Need Help with Distribution offer

E

ericmcdo

Hello,

We are 2 broke filmmakers own a completed 93 minute feature film. We have been looking for a distributor since we finished our film festival run in 2007. www.charlietheox.com

We recently received an offer from CAVD distribution company (www.cavd.com). They offered us a DVD distribution deal that pays us 40% of any profits received from DVD sales. They said they will place the movie in Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, etc. etc. for sale. But the catch is we would be responsible for DVD replication costs for any unsold DVD's the stores return to them. They are paying us nothing up front. Our director is hesitant to sign on to this deal since he said it is a "vanity press" type deal.

I wonder if anyone can give me advice.

Has anyone heard or had experiences with this company?

Is this a good deal for us?

Any help appreciated.

Thank you!
 
For a movie with no names and no awards or screenings at major
festivals that's a pretty standard offer.

You movie doesn't fit into that category.

That said, this kind of deal is becoming more and more common.
CAV seems to deal mostly in Asian movies, public domain cult
shorts and some low budget action/thrillers. You should be able
to do better.

Is this the only offer you have gotten? Who else have you contacted?
 
Gosh, I don't remember all who I contacted. I am kind of flying blind trying to find distribution. I got some list of distributors off the web and sent out a bunch of emails. I got a few responses and a couple of people to take a look. Most never wrote back or passed and ones that were interested seemed shady.

We put 200k into this thing and haven't seen any return. It's our 1st film and we believe the movie could be profitable if given a chance, but don't really know what distributor would be willing to take it on. The movie has great reviews from critics who saw and audiences loved it. People love a crime caper with Jon Polito.

CAVD could not provide me a reference for any recent American features they've distributed.

Any help on where to go with this film? At this point we'll practically give it to anyone to make money off of as long as it doesn't cost us anything!

Thank you

Eric
 
I think you can do better as well. I also think you should try and keep better track of who you've sent to, who you would ideally like to see handling the distribution and things like that. It wouldn't even hurt to re-establish contact with a company that may not have gotten back to you for whatever reason. If a certain amount of time has gone by then there's certainly nothing wrong with touching base and seeing if they just forgot to get back to you or even if your work got lost in the shuffle.

I only say this as someone with experience in submitting fiction and the like to literary magazines. I've honestly had a couple of experiences where a magazine had intended to get back to me with an acceptance but happened to just get wrapped up in other stuff.

So, I could be completely off the mark here, and I apologize if that's the case.

If it weren't for how much you've put into this film I'd almost suggest a grass-roots approach, releasing and promoting the film yourself, but if you've put 200 K into the thing I really can't imagine that would yield positive results.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top