To whom in may concern;

The reason for my inquiry is that we would like to view your production of ” The Broken hearts Club ” for possible possible DVD distribution in North America Our company, (www.iconmusic.ca) which to date has been a record company, also distributes DVD’s and sells broadcast rights to films and TV Series and Documentary’s in Canada, and has signed an exclusive North American distribution deal with Koch Entertainment for DVD films (DVD retail market). We have currently released 10 films in North America since this past December.

In case you are not familiar with Koch Entertainment (Koch Vision) they are part of the Entertainment One group of companies, which own RCV Entertainment, an independent European film distributor and owner of 1,900 movie titles. RCV released 37 new theatrical features in 2007, including “Premonition,” “Miss Potter,” “Resident Evil: Extinction,” “Run Fat Boy Run,” “Hairspray” and “The Golden Compass.” RCV’s all-rights library of more than 1,900 independent features, include “What Women Want,” “Sin City,” “Perfume,” “La Vie en Rose,” “The Notebook” and “Blade.”

Its films for 2008 included “Bangkok Dangerous” with Nicolas Cage; “The Eye,” starring Jessica Alba; “Sleuth,” starring Michael Caine and Jude Law; and director Paul Haggis’s “In the Valley of Elah,” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron

Other Companies in the Koch family include; Contender in the U.K. and Seville in Canada, and it has a multi-territory distribution agreement with Summit Entertainment.

I also own Canada’s largest independent Radio Syndication Network (www.dasilvagroup.com) which allows us substantial radio advertising opportunities in Canada.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Rui Da Silva
President, Da Silva Group of Companies/Icon Music Group

2nd Floor
10510 – 107 Ave.N.W.
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T5H 0W2

Direct Line (780) 702-0614
Fax (780) 665-8116

Above is an interview with my UK friend David Baker. David is a fantastic independent filmmaker whose Mission X film is an exciting action docudrama. David has a very distinct position on filmmakers empowering themselves with their films.  New distribution model? He says, “It’s right in front of your eyes!” I agree.

Here’s my response…

I think another important aspect to David’s distribution process is the aforethought given to the budget. I see filmmakers and web series creators starting off their projects by choosing insanely high budgets. First time indie filmmakers, with no experience and no money are budgeting their film projects at $100k and above! And web series creators are budgeting their projects at $30,000!! Do you think that Felicia Day of the “The Guild” started off thinking that she’d scrape up $30k to make her web series? No. But I see countless filmmakers with big budget dreams, incorrectly believing that if they increase the budget the audience will come. Not so.

David completely and thoroughly thought out his debt-to-profit ratio before shooting one frame. It is much easier to recoup your investment on an $8000 film than a $80,000 film. How did he manage his budget? Easy — he didn’t have the luxury of a fat bank account, so he relied on his resourcefulness and creativity.

People have remarked that my film, “Broken Hearts Club” looks as though it was shot for twice or 3x what I made it for. And you know what I say? I say I wish I’d shot it for half of what it cost me. And I could have done that with a little more time in pre-production.

Indie filmmakers must think about their budgets from a realistic standpoint. If you’re a no-name filmmaker and you manage to make a film for $150,000 of course you’re going to want some studio to buy it — because you’re desperate! But if you’ve made it for $15,000 and you have DVD, disc-on-demand, VOD, downloads etc available to you you’ll give the studios the finger because you don’t need them or their one-sided distribution contracts.

PULP FUSION:
The Raw Shorts Collection by Angelo Bell

NEW DVD RELEASE

This is a Brand New, self-made DVD collection by independent filmmaker Angelo Bell. I self-distribute my films using my MacBookPro. I have 13 film credits, two “best in fest” awards and I made history at the Los Angeles ShortsFest in 2007 when FOUR of my shorts were accepted into the festival. My credits are at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1479226/

This DVD short film collection comprises the first of several “Pulp Fusion Series” DVDs that I’ll be releasing as part of my Independent self-distribution model. My films are now available to a global audience. The second film in the series, “Pulp Fusion: The Resurrection of Serious Rogers,” is actually a 2-hour feature film and contains several clips and sequences from “Pulp Fusion: The Raw Shorts.” The next DVD will include director interviews explaining how I rewrote the narrative for a previous film to include clips from several of my other films. It was an amazing process. But more on that later. Let’s talk about RAW.

On the DVD you get FIVE short films and a director video totalling over an hour of entertainment. The short films cover the gamut of genres and often contain multiple genres. There’s art house, action, drama, noir, girls-with-guns, satire and comedy. The films discuss drug abuse, heroin addiction, human trafficking, murder, love, sisterhood, friendship, sacrifice and of course, murder in the first degree. It’s great entertainment. And you’ll want to want each short film over and over again. If I do say so myself, the writing is exemplary and has gotten many kudos.

As I mentioned, you get FIVE films. Get Spielberg, Renounced, Valerie & Sid, The First Time and I know Who Shot You. Here are the trailers for the films

My Official Amazon DVD ships March 30th for $24.95. But you can get it here on eBay at a $10 discount. I manage my own DVD replication but my DVD’s are guaranteed to work. If the DVD doesn’t work on your DVD player or laptop for any reason, you’ll get a new one. Period. Just ship it back. My DVD discs do come with an affixed label.I ship within 48 hours of receiving payment. DVD arrives in a cardboard mailer in a DVD sleeve. No case.

I’ll also enclose a coupon for $5 off the second film in the Pulp Fusion Series, “The Resurrection of Serious Rogers” which will be available in early April right here!

]]> http://www.angelobell.com/2009/03/more-pulpand-elongated-perspective-of-pulp-fusion/feed/ 0 http://www.angelobell.com/2009/02/12-steps-to-self-distribution/ http://www.angelobell.com/2009/02/12-steps-to-self-distribution/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:43:00 +0000 Angelo http://www.angelobell.com/?p=541 Over the past few months I’ve been scouring the internet for knowledge and education about film distribution. I’ve read hundreds of blogs. I’ve looked at a handful of so-called distribution experts selling “how to” information for hundreds of dollars. I’ve found a mentor who’s actually doing it. I’ve read articles by the thousands. And guess what, “Houston? We have a problem!”

Many, if not most, of the articles and blogs I’ve read about film distribution come from people, companies and businesses in the industry that have banked on the current problematic distribution model.They have something to gain by keeping you, the filmmaker, locked in the choking grasp of hopelessness. Why? Their advertisers and business partners are film festivals, film studios, talent agencies, etc. The truth is, independent filmmakers are needed in this industry more than we realize. But I digress…more on this topic in another blog.

I’ve disseminated what I’ve learned and broken it down into ten steps independent filmmakers might want to consider as they consider distributing their films. These steps won’t guarantee a successful distribution (what is success?) but they will tip the odds in your favor…if your film is entertaining. In comprising these steps, I’ve assumed that you have a feature film in the can, ready to be burned onto a DVD at any time.

Anyone can learn these steps. It takes time. It takes education. It takes perseverance. 

The Internet levels the playing field somewhat when self-distributors or VOD distributors try to get their films into the public’s hand. However, from what I’ve seen, there is a tendency to simply rely on a one-tooth approach: Myspace. I’ve seen hundreds of Myspace bulletins about DVD distribution, but unless your profile’s friend count is numbering in the hundreds of thousands, it’s only reaching a tiny fraction of a fraction of the people hungry to buy or rent your DVD.

So how do you reach the buyers? How hard will you work to close the deal? Myspace actually offers a three-pronged approach to this endeavor. Naturally we think of using the bulletin/blog route, right? But bulletins and blogs can only be effective when the people who read them number in the tens of thousands. So here’s my idea for a three-pronged approach using only Myspace:

1: BULLETIN/BLOG – Have a regular bulletin message that goes out twice weekly. The bulletin should point reader back to your blog for additional information. The blog will be the core of your marketing strategy, with every blog containing links to your trailer, primary website (if other then MySpace) and links to other video or clips or news information. These links should be in a boilerplate type message at the bottom of every blog. Bulletins should also be placed on relevant MySpace groups of which you are a member.

2. ADD FRIENDS – Add friends to your profile DAILY. You should be submitting at least 100 friend requests a day. Preferably you are reaching Myspace’s maximum of 400 requests a day. But your ADDS shouldn’t be haphazard or random. Find profiles of films that are similar to yours and add their friends. This makes your outreach more targeted. Successful marketing strategies tend to involve a niche: in the film world that means a genre. Coming of Age, Romance, Comedy, Horror, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Drama, etc.

3. BE INTERACTIVE – When you add friends, leave personal comments on their page. When you receive a comment, leave a comment. In every correspondence close by asking your new Myspace friends to visit your profile. Drive them to your videos, your blogs. Ask them to suggest your site to a friend. Offer your friends something special that non-friends cannot see, such as private photos from the film or a video clip. Then obtain email addresses and be as careful with these email addresses as you are with your own. Don’t spam, but use the email address to notify people about your film’s upcoming release date.

I believe this strategy is more detailed than simply sending out bulletins and adding friends. For DVD releases we become the greatest advocates of our films, and so our voices must be the loudest and the most far-reaching.

Good luck

I’ve never been a fan of direct to DVD distribution. To me it the distributor’s cowardly way out; it’s the cheap road to profits without regard to the filmmaker’s desires. Not so with The Wall. With this upcoming film I am more than happy with a direct to DVD distribution. My research has told me that DVD releases, if properly marketed, can yield enormous results and word of mouth. Even mediocre genre films gan ‘blowuptuate’.

The key is in the marketing, promotion and advertising of the film. But that is where genre films rule, especially when promoted on the Internet. In just a few minutes of Internet research I came across a slew of horror film websites. The Internet is sick with horror films sites, thus making it fairly easy to promote quickly and inexpensively. And there are just as many “general interest” film websites, each looking for  content on the latest and greatest films — studio, indie or otherwise — to promote to their eager fans.

If we take a step back and look at the bigger picture, these websites can also be used to promote our low-budget indie films which we hope will be picked up or sold at a film festival. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising. Why? Because it comes with a built-in recommendation from a reliable source — someone you know. So the more people who know about your film, the more peple who’ll talk about it.

Hollywood: it’s a jungle out there; we might as well get used to swinging from vines just like everyone else.