Our 4th feature, Phoenix, Oregon, was filmed May 2018. Post production will be complete this month. We will premiere at festivals April/May and then release via a 10-week national screening tour Summer 2019, June 15 — August 24.
We will tour the country in an airstream bus or trailer.
The tin-can RV will sport graphics such as:
- “follow us to Phoenix, Oregon… the movie”
- larger-than-life cast photos
- sponsor logos
- and maybe a quote from the movie: “your alien’s are trying to help you” with comic alien tendrils ensnaring the bus
We’ll show up at bowling alleys, airstream rallies and art houses, screening the film, doing Q&As and trying to bowl over 200. We’ll visit national parks to appease the kids and to bathe our frayed nerves in majestic beauty.
We’ll aim for “100 cubed” as the team coins the tour: 100 venues, 100 tickets, 100k.
We will crack the holy grail of indie film outreach and profitability.
~•~
Will we?
~•~
Let’s get this out of the way now…
Our last three movies all have distribution.
None have been profitable.
This is embarrassing and traumatic in ways I can’t fully express. We are still in major personal debt from investing in our own films, and, as they say, we owe people all over town. Thankfully we have supportive family, friends, and collaborators who extend us seemingly unending grace.
Money isn’t everything. They tell me it’s the experience that counts. Making art. Participating in the process.
I believe those things to be true, but it’s not sustainable forever. Failing financially doesn’t feel good, and the films aren’t completely reaching their audiences.
We are ready to level-up, to run a sustainable business — not just support hobby films with commercial agency work.
It’s the age-old conflict of art vs business: is it possible to focus on both creating meaningful art and being profitable? Truthfully, I don’t know. This is a piece of my growth this year — finding out if I can peacefully and genuinely answer “yes” to that question.
I do know that if this film is successful, both artistically and financially, it will be easier to raise funding for the next film.
~•~
So what will be different this time?
While I have experience releasing our last three films, distribution still feels like a big-black-box-of-unknown. In the past, I tried various marketing schemes and promotional screenings, but continuously stopped and started, and after a few bumps and failures gave up. I isolated myself, forgot to ask for help, tried solving problems alone, and allowed humiliation to govern small mistakes.
The making of a movie is exhilarating, challenging, wrought with mistakes and obstacles, but the phases of financing, casting & production feel repeatable and achievable. We know the minutia of every task and how and when each needs to be completed.
With distribution, my brain cannot yet parse the box of tasks past a few high-level milestones (create social media pages, build an audience, submit to festivals, sign a contract with a distributor, turn over the deliverables).
Arg… it makes my head hurt. There are a million other tasks in between and beneath each of those.
Launching the film into the world, successfully and to its best audience, feels like a big wall of unknown at the moment.
In speaking to producer friends and filmmakers, even those who seem more connected, I know I’m not alone in this feeling.
This time, I have a team around me. We are braver. I’m not doing this alone, and together we’ll dissect that box of tasks, choose to view failures and setbacks as lessons, and follow each task to its logical end, down corrugated pathways, winding around and through until we get to the other side of that black box.
~•~
Release Goals, 10³
I love spontaneity and adventure. I love numbers.
Assigning numeric goals to the release plan helps my brain sort the chaos, anchors some of those swirling black-box tasks, and focuses me on what to do next.
My favorite goal-setting frameworks provide strong walls with empty rooms, allowing space for creativity, freedom, randomness and spontaneity within a stated structure.
10³ is a stretch: achievable but challenging enough that I only catch glimpses of how it might be possible.
Goal Framework and “Rules”
Screen the film in 100 venues
- multiple screenings at the same venue count as one venue
- 1 screening at each venue is designated the special screening
- attempt to have 1 film representative (cast, crew) attend each special screening (in person or by virtual Q&A)
- multiple venues in a city may all be counted towards 100
- venues include (festivals, theatrical, four-wall, community screenings, etc)
Sell 100 tickets per screening
- sell at least 100 tickets to each cast/crew attended special screening
Return 100 thousand dollars to investors
- write checks equaling $100k to investors by Dec 31, 2019 (after expenses, deferments & loans)
- $100k may come from tour proceeds, merchandise sales, sponsorships, distributor deals, or other tbd revenue sources
- note that this doesn’t achieve profitability but feels like a success within the first 6 months of release
Draft Release Schedule
February (soft launch)
- soft-launch of social media platforms
- announce Summer 2019 screening tour
- test social media platforms
- build audience
- develop marketing assets (poster, artwork, merchandise)
March (full launch)
- full-launch of social media leading up to the premiere
- schedule screening tour
- develop partner relationships & marketing funnels
April-June
- premiere, festival screenings, special screenings
- promote summer tour and screenings
- logistics and planning
- partner with distributor
June-August
- screening tour
Sept/Oct
- release on VOD