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KEVIN LINDENMUTH: This is Kevin Lindenmuth for Expert Village talking about distribution
for your independent film or documentary. A licensing to television. Well, my only experience
with television is with the documentaries and those were for PBS. And the way that worked
is PBS does not really pay anything for independent programs. I guess, unless you get on one of
their Frontline or In Focus or something, but if it's just your independent production
that you do that you get accepted, nationally shown on PBS, well you don't get any money
for that from PBS. So, how you get your money is to get it from sponsors. So, let's say
you finish your program and you get accepted to be shown on PBS, and then here's your opportunity
to push companies that you think might be interested in sponsoring that, like if you
do a health documentary, find a pharmaceutical company who does drugs for that. I did a couple
on multiple sclerosis and on one of them I got like the Scooter Store for sponsor because
it kinda fit because a lot of people with MS have problem walking, scooters, and that
was kind of a fit. So, you contact companies like that and they give you the money and
that could be whatever you determine, just make it worth your while because these things
are going to be shown. And, of course, you got to be convincing and there's also once
it's accepted, it's a good thing to show these potential sponsors. It's like, "Well, yeah,
it's going to be shown. It's definitely a real thing," and it convinces them more to
be a part of it if they want. So, the distribution of the documentaries is much more hands on
for the filmmaker. Again, I guess you can go through an in-between company who would
do this but, of course, you got to split the money. So, it just depends how much time,
effort, what is the simpler thing, what is more a hassle. That really depends on what
goes on with this whole distribution thing 'cause basically, in my view, all of distribution
is a hassle. Because I just want to finish this program. I just want to get out there.
I don't want to have to worry about selling it or whatever, convincing people to invest,
convincing people to be a sponsor or an underwriter for a program. I mean, I'd rather--in an ideal
world, just finish it, hand it off to somebody but that just never happens. So, with all
this distribution, this would be very on top of it. Be as in control of it as you can because,
I mean, this is your project. It means more to you than it means to anybody else probably
because you spent all this time doing it. And you just don't want to let it go. You
just don't want to throw your project away for free. You just don't want to give it to
a distributor who's not going to distribute it 'cause that also happens where a distributor
will take your film and it'll never get released. And years and years go by, and you sign a
contract, let's say for three years or five years, it's never released. And what they're
doing is they're just holding on it for the potential maybe if they'll sell it or if they
could sell it to a package. It just kinda they're keeping it in reserve, basically with
no intention of selling it. It's kinda weird that they do this, but they also want to show
to people they sell to that they have like a catalog of product, and what's a better
way to get a catalog is just get all these movies and just have them ready on a standby
even though such a small amount actually gets distributed. So, that's another thing to be
careful about. So, distribution, be careful because it's your last step with your film
or documentary.