Putting their motto — “Don’t just make a film, get people to see it” — to work, Ted and Courtney Balaker of Free Minds Distribution held a workshop at Reason-TV Studio on creating a distribution plan for a film. They brought together screenwriter/producer Wes Kemp and distribution guru Melanie Miller of Gravitas Ventures in front of an audience of LA filmmakers.
Ted introduced Melanie first. “We’re very lucky to have Melanie Miller with us. As a Vice President at Gravitas Ventures she is responsible for distributing 500 films per year, reaching 100 million homes in North America.”
Melanie Miller,left, of Gravatas Ventures, joined Courtney and Ted Balaker to discuss ins-and-outs of film distribution.
Courtney added, “Melanie also has strong Indie credentials as a former director of the Jackson Hole Film Festival and she has her own film company, Fishbowl Films.”
Melanie explained what Gravitas does. “It started out as a VOD [Video-On-Demand] company but then began to strike deals with cable companies to provide them with a certain amount of guaranteed content every month. I wanted to work for Gravitas because, as a filmmaker, I saw that this would be the way to learn about distribution. We also work directly with filmmakers, producers’ reps, and online platforms such as iTunes, Netflix, and ad supported operations such as Hulu.”
Courtney asked Melanie what types of films they dealt with.
“Oh, everything and anything,” Melanie said, “from horror to documentary.”
Ted quipped, “I’m so glad to hear you say ‘documentary.’ It used to be when you told people you made a documentary, they’d pat you on the head and say ‘Oh, that’s so cute. You don’t want to make money in this business, do you?’”
Melanie smiled. “That’s certainly not the case anymore,” she said. “Documentarians can make good money because they often know better how to use their fanbase than narrative film makers do.”
Ted then moved the meeting on to the main event, creating a distribution plan for a narrative film. Ted brought out Wes Kemp.
Wes wrote a screenplay called Hefty and is now seeking to get his story made. Melanie said that this was exactly the right time to think about distribution. “You have to reverse engineer the film,” she said. “Ask ‘Who is the audience’ and ‘What channel are you creating this for?’ Do you see this as a theatrical project, VOD, or television movie? Once you have an idea of where you want the project to go, then you can begin your distribution planning and actually start implementing even before the first scene is produced.”
Melanie asked Wes to describe his project. Wes went into great detail describing his story and the characters in it.
I won’t give away all of his story, but here is the essence of Hefty. Troy, an iconic high school football star, enjoys bullying Billy and Tim. Just when things are getting really unbearable for the two victims around Halloween, Billy’s grandfather, a Native American, moves in with the family. Stealing a sacred scroll from his grandfather, Billy puts a curse on Troy. Troy immediately starts putting on weight. He can no longer play football, gets kicked off the team, ends up in regular PE and becomes a victim of humiliation.
As things begin to look really dark for him, the goofball wrestling coach spots him and recruits him for the team, which has never been popular at this school. Troy keeps getting bigger, even as the wrestling team makes its way toward the state championship. But when it looks like Troy is contemplating suicide, Billy and Tim begin to feel bad about what they’ve done. They meet Troy in a pizza shop to confess. They introduce Troy to Billy’s grandfather who explains to Troy that the only way he can remove the curse is to perform a series of good deeds. The rest of the story involves Troy’s efforts at redemption and winning the state wrestling championship.
At this point Melanie began to ask Wes a series of questions, while Ted scribbled notes. As I watched her interrogate Wes, I was reminded of the probing, to-the-point questions an accountant uses to help you prepare your taxes.