Licensing & Sponsorships in Film Distribution

Video Transcript

"KEVIN LINDENMUTH: This is Kevin Lindenmuth for Expert Village talking about distribution for your independent film or documentary. A licensing to television. Well, my only experience with television is with the documentaries and those were for PBS. And the way that worked is PBS does not really pay anything for independent programs. I guess, unless you get on one of their Frontline or In Focus or something, but if it's just your independent production that you do that you get accepted, nationally shown on PBS, well you don't get any money for that from PBS. So, how you get your money is to get it from sponsors. So, let's say you finish your program and you get accepted to be shown on PBS, and then here's your opportunity to push companies that you think might be interested in sponsoring that, like if you do a health documentary, find a pharmaceutical company who does drugs for that. I did a couple on multiple sclerosis and on one of them I got like the Scooter Store for sponsor because it kinda fit because a lot of people with MS have problem walking, scooters, and that was kind of a fit. So, you contact companies like that and they give you the money and that could be whatever you determine, just make it worth your while because these things are going to be shown. And, of course, you got to be convincing and there's also once it's accepted, it's a good thing to show these potential sponsors. It's like, "Well, yeah, it's going to be shown. It's definitely a real thing," and it convinces them more to be a part of it if they want. So, the distribution of the documentaries is much more hands on for the filmmaker. Again, I guess you can go through an in-between company who would do this but, of course, you got to split the money. So, it just depends how much time, effort, what is the simpler thing, what is more a hassle. That really depends on what goes on with this whole distribution thing 'cause basically, in my view, all of distribution is a hassle. Because I just want to finish this program. I just want to get out there. I don't want to have to worry about selling it or whatever, convincing people to invest, convincing people to be a sponsor or an underwriter for a program. I mean, I'd rather--in an ideal world, just finish it, hand it off to somebody but that just never happens. So, with all this distribution, this would be very on top of it. Be as in control of it as you can because, I mean, this is your project. It means more to you than it means to anybody else probably because you spent all this time doing it. And you just don't want to let it go. You just don't want to throw your project away for free. You just don't want to give it to a distributor who's not going to distribute it 'cause that also happens where a distributor will take your film and it'll never get released. And years and years go by, and you sign a contract, let's say for three years or five years, it's never released. And what they're doing is they're just holding on it for the potential maybe if they'll sell it or if they could sell it to a package. It just kinda they're keeping it in reserve, basically with no intention of selling it. It's kinda weird that they do this, but they also want to show to people they sell to that they have like a catalog of product, and what's a better way to get a catalog is just get all these movies and just have them ready on a standby even though such a small amount actually gets distributed. So, that's another thing to be careful about. So, distribution, be careful because it's your last step with your film or documentary."