Wanted to and should have
actually done this a long time back, can attribute the delay to sheer laziness.
The short film is a very different animal from a feature. Unlike a feature film, where most variables are controlled by film production houses and distributors, marketing a short largely depends on the Producer and Director ... since generally ... they have no other choice but to shoulder that responsibility themselves
The short film is a very different animal from a feature. Unlike a feature film, where most variables are controlled by film production houses and distributors, marketing a short largely depends on the Producer and Director ... since generally ... they have no other choice but to shoulder that responsibility themselves
We finished making Rewind sometime in January 2007 and here is an attempt to graphically detail what we did since. Hope this blog helps some amongst you to market
your short films better.
HOW
TO MAKE A SHORT FILM?
Blah blah blah blah ...
HOW
TO FIND THE MONEY TO PRODUCE IT?
Beg, borrow, grovel, steal,
murder ... Beg, borrow, grovel ...
WHAT
IS THE OPTIMUM LENGTH OF A SHORT FILM?
Any film which is less than 40
minutes is technically a short film but it helps to keep short films short. Short
films are bundled together and shown at film festivals. Most festivals prefer
films which are less than 15 minutes, largely because it fits their programming
requirement. Most sites which sell short films on the net (like an iTunes) generally
do not have films more than 15 minutes in length. This is not to say that
anything above 15 minutes is not selected or sold, but there is generally not
more than one film more than 15 minutes in a 5 film programme in a festival. I
guess it is more from a festival programming perspective and nothing else
The length requirement also
changes from distributor to distributor. To quote an example :
Post the screening at the Locarno
Film Festival, a short film programmer wanted to buy Rewind for screenings
before feature films in Switzerland. He was very keen to select Rewind but it
did not work out since they were looking for films with a maximum length of 5
minutes (while Rewind is hardly an 8 minute film).
THE
REWIND EXPERIENCE
We made Rewind in February
2007. I had roamed around a bit for the money, asking for a measly 1.5 lakhs to
make a DV film but no one was interested. Ketan Gohil (the producer of Rewind)
was a batchmate from my MBA days. Ketan had, time and again, said that he wanted to make a film. I was looking to
make a showreel and he was looking to make that one film. He
was not really looking for returns, so that helped. We finished the film in 30
days, on a budget far higher than the one mentioned above and with four 35 mm
dolby digital prints.
THE
FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
One hears a lot about the
festival circuit. From a selling perspective, it is highly overrated. Seldom do
films get sold at festivals. Most times, one is spending more money to send
films to festivals with no tangible returns. Technically speaking, one is just
spending money to get one’s film seen, when it should be the other way round.
That is not to say that it
does not have its advantages. Like films do get noticed and hit the bigger
circuits. The original Saw, The Little Terrorist, District 9 are good examples
of what a well noticed short film can achieve.
APPLYING
& FINDING FILM FESTIVALS
The following sites cover almost every film festival in the world and how to apply to them. Reelport, Shortfilmdepot and withoutabox are registration sites for festivals ... meaning that one can create a database just once and not have to fill up documents again and again and send the films directly to festivals subscribed to by these sites. Britfilms is probably the best database site for film festivals and details almost every film festival in the world.
www.reeelport.com
www.reeelport.com
HOW WE APPROACHED THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
We decided that we will
first send the film only to a big six festival (Berlin, Cannes. Locarno, Venice,
Toronto and Sundance). The reason why one waits for a big six festival is that
if the film actually gets noticed then the film may hit the bigger circuit
(like Sales, feature film deals, etc). Also, most big film festivals have a
world premiere policy, so if you have already screened your film at a small
festival, they generally do not consider the film in the competition section.
Cannes rejected Rewind. The
rejection came through in March. The next big festival was Locarno in August.
It was a long wait.
Here one has to talk about
the Oscar short list. If you made a film in a format which suits a festival,
you can just send the film. The festival, then selects or rejects a film. That,
however, is not the case with the Oscars. To send a film to the Oscars, the
film has to win a designated prize at one of the Oscar nominated festival. If and only if a film wins at one of these
festivals, then it qualifies for an entry to the Oscars. The complete list of
the festivals which qualify for an Oscar entry are available on the site.
We decided to wait for
Locarno. Since nothing had happened and nothing was going to happen for the
next five months, Ketan was getting a bit impatient. If Locarno rejected the
film too, should we wait for Venice? We decided not to but send the film to some
Oscar nominated festivals. Luckily. Locarno selected the film. Around the same
time, the film was selected at four other Oscar nominated film festivals (Palm
Springs, Milano, Los Angeles and Montreal)
We went to Locarno with huge
expectations expecting the film to be sold the moment we landed in Switzerland.
We spent a good ten days and more money but nothing happened. We made a few
friends, drank a few beers and came back.
 |
| Producer & Director showing off at Locarno |
Palm Springs and LA
international film festivals are supposedly great markets for short films. That
is what the net said. None of them were paying for the flight ticket but Ketan
was convinced. He flew to the USA on his own money, had a meeting with Linda
from Shorts International who liked the film and picked it up. The contract was
signed in October 2007. We had finally managed to sell Rewind. It took us nine
months to sell the film.
SHORTS
INTERNATIONAL
Shorts International is the
biggest player in the short film market in the world. Their distribution
network is unmatched. Rewind, for example, was bought by HBO Czechoslovakia.
Sitting in India, how does one access a television network in East Europe?
Shorts International gives you that access. You can read about them and send a
film directly to them.
http://www.shortsinternational.com
Indieflix, a company based
in North America, is yet another big player in the short film market. Their
business model is very similar to Shorts International. They sell films per
download or unlimited monthly views for a certain fee. We were approached for ‘Rewind’
but couldn’t be a part because of internet exclusivity at that point. As we
rummaged through the contract, we realised that the dvd rights were
non-exclusive. Ketan signed the contract sometime last year and Rewind was
launched as a part of a 4 film package under the ‘Adrenaline’ section under the
series ‘Film Festival in a Box’ in North America.
INDIEFLIX
Indieflix, a company based
in North America, is yet another big player in the short film market. Their
business model is very similar to Shorts International. They sell films per
download or unlimited monthly views for a certain fee. We were approached for ‘Rewind’
but couldn’t be a part because of internet exclusivity at that point. As we
rummaged through the contract, we realised that the dvd rights were
non-exclusive. Ketan signed the contract sometime last year and Rewind was
launched as a part of a 4 film package under the ‘Adrenaline’ section under the
series ‘Film Festival in a Box’ in North America.
THE
INTERNET MARKET
The biggest obviously is
Apple iTunes. But most of their short
film programming is done by Shorts International. However, not all short films
selected by Shorts International end up on Apple iTunes. As a matter of fact,
very few do. We were lucky. Maybe the fact that Rewind was in English helped.
Currently, the film is available on Apple iTunes in the USA, UK, Australia and
Germany.
 |
| Rewind in Theatres - An all India release ... thanks to PVR |
A theatrical release for a
short film is almost impossible. I had seen a short film being shown before a
feature in Paris. A dear friend now, Umang Pahwa was then working for PVR. He
had called to ask if I had a feature script. I suggested if they could show Rewind
before a feature.
Surprisingly, almost everybody at PVR (Ashish Saksena, Ranjan
Singh, Rajendram Akula, Sameep & Prakhar Joshi) was excited and even gave us a small part of the
distributor’s share. It was just plain nice of them, since there is no real
tangible return from showcasing a short film before a feature. Rewind had an
all India theatrical release and was shown prior to the Michel Gondry film ‘Be
Kind Rewind'
INDIAN
DISTRIBUTORS
There are some avenues to
sell short films in India. But except for Magic Lantern, I have no idea who else pays up for distributing short films in India.
We have/had a small
non-exclusive deal with Palador. They have an Indie corner section on their
dvds where they showcase short films. The deal was that they would pay us Rs. 5 per dvd sold. In India, Rewind is available as a bonus
film with some Alfred Hitchcock feature films (Blackmail, The Skin Game, Rich
& strange, The Manxman & Murder). Probably Palador no longer exists. Enlighten was also looking for films since they had contacted us a long time back. I have no other details on them or what they are looking for so I guess, Producers and Directors can still contact them and find out
They are probably the best
and the most aggressive. They have more than 200 short films in their profile.
They are trying their best to create a short film market in India. They also
buy feature films. They also pay whatever they can. We can vouch since we do
receive regular cheques from them. Actually, they are the only ones in India
who we have received cheques from.
This is one other
distributor in Canada who had approached us to distribute Rewind. Since we
already have an exclusive deal with Shorts International (other than South
Asia), we didn’t pursue the same. More recently, a friend of mine Vinoo Choliparambil
had send his film ‘Vitthal’ to them and they were interested enough to send him
a non-exclusive contract. Here is their website address
GENERAL ADVICE - RETAIN NON EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS
Shorts International wanted
exclusive international rights for Rewind. Ketan fought and retained all rights
for South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). So if anybody wants
to buy these rights from us for these markets, they are still available.
Though the film is available
on dvd in India, Ketan had been smart enough to give out only non exclusive
rights. It makes perfect sense, since most distributors in India are looking
for a free lunch. So if nobody is paying you, then you might as well get the
film seen by more and more people.
REWIND
– THE COMPLETE FILM
You can see the complete film here :
Here is the YouTube Link :
Please feel free to add
names if you know of any other genuine distributors for short films ... or any other information which helps to contribute to this blog. Hope this
info helps in selling your shorts.
All the best.
Cheers!
- Atul Taishete
