Shadow And Act

On Media Of The African Diaspora – Emphasis On Cinema

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Watch Now – Redefining Theatrical Distribution

By Tambay, on November 25th, 2009

For you filmmakers out there… a lot of good stuff here, so take heed.

h/t TRULY FREE FILM

4 comments to Watch Now – Redefining Theatrical Distribution

Qadree

November 25th, 2009 at 3:34 pm · Reply

There is another video that I haven’t been able to watch in it’s entirety, but it seems interesting so far:

http://festivaldarlings.23video.com/video/526600/vod-and-what-it-means-to-the
al

November 26th, 2009 at 12:58 am · Reply

Great info. Now I have a question…..can someone show me where these types of models have worked for films whose target audience is black? I know these models are new but I’m curious. I beleive Trois was the last successful truly indie film (made for under 250,000) DIY/distribution story whose audience was primarily black.

I wonder what would have happened if the producers of “Medicine for the Melancholy” and “It’s a Good day to be Black and Sexy” decided to self distrubute. They were both well received and played at major film festivals. Would they have been able to acheive the same financial success as Trois?
- Tambay
  
  November 26th, 2009 at 12:49 pm · Reply
  
  There’s very little to choose from in terms of films aimed at black audiences that took the DIY route with any kind of success. I’m having a hard time coming up with titles at the moment. But I’ll research.
  
  I think “I’m Through With White Girls” hopped around a bit, screening here and there, before Image Entertainment picked it up for DVD distribution. However, prior to that, the filmmakers/producers screened it in a few cities, which helped it build buzz, and attract the DVD deal.
  
  If “Medicine For Melancholy” or “Black & Sexy” went the DIY route, it’s hard to say how successful they would have been. I think Dennis Dortch’s film was more easily marketed than Barry’s, and so I think he may have had more success with the film than what Magnolia did with it, which wasn’t much. I recall he actually had to handle many of the film’s screenings himself, because Magnolia didn’t really know what to do with it, and didn’t put much effort into it at all.
NothingButAMan

November 27th, 2009 at 2:36 am · Reply

All important things think about which will be relevant to ALL filmmakers in the very near future, if not now… BUT alot of these DIY “success” stories (a very subjective term) seem to be centered on films that cater to a very “indie-saavy” and tech/new media literate community, and that also have production budgets WELL south of 200K… so folks should bear that in mind, you can’t just copy and paste a model that was successful for someone else’s film.