Three New Distributors and a rant...

You know... I think what's going on in the film world is actually quite similar to what's going on in the rest of the business world. I'm sure you've heard some of the ridiculous stories, such as those idiots over at AIG who, after getting bailed out, spent a bunch of money on spa's, trips and bonuses... then there's the executives at the major auto manufacturers who all showed up in Washington, pleading for bail-out money, talking about how broke they are, but they each showed up, independently, on private jets. Seriously guys, what the fuck? Like... huh?

I feel the film world, to some extent, is the same. Don't get me wrong, I feel there will always be a market for big-budget, big time films that can draw huge audiences. The numbers are there and they make money. However, take a look at the mid-range movies that come out. Do they really make money? No. Most of them don't. Why? Probably because they're wasting a lot of money and being frivolous. Then, they pull up in their Mercedes, after driving in from their house on the hills and complain to the press that 'indie' film is dead. Well... how about you take a pay cut? How about you don't hire your friends? Get that fucking budget down... You know why? Because if you keep sliding down that budgetary scale, all of a sudden... the numbers start to make sense again. Strip your production down to its bare bones, cut every corner possible and it's way easier to turn a profit. This is the fundamental reason why the true indie films CAN make money. It's Roger Corman economics - make a movie for cheap enough and it has to make money. You know he's the only guy to make as many movies as he did and never lose money on a film? You want to know more about that style of filmmaking? Two books (and click on them for more info): "How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime" by Roger Corman and "Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player" by Robert Rodriguez.

Anyhow, the truth of the matter is, with this boom in 'true' indie film, there's money to be made and you, as a filmmaker, need to make sure you get your fair share. In a lot of cases, these distributors will set up their deals to fuck you over. However, because of the amount of films out there now, there's a lot of quality distributors popping up all the time and, with time, I'm fairly confident that word will spread and weed out the bad ones. So, here you go... three more distributors to look into and I'll be adding them to our big list, which you can find here, soon.

Rivercoast Films Distribution call themselves 'the filmmaker's film site'. Founded in 2007, they are the product of three intense years for two film industry veterans, Michael Katchman and Tony Ventura. In those three years, they had one mission: creating a team and a system to maximize the multi-channel distribution potential of indie films beyond what had been possible before. I believe they distributed a film that I recently saw called "The Legend Trip", which I hope to be posting an interview on soon, but they also have a couple other horror films in their library. The library's slim, but give them a bit of a break. They're new... which could be a good time to get in there. Here's a link to their site.

I learned of New Blood Entertainment when I was talking with Nigel Hartwell about his film "Dead by Dawn". Once again, they're fairly new, so they don't have a ton of titles, but all they do is horror, so... probably good for you. They're aiming to release a new film every other month through 2009 and are currently actively looking for new films to distribute. Also, New Blood is run by filmmakers, so if you're looking for someone who's going to be on your side and understand what you went through, these would be the guys. They released the "Dead by Dawn" series, as well as "The Expedition", "The Hot Karl", "Doomed to Consume" and a few others... Here's a link to their site.

Celebrity Video Distribution is an L.A. based distributor that provides a total 'one-stop' distribution service for indie movie producers and video retail buyers. They push your film through a bunch of different channels and they list them all on their site, so I'm not going to go through it all here. Each film will be assigned a content manager who presents it to a National and International distribution customer base. They've released a few decent horror films, including "The Dead Don't Scream", "Disturbed", "Fear Girls" and a few others... Here's a link to their site.