Foreign Distribution & Indie Films

Video Transcript

"KEVIN LINDENMUTH: This is Kevin Lindenmuth for Expert Village talking about distribution for your independent film or documentary. Selling to other countries is possible. I mean, I've done it with a lot of my features and stuff, and I did it with a couple of the documentaries and you definitely--a way to do it is to go through a distributor. Let's say a distributor wants your movie for the US but, of course, they don't want to pay you anything but you could say, "Well, I'm not interested in that." But if you have any foreign distribution, let me know and keep me in mind for that." And a lot of times, they do have their hands in selling it to other countries and stuff. And that works a little bit different because they get paid upfront for that. Let's say a foreign distribution company wants the movie, they'll pay X amount of dollars for it and it's very upfront. It's right there. There's no residual. It's just a lump sum. It could be anywhere from a thousand bucks to ten thousand bucks or whatever. It's not all that much considering, but you could sell to 20 or 30 countries and get anywhere from a thousand to ten thousand for your program. And that adds up, I mean, that's a good way to do it. And, of course, the distributor though will want anywhere from the person who is making the deal and he has a contact and all that because there's no way you're just going to get it on your own because that's years of doing it. So, you gotta go through this kinda go between distributors. They want 25 to 35 just sometimes even 50%, but if it's the only way that you're going to get that sale then I say go for it. And, of course, you'll get the money upfront as soon as they get paid. So, you'll be signing something and it is all very clear and that's kind of the way to do that. You could try selling yourself to other countries but it's a lot more time consuming a lot of time, and in my experience that's just too much work for one person to do. Sending it out there, trying to get distribution, I mean, that's a lot of work. It's much work if not more than your film. So, try to find those companies. Try to just contact, just go between companies 'cause probably your best path of getting foreign distribution."