Another growing report from FOF filmmakers.

By Michael Palombo

I'm pleased to announce that we've reached a quality film following on twitter of over two thousand, this means the value of "Fans Of Film" has become a true resource for those that have a film, and need views or reviews has become a strong reality. The membership and support both locally and nationally has been amazing, thank you.

Recognizing our biggest local support: Pam and Josh Maitreya from Liquid Light Pharm. Jesse and Ann learner from the Albuq film office, Ivan Wiener President of Reel Solutions, Shane triplea from NewUprising, and Lee Stranahan with NM Media News.

Recognizing our biggest outside supporters: I want to Own a Film Company,

(My resource for this info is the filmmakers bible, the Independent feature film production. A complete guide From Concept Through Distribution the fully revised edition Writer Gregory Goodell)

In the past the only alternative for a filmmaker that had a great film with great festival reviews, but didn't get the distribution deal they wanted, hit the street with what is referred to has four wall distribution. This took a lot of work and commitment from a filmmaker, But in the case of filmmakers like Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky successfully distributed their $100,000 documentary "Brother Keeper" after they spent $15.000 to open in New York and San Francisco. Passed out flyers at rival theaters, stood in line at those theaters talking up their film, made personal appearances at screenings to answer questions and plead with the audiences to spread the word. They also reached out to organizations that might have interest, they even hired an assistant to research colleges in the area that the film would be playing, such as department heads and professor's in sociology, law American studies, Anthropology, agriculture. Then the filmmaker phoned and suggested that viewing the film might be a worth wild assignment. They devoted a year to the distribution effort, receiving additional distribution support from American Playhouse. They spent around $250,000 on prints (28 of then) and advertising for their $100,000 movie, but the film has grossed over$1.5 million in domestic theatrical release, another $900.000 in world wide TV sales, $80,000 in video sales and additional money through a sound track deal and various other thing like T-shirts and buttons for a total of $2.6 million.

The future has given filmmakers a new way beyond the four wall, for marketing a film and getting the word out, but can't do it all on their own. Filmmakers need aggregator like FOF, review sites, pod-casters, twitter and more, so a filmmaker has a much quicker and affordable approach to getting a film out to the world.

Given half the film revenue (over 4 billion a year) comes from abroad, witch puts the film industry second only to the aerospace industry in contributing to the positive balance of trade in the US. It's my opinion the web has dropped all the walls, and we can now reach domestic and foreign markets from our living room or home office. The great thing about all this is the cost of marketing a film has been thrown out the window, in comparison to the old model, but it does mean an investment of time. It took a year for Joe and Bruce to get their film out there, but oh my gosh, look at the foot work and real money investment in marketing.

I'm not saying you don't need any money to market your film, but we do have the means to go low budget with a web marketing plan that will lead to success and a solid growing fan base, and once it reaches a certain number it will grow on it's own without doing anything, that will carry on long after your dead.

Self distribution takes a lot of hard work, courage and belief in your film, but the payoff and rewards in the long term, could be more rewarding and profitable, than you'll ever see in selling your film to a distributor. That may or may not market and represent your film properly, and could leave you right where you started, a starving filmmaker. It's all risky stuff but at least with self distribution, you have know body to blame but yourself, and you still have your film/art.

There's lots of opportunity and ways to do it yourself and sites like us that want to work with filmmakers in assuring that filmmakers have a viable future for independent distribution on the web, and it's film community's like "Fans Of Film" that will shape the future.