10 distribution tips from those who know

The Los Angeles Film Festival hosted a symposium on DIY filmmaking from several of the most knowledgeable in the filed: Ted Hope, Jon Reiss, Peter Broderick and Kickstarter.com’s Yancey Stickler.

IndieWire has a piece that highlights 10 thoughts from that symposium, many of which are useful for documentary filmmakers. They include:

- The notion that building an audience base that will follow you to the next project is important, which means filmmakers must look at their work as unified in some way. Hope: “Focus on the ongoing conversation with your audience.  You won’t be delivering a single product anymore.  You will be delivering many products in many formats in many variations.”

- The notion that crowdfunding docs is often more successful that features. Stickler: “Features have a harder time raising money than documentaries because there isn’t a core group interested in the subject, so you’re selling yourself.”

- Social media builds on your storytelling. “MySpace Director of Content Socialization Sean Percival reinforced that social media is just another way of continuing your film’s narrative.”

- Filmmakers must be salespeople in the DIY model. “Producer of “Children of Invention” Mynette Louie warned that DIY distribution will suck up a lot of your time and your other projects will be neglected.”