SXSW Documentary Distribution
BY CYNDI GREENING, AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA (CINEMA MINIMA) -- Here I am at the SXSW Film Festival. I'm getting ready for the third Panel Discussion on Documentary Filmmaking. This one is rumored to be about distribution. I am most excited because it looks like Diane Weyermann of Participant Productions is going to be here. She used to be at Sundance but has made to switch to the more commercially focused Participant. I've been wanting to catch up with her for quite a while so this is auspicious. She was tough to get to at Sundance. She's been impossible at Participant.
Of course, this is one of the key recommendations I make for why you should attend film festivals ... ACCESS! There is nothing more fabulous than getting next to the folks you really want to see and speak to and present your projects.
The panelists include:
- Mirko Whitfield of TvFormats Ltd.
- Katie Speight of CHANNEL FOUR
- Diana Holtzberg of Films Transit International
- Greg Rhem of HBO Documentary Acquistions
- Diane Weyermann of Participant Productions
- Allison Bourke of IFC
RHEM: Big numbers are good. Small numbers are bad. Exploitive tend to do better. Autopsy. Taxicab Confessions. Cathouse. Real Sex series. Quality programming with good characters and good stories are important to us. Awards are also good. Fictional stories and large films do not necessarily do as well for us. Looking for something good that will generate some buzz and pick up some awards.
SOPRANOS gets ten times the viewers as documentaries. Easier when you have a piece you can control more. We used to schedule thematically.
WEYERMANN: PARTICIPANT founded by Jeff Skol. Initially set up as dramatic filmmaking entity with social consciousness. He decided last year to get involved with documentaries as well. They funded MURDERBALL and AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Looking for docs with high level distribution opportunity.
BOURKE: Six documentaries that we full funded and distributed. We have an agreement with Netflix, we're experimenting with simultaneous release in multiple markets.
HOLTZBERG: We have to love the film and think it has universal appeal. We do little of historical focus. We're more current affairs, drugs-sex-rock-n-roll. We have one film at SXSW ... the Mauthausen film KZ. We release 20 to 25 films per year.
SPEIGHT: Public service mandate in Britain but needed to be self-sustaining and self-funding. Made it difficult to choose most compelling documentaries if they aren't/weren't commercially viable. New digital channel named MORE FOUR. We've got EFOUR, FILMFour, MOREFour. They're not all as high-brow as Channel Four. They have funny bits, entertaining bits as well as serious bits. An extension of what Channel Four does in that area. FOURdocs is a documentary channel. Broadband channel that allows people to upload their films. It has an archive and how-to tutorials on editing and that sort of thing. You can download rushes and view them. It's completely free and captures that talent. It is territory protected. NICK BROOMFIELD's films are in the archives but they can't be downloaded. Broadband is becoming what television used to be.
HOLTZBERG: Rights, distribution and protection are all key challenges in the new broadband arena.
BOURKE: All of technology advances make it difficult. It's all so new that all of the agreements are in flux. And, the way that people "consume" television and media is changing.
QUESTION: WHEN DID MURDERBALL COME TO YOU?
WEYERMANN: That film entered before I joined Participant. They came in quite late so what Participant provided was P&A (Publicity and Advertising) to support distribution. We need a treatment, budget, partners, financing. First, is it a project we can get behind and feel good about it. Second, is it an ACTIONABLE film ... something to act on and compel social change. Third, is it COMMERCIALLY VIABLE because Participant is a for-profit company.
QUESTION: Hollywood seems out of step and unable to pick winners. Why is that?
HOLTZBERG: This is an Art not a Science. If it were possible to do enough market research, we'd never have a flop.
RHEM: We didn't want SPELLBOUND and it was brought to us numerous times. Even after it won some awards, we didn't think it was going to be doing much. You just never know.
BOURKE: I agree. Monday morning quarterbacking is always quite easy. I recall something David Lynch said once about how a film may seem like it's right in the zeitgeist of the time yet it was started two years earlier. As it is produced and developed, it may hit a wave that you didn't know was there.
SPEIGHT: Yes, we just have to look at what sparks our attention and captures our inspiration.
QUESTION: WHAT IF I WANT TO LET PEOPLE DOWNLOAD MY FILM ON GOOGLE VIDEO.
HOLTZBERG: Theatrical distributors see it as competition. While they may not care if you sell a couple hundred on your website, selling 5000 or 10000 is a different story because it compromises their video sales.
RHEM: Well, how did Steven Soderbergh's film BUBBLE doing with the simultaneous distribution?
HOLTZBERG: There's another panel going on about that model right now. We heard it did not do too well and they're thinking they may not pursue that model any longer. We're working on something like this with IFC right now. Would you care to speak to that?
BOURKE: We're doing the multiple avenues of simultaneous distribution called BRANDED DISTRIBUTION. It's a new world and everyone is trying to figure out how to make it work best. Generally, theatrical distribution is a loss-leader for documentary market. More often, more of the earnings will be made with video and DVD sales.
HOLTZBERG: Niche marketing is often part and parcel of documentary film distribution. (As from the earlier panel, every film is it's own business and distribution panel.)
RHEM: We've heard a million pitches. There isn't much new under the sun.
HOLTZBERG: You can protect your work by copyrighting it but you can still have your ideas stolen. I've pitched ideas that have been made later.
BOURKE: It's common in the business. You have to learn to deal with it.
HOLTZBERG: Try to get the rights to everything you have in your film for perpetuity. If you buy the rights for ten years, in ten years you have to go get the rights again or your film is dead. Sometimes it can take ten years to make your film so you don't want to be re-securing rights just as it's ready to be released.
BOURKE:Michael Donaldson is the expert in the field in fair use and usable. It's very readable. Try to get rights in perpetuity.
HOLTZBERG:And limit yourself to 90 minutes for maximum distribution options. Lock it where you love it because you'll have to re-tool it for all of the avenues anyway. Anything over 90 minutes is relegated to late at night or the festival circuit.
WEYERMANN: If your documentary isn't chosen for a film festival, there is almost no chance of theatrical distribution. There are so few theatrical docs anyway. You just have to make it and put it out there and see if anyone is interested.
