Blue Hair and Dreams

I've always wanted blue hair.  When my age was still in the single digits and I loved cartoons and super heroes and thought about changing my name to something exotic like Evangeline, I also wanted tattoos and blue hair.  My parents, possessing a combination of great wisdom and a desire to never stifle a dream, always told me that when I became an adult I could do whatever I wanted.  I could stay up all night, eat cake and ice cream for breakfast, I could watch cartoons all day long and get tattoos all over my body.  I would go to bed dreaming of the day I would become an adult.  I would tell my young self not to forget about all the amazing things I wanted to do as a grownup.  I began making lists of my dreams.  The lists have evolved over time.  I traded dreams of castles for dreams of tiny houses, instead of wanting horses I wanted movies.  But some dreams I have not grown out of.  Blue hair was one of them. 

If you have a long standing dream, one that time has not eroded, take hold of it and go for it.  Make a whole list of them, big and small, revisit the list, add to it, cross things off, change your mind, and live your dreams.  You have the power to change your whole life at any given moment.  Never forget that.

Before and after.

How to Distribute an Independent Film in 8 Steps

Self-distribution used to be a sad term for people who made movies so bad no one wanted to pay money to see them.  Today it’s not shunned the way it used to be, in fact there’s great potential for the artist making the movie to cut out the middle man and go straight to audience members.  Everyone wins right?  Well sort of.  Most artists make terrible businessmen and vice versa.  There’s a ton of media available on a ton of different platforms, how are people supposed to find your little film among the fray?  If you’re going to self-distribute, you the artist are now responsible for getting your film to audience members.  Most filmmakers study shot composition and acting.  We’re storytellers not story sellers.  So how does it work?  I don’t know yet.  This is my first foray into being a story seller, but here’s a candid break down of what I’m doing with my first feature film, My Toxic Backyard

Click the Links to go more in depth.

1. Film Festivals

Feature films fees average about $50 per entry.  Then if you make it in, you want to be able to attend and network.  The costs can add up quickly.  Did you remember to budget for it?

2. Marketing

You have to spend money to make money right? 

3. Limited Theatrical Release

Having a theatrical release seems really lofty, but it’s totally doable.

4. Broadcast

Because I had a documentary film, it made sense to broadcast it over the air for free on TV.  This might not make sense for most projects, but I’ll tell you why I did it.

5. Scheduling Releases

With multiple ways for people to view your movie, you can make it available only one way at a time and maximize your revenue and announcement process.

6. Traditional distribution

This used to be the only way to go, but now with alternative distribution you have choices to make.  Traditional distribution has both advantages and disadvantages.

7. Self-Distribution

What do you need to have together to get your movie ready for distribution?  How long will take?  I went with Createspace.  I'll tell you why I did and what I learned through out the process.

8. See the Film Referenced Here

I keep talking about this film My Toxic Backyard that I am in the process of selling.  Check out the actual film and see how it looks on Amazon and in my official store set up through Createspace.

Everything you read here is just my opinion and my personal experiences going on this crazy roller coaster ride.  If you're not a filmmaker, I hope you gained a little insight into what it's like as an independent artist trying to make it in the world.  If you are a filmmaker, hopefully you'll have a little more knowledge after following my film's journey and maybe it'll save you a little frustration with your own work.

Katie

Self-Distribution: How to Navigate CreateSpace

I chose Createspace / Amazon / IMDb / Withoutabox (it’s all owned by the same umbrella company, but you will deal with each individually.)  Create Space is the place I’m selling everything through.  I picked it because Amazon is a large platform, it doesn’t cost anything up front and still has some flexibility in how I want to release.

Let me start by saying Create Space had me pulling my hair out on more than one occasion with timely, yet vague, responses from their staff.  They will not hold your hand through the process of getting all your work into their system and it’s a pain!  They give you all the information you need to do it, but it’s not easy to follow and the information you find online from others is probably outdated.  I’m going to write up a step by step process for 2015, for all those filmmakers out there feeling the frustration I felt.

What I Learned about Createspace:

1. You need an unencrypted disc image file (.iso) you can burn this with toast on a mac, which is what I did.  You might also be able to burn one on a PC with Windows Disc Image Burner.  I can't speak to the PC way of burning this since I didn't go that route.

2. Your iso file must have 2 folders and only 2 folders on it and they must be "VIDEO_TS" and "AUDIO_TS." Nothing more.  If you're like me, you might have a disc that only has the video folder.  If that's the case, you must create an empty audio folder before you burn the iso.  Createspace will reject your file if it isn't done exactly this way.

3. When your submission gets rejected, the Createspace staff won't tell you exactly why.  They'll give you a standard rejection message basically saying something didn't meet their standards.  You just have to try to figure out what specific guideline you failed to follow.  They will reset your submission status fairly quickly so you can try again.  I think I submitted iso files 3 times before they finally approved my last one.

4. I accidentally started a VOD only project and now there are 2 My Toxic Backyard pages on Amazon...forever.  Unfortunately someone bought a copy before I had the file deleted (even though on my dashboard it was listed as still pending approval and I couldn't delete it myself, plus the purchase didn't show up in my royalties so I had no way of knowing that someone purchased it.) After many messages back and forth trying to understand what happened, Createspace informs me now that they can never get rid of this second page on Amazon.  So make sure if you want to give people the option of purchasing a DVD that you are doing a DVD project when you start!  You can add a VOD option all in the same project later on or at the same time.

5. Expect to wait 4 to 6 weeks for your files to be approved.  You want to start this process well in advance of your release!  Once approved, you will still have to enable it for sale, which will take at least an additional 30 days for VOD.  You must order a test DVD (about $7) and check it before they will let you sell it.  You can't skip this step.  When I enabled my DVD for sale, it was available within a day.  Trying to enable the VOD in the same project, has proven to be taking much longer.  At the time of posting this, I'm still waiting.  They won't tell you when your project is up for sale either, you just have to keep checking it. (Be sure to check on Amazon, don't trust your createspace dashboard, mine said "pending" when it was actually "available.")

6. You can set the price for your DVD sales, but you can't set the price for you VOD download and rental.  You only get to suggest VOD pricing.

7. You also have the option to make a Createspace store front that you can have directly on your website and you'll make more royalties from it, but it's separate from Amazon, so anyone buying from your store will have to enter their shipping and credit card information to make the purchase and they don't have an option to get free shipping.  You can offer coupon codes for your store to sweeten the deal for your customers, but the coupon codes don't work on Amazon.

8. The price you set for your DVD will be the same on Amazon and in your Createspace store front.  You can't make one less than the other. So keep that in mind when setting your price.

9. Amazon takes a huge cut.  They do all the order fulfillment so they are taking a lot of the burden off your hands.  Just don't expect to get rich quick unless you sell lots and lots of copies.

10. The money you earn from sales (royalties) gets paid out either once a month or once every 60 days, depending on the type of media.  For example for VOD if someone rented your movie in February, you would not get the royalties for that until the end of April.  You also have to meet a threshold before they will give you any money.  You must earn $10 or more for direct deposit and $100 or more before they will issue you a check.  So if only one person rented your movie in February and you only earned $1, you still don't get paid at all.  You need at least 10 rentals or some other combination of purchases that gets you up to $10, if you have direct deposit.

11.  You will see royalties reported for DVD sales right away.  So if your friend says, I bought a DVD from you! You can look on your Createspace dashboard and there it is.  VOD sales are not reported in real time.  You will see those sales 30 days after the end of the month the purchase was made.  So if someone rented your movie in March, it would appear in the sales report at the end of April. 

12. Closed Captioning.  Remember earlier how I was doing closed captioning for broadcast, well I also needed it on Amazon.  The process for submitting your closed captioning file is a little strange given the rest of the process.  You don't upload it anywhere from your account.  You have to email your .scc file to timedtextfiles@CreateSpace.com and you have to make sure you name the file properly so they know which project it goes to.  If you have questions about it, you can also email the same address and ask them.  Again, they won't tell you if captions are required or not.  You have to figure that out.

Hope that helps clear a few things up!  Leave a comment if you have questions or want more info.

Scheduling Releases

With multiple ways for people to view your movie, you can make it available only one way at a time and maximize your revenue and announcement process.  I’m planning more than one release.  First, there were film festivals, then a limited theatrical release, then broadcast.  After that comes the opportunity for people to purchase the film on a DVD and finally it will be available as VOD (video on demand, both rental and download.)  

The reason I’m doing it that way is, I’ll be able to do more than one release announcement blasted on social media and I’ll make more through DVD sales than VOD so I’d rather most people that are interested purchase a DVD.  Making that the only option for a while, will get impatient people to do just that.  I don't want to miss out on sales though, so shortly after the DVD release will be VOD so that the documentary is widely available to as many potential audience members as possible.

Make sure you have a plan for how you want to release your movie, before you get to that point.  You don't want to miss out on a chance to have your movie in a film festival because you released it online too early.  And you don't want people buying a copy at home before you do a theatrical release, if you want to go that route.  Timing is important.  Make the most of it.