Indie Film Distribution: Why We Use Filmhub

Despite filmmaking being more democratized than ever before with readily available technology enabling almost anyone who wants to make a movie able to do so, film distribution remains somewhat obfuscated. They don’t teach you the business of selling movies in film school.

So many filmmakers are left naïve, confused on what to do with their completed film, and gullible to the sweet words and empty promises (and one-sided boilerplate contracts) of the many sharks out there also known as film distributors.

Here is a sad story we have seen play out time and again. Broke independent filmmaker finishes their first feature after many years of blood, sweat and tears. Broke filmmaker signs a contract with a shady distributor …

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Indie Film Distribution: DVD is Not Dead

Can you remember the last time you watched a DVD? I can’t. And I assumed most people were the same, hence why for many years we didn’t bother with DVD and Blu-ray distribution for our films.

But last year, when we distributed Machination, we decided to include DVD and Blu-ray in our plan. It is a film with elements of horror and we knew horror fans were more likely to buy physical media, merchandise, and collectables.

We didn’t really have any expectations on how it would perform. But then the first performance report came in and Machination was doing well. Very well.

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Are Film Festivals Worth Your Time & Money?

In 2022 we have been paying attention to an aspect of film distribution we have largely ignored for several years beforehand: film festivals.

We have had rejections of course. With many festivals receiving thousands of entries, there will always be rejections. But we have also found some success. Machination has picked up several awards at film festivals for Acting, Directing, and Sound Design. Cats of Malta has been selected for the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, New York Cat Festival, and other festivals we cannot reveal quite yet. Our latest Life Improvised film, The Dance, screened at Kinemastik International Short Film Festival in Malta last night.

But this handful of success has come at a cost of almost $1000USD so far in festival submission fees. Could this money have been better spent elsewhere? Like running Facebook ads for the release of Machination? Have we gotten enough return for our funds? In short: are film festivals worth the cost and effort?

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Setting a Release Date for your Indie Film Still Matters

On May 20th, 2022, we released our latest feature film Machination via Vimeo On Demand. We knew this would be our release date since early April. We contacted a PR agency, October Coast, to premiere our trailer, spread the news about the release, garner interviews and reviews for the film, and basically help launch Machination. So far, so typical, right?

Not necessarily. The trend these days seems to be to release micro-budget films via a small distributor or a marketplace like FilmHub, wait for platforms like Amazon or Tubi to pick-up the film and randomly begin streaming it, and only then begin promoting the film. The idea is to release “everywhere all at once” so viewers have choices where to watch the film. They can also watch it immediately, instead of waiting for a particular date.

It is the instant gratification release, designed for an audience who have infinite entertainment options, and no patience to wait for your micro-budget film.

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Living in the Shadow of Dace

Some actors have a character they portrayed on the screen whose shadow they live in most of their lives. For Sean Connery and Roger Moore it was James Bond, Boris Karloff had Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi had Dracula and mine is Dace Decklan: Private Eye.

Who the hell is Dace Decklan: Private Eye, you might ask?

It all started as a twinkle in the eye of film director Ivan Malekin. How he ever came up with the concept of melding Magnum P.I and James Bond I will never know. Then again maybe I should just ask him? I just realised I never did.

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Is Piracy Damaging for Indie Film?

Generally speaking, most people believe that committing piracy is not really a big deal. It's not that harmful. For most of us average folk, it's simply not feasible to sign up to and pay for a multitude of subscription streaming sites. We pick one service, maybe two if we are on a steady wage, but how many people can afford to indulge in memberships to Netflix, plus Amazon Prime, and HBO Max, and Disney+, and Hulu, and all of the other streaming services out there? It becomes much too expensive, so when it comes to cost, piracy can be understandable too.

WHAT THE CURRENT STATS SAY

Certainly, more and more people are turning to piracy, not just in TV and film, but across all industries. The international piracy stats in 2021 indicate:

  • The USA is at the forefront of piracy with 17 billion clicks on illegal piracy websites in 2021 alone.

  • Russia has the highest piracy rate in Europe with over 14 billion piracy site visits, while Indonesia is the leading country in Asia for piracy with 6 billion visits.

  • 70% of online users find nothing wrong with online piracy while 34% of Gen Z (people born between 1997 and 2012) use stream-ripping programs and websites to download films and audio from streaming sites.

  • Pirated videos get over 230 billion views a year.

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