Albert Pyun's DYI Distribution Model

[Albert Pyun]

Hi Everyone,

As a filmmaker who has made 50 feature films over 30 years, the worst part of the business has always been the gatekeeping distributors. Beyond the fact they have recut and, at times, badly distributed my films, I've discovered over the past 10 years that they systematically pervert the revenue waterfall using all sorts of means legal and even illegal (done under ignorance or oops) to insure the filmmaker sees a mere drip of that waterfall if anything at all.

I am lucky to have been able to have made so many features and earn a great living, but its irksome to me how unjust the system is.

It wasn't until 2005 that I really saw how movie distribution was beginning to evolve and shift to a more open system due primarily to digital technology. Power was moving back to the filmmaker like it was back when I started in the 1970's. Back then many films were released outside the mainstream studio system.

I know, having read and followed many forums on this subject, that the basic facts of DIY are well known. What I see missing is the first substantial distribution success using the DIY approach, whatever the flavor.

From my calculations on my own films on DVD release, to earn as much revenue as I did via a Lions Gate or Sony, I would have to ship only 15% of what the studio shipped to make the same amount of revenue.

now granted, I've received minimum guarantees on almost all my films which skews recoupment and expenses heavily against my seeing any profit overrages from the studio. Still using their own reports to me, its clear I could make what I was paid for an MG plus the meager profit if I could sell 15% of the number of units the studio did.

So can a low budget (a true low budget, say $50-$100,000) independent film, marketed and sold grassroots by the filmmakers achieve, 15% of what a studio DVD release could achieve?

Can a true DIY release ship 10,000 to 20,000 units? That would be a substantial moneymaker for the filmmakers if their films had a negative of $100,000.

I'm going to give it a try with three films next year that normally would have gone to studios. All three have received North American offers and, yes, all three have already sold a number of foreign territories. But I'm willing to risk the NA upside for the opportunity to see if DIY is a viable business plan.

Each of the three has a different budget level (low of $100,000 and high of $1.2 million) and cast level so it'll be interesting to gauge the impact of cost and cast on the final profitability.

First film is called "Bulletface" and I'm going to roll that out next month. No theatrical, no VOD. Just DVD and grassroots marketing via the internet. I'll manufacture and ship via Neoflix or other third party fulfillment company. Film's cast is essentially unknown (Victoria Maurette, Steven Bauer, Scott Paulin) and it is a hard "R" crime thriller.

I'll update this forum on my progress and hope to provide some insight into this process as a mainstream distribution business.

Best,
Albert Pyun
Albert Pyun Movies / Facebook
Albert Pyun Films / Myspace
www.talesofanancientempire.com

[Albert Pyun]

Hi All,

If you go to my facebook page I've posting numbers I received this week from Lions Gate on the release of my film "Invasion" which came out in Dec 06 but this latest producer's report was for the 6 month period ending June 09. It shows even the return numbers.

clearly, you'll see why I don't want to release anymore of my films through the traditional studio apparatus.

I'm meeting with John Chang of NeoFlix on Monday to discuss a broad based distribution system that can work for all filmmakers once its implemented. The problem has been for Neoflix and the other DIY fulfillment operations the fact that most of the films they handle have very short tails and average only 300-500 DVD's sold. The high end of revenue on a film is only $200,000 and is very rare. These companies cannot sustain at those numbers and what's needed is a breakout success that can create a sustainable business model. More after the meeting on Monday.

Albert
Albert Pyun / Facebook
www.albertpyunmovies.com (under construct)

[Scott Macaulay]

Hi Albert,

I went to the Facebook page but couldn't find the numbers. Have they gone up yet?

Scott

[Albert Pyun]

Hi Scott,

There posted under my blog on facebook wall with the subject:

Why we want to Self Distribution

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse ... =524960571

I am getting my report from Mandate Pictures shortly, so I'll post those numbers for Left For Dead which was released March 2008.

Best,
Albert
Albert Pyun Movie / Facebook

[Albert Pyun]

I had a terrific four hour plus meeting with John Chang and Brian Olsen of Neoflix.

I'll detail the specifics tomorrow but we covered almost every conceivable subject of DIY distribution from all aspects of manufacturing, gaining sales all the way to piracy. It's clear the stumbling block with DIY has been marketing and translating that into sales. We discussed a number of different scenarios and I think you will be surprised by what we think we discovered about the process from their three years working with indy filmmakers and my 30 years in the more mainstream trenches.

The results aren't pretty but definitely there's a model we all believe can work and work well.

Albert
Albert Pyun Movies / Facebook
www.albertpyunmovies.com (under construction)

[Albert Pyun]

Sorry, but I got distracted with post on my Tales and Bulletface films yesterday so I haven't had a chance to post the info from the meeting with NeoFlix.

Quickly, one key component we discussed was the need for some public tracking of each week's DIY results like there is with theatrical BO, Home Video (sales and rentals) and VOD. If services like NeoFlix, Indieflix, CreateSpace could provide vetted data on how DIY films are performing it would really give this model a real foundation.

I think its very difficult to engage the public and filmmakers without some accurate tracking of DIY sales, rental, box office results on a weekly basis. This provides marketing toward the films that are performing and gives filmmakers a view of the marketplace (what's working and what's not). Our audience loves statistics. And if they see a DIY film doing well on a chart, they are more apt to seek it out.

Even if the results pale in comparison to traditional studio driven results, it still provides a necessary barometer and, just as importantly, commercial accountability on the part of the filmmaker.

Yes, this can be painful and even hurtful to a filmmaker. It is to even the biggest directors, producers and stars. Flops hurt. But without some standard tracking, DIY will remain in the murky shadows and not be considered a real or viable business model.

Albert Pyun
Albert Pyun Movies / Facebook
www.albertpyunmovies.com (under construction)

[Albert Pyun]

Hi Everyone,

I realize I've been a bit MIA in detailing our DIY efforts. The whole process has been an eye popping experience. Exhausting? Yes...Daunting? a little...but ultimately immensely satisfying. Working with Magic Rock/NeoFlix has been a wonderful collaboration and they are absolutely the most critical component for any filmmaker considering DIY. And frankly, with two months of work behind us, I don't think there's any better way to distribute a film DIY. They are filmmaker sensitive but bring the necessary business and management expertise that a studio infrastructure provides. John Chang and Brian Olsen run a first class operation and are true artists at what they do. Even better, they are honorable gentlemen.

The first film out of the gate will be my crime/horror thriller "Bulletface". To see how its being positioned, navigate over to:

www.albertpyunmovies.com
www.bulletfacemovie.com

Check out the whole site and give me your feedback or questions about why things are being done in this way. It's still trial and error. I'll provide a more detailed report on the trials and tribulations of my first DIY effort next week. It will cover how we are marketing, promoting and the manufacturing.

Best,
Albert Pyun
www.albertpyunmovies.com
Albert Pyun / Facebook

[Albert Pyun]

By the way, some facts on "Bulletface". Was shot using a Panasonic 720p camera and shot on three locations in Los Angeles in five consecutive 12 hour days and has a negative cost to date of just under $100,000 including post. Edited in Final Cut Pro. Post sound done in Pro Tools. 5.1 soundtrack. Final mix took 3 days. Was shot under SAG Ultra Low Budget Agreement.

[Albert Pyun]

For reference, here's how our viral web effort is going, two days into the process of getting the trailer for "Bulletface" out to the public. These are some of the websites carrying the trailer and how they position the film editorially.

i'll provide some views numbers tomorrow as we get some hard data in. One thing Magic Rock did convince me to do was to watermark the entire trailer. I was resistant but ultimately they were right. It is very important to do to insure our branding travels with the trailer wherever it goes. Here are the sites:

http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=20864

http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2010/ ... BULLETFACE

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/36066/ ... -packaging

http://twitchfilm.net/news/2010/02/win- ... Everything)

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/bulletface/trailer

http://www.filmsnmovies.com/video/14095 ... e_trailer/

http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/8280/ ... nd-Trailer

http://celebrifi.com/gossip/Bulletface- ... 80749.html

http://www.masalladeorion.es/2010/02/tr ... tface.html

[Albert Pyun]

As a point of reference. In the first 48 hours since the trailer was released:

Vimeo - 1005 views
Trailer Addict - 482 views (480 embeds)
Daily Motion - 146 views
Trailer Spy - 519 views
YouTube (Russian) - 223 views

We should get a significant spike today from a few things I'm doing. I have no idea how to interpet these numbers except to see how they translate to actual units shipped. We haven't uploaded to YouTube yet or sent out an email announcement.

More to come!

Albert