Tanya Kersey | Hollywood Career Strategist | Hollywood Career Coach | Entertainment Industry Consultant | Hollywood Career Resources

Pro­ducer and dis­tri­b­u­tion expert Jerome Cour­shon recently stopped by my radio show, Inside Urban Hol­ly­wood to dis­cuss con­crete strate­gies film­mak­ers can uti­lize to achieve dis­tri­b­u­tion for their film. For those of you unfa­mil­iar with Jerome, he runs a work­shop called “THE SECRETS TO DISTRIBUTION: Get Your Movie Dis­trib­uted Now” (http://www.distribution.la). Here’s a recap of what he had to say… Accord­ing to Jerome, it’s always been a chal­lenge for film­mak­ers to find dis­tri­b­u­tion. Due to the sig­nif­i­cant increase in films made every year and the cur­rent eco­nomic reces­sion, the prices film­mak­ers receive for com­pleted films have gone down. With that said, even in the cur­rent mar­ket­place, film­mak­ers can still recoup their bud­get and then some. The biggest hur­tle film­mak­ers face with dis­tri­b­u­tion is a lack of edu­ca­tion. There are many steps film­mak­ers can take before the cam­eras even start rolling to increase their film’s chances of find­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion. The most impor­tant is cast­ing rec­og­niz­able tal­ent. This gives your film value and with­out it, find­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion is much harder. In the pre­pro­duc­tion stage, film­mak­ers should also bud­get for mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion, as well as cre­ate an online pres­ence for their film through Face­book, Twit­ter, and your film’s web­site. Before dis­tri­b­u­tion is sought after, film­mak­ers need to decide what is their ulti­mate goal? Is it to sell a film and recoup their bud­get, or to release a film the­atri­cally to boost their career? Just because a film is sold, doesn’t guar­an­tee its the­atri­cal release. When bro­ker­ing a deal, film­mak­ers should first get a good enter­tain­ment lawyer to nego­ti­ate the con­tract. Sec­ondly, they should make sure a release date is included in the con­tract before sign­ing. Most film­mak­ers recoup their bud­get through a series of deals. An offer from the stu­dio priced much lower than the film’s bud­get may seem like a slap-in-the-face at first, but sell­ing your film’s North Amer­i­can rights gives your film value. This can then be used to sell your film’s over­seas rights and help recoup the bud­get. The dif­fer­ent rev­enue streams film­mak­ers can uti­lize include the­atri­cal releases, home video, Video-on-Demand, online, and tele­vi­sion which includes pay cable, basic cable, and broadcast.

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