise it or fund-holders that could help on your next project.

To do

• Sign up for every email newsletter you can - public arts, film support boards, finance commissions and newspapers (Variety, The Hollywood Reporter).
• Network with other filmmakers to find out about opportunities.
• Read Screen International and other industry papers.
• Read blogs for emerging news.
• Attend briefings and workshops about film industry issues (check with local film groups, public arts agencies and film schools).

3. Essential qualities

Filmmaking is a multifaceted art form. It utilizes elements from other art forms, such as lighting, storytelling, music and sound, and asks directors to have at least a working knowledge of each area. On another level, the industry itself is composed of different elements - different territories, different economic models and, with technological advances, different ways of watching films.

It seems logical, then, that the smallest but most necessary cog in all this — the filmmaker — needs also to be composed of varying skills and qualities. And as the industry changes, so to do the skills filmmakers need.

In this section we will take a look at the kinds of qualities that successful low-budget directors tend to have. At the heart of this discussion, however, there is a big vacuum of something which we can’t talk about but which propels each skill forward: talent. Talent is the unquantifiable part of the equation. But some people in education question whether talent exists at all or whether it is simply a mix of five parts inner compulsion to two parts ambition/desire to three parts practical skill. Skills in filmmaking tend to focus on technical aspects more than any other and it could be argued that without this you won’t get anywhere. But skills also means the personal qualities you develop, the modes of working, the attitude you adopt and the way you interact with other people.

This list has been drawn up after many interviews with filmmakers working in the difficult environment of the low-budget sector, but who somehow seem to thrive and experience some success in these arid conditions. What are the qualities which have seen them succeed?

Flexibility

This ingredient is going to reappear in various guises throughout this list. Flexibility is the oil that greases all the other personal skill areas. In this context it means being able to think fast, switch plans quickly, adapt to new situations and accept change readily.

At the forefront of this skill is a sense of being focused on what is important — in your movie or in your wider career. This means that you need not be fixed or rigid in many aspects of your work because you have ‘ring-fenced’ the most essential, core aspect. You have determined what is not negotiable - perhaps a certain theme or idea that the film revolves around - and so you then have a sense of proportion about everything else. It’s a kind of ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ moment, when almost everything can be stepped on - or changed - except the most precious central idea to the movie. An actor may have to be replaced, a location suddenly changed, a scene reshot or even mid-production rewrites of the script - in fact, anything except the key idea that drives your movie. While making The Shining in 1980, Kubrick famously rewrote almost every day, eventually having to colour code different versions to clarify which was which. In this case, as in yours, the aim was to boil down the script to its most essential parts, filtering out what he saw as the periphery in the original King book.

Mantra:

‘Everything is up for grabs except this scene here.’

Persistence

One common misconception about the low-budget sector - including shorts, music videos, multimedia work and so on - is that only the good stuff rises upwards into more mainstream sectors. It may seem obvious to think that because your film did not get into a festival it was because it was not good enough or that if you did not get funding from a recent public arts scheme it was because you had a lousy script. To get a more realistic view, we need to see that on the opposing side to the director is an essentially entertainment-based industry who see the films they want to and not necessarily the ones that are best.

Caught in the middle are the organizers and programmers of festivals, TV schedules and screenings, and the holders of funding budgets, who tread a fine line between the two sides. Their decisions about whether to accept your movie for this or that event are based on what is good for the event as much as what is good in critical terms. So if in a festival there are programmed lots of politically related shorts, then a few comedies or polymedia works should redress audience balance. Likewise, if a large number of documentaries are being booked, more fictional work might be needed. As one festival organizer said, ‘What do people like to watch? They want to laugh - and see something that pushes the envelope a little.’

A filmmaker who sends off a tape may be disappointed by repeated rejections, but if you cast a wide net and keep sending tapes to events then you are likely to find an audience for your movie. Even if ten festivals wanted your movie, less than that number may be able to programme it within a balanced schedule.

Persistence is as essential at this micro-level of day-to-day work as it is on a broader scale of your overall plan. Allow yourself multiple chances and repeated shots at your targets. If rejection comes your way repeatedly, don’t interpret this as a sign of anything to do with the quality of the movie - however tempting. Probably the only people who should be able to convince you that what you have made is not right will be those who have supported you at other times - the filmmakers you share ideas and screenings with.

Mantra:

‘The harder I practise, the luckier I get.’

Gary Player, golfer   

Good organization

Artistic people are chaotic - allegedly. It goes with the image of the creative genius to be unable to sort out the minutiae of life - the bits of paper and the deadlines - because the demands of great thoughts get in the way. Ironically, given its almost innate distrust of maverick genius, it is Hollywood that has done most to foster this view of the artist in movies such as Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, 1956), The Agony and the Ecstasy (Carol Reed, 1965), Shine (Scott Hicks, 1996) and Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984).

For filmmakers the real picture couldn’t be more different. Filmmakers tend to possess more organizational power than most artists, requiring a whole raft of conditions before they can begin work, as opposed to the needs of writers or painters. Few art forms are as dependent on technology and on collaboration with other people as this. As a result, after making only a couple of shorts, most filmmakers tend to possess the kinds of organizational skills that could evacuate a town, stage a coup or set up a presidential inauguration (a filmmaker would probably be the first to figure out that it is easier to do the first and then the second during the third).

In practice, being organized means foresight, thinking in advance about what you want to happen. The level of your organizational skills determines how flexible and adaptable you can be should your plans not go as you would like. Intense planning can, in fact, enable greater freedom and spontaneity. The producer of Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004), Anne Walker-McBay, remarked that given the size of any production, even a moderate budget movie, they needed a strong plan in order to allow themselves the freedom to improvise. In other words, with the safety net of every eventuality covered and every possible need foreseen, the director was able to try out new ideas on set and go with ideas from the collaborating actors.

Good organization means covering all bases, looking at possibilities rather than just what should happen. If flexibility is being able to respond to sudden change, organization is about having several plans up your sleeve to help you know how to respond. It’s about having a plan for every part of the production, which everyone knows about, but which is backed up with a plan B and even a plan C.

Mantra:

“If you think you are overdoing the preparation, you’ve probably got it right.”

Work discipline

This hardly needs emphasizing because any filmmaker - or artist - who feels deeply about a project is going to do just about whatever it takes to complete it. Obstacles and hiccups, diversions and hold-ups only serve to increase their determination. It is a common trait of many successful filmmakers at lowbudget level that work is not seen as something separate from their lives. Work spills over into nights, weekends and holidays, and to many there are no off-duty moments. But crucially the filmmakers themselves don’t mind. Work isn’t just a day job, it is a necessity. On a semi-serious note, the frequency with which the term “my baby” is used when filmmakers talk about a project suggests a parallel to parenthood, where care of the infant is not questioned even when the days and nights are long.

From another point of view, it is useful to look at what is happening when you feel that you are not working hard. If you know that you are not putting in the necessary hours but just can’t figure out why, it may be worth considering whether this is the right project at all (the parallel with parenting ends here, incidentally). Don’t make any sudden decisions, but there may be benefit from putting a project to the side for a while, leaving you to concentrate on developing others, and return to it later. Often, though, you just need to drop it. It happens to the best directors too. Terrence Malick famously ditched his biopic of Che Guevara in 2004 to work on his own version of the Pocahontas story, leaving his lawyers to pick up the pieces, although no specific contract or legal small print had been broken.

Mantra:

“Pain is just another opinion.”

From A Man Called Horse (Elliot Silverstein, 1970)   

Self-awareness

Self-awareness could be defined as having a realistic knowledge of who you are, in terms of what you are good at, where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and how you tend to work. In a sense, if your career plan is like a path, then this skill is like the global positioning system that helps you along the way.

To get a good picture of what your strengths and weaknesses are, make a list that brings together technical, artistic and other aspects to your work. Include ideas such as lacking confidence with editing or the characters you devise in your films. There will be some ideas that some call strengths and others weaknesses, such as being obstinate or stubborn.

Following on from this exercise, also take a look at the obstacles and opportunities - what might be termed respectively the “shut doors” and the “open doors’ - of the last year or so and ask how you have responded to these. Do you leap into opportunities? Do you stall at the first hurdle? How you dealt with problems and chances is valuable knowledge.

Mantra:

“Know yourself.”

From the temple of the oracle of Apollo   

Teamwork and people skills

In today’s multi-skilled workplace our expectations about how we should behave to each other have changed a lot. Even a shop assistant is now given voice coaching on how to answer the phone and we expect high levels of interpersonal skills from just about everyone we meet. This new protocol, however, is not the whole story when it comes to how we work with each other; being able to lead a team or collaborate means going beyond this.

The low-budget sector is a highly networked one, where personal contact and relationships are the main ways of establishing deals and taking opportunities. Skins are certainly tough but in this sector, where the main currency is shared respect and mutual assistance, your credit will quickly become low if you don’t reciprocate. These skills include: listening; not judging without proof (ignore gossip); involving and valuing people; aiming for consensus (but knowing how to make firm decisions without alienating people); returning favours and calls; taking criticism; and keeping people you work with “in the loop”, or aware of what’s going on. No one can fulfil all of these aims all the time, but if you just add “being able to say sorry” to the list you should have all bases covered.

Equally important is knowing when to unleash the filmmaker’s most devastating tool - the ego. Every artist has an ego, but when you only have paint palettes or typewriters around you it doesn’t matter too much about keeping it at bay. Successful filmmakers at every level of the industry tend to be successful collaborators (Mike Leigh, the Coen brothers, Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, for example) and yet they are driven by their creative desires as much as those directors whose tantrums are their hallmark (for instance, Ridley Scott or David O. Russell), and probably get more Christmas cards from former colleagues. In the low-budget sector, we have seen how it is the norm to have people working for free on your set and so it makes it even more necessary to rein in the ego slightly. A useful strategy is to allow the development stage of a movie as the arena for the ego, where you can play and experiment with what you personally want to do. By the production stage you can rein it in a little, as your ideas meet reality. The editing stage can be a time once more to let the creative demands of your ego run freely again.

Mantra:

“Slowly, slowly catchee monkey” [or tread softly and you get what you want].

Professionalism

One of the most striking aspects of the low-budget film community is the degree to which filmmakers refuse to act like the poorer cousin of the mainstream industry. Their main weapon in this is their professionalism - a manner of doing business that is thorough, realistic and efficient. It is the maintaining of high standards and high aims in day-to-day work and in all dealings with the people you work with.

Filmmakers adopt ways of working which are consistent with any level of the industry, while the aims they have belie the budgets they work within. Every day there are film productions going on with funding budgets of less than a family’s weekly food bill. And yet a visit to these sets would show a production of anything but low expectations. There are quality cameras, rigorous plans, rehearsed actors, and all in a safety-aware set. In short, despite every financial obstacle, filmmakers find a way to live up to their high expectations.

Mantra:

“Start as you mean to go on.”

4. Three stages of a career

For many filmmakers there are stages through which they travel as they become more confident and financially secure. Although this is a simplistic model, it is worth pinning down the stages that you are likely to go through in achieving your aims of being entirely self-sufficient working in some aspect of the film industry. It is a whole lot more gradual than it appears here, but there are certainly incremental steps that occur as you move on. If you label these as they are described below, then you may feel some satisfaction as you see your working life change and you visibly move to another level.

Stage 1: Expansion and investigation

How do you know you have started? When are you actually a filmmaker? It is certainly not like a job where you turn up one day and soon are employee of the month. Many filmmakers have been making moving images in some form since their early teens, while others were writers or actors and then directors. Artistically, you have probably been a filmmaker since your first VHS movie at high school, but in terms of a career, we could tag the date as when you began making plans to become self-employed, to live as a filmmaker.

The first year in this new unpaid job will be the one where your reserves of optimism and positivity are in demand. Sometimes it may be hard to motivate yourself, but it will not actually be the most exhausting - that comes later. This stage consists of a wide-ranging move to make contacts and establish relationships with other people in your position. You investigate every opportunity and collect phone numbers and email addresses. This is a time of trying out every possible way to get films made and get them seen. No avenue is too small for you to try, no competition too local or too small.

Trying anything

You may have no preconceived ideas yet of who you are or what you are good at, preferring to try and fail or succeed to find out where your strengths lie. You volunteer for small productions for friends, try editing, dubbing, recording your own music, try out filmmaking styles and discard them the next day. Failure becomes as much a part of life as success and you learn to enjoy the thrill of not knowing whether you can do something.

You may be working on lots of projects simultaneously and you know that several won’t make it beyond the ideas stage. Your projects range from the sort of film you always wanted to make to the ones you would not imagine ever making, but you might find that it’s the latter that stimulates you more, boosting your confidence as you complete them.

As well as making contacts, chasing dead ends with opportunities that don’t materialize, making films you like and those you don’t, you may be considering ways to earn money from all this activity. Is it possible to cut down the day job and do more filmmaking? Is there some skill related to filmmaking that can take over the day job? As your confidence grows and you encounter more people who earn an income from some aspect of the film industry, you start to see the possibilities for devising your own route. With your frantic networking and chasing opportunities, you have been slowly laying down the roots of your career in the film industry, but it is yet to be seen what form the outcome will take. The only obstacle will occur if you try to limit your horizons and focus too much on one kind of opportunity. To stretch the analogy further, roots tend to be far broader and wider than whatever they support. So, try to experience everything and assume that unless you have tried it, there is the possibility that you can succeed in it - whether this is writing, camera work, editing, producing, designing or managing a production.

Stage 2: Focusing and defining

After the first, chaotic year, the next stage is more reflective. This doesn’t mean you slow down or become less ambitious. It means that you decide which projects are worth your attention and which are not. You start to adopt a more sceptical, stealthy approach as you try to steer your career for the first time, rather than just hitching a ride with it as in the first stage.

In terms of work, this stage can become the most exhausting, as the stakes are raised in every job you do - whether in productions for other people or for yourself. Everything seems more precious now - the kind of work you do, how you do it and what you do with it. But at the same time you start to get pulled in two directions as the need to earn a steady income doesn’t go away and yet the days seem shorter. How do you fit it all in? Most of the time you don’t. In fact, it becomes a hallmark of this stage that overload seems to be your main characteristic of your daily work. But you start to notice more the occasional hits among lots more misses - becoming far more optimistic in the face of rejection and obstacles. The difference at this stage is that last year’s jobs were easy come easy go, but this year it all matters so much more, so you are at once protective and fiercely defending of your projects.

Evaluating Stage 1

In this stage the key is to tease out the successful elements from Stage 1 and embed them in this stage. Try, without any preconceived ideas about who you are, to figure out what people liked and what you did well in the first stage. Through quiet, reflective evaluation you can trawl through the good and bad moments of the first stage and try to find out the people who helped you, the movies you made that people liked, the parts of those movies that people really liked (the camera work, the editing, the stories), the technical stuff you found easy. In doing all this you are looking for threads that you can tie together. For instance, look for similar elements in your work, similar comments people have made or more than one good reception at a particular screening or network gathering.

Any two instances or more of any positive aspect in the first stage should be noted as a strength. These you can forge on with in this second stage. You may also want to discard certain successful elements because you want more challenges and feel you have investigated something as far as you can. This is positive too, since they can be noted as successes and possibly returned to in later years.

Financially, this period may see some return - though modest. You may sell a short movie, but this is rare. The purpose of the short, after all, is as a calling card leading to other steps forward. But you may find that freelance work for other people’s productions is now paid rather than deferred (i.e. unpaid). You may also find that a wider use of the skills gleaned from filmmaking, including associated ones such as web design or training, start to replace the income from manual day jobs such as waiting. As we have seen in the case studies, there may be times when you get concerned that these peripheral skills might take over your creative life. This itself will be good practice, however, for learning how to steer your career rather than being led by it.

This period, then, is one of transition, one of looking backwards and forwards - backwards as you take account of successes and forwards as you focus on where to spend your energies.

Stage 3: Sustainability

This final stage in the development plan is where you establish ways of working that are sustainable, in an environment that supports you financially but also nourishes you artistically. Certainly, there will be many times when you feel anything but nourished, but this stage is not about the day to day, it is about setting up a long-term plan that carries you forwards.

The aim is to have enough financial return from the wider skills you have from filmmaking and enough time to make your creative projects. If you can focus on these aims then it is likely that you will feel successful. But if you start to measure success in terms of rising stardom and bigger cash reward, it is just as likely that you will feel a failure.

Getting a method

The filmmakers who reach this level of sustainability tend to possess many of the qualities described earlier in this chapter, including flexibility, good self-organization, professionalism and a strong sense of identity. Let’s clarify how this impacts on your movies. It doesn’t mean that you become closed to new artistic challenges nor that your films are any less original than at earlier stages of your career. Artistically, you are still the live wire you were, and in fact you now have greater courage because trying new ideas is harder when you have had some success in old ones. It is instead your working methods that become fixed in a sustaining pattern.

Where next?

This third level is not the final stage, it is more like the end of the beginning and the start of the pattern that can help you to flourish. From here you may move onto more specific routes - types of movies or themes, for instance - that have their own stages involved. But each of these routes will have their own cycle of development, which resembles the overall one described above of: (1) exploration, (2) focusing and (3) sustainability.

5. The career map

The aim of this map is to relate the common experiences of many successful low-budget filmmakers as they have progressed from first steps to a sustainable career. What is most apparent from the many interviews that have built up this picture is that there is no single route guaranteed to bring success; most filmmakers have followed opportunities and taken chances, and in doing so have ended up in a strong position. But the overall picture is that there are smaller routes you can enter that tend to lead towards the same end, like tributaries of a river.

The reason this information is laid out as a chart is precisely because there is no single route, just lots of mini-paths that lead to the same point. It is more appropriate, then, to describe these in a form that shows how they parallel each other, cross over other paths, converge in places and branch off into other smaller diversions.

The advantage of seeing this kind of map is that it allows you to identify certain points as being valuable, that what looks like a dead end is in fact a useful stage. The idea of making a sustainable career in films may seem daunting and unreal when you are at the outset, but seeing it “from above”, as it were, enables you to glimpse how to move from place to place, steadily pacing forward. It is indeed a jungle out there and it is easier to get through when viewed from above.

Below is a description of the stages outlined in the map.

Preparation

What it is

This is concerned with laying the groundwork for future moves. At this stage you are making your first short movies, investigating what your tools can do, picking up the basic skills in shooting and editing. You will aim to make lots of mistakes here, developing the first ideas of what sort of films you like and what you want to make.

What to do

• Make movies quickly and often.
• Go through the checklist of what you need to be and know (see Chapters 9:2 and 9:3).
• Examine what sort of movies you like to make.

Get experience and skills

What it is

This stage is all about equipping yourself with skills and experience, to give you the facilities to become more independent. You are experimenting with many kinds of films, trying styles and discarding them, and trying to figure out what form your particular voice will take: will it be documentary, multimedia work, drama or other forms? You are now ready to start Stage 1 of the three stages outlined in Chapter 9:4.

What to do

• Work on other people’s projects and learn what you can in situ.
• Make shorts from the projects in this book.
• Sign up for courses in specific skill areas. Don’t look for long-term academy-style courses just yet.

Aim for short courses that last a few days in camera skills, editing, scripting and so on.

Film school

What it is

Not all filmmakers go to film school and there is a perennial debate in the filmmaking community as to the merits of long courses. The majority who have completed courses describe its benefits, but there are equal numbers who did not do film courses and who still go on to make films that people want to see. Some courses repeat a tired, out-of-date curriculum, and do not prepare students for the contemporary film industry. But the vast majority do have something to offer the aspiring filmmaker.

What to do

• Think about whether film school is right for you now. Are you trying to put off having to deal with the film industry proper? Or are you clearly in need of more development before you branch out alone?
• Check whether the film course is the right one. Visit institutions and see what kinds of work the students do, how often they see their professors, how well equipped the campus is. Find out about industry links and whether students get interneeships or placements in companies. Most of all, check the costs - hidden as well as upfront.
• Consider a postgraduate or master’s course if you already have a degree. Many film schools do not insist on a film degree to get onto a master’s film course. It is common to study English, for instance, as an undergraduate and then practical film at a higher level.

Crew member: runner/researcher

What it is

At this point you are in the thick of Stage 1 in the three-step plan in Chapter 9:4. You may already have experience of low-budget productions and now you want to gain experience at a higher level. You start to move on from films made by friends and peers into applying for positions in larger, funded productions further afield. The pressure will be greater and you won’t get paid at first, but soon the paid positions will trickle in.

This may be a stage that has great potential. In the map this area branches off into a route of its own, enabling you to work in parallel with boxes 5 and 6 in Figure 9.4, where you are actively making your own films. Increasingly, you may then get jobs on films that are more within your own area of expertise, the result of skills you have built up over the last period of study in boxes 2 and 3. You may also find that you build up contacts widely through your work on these productions, and are more able to recruit reliable crew for your own projects.

What to do

• Subscribe to filmmaker bulletin boards and news sites.
• Prepare a c.v. or résumé.
• Make a showreel of your work and have copies ready to send to productions.
• Apply for many jobs, expecting most to be unsuccessful.

Making your own films

What it is

This area is the reason why all the other routes are being pursued so hotly. You are seeking contacts, money, skills and opportunities so that your own films can have a better and longer life. This area forms the backbone of the map from now on. You now have the tools to make films that you actually want people to see.

At this point you are entering the second stage of the three-step plan in Chapter 9:4. You are starting to be more careful about what jobs you take - including those on other people’s productions in box 4 of Figure 9.4.

What to do

• Keep revisiting Stage 2 to refresh and update your skills. Attend short courses and one-off events. Find out what is going on in the industry more closely and identify the opportunities that are right for you.

• Although you have been making films throughout this whole map, it is only the ones you make now that are going to get exposure.
• Enhance your knowledge of the industry, so that you are more aware of opportunities. Also keep your ear to the ground with broader social and political events to give your films greater depth. See Chapter 9:2 for more on this area.

Get feedback constantly

What it is

This is an integral part of your career plan and is going to become a constant companion route through every stage you enter from now on. Your films now deserve a greater exposure and in the next box you will be finding ways to do that. But right now you need to find out what your films are like before everyone else tells you. This involves getting a network of people whose views you trust to help you evaluate your work. All this feeds into your work as you move through the creative cycle of filmmaking to evaluating, taking on board new skills or ideas and then back to filmmaking again. Your peers and colleagues are crucial to the process of evaluation.

This process is not, however, like running focus groups, where cross-sections of an audience can influence a film before it is completed. Instead you are seeking constructive views on what you have done, like holding up a mirror to your work. Being at the centre of the creative process offers the worst possible vantage point for viewing it objectively.

What to do

• Build links with other filmmakers, via screenings, local film groups and productions.
• Offer feedback to your colleagues, suggesting constructive proposals rather than generalizations m
• Don’t be shy about your work - spread the word about your new screening and hire a cinema or arts centre to show it.
• Evaluate carefully what people say about your films. If responses are negative, albeit nicely worded, look at every aspect of the film. Weigh up whether you agree with their ideas. If you reject advice, that’s fine too - the process of evaluating has simply reinforced what you thought so you are stronger in your opinions now.

Get your film seen

What it is

This box represents a process that may occupy you for some time, as you investigate outlets for your movies. In terms of the three-stage plan in Chapter 9:4, you are somewhere near the end of Stage 2 right now, having moved on from the frantic period of investigation and expansion into the more focused period where you concentrate on making better films and getting the right opportunities. In Chapter 9:8, which looks at the full range of options for getting your work seen, you can take a longer look at each possible route and figure out which one looks right for your movie.

Some individual routes in this area branch off to more specialized areas - for instance, in online viewing sites. In these cases, let your film move as far forward as it can, even if it was not quite the route you had in mind originally. Let the film find its audience. For instance, if your film has a slightly futuristic tone you may find sci-fi cable channels want to show it, which could lead to sci-fi festival showings, even if you had not envisaged being a part of this genre.

What to do

• Use the chapter on getting your film seen.
• Prioritize which outlets you go for. If you want to sell through DVD or get a limited theatrical release (for features), don’t put the film out into the public arena on the web or on TV.
• For multimedia work (VJ-ing, for instance) try clubs and party organizers first.
• For music video directors, apply to smaller labels more willing to take a chance on you. Also contact agencies who represent promo directors. See Chapter 9:8 for more details.
• Decide whether you want sales or exposure (shorts are more like calling cards rather than moneyspinners).

More ambitious projects

What it is

At this stage you have had some success with showing your films at local and national screenings. You may even have had your work selected for compilation DVDs by music video or short film organizations (Onedotzero or Resfest). You have had your share of rejections and have found which outlets are more open to your particular work. Your list of contacts is large and you have many opportunities to find out what other directors make and what they think of you. Your confidence is high and you know exactly where your strengths lie. At the same time you are now restless for the next challenge and start to seek out more ambitious projects.

You may also be working on projects which support you financially, as a crew member in other productions or using your skills in other ways: you may be involved in training or education in film or video, or making commercial films for corporate clients or advertising firms. You are now entering the more sustainable period of your career, as you have the support to let you make your films, feedback from peers, a knowledge of the industry, and have a strong sense of your own identity. Now is just the time to challenge it all in new and more daring projects.

What to do

• Check your showreel, résumé and promotional tools (DVD, website and so on).
• Investigate more specialized and higher level sources of funding from public and private sources.
• Look for creative ways of getting support - for instance, in borrowing cameras and equipment.
• Develop a sustainable cycle of working where you overlap post-production on your last project as you plan and prepare the next.
• Into this cycle you can now incorporate a new element of promotion, where you maintain your links with the more successful routes you identified in the last box. So if a certain festival liked your work, keep up to date with their next submission deadline.
• Visit more film festivals and start to seek out how your larger projects could be funded and displayed.

6. Career troubleshooting

In this section we are going to look at the most common problems filmmakers find when they feel that their career is not going forwards. Like those irritating troubleshooting guides in software manuals, the exact question you want may not be here, but the general issues covered below may apply to most questions. The ones selected are often the most frequently heard by film professors and help bulletins.

Problem: My career has stalled

Many filmmakers find themselves far from where they actually want to be for protracted periods. It seems like some wind has blown them off course and they start to question what they are achieving. Each project becomes a chore and frustration and disillusionment set in.

Solution

Slow down for a while. Although it may seem as if you have stopped moving in any direction, it is often at times like this that people tend to thrash around in desperation trying to hitch onto any passing object that will take them forwards.

• Take a long look at the path you are on and figure out how far you are from where you wanted to be. Have you in fact arrived somewhere else, but don’t recognize it yet? For example, you may have yet to make a short film you like, but have successfully written scripts for other filmmakers.
• Look at the three stages outlined in Chapter 9:4 regarding career development. Have you opted out of Stage 1 early, with the result that you are trying to focus and narrow your sights before you have actually investigated more possible avenues?
• Try hyping up your milestones more often. Take a look at what you have achieved and mark them in some way. For instance, you may have completed short films but let them slip into a life on the shelf without showing them around. Arrange a screening of your work for other filmmakers and friends and make a big deal out of it.
• Take a more long-term view. You are in the middle of a blip, a temporary downturn which will pass. Take this period as a chance to reflect on and evaluate what you have achieved so far. Use the time positively and you will start to see it as a necessary period in a creative life.

Problem: I don’t like anything I make

It is healthy to have a certain level of inbuilt self-criticism regarding your work. You should subject it to a rigorous set of criteria that you alone have devised. In this way your movies will gradually evolve. But for many filmmakers this goes too far and starts to interfere with the creative process rather than nurture it. For some, the thought of watching their own movie brings on something near to depression as they see only the negative aspects of it. The signs of this self-criticism become more apparent when the movie needs its maker to push it out into the world and find an audience, but instead gets disowned and then shelved. Part of this problem stems from the long production life most films take. From ideas through to shooting to editing and promotion can take one or two years.

Solution

• Give yourself a break. You are probably making the mistake of applying your current standards to past projects. Accept as a given that you are partially going to dislike any film you make after a certain time has elapsed. The important idea to remember when viewing past work is to try to tap into what stage you were at when you made it. OK, you might make it more subtly now, or edit differently, or use better lighting, but try to value what you did then and see any film you make after it as being a descendant rather than an orphan.
• If you find yourself being too critical of your work, make a list of what is negative about it but try to balance it with a list of equal length of the positive aspects of it. If necessary, give the film to friends or show it at screenings. Other filmmakers tend often to be complimentary at local screenings because they know what it means to you.

Problem: I keep abandoning movies halfway through

Filmmaking can be fast and furious at times, slow and relentless at others. Keeping enthusiasm constant in the dry season of hold-ups and obstacles is not easy. Many filmmakers find that it is easier to start another project rather than persevere with the one that is causing all the problems. It is common, then, to find more projects in ‘development hell’ than in completion, though this is no more true than in the mainstream film industry. But this can be dispiriting and leads to frustration and inertia. You lose out on the most rewarding moment when the film finds an audience, even if it is just in a local screening.

Solution

• Have a look at where you enjoy working most: is it in the development stage before you commit to anything? If this is you then perhaps you enjoy generating ideas and working on scripts rather than shooting. Is it time to refocus the work you do and start to get work as a scriptwriter?
• Do you find it invigorating when you are flying by the seat of your pants - working late and hard - but come crashing down to earth the next day and have little enthusiasm to finish the job? All art forms attract their share of creative binge-workers, who fast in a creative desert for long periods and then change into workaholics overnight. Their energies are used up quickly and they approach burnout with relief. If this is you, try to spot the pattern emerging and place obstacles in its way. For instance, arrange meetings weeks in advance so that you are committing yourself to an aspect of the project. Try using a wall-planner to pinpoint the places when you tend to crash down and plot a course where you slow your work rate down immediately prior to it.
• Are you over-planning? Perhaps you are taking the life out of later stages in your production by planning excessively, so that there appear to be no chances or opportunities arising. Try to spend your energies developing the content of the film rather than the exact way you intend to show it. Leave deliberate open areas in the production where you have not planned certain scenes but rely on collaboration instead. Allow whole areas of the film to change dramatically or even to be taken out, even when you are in the middle of filming.
• Are you clear about the central theme in the movie? Many unfinished films tend to have experienced a pulling apart of the main ideas in it at some point, usually during shooting. This means you have divergent ideas forming about what you are trying to say and can’t settle on one particular theme to dominate. If you feel you don’t know what your film is about any more, try talking it over with trusted crew or friends (don’t announce it openly as you may freak people out). Show them what you planned and let them reflect back to you what your initial aims were.

Problem: I haven’t got all the skills I need

Filmmaking can be seen as a highly skill-centred art form. The different levels of making a movie include as diverse a range of skills as any job, requiring drawing, budget management, writing, teamwork, camera work, editing, as well as others to do with marketing. It is also true that there is a big industry out there that offers shortcuts to getting these skills, in the form of short courses and workshops. Lots of people want you to part with thousands of dollars so they can make you into a director. Anyone looking at the filmmaking magazines would quickly become less than confident about their skills when they see so many courses on offer.

But try looking at this from another angle. Just about every filmmaker interviewed for this book offered the same piece of advice for emerging filmmakers, which was to make films regardless of what you know or don’t know. ‘Just do it’ was the common phrase. Each of these people are skilled but none believed that it was these skills that helped them get where they are, believing it was more to do with personal qualities such as persistence and hard work.

Solution

• You don’t need to know everything about filmmaking. Read a few books, make a few films and you will quickly know what you need.
• When you are ready for the next level of skills, you will know it. Wait until you become frustrated by your lack of knowledge. Wait until it is necessary for you to know about compression ratios or sampling rates.
• Put more work into your imagination and ideas than into your technical skills.
• Know the basics about making films and ask other people for more help.
• Know your strengths - maybe you will never be good at a certain aspect of filmmaking and need to work with other people. They probably need your help because you have something they want too.

Problem: I can’t get jobs

As an industry, filmmaking is notoriously overstaffed. It is dispiriting to consider just how many people want to become filmmakers and how many want to get into films at any level. For someone wanting to break into the industry it can be difficult to get jobs in film, even at the lowest of levels - for instance, on productions as runners. Many productions are aware of the number of people who want to be interns or take paid jobs and interview widely for these posts. Applications are high. So what can be done to improve your chances?

Solution

• Although the potential workforce for filmmaking is huge, no one has your particular point of view, so it is good to value, before anything else, the unique vision you have. You bring to bear all your experiences, work, hopes and strengths, and are unlike any other filmmaker.
• Try to value what you have that makes you different. Look at what other people see as your strengths and ply these, applying for jobs that address what you know you are good at, not necessarily what you think you want to do.
• Apply for many jobs. Expect a success rate of perhaps only 1:30.
• Be organized, persistent and professional. But back off straight away if you sense you are being too persistent. Take a break and come back for the next job.
• Look at your promotional package - the résumé, business card, covering letter - and ask yourself and friends to be brutally honest about whether any element looks wrong.
• Above all, keep yourself buoyant by putting your energies into more than one area. So if you are applying for jobs, also try to have your own project at the same time.
• Keep your own circle of networking going - many jobs are already filled by contacts before they are advertised.

Part 2: How do I get there?

7. Where to get your movies seen

In this section we will look at the range of outlets where you can get your movies seen by an audience. In the section on distribution (Chapter 9:8) we identify which are the main routes to selling films and how to access some of these.

Distribution routes: where you can show your movie

• Terrestrial national broadcast television
• Terrestrial local broadcast television
• Cable television
• Satellite television
• Internet
• Cell phones and small content providers
• DVD.

No single potential market alone is likely to bring any significant return for your movie, but a combination of several of these will be the best possible way of getting what you can for your film. But there is a hierarchy regarding which you need to approach first. Some outlets won’t buy your movie if it has been shown elsewhere, so you need to pick your first distribution point carefully. For instance, if you sell it to a cable channel, a DVD sale would be flawed since it is already in the public domain.

Terrestrial television: local and national

While feature films are more suited to theatrical release, the short film succeeds more often on the small screen. Broadcasters are showing more short movies than they ever have, the number of accessible slots growing steadily in many countries. In the USA, there are several venues which may show your movie, but for the most part these are in local stations. At the top of the league in terms of prestige and audience numbers is PBS, in the United States. They run a slot for documentaries (POV) and another for both fiction and documentary (Independent Lens). PBS provide fees for films they show and the exposure you would receive is a great confidence boost.

Local PBS stations offer other slots for shorts, including:

• Reel New York on WNET 13 New York. See http­://­www­.th­irt­een­.or­g/r­eel­new­yor­k7/
• Image Union on WTTW Chicago. See http:­//w­ww.­wtt­w.c­om/
• POV on KPBS San Diego. See http:­//w­ww.­pbs­.or­g/p­ov/

Acquisition fees for these local stations are low compared to what you could receive with larger broadcasters, although they are often up to $100 per minute.

In Britain, Channel Four’s The Shooting Gallery acquires films directly from the filmmaker and may also offer considerable back-up in completion costs. Submission to this and other slots is straightforward but highly competitive and can be accessed through their websites. If you encounter a slot that asks for payment before viewing your film, think again. Most slots are free, or even pay you a small fee on transmission.

Possible success: 6/10

Possible return: 8/10

Cable television and satellite

In cable television, there are more specialist programmes offering the chance to show your work, but to a far smaller audience. For documentaries, HBO/Cinemax run the Undercover and Reel Life series, which pay the filmmaker far above the usual rate and ‘place you alongside a very eclectic and interesting group of documentaries’ (Greg Pak, filmmaker). The prestigious film festival Sundance is also involved in broadcasting and its channel, The Sundance Channel, buys short films from unknown directors. Acquisition fees are up to $2000, but although prestige is high, actual audience share is low. A similarly discerning and prestigious cable channel, The Independent Film Channel, is also a good agency to submit to.

Before submitting a film to a broadcaster, make a few decisions first about the kind of ‘return’ you want. You need to decide which has priority: prestige, audience numbers or pay. If it is audience numbers you are after, national television is the route, while prestige and good acquisition rates are sometimes to be found in the same area. A good rule to follow whichever route you intend to follow is to start with the biggest, most well-known, highest-paying stations and then work down. Many of the larger slots prefer it if your film has not first been seen by local audiences, though this will not automatically preclude you from selection.

Possible success: 8/10

Possible return: 5/10

Educational

A further market, though considerably smaller than those looked at so far, is educational sales. This may include university courses and community groups, who may be particularly disposed toward your film through subject matter. You could attend screenings as part of a discussion or lecture. A film dealing with racism, for example, could bring DVD sales on campuses and communities where this is an issue. Another dealing with industrial relations could arouse interest from union groups. However, this market is not easy to engage with as its buyers will probably not be a part of the usual buying/selling community at film festivals, although a distributor may have appropriate contacts.

Possible success: 1/10

Possible return: 2/10

Internet distribution

The number of sites offering to show your movies has increased in line with the comparative ease with which video can be downloaded on the web. This route can offer some very strong audience figures, outstripping that which can be achieved in a theatrical release, and some sites have developed enough of a profile to lend considerable kudos to the offer of a showing.

Broadcast sites vary widely, from those at the top of the scale offering payment and the chance to place your résumé and contact details to those offering no fee, some of whom are online only intermittently. In the short time that webfilm has been a possibility, a handful of sites have come to dominate the field, but this is not to say that smaller sites have nothing to offer.

Jess Search, co-founder of Shooting People, a widely used site for filmmakers in Britain and New York, believes broadcasting on such sites is becoming more important to filmmakers:

‘It will only increase in importance as a distribution medium as quality improves and it does remain an easier way to refer people to your work than sending out tapes. Ifilm and Atom have a certain kudos - a bit like being accepted for London/Edinburgh/Berlin Film Festivals - and it certainly helps to say your film is on their site rather than just your own site, just as it helps to be shown at a festival rather than your own screening in encouraging busy industry people to take the time to look. There are still huge limitations to web viewing to be sure (the things that work best have been shot for web), not too much movement, music sequences (music videos work well) and more heavily lit than usual - but the only way is up, especially as broadband becomes more popular.’

Low return on deals

The larger sites have struck deals with television broadcasters, passing on shorts originally shown on the web, and have supported filmmakers by offering a percentage of advertising revenue according to how many downloads a film generates. The financial return of these deals tends to be very low, but the reviews that viewers post, and the use of such sites as part of a larger promotion plan, makes it a worthwhile option.

Festival links

Some sites are also linking up with festivals to show short films and in return lend sites the credibility that tight festival selection offers. The US festival South by Southwest in 2000 selected ten short films to show on Atom for three months. Although there was no payment to filmmakers in this instance, it has set a precedent that others follow.

Possible success: 9/10

Possible success: 9/10

Cell phone movies

Content providers at this level are relatively new and have yet to establish agreed methods or ways of dealing with filmmakers. We could break this area down into two dominant areas: music videos and advertising. These form the bulk of content delivered in this format, but take several different forms. Music videos are often provided through agencies, which house directors who they know can attract contracts for new promos. RSA Blackdog, based in London, or Anonymous Content, based in Los Angeles, between them cover the most prestigious promo directors, including Dougal Wilson, Gore Verbinski and Dominic Leung. Contracts for products often arrive via these agents. If you can get an agency to represent you, then your music promo work should reach a wider audience than before. In some cases, however, a more direct route has been established. In 2003 a major record company awarded the contract for a new promo to a student at film school rather than an established filmmaker, citing the fact that costs would be lower but the film itself would be highly original.

As for advertising, design houses will assign a contract to a filmmaker after initial pitching of ideas from invited directors. But further down the scale, smaller companies or political movements may commission work from less established filmmakers. Advertising can take the form of a straight ad downloaded to a phone, or in the form of virals, short films of less than 30 seconds to a minute that the recipient receives and then sends on to a friend. These are the ultimate proof of the success of word of mouth and have seen a shift in the kinds of films made for this arena.

Another format gaining popularity for more up-market companies is themed short films, where filmmakers are asked to make a short on a theme connected to a current campaign. The resulting shorts tend to be original and innovative, and most of all rely on soft sell techniques, where the viewer simply associates the product brand with the positive experience of watching the movie.

Possible success: 4/10

Possible return: 7/10

DVD

As we have seen, the potential for this route is huge. It used to be the case that theatrical was the first port of call for anyone seeking to get their film shown, but ancillary markets in DVDs are becoming more dominant. Furthermore, they are becoming a market in their own right rather than simply a tag at the end of a theatrical run. To demonstrate this, there are certain kinds of film that do better on DVD, certain stars who attract more rentals and sales. It is clear that this market has its own taste and is separate to mainstream theatrical tastes. When in 2003 the point was reached when sales of DVDs outstripped ticket sales in theatres, a corner had been turned where cinemas no longer had the lead in distribution. It could be the case that from now on the most successful route for getting all kinds of films seen - features, music videos, multimedia work - is the DVD. The only possible contender to this lead could occur if or when the main studios decide to enter the legal film downloading market, allowing movies to be bought along the lines of Apple’s successful iTunes online store.

1Self-produced DVD
Potential success: 5/10
Potential return: 1/10

2Distributor-produced DVD
Potential success: 8/10
Potential return: 6/10

8. Guide to distribution

What is distribution?

One of the most challenging tasks is to push your film out into the wider world, and it comes when perhaps all your energies are drained by the process of getting the film made in the first place. Distribution - the process of finding someone somewhere to show your movie - is nevertheless a time when you must be prepared to make decisions that affect whether the film has any life beyond your immediate friends and family. The kinds of questions we need to look at in this chapter include: Where can you get your movie seen? What kinds of deals are common? What you can expect to get as a first-time filmmaker and how do deals for short films differ from features, whether for theatrical, DVD, television, phone or the Internet?

Distribution is going to take many forms. Despite the obvious kudos of seeing your film in a cinema, theatrical receipts account for only a small part of the overall gross a film could return.

Distribution today

Over the last few years the industry as a whole has been transformed from a primarily theatrical one to one based much more on home entertainment. The profits of the majority of feature films are derived as much from DVD sales and rental as from cinema tickets. But if you go down a few levels to the lowand medium-budget sectors, the influence of DVD is now huge. Films now bypass the established sales and distribution system because high quality versions - DVD - can be issued cheaply and manufactured as needed. Even very small productions can release films onto the market and expect some return. For others, the return from DVD far outstrips tickets.

Distribution has changed in other ways too, the result of new formats for watching movies. This expansion in outlets for viewing means that the traditional distribution system has to rethink what it does.

Go to: Chapter 10:2 to find out about new formats.

Changing the system

So what may change? For many filmmakers, the system where companies decide which films get a release and which stay on the shelf has been an unacceptable stranglehold on the industry for too long. For every movie released, at least a dozen more get refused, with the winners tending towards Hollywood franchises and sure-fire hits. Indigenous movies rarely get a look in in some countries. This set-up has been a kind of glass ceiling for independent filmmakers, preventing new ideas from surfacing. With a multiplicity of outlets, however, it seems likely that this monopoly is being pierced, if not yet demolished.

In practice, this means that as an emerging director it is more likely today that you will get your film into profit, with a sale straight to DVD, where the real profits are starting to lie. For shorts, music videos and experimental work, the doors are open as never before, with what some people term a content shortage to fill the new viewing outlets.

Getting a distributor

If you decide that the brief outline above is more than you wish to handle, you may want to find someone who will take the strain, for a fee. Many law firms and PR agencies will take on films, helping you find the right exposure for your movie. This would include trying to get the film seen at screenings and festivals, but there is also a network of reps within the film industry who may take on your movie, either at the pre-production finance stage or in marketing of the finished product.

What is a distributor?

A distributor is a person or company who will try to sell your film to markets you could not have previously reached. They will have extensive knowledge of each market, from theatrical to home rental, and will, more importantly, know how to pitch your film to achieve the highest levels of exposure at each event or screening. They will take a sizeable cut of your receipts and they will have many other movies they are trying to sell, but if you want to make any money at all from your movie, the service they are going to provide is extremely valuable in terms of getting you seen by the industry.

Actually getting a distributor to act for you is an uphill struggle. They receive dozens of unsolicited tapes each day and as many scripts and unfinished movies. If you win a slot in a festival and get some profile from this, distributors may seek out a deal with you. The main festivals are visited by many international buyers and sellers, each trying to make deals with each other, based on what critics, film juries and audiences claim to be the best of the crop. For a short film, you have opportunities to sell the movie itself with a sales agent or use it to strike an informal deal with funding partners about future projects. Features may find deals with ancillary markets in DVD.

 

Foreign distribution

Foreign sales may account for a substantial part of your overall revenue and should be explored fully. It is, however, unlikely that a small independent film will find a theatrical or DVD sale in territories other than its own. Many of the stronger territories to challenge the Hollywood hegemony, such as South Korea, China, Japan and Latin America, have healthy film markets where new talent can emerge on DVD or in small theatres. If you are considering trying to sell a feature to other territories, be realistic about how likely it is that a profit will be made. Higher up the film industry, though, non-US sales now account for far more than they used to, so it is clear that audiences are more receptive to global products than they were, but at the same time quite capable of producing their own too.

Shorts for sale

Short movies operate under a wholly separate set of conditions, with separate markets and festivals to cater for them. The short film has experienced a renaissance in recent years, quite simply because there are more outlets for them now. Before online viewing, DVD collections and cell phone distribution, shorts had no real home to speak of and yet remained the best school for producing new directors. For a while advertising filled the gap, producing directors such as Ridley Scott, but today the short film has renewed purpose. Sales of short films are more common and there are more sales agents who specialize in this area. However, expect little or no return on your short film.

Roseann S. Cherenson, Executive Vice President of Distribution at Phaedra Cinema, sees the short film as:

‘ … a calling card towards getting a feature film or television career. I have to say that while there is the possibility that you could make some money domestically or internationally from your short, the vast majority do not make any money, just get the filmmaker good festival exposure and hopefully prizes (maybe even Oscars) that help boost a filmmaker’s chance of getting full-length gigs.’

Self-distribution

The tough option

Marketing movies is a complex, unstable field. The marketplace changes rapidly according to the most recent successes and is subject to geographical and economical variations. It is therefore undoubtedly difficult to attempt to market your film yourself unless you have knowledge of what each market offers, of what constitutes a good sales price, of foreign sales, of percentages, and you have the contacts to make this happen. This route means you will be involved in the business side of filmmaking more than ever before and that takes away valuable filmmaking time from your next project.

Domestic theatres

With domestic theatres, you will be negotiating directly to place your film for a limited run, but this is unlikely to yield results. Theatres specializing in independent movies are going to be more open to this possibility, but usually will want you to have some exposure at a film festival first.

Handling advertising

You will be responsible for advertising. This means compiling a press pack and other promotion material used by theatres. Don’t spend unwisely on advertising, because it is likely that you will receive less than 30–35 per cent of gross box-office takings from a theatre. In real terms, this means that if a 200-seat theatre sells a quarter of its tickets (it is an unknown film, don’t forget) at $10 apiece, with a revenue of $500, you receive something like $150, which is going to cover only basic publicity.

Terms

You will need to negotiate with theatres how much of the box-office gross you will receive, but be aware that a theatre taking 65 per cent of gross receipts of mainstream films is probably going to increase this if they think the risk is greater for an unknown movie. You need to ensure that the deal you have negotiated tells you when your movie will be shown, and for how long. Some independent cinemas show short films for free before a main programme, or have unknown features as part of special slots in a programme and these functions are built into their educational programme. University cinemas, arts centres and local film societies are also likely to be more receptive to flexible rates.

Projection

A theatre’s method of projection must match your print. A theatre equipped to show 35 mm film may not have the facilities to show a digital film, nor even a 16 mm film, although some smaller independent chains or campus theatres may be equipped to show S-VHS video. But the move towards digital projection of digital films is inexorable and will lead eventually to more and more theatres accepting this format, though it is more likely to be larger, high revenue cinemas leading the way for some time. Digital projection is going hand in hand with digital broadcasting, and films are being broadcast directly to some theatres. Studios are very keen for theatres to pursue this; with more films being made within the digital domain, the massive costs of producing prints would diminish.

 

 

 

DVD

This is more likely to be a route you pursue after you have first investigated the possibility of theatrical and television release, but if you look at this area after or before other routes, consider carefully who you deal with. There are many companies now offering to make copies of your movie on DVD and purport to sell these. Don’t forget that a company saying they will try to sell your DVD is not the same as a company saying they will go out and actively push your movie, advertising it and making sure it gets seen at the right markets. Given the ease with which DVDs can be produced, in very small numbers, there may not be much investment on the part of the distributor and you may well end up being part of a mailorder list with low sales. DVD burners are now a fraction of what they once cost, so doing it yourself may prove to be no more expensive than via an Internet DVD distributor, with the advantage that you can include additional material such as commentary, interviews and other marketing tools as needed.

Contracts and distribution deals

In each of the routes described above, you will have to deal with contracts. It depends on the cost of your movie as to whether you hire an entertainment lawyer or decide to rely on advice from other filmmakers and your own judgement.

Advance deals

If you get an offer with an advance, the buyer takes their distribution fee from any money your film makes - often around the 35 per cent mark - and then takes off the advance you were paid at the start of the deal. It doesn’t stop there; they then start to recoup their expenses, which may be considerable. For most filmmakers taking an advance, that is the last return they see from the movie, so it is important to make the right level of advance to begin with; calculate your figures based on the idea that this is all the money you will ever get for the movie. In calculating the advance, the buyer is not plucking figures out of the air, but thinking coolly and with much experience about the revenue the film is likely to generate. They take into account all costs and then think about making some profit for themselves. If this seems like a tough deal, bear in mind that the exposure you receive is going to be more helpful in the long term. Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1991) made more of a splash culturally than it did in terms of actual boxoffice receipts, and the rest is history. If you do receive an advance, make sure that you stay in communication with the buyer to make sure that you receive your ‘overages’ when or if your movie starts to make profit beyond the expenses outlined above.

Non-advance deals

The other kind of deal, with no advance, means you don’t see any returns for some time, at least six months after release. If the film starts to make good returns, you will see more of a share of it than if you had an advance, but only after the distributor has taken a cut and taken expenses. However, you will have negotiated in advance what you both agree is a reasonable amount to spend on advertising and other expenses, referred to as capped expenses.

The cut they take will vary, but as a baseline figure, in North America the figure is 50 per cent for theatrical, roughly 40 per cent for video and television, and 20–40 per cent for foreign sales. Films will almost never recoup what they cost and then have enough to share around to the crew if you rely on domestic theatrical receipts alone, even in countries with a large population. The most likely chance of seeing returns - overages - is from video or DVD sale and television, with the only obstacle to this being whether the film had more spent on paying for theatrical release than was recoverable in the cinemas. Any other possible markets that could generate returns are opened up only after theatrical release has been fully mined. If you are relying on sales other than theatrical to recoup your costs as director/producer, you will have a long wait if the film performs poorly in domestic release, but the spread of these other markets is enough to raise the possibility of some return.

Check your contract

Whatever deal you look into, make sure you understand the whole contract and the kind of terms used. Ask for clarification on any term you are unsure about and insist that standard terms are agreed upon. For example, theatrical release may be agreed but you need to know within what time-scale this would happen, and if the words ‘reasonable period’ are the answer, insist this is put in terms of months, years, centuries or whatever.

Agree acceptable cost limits

One of the valuable services of the distributor is in advertising and pushing the movie to the right places, such as film festivals. These costs soon add up and you need to agree in advance how much is a reasonable amount to spend on marketing. Take into account the cost of the movie and what you expect a low estimate to be of return from all markets. Then agree a cap on expenses above a certain amount. If you don’t cap you may not actually have to pick up the bill for disproportionate expenses, but it does mean you will have to wait far longer before any revenue comes your way. Don’t let the unscrupulous distributor use your movie as a free travel pass, recouping more than they should from your sales.

What is your share?

Ask for clarification about what part of the potential revenue is being divided up when your percentage is worked out. You need to know whether you are sharing in the producer’s share or whether your share comes from total profits. If we take a case of a producer from New York who was in dispute with a filmmaker reluctant to give much of a slice of the profits, should there be any. Starting at the top of the chain, the theatre takes 65 per cent of gross receipts and gives the rest back to the distributor. The other 35 per cent that the distributor received was the net money and had to be big enough to recover all advertising and print costs. The producer was seeking a deal in which he received 12.5 per cent of gross receipts, leaving that 35 per cent which the distributor received diminished down to 22.5 per cent. This set-up would have been unlikely to attract interest from distributors, but if the producer was asking for 12.5 per cent of the distributor’s share, a deal would have been possible. Alternatively, the producer could have sought gross receipts of theatrical release only, which as we have seen accounts for only a small proportion of total revenue; the distributor will be more concerned about video and television rights.

If your film does the unexpected and starts to make money at the box office or in other sales, you will receive statements from the distributor detailing what money is coming in from what source. But if you decide you want to check up on the progress of your film if you feel not enough revenue is coming your way, you should not be asked in your contract to waive your rights to audit these figures and you should not be required to audit before enough time has elapsed for the film to make some profit. If you think that your share of profits is not forthcoming, an audit can be costly but the only effective way of recovering money from the distributor. Your contract should allow you to ask the distributor to cover the costs of an audit if it reveals that they have withheld money owed you, although this is rare and often down to mismanagement rather than malice.

If the distributor forwards you an advance, check whether you are paying interest on this money. If so, check whether interest is being gained by the distributor from money received in advance from theatres. If you can’t eliminate interest, try to reduce it.

Arbitration

If you disagree with your distributor and are unable to resolve an issue, you need to have a clause on arbitration built into the contract. Lawyers fees will hurt you far more than they hurt the company, so it is in your interests to have a binding arbitration agreement, avoiding costly court battles.

Film on the Internet

What the Internet can offer

There is something rewarding about having finished your film - you can show it to your friends, play it over and over again and use it as a calling card to get further into the industry. But until the arrival of video on the web this was about as far as you could hope to push a short film at the start of your career.

On the plus side, the web:

• enables you to show your films to anyone, anywhere
• lets you do this without the need for ‘the middlemen’, such as distributors
• lets you devise your own marketing campaign for a film
• lets you communicate directly with potential buyers or other people you might want to work with
• lets you watch what everyone else is doing.

All of which looks good until you see the potential down side of this technology:

• the net is unstable - its infrastructure is shaky to say the least
• it takes too long for many users to download a short film
• picture and sound quality are poor.

Video streaming

Video streaming has branched off from the web to become a field with its own growth rate and millions of dollars of research going into finding quicker ways of showing movies. In this section, we need to get to grips with this technology and find the best way of exploiting it for the use of the low-budget filmmaker. It won’t solve your problems overnight or guarantee a great career - artistic merit is and always will be a deciding factor. But it does give you more control over your work than anyone working 20 years ago might have dreamed.

What is web film?

Webfilm is basically any moving image which is downloaded as a single file or ‘streamed’ for viewing on a PC. At the start of the twenty-first century it is estimated that there are something like 300 million Internet users and although the net was once the preserve of information, communication and consumer services, the prime use of it for most people - 70 per cent on average - is entertainment. As use of home PCs evolves in this direction, the Internet industry has put more time and money into pushing it further, with better ways of compressing these massive video files over tiny phone lines.

File sizes

One of the issues at the centre of video on the web is infrastructure. Most people don’t possess the right sort of connection - broadband - needed to watch films at a reasonable rate. The kind of modem most people have is one that conducts data at a rate of 56 kb per second; put this against the size of a video file lasting only a few minutes, which could be up to 650 Mb, and you start to understand why something had to be done to squash these files down into a more manageable size, and to find a way of starting to show the movie before the whole length of it has downloaded.

What types of films are out there?

The rules and hierarchies of Hollywood have no currency here. In webfilm, it is common to see a site where first-time filmmakers are on the same bill as established, well-known directors. There is no limit to the kind of material seen. Animation is popular, since web-specific software like Flash means that it is downloaded or viewed at a fraction of the time that video takes. Independent film dominates, and students of film courses use it as a way to get seen quickly. Interactive film has evolved, where you can zoom in or out on a scene, or choose the outcome of the film. Experimental artists have never had it so good; work usually destined for a poorly attended gallery now has wider potential. Film has become more of a fun ‘hit’ to be had at work or at home, and webfilms are perhaps the espresso of the entertainment world: quality compressed into a short space.

Go to: Chapter 9:11 for more ideas on Internet movie sites.

Who shows films?

There are many sites that specifically show webfilms and several high profile sites that are forging close links with the traditional film industry and attracting support from leading names in directing and acting. Most offer the viewer a small screen, roughly two or three inches across, together with information about the film and a chance to comment on it.

The Crunch

• Decide whether you distribute it yourself or involve a distributor
• If you do it yourself, are you sure you can handle the market?
• If it’s a feature, try DVD and theatrical first
• If it’s a short, try festivals, TV and cable first
• Avoid the Internet as the first option if you want to sell to other routes.

9. Strategies for promotion

These sections on promotion and distribution are aimed at pointing out the possible routes available to get your films seen more widely. Before entering into the world of publicity, press relations and profile raising, we need to take a step back and look at how to devise a coherent approach so that the time and money involved is worth it.

You will only get one chance to promote the film; if you get it wrong, you can’t ask people to give you a second chance, with so many filmmakers vying for the same attention from public or buyers. Whether you buy into the whole idea of film as a commodity or not, you may still agree that people won’t see your work unless you compete with every other bit of culture trying to catch their eye. If you ran a business, you would expect to have to actively promote your products and would not rely on the maxim, ’if it’s good quality, they’ll find it’. Any movie that involves an outlay of time or money needs to have behind it some promotion plan.

Get a plan

Promotion must be worked into the overall production plan right from the start, as a part of the overall budget. You will then spend only what is appropriate to the size of the production and won’t feel too bad spending it because you have allocated it specifically for this purpose. If you involve investors in funding your film, they will take you far more seriously if you include in your costings some budget for selling the product they are supporting.

Before you move on to a plan, decide first what is it you are hoping to achieve in marketing your movie. We could narrow down the options to the following:

1Beginner’s route. I want to get the film seen but I don’t expect to make any cash this time around - I’m building a profile.

2Intermediate route. I want to get the film seen and I need to make a small amount of money to recover costs.

3Advanced route. I have not yet made this movie and I want to attract large funding to get it made.

Beginner’s route

This is likely to be the aim for those at the start of their careers, possibly making short films for entry into festivals, competition or cable television stations. In this case, the right route is to approach festivals, television short film slots, independent cinemas and websites with the aim of securing some small exposure for the movie, but which you can then build on. Just one showing of your movie at whatever level and in whatever format is enough to launch your campaign of getting recognition for this or the next movie.

Intermediate route

This second route is likely to be followed by those who have made movies with a bigger budget than the average short and are aiming to see some return from their investment. They may have already made a few shorts and have some experience of showing them at festivals or on television. The more profitable routes will involve gaining entry to television slots that pay for the right to show the movie, or others that commission further projects. Retail sales will be crucial, centring on limited DVD release, and these must be spread on as wide a geographical base as possible. Theatrical release is a possibility for feature films but may drain any profits that could result, and would need to be well placed in the right cinema.

You do, however, need to be realistic about the chances of making any return on your movie; getting it seen does not mean making money and even getting a distribution deal doesn’t necessarily mean that the future is bright. For most producers, the advance is all the money they will ever receive due to the distributor first taking out all costs from the producer’s portion, leaving very little left over as ‘profit’. For this reason, get the highest possible advance on offer.

Advanced route

This last route is more likely to attract those people who have more experience of filmmaking and have now decided to move towards more elaborate, fully funded feature-length films. They may have made a small section of the movie and hoped to get finance for completion costs. If this is your position, you may need to find a producer’s rep, with the aim of securing a financing deal with a distribution company. A round of hard selling is going to centre on how well your film - or more likely a script or small section of it that you could afford to shoot - can perform at festival screenings or special screenings for selected agents. In many cases, there is the expectation that you have first invested heavily in the film yourself, demonstrating your commitment by having raised some finance and gained the confidence of investors. Festivals may put you in the right place to find a rep willing to push your movie and conscious of the right route for you, nationally and internationally. Don’t expect to be able to handle the detail of foreign DVD sales or other unfamiliar markets without some outside help. Getting on the books of the main festival film markets is a big step forward. For instance, independent-friendly festivals like Rotterdam help a selected number of filmmakers to meet with investors. While fewer actual deals are made at Rotterdam than at many other festivals, investors like the intimacy of the set-up, with everyone accessible throughout the event, and the relaxed feel to the event. Many later deals are finalized elsewhere but instigated in Rotterdam. Berlin promotes a selected number of filmmakers through more substantial sales packages and supports a Talent Campus simultaneous to the festival, which also promotes a small number of filmmakers each year.

In all these options, it should be recognized in advance that there is a long-term goal (to make more movies and eventually enter profitability) and there is a short-term goal (to get a profile, with any exposure at all). If you make any profit at this early stage, consider it just the icing on the cake.

Marketing strategy

Research screenings

You need first to get views on what sort of movie you have made, since you are the last person entitled to be objective about its strengths and weaknesses. Maybe psychologists should coin a term to describe viewing one’s artistic efforts in an exaggerated positive or negative light, where a filmmaker can no longer see the film, only the time and money invested in it (how about chronic artistic dysmorphia?).

Screenings

Arrange screenings of the film with friends and other filmmakers, on a small level at first. Try to recruit a range of viewers with different expectations, but don’t make life difficult for yourself; choose people for your pre-screening with care, preferably people who see independent movies often. Ask them to write their positive and negative comments about your film on a postcard, or hold a discussion if you have a thick skin. You need to know what kind of audience is going to respond best to the movie; what issues are raised in it and how they are conveyed; and whether any part of the movie is unclear, including parts of the plot.

 

Listen to other filmmakers

Although the practice of using focus groups by Hollywood is frowned upon in the independent sector, it must be remembered that our aims could not be more different. In Hollywood, it is possible that the film’s conclusion may be altered if focus reports suggest so, or that certain characters be excised, all with the aim of avoiding alienating any section of the viewing public.

But in our own case, we are looking at defining the film, assessing how it is viewed, and may not consider cutting unpopular parts. However, if you have investors on board, think carefully about this sort of screening as the investor may insist on changes as a result of unfavourable pre-screenings. For wider audiences, try a screening at a film school, university film clubs or local filmmaker groups. Attend in person so you know at what point people started to walk out or how much applause there was.

Form a company

Project a more professional air by forming a company, perhaps with other filmmakers. Forming a production company can force you to become much more organized about your marketing and encourages your tax department to see you in a more favourable light, offsetting costs against tax if and when your movie takes off. The company could be a long-term venture to support all your movies, or could be formed for one project only. Go the whole way: get a company logo and headed paper. It won’t legitimize your work as great film but does legitimize you as a filmmaker.

Set up a website

This is as crucial as your calling card and as useful as an office full of assistants. A huge amount of information can be displayed and accessed by those you want to impress.

Make a press pack

Prepare material you can mail to the media to garner publicity for the movie. Use it also at festivals, in meetings with possible deal-makers and financial backers. Include a DVD or VHS copy of the film, JPEG stills at 300 dpi or more, business cards, publicity and press cuttings, information on crew, cast, director, scriptwriter, an outline of the film and some information about the making of the film, including trivia (the worst and best moments, for instance).

Tell the acquisitions execs about your movie

This is the first stage to getting a deal. Although getting a deal is not easy, getting an acquisitions executive to look at your film is not too hard. They are always looking to buy films, for theatres, home rental and television, in domestic and foreign markets. Various factors give you a head start, such as having a known actor or having had a good response in a festival. Since most films have neither, the job of attracting the attention of the acquisitions executive is difficult.

Use the following ways to achieve this:

• Tell everyone. If there is a dedicated filmmaking press or there are trade publications in your country, alert them to the existence of your project, usually in the last few weeks before shooting begins. In the USA, for example, this would include The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety. In the UK, use www.shootingpeople.org, which is accessed by thousands of people daily.
• Film Finders. Place a notice with Film Finders, a resource for buyers and sellers to get information about movies in production in the independent sector. This is a publication run by a successful former acquisitions executive, Sydney Levine, and is available online (www.ifilmfinders.com/). It has established a strong reputation as a meeting point for filmmakers and buyers, and helps to create a profile for the movie before completion. The service is free - just download a questionnaire and return. Set up links to your site from well-visited sites connected to the film industry, including online trade press such as The Hollywood Reporter, which welcomes such links as they direct visitors to their own sites in return.

Submit your film to an online buyers/sellers site

These sites offer the chance to show your film to distributors directly and are primarily for completed movies. They usually ask for a fee, but this does not guarantee that the film gets viewed any further than an initial submission stage. Before passing a film onto selection committees, the initial selectors will need to be convinced that your film is legal. Prior exhibition will greatly harm your chances of being considered.

If your film makes it beyond these first stages, panels of filmmakers or industry people then view these movies and grade them according to suitability for the market, technical quality, story and so on. You may then be invited to submit your film for viewing by distributors or other buyers. However, most insist that the movie is at least 75 minutes long and is finished. Some sites are more directly geared towards selling and have some prior reputation in the distribution business, while others offer a wider service, with news, reviews and industry statistics. These sites act as galleries, selecting the best unsigned, legal, independent films and directing them at distributors. For the buyer, they offer a filtering service, making the process of seeking new talent more focused.

If your film is only partly financed, in other words, you don’t yet know where the funding for the rest of the movie is going to come from, you can still place notices in Film Finders and the trade press. Acquisitions executives and sales agents may negotiate to finance a movie that is only partly made in return for an equity stake in the movie, but usually you must expect to have something that entices them, such as a known actor or previous festival success.

Get a producer’s rep

These people work hard at putting together finance deals for independent movies, but also act as agents to finalize distribution deals after completion. They are highly experienced individuals who will devise a strategy for marketing the film, so that it reaches the right festivals, is screened to the right people and is positioned correctly so all marketing possibilities are realized to the full. Producer’s reps take between 5 and 10 per cent of revenue.

Create a buzz

There is no hard and fast way of doing this, but it remains the most effective way to attract the attention of the acquisitions executive. A ‘buzz’ means that industry people are talking about your film and suggests that there is some mystique surrounding it, an air of excitement and expectation. You will find a ‘buzz’ at festivals, at its centre a film that has in some way created attention because of who is attached to it or what others say about it through advance screenings - that single most effective of marketing tools: word of mouth. Since everyone tries to create a buzz surrounding their film at markets and festivals it is a scarce commodity, but a producer’s rep will greatly help, with the most well-known creating interest about a project simply through being involved with it.

Free publicity

Finally, mine every possible route through which you could raise the profile of your movie. Does it, for instance, have a particular minority-interest angle that may attract certain publications or news agencies?

Shorts are different

The options are different for a short film or a feature. Distributors do indeed buy shorts for theatrical release, but they are more difficult to sell. On the other hand, television and cable slots for new filmmakers almost always prefer to screen short films. Theatrical release is rarely the right route for a short film unless it is picked up for exhibition alongside well-known movies. In many ways, however, the availability of outlets for shorts has dramatically increased in recent years as a result of the Internet and a rise in public broadcasting slots for new filmmakers.

Web film

Although webfilm sites are visited by acquisitions executives - the people who buy films for distributors - it is very rare for any to be offered deals as a result. Getting a film entered into the wider market of theatre exhibition, television and home video or DVD sales involves a more circuitous route. In this option, there is no limit to the amount of time and effort you can expend on getting the right people to see your film. You have to be prepared to believe in your project without question, moving on relentlessly after each rejection. At every step of the way there are stories of filmmakers who have persisted when all avenues seemed closed. Not getting a deal at all is not the end of the story; some filmmakers go on to sell a film direct to theatres, or market DVDs direct to the consumer.

The Crunch

• Decide what you want first - be realistic and aim to get a small amount of exposure first time, thenm
• Develop your filmmaking slowly and surely without aiming too high just yet
• Get opinions on your movie from filmmakers
• Attend film festivals
• Submit applications to film market sales sections
• Choose your ultimate aim for the movie, then select the right route
• Prepare all the information you need in advance as if you expect a deal to be made
• Don’t be caught out: interest from an acquisitions executive is more common than you may think -m
• Work out in advance the route you see the film moving along and check whether you rule out other options in the process - for instance, broadcasting on the web may preclude a television deal
• Set up a website
• Enjoy it - you’ve earned it because you made a great film.

What this project is for: to help get jobs, and to try editing for ultra-short movies

Time: allow around one day to shoot and four hours to edit

What this project is about

Your showreel is one of the most important aspects of your promotion kit, along with your business card and cell phone. It consists of a series of clips from your films, or whole films if they are under a few minutes in length. The aim of this project is to complete a central piece of your showreel - a film to sell yourself. This is a film that shows someone who you are, what you do and how you think. It offers a fast way into projecting your personal style on a showreel. In applying for jobs on film productions this is a way to stand out from the crowd.

Stage 1

You have 60 seconds to show who you are. Be aware that your shooting and editing skills are under scrutiny, but perhaps more importantly so is your creativity - pack the film full of interesting ideas, sudden changes, quirks, anything that is different and is your personality.

Avoid putting yourself in the frame too much - in fact, many of these have only a few seconds of the filmmaker, the rest being images that represent how you would like to be perceived. For example, you could take the idea of showing five items you could not live without (iPod, Gucci shoes, high-spec headphones an so on), or list your top three most memorable experiences, perhaps with quick dramatizations, or three personal heroes and why you respect them. Anything irreverent and left field will catch attention

Stage 2

When editing this movie, use short, concise cuts. Go straight for the very best, funniest, most intriguing parts. You need to grab attention from the very first, so throw all your best shots here.

It is crucial to put a permanent contact details line at the foot of the frame, with name, number and email address.

Evaluation

The real test of this film is in the reception it gets when you first use it. This film is not for use when sending your shorts to festivals or competitions for selection. It is instead aimed at those jobs where you need to make a splash to get noticed, and where you are dealing with media-aware people, who may respond well to such an approach. Many universities also ask for this sort of film before they consider you for selection for film courses.

Look at the finished result and work out how you think attention levels will fall in those who watch it. Show it to friends and (encouraging them to be brutally honest) ask them to signal to you when they get bored. You need to know whether this happens after 10 seconds, 20 or 40. If you get to 40 you can count it a success.

I want something more challenging

This idea can form the basis for a more serious movie where you explore your identity. Create a film that takes a more measured look at who you are, delving into the past, showing hopes and fears, and adopting an open, revealing attitude. Take a look at Jonathan Caouette’s movie Tarnation, which uses archive footage and reconstructions to create a story of the filmmaker’s life.

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10. Film festivals

Pushing a film around the festival circuit is described by some filmmakers as one of the most important moves they made in marketing the film. Greg Pak, a filmmaker based in New York, found it essential, as he described in this diary entry:

‘I met many great people at the [South by Southwest] festival, several of whom have made distribution offers for my movie. I’m keeping my mouth shut till I nail things down but it looks like I’m pretty close to achieving my distribution goals for the film. The experience has confirmed for me the importance of going to festivals and meeting people face to face. I might have gotten these offers had I not been at the festival, but there is nothing like meeting people in the flesh for establishing real trust.’

Entry into some festivals is considered to be a huge boost to a career. The best known rarely act as simple showcases for great and upcoming movies, but are the points at which buyers (distributors) and sellers (reps and agents) meet, with filmmakers hoping to be in the crossfire. In the independent sector, the festival is a chance to test public reaction in screenings. Critics may attend and review films not yet signed to a distributor, increasing or decreasing the chances of its sale.

For feature films this route is crucial, but for shorts also the festival is a great chance to market your film and obtain a deal in markets other than theatrical. Some festivals specialize in shorts, while others offer special short films among the feature-film screenings.

Film festivals as markets

The main festivals are also markets, helping the acquisitions executive spot unsigned films that could be picked up. This is the place where you and your sales agent can start to cash in on the buzz that you have worked hard to create through screenings at smaller festivals. There are five major markets, spaced throughout the year:

• European Film Market in Berlin in February
• American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, now in November
• Marche International du Film in Cannes, France in May
• London Film Festival in October.

Finished product vs short clip

If you are trying to sell a movie to potential distributors, it helps if you have a finished product; surprisingly, up to 80 per cent of films submitted to Sundance are incomplete.

 

However, incomplete projects are bought in special forums at most of the main film markets. For example, the Independent Feature Film Market each autumn in New York attracts buyers who are able to see special screenings of partially completed work. Incomplete movies are inevitably less attractive because the producer usually asks for completion funds, but distributors are well versed in deciding whether to buy based on just a small section of a film; even in full screenings, potential buyers make up their minds from just short sections of a movie and may leave midway through in order to attend other screenings.

 

 

How to submit to festivals

Many larger festivals deal with huge quantities of submissions. Sundance, Montreal, Berlin and London, for instance, are all intensely competitive but are worth entering on the basis that you have nothing to lose aiming at the top and working your way down to smaller festivals. There is certainly no lack of festivals; just about every capital city has its own, with up to 40 each month in the United States alone. Many larger festivals do not need to advertise for submissions and yet still receive thousands of submissions each year.

Specialist festivals

Further down the scale, at regional or state level, applicants are more likely to be successful. Some festivals focus on certain types of work or specific formats. For example, the Chicago International Film Festival shows the full spectrum of film in October, while more challenging work appears in the Chicago Underground Film Festival the previous August. Other festivals specialize in much more particular works, such as the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which shows only adaptations of the novelist’s work. Others still offer an outlet for those filmmakers rejected by the rest, such as the Reject Film Festival. Make sure you check out the kind of festivals that best suit your film and the level at which it sits within the industry as a whole. A film centring on gay issues should also be entered in gay and lesbian film festivals, such as the annual London or San Francisco international events. Other festivals specialize in ethnic groups, such as Latin American or Asian or religious groups.

Short film festivals

The number of short film festivals has increased over the last few years. The Shorts International Film Festival in USA and the Clermont-Ferrand in France are two of the most highly regarded, with distribution deals made in a competitive environment. Most general film festivals also have special screenings and awards for shorts.

 

Getting information

Getting hold of listings will vary from country to country, but details are available on filmmaker noticeboards. In the USA, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers has listings in its magazine, The Independent, though the West Coast is better served by the Film Arts Foundation magazine, Release Print.

Fees

Most festivals demand a fee for looking at your movie, but this varies between those asking for enough to keep the festival running and those operating more on a profit basis. Submit your film at least three months before the festival, using their application form - never send unsolicited tapes. Some festivals operate an office throughout the year, while others open for business in the quarter prior to the festival. When you submit your movie on VHS tape, make sure you have available a copy more suitable for screening, such as DVD, and which you are able to lose for up to three months. In response to the move in the industry towards digital technology, many festivals, particularly the larger ones, will have digital projection facilities.

Making the most of a festival

If you are accepted, devise a thorough marketing plan and consider hiring a publicist or sales agent. A publicist may cost you dearly but may be a worthwhile investment if you are accepted at a high profile festival, where there will be press attention and you are against wide competition from other filmmakers. A sales agent, on the other hand, is likely to have a more lasting commitment to the movie and will be more specifically geared toward the film industry, knowing how and when to cash in on festival success and translate this into sales.

Prizes

Festival prizes are given to encourage and reward talent, rather than provide the sort of money needed to make further movies, and are a great boost to promoting a film. Buyers will be more inclined to take a look at your film if a festival draws attention to it.

Online festivals

There are a growing number of festivals operating solely online, broadcasting films in specific periods, attracting mainly short films.

Online festivals are diverse, with some specializing in films that just happen to be shown online, while others show films that have been made specifically with the web in mind, including Flash animations. Don’t confuse these with digital film festivals, however, which showcase films made on this format but in a conventional theatre setting, such as the Onedotzero Digital Cinema Festival or the Resfest Digital Film Festival. Clearly, the opportunities for buyers to make contact with you are greater in a more conventional environment as opposed to a virtual one, which cannot cater for filmmakers to meet and network. Yet these online festivals are popular with filmmakers because of the potentially global catchment area of their viewing public and the lower entrance costs. These festivals should not be seen as focusing purely on a film’s mode of production; most are run by filmmakers sympathetic to the independent ideal and more interested in the content of a movie than its format.

 

The Crunch

• Film festivals help get your film noticed
• Go to film markets - hang out and take in the atmosphere
• Put together a press or distributor’s pack for market screenings
• Look for specialist festivals
• Investigate online festivals
• Festivals are about more than just watching and selling films - go there to meet other filmmakers and exchange ideas.

11. Using Internet broadcast sites

Submitting films to a site

Getting a film accepted on a high profile web movie site has acquired some prestige, with sites such as ifilm.com or Atom/Shockwave establishing reputations as places to see the best short films. They cater for every (legal) kind of movie, including dramas, comedies, music videos, experimental films - even Star Wars homages. Some lend weight to their sites with extensive back catalogues of work by established filmmakers such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Spike Jonze.

Submitting films for these sites is straightforward. The most popular sites ask you to complete a registration form and pay before submission. Each site offers different incentives to attract filmmakers and have different terms; check on the specific requirements of a site before submitting.

Film specifications

• Most films tend to be less than 20 minutes in length. Shorter ones are more popular with viewers due to quicker download times.
• Films should be reasonably fresh, made within the last two years at least.
• Films should have all clearances and rights available. Make sure you have cleared the rights for any music in the movie before submitting. Some sites, such as AtomShockwave, distribute successfully to airlines, television and hand-held devices, and they will insist that no rights are going to be infringed elsewhere.
• Some sites screen only narrative work, while others include sections on experimental film, spoof and animation (iFilm).
• Tapes are mailed to the site operator on DV tape or Beta SP. However, don’t send films that have been compressed already at home. The provider wants to be able to compress it themselves to their own specifications (and probably with better software).

All screen formats are accepted, including PAL, NTSC and SECAM.

 

 

Rights

The better sites will offer individualized deals based on the market potential for your movie. You don’t lose any rights simply by submitting a movie, though check that you don’t have to give any undertaking to this extent in online registration forms. The larger sites look to acquire worldwide rights and will actively seek to exploit markets for mutual benefit, though you need to check what percentage the distributor takes in each market, weighing up the benefits of signing over rights to an online distributor and losing the chance of selling through more traditional distribution methods.

Paying to show your movie

Some sites ask for a fee to show your work, though for some of the larger sites with more industry experience and contacts in the wider distribution field, you are effectively getting a sales agent as well as a screening; they will actively push your film towards wider sales internationally. If you want this sort of site, look for ones that have evolved out of existing distribution and marketing companies (for example, Atom Film). Depending on the quality of the format used to screen your movie, costs can vary between $50 and $300 for a specific run of 3–12 months. Getting the film online may take several weeks, though some sites will offer ‘express options’ (read: more expensive) to get it screened more quickly.

Bear in mind that not all sites ask for payment to show your movies. The sites that offer more, such as a dedicated home page for your movies, do so because filmmakers are willing to pay for these services. Sites such as Atom view films and select only those they feel have marketing potential - which is different from, though not always opposed to, artistic quality, so don’t be discouraged if your film gets rejected.

The Crunch

• Showing on the web can help you - the feedback you get helps you move on
• Keep movies short
• Beware losing your rights to the movie
• Not all sites ask for a fee
• Aim at the best sites first
• Capitalize on your successes - tell everyone you know to watch your film on a site and post a message on a filmmakers’ bulletin board to say ‘watch my movie’.

12.Your rights: protecting your movie on the web

Just as you sign over the right to show a film with a particular distributor in theatres, so the Internet also works by giving all or some of the rights over your movie to a particular site. In the rush to sell a movie, you may be tempted to accept any deal, ignoring some of the finer points in a contract. You need to consider some areas very carefully.

Distribution agreement

If you are offered a showing on a website, you will receive a ‘distribution agreement’. Check whether the site is offering to actually broadcast your movie, as opposed to selling video copies of it via the Internet, or doing both. This sounds like an obvious point, but if you later strike a deal with a foreign buyer to sell video copies of your movie in a certain country, the fact that the consumer can buy your cassette already from another country over the Internet may affect your deal.

If you have already allowed your movie to be broadcast on television, or in theatrical release, regardless of how limited this may have been, you must be open about this when agreeing your contract. Similarly, a television company will need to know whether your movie has first been broadcast on the Internet. Withholding this information could lead to problems later, if the TV company perceives that you have violated their exclusive rights to show the film.

Royalties

Royalties have yet to be standardized on the Internet. Choose a site that offers you a cut of the advertising revenue generated by people viewing your movie. Check whether you are receiving equal share with other films, although some sites include confidentiality clauses restricting filmmakers from revealing what their cut is. If a film is your Internet debut, and you have no profile in the wider industry, you have no real bargaining power and will probably have to take what you are offered. Bear in mind also that disparity of rates is inevitable, since some filmmakers regularly generate many more downloads than others.

Rights

In signing a contract, you are granting rights to that website, exclusive or otherwise, and you need to ensure that you have the authority to do this. If your movie has music which needs permission to be included, or literary rights which must be acquired, have you first obtained the necessary permission? Some sites, offering broadcast or video and DVD sale, don’t let you past the home page without first asking whether you have music or screenplay rights to your movie. Music is usually the biggest hurdle, as some makers of short films are unaware of the need to obtain permission for even a few seconds of music, or perceive that an unknown musician with few sales won’t be aware that their music is being used on a movie.

Written agreements

If you do sell a film for viewing in any setting, you must make sure that you have full acceptance from your actors and anyone else who appears in the film. To get your film shown in a prestigious venue or television slot and then have to withdraw because you don’t have clearance would be heartbreaking. To free your production from these potential problems, ask everyone who appears in the film to sign a written agreement that they accept your right to exhibit this film in a ‘public showing’. You need this for any kind of movie, including documentary. Written agreement may have special relevance where young, up-and-coming actors subsequently become famous overnight, and in documentaries tackling outlandish and extreme subject matter. Certainly, broadcast television would expect to have complete clearance from everyone who took part before transmitting your film.

If you are in a position to offer rights, look at how those rights are arranged. Some entertainment lawyers suggest seeking a reversion clause in which rights are returned to you after a set period, perhaps six months or a year. Rights could be retained by the site only if a certain amount of revenue is generated during that period.

Use the Internet for marketing, not financial return

In general marketing terms, remember that since a film shown on the Internet can be accessed theoretically from any territory in the world, just about all your future marketing deals will be affected once you have shown the film on the web. Since it is unlikely that you are going to see any reasonable return by selling to the Internet, it may be more prudent to seek deals first with markets offering higher rates, such as television and video. In addition, copyright laws vary enormously from country to country, and if you are at all protective about your movie and the possibility of its being copied and sold, think twice about Internet broadcast. The Internet should not be seen as a way of recouping costs or making a profit on your movie, rather it is an effective marketing tool, enabling people to see what you do, remember your name and check out the next movie you make. Although it certainly lacks any financial gain for the filmmaker, it somewhat makes up for this by offering the widest possible return of opinion. Many people find the comments and suggestions made by viewers enlightening and encouraging.

So, to recap, decide in advance what your aims are in seeking Internet broadcast. Since financial gain is unlikely to be high, viewing figures are the main attraction, and that means going first to sites with high profiles.

The Crunch

• Always read the small print before you sign your film over to a site
• Don’t expect financial return - it’s about exposure
• Make sure you have permission and ownership of all parts of your film - music included
• Check what the copyright law is in the country where the website is hosted.