Is this marketable?

R

Rue99

I'm a photographer who ventured into shooting fetish images for about a year, and stumbled into film when some models wanted to try adult acting. I thought it would be much more interesting to try shooting a good film with adult scenes rather than a porn film.

So far the story looks good, and the acting has turned out better than I thought. Since everyone is contributing so much time to the shoot, it would be great to give something back to them so I was thinking about how something like this might be marketed.

Is an edgy NC-17 film with a decent story line reasonable marketable (e.g. to cable networks, direct dvds, or elsewhere)? I'm not looking for a blockbuster, just something that makes enough for everyone to feel it was worth putting in a few weeks worth of acting.

I realize everything hinges on execution, so let's assume sound and lighting are barely passable (for a film), and the story and acting are decent for a no-budget production.
 
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Real-sex films can be niche marketable... Shortbus comes to mind, though John Cameron Mitchell already had a huge-cult following...

What genre is it?

I feel like that would make a pretty big difference in your marketing strategy. I think what I would do is fuse the "sex" aspect with the next most outstanding feature of your film, as in "it's the first adult movie about love, loss, and Banana slugs" or what have you.
 
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H.Z. said:
Real-sex films can be niche marketable... Shortbus comes to mind, though John Cameron Mitchell already had a huge-cult following...

What genre is it?

I feel like that would make a pretty big difference in your marketing strategy. I think what I would do is fuse the "sex" aspect with the next most outstanding feature of your film, as in "it's the first adult movie about love, loss, and Banana slugs" or what have you.
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It's a suspense drama that incorporates popular themes from the fetish community, but presents them in the context of a mainstream story. I like the idea of some kind of hook. Not sure about banana slugs though... :)
 
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haha, no stealing the banana slugs man, they're mine...

At the very least (assuming that your movie is in fact good) I feel like you should have a fairly strong built-in audience within fetish communities. People like things that are "about them" and will sometimes spend money on things they wouldn't otherwise, esp if there aren't equivalent products in the mainstream. So yeah, not that I really know what I'm talking about but I would focus a lot marketing effort within fetish communities via msg boards, your contacts, etc.

There is also obviously the possibility of taking it to film-fests and trying to get some kind of distribution deal, but the gen sense I get (mainly from this msg board) is that is a really frustrating path atm...
 
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Wouldn't cost too much to press the dvds yourself and sell them through a website/local shops. That is if you plan on promoting the heck out of it, it'll more than likely be profitable. Just gotta distinguish yourself from all the other pornos, I know yours is different but trust me you'll be lumped together with most of them so presentation is key. Try to keep it away from the Hardcore XXX design but with enough innuendo to say "hey dude it's got boobs" for the college kids.
 
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Presentation is definitely the key. You definitely want enough strong material outside of the sex to show that you're not just trying to pass off an old-school exploitation film as something more ambitious and sophisticated than that. I get the sense from this that you definitely want to be a little greater than just a skin flick with a few jokes, but you're going to have to put this out into the world and emphasize as much variety in the material as possible.
 
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barnaclelapse said:
Presentation is definitely the key. You definitely want enough strong material outside of the sex to show that you're not just trying to pass off an old-school exploitation film as something more ambitious and sophisticated than that. I get the sense from this that you definitely want to be a little greater than just a skin flick with a few jokes, but you're going to have to put this out into the world and emphasize as much variety in the material as possible.
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You nailed it on the head. It's my personal goal to make something that everyone can be proud to be in. They're participating because they like my photographic work, so I'm doing my best to give something back even though they don't have that expectation.
 
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I tried it. I was working for a fetish company during some
lean times and thought that incorporating a story would
make a better product. I convinced the owner to put up
some money and he and I wrote a script. I put in my sense
of story and character, he made sure we hit the points his
customer base was looking for.

We missed on both accounts.

In order for it to be a "real" movie there had to be a good
story with drama, a hook and some twists. There had to be
interesting characters. In order for it to appeal to the fetish
market it had to have all the elements of the particular fetish.
We tried to incorporate three different, though complimentary,
fetishes.

We discovered that most fetish models couldn't act, didn't want
to take the time to memorize lines and shoot the "talking stuff",
as several of them referred to it. And we discovered that the
fetish aspects really turned off any potential "regular" market.

It was an expensive experiment that, in my case, failed. I wish
you the best of luck in making this succeed. I hope you will keep
us updated on your progress.
 
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directorik said:
I tried it. I was working for a fetish company during some
lean times and thought that incorporating a story would
make a better product. I convinced the owner to put up
some money and he and I wrote a script. I put in my sense
of story and character, he made sure we hit the points his
customer base was looking for.

We missed on both accounts.

In order for it to be a "real" movie there had to be a good
story with drama, a hook and some twists. There had to be
interesting characters. In order for it to appeal to the fetish
market it had to have all the elements of the particular fetish.
We tried to incorporate three different, though complimentary,
fetishes.

We discovered that most fetish models couldn't act, didn't want
to take the time to memorize lines and shoot the "talking stuff",
as several of them referred to it. And we discovered that the
fetish aspects really turned off any potential "regular" market.

It was an expensive experiment that, in my case, failed. I wish
you the best of luck in making this succeed. I hope you will keep
us updated on your progress.
Click to expand...

I've been really fortunate in that the cast really wants to do quality work, and have been spending the time and turning in solid performances with their lines. It's made all the difference.

You have a good point about the fetish market, which is looking for very specific fetishes. This film won't be appeal to the hardcore portion of that market, so it's presented as a story that happens to include fetish, rather than fetish with a story.

Btw, why did the experiment fail? I understand why it might turn off the normal market, but what made it sell poorly to the fetish community if it had all the right content?
 
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Hi Rue,

I don't know anything about this particular niche market, but the first rule of marketing is for you to know yours. Can you think of any films that might be a bit like yours, soft fetish rather than hardcore? People who like that type of film will like yours, right?

Find people who blogged or critiqued those other films favourably, and ask them to review yours. The right audience begins to hear about your film, and you get a quote to put on your marketing material.

Ask the filmmaker of those films to watch yours and supply you with a quote. You can then say in your blurb "people who like X and Y will love this film" and give the quotes from these other filmmakers.

I don't know what the terms are about Adult content, but there are print-on-demand services like Createaspace which will take dvd orders on a per-buyer basis, listing it on Amazon, produce and deliver the dvd to customers, so you get your cut less without any fuss. There may be a way to do this via an online adult shop?

I wouldn't try marketing fetish material to the mainstream, but you could sell it to a cross over crowd. There are events like Sexpo - exhibitions selling sex related information and products - that get this cross over crowd (people who are looking to try something a bit different, but not into hard core).

The other thing you could do is organise a "preview" screening to who you think are your core audience, and use it as a test market. Ask them questions about how they found it, and you may discover that the people who like it the most are not who you expected. This will give you information about who you should be marketing towards. Ask these people to (if they are willing) blog, twitter, facebook about the film to help create buzz in their niche community.

I'm guessing that most hardcore adult content is male orientated (who are more visually stimulated) while women generally enjoy the more soft content story orientated material - so you may find that your movie will be more popular with women than other fetish films? This could be an angle you use during marketing.

While the content is perhaps a more difficult area to market, most of your marketing problems will be the same as any other indie filmmaker - I suggest you look at how other niche filmmakers have gotten their films to an audience. I have a blog on which I case study indie filmmakers, and on Friday there'll be a case study on a movie targeting the Kustom Kulture audience - titled "Hot Rod Girls Save The World"

good luck :)
 
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TLAvideo.com does some pretty good business in this market. I'm not sure how they get their movies -- from distributors, or if they distribute by getting movies direct from filmmakers. Might be worth looking in to though. I'm sure they have a "contact" link somewhere on their site. Shane Ryan and the Alter Ego Cinema team (who post occasionally here on IndieTalk) do pretty much what you are talking about and their titles frequently appear on the TLA top sellers list.
 
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